Harsha my dear cousin has been motivating me quite a bit to write in once more so Here I am once again weaving a tale on this hot and humid Sunday here in Chennai. I am just waiting for a break and in another two days time, I am off to Kodai for a well deserved break, bag and baggage along with family,family and more family. The List is never ending. Just to give a brief summary, Myself and Family that makes it six of us, Uma and Family that makes it another six, my aunts and uncle that makes it totally a dozen and three. Promises to be fun, confusion and adventure for a week long.
So as promised to Harsha, family will be the topic to blog this time, what constitutes a family and what is there in it for all of us. First of all the Mother who is the defacto chief . many might assume that the Father is the General of the the army but I guess its the Lady of the house who calls the shots. She is the one who goes through those nine months of ordeal and then gives birth to the child. Till now Love was shared between the twosome the husband and the wife and now comes the little one who becomes the apple of the eye. Slowly priorities change as the kid demands more attention, hubby dear becomes less important starts going to office and begins to stay for late hours, working as if office provides him relief from the daily mundane routine at home.
Lets here do a small flash back into time, where a young man and a young girl are in conversation on the phone. He promises the world to her, swears and promises to bring down the stars for her. He declares her undying love for him and she blushes and nods her head in appreciation for him. She longs for his presence and when they will be together again. He stands in front of the mirror for hours together combing his hair, trying all possible hairstyles,perfumes and dress combinations which would only please her. She has only one intention to look the most beautiful in the world and keep his eyes away from other distractions which would otherwise easily fish him away from him. Consequence:2 inch layers of makeup, Lipstick shining and glossy which would put even a skating rink to shame. Dressed to kill. Everything He does is an act of perfection for her and Everything that she does is a Cosmic Dance for him and nothing else in the world exists for him.
Change Back to the Current day, her phone calls seem a total waste of time and an additional burden in the form of wasted telephone bills. He does not have to stand in front of the mirror and comb his hair as nothing remains expect for a shining top which makes for a much bigger and even better skating rink than the lipstick which his wife uses on her lips. Long Hours on phone gets replaced by long hours at the office. Two inches of make up gets replaced with the 6 inch long AK47 Broomstick. They start forgetting each others birthdays, wedding days, V-day is not a part of Indian Culture. Everything he does is an act of selfishness and Everything that She is does is an act of Foolishness.
Enter the Mother/Mother In Law: For any Mother her son is the Darling of the house and she feels the sons need to reciprocate the same way. She grooms her son, takes care of him and one day he grows beyond her shoulder. Son is now a man.Man falls in love and gets married as a matter of choice either choose or be chosen. So in comes the woman who suddenly occupies a pride of place in the mans heart. Mother dear welcomes the daughter in law home only to find that her son now has to divide his attention between the two Women who are an integral part of his life.
Here starts World War 111. MIL says 4, DIL says 2. then they turn their focus on to the Man who by now looks like a lamb on the sacrifice Altar. Is it 4 or is 2, he needs to make a quick decision. It cannot be both. If says 4 then he would be shot dead and if he says 2 then He will get shot dead. A clever Man would make a decision-Its neighter 4 nor 2 , Its actually 3 . You thought this was a wise decision. No wrong again because MIL and DIL would then team up and shoot him down. Oh man truly caught in a dilemma.
And then there is the poor Father In law FIL . He has gone through this game before and his well aware of the playing conditions, hence he is the wisest man around, decides to wattch the match from the sidelines. he pretends to be reading either the newspaper or watching TV or pretending to sleep. Ultimately the decision does go to the third umpire in case the man does the disappearing act in the guise of going for work. Out he escapes. MIL and DIL continue with battle royale with FIL for company. Finally there is the Sister/SIL whose sympathies always lies with the MIL cause she is a DIL somewhere else. To confuse my readers even further, MIL+DIL+SIL=Perfect Home. This scenario hardly exists. (MIL+SIL)*DIL=Hairless Man+FIL. MIL+DIL=Man+FIL-Diplomacy at its very best. In this situation they are actually at war but enemies enemy is your friend.
In spite of all the above mentioned a Family is where we live together, love each other,die for each other and care for each other. Life without a family is totally unimaginable, differences of opinion do exist but this is what adds to the beauty of living in a family. So its time for the BIG Family to leave for Kodai and fun, adventure, frolic. I promise to be back with more shortly. Ouch, the plates on the Lunch table and I better go and grab a quick bite, today’s food is cooked both by MIL and DIL. I have to be the judge in this culinary contest. Happy Eating!!! Karthik
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Its been a really long time since I actually down to blogging my thoughts. Its been months now and there seems to be so much running in my mind. I am sure that this is a start once again right from the word go. Past few months have really been hectic and there has been a lot which has transpired.
However the flavour of the season without any doubt has been the IPL-Season 3. Going back home after a hard days work is a pleasure in the Season of the IPL. Nothing like destressing in front of the television watching destructive Cricket at its very best. At least its much better than sitting in fron of the TV and watching a sob soap.
