The End of a Chapter, the Beginning of A NEW One!!!!

August 8th, 2008 marked an end of a chapter in my book called life. I was relieved from EK, my former family (organization) and on August 11th, 2008, a new chapter in my life began, I joined my current Organization, Sify, on August 11th, 2008. On my first day,I finished my joining formalities at Tidel Park. The joining formalities hardly took 3 hours in total. After completing it, I had lunch at the Sangeetha outlet in the Food Court at Tidel. As I came out of Tidel, I remembered that I had to visit the IGNOU regional center located at Taramani, 3 kms away from Tidel, to enquire about the status of my MBA entrance exam hall ticket (It was supposed to reach me by 8th, August).

As the bus frequency along the IT Highway was very low, I decided to walk all the way. As I walked along the road, it struck me that infact it was at this sameTidel Park that I had completed my joining formalities 3 years ago when I was with Sutherland. As I thought of my first job, many memories of the past flashed through my mind. It just dawned to me that I had QUIT EK. No more jolly tea-chat sessions with Sai, Sivan, Deepak, Jayanth, and Nagaraj. No more Cricket nets sessions, no more tea-kadai mokkai sessions at the Guindy teashop, no more Cricket discussions. For a moment, it dawned to me that things had happened too fast for me to even feel or think about it. I had spent 20 months with EK, made so many good friends, had so many great moments there, but within one month, I had said goodbye!

I came to the Nandanam office on August 12th. I got a system at 12 pm, started blogging right away. I was a bit apprehensive on how my new organization would treat me. I was feeling lonely for quite sometime before I saw my old friends Karkuzhali, Devi, and Harishankar. Meeting them made me feel better. Plus, my lead ID introduced me to my team members; all the people seemed to be very jovial and relaxed. I was given a warm welcome and within fifteen days of my joining, I have started feeling that this place would be like my second home and provide me immense knowledge and many good moments. Hope the forthcoming months prove me right!!!!!

Indian Sports- What We Need To Do?

The Beijing Olympics is coming to an end, China is sitting on top with the most gold medals, followed by USA. India has completed its participation and has finished with a haul of 3 medals: One Gold(10M Rifle event: Abhnav Bindra), and two bronze medals in boxing(Vijender Kumar) and Wrestling(Sushil Kumar).

India had a slightly better olympics this time around, it got a gold and two bronze medals; the best haul during these 108 years of participation.
It was amusing to see every news channel go gaga over Abhinav, Sushil, and Vijender.
What was even more amusing is the rewards, that are being offered to the athletes. by the Central and State Goverments.

My question is: Why can't the goverment allot specific funds for Sports federation and properly tap talent in the first place? When we can award Abhinav 20 crores now, why not spend 10 crores to setup proper infrastructure. Haven't we been lethargic? How fair is it for us to sit back and just say "OH, our INDIAN ATHLETES CAN't EVEN ONE MEDAL THIS TIME". Have we ever wondered what is the reason?

Ok, let me explain, Abhinav got his gold medal, NOT BECAUSE of our infrastructure, but because of his rich parents, who have him world class facilities. To speak frankly, the Infrastructure at India for shooters is way too pathetic that we do not have even proper ammunition to practice, and also no latest equipments.

Let us look at Sushil, he was staying at a room with 20 others enthusiastic wrestlers and inspite of not even being provided even the basic infrastructure, he has won us a bronze medal. Even Vijender, a boxer, had to work part-time to sponsor his boxing classes. Inspite of these obstacles, Vijender and Sushil have won us Bronze, we should be really proud of them, but at the same time, ashamed of our INDIAN OLYMPIC FEDERATION, which has done a pathetic job, and is still doing a very pathetic job now.

For India to shine in Olympics, we must first plan well.
The Plan should include, finding Sports where we can Shine well, setting up DEDICATED Sports Federations and maintaining them with World Class Infrastructure and Coaching.
Nominate genuinely interested sports persons to take care of these federations, MR KALMADI, PLEASE LISTEN???
There should be no politicians involved, the IOA must seek help of corporates to fund them as the task of funding multiple Sports Federations is too much for the IOA.
Corporates like Infosys and WIPRO can be approached.

The other sports such as Swimming, Marathons, Sprinting, Gymnastics, Rowing, Football, Hockey, should be encouraged and given media exposure.

