News from GOD’S own country

Vishukaineettam

On Vishu day, as always, devotees throng the Sabarimala temple for “Kanikanal” and to get “Vishukaineettam”, but this time a surprise (or shock) was in store for them. Its believed that Thanthri gave them foreign coins as ‘kaineettam’. Hope its not American Dollars. Dollar is doing very badly in international market (1US Dollar was 41 INR, lowest in last 9 years). Don’t get surprised if you see long queue in front of Foreign exchange counter of various banks in Pathanamthitta. Devotees are busy converting their “Vishukaineettams” into Indian Rupee.

ChristNA!!!!!!!!

Mr K. J Yesudas, well known playback singer wants to enter Guruvayur Sree Krishna Swamy temple, but technically he can not because only Hindus are allowed to enter the temple. He is an ardent devotee of Krishna and has sung so many devotional songs about him. But that’s not criteria for entering. Lets wait and see whether he will be able to open “Gopuravathil” and see “ Gopakumaran”.

Ad Club, Madras, Batch the 13th,
Nothing unlucky about it!!

Atlast the dream come true, I have been selected for the Post Graduate Program on Advertising Management ( PGDAM) course conducted by Ad club, Madras. I was thrilled, after a gap of 5 years I am back to college days. This time the difference was that this course is not a full time course unlike my MBA and when the classes started I came to know that I am one of the oldest (a Dino) in the batch, during my MBAi was one of the youngest.

13th batch had 21 students (nobody knows who was the 21st person) . We enjoyed most of the sessions , hated some and ignored a few. we had some wonderful characters. Anand,Soup kuttan (who always used to drink soup before coming to class), Balaji, who became less talkative as the course progressed (thanks to batchmates), Tanya, the party planner who tried hard not to miss the first and last sessions of the course. Aahaa girl was always smiling, Nithya was the most experienced 'adgirl'. Aswin asked for treat for strange reasons. Praveen was already a half baked film maker and TNEB Engineer was our big brother. Sanjeev developed relationships across borders. Eugene was as calm as Gauthama, the Buddha .Hari kept a LAWprofile. Shatru, arun and abhi kept the batch alive. Padma attended more classes towards end. Rekha got wedded in the midst. Guru wanted to be an actor. Suresh demanded special sessions on modelling (he did not attend half the course, mind you). JP and Viduthalai were silent spectators.

And the final written exam. Everybody had a doubt, what is a brand? Ha better late than never I thought. Neverthless I enjoyed the company of these wonderful bunch of people and batch the 13th was not at all an unlucky one, I added 19 more to my friendslist!!!