(In)Consistent Branding!

Branding needs to be consistent, especially when you are in retail sector. Inconsistency will lead to confusion in Consumer’s mind and market place.


Heritage Foods India Ltd’s grocery retail chain is Fresh@.



But when you see just ‘Fresh’, you are confused for sure.


Is ‘Fresh’ the same retail format? Is it part of the same group? If yes why just ‘Fresh’ and not ‘Fresh@’?

Daily dosage from the world of books

"A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God."

Alan Perlis

Image(s) of the week!


With more than 1 Lakh Autos moving around in Chennai city,its very difficult to break the clutter unless you have something very special.


Found this Auto, with a transparent plastic roof covering part of rear side. And a nice curtain also.


Remember Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin famous mantra? 'Differentiate or Die'

Daily dosage from the world of books

" In a Democracy you don't really need to agree except on the ground rules of how you will disagree."

Shashi Tharoor, 'The Elephant, the tiger and the cellphone'

Sachin@20. What the World said about Master Blaster.




"If I've to bowl to Sachin, I'll bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard."
Dennis Lillee



"Sachin is cricket's God."
Barry Richards




"Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours."
Michael Kasprowicz



"I'd like to see him go out and bat one day with a stump. I tell you, he'd do okay."
Greg Chappell





“You only get to see one Tendulkar in a lifetime. In the next 100 years you will not witness another Tendulkar. He is once in a Century player.”
Muttiah Muralitharan




"He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling."
Richie Benaud

Sachin@20. What the World said about Master Blaster-Part 2.



“There are 2 kinds of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar, Two all the others.”
Andy Flower




"You get him out and half the battle is won."
Arjuna Ranatunga




"If sachin plays well, India sleeps well. There's no better sight on the cricket field than watch Tendulkar bat."
Harsha Bhogle




"In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say 'Can you bowl me another one?"
Adam Hollioke




"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin."
Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)


"He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back."

Ravi Shashtri





"I have watched a lot of Tendulkar and we have spoken to each other a lot. He has it in him to be among the very best."
Sir Garfield Sobers



(To be continued...)

Sachin@20. What the World said about Master Blaster-Part 1.



"I was fielding in the covers Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut Test at Karachi. I still remember Waqar Younis was at his peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Testcricket but was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him 'this kid looks very good' and Imran agree with me."
AbdulQadir


"Sachin Tendulkar is a genius. I'm a mere mortal."
Brian Lara



"I have seen God. He bats at number 4 for India."
Mathew Hayden



"Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives."
BBC Sports




"You take Don Bradman away and he is next up I reckon."
Steve Waugh



"I think he is marvelous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he's 99.5% perfect."
Viv Richards



"Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime, and I am privileged he played in my time."

Wasim Akram



(To be continued...)

Daily dosage from the world of books

" The Earth is the cradle of mankind but you can not live in a cradle forever."

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Security at stake

Its high time to look for a new security agency


Not sure the reason for this. Could be work pressure or overtime work
Found in front of the ATM counter of a leading new age bank.

The great Indian Inflation

Couple of months back I remember having lunch from a famous restaurant@Adyar,Chennai for Rs 42. Few weeks ago the rate was Rs 44. Now they are charging Rs 46 for the same lunch.


An increase of Rs 4 in few months!!!

Daily dosage from the world of books

"If you are not part of the Steam roller, you are part of the road."

Eric Schmidt

Image of the week

After driving through an ever growing traffic, I come home and login to twitter and see this!


Twitter traffic(jam)!

Daily dosage from the world of books

"Speak softly and carry a stick."

Theodore Roosevelt

Sachin Tendulkar, the argument continues…

After the 5th ODI between Australia and India, one of my friend commented in his facebook that Sachin is not a great finisher of game. Now it’s a bit harsh (even for Sachin) for any opener to finish the game when many of his team mates just come and say a ‘Hi’ and walk back to pavilion. But Sachin tried to do the mere impossible and probably realized that Cricket is still a team game.

Sachin is not new to criticisms. Some of the criticisms I have heard.
He always plays for records. You expect him to hit a century when ever he steps out of his dressing room and in that process some records are either born or broken. Now if he hits centuries you say that it’s for records, if he don’t you say its time to retire.

Another one, when ever Sachin hits 100, India loss the match. That will happen even if he hits a double ton. The other 10 players should realize that it’s not a one man show (most of the time it will end up like that) and they are expected to contribute. But if you are so obsessed with records, there is one to disapprove this point. 32 of his 45 hundreds have resulted in the Indian victories, it’s a World record. India has won all the finals when he has registered hundreds.

Even after 20 years, smashing all records, people still expect Sachin to prove himself! That’s India. And the argument continues…..

Power of Tamil

It is often said that India's contribution to the World is Zero (0). But see the power of Zeros!

