2003----- Quizzes, trips and a shorter commute

2003--- Quizzing and other activities

2003 was significant for me in various ways----- a revival in my quizzing activity, more trips abroad and a change in my office location

In January 2003, I undertook a trip to Seoul, Taipei and Singapore.I flew Malaysian Airlines via KL to Seoul. When the plane was approaching Seoul, the stewardess announced that the temperature was 2 DegC. However, I saw bright sunshine and assumed that it wouldn’t be so cold. As soon as I came out of the airport, an icy blast hit me and my nose turned blue in an instant. I had only my jacket with me and one of the first things I did was to buy a pair of gloves.

I spent a couple of days in Seoul and roamed around at will in the subways.I also visited Gangnam which is actually a suburb of Seoul but became world famous later for “Gangnam Style”. I looked up for Indian restaurants and found that “Ganga” Restaurant which I had discovered in Busan the previous year had a branch in Seoul also. It was a 45 minute ride by taxi, but was worth the money I spent.

I also had carried plenty of MTR food packets. I remember opening one Bisibele bath packet in my hotel room after soaking it in hot water for 5 minutes in the hotel sink. The karavensoppu ( curry leaves) aroma that I got on opening the packet still stays with me.

From Seoul, I travelled to Taipei via Hong Kong. This was my first visit to Taipei and I took some time off to explore the city. The Metro has been well developed in Taipei and I was surprised to see almost an underground city with plenty of shops below ground.

February 2003 saw me travelling to Singapore for a couple of days. As soon as I came back, my colleague Ramkumar Shankar and I represented Sanmar in the Chennai Regional Round of the AIMA Quiz. This was the first time we had teamed up. Ramkumar was already a veteran in the Chennai quizzing circuit and was catching up with his quizzing friends as soon as we reached the venue.

 To our great surprise, we won the Chennai Regional Round and were soon on our way to Kolkata to take part in the All- India Finals on 14^th Mar. Arun Lal, the cricketer , was the Chief Guest. We came third in the All- India finals and it was a proud moment for us.

Our seniors in Sanmar were very happy and promptly agreed to sponsor us in the many corporate quizzes that were being held---- Brand Equity, Tata Crucible,LIBA Quiz and many more. With all the prizes that we were winning, I had accumulated about 6 watches, around 4 pairs of Titan Fastrack eyewear, Rs.500 vouchers for everything from deos to a car ( just kidding!!).

Meanwhile, Sachin had got through his CAT. He first got admission to IIM, Kozhikode and we also remitted the fee of Rs.40000. He subsequently got admission to IIM,Indore and chose the latter. Sudha accompanied Sachin to Indore in June 2003.Her friend Kuckoo was living in Indore and , in any case, Sudha had grown up there, so it was familiar territory.

Sudha and I  were now experiencing the empty-nest syndrome. Sachin had gone to Indore and Sandeep was now into his second year in XIME, Bangalore. Sudha and I were both proud of the fact that both our sons were doing MBA. Sandeep had by now shifted to a room with two of his friends in Electronics City since he was finding the daily commute quite exhausting.

In July 2003, I made a trip to Bangladesh.I was given the name and address of a potential agent in Dhaka. When I visited their Office, I was surprised to see Rajesh ( Akhila’s brother-in-law).Rajesh was living in Dhaka and was working out of the Office of the person whom I had come to meet. I visited Rajesh’s house for dinner and also met his wife Aarya. I remember that we also went to Khana Khazana, which was a restaurant opened by Sanjeev Kapoor, the celebrity chef. I also went to Chittagong for a couple of days before returning to Chennai. This was followed up by another visit to Bangladesh in Aug 2003.

A major event occurred in Sep 2003. Our office got shifted from Karapakkam ( a 15 km commute each way) to Cathedral Road which was in the heart of the city and hardly 4-5 km from my house. Earlier, I used to leave home by 7.30 AM in a pool car and Sudha had to get up early to make my breakfast and also pack my lunch. Now, I could leave by 8.15 AM and , since I was using my own car, a couple of minutes here and there didn’t matter. This was a big relief for both of us and did much to improve our quality of life.

While I was busy quizzing in Chennai, Sandeep was active in the quizzing circuit in Bangalore. He had teamed up with his class mate Sai Venkat and they were winning quiz competitions left and right. Like me, he had also built up a good collection of watches, eyewear and 1 Philips DVD player which he had won at the TAPMI, Manipal quiz competition.

I visited Sachin once in Indore during an official visit and also managed to meet up with Sandeep at XIME on his birthday in Oct.

So that’s how 2003 ended--- an empty nest, Sudha and I busy with our respective careers and the boys on the threshold of completing their studies.

2002---- Another momentous year

2002 was a momentous year for me for two  things---, my career and  my exercise regime. It was also a momentous year for Sachin and Sandeep as you’ll see below.

 But let me start from the beginning.

Sandeep had sat for his XAT exam in Dec 2001 and the results came in Feb 2002. He had cleared XAT and was to attend  the Group Discussion and Interview on 10^th Mar. I was to leave for Mangalore on that day and dropped him off at the IFMR Campus in Nungambakkam. Around end Mar, we got the information that he had been selected for MBA Course in XIME, Bangalore. The XIME Campus was in Electronics City and he had to catch the bus from Koramangala. My sister Sandhya absolutely insisted that Sandeep should stay with them , particularly since my upstairs flat was also vacant.

