Happy New Year 2008

Hello Friends, wishing you all a very happy new year 2008 !

"D" Hawaii Wassai on New Year EVE

If you still thinking on what to do on a new year eve ... here is a answer for you .. SPice Studioz a well known event management company have organised a energy backed " new year feast celebration 2008 @ Ambassador Pallava, Dynasty Hall on Dec 31st - 7 P. M onwords ....

Do Let your limbs groove to the Hawaiian beats by Dj Aamir & Dj Guru .. for tickets
( call 9841 9 99990 or 9840227433)

International Cycling Race 2008

ICR on ECR- Chennai to Pondy -International Cycle Race

Schools for India is conducting the Annual International Cycle race, called the ICR on ECR , the biggest race in the country.The race is conducted to raise awareness about providing quality education to the people of India.The race is recognised by the Cycling Federation of India.

The race consists of following categories
Amateur Race for Men- 140 KMAmateur
Race for Women- 70 KM
College Race- 12 KM
School Race- 5 KM
Non Competitive Corporate Rally- 5 KM
The race is conducted in January every year
I am planning to go under Amateur Race Category. for (140 km)

The Schools of india was established in 2004, a non-profit charitable organization.
Its been started with the aim of building and running schools with the best -in-class infrastructure for the rural poor in India

6000 schools across the country have been planned. Each of the schools will have the capacity to teach 945 students, including up to 15 special children from Primary to secondary school.

Schools for India is embarking on a magnificent infrastructure building plan with the aim of providing the best schools for rural India, with facilities on par or superior to that of city schools for students from rural India.

The school buildings will be constructed within 12 weeks from the date of commencement using latest international building technologies.

The state-of-the-art infrastructure will act as a catalyst for parents to send their children to school, and Schools for India will sponsor education, meals and uniforms to those who require it.Schools for India believes firmly that such provided infrastructure will ensure quicker admission, higher school attendance and reduce the migration of students to cities.

Schools for India will employ 600,000 teaching and non teaching staff by the year 2020.Schools for India will also provide with best of its abilities all the facilities and amenities to underprivileged students free of cost.




If any one wants to Sponsor or lend ;-) me a cycle please let me know..

Ultimate Frisbee Tourney.... A Man behind our Victroy..

ULTIMATE (Abinav) have proved once again. he played a outstanding game on Sunday against Manu's team.. This Blog is dedicated to our (ULTIMATE STAR ABINAV)

(RED BULL really worked)

Our Winning Team..



The Man Behind Our Two Victories


This Victory pic was posted after a billion request from all his fans ... Good show Abi ( i mean ur spirit on UF)

Citigroup CEO Resigns , Charles Prince

Citigroup Inc. said Sunday Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince, beset by the company's billions of dollars in losses from investing in bad debt, has retired and is being replaced as chairman by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

In an announcement following an emergency meeting of Citi's board, the nation's largest banking company also said Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe and a Member of the Citi management and operating committees, would serve as interim CEO.
Prince's resignation, which was secured at an emergency meeting of the Citi board Sunday, was expected after the nation's largest banking company revealed it had to write down billions of dollars in bad debt. He joined former Merrill Lynch & Co. CEO Stan O'Neal, who resigned from the investment bank last month, as the highest-profile casualties of the debt crisis that has cost billions at other financial institutions as well.
The Wall Street Journal, which had early word of Prince's departure in its online edition, also said Citi would also be announcing that it would take an additional $8 billion to $11 billion in writedowns. It has already said it was writing down $6.5 billion in assets. The company did not mention any writedowns in its statement.

