Important Announcement on change of BlogSite -http://sivasundar.wordpress.com

Since it is difficult to maintain two blogsites, I have decided to move to wordpress for good, click on
http://sivasundar.wordpress.com to get the latest , Thanks folks.

I am Dinesh Karthik and I am Legend!!!

Its been a while I wrote something in my blog space. Why? Its because I started to work . But Why? Its recession time and I dont want to go back to India . After having spent atleast my last three months concentrating on my work , again its a long weekend and I didnt go anywhere and so I started writing this blog….. My work life can be best defined as that of the role of Dinesh karthik’s in the Indian cricket team from time to time. What are the correlations between him and me? lots, 1) He is the country’s secondary wicket keeper, that means he ll keep wickets when Dhoni is injured or wants to take rest, 2) His batting will be under constant scrutiny( while Dhoni’s will not be beacuse he is the the captain) 3) Eventhough other good batsmen are there , Dinesh will be in long tours as he is the wicket keeper back-up .And lastly 4) He doesnt know whether he ll be selected in the next tour ………….. And I dont think I need to explain how my role and work here correlates with his….. I know all you guys are smart enuf to understand,,,,lol……..

And dont think , I have given up with all these similarites,the similarities doesnt end there….. for the last three months, I have been a Dinesh karthik in IPL- 2,revived and energetic, just as how he smashed the bowlers out of the park , I have also tried and succeeded in achieving what I wanted…. And I am still playing strong.

Since it is long weekend and all my friends have started their travel to Niagara, NYC, LV , FL etc………But I decided to stay back and relax, back to some rest… and alone at house, I am feeling more like Will Smith in ‘I am legend’, cooking alone, eating alone… watching movies alone and working out in the gym alone……. solitude brings with it a new energy in itself, it gives mental peace and increases the thinking power. I dont beleive in the adage that “Idle mind is devil’s workshop” I feel rather.(So the title of the blog is justified,rofl)

Okay then , bye everyone, with one thought to ponder I leave you al and meet you in another blog of mine.

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not”

Cheers

Siva

Oscar Nayakane!!!

"Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke" ,"Mere paas Ma hai", "Ohm" the sweetest word , "jai Ho India" , Where did you expect these words to be used .... On a stage in Chennai... or Mumbai maybe.... hmmm the whole world saw these words resonated on a world's famous and most acepted stage where Indians were recognized, a film based on India's soul was recognized, a humble musical genius was recognized. A.R Rahman made us all proud,  as did the film "SlumDog Millionaire" and Resul Pukutty. But this oscar belongs to only one person, who won two awards on the same stage. Its our own Rahman who made India proud. When he uttered few words in tamil, I almost teared up. A person from my local and my language made me proud.
This victory of Rahman is sweet for all of us Indians,for one big reason, He didnt win this award for his composition for "Lord of rings 3" english stage drama, not for his "Warriors of heaven and earth" a chinese film... but for a Indian music, a music which he made westerners to stand up and stun. The film music had lots of my national language Hindi elements and still accepted , thats the strength and power of Rahman music's reach.
In all, its a night we have been waiting for and Rahman didnt disappoint his fans. A golden Globe, a Bafta and now "2" Oscars.....You rock and we love and salute you sir.................