1 = ONDRU -one
10 = PATHU -ten
100 = NOORU -hundred
1000 = AAYIRAM -thousand
10000 = PATTAYIRAM -ten thousand
100000 = NOORAYIRAM -hundred thousand
1000000 = PATTU NOORAYIRAM - one million
10000000 = KOODI -ten million
100000000 = ARPUTHAM -hundred million
1000000000 = NIGARPUTAM - one billion
10000000000 = KUMBAM -ten billion
100000000000 = KANAM -hundred billion
1000000000000 = KARPAM -one trillion
10000000000000 = NIKARPAM -ten trillion
100000000000000 = PATHUMAM -hundred trillion
1000000000000000 = SANGGAM -one zillion
10000000000000000 = VELLAM -ten zillion
100000000000000000 = ANNIYAM -hundred zillion
1000000000000000000 = ARTTAM -?
1000000000000000000 0 = PARARTTAM --anybody know?
1000000000000000000 00 = POORIYAM ---?
1000000000000000000 000 = MUKKODI -?
1000000000000000000 0000 = MAHAYUGAM -?

courtesy: Mr. Anand krishnan

Dhanvantari Ayurvedic Hospital

Herbal Garden.This Hospital boasts one of India’s greatest herbal gardens. Spread across almost 15 acres, this garden has many a rare herb, collected from various parts of the world.


Special care is taken for the preservation of rarest of rare herbs. A nursery is also located from where one can get the seeds/plants of various herbs.

Dhara treatment centre has best of facilities and have various treatments, Shirodhara, or the dhara treatment given to head, Dhanyamla dhara, dhara over different body parts other than head, takra dhara-dhara with Butter milk, ksheeradhara- dhara with Milk



Other facilities include a 50 bed pay ward and a wonderful meditation track!

Welcome to “ Dhanwantari Ayurveda Hospital!!!



Thanks to my little sister’s school assignment

Image of the week

Go Green initiative:



courtesy : Lionbridge Technologies, Chennai

Daily dosage from the world of books

" If you are not cheating, you are not trying".

Mark Grace

Image(s)of the week

Endangered Art forms
Chennai city police’s latest crackdown on fancy number plates is posing a serious threat to an art form.



Soon these art forms will become a thing of past.


Probably they can be part of some art gallery dedicated to motor vehicles!

Mahabharata, what is not in it, is nowhere!

Quiz

Sidharth Basu, the person synonym with “Quizzing” in India, famous for his Quiz time series in 1980s and later Mastermind India series in late 1990s to early 2000s.

It was reported in national dailies that the sales of various books on General Knowledge went up. The whole India was keen on answering Basu’s questions.

Even before Basu’s Quiz Time, in 1970s there was another Quiz show “The Cadbury Bournvita Quiz Contest. It was started as a live Quiz show in various cities across India; it later became a radio show hosted by Amin Sayani and then, a television show hosted by Derek O'Brien. Then there were G.S.Pradeep’s reverse quiz’ Aswamedham’ on Kairali TV, DD Podhigai the Tamil channel’s Live Sports Quiz Programme conducted by Dr.Sumanth C.Raman.

In Mahabharata there is an interesting Quiz. Pandavas were on their 13th year in forest. One day Nakul was asked to go and fetch some water. He went and found a pond and was about to fetch some water, a yaksha’s voice was heard warning him not to do so. Nakul ignored the voice but before he could drink the water he fell down motionless. Same fate happened to Sahadev, Arjun and Bhim. At last Yudhishthira went and found all his four brothers dead near a pond. He also tried to take water but again Yaksha asked him to stop and said if he could answer all the questions correctly he could get back his brothers. Yudhishthira agreed and answered all the questions correctly. Yaksha was Yama, Yudhishthira’s father. Thus Yama became the first quiz master and his son Yudhishthira the sole participant and winner also. His prize was his four brothers’ lives.

(To be continued...)

Daily dosage from the world of books

"Just consider how terrible they day of your death will be, others will go on speaking and you will not be able to argue back."

Raja Ram mohan Roy

Image of the week


Smart marketing idea. Found on the rear window of a taxi in Chennai

Mahabharata, what is not in it, is nowhere!

Walkout

Walkouts are daily affairs nowadays. You see walkouts at Parliament, at General assemblies, even in party meetings. Generally opposition stage walkouts. They are there to oppose as the name suggest. If you are against some policies or if some issues are not discussed, if some people are not given the permission to talk they stage walkout. Some times walkout happens in the same party. If they don’t agree with the party or some persons the same party men stage walkout
So walkouts are most common nonviolent protest. There is a reference to walkout in Mahabharata also.
Occasion: Rajasuya performed by Yudhishthira. As per the custom, the Pandavas invited the other kings after the slaying of Jarasandha and performed the Rajasuya. Time came for doing honours of the occasion. The custom was to render first honour to the guest who was considered most worthy of taking precedence over all others.
The question arose as to who should be honored first. Bhisma and Yudhishthira's choice was Sri Krishna, the king of Dwaraka.
Yudhishthira followed the advice and under his instructions Sahadeva offered to Sri Krishna the honors enjoined by tradition. Sisupala, the king of Chedi, who hated Krishna, could not tolerate it. Sisupala after protesting rose from his seat and walked out calling upon the other kings to join him in resenting the insult. Many of them followed him.
And the tradition continues walkouts also.