To know more about Robert Rubin

When Robert Rubin joined Citigroup Inc. in 1999, he said he never wanted to lead the nation's largest financial institution.
Rubin, Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, was named to the chairman's office at Citi a year after the financial services company was formed through the combination of Travelers Group and Citibank. At a packed auditorium at Citi's midtown Manhattan headquarters, Rubin walked from behind a curtain to a standing ovation by employees thinking he might one day lead the new company.
Now he finds himself not only leading the company after CEO Chuck Prince resigned, but contending with massive writedowns triggered by the summer's credit turmoil. Rubin said he will search "as expeditiously as possible" for someone to take the CEO role.
And, as interim CEO, Citigroup's board looked to Europe for leadership. Sir Win Bischoff, the London-based chairman of Citi's European operations, has been put in charge with leading the company until a replacement for Prince can be found.
Bischoff came to Citigroup after leading Schroders PLC, one of Britain's oldest investment banks that was sold to Citi in 2000. The European operations of Citi's investment bank has been among the company's most profitable units.
Both men find themselves as unlikely leaders of a company considered to be one of the most innovative in the industry. Bischoff, 66, was seen likely retiring within the next few years and had settled into a more hands-off role in the day-to-day operations of Citi's European operations. Rubin, 69, also was not seen taking a greater role at the company.
Short-listed as likely successors to Prince are a few well-known names on Wall Street, including John Thain, the current CEO of NYSE Euronext, who was a former chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Also considered to be in contention is Dick Parsons, chief executive of Time Warner Group Inc. and a board member of Citigroup.

source :- topix and associated press

03:11:00 PM, a moment in Chennai part 2

At last the final moment have come ...... lets me keep our fingures crossed and see what's going to happen at 3/11 3:11 pm .................

03:11:00 PM, a moment in Chennai

Every second you are up to something. A thought, a scene, a trip et la. It is quite logical that everyone else is also up to something in that same second. It is unfortunate that all of us can’t exists in the same space and time. But hey! We all exists at the same time…
Chennai - such a vast city, with millions of people. Take a deep breathe… {pause}… in that very pause a million things have happened (some significant, some not), a million things have changed (some for the good, some for the bad).
i am curious to find out what all happens in one second in this city. If you are, join me this 3rd November, 2007.


http://www.311pm.com/

Dussehra @ office CGSL

Dussehra National : The most popular festival in the country, celebrated in different ways in different parts of the country. In the north and particularly in Delhi (where it is known as Ram Lila), plays and music recall the life of Rama; in Kulu, the festival is also very colourful celebrated. In Bengal and many parts of Eastern India it is known as Durga Puja, and in the South as Navaratri.

Just have a look how it was cleberated in our office by different teams..

i have clicked some 70 snaps on the day .. press this link to see those in picasa

Rangooli



TEAM A






TEAM B


TEAM C


Judges on work..



Dance performance..

CPC Modeling Photography workshop

This workshop gave me lot of learning in terms of how to use light & shadows while taking photography.. This is my first hand on experiance in handling all the high funda photo equipments in a studio..

This was taken by Keerthi during our workshop .... (F value 3.8 , S value 1/4 , iso 200 , sony cam h5 )

Yerkard -Trip -14th Oct.

It's a great tirp overall i just had a day to spend in yerkard. due to the CPC Modeling Photograpy workorkshop i have to force myself to return the very sameday from the beautyful place..

Yerkard is much cleaner then any other hill station in Tamilnadu ..

few of my snaps taken at Yerkard ..

Please Drop in ur comments ..

Lets start up Guys


(frame with in Frame)



flower



Groundnut shop



Multicolor shot..

Now Google in Black

Your Simple shift form the normal goolge to Black would make a big difference in the environment …. Spread this word across and save the energy…….



Thanks to several Representah’s for the heads up - we’ve been hearing about BLACKLE for a couple of days now - the so-called “eco-friendly version of Google” - we finally got the time to check it out and research it a bit - the email that’s circulating explains Blackle as the following:

For those worried with energy consumption and all its downsides… When your screen is white, being it an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when its black it consumes only 59 watts. So
a man named Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year
would be saved. In a response to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, with the exact same functions as the white version, but with a lower energy consumption, check it out.

Genpact buys Citigroup Global Services for $700m

Atlast the cat on the wall story ended for the $700M. (Source times of india)..

CGSL sold for $700 M
But Answers for the below Question????? Priceless
So Who AM I (Citi or Ganpact)

MUMBAI/BANGALORE: India’ largest BPO company and the NYSE-listed Genpact is said to have won the race to buy out Citi group’s call centres in India. The deal was clinched after a week of final negotiations for around $700 million, according to industry sources.

"No comment and (there is) nothing accurate in the rumours at all," said Genpact president and CEO Pramod Bhasin, who, along with senior executives, is stationed in New York to stitch up the deal.

The final leg of negotiations had just two suitors — Genpact and Mumbai-based Firstsource — the only large third party BPOs who specialise in banking and insurance processes. Though both companies are said to have quoted around $700 million each for the buyout, Genpact is said to have won the deal on its ability to raise the required finances easily.

