My Doodlings..

Pilot kick-off!!

2010-11-24T03:32:00.000Z

So the pilot is now official! We have decided to sponsor Ranjith and Satish Koteeswaran , aged 14 and 15 years respectively (their father, Mr T Koteeswaran runs a tea stall across our street, in Chennai) for our first Micro-loan initiative. The loan amount would be Rs 10,000 each for their first 6 months of schooling (to cover the costs of tuition, books and uniforms), and based on the repayment history and return of investment, we might plan further loan extensions. We have decided to fix a nominal interest rate of 10% (very low by MFI standards!), and hope to recover the full cost with interest within a reasonable time frame (the board has, of course, agreed to absorb the cost of default into the terms of loan extension, in the spirit of entrepreneurship). Keeping my fingers crossed for the experiment to succeed!

Meanwhile, we have already started to brainstorm on the strategy to revamp our website into a social investment channel. We will be getting together next week to build a roadmap, and identify the immediate next steps to kick-start this process. Exciting times ahead, will keep everyone posted!!

Micro-loan Pilot

2010-10-25T03:10:00.000Z

We had another review meeting last Thursday to decide on whether or not to go ahead with the microloan program. There were mostly mixed reactions, but I think everyone seems to agree that dependency on donations to sponsor children’s education was probably not going to work very well this year; with the economy in doldrums, it was going to be difficult to find many sponsors. Personally, I think there is a possibility to leverage the microcredit concept for providing low interest student loans. I believe if we can keep the initiative “niche” enough to attract few deserving applicants, we might start to gain more confidence in the program and then later expand the program into a more robust social investment opportunity.

Anyway, I know a couple of children in my neighborhood (10th and 9th graders) whose parents are looking for some sort of financial assistance for their tuition needs. I know their parents well- they own the grocery shop opposite my apartment and are absolutely credible. The kids are really smart and I think we might have a genuine opportunity to launch a pilot. I discussed the case with the board, they seemed quite enthusiastic. Dhana knows another kid that he can vouch for, so we might be able to start the program with these three kids and monitor how the program goes..

I have asked Santhosh to draw up a sample business plan and bring it to the board for next week’s meeting. Meanwhile, I will be collecting some more information about the kids and start the review process. I am truly excited!

Microfinance

2010-10-12T03:09:00.000Z

We had this amazing brains storming session today, Pankaj, one of the folks we have been having in our volunteer program came up with this amazing concept of launching a micro credit program for Creative minds. I was like, wow! Let’s talk about it. Apparently, Pankaj had worked for a little while with the Grameen Microloan program, and they were having this initiative to extend microloans to school children. I hadn’t heard about microfinance so much, and wanted to know more. I learnt that Mohammed Yusuf, a professor of economics in Bangladesh began this organization to provide collateral free loans to villagers who wanted to start their own business, since banks were unwilling to lend such small sums of money to them. Apparently, this turned out to be a very successful model.
I was real curious how this will work out for us! We obviously can’t give loans to college kids and wait for 4 years for them to repay! We probably have to do this for school kids, and maybe plan it for a semester wise period, Anyway we were talking about these ideas for almost an hour! Sounded really exciting, might launch a pilot project. I do know some kids in Chennai who were looking for sponsorships, might talk to those parents next week.
Anyway, planning to read up on Mohammed Yusuf’s book “Banking for the Poor” over the weekend. Might get some more insights!

Oscar Musical ON!

2010-08-20T03:16:00.000Z

It was graduation night at Whole World Theater’s improv class of 2010. The stage setting was a funeral service for a young man who had died because of a shark attack. And not just any shark-an alien shark! As one of the mourners on stage, I had just delivered my eulogy and had started talking about how, while growing up as a Rastafarian, I had met this amazing kid Tom (the dead guy), while I was bumming for bananas in the beaches of Jamaica. I started talking about how I missed him today after all these years, when Lauren called out “Sounds like a song. Oscar Musical ON! ”
I was nervous. I could see my buddies (Sanjay, Mani, Prabhakar, Amrutha, Srinidhi and Shyam) sitting in audience rooting for me (Thanks guys!) and even the entire audience (some 150 folks, mostly Americans) seemed so encouraging, smiling and waiting for me to deliver something wonderful. I paused for a moment, and then started singing about how I had worked so hard to teach Pilates to Tom, only to find that years later, while performing crazy stunts, he had leapt in the mouth of an alien shark! After about 3 minutes of me crooning crazy stuff to the music of the amused keyboard artist, Lauren finally declared “Musical OFF!”