(To be continued..)

Daily dosage from the world of books

"An equation has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God".

Srinivasa Ramanujam

The year of the moon: 1969 and 2009!

On 9 Oct 2009 NASA successfully bombed two spacecrafts, Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into moon’s South Pole in search of hidden ice, another milestone in moon expedition. Weeks before, Chandrayan 1, India’s first moon exploration had helped in finding flakes of water particles on moon’s surface.


Year 1969, an article in Reader’s Digest 1969 May issue carried an article titled “The year of the moon”.

The article is an interesting read. It carried in depth details on various preparations carried out for the moon mission. The preparation had started way back in 1961 in 20,000 industrial plants and 200 US universities. 4, 00,000 people involved in the project and had spent almost 24,000million USD.
The article also carried detailed scripts on sequence of events right from blast offs from Houston to landing in moon to collecting the moon’s particles and photographing
The instruction given to astronauts included to stand still for a moment as soon he steps his foot in the moon the after a while twist and turn.
Without moving take the bag and collect loose rocks and soils and later take photographs

The 1969 may issue also had a advertorial of a journal “The plain truth”. The journal contained an article named ‘who will rule the space’ that had shocking answers to the Apollo 8 moon expedition.



Now 40 years after the first moon mission, 2009 is also turning out to be “The year of the moon” especially for India after the successful Chandrayan 1 mission. Now let’s wait for the year 2014 for India’s first manned mission to Moon.

The so called real (ity) show!

Lady almost in tears telling her friends how she cleaned plates and utensils

A devoted mother praying for the wellbeing of her three kids

Jobless celebrities walking here and there telling outdated jokes

You can see them getting up from bed, brushing the teeth, fighting and abusing each other and lot more

Welcome to Bigg Boss, season 3, the so called reality show.

Now some statistics of Bigg Boss
13 celebrities, so called
4,000 sq feet of space. Highlights of this time. A smoking zone, bathroom and toilets are inside the house?????
250 crew members working on eight-hour shifts
Around 50 security guards (Is anybody really interested in these so called celebrities or the security is to protect from the wrath of viewers?
34 cameras to capture memorable moments
2 switchers, remote operators, loggers (transcribers), shaders (computer animation specialists)


So let’s enjoy the wonderful lives of these people! after all our lives have become so unreal that we go behind reality TV shows like these

Mahabharata, what is not in it, is nowhere!

War live commentary

Gulf war (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991) fought between Iraq and the coalition force from 34 nations, with the purpose of expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after Iraq's occupation and annexation of Kuwait in August 1990 is considered to be the first war that was live telecast. Channels like CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS showed live footage of US’s Patriot missiles engulfing the Saddam’s Iraq.

Footage of Gulf war
First day

Air strikes


But was there anything like this in Mahabharata, the great Indian epic?

The Great War between Pandavas and Kauravas at Kurukshetra (believed to have happened some 3000 years before Jesus Christ’s birth) was the first war that was telecast live. If millions of people around the world saw the Gulf war live, there was only one person who saw live the Kurukshetra war, Sanjaya the charioteer of blind King Dhritarashtra. Just before the war, Veda Vyasa visited Dhritarashtra and asked if he was interested to see the war. Dhritarashtra did not want to see the war between his sons and their cousins so Vyasa gave ‘Divyachakshus’ (Special yogic power) to Sanjaya to see the war live. Sanjaya not only saw the war live but gave an excellent running commentary of the war to Dhritarashtra. And by doing so Sanjaya became the first commentator, the true predecessor of John Holliman and Peter Arnett of CNN and David Green and Andy Thompson who were part of CBS crew that reported the Gulf war.

(To be continued..)

Blast from the past
Found this interesting ad in 1969 issue of Readers Digest. The Ad is for HMV Fiesta, (not the Ford one) the record player. Being a part of Ipod generation, HMV’s offers were quite interesting. HMV Fiesta is easy to carry and operate and works on AC mains or batteries,

Daily dosage from the world of books

'When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either'


Leo Burnett,

Gandhi Jayanti’s true spirit
The Twitter Minister said in his recent tweet that Gandhi Jayanti should not be a National holiday but instead everybody should work on that day and that’s the right way of remembering the Mahatma.( read the news here)
This Oct 2 we celebrated in a different way. we worked.In schools on Gandhi Jayanti day students clean up the school premises). Normally on any Oct 2 you sit in front of the TV and watch the Oscar winning movie ‘Gandhi’, that too in different languages in different channels but On Bapu’s 140th birthday we painted our home.

Now painting can be such an agonizing exercise



packing the things, shifting the packs to various rooms and dusting the place after the place is painted.



You mood swing from agony to ecstasy




But once you see the walls start getting their shades, your mind also brighten up


We celebrated the birth day of the man who said that ‘work is worship’, in true spirit, by working!

Image of the week!


In search of ever invisible menu