If we are really serious about becoming a sports superpower, we must take strong strides forward, there is no use in the WAIT AND WATCH approach, Sports is not a joke, all people can play any kind of sport, but only a few will excel, our job is to find those few and nurture them.

My request to the Sports Minister of India and the IOA: Please do take steps to improve our infrastructure. And for Heaven's sake, please stop appointing non-sports people as the head of Federations, they will only do a pathetic job, please be serious atleast now.

If I am not wrong, we should concerntrate more on these sports:

1) Hockey: This is our National Sport????? Unfortunately, our people and media have conveniently forgotten this sport,thanks to people like Mr GILL and our IOA president. If our hockey players are encourage properly, they will strike GOLD This is a promise.
2) Tennis and Badminton
3)Wrestling
4)Boxing
5)SHooting(10M,50M,DOuble-Trap)
6)Weight Lifting
7) Marathon and Sprinting: IN India, some people in Villages walk as far as 8 Km to reach the school, I am very surprised that we are not able to produce even a single Marathon Athlete till now.
8) Cycling: COmmon people, even a guy like me can cycle 40-50 kms continuosly at the speed of 20-23 kms per hour, i am sure that in this 1Billion people, we definitely have 200+ world class cyclists.
9) Swimming: This is one sport, where we definitely need to concentrate on, purely because there are nearly 10 golds for this event at the Olympics
10)Rowing: Well, people will be surprised when i said "Rowing", I strongly believe that we have good potential to do well in this sport. Our Rower, Bajranglal went till the Quarter finals in his Maiden Olympics. We have been producing budding talents like Rahul Baliga. So, if things go well, we may strike gold.


People must be made aware that there are indeed other games which provide them the same level of entertainment as Cricket. The Goverment should ensure that each promising athlete is provided the required facilities. If required, the goverment should create jobs specificially for those, who excel in Sports. Although, there are sports federations in India, they are functioning with poor facilities or lack of funds. To change this trend, we must allot funds for certain sports, find out great talent, provide them world-class facilties and be patient till the results come.
Afterll, it takes aleast 6 months to build a house, we will require atleast 4 years to produce world-class athletes.
And of course, our media should also spend some time on other sports, afterall we would be tired of seeing the faces of Yuvarj, Dhoni and Sachin by now :-) Am i right people?

Afterall, when we can watch an idiotic cricket team performing inconsistently time and again, only to falter at the best occasion, we can atleast use our remote to see how our people are doing at other sports, it will atleast make them happy and of course, when they feel that they are being watched, they will perform well :-) Isn't it?
I sincerely hope that atleast by 2012, we will be producing athletes, who conquer the world in their respective sports. Hope this 2008 Beijing Olympics proves to be the ultimate watershed, if it is not, then god save our Athletes.

Beijing Olympics: Finally an Indian wins gold- But What Next????

Finally, our Rifle Shooter, Abhinav Bindra, won a gold medal for our country breaking the 108-year-old Gold medal drought. On August 11th, Abhinav Bindra held his nerve against his Finnish and Chinese opponents, Alin George Moldoveanu and Zhu Qinan, to win the gold. By winning the gold medal, he became the first Indian to win Gold in an individual event. He has indeed made us proud.

I have to say sorry to my readers for missing out Abhinav in my last post, which listed my guess for our medal hopes. It was purely due to lack of knowledge.

As for the Indian contingent, they still need to prove a point; after all, one gold medal is never going to be enough to prove our athletic prowess. Apart from Abhinav, I was sad for the other athletes such as Saina (Badminton), Samresh Jung(10m Rifle), Bajranglal Takhar (Rowing), and Anup Sridha(Badminton). I was very much disappointed when our ace shooter Rajvardhan Singh Rathore failed to qualify, I felt sad. Guess the pressure of a billion people is weighing down too heavily on our athletes.


Well, there is some hope left, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have advanced to the quarters, they have a tough task in hand, I am pinning some hopes on them because it may be their last Olympics and I am sure that they would want to end it with glory. I would just wish that they play for the gold and not for the bronze. I believe that they are still the best doubles players in the Mens circuit in Tennis. “Come on Guys, Gun for the Gold, Let our happiness increase manifold”.
Apart from tennis, our Indian Boxers, Jitender Singh, Vijender, and Dinesh Kumar are currently on a winning run.