Coming back to Cricket, T20 finds itself amongst the most watched form of entertainment in the world of Sports today. What I find interesting about this form of cricket is the fact that it is fast, furious, innovative and highly entertaining. Batsman have to innovate their strokeplay that much more to send the ball soaring into the crowds, and the bowlers have had to dig deep into their arsenal to control the batsman from taking him to the cleaners. Slower Ones, Wrong ones, Top Spinners from the fast Bowlers and the Faster one from the Spinner has become a part and parcel of Bermuda Cricket. I love to call T20 Bermuda Cricket because no one knows what will happen next just as in the Case of any plane venturing into the zone of Bermuda islands where umpteen planes have disappeared without a trace. Such is the unpredicatability of Bermuda Cricket.
I guess that considering the flow of runs in T20 in a recent match well over 400 runs were scored in 40 Overs, I see a lot of records being broken in the longer versions of the game both One Day Internationals and Test Cricket. There is much more variety of strokes that we get to see from the Batsmans blade. Reverse sweep, Moving away towards the off stump and then pulling the ball almost similar to a hook shot but much more riskier than a Hook shot, Swaying your head out of the way of a deadly bouncer and just allowing the ball to kiss the blade of your bat, a stroke which Sachin mastered in the Tour Down Under in Australia, shots which will delight any Cricket Fan.
Yet there are points which could break several careers. Imagine the sight of a bowler constantly being thrashed around by powerful hitters of the game. Ishant Sharma one of the promising India Players, has been much hounded to such a extent that today the poor lad is being clobbered by all and sundry. Is there a way out. I would say Yes and No. Yes because we would need to coach the boys in a manner where they are exposed to T20 only afer they graduate after representing the Country in Tests and One day Internationals. This needs to be made mandatory. No, because there is so much money that is involved that it becomes a very big temptation for the younsters to jump into the arena and play to the galleries. There needs to be some sort of a balance between what i have said to prevent player burnout. Cricket in the IPL is much akin to the Cattle Market which happens in our towns where Herds are sold for the best price which it fetches. One more point I would like to raise over here is about the Cheerleaders. There is nothing more disturbing to the eye than a couple of semi dressed blonde girls dancing to the tune of Bollywodd music whenever a ball crosses the boundary or when a wicket falls. I am sure that spectators will flock to the stadium without such kind of innovations.
So where does it leave us viewers and fans of the game. Sit back and enjoys the game. So long as there are Bulls there will be no dearth of Bull Fighters. Song long as there is a game called Cricket there will be specatators and fans, and players who will be treated like Demi Gods.
Too much controversy has been in the news last few days sorrounding Sashi Tahroor, The Kochi IPL team and Lalit Modi. Again a case of media hype sorrounding a person who loves his English syllables as much from a gentleman who loves to rub shoulders with the whos who of Cricket.
Only a para more to add. If this blog does manage to raech the administrators of the game a lalit Modi or a Sharad Pawar, there is a earnest requestt from my end, please keep Bollywood out of Cricket. Please do not get me wrong. I am as much a Shah Rukh Fan as much a fan of Sachin, But believe me that even its beyond the imagination of SRK to make a KKR to win a IPL title.Maybe he could make a Girls hockey team win a tournament in a movie but winning a high voltage tournament like IPL demands much more than a screenplay. Much more than this its insulting to watch someone like Preity Zinta or a Shilpa Shetty talking about Cricket on the same platform as someone like Sunil Gavaskar. There is no comparison at all.
OK its Bye for now with a promise to return with more of blogs.
However the flavour of the season without any doubt has been the IPL-Season 3. Going back home after a hard days work is a pleasure in the Season of the IPL. Nothing like destressing in front of the television watching destructive Cricket at its very best. At least its much better than sitting in fron of the TV and watching a sob soap.
Coming back to Cricket, T20 finds itself amongst the most watched form of entertainment in the world of Sports today. What I find interesting about this form of cricket is the fact that it is fast, furious, innovative and highly entertaining. Batsman have to innovate their strokeplay that much more to send the ball soaring into the crowds, and the bowlers have had to dig deep into their arsenal to control the batsman from taking him to the cleaners. Slower Ones, Wrong ones, Top Spinners from the fast Bowlers and the Faster one from the Spinner has become a part and parcel of Bermuda Cricket. I love to call T20 Bermuda Cricket because no one knows what will happen next just as in the Case of any plane venturing into the zone of Bermuda islands where umpteen planes have disappeared without a trace. Such is the unpredicatability of Bermuda Cricket.
I guess that considering the flow of runs in T20 in a recent match well over 400 runs were scored in 40 Overs, I see a lot of records being broken in the longer versions of the game both One Day Internationals and Test Cricket. There is much more variety of strokes that we get to see from the Batsmans blade. Reverse sweep, Moving away towards the off stump and then pulling the ball almost similar to a hook shot but much more riskier than a Hook shot, Swaying your head out of the way of a deadly bouncer and just allowing the ball to kiss the blade of your bat, a stroke which Sachin mastered in the Tour Down Under in Australia, shots which will delight any Cricket Fan.
Yet there are points which could break several careers. Imagine the sight of a bowler constantly being thrashed around by powerful hitters of the game. Ishant Sharma one of the promising India Players, has been much hounded to such a extent that today the poor lad is being clobbered by all and sundry. Is there a way out. I would say Yes and No. Yes because we would need to coach the boys in a manner where they are exposed to T20 only afer they graduate after representing the Country in Tests and One day Internationals. This needs to be made mandatory. No, because there is so much money that is involved that it becomes a very big temptation for the younsters to jump into the arena and play to the galleries. There needs to be some sort of a balance between what i have said to prevent player burnout. Cricket in the IPL is much akin to the Cattle Market which happens in our towns where Herds are sold for the best price which it fetches. One more point I would like to raise over here is about the Cheerleaders. There is nothing more disturbing to the eye than a couple of semi dressed blonde girls dancing to the tune of Bollywodd music whenever a ball crosses the boundary or when a wicket falls. I am sure that spectators will flock to the stadium without such kind of innovations.