Sudha and I travelled to Bangalore in June 2002 to drop him off. I also remember that we attended the 80^th Birthday Celebrations of Mr.S.Nagaraja Rao ( my dad’s colleague from KGF and the father of my good friend N.Patanjali.)at Woodlands Hotel . It was nice catching up with my KGF friends at the function.

 I was still handling the domestic marketing for Xomox in India. In the beginning of Aug  2002, I had planned a trip to SAIL, Bhilai. Since Raipur was close to Bhilai and Sudha’s college friend Sunanda was staying in Raipur, she came along with me. We took the Tamilnadu Express up to Nagpur and then changed trains to get to Raipur.

Sunanda and her husband Amit had come to the station and we stayed with them. After spending a lovely couple of days with them, we returned to Chennai by train on the morning of  Monday 5^th Aug.

We had barely got home at 8 AM when I got a call from my Deputy Chairman. My boss who was the Business Head had been transferred to another company within the Group. A new Business Head had joined and I was asked to take him that very afternoon to our factory in Viralimalai and introduce him to the Plant employees. I was also informed that I was now responsible for Marketing of our India-made products in the Asia-Pacific Region ( mainly through our JV partner).

A joint trip had already been planned to Japan, Korea and Singapore starting from 14^th Aug and I was now told to get my visas for these countries and accompany the Director ( Asia-Pacific) who was coming to India from Germany and then visiting these countries.

I first got my visa photos taken and then went to the Office for filling up the visa forms. With that out of the way, I flew to Trichy that afternoon and returned the next day ( 6^th Aug).Then I had to prepare for a review in Viralimalai on 12^th Aug prior to flying out on 13^th Aug night.

Meanwhile, my Singapore and Japan visas had come but there was a delay in my Korean visa.That’s when Thomas Cook advised me that I could get my visa on arrival in Korea from Japan. The football World Cup had just been jointly hosted by Korea and Japan in 2002. To encourage more visitors, Korea had issued a notification that visitors flying in from USA, Europe and Japan would get a visa on arrival. Since I was flying in from Japan, Thomas Cook assured me that I would get my visa after landing in Korea.

I took the Singapore Airlines flight on 13^th Aug night and the connecting flight from Singapore to Tokyo on 14^th morning. Wolfgang Schlett ( the A-P Director and a very good friend of mine) had already flown ahead to Singapore and Taipei and joined this flight at Taipei. We reached Tokyo at around 7 PM and then caught the bus to Le Meridien in Tokyo. This was my first visit to Japan and the sights and sounds were quite interesting.

Next day ( 15^th Aug—Thu), we travelled to Yokohama and visited the Xomox Office. That night, Wolfgang and I had finished our dinner and we were just strolling close to a Metro station in Tokyo at around 9.30 PM. Streams of people were coming out and then, all of a sudden, I heard someone shout “ KP Sir”. It turned out to be a young Engineer from Fisher Sanmar who was deputed on-site to a customer in Japan. Talk about coincidence!!  Out of all the millions who were on the streets in Tokyo that day, he found me. This was the second time I had such an experience. The first time was in 1988 when I had met my senior colleague from Sanmar while out shopping in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York. One more experience in 2005, but we’ll come to that later. We had an ice-cream together and then he went on his way.

Wolfgang introduced me to teppanyaki and a vegetarian sushi with wahabi . The wahabi was green in colour and was made from horseradish. One bite and the wahabi went straight to my nose. I almost fainted--- so pungent was the sauce.

On 17^th Aug ( Sat), we caught the morning flight from Tokyo to Incheon Airport in Seoul. Wolfgang got past Immigration, but I was detained. The problem--- I had no visa!!. I showed the Officer a copy of the official notification and said that I had not applied for the visa since I was entering from Japan. He took me to his Superior’s Office and they were talking in Korean which I could not understand. After a 30 minute wait and a few phone calls later, my passport was stamped and I joined Wolfgang outside. We then took a connecting flight to Busan which is in the South coast of Korea. Busan is a seaside resort and we were staying in one of the hotels by the beach. It was already around 3 to 4 days since I’d had a full Indian meal. I was subsisting on fruits, bread and ice creams.

After checking in and taking a stroll, I spotted an Indian Restaurant “ Ganga”. My joy knew no bounds. We promptly went there for lunch and generally lazed around during the weekend.

On 19^th Aug, we spent the day in the Office and then my hosts took Wolfgang and me to a traditional Korean dinner . There was a separate room reserved for us and I was the Guest of Honour.  We all sat cross-legged around a low table and a girl dressed in the traditional Korean costume sat next to me. Korean custom was that she should feed me with her own hand, but I shouldn’t touch her. So there she was, feeding me tiny morsels and then daintily wiping my mouth with a napkin. I took some photographs of this and then told Sudha that this is how I would like to be treated during our regular dinners at home. I’m sure you all know the reply I got.

Karaoke is a major form of entertainment in Korea and it is very common to take customers for dinner to a Karaoke Restaurant. I’m told that some Sales Engineers have bagged some major orders on the strength of their singing alone !! The Koreans also drink a lot during customer entertainment. There was a shot glass placed near each person. Every now and then, someone would propose a  toast and we were supposed to down our drink  which would then be immediately refilled. Pretty soon, we lost track of how many toasts we had and what the toast was proposed for .

Next day, we caught a flight to Singapore. One day in Singapore and I was back in Chennai.

I made one more trip to Singapore and Jakarta in Oct 2002.

The other major event was the opening of the swimming pool in Madras Boat Club. It was located on the 1^st floor and had excellent facilities. The best thing was that it was open up to 9 PM, so I could go for a swim after coming from Office. I soon became a regular and the swimming regime continues to this day, albeit in a different Club.