Plus we still have the long jump, 200mtrs, 400mtrs, triple jump, and other athletic events. As of now, I am betting on Anju Bobby George for bringing as a medal, but I would be happy if somebody else pulls off one for us too.

I am personally disappointed to see that we are going overboard for just winning one gold medal. Yes! I am very happy for Abhinav Bindra. It’s true that he brought us glory, but with nearly 40 more days to go, India still needs a lot of medals to really hog the limelight.
We need to prove that we do have world-class athletes, for that to be done, we need more Gold, certainly more than 4. On the eve of our 61st Independence Day, I wish our athletes all the best and my message would be “Go for the Gold, winning is everything, give your 100% and leave the rest to the almighty, we will be with you! Bring us Glory, bring us GOLD”.



Jai Hind! Let the following days bring us even more glory!!!

Beijing Olmpics- Performance of Indian Olmpic Atheletes??????

"Faster, Higher, Stronger"- This is the Olympic motto. Our Indian Olympic federation just doesn't seem to be taking this into account, as they rarely keep producing worldclass athletes. Look at our olympic record, it's almost three decades since we won a gold medal. Even last olympics, we had to be content with just a SILVER obtained by our shooter Rajvardhan Singh Rathore. It is very highly disappointing that even with a population with over billion, we fail to produce even a dozen world class athletes.
I thought that atleast, in this olympics, the wretched run would end, but my dissappointment reached astronomical proportions when i heard that Manavjit Singh(Mens Trap Shooting event), Anjali Bhagwat(Women's 10M rifle event) and our Women's archery team had crashed out :-(. I had really high hopes on our Shooters and archers, especially Manavjit Singh and Anjali Bhagwat, but they proved me otherwise.
I just wish that our other Indian athletes will bring home Glory.

Today is the third day of the 2008 Olympics held in China, the only good news that i have heard is that Saina of India has qualified for the quarter finals in the Badminton event and that Vijender singh of India has also qualified for the quarter finals in Boxing. Well, the best surprise was that i heard that one of our Rowers!!!!!!!!! Bajrang Lal Takhar has qualified for the quarter finals in the Sculling category of the Rowing events.
As for now, let us all wish the remaining athletes all the best and pray that they come back with a bagfull of gold medals. I am sure that our BHARAT MATHA has atleast produced three or four people, who can strike gold.

I donno why? But i believe that this time, we will strike gold and we will strike it in a least expected event. Let's see.
Let me list out the atheletes, who,i think are our medal winning hopes:

1) Saina Nehwal(Badminton)



2) Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi(Mens Doubles/Tennis)


3) Anju Bobby George (Long Jump)



4) Vijender Singh(Boxing)



5) Indian Rowers(Sculls/ Light Doublesculls/ Rowing)


Wishing all the Indian Athletes all the best.

Kudos to our Rowers

In this cricket crazy country, people often neglect or forget that there are other sports in India, where atheletes have achieved a lot more than our stupid "CRICKETERS". To name a few, let us take the example of SQUASH, where our Chennai girl Joshna Chinnappa has won numerous medals for our country; Chess, where our own VISHY(Viswanathan Anand) made our country proud by winning the World Chess Championship just some months ago, and tennis, where Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have consistenly been winning medals in doubles and mixed double events(Although they played with different partners, the trophies still count). There are many more examples, it is a pity that we fail to encourage other sports and often discourage aspiring atheletes.

The best example is the recently held MADRAS-COLOMBO Regatta.
Well, for many of you who don't know what a Regatta is; it is a type of event held in a sport called ROWING. For rowing, please visit this link.

The Madras-Colombo Regatta is an international rowing race event held between India and Srilanka, (to be more precise, it is between the Madras Boat Club and the Colombo Boat Club). Our rowers won seven out of the eight prestigious events held in this regatta and have regained this trophy after 10 years.