By this time, my heart was beating at a million beats per second! I know as improvisational comedians, we are allowed to come up with crazy ideas..but was not sure yet if the audience was with me on this one. But I didn’t have to worry so much- the crowd loved the story, and almost immediately, I heard a thunderous round of applause! My friends in the audience were chanting my name, and for a minute there, I felt like a rock star!!

Well, everyone performed great that day – Wes and Charles were hilarious as superheroes with some sort of a family crisis, Bernardette was spot on as the bitching mother-in-law, Les, Jaya, Ken, David and Mike were just awesome during the funeral scene. And we had so much fun that night! Anyway, graduation is over now, and I will be missing those folks for now. Advanced classes begins in 3 months time, Lauren would be sending out emails about who have been selected (keeping my fingers crossed! ), but I am really looking forward to jamming with my team again.. And doing some more fun improv :)

Improv Jam!

2010-04-02T03:15:00.000Z

I had my first jam session yesterday and we had a blast! I got to meet some really cool folks from the Wednesday class- the more, the merrier!
It was kind of strange not to have Lauren instructing us – I was starting to feel nervous without having her giving notes at the end of my practice sessions. But in the end, I realized that jam is all about learning to be confident with oneself during scenes and not be afraid to experiment and explore ideas. In fact, I discovered that I was a pretty good MC when Les and David did their scenes! And yeah, we got to choose what games we wanted to play and I, of course, wanted to do the alphabet game, which in my opinion is the funnest game of all improve games. Lots of free association stuff, mirroring and story-telling- by the end of the 2 hour session, I was exhausted, but feeling on top of the world!
We decided to hit the nearby café for some pizza and coke and promised to do this every week J And I am already looking forward to learning new things this Saturday. And practice during the next Jam class!!

First Class

2010-01-30T03:14:00.000Z

I had my first improv class yesterday. There were 15 others in my Saturday class (there is another class that meets on Wednesdays) and they are a motley group. Wes is a school teacher, Ken runs a graphics design company, Bernardette is a retired pilot, Jaya is a homemaker, David is still at school, Charles practices stand-up comedy, Les runs half marathon,… so on! I will give a more detailed class profile over the next few weeks, but right now I am very excited at meeting so many Americans outside work. Lauren Goins is our instructor, she is simply amazing and taught us some neat warm-up games today (Zip-Zap, Free association, mirroring, etc ) . Also I will have jam sessions on Wednesdays; basically practice everything I learn in the previous week’s class with my class mates. And I get to watch free shows on Saturdays.
I got to talking to my new classmates today, and we decided to go for lunch at the nearby Deli. Charles and Steve had never talked to an Indian before (seems they have never really ventured out of Georgia) so were curious to know more about India, the culture, the food etc.
Oveall, I am so happy I took this up and am looking forward to some great 'Jam' sessions in the weeks ahead!

Whole World Theater

2010-01-16T03:12:00.001Z

I still remember watching my first improvisational comedy show an year ago at Whole World Theater. My friend said that he had an additional ticket and asked me if I was interested to watch the show. More out of curiosity than any real interest, I agreed to come. And it was a decision I never regretted!

"And that's how the cat became a dog!" explained the lady on the stage, after her stage partner enquired about the cat he had gifted her on her birthday. The response was not scripted, the actors had not rehearsed their lines, and the whole story was improvised based on suggestions made by the audience . The actors were really funny and everything seemed so 'instinct-based', the ideas were amazing and there was just so much creativity in the air. At the end of the scene, the crowd whistled, applauded laughed and went crazy- they loved every bit of it. And so did I!

Last week, my friend called me to inform that Whole World was starting a beginner's improv program and asked me if I was interested to join. Of course I was! So i signed up right away, and received an email from Lauren, our instructor welcoming me to the program. She informed me that the first class would be starting next Saturday and there would be 20 other new joinees. I would, however, need to come prepared with a creative way of introdcuing myself! I do have a few ideas in my head (Flash Cards? Powerpoint slides? )

Anyway I am right now super-excited! And so, I have decided to start an Improv themed Blog to chronicle, what I am sure will be exciting times ahead as an improv artist (alright..an improv trainee :))!!

Saikat campaign success!

2009-08-10T03:08:00.000Z

Our fund raising campaign for Saikat Ghosh has been an amazing success! We have actually exceeded our target and have in our fund account Rs 55000 ($ 1375).

