திருவள்ளுவர் வாய்மொழியாம் திருக்குறள் ஒன்று :
ஆற்றுவார் ஆற்றல் இகழாமை போற்றுவார்
போற்றலுள் எல்லாம் தலை.
இந்த உலகத்தில் தாம் எடுத்துக் கொண்ட செயல்களை இனிது முடிப்பவரின் வலிமைகளை அவமதியாமல் இருப்பது, தமக்குத் தீங்கு ஏதும் வராமல் காப்பவர் செய்யும் காவல்கள் எல்லாவற்றிலும் முதன்மையானது. செயற்கரிய செய்யும் பெரியோர்களை போற்றி புகழுதல் சால சிறந்தது. அவற்றை செய்யாதோர், வாய்மூடி மௌனமாக இருத்தலே நலம்.
We try to be judgmental and feel that our perspective is always right !
– more so, with the media, which tries to tarnish the image of good people in
the society.
The
subject matter பேசப்படும் பொருள் of something such
as a book, lecture, film, or painting is the thing that is being written about,
discussed, or shown. Subject matter experts, also called SMEs, are
professionals who have advanced knowledge in a specific field. SMEs are people who have accumulated
professional knowledge in their field but unfortunately, media often portrays
people in poor light – either with bad intentions, popularity, getting
limelight or pronounced bias !!
Serious
Software, Friendly Company. ~ reads
their Web. Software is our craft and our
passion. At Zoho, we create beautiful software to solve business problems. We
believe that software is the ultimate product of the mind and the hands. This company was earlier known as AdventNet, Inc. AdventNet expanded operations
into Japan in 2001. In 2009, the company
was renamed Zoho Corporation after its online office suite. It was not only change in the name but a
paradigm shift in geography: While
AdventNet Inc was a US company with an India development centre, Zoho Corp is
incorporated in India and the company’s Pleasanton, California, centre remains
the global headquarters. Sri Vembu,
worked out of the Pleasanton office
which is sales-facing, then shifted to
Chennai and .. .. .. now to Tenkasi, nearer Courtallam.
‘தேனருவித் திரையெழுப்பி வானின்வழி ஒழுகும்’ is
how it is hailed … ‘Thiru Kutrala Kuravanchi’ written by ThiruKooda Rasappa
Kavirayar praises the place Courtallam and ThiruKutrala Nathar, the deity at
this place.
Sundarapandiapuram is a panchayat town in Tenkasi district,
known for its scenic beauty, and this
became a household name after Maniratnam film ‘Roja’. Searching the web about this GREAT HERO, I
read that his father hailed from -
Chidambaranathapuram, a small village
around 30 km down the Kaveri, not far from the Kollidam branch of the
river. Our hero was born and spent his
childhood here. The man, Sridhar Vembu
has featured few times in Forbes and every other Business Magazine and awarded India's fourth highest civilian
award, the Padma Shri, in 2021. He has
put the small Mathalamparai on global map.
There are two news items on the same person – one on his personal
life and the other in what he has been doing professionally and the way he is
changing the lives of downtrodden.
First,
the bad – the one in Forbes which read :
‘in High Stakes Divorce Battle, Estranged Wife Of Indian Software Tycoon
Claims He Transferred Ownership Without Telling Her’ .. ..
It
expands that Sridhar Vembu is the
founder and CEO of privately held Zoho, a maker of cloud-based business
software. Vembu, who owns a majority stake in Zoho with his siblings, started
the business as AdventNet along with two siblings and three friends. Zoho grew
38% in the past year to hit 80 million global users as of July 2022. Vembu has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering
from Princeton and started his career at Qualcomm in 1994. Zoho's 375-acre
campus in Austin, Texas is on the site of a former farm. Some excerpts of that news report :
The
soon-to-be ex-wife of Zoho cofounder and CEO Sridhar Vembu alleges he abandoned
her and their special needs son and is keeping them from receiving their fair
share. After nearly a quarter of a
century living in the San Francisco Bay area and running business software
provider Zoho from there, Indian-born Sridhar Vembu decided to go home. The CEO
and cofounder of Zoho, which Forbes values at nearly $5 billion, left
California and settled into Mathalamparai village in the southern Indian state
of Tamil Nadu. “I want my employees to live in these villages because it brings
a lot of cross-fertilisation of ideas,” Vembu told Forbes India in June 2020.
“I decided that if I’m going to start these rural initiatives, I’m going to
need to set myself up in the village, too.”
Zoho
was embracing remote work before it was cool. Zoho expands by building offices
outside big cities and helping employees enjoy a more affordable lifestyle
while growing local economies. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a
mandate for most companies, but Zoho gave back to communities long before it
was fashionable. Transnational localism
is Zoho's secret sauce for building software that meets the needs of individual
markets. Zoho brings opportunities to people in small towns and villages. The
additional benefit is that the current workforce issues of inflation, long
commutes, and general life/work imbalances are alleviated.
Today
there are many small Zoho offices located across India. These offices function
as spoke locations where employees collaborate across departments and work
areas.
That prompted Mr Sridhar Vembu to offer a very detailed
explanation on twitter on his personal problems, about his son who is affected
by autism, his estrangement, the divorce suit and more .. .. for sure, these
are sad state of affairs and absolutely, absolutely – one’s private affair
which you, me, and the whole world need not be talking about.
Before
concluding, read this too – sourced by DNA
.. .. Normally, good schools charge a hefty
fee from their students. However, in Tamil Nadu, a school pays its students a
hefty stipend to learn. This school is being run by Sridhar Vembu, billionaire
philanthropist who has shifted base to rural Tamil Nadu. Vembu's company Zoho
Corporation made a profit of over Rs 2,700 crore in 2022-2023. The company is
completely boot-strapped -- over 80 percent of the stake are with Vembu. At
this level of success, entrepreneurs tend to gravitate towards luxury. However,
the Padma Shri awardee chose the path of philanthropy and charity. Vembu is the
55th richest person in India.
In 2019, Vembu returned to India permanently. Instead of
adopting a cosmopolitan lifestyle, he turned towards the rural area. He made
his office in Tamil Nadu's Tenkasi district. The reason behind this was that he
wanted to bring software development to villages. He wanted rural talent to get
jobs in India's flagship import, IT services. In the year 2020, Sridhar Vembu
opened another startup in the field of rural education. He wanted to provide
free primary education to children via his school. In 2005, he had opened the
Zoho School, an ed-tech company that skills and upskills people. Most of those
who work at Zoho are the students of this school. The Zoho School has trained
people without any technical education to become software engineers.
Zoho School had started with just two teachers and six children.
Today, it has over 800 students. 90 percent students of this school are from
Tamil Nadu. The school is at Tenkasi. This school pays Rs 10000 as stipend to
its students. Admission in this school is not based on marks or grades but on
the ability of the individual.
Vembu lives in the Mathalamparai village. He loves village life.
He cycles around. In old interviews, he has talked about never raising capital
to run the company. He said doesn't want to move away from the company by
selling equity. Here is one man who has really changed the lives of many. He has taught them skills relevant for real software careers. They do not collect fees from their students but pay a handsome stipend of
Rs.10000/- per month.
We are really fortunate to have a good, kind-hearted, caring,
tech-savvy leader living in our midst.
Long live noble people who care for others.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
16.3.2023.
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