With its win, Genpact will re-affirm its position as India’s largest BPO by a big margin. The Citi acquisition will add around 10,000 agents to its current strength of over 20,000 executives spread over eight cities in India.

When Citi first put its BPO arm, Citi Global Services on sale in June, investment bankers expected a valuation of over $1 billion for the entire business. Later, after the subprime crisis, BPO stock have been trading weak in US and shares of firms like EXL and WNS have fallen considerably. It is, however, not known if Citi has divested its stake in the BPO arm entirely or has retained a part of it.

Sabya Sachi Satpathy, senior director, Neo-IT, an offshore advisory firm, said the deal will set a new trend in the market. "We will see captives increasingly exploring JVs and buy-outs and third party outsourcing options to optimise the cost base and to enhance flexibility."

i-Fix Third campain on oct 14th

I'M Volenteering How About U!!!!

It’s an awesome experience to be the part of the i-Fix team, the feel you get after fixing a pothole is priceless man!!! . It’s a perfect example to show how a bunch of like minded guys can change the face of the society. I should thank Vijay and his friend for coming up with such a wonderful idea and making it happens. It’s worth the kill of your sleepless night for a noble cause... .. to know more about more an I- Fix and if you are willing to volunteer yourself feel free to add you in Volunteer for Third Campaign click here

Photo Shoot at Gingee on 23th Sep- CPC

Chennai Photography Club has arranged a photography shoot session at Gingee on 23rd September (Sunday). I to traveling in for this trip. I am sure this trip would definitely help be in improvising my photography skills for sure. I would recommend a must come trip for all photography lovers...

If any one what to join this time just ping me at 9841555505

Details about Gingee.

Gingee is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district (erstwhile South Arcot district) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The nearest town with a railway station is Tindivanam, 28 km away.

Gingee is located between three hills covering a perimeter of 3 km.

Gingee is famous for its Gingee Fort, a popular tourist attraction. The Fort in Gingee was built by the Chola dynasty in 13th Century. In 1638, Gingee came under the control of Bijapur Sultanate from Vijayanagar. In 1677, it was under the control of Maratha king Shivaji. In 1690, it changed to be under Mughal, under whose rule it became the headquarters of Arcot. It changed hands to the French in 1750, and then to the British in 1762. In the 18th century, it was occupied again by the French for 11 years. During this time, many sculptural aspects of Gingee were shifted to Pondicherry by the French.

The Rajagiri Fort was built in 1200 AD. It is 1 km away from Gingee Market. It is made up of saffron and Black rock. Currently, the fort includes a magazine, gymnasium, palace site, audience hall, stable, Clock tower, granary, treasury in Indo-Islamic style, store-house for grains and an elephant tank. In the West Entrance, Venu Gopalaswami Temple, Ranganath Temple of vijayanagar Kings, Kalyan Mandap, Sadatulla Khan's Masjid (1717-18), Mahabbat Khan's masjid. Bath tubs with continuous supply of water, a huge cannon, belong to the temple on the top of the fort near Chakrakulam-Kunda (reservoir) or water a wonderland of treasure for the tourists and photograpers.

Chennai Photography Club Meet

The meeting started at 9.00 with the welcome speech from Kaushik and followed up with new member's introduction. I should thank our old man in tkf and sid for mailing me the details about the meet; else I would have missed the amassing meet.


Lot of things discussed on the day... which comprise of registering this as a society, on frequently on meeting up the members, does and don’ts, trips, etc.


One member showed us all the different types of snaps which he as taken... and it went on well...

chennai photo club meet

for other pic

World's costliest liquor

U wanna taste it....??? (or buy an AUDI J )
Shetland Island-based Blackwood's Distilleries is introducing Diva Vodka , the world's costliest liquor, in India. The price: $ 450,000 or Rs 1.9 crore for 750 ml.



The high cost is because the vodka bottle is lined with Swarovski crystals and diamonds. When the vodka is poured, it comes filtering through these gems. The cost of the vodka depends upon the quantity and quality of the gems. The company intends to launch some economy models priced around Rs 2 lakh per bottle , and even these would make Diva Vodka the costliest liquor in the country.