I am so proud of the team, special thanks to Dhana, Prathap, Arun, Ravi and Kantha for helping with the campaign, and of course, kudos to the entire Creative Minds team. I spoke to my uncle Raju and he said that Saikat’s father has paid the tuition fees and Saikat is back on track to receiving the quality education that he deserves.

A special thanks to all those anonymous donors who helped make this a tremendous success. You guys rock! Will keep you posted on progress on Saikat over the next few months.

Thanks again for all your support!

Help Saikat!

2009-07-23T03:28:00.002Z

A little history behind the current candidate (From an acquaintance in Calcutta who forwarded this to me):

“Regarding Saikat, I know his background since his father is working with us for the past nearly 20 years climbing up the ladder from the peon to stores supervisor. His wife had undergone open heart surgery last year at CMC, Vellore for Mitral Valve replacement for which he took a loan of Rs. 1.50 lacs from the company and still he is spending beyond his means for her medicines, tests etc. The boy understood the hardships of life and given a little encouragement will definitely outperform others. His school has sponsored him as 1 of 2 candidates for National Talent Search Examination, 2010. As I informed you earlier he is studying in a Govt. school where the school fee is very low and the quality of teaching is also equally bad. To cope up with others, he has to take private tutions after the school hours which costs very high and this is applicable throughout West Bengal. Even Missinnary schools like the one which Manas is attending, condition is the same and I am shell
ing out Rs. 750/=- P.M. for his Mathematics tution in spite of their school charging an exhorbitant fee.”

Request you to please help with the cause!! You can contact us at info@creativeminds.com, if you need more information about Saikat, and our efforts to help him go to school.

Online Donation

2009-07-14T03:07:00.000Z

I have just created a Paypal Online donation page , to facilitate contributions for Saikat's cause from across the globe! To learn more about Saikat's story and how you can make a difference in the lives of children like Saikat,visit our website!
You can donate (through our secure Paypal gatway) by clicking on the button below or through our 'Sponsor a Child' page. Thanks for participating in this campaign!

Brainstorming Session

2009-07-11T03:05:00.000Z

We had our board meeting yesterday. Dhana and Arun have completed their review of Saikat’s transcripts and background details - this definitely seems to be an authentic case. After a vote count, we have unanimously agreed to start work on Saikat’s fund raising campaign!
So here is the breakdown:
Target Funds: Rs 50,000 (approx. 1200 USD @ Rs 40/$)
Timeline: 28 Days
Volunteer Size: 12
Dhana proposed the usual approach (knock on doors, distribute pamphlets and stick posters on college campuses, emails etc ) but I think we might need to step this up a notch. I propose to use Facebook, Twitter and Orkut as campaign platforms and also build a donation site. I am pretty confident that with some aggressive social media marketing, we might be able to pull this off. And of course, the old timers were skeptical! But they are right too, we haven’t done this before, and we are really tight on timelines.
I have promised to come up with a strategy (time to use my internet marketing ‘templates’!) and see how it pans out. Meanwhile, Kantha is preparing a draft of our standard marketing strategy; we should have everything ready for review by Monday. Then baseline.. and go!

Saikat Ghosh

2009-07-09T03:04:00.000Z

I was talking to my uncle, Raju, on Monday. He shared the story of Saikat Ghosh, an eight grader and the son of a store-supervisor at his company, in Calcutta.
Saikat’s mother had recently undergone heart surgery at CMC Vellore for a Mitral Valve replacement, for which Saikat’s father had spent Rs 1.5 lakhs (about 3400 USD) for medicines, tests, etc. Because of these expenses, he was now finding it difficult to pay his son’s tuition fees of Rs 50,000 (about 1200 USD) for the year, and the enrollment deadline was fast approaching. I also found from my uncle that Saikat is an extremely brilliant student. His school has sponsored him as 1 of the two candidates for National Talent Search Examination, 2010.
Looks like this may be a case we would be taking up. We are currently reviewing his transcripts and doing some background checks, but everything looks solid so far. We are having a board meeting on Tuesday to finalize a fund-raising strategy. We probably need to act quickly.