So where does it leave us viewers and fans of the game. Sit back and enjoys the game. So long as there are Bulls there will be no dearth of Bull Fighters. Song long as there is a game called Cricket there will be specatators and fans, and players who will be treated like Demi Gods.
Too much controversy has been in the news last few days sorrounding Sashi Tahroor, The Kochi IPL team and Lalit Modi. Again a case of media hype sorrounding a person who loves his English syllables as much from a gentleman who loves to rub shoulders with the whos who of Cricket.
Only a para more to add. If this blog does manage to raech the administrators of the game a lalit Modi or a Sharad Pawar, there is a earnest requestt from my end, please keep Bollywood out of Cricket. Please do not get me wrong. I am as much a Shah Rukh Fan as much a fan of Sachin, But believe me that even its beyond the imagination of SRK to make a KKR to win a IPL title.Maybe he could make a Girls hockey team win a tournament in a movie but winning a high voltage tournament like IPL demands much more than a screenplay. Much more than this its insulting to watch someone like Preity Zinta or a Shilpa Shetty talking about Cricket on the same platform as someone like Sunil Gavaskar. There is no comparison at all.
OK its Bye for now with a promise to return with more of blogs.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Odyssey360-3 Idiots
Good Morning to all fellow readers,
I am back on air once again. Yesterday I happened to be watching the much talked about movie 3 idiots. What a movie it was. Totally rib tickling, a laugh a minute yet thought provoking . I am sure that acamedecians would do themselves and the institutions they represent by watching this movie. This movie would appeal to the student fraternity as well as the parents. Some movies really send you spinning and leaves you spell bound. 3 idiots is one such movie. Its very important to do what one likes rather than like what one does. In todays competitive world when there is so much pushing and jostling around in the world of educations and a handful of marks can make such a big difference, parents should understand and cultivate their childs creative instinct rather that thrusting upon them a fixed goal which has no relevance with their skill sets. Also the Teachers should understand that Bookish Knowledge is just one part of the curriculum and they have a very great reponsibilty in the holistic development of the child.An ideal teacher would play the role of a friend who guides and motivates rather than a supervisor who admonishes.There is also a subtle message to the student fraternity in the form of humour not to indulge in ragging activities avoiding which could make a freshers life that much easier and enable him to concentrate on academics . The movie highlights the fact that the student needs to be humble,devoid of any ego despite his achievements/brilliance. This is one movie I would love to watch with my Odyssey 360 team. We would need to spend some time laughing and enjoying each others company, and this movie is surely a stress buster.
Coming backto Odyssey360, last week once again flew by. Harsh has joined back after his vacation. We have completed the order of Rs. 7 lakhs which was a major achievement. Its however important that our retail sales also picks up. the first orders have stated trickling in and we have as a team crossed the first objective, that of ensuring that orders start flowing in on a daily basis which has become a reality over the past one week. The focus would now shift to the Operations part which I head to ensure that the orders received are executed in time. This would ensure immense Customer delight and satisfaction.
Its time to rewelcome back to the team Abhilash who would form yet another ital clog in the scheme of things. Abhilash had been to a rough patch for the last few months with a severe back problem. It was his steely reslove that has brought him back into the thick of action from almost permanent physical immobility and being reduced to a vegetable. This sort of determination is what is required for Odyssey360 to emerge as a winner and we are no doubt much strenghtened by Abhis return. He will handle the Marketing aspects of Odyssey360 and put in plans in place to ensure that Customers keep shopping on our website.
Signing off for now your EJ Karthik but not before saying Hats off to the 3 Idiots team and Aamir Khan for bringing to us a refreshing entertainer.
I am back on air once again. Yesterday I happened to be watching the much talked about movie 3 idiots. What a movie it was. Totally rib tickling, a laugh a minute yet thought provoking . I am sure that acamedecians would do themselves and the institutions they represent by watching this movie. This movie would appeal to the student fraternity as well as the parents. Some movies really send you spinning and leaves you spell bound. 3 idiots is one such movie. Its very important to do what one likes rather than like what one does. In todays competitive world when there is so much pushing and jostling around in the world of educations and a handful of marks can make such a big difference, parents should understand and cultivate their childs creative instinct rather that thrusting upon them a fixed goal which has no relevance with their skill sets. Also the Teachers should understand that Bookish Knowledge is just one part of the curriculum and they have a very great reponsibilty in the holistic development of the child.An ideal teacher would play the role of a friend who guides and motivates rather than a supervisor who admonishes.There is also a subtle message to the student fraternity in the form of humour not to indulge in ragging activities avoiding which could make a freshers life that much easier and enable him to concentrate on academics . The movie highlights the fact that the student needs to be humble,devoid of any ego despite his achievements/brilliance. This is one movie I would love to watch with my Odyssey 360 team. We would need to spend some time laughing and enjoying each others company, and this movie is surely a stress buster.
