Discovered in Velacherry!!

Our maid took 2 weeks medical leave for her operation & so we have been eating out these days. N & I were thinking about a good joint to have lunch. Lots of restaurants came across our minds, but nothing that gives us Value for our money!

Suddenly remembered G saying that there is an Andhra Mess in Velacherry , just opposite Latta stores. We thought we will give it a try. We landed up there, looked around Latta stores, actually all around. But we could not find a board with the wordings “Andhra Mess”. Perplexed we checked with a near by shop keeper, who then showed a small gully just opposite Latta store. There we found a flip flop board kept in front of the gully.



We walked in the gully for 20 meters & found out a rather big hall with lots of bachelors having a great time. We had to wait for some time, before we could get a seat. A lady in mid thirties was managing the show. Her kids were playing around her. Probably it is a typical family managed business. All the employees of the mess were conversing in Telugu. The owner mistook me for an Andhra-ite & started asking me something in fast in Telugu. Reading my face she understood & rephrased in Tamil.

The food was good & was typical Andhra style. It had pappu, ladies finger-potato fry, subjis & all the usual stuff. It was a big hall that could seat 50 at one shot & it was jam packed. 99% were bachelors. Even non veg is available. Coming to the price, unlimited meals at Rs 30 & omlette at Rs 7 was real value for money.

We came out wondering why we didn’t try this earlier! If you are an Andhraite & if you are in Velacherry , you know where to go to satisfy your appetite.

What can halt terrorism?

When we were casually browsing through channels yesterday night, we came across the Islamabad Marriot bomb blast breaking news in NDTV. It was a really bad explosion. 40 people killed & 100 injured. The real figures might be more. Today morning in papers I saw the 25 feet deep crater that was formed at the site. Also it seems the terrorist had a used a truck full of explosives (1000 kg) for the blast.



This set me thinking about a solution to terrorism & what is lacking in India. I feel POTA / COTA can’t be a solution to terrorism. These acts will only serve in inducting new terrorists on board. Someone suggested death sentences for such terrorist acts. Yes, to a certain extent this will create fear in the minds of public at large, but when you closely observe, when these terrorists are open to killing themselves ( suicide attacks), I don’t think a death sentence will stop them.

For the near term solution , I think what we need to have is set-up like the SSN in USA, wherein when you type the SSN of a citizen you get to know everything of that person right from his/her DOB, Schooling, College, Work , Credit history & stuff like that. Though this might not directly deter terrorists, we might get to unearth the network really fast with most of the information from just one guy. Also whenever any citizen gets in touch with any kind of government service the details of the transaction must be tagged on to his/her SSN. This helps a lot in crime scene investigation. This will definitely deter all first time crimers. Implementing this will take some years (atleast 3 – 5 years to cover 80% of populace depending upon the staffing thrust) , but India can make use of its IT prowess here.

Critics might say this is like invading one’s privacy, but in the larger scheme of things if you weigh that against the lesser crime rates, one will understand the benefits. Needless to sat that the SSN information must be regulated & access controlled only to organizations like CBI , RAW etc.,

The longer term solution is to ensure compulsory education till a bachelor degree to all Indians. Only education will bring maturity to an individual to judge for oneself about the benefits of terrorism & violence. Social reforms to decrease regional / religious divide would also help.

Life after Great Lakes...

Time has come for me to change the name of my blog from “My MBA at Great Lakes” to “Life after Great Lakes”. This is more to reflect the current state. I remember when in my first job there was a name change from Tata Engineering to Tata Motors. Most of us were apprehensive about that name change ( It costed in crores to change the Corporate Identity boards of Sales & Service outlets of the company all over India), but now I think we need to change with changing times to reflect the current state of affairs.

Off late, I have been seeing a lot of movies (Tamil & English) & I feel my blog has kind of become a Tamil movie review blog, which I want to change. Hence forth I am planning to write about social & business issues.

