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THE STORMING IS DONE, THE NORMING BEGINS

We are done with the first leg of our travel around India. At the Yatra, this is known as “THE STORMING”. This is where the yatris interact with their groups, cohorts, other yatris, the ex yatris and the role models from Mumbai to Chennai.

The feedback so far is very encouraging and extremely heartening; the energy, upbeat; the focus, unchanged; the learning, ongoing; the emotion, exacerbating!!

This year too, the yatris are focused, energetic, vocal, compassionate, and extremely confident of their abilities. They seem to be accustomed to the routine on the train and a system has been put in place, rather by default. No discussion. No questions!! The morning wake up calls, the session planning, the role model visits, getting ready every morning before breakfast. It is as if they have been doing this for years.

Mumbai was the start of the journey in more ways than one. Our first role model, our first station for waiting (among many) our first train session, and our first meeting with 400 yatris and the core group from the Tata Jagriti Yatra team!

Manish Tripathi was energetic and provided the right fuel for the yatris to start thinking in terms of entrepreneurship! And he was loved by all. No exception!! His story is quite real and very doable unlike some stories which may be beyond the reach of the general audience we had in the auditorium that day.

That was probably the last vestiges of a proper air conditioned environment that would be felt for some time to come. Since then it has been rather interactive with the real India – the wind, the nature, the people, the dust, the uncertainties of rain, and the variation in food provided on board, and at the various locations so far have ascertained that this is in fact what real India is all about. The reality of Middle India!!

Our second session was at Trivandrum a good 2 days away from Mumbai. And although we were about 5 hours delayed due to unforeseeable circumstances, we still made it in time to Kochuvelli station, where we had our first fire drill. Our visit to Paul Tenberken and Sabriye Kronenberg of Braille Without Borders was very touching and very enlightening about social taboo against blind and how wrong we could be about the grit and determination that blind people have about being independent or for that matter, as co-dependent as we are with others in our society. But most definitely not being a burden without cause or direction! We were introduced to Mr. G. Vijayraghavan, CEO and Founder Technopark. He indulged us with details about what he went through trying VERY hard to fight against all odds in order to make his dream of setting up an IT park in Kerala. And he succeeded rather well, in fact being a record setter of sorts now being one of the larger organizations in India.

Kanyakumari was a breather of sorts, with the first half of the day introducing the yatris to Vivekanand Rock Memorial. A picnic of sorts! A lot of introspection time was given and it proved useful since our first CNBC Panel Discussion involved introspection especially on the part of the women yatris. The topic of discussion was Women and Enterprises: Success stories and Role Models. Historically entrepreneurship has been a male-dominated pursuit, but many of today’s most inspirational entrepreneurs are women. While women’s entrepreneurship has been recognised during the last decade as an untapped source of economic growth, why is their participation low? Why is it neglected at large? How can women be incorporated in the enterprise-led development? What are the success stories out there? And these questions were cleared out by leading women entrepreneurs in their own right, Madhura Chatrapathy, Chetan Gala-Sinha and Shaheen Mistri.

From Kanyakumari we moved to Madurai, the temple city of India, where the yatris were exposed the best example of systematic and operational brilliance in the form of Aravind Eye Care System. And the best part of this role model is it provides the best model for entrepreneurs to create a system whereby all sections of the society are catered to with equal attention and yet be fitting to each person’s necessity and earning capacity. At Madurai, as a surprise, we also introduced the yatris to the Aparajitha Foundation. Their excellence in value and service was discovered first hand by the yatris through an excellent exercise conducted on how they teach values through visual aids.