Coming backto Odyssey360, last week once again flew by. Harsh has joined back after his vacation. We have completed the order of Rs. 7 lakhs which was a major achievement. Its however important that our retail sales also picks up. the first orders have stated trickling in and we have as a team crossed the first objective, that of ensuring that orders start flowing in on a daily basis which has become a reality over the past one week. The focus would now shift to the Operations part which I head to ensure that the orders received are executed in time. This would ensure immense Customer delight and satisfaction.
Its time to rewelcome back to the team Abhilash who would form yet another ital clog in the scheme of things. Abhilash had been to a rough patch for the last few months with a severe back problem. It was his steely reslove that has brought him back into the thick of action from almost permanent physical immobility and being reduced to a vegetable. This sort of determination is what is required for Odyssey360 to emerge as a winner and we are no doubt much strenghtened by Abhis return. He will handle the Marketing aspects of Odyssey360 and put in plans in place to ensure that Customers keep shopping on our website.
Signing off for now your EJ Karthik but not before saying Hats off to the 3 Idiots team and Aamir Khan for bringing to us a refreshing entertainer.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Odyssey360-Day 6-Happy New Year
Good Morning to all Readers & Happy 2010,
Its been hectic the last one week with everyone working at a feverish pace to ensure that the Odyssey Big Sale gets kick started.
The year ended on a good note for the team, managed to get a part of the 7 lakhs order, order for 2 lakhs has come in while the balance is expected by Monday. Congratulations to Rupesh, I for certain know that he has been putting his full effort to ensure that the order comes through. looking forward to the balance order to come through. I have quite a job on hand as I have to sign on 700 Gift Vouchers. Quite a imposition!!!I remember my school days where we had to write impositions like:”I will not talk in Class” but this one is a pleasurable imposition and I will be more than happy to put in my signatures even thousand times over. I could see that everyone was working to get this order through-Rupesh with his Sales pitch, Sri was working backend to ensure that the banking formalities were taken care of since this was a Credit Card transaction. Chandru was giving billing instructions and Satya was making the all important bill.
I could also sort out a confusion with one of our upcoming partner portals in terms of sharing of data, but hopefully we should start this activity again from next week and orders should start flowing in. A couple of us wanted a few days off this week but with Boss away on vacation all holiday plans were shelved for the time being as we had to hold fort.
We had a team meeting in the morning yesterday. Here I would like to introduce one more member of our family-Hem Kumar, a very interesting character and important member as he would handle everying concerning books. Hem went through a bad patch when he joined as he took some time to adjust to the new job and to the other team members and I myself was not sure if he was a horse for the long race ahead. This was the reason I did not blog about him in my earlier notes. However we decided to leave Hem on his own to figure out what he wanted to do. He was on his own for a few days, that worked wonders with him and slowly and steadily he is now getting into the scheme of things. This team was to welcome the Prodigal son back home and we did welcome him with open arms. This team held for this very purpose and I was more than happy that I could drive home the point. The Team has finally gelled into one cohesive unit. As is mentioned in the team meeting, the road has been laid and we are now waiting for the traffic to flow in.
Rupesh has been actively involved with his google adwords and trying to get the combination right. He has been placing ads all over google and trying to ensure that shopping happens online. Sometimes I feel that this entire thing is a computer game and we are trying to put all the pieces together. We know that we are almost there, its just a question of time before we hit the jackpot.BINGO!!!
I hope that 2010 Odyssey360 makes its mark, which I am sure will. So till we meet next time, Good day,God Bless and Happy New Year.
Its been hectic the last one week with everyone working at a feverish pace to ensure that the Odyssey Big Sale gets kick started.
The year ended on a good note for the team, managed to get a part of the 7 lakhs order, order for 2 lakhs has come in while the balance is expected by Monday. Congratulations to Rupesh, I for certain know that he has been putting his full effort to ensure that the order comes through. looking forward to the balance order to come through. I have quite a job on hand as I have to sign on 700 Gift Vouchers. Quite a imposition!!!I remember my school days where we had to write impositions like:”I will not talk in Class” but this one is a pleasurable imposition and I will be more than happy to put in my signatures even thousand times over. I could see that everyone was working to get this order through-Rupesh with his Sales pitch, Sri was working backend to ensure that the banking formalities were taken care of since this was a Credit Card transaction. Chandru was giving billing instructions and Satya was making the all important bill.
I could also sort out a confusion with one of our upcoming partner portals in terms of sharing of data, but hopefully we should start this activity again from next week and orders should start flowing in. A couple of us wanted a few days off this week but with Boss away on vacation all holiday plans were shelved for the time being as we had to hold fort.
We had a team meeting in the morning yesterday. Here I would like to introduce one more member of our family-Hem Kumar, a very interesting character and important member as he would handle everying concerning books. Hem went through a bad patch when he joined as he took some time to adjust to the new job and to the other team members and I myself was not sure if he was a horse for the long race ahead. This was the reason I did not blog about him in my earlier notes. However we decided to leave Hem on his own to figure out what he wanted to do. He was on his own for a few days, that worked wonders with him and slowly and steadily he is now getting into the scheme of things. This team was to welcome the Prodigal son back home and we did welcome him with open arms. This team held for this very purpose and I was more than happy that I could drive home the point. The Team has finally gelled into one cohesive unit. As is mentioned in the team meeting, the road has been laid and we are now waiting for the traffic to flow in.
