Ireland Visit

It was one of the rare trips where I have returned home feeling humbled, 17 years of travel such trips are far and few.....
Ireland was a magic touch.. People warm and friendly... Land blessed Green... Milk flows for free.... and I understand the self condescending nature JF Kennedy had came from. Jokes like why Mafia cant make it to Ireland because they would be out of their depth is common,or when a grumpy German would laugh, When some body says the Irish work harder then Germans..... Such conversations are rare!!!.....

Yes I had tweeted, there is lot of anger on economic aspects blaming Corporates (more so to the west) as those who sold their Soul to the DEVIL. (Some take away for me!!!!).

Yes, the economic depression has left it's mark.... Credit card acceptance big challenge... AMEX Impossible....

Great trip.. Some of snaps attached.

Yes, the USA leg helped me to catch up with a good friend, If god does miracles on people.. his case is one..... Glad I could meet him...
Take it easy and take care.... Live Consciously.
Karthik.

30000 Euro Grizzly Bear

Dunmore Port Promised the Irish Lady at Heathrow Hotel who did my beard trim for free I would visit.

Gaelic Name for Waterford.

Magher who fought British in 3 continents from Waterford, Gandhi did in 2.

Reginald Tower and Magher statue in front of Tower Hotel

People couldnt beleive that somebody wont drink beer in Waterford.... Got to explain !!!!

Will we ever get such Signs for parking in INDIA??????

Streets of Malleswaram, Govt. Interactions......

Hot Hot vegetable slices dipped in chickpea batter and fried. (Pakora, Bajji)

3 person team working on the process.

Street book shop on footpath at Mallleswaram (Second hand books).

GANGAMMA TEMPLE.

Saturday evening for me and my wife is the time to go around temple and do a bit of shopping in Malleswaram (5 to 730) Usually Saturday dinner is buy out/ take away from Hotels. So this week was no exception. We visit the Saibaba temple on Sampigae road and Mallikarjuna swamy temple and Gangamma Temple and then do the shopping before packing dinner.

While I avoid road side stall food/ eatables at any cost (Not a  good experience 25 years back in College hostel days at Coimbatore), the Pakora shop near Saibaba temple ( next to shantisagar hotel) is rarest odd exception I have made myself. They make hot, crisp stuff and hygiene is pretty decent.

The streets of Malleswaram are madly crowded for a Saturday evening, the bookshops(Photo above), the vegetable/ fruit vendor, etc... you name it, u will have a vendor for it........

Switching topic, I had done my Passport renewal as well as the UID (The 35Bn$ ambitious project by the GOVT of India, I am one of the skeptics for this project). The passport process took 7 Hrs due to various screening and finding every reason to push me out. The impression I got from my experience, the whole system is designed to work against common man; you need to be street smart to work a way out and calls for lot of argument. I just pity the common man who undergo this torture..... The UID process for the family was arranged by the bank where we have our account, the process took 25 min for the four of us. The waiting time was 2 hrs, the process is slow, there is time lag in web cam etc, the process involves finger printing, IRIS scan etc. It is a challenging task considering the size of people to be covered (1100 Million people)...

I came across DAN PINK's office hour Podcast (once a month dial in) caught up with 3 past podcast. Value for time spent. Also stumbled up on the ENDING THE GRIND Podcast on getting out of daily life routine to think a bit different.

Until next week, take it easy and take care and Live Consciously.
Karthik.

UK Visit July, Lists.....

VIEW OF T5 from Galleries Lounge.

Inside South Galleries LOUNGE T5 nice place to re energise after 11 hr flight.

TAXI  Manchester Inside

THAI Restaurant Wilmslow Manchester , Good place to eat.

LEGEND Memorabillia Shop (Another Legend!!!).

Being Manchester City and United competetion in everything.

Peice of History Trafford center.

TRAFFORD CENTER at dusk it was 2210 Hrs even natural light.... A mystery for people from Equator...

1 Lit HOT CHOCLATE.... Costa at Manchester Airport...!!!.....

Superb Architechture.

Self Instructive, A lot of confusion for pedestrian coming from different world areas!!!....

Link to CHILLI BANANA Wilmslow.

Unknown people in the pictures are captured unintentionally. No intention to intrude on their privacy.......

Movie Review( 11 hr flights force to you to watch some movies to kill time, cant go on reading and work Laptop.... can you!!!)