Ultimate Frisbee Artical Economic Times

It was nice to see the Ultimate Frisbee game was covered in Economictimes newpaper, but the funnier part was they way the write up was given.

1) No where they mention about the correct name as "Ultimate Frisbee " instead it was just given as Frisbee.

2) The kind of hype they have given in terms of number of people. We were just around 30 in numbers on that day, but they have mentioned as 50...

for me Ultimate Frisbee is more than a game. Where it teaches me a lot personally and helps to test me physical fitness.

I have seen God....

Time was around 00.45 am I was searching for my bike in our office parking lots. . I was very much agitated to take my bike but since I need my bike for the very next day. I forced myself to it.

while I neared my bike I saw half size grown street dog looking kindly at me , expecting me to give some thing to eat, but at that time I was helpless to do anything to him .. So I was just smiled at him saying sorry for not in a position to help. But I saw a guy who was standing near his bike some few meters away was wisiling to get the dogs attention. And I spotted him with our canter’s take away bag. I thought that guy have wants to give the foodies which he have brought from the canteen, but what shocked me was he actually carried the chicken bones from the canteen which is in 6 floor to -1 our parking lot...

I was totally moved buy the guys act, he has thought about this little sweet creature when we was having his food and took care to carry all the way down, where other would mind carrying the remains of their food to put it in the dustbin.... man I saw the god in you ...

Through I don’t know about that guy. You have shown the GOD at the movement.

And his thought worth a blog man... long life to you.

Cheers
Mahen

Domain Registered. rajamahendran.com :-)

At last I have my made my mind to go with my own domain name www.rajamahendran.com instead of using my excisting blog URL www.rajamahendran.blogspot.com
I took this decision at 2 am early morning while I was half asleep , I just wake up and registered it in godaddy , I dint event thought twice . it costed me 7.50$ ( 300 RS). Let me hope this changes the may I blog..

"Chak De India " a 5/5 goal

‘Chak De India’ is a beautifully made film that makes you laugh, makes you cry, gives you goose bumps, and stirs up patriotism inside you. It is a film that every lover of good cinema must watch.

It is heartening to see Yashraj Films move away from their stereotypical mushy romances and sentimental family dramas. Sports, in itself, is not a popular genre in Bollywood. On top of it, ‘Chak De India’ has no love angle even though it has Shah Rukh Khan playing the leading man alongside 16 new girls.

I cannot recall a single dull moment in the film. From the word go, the movie grips you like a vice and keeps you riveted until the end credits roll. During this ‘Chak De’ ride, you go through myriad emotions. You empathize with the pain of the protagonist, cherish the clashes and camaraderie of the girls, and you are filled with an uplifting, charged-up feeling as you see the underdogs rise to the occasion

To cut to the chase, ‘Chak De India’ keeps you on the edge of your seat, even though it is a sports-based film and not a thriller.
The film’s story is simple and yet it carries so many undercurrents. Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh), the best centre-forward in Indian hockey team, misses the crucial, last-minute penalty stroke against Pakistan and is blamed for the Indian team’s defeat in the finals. So much so, he is labeled gaddar (betrayer) by his own fellow countrymen. Disgraced and dishonored for one momentary failure, Kabir Khan leaves his parental house with his mother and disappears into oblivion.

Seven years later he appears again, not as a player but as a coach of a bunch of girls in whom even the Hockey Federation has no confidence. Kabir Khan has just three months to coach and train these girls for the Hockey World Cup in Australia.
The girls come from all over India – Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, North East and other states. On the outside, Kabir Khan is very strict with the girls. Through his toughness he wants to instill discipline and integrity in the team, something which is significantly missing. Within the team, there is hardly any camaraderie. There are usual girlie fights and arguments. Somebody is egoistic, somebody too self-centered, somebody is hot-tempered and somebody is simply naïve. Using very unconventional methods, Kabir Khan manages to create a team spirit among the girls. But some differences remain, only to be sorted out in the World Cup tournament in Australia, which the team must win to make India proud. But Kabir Khan is fighting for more than pride for India. For him the victory would bring redemption (for his momentary failure 7 years ago) and reclamation of his lost honour. And when that moment of reckoning does come, he looks on with disbelief in his teary eyes.