Rupesh has been actively involved with his google adwords and trying to get the combination right. He has been placing ads all over google and trying to ensure that shopping happens online. Sometimes I feel that this entire thing is a computer game and we are trying to put all the pieces together. We know that we are almost there, its just a question of time before we hit the jackpot.BINGO!!!
I hope that 2010 Odyssey360 makes its mark, which I am sure will. So till we meet next time, Good day,God Bless and Happy New Year.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Odyssey360-Day 5
Good Evening to One & All,
Before I start off my chatter, I would like to introduce a new word to all of you, that of a EJ. You would have heard of a Radio Jockey(RJ), similarly VJ,MJ and I have coined this new word called EJ whose role is much the same of a RJ or a MJ except that EJ croons online. So This is EJ Karthik bringing to you more news from the world of Odyssey360.
I am happy that today is a Saturday and tomorrow is a funday-Sunday which means a day off from the daily hectic and busy schedule.
I would like to thank the team behind bigadda.com or for that matter any blogging site like blogspot.com and by the time you go through this entire passage you will understand why I appreciate this platform. Its been at the back of my mind as to how to get traffic flowing to the site. Its very important that customers are made aware of the existence of a new online store and then induce them to purchase online with interesting and exciting offers. I have always been a admirer about the way in which Technology has taken rapid steps especially where the web world is concerned. In the physical world even after a few crore rupees being thrown in as advertising as a means to build a product,one can never be assured about the success of a product. In this context you would need something as a platform where the size of audience is limitless and the cost of putting forth your ideas is practically nothing. Imagine standing on top of a mountain and you are addressing thousands of people through a Public address system. Blogging serves exactly the same said purpose with the added advantage of addressing millions across the globe. WOW!!! What a Platform. Only it would require a entertainer worth is salt or a EJ to put forth his thoughts,emotion,passion, imagination and creativity to keep the audience spell bound.
With all the above in mind, I set about creating Banners,links,Tags which would lead customers to www.odyssey360.com
. It did take sometime for me to figure out how to put up banners, or to get the links which would lead to my website but seems to be a pretty simple process. A little more of tinkering around and anyone can become a expert.
Raj helped me by designing a banner, the more I talk to this boy, I feel there is a lot of spark in him,plenty of latent creativity and imagination in store.Raj sent me the banner design by mail, and I promptly put up the banner using the tools as provided by bigadda.The moment the banner went there was a feeling of pride running right through me much akin to the hoisting of the national flag.
There are a lot of expectations from the team and I had this interaction with our respected MD Mr TS Ashwin just for a couple of minutes essence of which stressed on the need to hit the numbers as projected. I feel that we are on the right path and getting numbers should not be of great concern at all provided we focus on the right things at the right time. It is great to work late hours,burn the midnight oil all that is fine but in this case it is more important to focus on acting wisely and doing the right things as time is of absolute essence.
Tomorrow is a Sunday and the last one day International between India & Sri Lanka, a match of only academic interest as India has already won the series,time perhaps for India to test its bench strength and for Sri Lanka to salavge some pride.
I would once agin thank big adda for providing this great platform which is a boon for people like us and now I am hoping for traffic to come flowing into www.odyssey360.com
Happy Shopping and a even Happier Sunday. Good Night
Before I start off my chatter, I would like to introduce a new word to all of you, that of a EJ. You would have heard of a Radio Jockey(RJ), similarly VJ,MJ and I have coined this new word called EJ whose role is much the same of a RJ or a MJ except that EJ croons online. So This is EJ Karthik bringing to you more news from the world of Odyssey360.
I am happy that today is a Saturday and tomorrow is a funday-Sunday which means a day off from the daily hectic and busy schedule.
I would like to thank the team behind bigadda.com or for that matter any blogging site like blogspot.com and by the time you go through this entire passage you will understand why I appreciate this platform. Its been at the back of my mind as to how to get traffic flowing to the site. Its very important that customers are made aware of the existence of a new online store and then induce them to purchase online with interesting and exciting offers. I have always been a admirer about the way in which Technology has taken rapid steps especially where the web world is concerned. In the physical world even after a few crore rupees being thrown in as advertising as a means to build a product,one can never be assured about the success of a product. In this context you would need something as a platform where the size of audience is limitless and the cost of putting forth your ideas is practically nothing. Imagine standing on top of a mountain and you are addressing thousands of people through a Public address system. Blogging serves exactly the same said purpose with the added advantage of addressing millions across the globe. WOW!!! What a Platform. Only it would require a entertainer worth is salt or a EJ to put forth his thoughts,emotion,passion, imagination and creativity to keep the audience spell bound.
With all the above in mind, I set about creating Banners,links,Tags which would lead customers to www.odyssey360.com
. It did take sometime for me to figure out how to put up banners, or to get the links which would lead to my website but seems to be a pretty simple process. A little more of tinkering around and anyone can become a expert.
Raj helped me by designing a banner, the more I talk to this boy, I feel there is a lot of spark in him,plenty of latent creativity and imagination in store.Raj sent me the banner design by mail, and I promptly put up the banner using the tools as provided by bigadda.The moment the banner went there was a feeling of pride running right through me much akin to the hoisting of the national flag.
There are a lot of expectations from the team and I had this interaction with our respected MD Mr TS Ashwin just for a couple of minutes essence of which stressed on the need to hit the numbers as projected. I feel that we are on the right path and getting numbers should not be of great concern at all provided we focus on the right things at the right time. It is great to work late hours,burn the midnight oil all that is fine but in this case it is more important to focus on acting wisely and doing the right things as time is of absolute essence.
