Happy Pongal

Some beautiful and interesting kolams from my neighbourhood.




























A street full of kolams

Image of the Week

Two-wheeler is now effectively a synonym for the motorbike and you can see so many signs vouching this.



But in this process what some of us tend to forget is that Cycles (bi cycle) have also two wheels

Soft drinks, Hard truths





From a distance when you see the cart moving you feel thirsty as you are familiar with the brand (read Miranda)



You know the style of writing, the colour and as the thirst reaches new levels and you come closer to the cart you see this



This is Miruna, welcome to the world of Branding
zor ka jhatka dheere se lagaa

Daily dosage from the world of books

" What is Democracy? you draw strength from your people and become even stronger."

Nicolae Ceauşescu

Daily dosage from the world of books

"One thing that tells me a company is in trouble is when thry tell me how good they were in the past."

Michael Hammer

Can we save the garbage from the deers?

If you go to IIT Madras you can see Deers munching garbage



Earlier these deers (or their predecessors) used to come where I stay (kotturpuram) and eat garbage



Nowadays I don't see them, is it because our area is garbage free or the deers are happy in the IIT campus itself? am not sure

click here to see video



Now we have 'clean needle' like dilemma, if we don't dump garbage the deers will starve and die and if we put more garbage we are messing up the place


So can we make sure that deers are properly fed?Can we save the Garbage from the deers

Chennai gets her first(?) Social Media Club


On Jan 06, 2010 Chennai got her Social Media Club, am not sure whether its the first one but sure that its going to be a great club.

Kiruba, the key person behind the initiative and Raja getting ready for the meetup

Good to see so many social media enthusiasts in Chennai. Almost 20 of us met.
Questions are many and concerns too but we are sure that all questions will be answered and concerns cleared.
Photos from the first meetup here thanks to Felix
We smiled, shared ideas, argued a bit,exchanged Bcards and decided to meet again, on first Wednesday of each month

If you show some symptoms of social media addiction (spending hours in facebook, twitter to name a few)join us to make that worse

http://twitter.com/smcchennai

Daily dosage from the world of books

" Never make a promise in haste,having once made it, fulfill it at the cost of your life."

Mahatma Gandhi

Image of the week

You might be wondering whats in this image.


Forget about spelling,have a close look at point number 5, no we are not talking here about any hospital and some new ward its a small goof up that's it and I liked the details in point 7 and 8.

TEDx Chennai 2010: The Kick start!

"TEDxChennai is 280 days away. But if you had come to the organizers meet today, you'd have thought its happening next week!"
Kiruba on Twitter

Kiruba's tweet says it all, Jan 3 meetup gave a concrete idea about how to go ahead.


First things first, even though the World is coming out from the recession we don't want to take chances. We made a very comprehensive list on prospective sponsors. Making the list is always easy and took hardly 10 mins now the real challenge is to rop them in. After the roaring success of first edition of TEDx Chennai, getting sponsorship would be relatively easy.




Kiruba's stunt. The LCD TV that you see in the picture is actually a reflection. Kiruba trying to pass through with out getting hurt had there been a physical TV. Probably Pranav Mistry's Sixth sense effect?



We believe that the Journey is as important as destination.We have been meeting at Cafe Coffee Day, enough of closed spaces we thought. Now each and every oraganisers' meetup is going to be as eventful as the TEDx itself. Next meetup we are planning to have in company with some crocodiles and Alligators, anyone interested to volunteer?




Another major discussion was on the venue. IIT Chennai was great but we are looking at other options as the only thing that is permanent is the change

There is a series of events planned ahead of TEDx Chennai 2010 and the first one is the TEDconversations happening on Jan 16.

Daily dosage from the world of books

" Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C. Clarke

Books books everywhere

Chennai book fair hangover made me visit Chennai most famous second hand book shop, one at Luz church road



He has a great customer base that includes former Indian President Dr. Abdul Kalam


Once you reach there, he will ask you what book you want, you say a topic he will show you where to search


Getting ready for the day.The owner organising the books



This is my pick, authorised bio of Prabhupada for Rs.30

And I am planning to visit again

Daily dosage from the world of books

" The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

Eden Phillpotts

33rd Chennai book fair, 2010

Thought I will start 2010 by having some good books and Chennai book fair was the best pick





Who said people who read books are an endangered species?


Its a mega fair



Good to see Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey in 2010



Now some very interesting stalls

On Jan 15, 2010 World will witness a major solar eclipse and here you will get special specs to view the eclipse


When almost all other stalls have ordinary steel book shelves, this stall has shelves made of bamboo



I am a regular visitor to Chennai book fair and this trend is ever growing. The number of stalls of spiritual leaders and their literature



Right from Ramana Maharshi



To The spiritually incorrect mystic, Osho



Telling everyone to come and share him



And half a dozen more
























Now my picks from the fair

iWoz by Steve Wozniak, now thats an Apple hat-trick, I have already finished iCon by Steve Jobs and Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple by John Sculley



The Tipping Point by Malcom Galdwell




Osho's A new vision of women's liberation


I have already started The Tipping Point

Image of the week

Last Blue moon of 2009



Taken in my E51, 2Megapixel Nokia phone, poor image quality highly regretted.

Daily dosage from the world of books

" 90-10 rule: 90 percent of the world is influenced by 10 percent."

Regis Mckenna

Daily dosage from the world of books

" Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity."

Albert Einstein