Many of us would have heard about Right To Information Act. For people who are not aware of it , this is a law that mandates government officers to disclose information to public when demanded.



This can be effectively put to use when you just don’t receive your IT refunds or in situations like Police is not acting on your complaints etc. As a citizen of India we have a right to demand information from government officials.

Here is a personal story of my friend who got back his IT refund after three years!

Can violence win ?

This question has been answered well in couple of movies that I saw recently. The first one was Bheema. Everybody in the plot is killed. The film’s songs were good, but the screenplay was a huge let down. The film could have been made better.



The other on similar lines was Pattiyal. Starring Arya , Bharath , Pooja & Padmapriya. Bharath could not carry his role to perfection. His inexperience shows. Arya has done a good job. The screenplay is decently done. The director gives us the message that any body who takes the path of violence will only lose.



The path of violence is very emotional & people can easily fall into that trap. Later they realize it is not easy to come out. Some of the warring organizations are one such real life example.

Gandhiji’s non violence proves the point !

December movies !!

Just back from Devi theatre, watched the movie “Oram Po” with Vimal & Sudarshan. The movie is total time pass. The first half was really too humourous. The second half also was decent. Arya has done well. On the negative side the film had too many blunt & indecent swear language. They could have cut down that. But overall a decent time pass.

Last Saturday I had watched “Kallori” at Devi with Hari. Kallori was a really good film. Very thoughtfully made & couple of songs are good. The film has a shock ending. The director has skillfully delivered a social message in a love cum college setting. This is a must watch movie.


In English , I saw Forrest Gump last week. Cool movie. Tom Hanks’ acting is too good. He proves that he is class actor. It is a simple tale, rivettingly told. This is must watch movie.

Catch you all later !!

August Update !

August was an eventful month. The following things are worth mentioning

My 28th birthday celebrations at Besant nagar with Cognizant colleagues was a memorable event. Some hotel called Clay. I don’t remember the exact name. Food was really good & we found it economical. It came around to Rs 170 per head for seven of us.



Other activity I was busy in August was with flat searching. I have visited around 10 sites till date & interacted with close to 30 builders. I also saw a couple of second hand flats too. But still undecided where to buy. Hope in the coming months things will be clear.

We had a meet the uncle session for Alumni in Chennai. We had really good turnout for the event. Another event in August we Shankar's marriage. It was a old cinema theatre converted into a marriage hall. It was a great function.

Krishna is driving his Pulsar to Madurai.Hope he will have great tales to tell when he comes back.

C U All !!

July Update !

I have watched Sivaji twice. First time with college mates in Sathyam & second time with brothers Aravindh & Yogan in Santham. This perhaps is the first movie I am watching twice in a movie hall. Sivaji is a feel good film. Anybody who just wants to chill out should definitely watch it. Rajni Kanth has done his role perfectly. Shriya has been very cleverly used by Shankar in the film. Vivek stands out with his one liners.The songs have been shot really well. It is not a kind of movie where you sit and analyse the movie. If you did you won’t find any logic. But Rajni’s movies are just felt & not analysed. Sivaji is a perfect movie for the average Rajni fan.



The IT industry is facing tough times these days. Looks like the honeymoon period is over & conditions are toughening. I am referring to the appreciating value of Rs, which is brining down the “cost arbitrage” advantage for Indian IT firms. This has been proved by the fall in growth of profits in the first quarter of FY 07 08. To overcome this Indian IT companies should come out with innovative solutions, which are tough to be copied by others. Such solutions only will give these companies a temporary competitive advantage over cos in low cost nations. As an immediate action cos are taking about improving utilization & hedging. Only time will tell how the industry comes out of the problem.



Developmental issues in Chennai need a special mention. IT industry has spurred unbelievable growth in the last 5 years in Chennai. Moring from 07:30 till 10:30 roads are choked with the various IT company buses. Especially in OMR the condition is very bad. This is because of the road repairing work that is going on. Hopefully with 2008 we would have congestion free OMR !