Tomorrow is a Sunday and the last one day International between India & Sri Lanka, a match of only academic interest as India has already won the series,time perhaps for India to test its bench strength and for Sri Lanka to salavge some pride.
I would once agin thank big adda for providing this great platform which is a boon for people like us and now I am hoping for traffic to come flowing into www.odyssey360.com
Happy Shopping and a even Happier Sunday. Good Night
Friday, December 25, 2009
Dear Friends,
I am very encouraged by the reponse to my blogs so far. I shall try and make my style of writing as lively as possible.
Each day of work seems to be vibrant and showing new paths, new lessons and new experiences. Its becomes extermely important for us to learn each day. Age cannot and will not be a barrier towards learning.
Yesterday was yet another milestone day for me at Odyssey. Its nearly two years since I joined Odyssey and in these two years, it had become one of my aspirations to have a Odyssey Store within the Infosys campus in Chennai. Thus began my journey of getting in touch with the decision makers who would allow me to present a proposal. Here I would like to mention that Infosys as everyone is a giant of a company. the campus in Sholinganallur and in Mahindra City is a fortress. Getting to enter the campus is a herculean task unless you have a prior appointment fixed with the concerned authorities inside the campus. Security is extermely tight and efficient. My only reason to approach IT companies like Infosys is the fact that they have on their rolls, employees who constitute potential Customers for a company like ours.
Anyway we did manage to grab a store within Infosys campus Sholiganallur where there are more than 2500 employees, and yesterday they gave me the nod to set up a Odyssey store in their Mahindra City campus. I had the pleasure of going round the Campus, and I call it a pleasure to the eyes because its lush green everywhere,sans pollution with employees using bicycles for going round the campus, there is a Olympic size swimming pool coming up, and also a world class Cricket Ground. A proud day for me because I achieved what I had set out to do a year and a half ago. To cap it all 9000 potential Customers for Odyssey and promising to become 25000 by the end of 2011
Coming back to Odyssey360, there was a holiday atmosphere setting in Office, Sri is off to Bangalore for the weekend and Rupesh is off to Vijayawada, after great difficulty his father managed to get bus tickets for the to and fro journey. Harsh has taken a break and will be back only in January. Harsh has give a list of tasks to be followed up including filling up the task sheet which he will review once he comes back. The arrangements for the Big Sale is nearing completion. A Flash sheet has gone up on our website www.odyssey360.com announcing the big sale.There are books which you can find on this site at 40% discount. Now the best part is that these discounts are for real,no hidden costs at all and there are some bestsellers up for the grabs. Posters are being designed which will be put up in our different stores announcing the Big Sale. There are some freebies with every purchase. Customers would get a sleek and amart looking book light with every purchase. Harsh wants the Big Sale to commence by Tuesday and we are targetting the same.
Google has become a very useful tool for us tounderstand Customer Behaviour online and Rupesh is in charge of understanding google analytics. He would need to come up with Adwords which can be used for the Big Sale. To put in Layman language, If a Customer types Sale in the Google Search window, the result should lead to various sales being conducted, one amonst them should be www.odyssey360.com This is very intersting and its very important to get the adwords right for this could lead to Customers buying online.
We had a funny incident at work yeaterday. Since Harsh was going on leave he wanted to lock his shelf and take the keys with him. He asked Rupesh to get the keys from the front office. Rupesh did get the keys but in his eagerness to leave for Vijayawada kept the with him in his pocket and left office. I had to call him back to office to hand over the keys to Harsh. Poor Rupesh-the Absent minded Professor of our office.
Here I would like to conclude but not before introducing one more member of the Odyssey360 family-Priya Subramanian who I missed out in my first blog. She is a young charming lady who would be the Head of Business Development for Odyssey 360. A very important job profile as she would be the official spokesperson of the company who would get the Cash Box ringing. Sorry for the faux pas Priya, No wrong intentions just that my bad memory let me down. Before I forget my crcicketing brain makes note of Yeaterday match at the Eden Gardens where India overwhelmed Sri Lanka by 7 wickets. The learning from this match is that we won without contributions from our stars-Sachin and Sehwag, as also Yuvraj and Dhoni were not playing. Extraordinary feats can also be achieved by ordinary mortals, which is what Odyssey360 has set out to do, a group of ordinary highly talented people who want to make Odyssey360 the best online store in the world.
Merry Christmas to all my readers,God Bless and Happy Weekend and Happy Shopping on www.odyssey360.com
I am very encouraged by the reponse to my blogs so far. I shall try and make my style of writing as lively as possible.
Each day of work seems to be vibrant and showing new paths, new lessons and new experiences. Its becomes extermely important for us to learn each day. Age cannot and will not be a barrier towards learning.
Yesterday was yet another milestone day for me at Odyssey. Its nearly two years since I joined Odyssey and in these two years, it had become one of my aspirations to have a Odyssey Store within the Infosys campus in Chennai. Thus began my journey of getting in touch with the decision makers who would allow me to present a proposal. Here I would like to mention that Infosys as everyone is a giant of a company. the campus in Sholinganallur and in Mahindra City is a fortress. Getting to enter the campus is a herculean task unless you have a prior appointment fixed with the concerned authorities inside the campus. Security is extermely tight and efficient. My only reason to approach IT companies like Infosys is the fact that they have on their rolls, employees who constitute potential Customers for a company like ours.