You might wonder why i am saying this suddenly? My major concern was the media exposure to this type of events, the day after this event happened, i browsed throght several newspapers to find atleast a one-liner detail about this event, and guess what even great dailies like the HINDU and the INDIAN EXPRESS didn't cover this event nor did they include any news, not even a one-liner. Now, lemme ask you people a question, is this Regatta not even worth a mention? When small clubs like Jolly Rovers, Mambalam Mosquitoes and even corporate teams have their scores mentioned in dailies? Then why this partiality. Yeah! This is just an event concerning two countries, but by encouraging these rowers, do we lose anything???

Anyways, have a look at the photos!!!


Madras Boat Club Fours Team after their victory over the Colombo Fours team. (You can spot the MRTS bridge in the background.)


The Madras Fours team rows to the starting point of the race; the starting point is the Kotturpuram bridge.
Team: Stroke- Rahul Baliga, 3-Charles Amolarpavaraj, 2-Sathish, Bow-James

The Race is on: Madras Boat Club Fours on the way to victory.


The Victorious Team with their oars: Starting from left: Rahul Baliga(National Champion in Sculling), Charles Amolarpavaraj, Cox(Don't know her name), Sathish, and James,(He happens to be the formal national champion and also the coach of the Madras Boat Club).


An EIGHTS boat on trial: The boat comprises of eight rowers and one cox(Non-rowing member and captain of the boat).


The Eights boat again: That is one hell of a boat to row!


The Double sculls team of Madras Boat Club.


Rowers relaxing after the race.


A Race begins???


Rahul Baliga, winners of the sculls event. He is the current national champion in Sculling and had won the gold in the recently held sculling events breaking the national record.


The Winning Pairs team of Madras Club: Rohit Ravindra and Tushar Bansal. These guys have won many trophies in the pairs events.


A woman sculler.


The Colombo Ladies Fours team

Time to say goodbye

Yup! it's time to say goodbye to my current organization. I have put my papers and am getting relieved soon. I have worked here for 19 months; to describe my experience at EK shortly, it has been a roller coaster ride!!!!!!!.
I made a lot of friends here. I enjoyed my time here so much that EK, at one point, became my second family. It was a difficult for me to call it quits, but i had no other choice, my life had other priorities. I needed to move on, so it's time to say goodbye to lovely EK. Miss you all, people!!! Thanks for providing me all the support! You people rock!!
As i look down the memory lane, i would list these as the best moments at EK:
# The first EK day out and Pongal Fest held at EK in January 2007. It was my first chance to meet up with people and get to know them better.

# Joining the EK cricket team; one of the best facilities provided at EK, the EK cricket team has been one of the most fun-loving ones ever. I was proud to be a part of it. Although, i made no significant contributions, i still had the satisfaction of
representing my organization in the Blue Sky tournament. IT increased my love for the game.

# Working in High-Priority projects- I was given the chance to work in two of the high priority projects. At first, the crunch deadlines and importance of the projects gave me the jitters, but still i gave it my best shot and i think i did a good job. Working in these sort of projects made me mentally tough and inspired me to improve myself professionally. Thanks a lot to V!!

#Becoming a part of the rowing team: Well! This was one of the surprises at EK, prior to EK, i never knew that there was a sport called Rowing and how significant it is. I just joined the rowing team because two of my close friends joined it. Gradually, i began loving the sport. Winning the M&B Regatta Overall Championship was one of the best moments in my life.








# The best of all: Making great friends like Lakshman, Aparna, Arunprakash, Arun, Ramesh KS, Ramesh Krishnan, Jayanth, Nanditha, Yogesh, Diiman, Suchitra, Vinok, Meena, Nagaraj, Sivanarul, Srisai, Manjula, Joseph, Arul, Banu, Georgina, Vijay, Jeevan, RK, Ravi, Gopal anna, Rajesh,Diiman, Rosalin, Praveena Jaipal, Aswin Kumar, Vinodh, Thiyagarajan, Vijay, Alkesh, Harikumar, Anooja, Divya, Aparna, Solomon, Deepak L, Anitha, Anithaesther, Sathishkumar, Adithya, Arun, Mohammed Baroda, Santhosh, Ganesh, Nagendran, Nancy, Reshma, Jobi, etc etc ect. Sorry dudes, there are a lot of people whom i need to include, but that would make this post huge!!!!!


I wish to thank the EK Cricket Team and Rowing Team for their great support!!!!!!!!
Thanks people!! Thank you all for the lovely moments!!!
Wish you people all the best!