Apache Webserver

2009-01-12T03:22:00.000Z

So, I ended up installing 2 apache webservers on my local machine. One is the wampapache server and the other is the regular outside guy, Apache 2.2. So whenever I start my machine, i would like for the wamp apache to pick up port 80 so that I can do my development, but sometimes the outsider Apache picks it up. And what is the best way to find who has picked it up?Follow this command on cmd:
"netstat -o -n -a PIPE findstr 0.0:80".
that gives you the process id that is occupying the local host. thats how I kill the processes I dont need. Another friendly tip for you :)

Sponsor a Child

2008-10-12T03:03:00.000Z

Yesterday, I proposed the “Sponsor a Child” program as an extension of the fund-raising work I have been doing as part of the ‘Tsunami Relief ‘project. This project has been so far focused on the villages in and around the township of Cuddalore, Tamilnadu, which was one of the regions very badly hit by the tsunami in 2004. Through Infosys and with the help of other non-profits, my friends and I have helped raise over Rs 50 lakhs (over 100,000 USD) over the last 3 years. But I think there is a potential to focus this effort for other villages in India.

The “Sponsor a Child” program is aimed at bringing change into the lives of children who cannot afford basic education, food or the essential amenities needed to live a decent life. Many children in these villages live in abject poverty and are forced to work to make ends meet at an age where kids go to school in many other parts of the world. By sponsoring their education, providing them with clothing and food and in essence, “adopting” them until they are ready to step out on their own, all of us can make a small but significant difference in their lives and help build the future of not just a country, but a planet.

Dhana, Kantha, Lavanya and I would be organizing a brainstorming session this weekend to think of ways to raise funds towards this initiative. As a first step, we have updated the website, and plan to develop a online donation channel sometime in the near future.

Internet Marketing

2008-04-20T03:21:00.000Z

Two weeks ago, I received this great offer to work with Binntu Corporation on their MARCEL MILLER brand to develop SEO strategies. I am over the moon!

Last month, I had posted my internet marketing resume on the Dice website to see if anyone was interested to offer contract position (I made it clear that this was going to be part time- maybe 10 hours a week at tops). I was not sure what the response would be like, as I did not have a lot of industry experience. But I had started doing a few projects for my uncle's company in Chennai, and had started to really enjoy this, and had some great ideas.

Anyway, Arthur Titus, the Chief Marketing Officer at Binntu called me and asked me to send him a proposal. I had been working on my Search Engine Optimization Proposal for a while and sent it to him. Within a week, he was back, clearly impressed by my roadmap and wanted me to work with him. And so begins the story of Marcel and I :) Lets see where the journey takes me!!

Lisle..

2008-02-16T13:43:00.012Z

Time on your side that will never end
The most beautiful thing you can ever spend
But you work in a shirt with your name tag on it
Drifting apart like a plate tectonic
It don't matter to me
'Cos all I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar -Lily Allen

I live in Naperville. I work in Lisle. And right now, I wish I were in the Quiraings. Again.

Lisle is a village in DuPage County, IL and is one of Money Magazine's 100 Best Places to Live, according to Wiki (Didnt I say something on similiar lines about Naperville? ) Well, I haven't explored the area all that much to vouch for that yet, however what I can vouch for is that the workplace is not too far off from where I live, the ambience in my office is fantastic and there is even a nice gym in the building.

Its still cold outside, but the sun is out, and I have not seen those snow storms for a couple of days. A welcome respite I should say.

They say Lisle looks beautiful in summer. Lets wait and see.

Naperville..

2008-02-11T12:09:00.002Z

I could’ve been a contender
Could’ve been a someone
Caught up in the rat race
And feeling like a no-one
Appearing in the papers
With the money and the girls
I could’ve been The Heavyweight Champion of the World.-Reverend and the Makers

I landed in Chicago yesterday night, amidst a torrent of mixed emotions. Although I was quite excited about this wonderful new work opportunity, the sub-zero temperatures that greeted me gave me little doubt about the other challenges I had to face over the next few decades of decadence of my life..(I know I have inherited a bit of the British sarcasm)

Anyways, within an hour of landing, I had "cabbed" my way to the village of Naperville, my new abode for the new several centuries probably. (Talking about centuries, who said immigration in the US takes a millenia? I was out of the airport within 20 minutes of landing, and that includes picking up my luggage. How people love to lie..)

Naperville is a quaint little town, about 30 miles from downtown Chicago. Its supposedly the best place to raise kids, settle down and retire in the US. Now, I know that seems slightly inspiring to you old people out there reading this but to me, Naperville is right now an Isle of "White" (Ha ha.. British Humor). But the silver lining is that I have found some good friends here (er..they know how to cook!) and am having a ball of a time doing nothing at home.

So, thats all the hocus-pocus and jiggery-pockery from my side, will keep everyone updated on the latest dumplings from this Truman Show.

Till then, have a better weekend!

This is a crazy week!