Anyway we did manage to grab a store within Infosys campus Sholiganallur where there are more than 2500 employees, and yesterday they gave me the nod to set up a Odyssey store in their Mahindra City campus. I had the pleasure of going round the Campus, and I call it a pleasure to the eyes because its lush green everywhere,sans pollution with employees using bicycles for going round the campus, there is a Olympic size swimming pool coming up, and also a world class Cricket Ground. A proud day for me because I achieved what I had set out to do a year and a half ago. To cap it all 9000 potential Customers for Odyssey and promising to become 25000 by the end of 2011
Coming back to Odyssey360, there was a holiday atmosphere setting in Office, Sri is off to Bangalore for the weekend and Rupesh is off to Vijayawada, after great difficulty his father managed to get bus tickets for the to and fro journey. Harsh has taken a break and will be back only in January. Harsh has give a list of tasks to be followed up including filling up the task sheet which he will review once he comes back. The arrangements for the Big Sale is nearing completion. A Flash sheet has gone up on our website www.odyssey360.com announcing the big sale.There are books which you can find on this site at 40% discount. Now the best part is that these discounts are for real,no hidden costs at all and there are some bestsellers up for the grabs. Posters are being designed which will be put up in our different stores announcing the Big Sale. There are some freebies with every purchase. Customers would get a sleek and amart looking book light with every purchase. Harsh wants the Big Sale to commence by Tuesday and we are targetting the same.
Google has become a very useful tool for us tounderstand Customer Behaviour online and Rupesh is in charge of understanding google analytics. He would need to come up with Adwords which can be used for the Big Sale. To put in Layman language, If a Customer types Sale in the Google Search window, the result should lead to various sales being conducted, one amonst them should be www.odyssey360.com This is very intersting and its very important to get the adwords right for this could lead to Customers buying online.
We had a funny incident at work yeaterday. Since Harsh was going on leave he wanted to lock his shelf and take the keys with him. He asked Rupesh to get the keys from the front office. Rupesh did get the keys but in his eagerness to leave for Vijayawada kept the with him in his pocket and left office. I had to call him back to office to hand over the keys to Harsh. Poor Rupesh-the Absent minded Professor of our office.
Here I would like to conclude but not before introducing one more member of the Odyssey360 family-Priya Subramanian who I missed out in my first blog. She is a young charming lady who would be the Head of Business Development for Odyssey 360. A very important job profile as she would be the official spokesperson of the company who would get the Cash Box ringing. Sorry for the faux pas Priya, No wrong intentions just that my bad memory let me down. Before I forget my crcicketing brain makes note of Yeaterday match at the Eden Gardens where India overwhelmed Sri Lanka by 7 wickets. The learning from this match is that we won without contributions from our stars-Sachin and Sehwag, as also Yuvraj and Dhoni were not playing. Extraordinary feats can also be achieved by ordinary mortals, which is what Odyssey360 has set out to do, a group of ordinary highly talented people who want to make Odyssey360 the best online store in the world.
Merry Christmas to all my readers,God Bless and Happy Weekend and Happy Shopping on www.odyssey360.com
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Odyssey360-The Making
Good Evening To all fellow Indians-Day 2
Dear Friends,
By the time you have actually accessed this blog I hope you all have enjoyed the last one where I reported about Chetan Bhagat launching the Odyssey 360 website.
A lot of effort has gone into building this website,brick after brick,layer after layer has been laid very painstakingly. the first few months have been very tough. It took a few months for the new team members to adjust to each other. Starting a online Book store is no joke, not a easy job by any means. Lot of tasks are involved, accumulation of metadata,coordinating with each and every publishers/Vendors.
We did get some time together after the launch yesterday to sit and reflect on the activities of the last few weeks and as Harsh did point out, all has been possible only through close coordination of each of the team members. I thought I must put down my thoughts at the end of each day, who knows some day the entire collection of logs might be named as Odyssey360-the building of an empire.
Harsh once again stressed the need of maintaining a task sheet, which over a period of time shall be our bible for any unfinished jobs. As the human clock ticks on , memory faculties decreases, however it is this task sheet that shall keep the daily routhine chugging along very smoothly.
last week was very hectic, Work reached a feverish pace and each one of us put in full efforts. I wish I had put in the same effort a little earlier, we could have completed the task much earlier-however better late than never. Here i would like to introduce my family members to all of you, Srikkanth-the tech geek-a simple man at heart and our ayurvedic doctor, who belives that nature is the best doctor and that human body is built to fight any disease on its own accord without medical intervention. I can actually write a Book on Sri titled as “Sri and His Honey bottle”. Maybe that would be the next assignment.
Next comes Rupesh-Our young MBA Engineering graduate from Vijayawada-young immature-young at body, mind and spirit, so full of zeal and enthusiasm, with a typical Telugu accent. He is full of energy and always ready to lend a helping hand.
Rajakumaran our inhouse design specialist whose love includes twitter, Chetan Bhagat, A R Rahman, and above all food. he cant stand one thing and thats hunger, Well built strong,handsome yet very soft at heart,thats Raj for you.
Saravanan is our Glen Mcgrath-the famous Australian fast bowler-for his uncanny resemblance to the Australian. tall and skinny yet powerful when it comes to analysing and sorting data with his proficient software skills.
