CIIE

I recently attended the launch of Bangalore chapter of Centre for innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship (CIIE) which is an IIMA endeavor for promoting entrepreneurship at the hotel Royal Orchid in Bangalore. It is the first centre outside Ahmedabad. As per the invitation mail which I received, it said "The Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is an initiative by IIM Ahmedabad to promote innovation-driven entrepreneurship in high-technology and mass application areas. CIIE provides physical & virtual incubation, mentoring, networking and seed-funding support to aspiring entrepreneurs and handhold them through the formative stages of an enterprise. CIIE leverages the expertise of IIMA faculty and alumni and its close linkage with industry experts to add value to start-ups." You can find more details at This event was also held to celebrate the success of the book "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" by Rashmi Bansal which has now sold over 1,00,000 books.This is a significant achievement as the benchmark for a best seller in India is 5000 copies.The event saw the launch of the Kannada edition of the book and also the 1,00,000th edition of the book.The book it seems is already available in Gujrati.

Trichy

Having spent close to 4 years of my life in Trichy i thought i would be useful if i could share my experiences with you. Trichy even though is vast in area, the urban part of it is very less. There are 2 main bus stands( Central Bus Stand : CBS as it is popularly known and Chatram ) and 2 main railway stations in Trichy. ( CBS- the main station and Fort-this is the one nearer to Chatram Bus stand ). CBS caters to both intra and inter district travel while Chatram handles mostly intra district travel. If you are looking for good hotels for staying or for eating, i would say CBS is the better option. There are lots of hotels in CBS. For vegetarian i would suggest Sangeethas in CBS which is very good. To just give an idea about the price, 2 idlis here cost Rs 9 but they provide 2 chutnies , sambhar, Mulagu Podi and Vada Curry and Apple juice costs Rs 19. Sangeethas also offers 5 % student discount.The next option is Vasantha Bhavan which is there in both Chatram and CBS whch is ok.For non-vegetarian there is the Banana-Leaf in both CBS and Chatram which is decent and for more classy food you can go to Shaans near Thilai Nagar which is in between Chatram and CBS or Meridian in CBS. if you are looking for star hotels in Trichy, there are 2 if i am correct- Breeze Residency in CBS and SRM Royal Southern which is some distance away from CBS. But Royal Southern offers free to and fro transport to their hotel if you call them from either CBS or Chatram. I would recommend the Breeze Dinner Buffet at Rs 250 which is quite good. If you are interested in sight seeing, i would suggest the Trichy Rockfort temple in Chatram, Srirangam temple and the Tanjore big temple. There is also a Iyyapa temple near CBS. There is a dam called Kalanai some 15-20 Kms from trichy near thiruverumbur which is also quite good. This is not the comprehensive list. For shopping i would suggest one should come to Chatram to Sarathas or The Chennai Silks. There is also a Burma Bazar where the ideal price recommended to be paid by my friends was a little more than half of what the shop keeper usually quoted. For computer related products go to Thilai Nagar. Same is the case for places like T.I.M.E and IMS. For books and gifts go to Odysssey in Cantontment near CBS. Its right over top of Nilgiris super market.For textbooks one can go to P.R books in Chatram or Main Guard gate.( this is in between the Chatram railway station and Chatram Bus Stand)Main Guard Gate and chatram are used inter changingly. There is also a thriving second hand book street near the Rockfort temple where you can buy and sell books.For Hospitals there are quite a good number. I have gone to Sea Horse in CBS and Kavery Medical Centre ( KMC) near Thilai Nagar which are decent.For Optical shops there is a place in between CBS and Chatram. For getting blank DVDS and CDS go to Singarathope which is near Main Guard Gate(MGG).

South Korea Again:

This is the second time we have lost out to South Korea. 1. Shashi Tharoor lost out to Ban Ki Moon in the race for the top post in the UN 2. The 2014 Asian games. In both these cases money played an important role. South Korea went globe trotting to gather support for Mr. Moon. India too did the same.But without any money. South Korea offered lots of aid to the african countries thus ensuring his victory. Same in the case of the Asian games. South Korea offered 20 million dollars for the training and development of sports where as there was not even co-ordination among the indians. Remember one thing that India had been the host for the asian games only once( In 1982)but SK has conducted it already twice : Once in 1986 and the next one as recently as in 2002.

One thing i noticed:

All mobile phone towers are painted in red and white. So is Airtel's logo based on this?

One thing i noticed:

We Indians have a habit of keeping our personal surroundings say our home clean but mostly at the expense of littering the public spaces. I have seen people sweeping their houses and dumping the rubbish in the roads right in front of their houses. This extends even to our eating habits. Many of us keep the curry leaves and bones after chewing on the table rather than in the corner of our plate. We don't realize that it looks bad just because it has always been a part of our life style.

U Wanna Slim??

If you have paid attention to the ads in tv for the past couple of days you would have noticed that launched healthier varients of the products: Kitkat Lite, Everyday, Digestive Marie. You also have the promos for the artificial low calorie sweetener which tell you to make sweets like carrot halwa to reduce calories. I guess the booming ecenomy must be the reason for this new found fad for

Nice Pic!!!!

This is one of the best photos i have seen.The black ones are the shadows and the white ones the camels.This pic has been taken from the top.

Pudupettai-the movie

Got to see the movie on the second day.Hard hitting in the sense you feel dizzy seeing so much violence,blood and gore.Dhanush has acted well though he is a bit loud in some scenes.Some scenes are taken very beautifully in the sense they seem very realistic.The scene where dhanush marries sonia is quite good.One thing which makes you ponder is whether the goondas in Chennai are content enough in using 'arivaals'(swords) than guns to do their business.sonia has little else to do.The movie ended rather abruptly and didnt tell how dhanush got into the jail.(He is shown in the jail in the first scene).Probably the theatre guys cut the movie short.And dhanush has occupied most of the frames in the movie. One thing i was happy is that tamil movies have come of age because the director has definitely spent some time donning the thinking cap.Even though the movie is ok i doubt whether it will run?

Concept Selling........

Here is a nice forward i got....... Dad : I want you to marry a girl of my choice Son : I want to choose my own bride. Dad : But the girl is Ambani's daughter. Son : Well, in that case......yes. Next, the dad approaches Mukesh AmbaniDad : I have a husband for your daughter.Ambani : But my daughter is too young to marry. Dad : But this young man is a vice- President of the World Bank.Ambani : Ah, in that case.....yes. Finally, the dad goes to see the president of the World Bank.Dad : I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president. President : But I already have more vice-presidents than I need.Dad : But this young man is Ambani's son-in-law.President : Ah, in that case.......yes.

Interesting..

The last few days have been pretty intersting:One of my college seniors(passed out) who got into IIM A has quit his job for freelancing.And some IIT pass outs have started a political party 'Paritrana'-http://paritrana.org.Do check this site out.