1) Limitless---- Ultimate Science Fiction.

2) The next 3 days----> Worth the watch.

3) The Adjustment Bureau -------> I liked the movie, for the first time I had paid attention to a female star, Emily Blunt, Outperforms Matt Damon.

4) Unknown-----> Interesting mystery, Liam Neeson at his best.

5) Just go with it-----> Some Comedy.

6)Company Men.... Reflects ground level reality of corporate downsizing during recession and how people cope and find solution. 
7) Lincoln Lawyer--- A movie I had seen without reading the book, got to get hold of a copy.

Fiction:-

1) One shot---->Reacher at his best. Cant believe that it is fiction. Yes, for that matter after 9/11 nothing is fiction, there is some real element/ intent gets coated with some imagination.

2) Avenger ----> Forsyth in elements, Yes, shades of Cobra can't help it.

3) The Deceiver----> Entire English MI 5 heroics.....McCready could be living somewhere in Devon green lands........

4)POWER PLAY----> Finder exposes the greed, fraud, dark alley of corporate greed/ governance........ A must read to know the evil/ dark side of Corporate leaders. Can see Enron, Worldcom happened.......

Non Fiction completed:-

1) Truth about Leadership ----> Kouzes... A must read for any body who is a Middle manager and wants to step up and stay there.

2) A whole new mind---DAN Pink shows why it is going to be all right brain wiring that is key. Abundance, Asia and Automation are pushers. Pink lists out 6 traits as enablers to get it. (Design, Story,Symphony, Empathy, Meaning,Play,

Amazed and appalled at people's ignorance on asking to do One on one,to be done once a month. It has to be weekly no question. (Once in 15 days; worst case) One on one is the key foundation of people management and a pillar. Get that right, with Feedback and Delegation (Coaching) you have the four part Triad of successful unsexy management to resolve issues. ( Thank you Manager tools!!).

Requesting all of you to have a look at "CRANKY MIDDLE MANAGER" Podcast. Wayne Turmel does a great job.  Nearing 300 episodes, (1 a week!). Please spread the word around. I am doing my small bit to help Wayne reach target of 30,000 downloads a month for his podcast.... He also runs online web presentations training thro Great web meeting.

Ok, Until next time, take it easy and take care; Live consciously and stay Healthy.


Karthik.

Son's Birthday, 200 posts.....

POST #200
Yesterday, 29th June was my Son's birthday. He enters 18 and next his birthday may be away from home. It was simple occasion due to his tight time pressure of school, exams, coaching classes. Incidentally 3 in our family share birthday on the same date. A nephew and niece too. Also a good friend of  mine makes 4 persons to greet on this day.


Mischeivious Nephew causing the commotion.


The occasion was electrified by the presence of 2 year nephew, who is running amok like Bull in the Chinaware shop. 2 ink bottles, Sauce bottle, papers all just disappeared in to dust bin. Yes Quite a few injury to himself on falls. (minor) His presence ofcourse, is magical; Kids enliven the home.




Daughter ordered CAKE Son call her Shody so  the name on cake.

  I had another surprise when my good friend of 20 years and Ex- Colleague (SANDOZ) met Marshall Goldsmith at the leadership program in Dartmouth USA last week. During the 2 min conversation post program, he mentioned, me being his fan and that I propogate my little bit about Marshall's work to my friends. Marshall Gifted a personally signed copy of his book" What Got you Here, Won't get you there" for me. The beauty was just 3 weeks back, I had passed on my personal copy to a good friend.

Greatest GIFT from MARSHALL GOLDSMITH......

Till next time take it easy and take care; Live consciously.

Travel Photos

I am back from a week's trip to Europe. I thought of capturing some of the photo moment of this and last trip up there.

Lake GENEVA, Rolle, CH. Background Hill is EVIAN Village (Water brand)

Lake Geneva view from Casino resturant Rolle.

Another view

TRAFFORD CENTER ENTRANCE MANCHESTER( Last trip I Qtr).

Manchester view from People History Mueseum

River TAME Passing thro the city

Snake and Ladder in Science People Mueseum.

Tallest Building in Manchester

Picture drawn on wall in RAIL Museum

No ELECTRICITY IN WORLD BUT FOR JJ THOMPSON; INVENTOR OF "ELECTRON" At Manchester university

Hotel WALL reminds us the must for them.

