A hilarious short film

Very talented fellows!

Winter 2011 - Jan 12 Blizzard

Man with a mission

Our family with Mr. Krishnan

We drove up to New Jersey last weekend to meet a real life hero Mr. Narayanan Krishnan.from Madurai. My high school teacher turned philanthropist Mr. T.R. ChandraSekar (TRC sir) knew Mr. Krishnan very well several years back, much before the rest of the world recognized his work. I have had several conversations with TRC sir on the works of Mr. Krishnan. Because of Mr. TRC's acquaintance we were lucky to get a private audience with Mr. Krishnan on his U.S. tour. We spent some time discussing his vision and the next steps briefly. People were lining up to congratulate him on his great work, wish him well and donate to his cause.

Krishnan is a humble individual with a great conviction for his cause. He is focused on giving 100% of the funds he receives to helping the helpless. We discussed about sustainability and scalability of his operations. His immediate goal, he expressed, is to get the 200 souls on the streets of Madurai and the surrounding 150 KM area to "the home of the destitute" that is under construction. That is an ambitious project to bring all the socially needy and mentally incapable people from the streets under one roof and give them food and the dignity of life. He is not envisioning expanding the effort to other cities or institutionalizing his organization. His primary goal it to have no financial overhead. All those who help him, work voluntarily and are well to do in their life. He is sincere in his vision to deliver quality food and shelter to the homeless and helpless from the streets of Madurai. When I asked him about the continuity of his work long term I was amazed at his answer. He said and I quote "I found this mission when I was 25. When I am 70, I believe God will send me a 25 year old soul to take charge and lead the cause. I strongly believe such an individual will come when the time comes!". It was obvious that he has made up his mind to dedicate his life for the cause.

Suji, TRC sir and Mr. Narayanan

We briefly chat with Krishnan's father Mr. Narayanan (rightmost in the picture above). He made a blanket statement upfront. "It was all Krishnan's wish. He made us believe in his cause." He went on to narrate an incident that was both shocking and showed the magnanimity of Mr. Krishnan. Mr. Narayanan continued, "When I am alive, he (Krishnan, as his only son)  is not even supposed to perform last rites for my brothers when they pass away. Such is our family tradition. But Krishnan came home one day and said he came from the crematorium after disposing off an orphaned corpse from the streets. We were shocked. But little did we know that he continued to do that for many more in the following months and years". We were pretty moved by this personal story of not only Mr. Krishnan but also the sacrifices of the entire family to support his cause. Long after we left from there our hearts and minds were filled with the man's selfless sacrifice and the drive with which he goes about serving the helpless people day after day.

Mr. Krishnan says this as a lesson learned from his work. "All good work will bring in the required support". With this belief, he has started the project to build the home for the destitute as an eight block building on roughly $1.5 million U.S. dollar budget. He has already got full commitment for five out of the eight blocks. He continues to get support for the other three blocks. If you are interested, please visit Akshaya USA to contribute.

Ugly Child 

by Virginia DiTomas

I did not like him reaching out,

I thought, "what an ugly child!"

Until I touched his small brown hand,

Until he shyly smiled.

Though he stood on the dirty street,

Hungry, ragged and unshod,

I looked into this small child's eyes

And saw the face of God.

An excellent performer

Interesting management charts

EMTG - Emerging Markets Technology Group

Facts and Truth

http://timberry.bplans.com/2010/11/facts-facts-everywhere-but-truth-is-scarce.html

"become a paid data liar, by offering to find facts to fit any point of view your clients want to put forth. Call it facts for hire. "


Its kinda sad that this is the truth!

Rules and Exceptions

Long ago my friend and I had a discussion on how one will go about designing the size of a mail box for a household. The case goes like this. Everyday a family gets a bunch of letters such as bills, news papers, magazines, etc. But on Christmas they may get gift packets wrapped up in cardboard boxes. So do you design the mailbox by the size of the biggest gift packet or as a small box that can hold say about 10 or 15 letters? Optimal solution is to build a smaller mail box and handle the once a year anomaly as an exception outside of the box. So strictly speaking a solution or rule that addresses 100% of the problem may not be optimal or preferred in most cases.

"A time to kill" is a popular novel (movie) by John Grisham that takes you through a situation where a brutal murder as revenge gets justified. The author argues successfully that the situation is an exception and needed to be handled as such, by bending the law/rule for that case.

The recent kidnapping/murder in Coimbatore and eventual encounter killing of the accused is one such exception. The horrific crime was handled out of the law by the law enforcement authorities with popular support. Although it is sad that such 'encounters' indicate lack of faith in the justice system, in this particular case people seem very happy with the result. The crime has touched such a nerve among the masses, swift justice was  openly welcomed on the streets. A true exception I guess. If you don't believe in death penalty under any circumstance this will be a problem.

A very talented lady

A worthy minute...

Motivation and setting expectation

I realized there are two perspectives on this topic. Both motivation and expectation can be Internal or External.

Often times I find a colleague refer to a motivation that is tied to strong leadership. When you know you are being lead on a path to something great and meaningful, something that will have a big impact beyond your personal life, that is very motivating for anyone to be part of that work. Capable people yearn for such leadership in general. Other external motivators are money, power, fame, etc.