Meanwhile, Sachin had quit his job in Career Forum and was back home to prepare for his CAT. He really sweated it out with all the mock tests and had given strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed. He finished his CAT exams on 10^th Dec and since he had nothing else to do till the results came, he joined ICICI Prudential in a Sales position. His Office was in Nungambakkam, but I used to see him going here and there.

He had a big notebook with him and , one day I happened to go through the entries in his register. This is how it read:-

18^th Dec. Appointment with Mr.Palaniappan at Besant Nagar Beach. Very exciting prospect.Seems certain of taking a policy. Next meeting scheduled at Taj Coromandel on 22^nd Dec.

19^th Dec: Appointment with Mr.Chandrasekhar at Park Sheraton. Hot prospect.  Very good potential. Next meeting scheduled at Connemara on 23^rd Dec.

And so on. I’m told ICICI Prudential made a loss that year. I wonder why.

So that’s how the year 2002 ended.

2001 ( Silver Wedding Anniversary) and other events

2nd Feb 2001 was our Silver Wedding Anniversary and Sudha and I decided to have a get-together in celebration.

Sachin came down from Pune and we also had my mom, Kanthu, Bhagya and Anand, Viju and Veena from Bangalore as well as Ravi, Sandhya and Swathi, Shruti and Sunil. Everyone had an enjoyable time.

In the previous month, I had taken a flight from Chennai to Delhi via Hyderabad. Next to me was a lady travelling with a 1 year old kid. The poor kid was suffering from fever and had the sniffles and was crying constantly. The flight left Chennai at 6 AM. Soon , breakfast was served and I had my breakfast. But the lady couldn't eat because she was carrying the child. After I finished my breakfast, I offered to hold the baby while she ate  but the child refused to come to me.

I then told the lady , if it was OK with her, I would spoon feed her while she held the baby.She said OK. So I ordered bread and omelette.I broke off chunks of toast and fed her morsel by morsel. I also broke up the omelette into small pieces and fed her morsels.This way she was able to finish her breakfast. The baby was still crying and her repeated attempts to put it to sleep were failing. This was disturbing my sleep also.

I then told her that she should use a steady rhythm called Simple Harmonic Motion which would make the child go to sleep and offered to demonstrate it.She was sitting to my left, so she shifted the baby to her right. I then started patting the baby slowly and rhythmically and in the process went off to sleep myself.

After some time, I felt something was wrong with my patting and suddenly woke up.The lady had shifted the baby to her left and had gone off to sleep herself!!

At Delhi airport, her husband ( who was in the Air Force) received her and she thanked me profusely and asked for my address. Soon , a thank you card arrived at my house. Sudha didn't know who had sent the card and then I explained the background.

In the same month ( Janury 2001), Kannada Balaga organized a Beauty and Talent Contest for Ladies. All Kannada Organizations participated and there were a few sponsors who had donated gifts to all participants. The various rounds included ramp walking and answering queries by the panelists.

Sudha got the first prize. Vrunda Sekhar got the second prize and Apeksha Bhat won the third prize.

I also remember that my uncle T B Venkatesh underwent a Bypass Surgery in Mumbai in Feb 2001. He continues to be hale and hearty today at age 86 and still goes to work regularly. A remarkable man and I wish him many, many more years of healthy and happy living.

Dodda Chaya's daughter Malini got married in Feb 2001 in Bengaluru and Sudha attended the wedding. The groom was a fellow doctor and a Marathi.. Sudha knew some Marathi and enjoyed practising her Marathi with the groom's family and generally acting as interpreter during the wedding.

In June 2001, Sanmar Engineering celebrated it's 25th Anniversary and we had a customer event in Mumbai. Sachin was now working in Mumbai. Sudha came along with me and we stayed at Hotel Regent ( Opposite to Sea Rock, Bandra) where the customer dinner was also being held. We spent a pleasant two days in Mumbai with Sachin and returned to Chennai.

In October 2001, we booked our Fiat Palio in Emerald Green. Delivery was promised in Jan 2002.

In December 2001, I was asked to go to Australia and provide Training on Xomox Valves to the Sales Team there. Sudha came along with me and we left Chennai on 10th Dec.We flew via Singapore to Sydney and stayed at a resort called Panthers in the Sydney suburb of St. Marys. Suresh and Uma and Ganesh Prasad who was also related to us was in Sydney with his wife Usha  . ( I had already been to Australia earlier in March 2000--- just remembered this and I'll update it in my previous blog).

We had a scare when we landed in Sydney. After claiming our baggage, we were just about to go past the exit when Sudha was asked to step aside by a big, burly Australia Customs lady.She rummaged Sudha's handbag and took out some cloves which Sudha normally keeps.

Australia is an island and the authorities are paranoid about allowing any plant or livestock that is not native to the country.She was asked to throw away the cloves.

The day after our arrival, Sudha took directions and went off on her own to visit the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.She was picked up there by Suresh and he took her home. She then went shopping with Uma. Here's where a really funny thing happened. During her stay so far, Sudha had only seen big, burly ladies. At one shopping centre, she saw ( for the first time) a really svelte girl. She couldn't help herself, so she went up and told the girl " You're looking nice". The girl looked Sudha up and down and replied ( Thanks, but sorry, I can't help you". Sudha didn't understand what she meant. When she told this to Uma, she said " OMG, she thought you were propositioning her!!!" Sudha felt very embarrassed and avoided the girl while they were shopping. When Sudha told me this, I cracked up since I thought it was very funny.

