SYMA to launch Swachh Triplicane ~ Cleanliness starts from Home, Street, ...

What it takes to keep the surroundings clean ? – have you ever wondered when you walk past any area which is untidy ! – other than blaming the system and expecting people to refrain from throwing litter everywhere –

WE can make a difference to the place around us – all that is required is ‘indomitable will, few leading from the front and people cooperating ’ – Sure you would have seen vinyl banners dotting the Mada veethis of Thiruvallikkeni – yes SYMA is launching a ‘Cleaning Campaign’ – not a single day job – with vision to keep Streets of Thiruvallikkeni divyadesam clean forever. Together WE can do that – and SYMA looks forward to your active participation.

Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a great beginning with his pet initiative -  Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.  The Corporation of Chennai has also launched a public campaign through various forums, including social networking sites, for a `Clean Chennai' and to promote source segregation of waste. The Civic body aims to make it ‘clean Chennai’  urging the residents to take a green pledge and do their part in keeping  their home, street, work space and city clean and free from litter.

7^th December 2014 [Sunday] will catalyse Triplicane residents into action. With brooms in their hands, pledge on their lips imbued with enthusiasm to make the Divyadesam, a model place – a clean, hygiene place – volunteers of SYMA and passionate residents will go around the Streets launching cleanliness campaign making the Mada Streets around the Temple – ‘Litter-free Zone’, a clean area, where bakthas can walk with bare-foot around the Temple.

This is time to rededicate SYMA’s avowed path of ‘clean environment’.   SYMA is at the forefront in making the residents of Triplicane realise that a clean litter-free environment is possible, if only, we all dedicate ourselves in that. For three months from 8^th Dec 2014, South Mada Street, Thulasinga Perumal Kovil Street [TP Kovil St] and Peyalwar Kovil Street are adopted and maintained by SYMA as a “Pilot Project”.  We are creating the necessary infrastructure, spread the awareness making the residents getting involved in keeping our place clean. 

The Cleaning campaign kicks-off  with a grand campaign @ 7 am on Sunday, 7th Dec 2014.  Come without fail.  Please bring your family and make all your known persons participate in the Campaign. Imagine more than 500 of us cleaning the streets of Triplicane and what better service can we do, to our Presiding deity of the Divyadesam – Sri Parthasarathi Perumal, as He blesses us in His processions.  It is a duty cast on us to keep the Mada veethis devoid of all impurities. It is time that we stopped people from spitting on the Streets and in public places.   Together, we will ensure a neat, clean, hygiene environment – it starts with Us, our Family, our Street, our Area, ………. Our Nation.

Come, Join us …… Together, we will strive to ensure that the Society is a better place to live.  The details of the Campaign  are available in the banner – do contact us through e-mail [srinivasyoungmensassociation@yahoo.co.in]  or our Office bearers by phone.  Do SMS back to Mr TJ Ramani @ 9444848880 confirming your presence.

SYMA in service to Society

Yours Truly – S. Sampathkumar, Secretary, SYMA

Office Bearers
TA Sampathkumar	President	9841078109
SR Parthasarathy	Vice- President	9444010386
R Seshadri @ Durai	Vice- President	9884211516
S Sampathkumar	Secretary	9940086033
R Sanjeevi	Secretary	9940086026

Poiyyamozhi Pulavar Thiruvalluvar statue to be installed in Moscow

Truth is the speaking of such words that are free from the least degree of evil to others …….. immortal words of Thiruvalluvar.

Ever heard of : Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin [1799 –1837) was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow  - soon you will get to hear more of him and perhaps see him too – as a statue of his is to come up in Chennai. 

Chennai has many many statues - at the Marina beach is a statue of Thiruvalluvar – and there is one near Mylapore Sanskrit college…….the biggest of them all stands 133 ft tall (40.5m) at Kanyakumari, – situate at a place where two seas and an Ocean meet. The statue has a height of 95 ft and stands upon 38 ft pedestal representing the 38 chapters of virtue in Thirukural. The combined height of the statue and pedestal is 133 ft denoting 133 chapters in the Thirukural.  For the uninformed, Thirukural is a classic of couplets containing 1330 verses widely translated in to many languages.  Thirukkural is a great source of knowledge – 1330 couplets structured in 133 adhikarams [chapters], grouped in 3 sections – Aram (righteousness). Porul (wealth) and Kamam or Inbam (pleasure). Its author, the Great Thiruvalluvar, known as Theiva Puvalar (Divine Poet), Sennaapothaar, Poiyamozhi Pulavar (whose words are only truth) and more.. lived in Mylapore. 