Similarly, we are driven by expectation that are set on us from time to time. We try to live up to our parent's expectations, then probably our teacher's expectations, in the rare case a boss's expectation if we find an inspiring soul in that position. We expect our children to live up to our expectation.

I often remember this Mahatma Gandhi's quote.
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem."


I find this quote motivating from inside. It is a state of self-actualization to realize that we all can do even better than we do whatever it is that we do. Not for the sake of the benefits, but for the inherent value of doing the best. To be sloppy and mediocre is a choice. "To be the best" is a motivator. The expectation here is not set by any external source, but by oneself. Our conscience is the mirror of us and we know exactly how we do up on our own personal scale. Even if we may not solve the world's problem, we will be well on our way to be the best and do the best. I believe, the result of such being will yield a very productive, useful and rewarding life.

That deserves to go viral...!

Standards and Context

I have always wondered about some of the written and unwritten standards practiced in US. A joke goes like this.

A cop spots a young girl on the back seat of a car knitting a sweater and a young boy on the driver seat listening to music at night around 11'o clock. The cop approaches the car and asks what is going on...The boy replies "she turns 18 at 12 o'clock and we are waiting for that!"

Once someone is past 18 yrs old, anything goes between consenting adults in general. One sees all kinds of relationships like a 20s something guy marrying a 40s something women, a 60s guy marrying a just 18 women, same sex relationships, etc. Yet if you are the President (Clinton) messing around with an adult intern or a Governor (Spitzer) engaging in paid sex, all hell breaks and severe consequences follow.

The latest controversy is with this children's show hosted by a young singer Katy Perry.



The whole country objected to the dress of this women so much that the show has to be canceled from the Sesame Street show! If you look at the video, you will notice that the dress is somewhat edgy, but not vulgar or obscene. Yet it is banned here because this comes as part of a children's show and parents want their children to grow up free from sex and violence.

I could not resist but contrast this with some of the Indian TV shows. We recently subscribed to Tamil channels on TV to entertain my mother. It is incredible to see what our children grow up watching. The costumes, dance moves, projected personality of women in the serials and the general violence in the movies and shows are shocking. It is like people are desensitized to human feelings and pain systematically from the childhood. We routinely see images of people hurt in accidents and a crowd standing around and watching them as if it is a movie. I believe not rating our TV shows and lenient movie ratings contribute to such insensitivity to hurt and misery in life.

Pictures worth pondering...

The latest report,  known as “Trends in Maternal Mortality”, is jointly released by WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank

• Women in developing countries are 36 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than women in developed nations.
• Developing nations accounted for 99% of all maternal deaths, with 57% in sub-Saharan Africa and 30% in South Asia.
• The study shows progress in sub-Saharan Africa where maternal mortality decreased by 26%.
• In Asia, the number of maternal deaths is estimated to have dropped from 315000 to 139000 between 1990 and 2008, a 52% decrease.

Another passport episode

No, this time the experience is not from me, the guy who presumably has no right to speak up against Indian bureaucracy since I live abroad. This is from a successful entrepreneur from Mumbai.

http://emergic.org/2010/09/07/passport-office-part-1/
http://emergic.org/2010/09/08/passport-office-part-2/
http://emergic.org/2010/09/09/passport-office-part-3/
http://emergic.org/2010/09/10/passport-office-part-4/

Song and Dance

Have you ever heard a song, liked it and wanted to see the video of the song...? Sometime it turns out to be a mistake! Over the years it happened to me a couple of times. Some of the best songs are poorly portrayed on the screen. This one is the latest for me. I was so impressed by the poetic lyrics of the song, it drove me to hunt for the song on youtube only to become disappointed by the way the song was picturized. I don't know what is the best way to bring on screen a song so beautiful as this one, but it ain't this way. Well, close your eyes and listen to the song first and then watch it the second time, you will know what I am talking about.

If you have any such experience, please feel free to share. I almost feel like we should collect such beautiful songs and remake them just to do justice to the poetic lyrics.

One man's incredible work

A library of knowledge on various subject matter. Talent diverted from hedge fund into education.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Thank you Salman khan

My kids love this song!

SemMozhi Tamil Anthem AR.Rahman (HD) - The best video clips are here

This is what it has come down to now?!

I knew water problem was bad in India. IMHO this is an awful solution to the problem. It makes India more dependent on foreign resources especially such vital resources. This is not a sustainable solution. Instead we should explore cheaper desalination plants to convert sea water into usable water.

""Like so many other commodities, water is going global. A number of recent news articles have described water as "blue gold" and the "the oil of the 21st Century". Entrepreneurs are responding to supply and demand imbalance by seeking ways to transport water from countries and regions with plentiful amounts to areas in short supply," wrote Terry Anderson and Clay Landry of what is now known as the Property and Environment Research Center way back in 1999. "John Hayward, a water expert for the World Bank, commented that 'water will be moved around the world as oil is now.'"

25 / 5 = 14

Carnatic music lessons

There are many sites with Carnatic lessons. I find this one to have an excellent coverage of foundational materials.

http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/varnams/index.html

With materials like this and a local music teacher as a coach, students anywhere can set sail into the world of music.

Speaking of music, here is an excellent analysis of Ilayaraja's contributions to popularizing Carnatic music in films.

http://www.s-anand.net/blog/category/classical-ilayaraja/