After I finished my program at Sydney, we shifted to the Sydney Hilton and next morning flew down to Melbourne. Here again we stayed at a hotel. While I continued with the training, Sudha went off on her own to Phillip Island to see the penguins.

We stayed that night in the house of Patanjali and Shobha. Patan was my childhood friend in KGF. Next day, Patan took us around Melbourne. It is a lovely city with lots of classical architecture and the one noticeable feature is the number of Greeks who have settled there.
Trams still run there.We went to Victoria Market, the MCG and went by the Yarra River close to the Tennis Stadium where the Australian Open is held. The Melbourne Grand Prix is also held within the city ( not on a separate race track). In the evening, we met up with Ravi Hiremath ( my former colleague at Akay Industries) and his wife who also worked in Akay. That's where they met up and fell in love.

From Melbourne, we came back to Sydney and stayed with Ganesh Prasad. He took us to the Blue Mountains in Sydney and we enjoyed looking at the spectacular caves there.

We then took a flight to Cairns. Sudha put on her swimsuit and frolicked in the Pacific Ocean while I kept a sharp lookout for sharks. The highlight of the visit was our visit to the Great Barrier Reef in a glass bottomed boat. The corals are just amazing and change colours rapidly.

We flew back to Singapore via Brisbane and spent a couple of days there. We stayed in Hotel Regent ( off Orchard Road) and enjoyed shopping at Mustafa's in Serangoon Road.

My mom, Bhagya and Anand had come to stay in Chennai during our absence and Sandeep was well looked after.

Prior to our leaving for Australia, we got the sad news of the passing away of Seethakka Doddamma  ( my mom's elder sister) and spoke to all the cousins who had gathered in Shankara's house in Mysore for the ceremonies.

That's how year 2001 ended.

Addendum to Year 2000

I forgot to mention another event that took place in the year 2000.

This was an Intra-company competitive event called Sanmartini which was a series of games played between different Sanmar locations.

I was nominated as the leader of the Karapakkam team and the games played were Treasure Hunt, Debate, Presentation, Quiz etc. For the quiz, we were allowed to have family members in our team and Sandeep joined up in my team.

We called our team K-sMART ( K was for Karapakkam) and the tag line was " The one stop shop for Talent". We designed a logo and prepared a banner which was waved by our supporters at all events.

We had a grand time during Sanmartini and our team won the overall championship.Sudha and my mom came for the final event and the prize distribution and it was a proud moment when I received the winning shield from our Chairman in front of my family members.

http://www.sanmargroup.com/matrix/dec-2000/inter-business-group-competition-2000.php

In March 2000, I was asked to go to Australia to train the Fisher Sales Team in Xomox products.

I went to Singapore first and the Asia-Pacific Manager there joined me on the flight to Sydney. This was my first visit to Australia and I was quite excited.

We checked in at the Courtyard Marriott in Sydney and I did my first day of training. That evening, five of us went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. The Australians can drink you under the table when they are in the mood. We must have each had around 4 bottles of beer and the appalams that I ordered were excellent appetizers. Each of us must have had around 80 appalams each by the time dinner got over.

The training got over on a Friday and I had the weekend to myself. I went to Suresh's house. Suresh and Uma looked after me very well. They took me to a casino where I won around 115 Australian dollars ( more about this later). Then we went to a Mexican restaurant where I had  my first taste of tacos, nachos and burritos. We then went to Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The locals call it a coat-hanger and it's not hard to see why. Suresh also took me to the SCG ( we couldn't go inside) and to a shoe store where he got me a very excellent and expensive pair of sneakers.

My one regret was that I couldn't go to Bondi Beach.

All too soon it was time to head back to India.When I came back, I told Sandeep about my Australia visit and my casino winnings.

Around 6 months later ( sometime in Sep 2000), I was on a visit to Jamnagar. I had gone to Reliance Refineries and had met some of our Office people there. We had an establishment inside the refinery. While I was having lunch in the Refinery canteen, a Sanmar colleague came running to me. He said that he had received a call from our Baroda Office with a message that I was to call my home immediately.

I feared the worst. Those were the days before mobiles. I went to a refinery official and asked for permission to make an STD call to Chennai in view of an emergency at home. He was most understanding and provided a phone to me immediately.

Sandeep picked up my call. " Dad, dad", he said excitedly " you've received a letter from Australia that you've won 400,000 Australian Dollars immediately and they want to know how to deliver the money to you. They want an immediate reply. What should I answer?"

I immediately knew that this was one of those scams that was so common then ( and even now). So I calmly asked Sandeep :" Has Kala ( our maid servant) come?"
Sandeep: " But dad, I'm talking to you about 400,00 dollars and why are you asking whether Kala has come?"
Me: " Tell mom I'm OK and I'll be home for dinner tomorrow night" and hung up.

Sandeep then contacted Sudha who was at at dubbing and she also asked him whether Kala had come. Sandeep was very angry. " Let the money come" he thought " and I'll show my parents."

Sandep knew about my going to the casino during my Australia visit in March and he thought I must have bought a lottery ticket then. So he first rang up my Office and asked to speak to Ganesh, my secretary. He told Ganesh in his best managerial voice:"I don't care how you do it, but you must contact my dad wherever he is and ask him to contact home because there is an emergency."

Poor Ganesh threw his weight around using my name. He first contacted my Baroda Office and asked them to contact our Jamnagar office and convey the message to me ASAP. Everyone left whatever they were doing and worked to get the message to me.