Kuthambakkam village, outside Chennai was the next location to talk to the yatris and the host was Mr. R. Elango, visionary and rural development genius in the south of India. The village of Kuthambakkam is in Tamil Nadu (India), with a population of 5000. A few years ago, the village was fraught with poverty, inflicted with violence against lower castes (dalit) and women, had 35% of its population involved in illicit liquor brewing and lacked infrastructure. Today, the village is transformed, has good basic infrastructure in place, and the villagers are now busy building an environment-friendly local economy based on a cooperative model, producing their basic necessities (like food and clothing) within their own village. The panel discussion in the village covered Enabling Rural India to prosperity. Multiple questions were addressed by Mr. Chaukar of Tata, and Mr. R. Elango. Some were: How do we spur inclusive growth in rural India? How do we enable farmers with efficiencies in various spheres of agriculture, power and water along with supply chain management of produce?  How do we promote education and promote access to innovations?

By now the yatris are comfortable with each other and the next leg starting Bangalore and the New Year will be the time that yatris need to use to form their judgements, their thoughts, their beliefs, and their network, growing their capabilities to attack the problems that plague their vision, or may be an obstacle to their success. This is what we call NORMING. Welcome to the Yatra! Yaaron Chalo…

 

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant

Ladies in the Army... a Joke!!

No offence meant please :)

Russian Army

Israel Army

Indian Army

US Army

Brazilian Army

Korean Army

Chinese Army

& finally
!
!
!!
! !
! !
!
!
Pakistan Army

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Retrospective and Introspective!

My life before today, (well actually a little less than 2 years prior), flashed before my eyes!

When I was in school i was a "good boy", more importantly, "good 'mummas and daddys' boy".

Then I went to college and the party started! I did everything I could lay my hands on to experience life. No Drugs, but loads of alocohol, plenty of energy, and an uninterrupted source of money - (read: my part time jobs, my JHOLS and sometimes mom)!!! I tried everything I could possibly try without trying to get my life or my future into trouble. And what a blast it was! I flunked my college - I can safely say that was what happened because I got nothing to worry about who hires me and who does not - but i did not give up and eventually got that out of the way too!! :P

Once out of college, dads biz was not very tempting, but I was made-to join and figure out where I fit amidst all the hash and hullaballooo already existing there!! I lasted nearly 4 years there! but to no avail. I walked out of home, and went to stay alone, got a job in a BPO, thankless American Accent job!! I hated myself but I needed time to cleanse my mind, and it helped - 3 months of that and I was down approx 15 kgs, down to my last bit of savings... and then my mother, father and I agreed to give their life another try!! Then went 6 months and i was at my wits end there!! This time when I left the biz, i have not gotten back yet! But i still stay with my folks and I am thankful that such is the scenario right now!

I left my family biz and was left stranded in the big bad world, with nothing more than a few thousands in savings, my ego and a relatively blank CV. I was given a break into PR by a friend of mine, and then there was no turning back...

I owe my father and mother my life.. I am what I am now because (and I now understand this) of their hard work and contrary to the belief that I festered, they were doing it for my own good!!

Thanks Mom and DAD!!!

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant

PROgati - www.progati.co.in

Recession?

Although now the market is picking up and recession is slowly... receding... I was just discussing with my wife the other day, how has the recession hit us? Rather, why has the recession hit us?

First - what is my take of the recession?

I feel, and this is my thought only, that the recession is merely a rouse for the highly placed to reduce their overheads.. yes it started out earnestly in the US and spread slowly through the financial markets, but the repercussions, while they could have been softened to not reach the common man, were used favorably by companies NOT hit by this loss of financial state to reduce their overheads! 

Panic was created by these companies within their employees who subsequently spread fear into every living man in the world. It started by people who played with fake money, or faux money to be precise, ran out of options and declared bankruptcy.. then the people who HAD the money, decided, OOH lets use this and spend less money and save more, and they started yelling that they too LOST so much, that it hurts, blah blah blah!

Now this is only in the top 5% of the world population who had millions and millions and sometimes a few billion too! But what about the common man? He still worked, he still bought vegetables, his meat consumption was sent plummeting since it was too expensive and the company he worked for had a CEO and an owner who did not want to part with his money even though he had it! This in turn affected sales at every nook and corner.. but people still bought stuff, they still used cars, traffic jams still existed, clothes still made, tv still watched, and ac still run at night...