TRAFFORD CENTER

NEW ORLEANS SECTION of food Joint, Trafford Center

Inside Trafford Center

 

POSTING

Just to let you know, due to strech for time to post blogs, I have moved mainly to Twittter. PL follow my tweets at @KARAIKUDY.

I post my thoughts there. Hope to blog once in a month atleast. Should find time.

Take care
Karthik.

My IPAD APPS.

It had bee a while since I had posted Blogpost. Ofcourse, I have been active on Twitter and Linkedin/ facebook. Microblogging is the order of the day. I would do a serious attempt to post 2 to 3 posts a month. 

I thought of sharing the Ipad APPS which I found exciting.

I assume you all have OS 4.2 on Ipad to create/ use folders and capture and sort apps like News, Finance, Business, Management etc. So the interface looks clean.
http://www.apple.com/ios/
The apps I have in Ipad is listed below, for inf. Each is under folder at present.

Hope this is of help.

1. Time
2. BBC
3. NPR
4. Fox News
5. USA Today
6. Washington Post.
7. Huffington post
8. Telegraph
9. Newsweek
10. IHT
11. NY Times
12. News Pro
13. Flipboard
14. CNN
15. NEWS 360

1. CNN Money
2. WSJ
3. Business Week
4. Fortune
5. Bloomberg

1. Linkedin
2. Twitter
3. BirthdayPro
4. StumbleUopn

1. Drucker News
2. Motivation Quotes.
3. HBR tips
4. Organisation Behaviour
5. Manager Tools
6. Leadership
7. MIT SMR

1. The Economist
2. Intelligent life

1. Time zone
2. Compass
3. Speed test
4. Calculator
5. My Converter
6. Files XT
7. Whiteboard
8. Evernote ( A MUST HAVE).
9. Night Stand.
10. Pendrive Pro
11. Find Iphone/ Ipad

1. Stanza (Master app to read books).
2. IBooks
3. Book Search
4. Holmes
5. Kindle.

1. Google
2. G Talk
3. Pandora Box
4. Sticky Notes
5. Browser
6. Currency Converter.

1. Dictionary (english).
2. Nightowl ( Browser for night reading).
3. HBR reads
4. Box.Net
5. ESPN CRICINFO.

1. Al Jazeera ( I phone app works in IPad)

1. NewsHunt (Indian News).

1. FStream ( Radios)
2. StreamAll (Radio)

Service, Feedback, Drive, Reading, Shared value.

POST 191

Today, I had officials from a nationalised bank visiting our Apatment complex for a campaign to offer their banking services. How much things have moved over the past 15 years.!!! When you visited these banks, the delay, lethargicity were very notorious in those times. I think competetion drives people to improve and sustain excellence. The officers were professional, courteous. I am thinking of working out some transactions which could be mutually beneficial to us.  

I also realised the importance of feedback and how it is like breathing. I was in one of the non work related meetings. There were issues when raised the issue took a personal turn. I was quick to point out to people that if they have issues with any one (Me Included), they need to give feedback on those issues immediately, rather than bottling it and bursting out. It needs to involve, 1)the behaviour, 2)the effect and consequence and 3)what can be done differently. All it is needs is to work that way and it doesnt get personal. It is such a simple thing like breathing and feedback should become a natural process.

Yesterday, the Bangalore Bandh due to the political tug of war between Governor and the Government took it's toll on the normal activities. School exam postponed, traffic came to standstill. Our maid was literally chased away by baton charging police and some how she managed to escape the beating. Gandhi's way of civil disobidience was ok in a ag based, rural India where impact on issues were less and ofcourse, British were very sensitive to issues and treat the opponent with dignity. Moreover, the courts have termed bandh illegal. Wonder what is being done to put that in to action thro legislation etc. I would assume nothing. All issues are forgotten here in medium/ long term as new urgent issues crop up.


I am going thro Dan Pink book, "DRIVE". This book is one of the life turning book for me. It talks about Intrinsic motivation. Type I and how rewards alone wont bring the change we want. It describes in Detail the Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose that are essential to internal drive. The 4 enablers---> Time, task, Team and technique to be explored. I am glad I could get a chance. This will help me a lot.

Another article, that captured my imagination was the Corporate way forward on Creating shared value by Porter/ Kramer. This gives the practical approach to address social issues and from an outiside perview of CSR. But the pity is that in a compliance driven environment and to meet numbers, I wonder, how many would take this giant leap to see a big picture to act like Leaders?????.....