When I returned home, I had to explain to Sandeep that this was just a scam. He couldn't believe it at first, because the letter even offered to send someone from Australia with a suitcase full of money and hand it over to me at Chennai airport , provided a first sent a "nominal" amount of 400 Dollars towards facilitation charges.

Actually, I did reply. I asked them to deduct the 400 dollars and send the rest of the money, but obviously nothing happened further.

1999--- The lesser events ( compared to Hey Ram debut) and 2000

Sandeep finished his 12th Std in Mar 1999. He joined Vivekananda College for his B Com.This was the Evening College, so he used to go around 4 PM and was back by 9 PM.

He practically breezed through his B Com and , on the way, did not forget to see practically every Tamil and English film that was released in Chennai.
One other significant event that I can remember about Sandeep from his Vivekananda College days is about the Tennis match that he played with the brother of Gayathri- a singer friend of ours. I'm told that after watching Sandeep serve, Gayathri's brother actually asked him whether he played for Tamil Nadu!!!!

Akhila gave birth to Siddharth on 23rd Apr 1999.at Bangalore. Siddharth has features very similar to my grandfather A N Chaluvaiya. Anil and Sandeep are also cut from the same mould.

Karnataka Sangha was celebrating its 50th Year in 1999 and asked Kannada Balaga to put up a Kannada play. Our friend Kiran Kumar had written a play called " Sherlock Nanjappa", a detective thriller and Sudha and I both acted in the play.

The play had a lot of sound effects like thunder and background music. One of the unique features of this play was that we recorded the entire dialogue including the sound effects and the background music and just lip synced on stage. It came out very well and many people were not aware that all the dialogue was pre-recorded.

The other exciting event of 1999 was the approaching millenium and the so-called Y2K problem. When computers first became popular, apparently a lot of software companies did their programming in such a way that the year was denoted with just the last two digits eg "98" for 1998. So there was a lot of apprehension as to what would happen when year 2000 came around. Would "00" indicate 1900 or 2000?

Therefore, a lot of companies in USA and Europe hired Indian software companies whose only job was to convert the two digit year to 4 digits in all programs. Even then, there were many companies that were left out and they were all waiting with bated breath for I Jan 2000. 

The New Year dawned first in New Zealand and there was a huge sigh of relief worldwide when nothing happened.

This Y2K issue also generated some humour. There was this joke about a Sardarji who said he didn't know what the Y2K problem was all about. He said " Just change Monday to Mondak and January to Januark and so on and the Y 2( to) K problem could be solved by anyone."

Sachin graduated in 2000. This was the height of the dotcom boom and any graduate worth his BE degree was joining a software company. I expected Sachin would also do so. However, he showed surprising maturity in deciding what he didn't want to do and that was software programming. He also decided early on that he would do his MBA and it would be from an IIM only.

Sachin had an aptitude for Maths. He joined Career Forum which offered coaching to MBA aspirants. I thought this was an excellent move because he could still keep in touch with subjects that he would need to study for his MBA Entrance exam. His friend Bhaskar was into MBA coaching and Sachin would take some classes to help out .

After some time, Sachin was transferred to Pune and he stayed there in a company Guest House.

Meanwhile Sandeep continued with his B Com and helped the economy grow by watching almost every Tamil and English movie that was released in Satyam. Sachin was also crazy about movies, but I suspect he leaned more towards Hollywood movies, unless it was a Rajinikanth movie in Tamil.

It was fans like Sachin and Sandeep that helped Satyam Theatres generate their internal revenue to expand into a multiplex in Express Avenue Mall and elsewhere in Chennai.

So that's how 2000 ended for us with Sandeep in 2^nd Year B Com and Sachin in Pune.

1999---- My film debut ( Hey Ram)

March 26th 1999 is an unforgettable date for me.That's when I got to meet Kamal Hassan and landed a role in " Hey Ram". But let me start from the beginning.

On the evening of 25th Mar, Sudha got a call from her friend Tara Mohan. Tara is a model co-ordinator and occasionally gets calls from film production companies to locate artistes for specific roles. I was also at home and could hear only Sudha's end of the conversation." A swamiji's role? No I don't know anybody" etc etc. I asked her who was on the line and what was it about. She said that Kamal Hassan was looking for someone to play the role of a swamiji in his film " Hey Ram". I told Sudha to inform Tara that I was available and why didn't she recommend my name. I then spoke to Tara directly and said I was interested--- if only because it was an opportunity to meet Kamal. She then asked me to go to Kamal's Office next day morning in Alwarpet by 8 AM.

You must remember that this was March and the fiscal year ending for my company.There were a thousand things requiring my attention in the Office. I decided to skip all that and promptly reported at Kamal's Office in Alwarpet by 8 AM. There was one other person already there. 

I told the Manager that Tara Mohan had asked me to come for the swamiji's role in " Hey Ram" and to meet Kamal. He told me that Kamal was shooting in Mundakanniammal Koil Street in Mylapore and asked me to go there and ask for the Production Manager. He also told me that the other person waiting in the Office was also auditioning for the same role and asked me whether I could take him also.I said yes and we both went to Mylapore in my car.

Shooting was already in progress and I waited among the crowd.This street has a lot of old fashioned houses and is like a typical Brahmin Agrahara.However, what struck me was that all of the houses seemed to have balconies with railings. On a closer look, I realized that these were actually paintings which were hung to create a facade!! The Art Director who made this possible was Sabu Cyril. More about him later. The shooting scene involved Hema Malini and Girish Karnad who were the parents of Vasundhara Das and Kamal and his family were coming by car to "see" her. I realized all this later when I actually watched the movie.