Music Review-Yavarum Nalam

After a year’s gap, maddy’s new Tamil film Yavarum Nalam is getting released next month.It’s a high budget promising suspense thriller. Being an ardent fan of his, I was waiting for the music release and today I heard all the songs(Shankar Ehasaan loy).Not once but twice , so that I am eligible to give a review. Before even starting to listen, the list of songs was bizarre for me.5 original scores and 4 more remixes of the same 4 out of 5 songs. I could not understand the logic of including two versions of the same songs. Maybe the music directors Shankar, Ehson and Loy (Shanky’s grp), each came up with a score and ultimately the director liked two of the three versions and wanted it in the CD.My weird guess ;-P . Now here’s my review of Yavaram Nalam Tamil Songs . ‘Yavarum Nalam’ sung by Shankar Mahadevan , the title song is a soothing number but could have added more energy.May serve as a BGM when the title and names of artists rolls up at the start of the film. The remix version adds little pace but still below par.’Chinnakkuyil Koovam’ sung by Kartik is reminiscent of old songs, lacking freshness.The remix version also fails to make an impact.Kaatrilae Vaasame sung by Shankar Mahadevan & Chitra is again a 90’s number.The singers’ voice is of course sweet but the music isn’t.The remix version is no different. ‘Oh Sexy Mama’ by Jazzie Gift, Anuradha Sriram & Loy Mendonsa tries a new genre compared to the others in the film, a kind of rap.In the remix version, the ending of the song is very interesting with some good sweet beats. The Theme (Instrumental) is a classical drama thriller BGM, nothing more than that. All in all ,I don’t know if the music will help the cause of a thriller movie, but it is sure not to create any ripples in its audio sales. I would give an average rating, thumbs-down for all the disappointing compositions from Shanky’s group.

Know to say "No"

I happened to read a good article by speaker Rinus le Roux on how to say no and avoid saying yes always. And I just thought of sharing that article with you. Hope it is of some help in your corporate life where each act of yours carries significance and has repercussions.

Here's how to just say 'no'
The inability to say "no" has been blamed on Calvinism, the strict middle-class upbringing that most of us were exposed to, the fear of rejection, etc.Whatever the reason, one thing is certain, this inability has become a disability … all over the globe.It is not a difficult word to learn or understand, but it is definitely loaded with emotional connotations. It is especially bad when a request comes from a superior person or from someone that we love. It is almost as if one goes into the victim mode immediately, saying "yes" when everything in your being is screaming "no"!

There are many reasons why we struggle with this powerful two-letter word. Here are two of the most important ones:
•  Vague boundaries: If your personal boundaries are not clearly defined, it is easier for someone else to twist your arm. The clearer your boundaries, the more difficult it will be for others, or even yourself, to overstep them. Despite the fact that emotions come into play, set your boundaries in a conscious way and trust yourself to uphold them.
•  Deep insecurities: This is the most difficult issue to tackle because it has to do with your self-governance system, which includes your deepest beliefs and values. If you believe you are an unworthy person, operating from a low self esteem, you will really struggle to say "no". You will feel that by agreeing to do what is asked of you, your self-worth and self-value will increase. Ironically, the opposite is actually true. If you constantly give in without taking a definitive stand you are undermining and reducing your self-worth. Dealing with this issue will take you on a journey towards the self and it will trigger a process of empowerment through new beliefs and ventures.

If the struggle to just say "no" to all the requests and demands knocking at your door becomes too difficult, consider the following:
•  If you don't learn to say "no", burnout will definitely be a visitor at your door.
•  You have the right to say "no".
•  Only a fool juggles more balls than he or she can handle.
•  To protect yourself you need to live within boundaries - and you set them.
•  Respect yourself before you respect anyone else.
•  Your self-worth is worth more than being rejected.

We often feel we must always be available to whatever it is we are committed to. Commitment is not a 24/7 availability business. Remember, we teach people how to treat us. The responsibility lies within us to set the boundaries.
When we say "yes", it should be because we want to.
Setting boundaries by saying "no" makes saying "yes" just so much more meaningful.

See you all in my next blog and hope I have been of some service to you today!!

Do we need a return to Swadeshi Economics?

I have always been a strong supporter of Globalization , as my formative years were spent in seeing P.V Narasasimha Rao and FM at that time ,Manmohan Singh's policies for new India. Their policies got us rich dividends and India opened up to the world market. This was also a time when we started identifying ourselves with the US more than with Russia as a global partner. And over the period of 15 to 20 years we have marched progressively. We started to embrace the US mode of economic policies believing in its success.