I was not working at any company and this had not affected my income (not then at least, now i feel the pain), and people who ran their own SME still worked through the night like they normally did and it worked for them.

SO what is this recession and can the people who had the money in the first place, just own up to the responsibility that you are answerable to the other people who work for you.. their lives depend on you paying them on time... 

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant

Fear is a Factor!!

Saw today's episode... Water and then Tear Gas!!! Water apparently proved to be the harder task. The Panic was evidently a bigger factor in the water task.. and then to prove that they were not wussies, they pushed themselves to the limit for the tear gas trick...

The tasks are infact scary, I would think twice before signing up for it!!

Hats off to the people participating.... unfortunately no non celebrities are selected, they are just chosen...

The Khiladi shows off his attitude by performing the tasks himself and much BETTER than the participants - shows how much in shape he is!!

All in all - good tasks and great programming... but it started so abruptly, I wish there was some more advance notice to it beginning.

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant

Swine Flu and the Conspiracy theory!

This is only my thought!!

Fact - more people die of malaria all across India in a year than people have died across the world of Swine Flu.

Fact - there is no reasonable cure for Cancer, AIDS, or even Chicken Pox till now. Just a few tablets to ensure the after math is not bad (this is for the POX only). Chicken POX is just a cycle. It comes and goes. The COMMON COLD has no cure!!!

Fact - most people die of an illness either because it is really that bad or because they have weak hearts!! But fear accounts for most deaths - like in snake bites, or even the recent flu strains!

Fact - the recent strains of flu have arrived with the "almost miraculous" availability of a cure!!!

Here is my thought!! When scientists have not been able to come up with a cure for common cold's, cancer and AIDS for years, how is it that these strains of flu's afflicting our world hit the world and almost instantly (give or take a week or so) the cure is available. This is when most scientists the world over swear that Malaria (which has over 6 different strains till date) is still getting harder to solve, but Swine Flu, and Bird Flu - NO SWEAT!!!

My take is these flu's have been created by some pharma companies in order to be able to keep their machines working and their labs busy... they create the problem, test them on animals(which incidentally is the fastest way for them to spread - plus the atmosphere helps them!!!) and then magically appear to save the day!!

But its just my take on it!!!

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant

Are you online?? The "RIGHT" way???

The key to any business today is having a good online business representation. An online presence is criticial because it is what people internationally have to refer to. It is what people base their judgement on whether to provide the opportunity of their business with you!

So, it is most important to have the right design and function to your website, while making it most reader friendly!! It should showcase the theme of the company, the thought of its management and the direction of its goal!!

If you look at most of the major websites, then what is important id organising all the information in a systematic manner. Make sure that you dont make it an overdose of only information! Make it lively, add some photographs, give it life.

Make the customer (potential and existing) want to interact with it, which in turn shows their interest in your company. Make it simple to understand and navigate. Making navigation complicated makes the customer lose interest. Their thought might be "if their website is so ill managed, then how would they service us?" Change that thought!

Give your existing website a makeover, or make a new one!!

Give me your feedback, and we will be happy to help!

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant

Stallone cannot pull it off

Even if he wants to, he cannot CANNOT speak hindi!!

He can punch like a gorilla on a rampage though!!!

The movie - Kambakkht Ishq. (Hope I spelt that right!)

Akshay Kumar cannot pull off slapstick hammy comedy!! But he tries.. the stunts are awesome - and there are some scenes where even he uses a body double!! Kareena did a tremendous job of being sexy - poor Amrita Arora was left soaking in her sweat!!! JJ could have been left out of the scene altogether!! but he did bring some real comic relief!!!

The flow of the movie was pretty nice!! The end predictable!! Sajid bhai needs to look beyond action and comedy!! but the formula was pretty good and money was well invested - especially Denise Richards!! :)

Anyway - time to go get a Hangover!!

For Bouquets and Brickbats, please email me at partha@parthasrinivasan.com
Partha Srinivasan, Publicity Consultant