As soon as one shot was over, there was a gap while they were setting up for the next shot.I went over to the Production Manager along with the other person and explained why I had come.He asked us to wait close by and said that Kamal would see us as soon as the next shot was completed. So we waited in the crowd.It was very hot and that day happened to be Rama Navami.

As soon as the shot was completed, the Production Manager asked us to go to Mundakanniamman Temple and wait there for Kamal. After a few minutes, he came.He first spoke to me and asked me whether I could speak Tamil and Hindi. I said yes.Then he asked me whether I could speak Iyer Tamil. I said yes and spoke a few words. Kamal then thanked the other person and told him he could go. He told the Production Manager that I was selected and told me that he would speak to me after the next shot.

Now I had become an "artiste" and you should have seen the change that came over. Earlier I was the aam aadmi struggling with the rest of the janata to get a peek into the shooting. Now, someone brought a chair for me and someone else got me a glass of buttermilk. Another person asked me if I was comfortable and whether I wanted an umbrella to shield myself from the sun!!

After the shot, Kamal came up again and we went inside the temple. He explained to me that I would have to dress up like the Shankaracharya and I would have to shave off my head and my moustache. Shaving off the head was OK ( more about that later), but I was a bit sad at the thought of shaving off my moustache. Kamal wanted the make-up man to make a kudumi for me. The he took a pair of scissors, cut off some of my chest hair and asked the make-up man to make a kudumi of the same colour and texture. That's perfection for you!!

Then he dropped the bombshell!!! He said we were leaving next day morning for Varanasi and asked me to collect my air ticket from his Office. I told him that the ticket probably needed to be booked since they possibly couldn't have known by name earlier. Kamal said that they didn't know who would be selected so they had booked a ticket in the name of Venkataraman!!

I was in a daze!! I had treated the whole thing as a lark and was very happy that my primary objective of meeting Kamal Hassan had been met.Now they had sent off the other person and I couldn't tell him that I was a busy executive with year-end targets to meet.

Anyway, I went to the production office and was handed over the ticket.Even here, I was treated more deferentially than the previous occasion.The Manager told me that the flight to Delhi was at 6 AM. He asked for my address and told me that a car would pick me up at 4.30 AM the next day.

I came home and broke the news to Sudha.She told me that it was no surprise that I was selected since Kamal Hassan prefers slightly fair people.

I then went to the Office and tremblingly told my boss the whole story and asked for leave.He was very understanding ( maybe even a little envious) about the whole situation and told me to enjoy myself.

Next day, I got a wake-up call at 4 AM from Kamal Hassan's Office and the car came at 4.30 AM. Those were the days before you had to show your ID for airport entry and check-in, so I had no problem with checking in as Venkataraman.There were around 10 others from the film unit on the flight.  Kamal Hassan had grown a beard for his role and we were all proudly basking in the attention that we got from the other passengers for being part of his entourage.

We were supposed to catch a connecting flight at 10.30 AM from Delhi to Varanasi. For some reason, the flight got delayed. I was sitting next to Sabu Cyril in the flight. He introduced himself as the Art Director. I told him about the facades that I had noticed on the temple street the previous day and he said that this was his creation. Sabu also mentioned that being too good at his job didn't help and gave an example.For a Malayalam film, Sabu had created a set of the Guruvayur Temple and it was so realistic that he was expecting a National Award for Art Direction.He didn't get the award and later on he was told that the judges didn't even know it was a set and therefore he was not considered.He also told me of the lengths he went to create the pistol that Saketh Ram ( Kamal Hassan's character) carries in his bid to shoot Mahatma Gandhi.

Because of our delayed flight to Delhi, a message had been sent earlier to Delhi Airport to hold the Varanasi flight. As soon as we landed in Delhi, we were met at the tarmac by the Indian Airlines Staff and handed over the boarding passes for the Delhi-Varanasi leg.The checked-in baggage was also identified and transferred manually to the Varanasi aircraft.

We landed in Varanasi around 11.30 AM and went straight to a hotel. I was given a separate room. Kamal told me to get my head shaved in the evening and be ready by 3.30 AM the next day morning for the make-up man.

In the evening, I went to the nearest barber shop and got my head and moustache shaved ( Rs.6). Next day, at 3.30 AM,  the make-up man arrived with the ochre robes of a Shankaracharya along with the staff. I put on the robes,smeared vibhuti on my arms and forehead and , staff in hand, went down to the hotel reception. There were a group of Japanese tourists there waiting to visit the Sarnath Temple. They clicked their photographs with me. The car came and all of us went to Dasaswamedh Ghat by 5 AM.

By now a crowd had already gathered at Dasaswamedh Ghat. They saw me in my Shankaracharya dress and bowed before me. Some of them touched my feet and I kept repeating " Jeeti Raho Beti" and " Jeeti Raho Beta". As of that moment, I had no clue about what I was supposed to do in the film.

Then someone from the film unit came and told me that when the clapboard sounded, I was supposed to lead Kamal Hassan  down the steps to the Ganga river facing east. As the sun came up the horizon, we were supposed to raise our hands and bow before the sun.

I saw  some unit hands going around the ghat and covering some hoardings. I asked why and was told that the scene was set in the 1940s and therefore they didn't want the camera to capture any hoarding showing a relatively recent product.

Then I saw a few police patrol boats in the river. They were engaged to keep off any tourist boats who might be cruising the river in the early morning and thus come in the field of view of the camera.

While we were waiting for the sun to rise, Kamal's trainer handed him a set of really heavy dumb bells and made him go through his exercise routine. That's professionalism for you.