15th Jan  is officially  celebrated as ‘Thiruvalluvar Day’ -  a State holiday in Tamilnadu. Recently, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani announced in New Delhi that her Ministry would celebrate sage Thiruvalluvar’s birth anniversary every year. On Friday, members of the Rajya Sabha had unanimously supported a demand from BJP MP Tarun Vijay for the celebration of Thiruvalluvar’s birth anniversary nationally. The Minister said that Thiruvalluvar’s birth anniversary will be celebrated in schools from next year onwards. Ms. Irani added that books in Hindi and English on Thiruvalluvar’s life and his magnum opus Thirukural would be distributed in schools and that the Centre would monitor the distribution of these books and their reception by students. She added that elocution and essay contests would also be organised to mark the birth anniversary.

This is a post on a newsitem in The Hindu about his statue to be placed in Moscow.  The culture of statues has a long history and is not new to Tamilnade alone though there have been some clashes arising out of issues involving statues.  A few years back, a bronze statue of Tamil saint Poet Thiruvalluvar was unveiled at Bangalore and around the same time a statue of Kannada Poet Sarvagnar  was unveiled at Ayyanavaram, in Chennai. The statue of Thiruvalluvar was under covers for more than a decade and was even one of the demands of Brigand Veerappan for release of matinee idol Rajkumar.

Now The Hindu reports that a statue of Russian poet Pushkin may be set up in Chennai ~ and a statue of Tamil poet Thiruvaluvar would find a place at Moscow in Russia.  Sergey L. Kotov, Consul General of Russia is quoted as telling the Hindu that they have received a request from an organisation to install his statue in Moscow and they are eager to establish the statue.  It is further stated that the modalities of installing the statue, its location and the agency to be involved were being worked out. It would improve the overall India-Russia relationship, he said, adding that it would also help step up cultural exchanges between the two countries. Stating that Tamil folk music, cinema and dances were popular in Russia, Mr. Kotov said such opportunities to showcase the cultural richness had not been utilised for long.

Calling for more cultural exchanges, he said Russia was ready to take a lead in this. It would appreciate government, semi-government and private channels to carry forward the task of improving cultural ties.

While some may claim this to be a victory or claim that his ideals are travelling Worldwide – the better honour is to study his works and live by his preaching – history is replete with occasions of statues grandly installed becoming forlorn, lying uncared for and at places, people not knowing anything about the statue or its significance

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

1st Dec 2014.

Amazon fulfillment and the robots at work .... !!

In huge warehouse as also in small shops, employees wander stacks of shelves to pick up merchandize  and arrange for delivery.  There was a time, when customers were taken for granted…. Not any longer – every now and then, you find newer techniques through which Companies try to reach out to new customers and strive to retain their loyal customers.  The small time traders are now fearing the onslaught by web sales, which was not envisaged about a decade ago, at least here in India.  In the recent months, E-tailing rivals Flipkart, Snapdeal  and Amazon have all impacted the customer buying pattern in a big way – now more look for big deals on the web and purchase goods online.

The real estate in the outskirts of the city, especially nearer Sriperambudur and Red Hills are likely to see upward trend as there are new kind of purchasers.  Those E-tailers who are looking for vast areas for their warehouses and fulfilment centres.    The recent day-long shopping sales of Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Amazon have scarred many as the e-commerce volumes far exceeded the anticipation in items like Electronics, Camers, mobiles, books, dresses, jewellery and more.  Be it Appiness or Dhamaka, there are takers and as more people keep browsing,  this market is bound to go only one way – the way up.  So if you're planning on grabbing one, make sure you're in front of a computer or a smartphone by the time it goes live.

Of the many, Amazon is an American electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based company in the United States.  Amazon has separate retail websites in many other countries including India.  Sure, you have made ‘online purchase’ – ever wondered how the goods reach you…….  The goods that are e-sold are warehoused in places called fulfilment centres. Here, traditionally, goods are moved around a distribution centre using a conveyor system or by human operated machines (such as forklifts).  Warehouses are large and each has hundreds of employees. Employees are responsible for four basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual shipment; and shipping. A central computer which records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a central role; employees carry hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. A picker with their cart may walk 10 or more miles a day.

All these could become a thing of past – as Amazon has Kiva.  In Kiva’s approach, items are stored on portable storage units. When an order is entered into the Kiva database system, the software locates the bot (also known as drive unit) closest to the item and directs it retrieve it. The mobile robots navigate around the warehouse by following a series of computerized barcode stickers on the floor. Each drive unit has a sensor, which prevents it from colliding with each other. When the drive unit reaches the target location, it slides underneath the pod and lifts it off the ground through a corkscrew action. The robot then carries the pod to the specified human operator to pick the items.

Kiva has two models of robots. The smaller model is approximately 2 feet by 2.5 feet, and one foot high and capable of lifting 1000 pounds. The larger model can carry pallets and loads as heavy as 3,000 pounds.  Both are  distinctive orange color. The maximum velocity of a robot is 1.3 meters per second. The mobile bots are battery-powered and need to be recharged every hour for five minutes. Kiva's relatively new approach to automated material handling systems for order fulfillment is gaining traction in eCommerce fulfillment, retail restocking, parts distribution and medical device distribution operations. The system claims to be much more efficient and accurate than the traditional method of having human workers traveling around the warehouse locating and picking items.