Now we started seeing the dollar crisis for over an year now and its worsening day by day in US.Closure of major banks, filing of bankruptcy by leading companies, crashing stock exchange and a poor GDP. This according to the economists should not be seen as a global slowdown , rather its an american economic crisis which they inflicted upon the whole world. And How should the countries like India react? Their answer is very simple. There is not need to panic. India is a "Saving ecoomy". "Family" being a strong institution in India and since they do not rely upon stocks rather rely on safe mode of deposits, Indian micro-level (family level) economics is strong and so at the macro level (country level) also its stronger. And it calls for more interest in what is called a Swadeshi mode of economics.That is to increase consumption of products in India itself reducing the country's dependence upon exports. This will protect and insulate India from any global slowdowns. And according to IMF growth rate of India is going to be the highest in the world next year second only to China. Even in China "Family" as a entity is very strong unlike US. So there is more providence and less dependence on the Govt ( to request bail out in emergency)

Acc. to leading economist M.R Venakatesh, the Swadeshi idea is all about balancing past excessive dependence on external demand, urban-based mass manufacturing, and unproductive asset-building on one hand; with structural development in domestic demand, traditional sectors (e.g., agriculture, SMEs, and rural households) and entrepreneurs, and improvement in the pricing power of Swadeshi goods and services on the other. So we can understand that, India should move along in its path of Globalization with caution and rely more on its domestic consumption of products and services, rather than believing that export can only drive economy.Infact export-led growth has reinforced the dependency of developing countries on the developed world, thus becoming vulnerable to slowdowns in the latter's markets . Infact we need to promote development by relying on the expansion of domestic demand, take the expansion of domestic demand, especially consumption, as a major driving force, and transform economic growth from being driven by investment and export to being driven by consumption, investment, domestic and foreign demand combined in a balanced manner.
Thank you all. See you in my next post.
Sivasundar

Who will form the next government in India?

Hi Friends, the Election commission of India has announced tentative dates for the Indian general elections (Lok Sabha) as April 8th 2009.Since the dates are just three months away, and as the main political parties are gearing up for the polls with announcements of list of candidates, its my endeavor to put a few thoughts on who is likely to form the next government.
The incumbent Manmohan Singh-led government has lost the confidence of the people for several reasons. To name a few
1)Uncontrolled Inflation (when the PM is considered to be a finance genius.)
2)Inadequate Security for people (Terrorists and LTTE’s easy infiltration into the country).
3)Weak Home and finance ministry.
4)10 Janpath’s precedence over the PMO’s in all issues, thereby weakening its credibility and power.
So with these factors occupying the voters mind, an anti-incumbency wave is sure to hit during the elections with the BJP led NDA being the beneficiary as the third-front has no real force in the recent times.

The NDA has announced Shri.Advani as the PM candidate and that’s a very positive sign for Indian Politics. Advani has been always the most misquoted and misunderstood leader India has seen. His views and motives are development oriented with a swadeshi outlook (Much needed positive trend considering the fact that there is a global economic crisis and India is not affected by that totally and should continue to be insulated from that). But the media has always been trying to pull him down raking issues like Hindutva agenda of his or nationalism. But this time media should be responsible and understand that India needs people like him to lead.
Coming to the Positives for the NDA, to name a few,
1) Probability of a strong candidate like Modi for Home Minister (which will send a danger signal to all who want to create unrest in India; He has handled several issues amazingly well in Gujarat and is a model chief minister).
2) Several state election results in the past one year, where BJP states have won hands down except one or two.
3) Anti-Incumbency against DMK would mean that BJP in alliance with the ADMK can sweep the seats in TN.
4) The positives of the previous Vajpayee Government which will still linger in the mind of the voter.
To conclude, if the NDA is able to pull up their socks and bring up a realistic common-minimum agenda and make amends to the “India Shining” campaign by preparing an all-inclusive election manifesto, they can sweep the polls with BJP securing the single largest party-majority.
See you all in my next blog.Jai Hind