At 5.45 AM, I was asked to get ready. When the clapboard sounded, I walked slowly down the steps leading Kamal by the hand. There was a camera behind us and a camera mounted on a boat in the river in front of us. As the sun was about to rise, we suddenly noticed a tourist boat crossing the river in front of us. What had happened was that the police patrol was so interested to  see the film shooting that they forgot to keep the boat away from the shooting area.  By the time the boat crossed the field of vision of the camera, the sun had already risen .

in the sky.

Kamal was terribly upset and said that we would have to repeat the scene next day morning.

Fortunately, we had planned an extra day in Varanasi to take care of exigencies and this was an exigency. Anyway, we returned to the hotel for breakfast and I was told that we would be going back to the Ganga river for more shooting.

After lunch, we went back and crossed the Ganga river to the other side. There, I was handed my dialogues ( both in Tamil and Hindi) and asked to rehearse them.

The scene is this. Saketh Ram's ( Kamal Hassan's character) first wife ( Rani Mukherjee) is killed during the partition riots in Calcutta and Saketh Ram comes back to Madras. He has a reluctant marriage with Vasundhara Das and comes under the influence of leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha and is convinced that Mahatma Gandhi's soft attitude towards the Muslims is the reason for the communal riots. Saketh is now chosen to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi. Prior to that, he makes a visit to Varanasi to shed his Vaishnava background and become a more militant Saivite. 

This is what he tells me in the dialogue and then I am supposed to initiate him into Saivism.

We completed the dialogues with some retakes and Kamal Hassan taught me some of the nuances of dialogue delivery. 

That evening, the film crew ( except Kamal Hassan) got together and I heard a lot of film experiences being exchanged.

Next day ( it was a Saturday), we repeated the exercise . I was woken up at 3.30 AM, got dressed and we were back in Dasaswamedh Ghat by 5 AM. This time, the police patrol crew were alerted to be more careful. As the sun rose, Kamal  and I were in the water and we raised our hands upwards in salutation. The scene was captured perfectly. 

There was more to come. In order to complete the rites of initiation, he was required to remove his sacred thread, cut it and fling it in the water and also remove all his clothes. We were in slightly shallow water and the cameraman told Kamal that his underwear could be seen. So we moved in a little deeper and Kamal shucked off that too. I am yet to see a higher degree of professionalism than this.

All the while, I was required to stand beside him and close my eyes and keep muttering my prayers. In order to show that Kamal was now beyond worldly desires, there was a young woman who was supposed to be bathing in the water and we were supposed to totally ignore her. It was difficult, but I managed it.

Meanwhile, all kinds of flotsam and jetsam was floating in the river and coming close to me. Since some cremations are done in the burning ghats of Ganga river, I was scared that some body part would float near me, but fortunately no such thing happened.

The shooting was completed by 8 AM and then we were on our own till the next day ( Sunday) when we were supposed to catch the flight to Delhi and onward to Chennai.

It was close to Holi. So I wandered around the shops close to Kashi Vishwanath temple and had thandai ( a drink which has some opium put into it). It put me in a mildly euphoric mood and I spent the rest of the day happily.

Next day ( Sunday), we caught the flight to Delhi and were waiting in the lounge to catch the connecting flight. Actor Om Puri wandered in from some other flight. He wanted to meet Kamal, but Kamal was engaged in discussions with a writer. So he spent time with us and cracked jokes with cameraman Vasu and Sabu Cyril.

On our return to Chennai, I dropped off Sabu Cyril at his residence in Kodambakkam and came home.

End of Hey Ram shooting experience.  Next day, I got some strange looks when I went to the Office since I had shaved off my head and my moustache.

There's more to this story. Sometime in November 1999, Sudha got a call to do the dubbing in Hindi for the voice of Sushila Nayyar ( an aide of Gandhi who later on became Union Health Minister). When she went to the recording studio, she happened to meet Kamal Hassan and told him that her husband ( me) had also acted in the movie. Immediately, Kamal asked his people to make her more comfortable since she was an " artiste's" wife. Sudha was very peeved. She said  to me " Here I've been in the dubbing field for more than 10 years. Now you do a two-bit role and suddenly you have become an " artiste."

The film premiered on 18th Feb 2000. A couple of weeks prior to the premier, I was just surfing through the TV channels and suddenly saw myself with Kamal Hassan in the sunrise scene. The promos were on for " Hey Ram" and I must have seen myself about a hundred times on TV.

One of my friends ( who didn't know that I had acted in the movie) told me that he saw someone remarkably like me in the " Hey Ram" trailer but thought it couldn't be me since the moustache was missing. I said that it was indeed me and that I had shaved both my head and my moustache for the film. That's when he said " Yeah, I noticed only the missing moustache. There isn't much difference between the completely bald head and how you're looking now."

There's one tailpiece to this saga. " Hey Ram" was nominated for the Oscars and I told my niece Archita that I had been nominated for " Best Debut in a non-speaking role" and would be attending the Oscar ceremony and might even pick up the Oscar. 

1998 ( Visits to Europe and S E Asia)

In April 1998, there was a Xomox World Sales Conference in Lindau, Germany and I was invited for the Conference.

I remember sitting in the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge at Chennai Airport on 25th Apr 1998 and watching Sachin Tendulkar take Shane Warne to the cleaners in an India-Australia ODI played at Sharjah.

I reached Frankfurt in the morning on a Sunday and took a connecting flight to Friedrichshafen.
Wolfgang Schlett, the Asia-Pacific Sales Director met me at the airport and drove me down to Lindau. It was springtime and the weather was very pleasant.The first shoots of flowers were already coming up.