The article on reading is basic to democracy touched me a lot. The present generation seems to have lost this art for whatever, reasons. I recollect grabing books, magazines like food and go thro and parents encouraged me a lot. That helped as I grow so as to pick an IPAD only for reading at ease.


At the homefront, last week we completed our 20th Wedding anniversary on 18th Jan. It was mostly smooth success all the way. I would attribute the success we had so far to empowering my wife to do anything she feels is right and I stand by her decision. On her side, she was very very generous and magnanimous to see large picture, long term and let issues go. It is all down to give and take. 

The other news is my daughter passed out the CA articleship entrance exam with a score of 125/ 200. What was intersting was the day she finished the exam and came home, she said she will get 125 and it was. What an amazing self confidence and judgement. Children of this generation are excellent in self analysis and do what they think very well.


Untill, next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

School contact, roads,

POST 190

Wishing the folks a Happy and prosperous 2011. Better late than never. I was tied up with Personal travel and beginning of year tasks etc. Sundays kind of went in chasing and getting things done like car repair etc. By the time I write this, we are in to the middle of the Harvest festival Pongal, the festival of thanks giving to the Sun god, the Farmer.

I was in for a pleasant surprise when some of my school mates from Karaikudi got in touch with me. It has been 31 years (1980) since I passed out of Algappa Model Higher secondary school. I had given up hope of getting in touch with them as people had moved and my visits to Karaikudi to meet parents was kind of once a year for a day or less with practically no time to make contacts in person. Yes, it helps to have your profile in the social media like google profile, Linkedin, Facebook etc as people who do a search can ferret you out and make contact. This should now help us to find most of our school mates if not all. Feeling very good about it.

We make our annual visit to our family temple at Karisulnthamangalam PIN 627453 (KS Mangalam or Karisuzhntha Mangalam) in Thirunelveli district of TN. It is 5 km from famouse Pathamadai town. Last year we made it on 31st December and achieved the target of a visit every calendar year. One thing that impress me is the small towns are developing and standard of living are improving. For the first time, the temple priest indicated that he would like to wear a T-SHIRT(!) and we picked a couple of them for him. Unheard, 20 years back and also all the bank fund electronic transfer at the most rural of locations. Yes, Tech is changing lives.

We had the road in front of our Apartment, Renaissance PARK 3, (First main road, Malleswaram West) which was in worst condition redone after a year with lot of followup. The road was formally inaugurated by the Local MLA, Dr Ashwathnarayan, this week. This has given a rood drivable road, but the traffic will go mad due to various diversion putting children etc at risk.

Take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Thommo, APPS, Books, Tapes.

Post 189
A friend was telling about how only a particular section of  function/ location/people were getting all the promotions/ growth in the organization. I had to tell him that there are some bias, halo effect that exist in organizations that can't be overcome easily. I recollect a comment from a famous Aussie cricketer who said, "you just try hard to play for New South Wales, playing for Australia is then very easy for they hand over Baggy Green to save envelope costs". ( I guess, It was Jeff Thomson).
This week also is the week in which the famous FIRST TIE Test at Brisbane happened. I was not born at that time, but I have heard so much from the previous generation. The result was confusion and some people missed the action including Commentator Alan McGilvary. I would think the 2005 Ashes England was the closest we have seen on such even contest.

For the Techies, the Top Ipad apps have been released, it is worth working these apps in your Ipad/ Iphone. 

Also the best 2010 Business books have been selected by 800-CEOREAD. The list contains 25 Books. Vineet Nayar's "Employee First, Customer second" had made it.  Chip and Dan Heath's SWITCH too makes it to the list.

Amazed at the OUTLOOK revelation today on the 800 more tapes on how corporate have manipulated politician / system.... More names are pulled out. People who were pretending saint have shown the ugly side. It was long suspected that there is a nexus, but never to this extent the manipulation. I always felt many of the issues in News TV here,were like character (Fiction!!) Edward Armstead's "ALMIGHTY"(Irwing Wallace) and I stayed away as much to Web for my news update. So I am proved right. News is created / manipulated.
I am daily voting for the PODCAST awards. The voting open until 14th Dec. This is our chance to pay back the gratitude for all the hard work the podcasters put in.


Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live Consciously.
Regards
Karthik.