2007-11-04T20:51:00.001Z

I wish I had more to do..but dont! :(

Le Quartier Latin

2006-10-28T20:47:00.001Z

You wake up at Seatac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O'Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. You wake up at Air Harbor International. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? -Fight Club

Most people touring Paris in a hurry miss out on the Latin Quarter.I was lucky to be given the tour by an old friend, who has been living in Paris for about three years. Now, it takes someone with that kind of a living experience to show you the real charms of a city like Paris and thats how I landed at the Quarter on a pleasant April evening. About the place, check out what some people have to say.
Normally, when you visit old towns,there is always a whiff of the local food in the air, and I was expecting none the less here. Veggie Doners, sugared Crepes and lebanese Falafals had been following me all over Paris, and after a day of having somehow missed these , I could not think of a better place to perform a coup de grace on my suffering appetite, and drowned myself in the crowded stalls of Blvd. St Michel and Place de la Contrescarpe.

Anyway, strolling along the streets of Latin Quarter in the night isn't as much different as walking on the streets of Soho or the traditional alt stadt of German cities, if not for the occasional sound of breaking plates amidst the chatter of a million greek tongues. On closer inspection, we managed to witness the ancient greek tradition of plate breaking, still continued by the multitude of Greek Restaurants thronging Boulevard St Michel and Rue de la Huchette, the two happening streets on the Quarter.

In Greek society such plate breaking is an act of good-naturedness when the customers have enjoyed the food, company and atmosphere so much that they agree to break the dishes as a sign of delight. And with plates strewn along the entire street, no wonder everyone seems to be having a good time at the Latin Quarter!
Moulin Rouge, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Musee de Cluny aren't too far off either, so if you do plan to explore Paris on foot, the Quarter is the best place to start off with.

Creative Mind

2006-10-22T12:13:00.002Z

Visiting the Tsunami Hit areas was a crazy experience. We have decided to start an organization and tentnatively plan to call it Creative Minds.
Lets see how things work out!

Got Tagged ..Ouch ;-)

2006-06-17T06:53:00.000Z

Well, Sri's been prodding me for a write up, and if I dont do this now, I never will !!

So here goes..my verson of Life's Ten Simple Pleasures, an addendum to Sri's Post maybe..:)

1. Jogging a mile each day.
2. Reading forwards on my mailbox when bored with work.
3. Watching dumb tamil movies with loads of funny punchlines.
4. Eating Amma-made-Dosais in the evenings
5. A box of Maltesers or Nutties, all to myself, everyday!
6. 24/7 access to music, you dont know when u need them, but they need to be there when u want them!
7. Being able to run away from civilization once in a while..
8. Books
9. X Box
10. DVDs

Tagging anyone who reads this!!

Split Personalities..

2006-06-16T23:45:00.000Z

I dont understand what this fixation in movies about the split personality thing is all about. Every movie I see these days seem to have something to do with split personality, schizophrenia, paronoia, delusions etc....is this the "Welcome to the 2000's" thing ??

Well, I thought its just the case back home , what with Anniyan and Chandramukhi, hitting big with the audience, thanks to the "multiple personality disorder" idea. But I couldnt be more mistaken..
I pick up a couple of English DVDs from the library , and bingo- paydirt !Is this the trend or is it just me?

To elucidate, here are the movies i pick up..A Beautiful Mind, Shallow Hal, Fight Club, Vanilla Sky, Erin Brokovich and Der Untergang..and guess what? except for the last two movies, are we or are we not searching for that mysterious other guy or gal whom only we can see but others can't? Enough movies to drive Freud nuts?? :))

Actually I am not pissed off and all, Fight Club was real good, Shallow Hal was sweet and all, but I have reached a point of waitaminit-gimme-a-break-as-I-have-had-enuf!! I mean, lets cut this crap about split personalities- we have had enough of it now, and its time to move on.

Now, I dont mind the Superman, Spiderman or Batman sequels.. those are comics , and kids love those particular split personalities,but let us leave it to that now for a while, and make other movies..maybe its time for yet another "Stiffling" American Pie sequel? I do not mind a simple story with a simple plot sans mysterious ghost characters and psychological bullshit..just for a while, lets pray for a simple, uncomplicated life on the other side of the screen.. what do you guys say??

இனிய தமிழ்ப்புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்!

2006-04-13T19:25:00.000Z

Lazybones take all day to get started. ;)

2006-03-31T04:54:00.000Z

Aller Anfang ist schwer.

All beginning is difficult.The first million is the hardest!