‘Chak De India’ is not just a sports film. It is replete with myriad emotions. And the best part is that Shimit Amin tells the story very realistically, making it all the more believable. He also doesn’t bring any unnecessary dramatization into the story. The movie has a number of intelligently conceived sequences. For instance, a sequence when the girl’s hockey team has to prove their mettle against the men’s team. The girls lose by a narrow margin, but they get an applause and salutation from male players. Or another sequence when the girls bash up a bunch of eve teasers. These sequences and the last portions of the second half – when the crucial matches are played – evoke a flood of emotions inside a viewer.

A constant thread of humour runs through the film’s narrative. The humour is vernacular, and genuinely funny at that. The funniest of the lot is the rustic Haryanavi girl Komal (Chitrashi Rawat) and the hot-tempered Punjabi girl Balbir Kaur (Tanya Abrol).

India's 60th Independence Day

My countries 60th Independence day. you can talk on tons of topic on this day, from where the country stand as a emerging super power in the world to the poverty that drench the poor people in the rural areas. what ever it may be , one thing that make this day special is what we have gained 60 years ago.

For me its a just another day to day i am proud Indian. i love my country.. thanks mother India for adopting me.............

Sultan - Animated Movie of Rajinikanth

There is a new animated movie directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth. The name of the movie is Sultan the Warrior. This is the first animated movie ever made on Indian Movie star. In this movie Rajinikanth's mannerisms and the punch lines are shown, which he is famous for. The movie will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English. The Ocher studios are working on this, apart from that some international specialists are also working.
The film is targeted for both the kids and also the adult all over the world. The film is expected to release by the end of 2008. Waiting for such movie. Soundarya keep it up.

Tamil Bloging meet a eye opener

Blogging in regional languages is slowly becoming poular and nearly 4,000 Tamil blogs are thriving side by side with English ones on the Internet..

People who blog in Tamil are also conducting workshops to educate people and put more blogs in Tamil on the net.

hats of the vicky and team how have made this program a grand sucess and wishing them all the very beast for future endovers....

First Ultimate Frisbees experiance.

Through i was moved to a stargared shift timing 3.30 - 12.30 at office, my liking towards to Ultimate frisbee dosnt stop me to set the alarm at 4.45 and drive 18 km from my home to eliots beach . its worth it...

Glims of Ultimate Frisbee

Ultimate is an exciting, non-contact team sport, played by thousands the world over. It mixes the best features of sports such as Soccer, Basketball, American Football and Netball into an elegantly simple yet fascinating and demanding game. To compete at the top level, Ultimate players require an unmatched degree of speed, stamina and agility.
Yet the simplicity of the rules means it's easy and fun for newcomers to pick up.

The snaps catching moments ..

for full version click on my picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/mahendran.balan/UltimateFrisbee

Sid


Mono

on air

Team in action

Ganesh in action

I am a Laptop Man :-)

Atlast i got my laptop haaaaaaaa .my cool dude Rupya Ganesh toke the pain of getting the lappy through his office colleague who was traveling back to chennai from US. thank Rupya!!!... , its a cool Dell Inspiron 1405 Model costing me $760 (31,160+1000(for the laptop Bag)


Detail as follows
Inspiron E1405 Intel® Core™ DUO T2350 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
80GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950

Our Team's Group Photo..

I was very excited when sreemohan asked me to take this team photo. Reason, this is my first ever picture where I have cover more number of people in a single frame. Thanks to Sid and Sukumar who gave me valuable comments on getting the correct aperture balance for this click...

podworks happening :-)

Today was hectic , I started from my home at 6 am and went all the way to paniyur which in other corner from my home, to give the advance for Beach house which we have have booked for the Party, thanks to Ganesh who accompanied with me.

After 9.00 pm I went to Tidel Park to check out the auditorium, it was beautifully done its an perfect example for team work, cheers guys will be keep you posted on the event proceedings.....

Sivaji the Boss -

Powork Meet #3 at IIT Madras

http://picasaweb.google.com/mahendran.balan/PodworksMeetThreeIITMadras

Workshop on Podworks

If you want to learn how to Podcast??? here we go.. this work shop happening in chennai on june 9& 10. the main objective of this event is to share what we know and learn the unknown. does this statement sound crazy , haaaaaa.. here is gooo for more details check out the site itself "podworks" also check kiruba's blog and also chinmayi's Blog