Dhoni and his Men in Blue - World No.1 Test Cricket Team.....

Three cheers to our Indian Cricket Team.... Hip Hip Hurray.... We've become the Number 1 Test cricketing nation today after defeating the Sri Lankan team 2-0 in the test series in India....

Lots of positives to take away from this series...

• The batting of Indian top order - Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Dhoni, Yuvraj and even Vijay in the last test.... all of them contributed..
• The bowling improved after the first test match... with the changes brought in by Dhoni in the test match worked well with Sreesanth and Ojha playing well.... Zaheer and Harbhajan were very good in the last test match too... 
•  According to Dhoni, even the fielding was better in this series... 
• Also the coaching staffs - Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton got a special mention from Sachin, Sehwag and Dhoni...

In short, this was one of those rare instances when the entire team was responsible for this success. We should never forget the contributions from Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly in building such a strong team too...

In Memory of the Mumbai 26/11 victims....

One year since the 26/11 Mumbai  attacks... remembering the people who died during the attack and the courageous NSG commandos and Mumbai police who fought bravely to bring the situation under control....

In memory of all the Mumbai 26/11 victims....

To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die. ~ Thomas Campbell

Festivals galore....

Its been a couple of months till my last post.... work at office has been keeping me quite busy n haven't had a chance to come back n update about my CSC Ghana experiences as I had mentioned in my previous post.... I'll definitely come back with those updates on another day...

Today, my wifey took me to my first Durga Puja Pandal... I have never been to one before n she wanted me to have the experience.... So, we went to a nearby Bengali Association's pandal, witnessed the pushpanjali and also had Bhog (food provided as offerings of God). It was a nice experience for me being a South Indian...

The first week of this month, we also celebrated Onam at home... we went to an Aiyappa temple nearby and also made some special Kerala dishes.... I did some experimentation with Payasam and it turned out nice but was more like a halwa than a payasam ;) But, overall it was a gud thing that we managed to do.... We couldn't make any Pookalam this time but next year we'll try that too...

Being a North-South couple, we have different cultures, traditions n also different festivals... so, my wifey n myself took a decision this year that we'll try to celebrate both our festivals as much as possible to continue our traditions...
So, we've got plenty of festivals to celebrate :D

Happy Dussehra to all you folks... and here is a picture of the Durga mata in the Pandal that we went today....

As they say.... The World is IBM’s Classroom

I've been thinking of writing this post for quite sometime now... I need to document some of my experiences that I had over the past few months...

Being an IBMer gives me a great sense of pride because of the kind of work that our company is involved. Many of you would have seen adverts of IBM showcasing the Smarter Planet strategy. While I would reserve my discussions about the Smarter Planet strategy to some other day, I want to write about another initiative that IBM started last year called IBM Corporate Service Corps, which is a corporate version of the Peace Corps.

What is IBM Corporate Service Corps?

IBM Corporate Service Corps (generally called as IBM CSC) program is part of the Global Citizen’s Portfolio initiative announced by CEO Sam Palmisano last year (2008), to develop leadership skills while addressing socio-economic challenges in emerging markets.

The Corporate Service Corps initiative involves IBMers who can contribute valuable and much-needed skills, talent, and capabilities in emerging market countries and help make an impact in that country.

Through this program, IBM aims to train a new generation of truly global leaders by exposing them to diverse cultures, policy environments and different societal expectations, because this is the 21st context for business.

You can ask - What is the benefit for IBM to do such a program?

The Corporate Service Corps provides a triple benefit. IBM gains leaders with a broader range of skills that can function in a global context. The individual participant gets a unique set of leadership opportunities and development experiences. And thirdly, the communities get IBM’s best problem solving skills.

In plain simple terms, through Corporate Service Corps, IBM sends selected candidates in batches of 8-15 ppl (from various countries) to various growing economies and emerging markets like Ghana, Tanzania, Romania, Philippines, Vietnam, Brazil, China and such countries. This batch of selected members would be working in the country for a month with various NGOs or government organizations or any type of industries that require professional help. We primarily do business consulting services to these organizations and help them solve their issues and lead them to a path of growth. And all these are done free of cost.

Prior to departure, the selected IBM teams engage in three months of preparatory work to learn about their team members, local customs, culture, language, their project goals and the socioeconomic and political realities of their destination countries. After the in-country service, the team shares their experiences to their local communities and IBM teams.

More than 5,000 IBM employees applied to the program and only 100 were selected for the first set of participants to be deployed to various countries during the second half of 2008. IBM selected another 100 for the 2009 spring batch and and has committed to enabling 600 to participate over the next three years. It is one one of the most competitive employee programs ever created by the company.

Recently, Buisness Week magazine featured the IBM Corporate Services Corps program in its issue highlighting it as a Game Changing Ideas for Business
Business Week Article

More information about the program can be found on the IBM CSC website

So, why am I writing about the IBM Corporate Service Corps program in my blog?

I got the news of my selection to the IBM Corporate Service Corps program in November 2008 and joined 7 other IBMers from five countries around the world on a special assignment in Takoradi, Ghana as members of the IBM Corporate Services Corps program from February 20th to March 20th 2009.

More about my experiences working in Ghana and interacting with the local people - in the next few posts.

*The posts on this blog are my views and don't necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions...

RIP Michael Jackson...

Michael Jackson - The man who gave many a hits for us to enjoy... the man who entertained the people with his amazing dances.... the man who gave us the amazing "Moon walk" move.... the man famously known as "King of Pop"..... is no more today... Its very difficult to accept...
Even though his later part of the career was marred by lots of controversies n problems, the way he entertained the people will never be forgotten...
Some of the songs which has special place in my heart are - Heal the World, Black or White, Beat It and lots more....

Michael Jackson - You will be missed dearly!!!

May Your Soul Rest in Peace.....