Mac under the Mango tree

My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste and good day!. Last month, I visited India and I will share some interesting experiences from that. This blog is about pazhamkanji or pazhayasoru or pazhayakanji.  Have you heard about this?. It is tough to pronounce for sure.  This is one of our traditional food, and I am very glad to see this back. What is Kanji? - Kanji is a popular dish in the state of Tamil Nadu. In old days, among the daily working classes, it is a staple nourishing breakfast dish, although consumed often for lunch.  Whoever coming to work in farm, always used to have this for both breakfast and lunch with few different side dishes.  Not only farm workers, I have seen this with daily construction workers too. Whenever we were kids, we used to have the same for breakfast at farm along with farm workers. For a surprise, I saw this in all big hotels this time and I could not believe the same. :) Pazhamkanji or pazhayasoru or pazhyakanji has made i

My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste and good day!. Last month , I visited India and I will share the latest progress and latest experiences from farm. This blog is about palm trees. Two years back, I planted around 100 palm trees. Here is the old blog: https://blog.prabakarpaulsami.com/2021/11/planted-100-palm-trees-palmyra-palm.html I visited my farm, happy to see some progress and sharing the same here. The interesting fact is that, after two years of planting and waiting, I see now two leaves. :). Not all trees survived, but many survived our last year drought. It took two years, to see some visible progress as see you below. Many trees still have just one leave as you see below. Palm Trees take longer time to grow. An average growth rate is: 3 to 10 inches per year. What does it mean: This plantation is for next generation. I am sure that, I will not get any benefits from this plantation.  But, preserving/growing this tree for next generation. It is

 My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste.  This blog is about a festival called "PONGAL"..... Pongal is one of the biggest and most important festivals in South India, Tamilnadu. It is a day of Farmer, thanking both Farmer and SUN GOD.      Here is my poem in mother-tongue: கதிரவனின் மகிழ்ச்சி, உழவனின் மகிழ்ச்சி, உழவனின் மகிழ்ச்சி, உலகின் மகிழ்ச்சி... பொங்கல் பொங்கட்டும், மகிழ்ச்சி பொங்கட்டும், வாழ்க்கை கரும்பாய் இனிக்கட்டும் , வாழ்க்கை இரும்பாய் இருக்கட்டும்.... இனிய பொங்கல் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் ... இனிய உழவர் தின நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்.... நன்றியுடன்... பிரபாகர் பால்சாமி     Here is the translated version:

My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste.  This blog is about my experience at the recent reunion that we had.... Special thanks to my friends! Tesla and all devices without recharge, or with no charge - it is called as ??. Recharge is important for human too :) Group of folks having titles varying from architects, strategists, delivery heads, C and mid-level executives, consultants etc, working for various Fortune-500 companies, having a habit of meeting every year. For what purpose? It was neither about strategy and market position nor about investment and financials.   Then, why do they meet? I decided to take few days off amidst my busy schedule and decided to join those folks this year, not to find out why, what etc… Just to hang around with those folks, as they are all my engineering batch mates...   This time, my friends organized get-together in Florida. They meet every year in USA, but for me this is the first time. I am going to meet many of my ba

 My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste.  This blog is about my experience at "the city never sleeps" ....   This was my 2 nd short trip to Albany and NYC (New York City) in an official visit. Last time I was accompanied by few of my colleagues. But this time I am all alone, very confident and clear on my expectations.:).  Thanks to my colleagues, who helped in the first visit. I was at Albany, the capital city of NY State. This city is beautiful, lots of architectural buildings, very natural, clean and quiet.  After my scheduled meetings, I was supposed to go to NYC.  We had two options: 1. Flight from Albany to NYC. 2. Train journey from Albany to NYC.  I chose the 2nd option, since we followed the same during my first visit. It was a comfortable, a very scenic track, and we could work a lot during this time. :)     I came to know that, the trains from Albany to NYC got cancelled after I reached Albany, and I got only one day to choose. I decid

 My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste. This is a different blog....  Just sharing my thoughts...   On-boarded for a long trip, and the take-off was getting delayed. I settled down, ready to take a nap, hence I was not in a situation to know, what’s going on there, but crew members were busy… After few minutes, flight took off and reached the required altitude for the long flying hours. After the required nap, I was fresh enough to catch up on all pending office work and completed the required stuff. Hmm….. What to do next?.. As a customer service professional, I watch out every customer service interactions, experience customer service wherever and whenever possible. I noticed a uniqueness within the cabin and with the crew members… What was that?... I noticed the way they served, patience on serving, behaviors on interactions, and

My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ...  Vanakkam, Namaste. I trust everyone is doing well.. In India, we were at peak summer... Temperature was increasing day by day.. Everyone started talking about climate change these days... Good to see the awareness. :) But - what did we see in reality? We were seeing terrific number of advertisements and offers for AC, Fridge and Air Coolers.  We were seeing huge number of advertisements for Ice creams and dairy products We were seeing huge discounts for loans (consumer electronics), micro-finance etc. Yes, these are repeating year over year...   Everyone is reporting growth on top of these, which is forcing the industry and everyone's pay check. But, did that beat summer?. Did that decrease temperature? Did that help global warming? If not, what are are doing differently? 1. Why not plant some trees during summer ? This is the toughest one, and maintaining/protecting trees are not easy at all during summer. This is for next gener