After I had freshened up Wolfgang took me to his home for lunch.We sat on the lawn with a tall glass of beer.Bob Neal from Xomox, Cincinnati was already there and we exchanged plenty of stories.

The Conference was held over two days on 27th and 28th Apr and I remember making a passionate plea to all the Country Offices to buy more from India.

On 28th Apr evening, we drove across the border ( just 4 km from Lindau) into Austria and had dinner in a restaurant up in the Austrian Alps.It was amazing.We had a panoramic view of Switzerland ( across Lake Constance), Germany and Austria. The restaurant's decor was the 1800s style--- all tables and chairs made of timber. The waiters were dressed in lederhosen and everyone was supposed to eat with their hands.Every now and then, someone proposed a toast. We were supposed to shout "Gesundheit!" and down our drink in one go.

On 29th Apr morning, I flew from Friedrichshafen to Amsterdam via Frankfurt.A Xomox Netherlands Sales Engineer met me at the Airport and took me to the Xomox Office which was near Rotterdam.On the way, we stopped over for lunch at a restaurant which had a lovely salad bar.We went past The Hague on our way to Rotterdam.Rotterdam is one of the biggest ports in Europe and Shell has one of the world's biggest petrochemical complexes in Rotterdam.

We visited the offices of Lummus in The Hague and then I was dropped off at the home of Sridhar. Sridhar's wife is Hema, sister of Uma ( who is married to Suresh ( Australia)--- Latha's brother).

This was the first time I was experiencing summer outside of India and I wasn't prepared for the long summer days even though I had heard of them.Netherlands is further up north , so the days were even longer. I remember Sridhar came back from Office at around 6 PM and we were sitting and talking. Hema and Sridhar were waiting for me to say that I was ready for Dinner, but the sun outside made it appear as though it was just 4 PM in India.I looked at my watch and was shocked to see that it was 9.30 PM!!!

I quickly apologized for keeping them waiting and we sat down for dinner. Sridhar told me that , in summer, they actually pull dark curtains across the windows to shut out the sunlight--- otherwise, they wouldn't get sleep.

Through sheer serendipity, I was in Netherlands at the right time.April 30th was the Queen's birthday and therefore a national holiday.Also, this was the tulip season.

Sridhar and the whole family took me on a visit to Kinderdijk to see the windmills



From there, we went to Madurodam where they have a miniature city.


Then we visited Delft to see the pottery.



We also visited Scheveningen to see an amazing sand sculpture.
Netherlands is a very small country and it is possible to cover the whole country in 3 hours end to end.
People were out in full force in all the towns and the entire country was decked up in Orange. The Dutch ruling family is from the House of Orange( Oran-ye- as it is pronounced) and Orange is the national colour.

After we came back home, Sridhar specially drove me to Keukenhof to see the tulips. They were in full bloom and were a sight to behold.


I was supposed to visit Amsterdam on 1st May.Hema and Sridhar were staying around 40 kms away.On 1st May early morning, Sridhar sat down with his computer. One hour later he came and handed over to me a full set of sheets .They included train timings to Amsterdam and back, route maps to various tourist attractions in Amsterdam, details of an Amsterdam tour etc etc. That was the first time I realized the power of the Internet.

Hema and Sridhar had two daughters and I offered to take one or both of them with me to Amsterdam. Hema hurriedly said that I would enjoy Amsterdam more if I went alone. I realized the wisdom of her words only later.

I took the train and got off at Amsterdam Centraal.In front of the station was a huge plaza called
Damrak.This is an avenue between Centraal Station and Dam Square.



While strolling along Damrak, I came across the Sex Museum.The Dutch are very liberal when it comes to sex.The red-light area is a huge tourist attraction and is always filled with tourists staring wide-eyed at the many "attractions" on display.Now I could understand why Hema insisted that I go in alone to Amsterdam.
I then strolled along to the Rijksmuseum to specially see Rembrandt's "Night Watch". I had read an article about this painting in Reader's Digest when I was a young kid and seeing the painting in person was a wish fulfilled.


I then took a boat ride on Amsterdam's canals.This is a must do when visiting Amsterdam, if only to see the amazing houses lining the canals.


They are painted in bright colours and some of them are just 6 ft across!!! You will also be shown the house where Anne Frank stayed and wrote her famous Diary during World War 2..

Two other images of Holland linger in my mind.One, it is a nation of cyclists.Most people travel by cycle and they even carry these cycles when travelling by train.They also go from town to town on cycles. The fact that Holland is a flat country helps.

The second image is of the cattle. Holland is a world leader in dairy farming.The Dutch cows and heifers are huge and look well fed.

After this eventful trip to Germany and Holland, I returned to Chennai on 2nd May.

In November of that year, I and a colleague of mine attended the Asia-Pacific Sales Conference in Phuket. Phuket is a seaside resort on the Indian Ocean.We had people from Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia for the Conference.From Phuket, I travelled to Singapore and then on to Jakarta. Akhila was in Jakarta and by a happy coincidence , I was in Jakarta during Rummy's and Akhila's birthdays on 26th and 27th Nov. I gave Rummy 1 Lakh Rupiahs ( about 3000 INR) for her birthday and told her to tell everyone that I gave 1 Lakh for her birthday ( without specifying whether it was Rupiahs or Rupees).
On Akhila's birthday, we all went to a restaurant for dinner and were joined by Vasuki, Prakash and their kids.

Other than these two trips, 1998 was pretty uneventful.