Then there is Chandru, I would call him -No problem Chandru, ever ready to jump into areas which is not his area of specialization. If you meet Chandru, you would feel that each and every job is so simple and easy, actually he makes it look very simple though in reality it might indeed be a tough job. Chandru and his team of Anitha,Grace-two physically small built ladies yet powerful ladies in the scheme of things especially when it comes to completing jobs within prescribed deadlines. Jeevetha has joined us recently to take care of Customer care and then there are the ever so reliable Sathya and Narayan who take care of Order Processing.
There is also the Creative gentleman-Viju who supports us as a indepenedent consultant,ever supporting us with his imagination and God given gift of creative ideas.
Last but not the least there is Harsh who is my Boss. I wanted to talk about Harsh in conclusion because he needs a description which is rare yet so proffessional. harsh is extremely analytical,thinking of each step logically. If you were to give Harsh a problem-however complicated it might be he would come out with hundred different solutions for the same problems and he would also want each of his team memebers to think in the same fashion. A person who I quite misunderstood in the initial stages,but a wonderful human being-always thinking about work and nothing else. I sometimes wonder what he would be doing lying down in bed. Having sat across the table so many times for lunch and drinks, I always think that here is a man who is so passionate about his job, who will not rest till thejob gets completed and who expects that each of his colleagues should compete with him.WOW what a man!!!
With that i would like to conclude todays session, i still do not know how many people would actually go through this piece but i guess that the aim of this writing is to pass on my learnings to others who belive that going forward Online business would grow leaps and bounds.
So till we meet next time Good Night,Sweet Dreams.
Dear Friends,
By the time you have actually accessed this blog I hope you all have enjoyed the last one where I reported about Chetan Bhagat launching the Odyssey 360 website.
A lot of effort has gone into building this website,brick after brick,layer after layer has been laid very painstakingly. the first few months have been very tough. It took a few months for the new team members to adjust to each other. Starting a online Book store is no joke, not a easy job by any means. Lot of tasks are involved, accumulation of metadata,coordinating with each and every publishers/Vendors.
We did get some time together after the launch yesterday to sit and reflect on the activities of the last few weeks and as Harsh did point out, all has been possible only through close coordination of each of the team members. I thought I must put down my thoughts at the end of each day, who knows some day the entire collection of logs might be named as Odyssey360-the building of an empire.
Harsh once again stressed the need of maintaining a task sheet, which over a period of time shall be our bible for any unfinished jobs. As the human clock ticks on , memory faculties decreases, however it is this task sheet that shall keep the daily routhine chugging along very smoothly.
last week was very hectic, Work reached a feverish pace and each one of us put in full efforts. I wish I had put in the same effort a little earlier, we could have completed the task much earlier-however better late than never. Here i would like to introduce my family members to all of you, Srikkanth-the tech geek-a simple man at heart and our ayurvedic doctor, who belives that nature is the best doctor and that human body is built to fight any disease on its own accord without medical intervention. I can actually write a Book on Sri titled as “Sri and His Honey bottle”. Maybe that would be the next assignment.
Next comes Rupesh-Our young MBA Engineering graduate from Vijayawada-young immature-young at body, mind and spirit, so full of zeal and enthusiasm, with a typical Telugu accent. He is full of energy and always ready to lend a helping hand.
Rajakumaran our inhouse design specialist whose love includes twitter, Chetan Bhagat, A R Rahman, and above all food. he cant stand one thing and thats hunger, Well built strong,handsome yet very soft at heart,thats Raj for you.
Saravanan is our Glen Mcgrath-the famous Australian fast bowler-for his uncanny resemblance to the Australian. tall and skinny yet powerful when it comes to analysing and sorting data with his proficient software skills.
Then there is Chandru, I would call him -No problem Chandru, ever ready to jump into areas which is not his area of specialization. If you meet Chandru, you would feel that each and every job is so simple and easy, actually he makes it look very simple though in reality it might indeed be a tough job. Chandru and his team of Anitha,Grace-two physically small built ladies yet powerful ladies in the scheme of things especially when it comes to completing jobs within prescribed deadlines. Jeevetha has joined us recently to take care of Customer care and then there are the ever so reliable Sathya and Narayan who take care of Order Processing.
There is also the Creative gentleman-Viju who supports us as a indepenedent consultant,ever supporting us with his imagination and God given gift of creative ideas.
Last but not the least there is Harsh who is my Boss. I wanted to talk about Harsh in conclusion because he needs a description which is rare yet so proffessional. harsh is extremely analytical,thinking of each step logically. If you were to give Harsh a problem-however complicated it might be he would come out with hundred different solutions for the same problems and he would also want each of his team memebers to think in the same fashion. A person who I quite misunderstood in the initial stages,but a wonderful human being-always thinking about work and nothing else. I sometimes wonder what he would be doing lying down in bed. Having sat across the table so many times for lunch and drinks, I always think that here is a man who is so passionate about his job, who will not rest till thejob gets completed and who expects that each of his colleagues should compete with him.WOW what a man!!!
With that i would like to conclude todays session, i still do not know how many people would actually go through this piece but i guess that the aim of this writing is to pass on my learnings to others who belive that going forward Online business would grow leaps and bounds.
So till we meet next time Good Night,Sweet Dreams.
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