Kiva Systems is a Massachusetts based company that manufactures mobile robotic fulfillment systems and is  a subsidiary company of Amazon.com.  The squat orange robots of Kiva zoom around the shelves, pick and carry them for delivery making redundant the workforce that used to do hours of walking.   "We don't socialize as much, but it's more efficient," Rosales said as the bots zipped around behind him on the eve of Cyber Monday, when Amazon showed off its latest generation of Kiva robots to a group of journalists. The fleet of machines -- installed inside 10 of Amazon's warehouse in California, Texas, New Jersey, Washington and Florida -- enable Amazon to deliver millions of items to customers.  Amazon expects that sales volumes would  go up this year though not prepared to hazard guess on what it could be ! Amazon isn't alone; online shopping is mainstream. Customers who used to line up at cashier's stands have begun opting to buy items from their couches instead.

The items appear placed randomly, but they're actually organized based upon a computer algorithm. The result: One shelf in the Tracy warehouse had a My Little Pony toy, a roll of fluorescent tape and copies of Hamlet, smushed up next to one another.  As the Kiva robots speed up the pace of Amazon's warehouses, they raise a looming question that's being asked across the modern world: How much of what a human does can be done by a machine instead?  Some industries already know the answer !  So far, Amazon said it hasn't eliminated any jobs with the introduction of Kiva. ….but !!!!  ~ and what happens if a robot fails? Amazon has human engineers, who can usually fix a robot within a couple hours. Amazon tries to makes sure no more than ten robots per floor are out of commission at one time.

Amazingly Amazon !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

1^st Dec 2o14.

After IPL success - it's time for International Premier Tennis League [ITPL]

Cricket, Hockey, Football,  Badminton, Kabbadi and Tennis – wondering what connects – Premier Leagues. In 2008 Indian Premier League followed European Soccer league and proved to be resounding success.  Tennis and Soccer  players earn much more than most other sporting disciplines – Indian kabbadi team may not collective earn part of individual earning of players – yet there is a money spinning league floated around !

Can you imagine best players descending at Manila to play in a glitzy brand-new exhibition tournament – and that list includes - Novak Djokovic , Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova ….. it is IPTL - which goes until Dec. 13, is a round-robin tournament across four cities, consisting of four teams: the Manila Mavericks, the Singapore Slammers, the Indian Aces, and the UAE Royals. The star players are distributed across the four teams— Andy Murray and Sharapova are on the same side. 

Teams play five sets: a men’s singles, a women’s singles, a men’s doubles, a mixed doubles, and a legends match, featuring people like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Sets are won by being the first to six games, but rather than the set continuing if it’s a 5-5 tie, there’s instead a five-minute timed face-off to decide the set.

The IPTL [International Premier Tennis League]  will be hugely lucrative for the tennis players.  The downside is it leaves no rest for players who of course are willing to encash that rest.   The IPTL  brings together current champions, tennis legends and upcoming talent in a format that’s never been seen before. Over 80 players participated in the official draft held in  March, 2014 in Dubai, drawn by the League’s innovative and competitive format. A total of 29 players were added to the 4 franchise teams – The Philippines, Singapore, India and the UAE.  From 28th November to 13th December, 2014, the teams will play a total of 24 matches in a round robin format to determine the inaugural IPTL League Champion.  The Managing director is Mahesh Bhupathi. 

The format is slightly tampered in tune with round robin leagues.  Each match features 5 sets (Men / Women Singles / Mixed doubles / Men’s doubles and Men’s legends singles).  Each set is played first to six games with a 5 minute shoot-out, if 5 all.  Each game won counts as 1 point. The team that wins the most games, accumulated from all five sets, wins the match. If a match is tied after five sets, the Super Shoot-out determines the match winner.

At the start of each match, a coin toss decides which team serves first, in the first set of each match. The team that served last in the last game/Shoot-out of the previous set will automatically be the receiver in the next set. There is a shot clock  that manages the  time between points, shoot-out, change overs, time outs -  can be set, stopped and re-started only by the Chair Umpire.  Then there is the ‘power point’  where the  receiving player can call  Power Point once every set, indicating that the next point counts double.

The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) is sponsored by Coca-cola and is officially the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League.   Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was to be  the original franchise owner with a plan to play home matches in Mumbai, now the present owner Micromax has the games played at Delhi.  The  Teams in the fray are : Manila Mavericks, UAE Royals, Indian Aces and Singapore Slammers. 

The Indian Aces has : Roger Federer & Pete Samparas (Icon players); Gaël Monfils; Fabrice Santoro,  Rohan Bopanna ; Ana Ivanovic &  Sania Mirza.  A day before, Indian Aces notched up their third win on the trot with a 28-20 victory over UAE Royals in the battle of two unbeaten sides and  topped the table after the Manila leg to emerge early front-runner in the high-profile tournament.  More to happen….

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

1^st Dec 2014