Pondy Trip, QN, Liveblogging & Other updates

5 days since my last post may look like a long time considering I have been publishing new posts every alternate day so far. Have lots of stuff to blog about but running on a very tight schedule. So compromising a bit and giving quick updates. 

  Quick Jump: Pondy Trip | Questnet Scam update | Live blogging @ webinnovation.in | 

Enjoyed a one day trip to Pondy and surrounding areas covering MatriMandir at Auroville (an under construction spiritual township some 15-20 kms north of Pondicheri (130 kms from Chennai)), Puducheri (Pondy) and Mahabalipuram last Saturday with Krishna Shastry, Gulshan Raj and other classmates from JNVC. [Related: JNVC memory snaps] The places we visited were nothing great (in fact many were disappointed as Pondy and Auroville had nothing exiting to offer and it was evening by the time we reached Mahabalipuram) but had some great time with old school pals- all are doctors and IT professionals now. We also sang lot of songs we were taught during JNV days. The best thing I enjoyed during the trip was me driving the Tavera for about 60 kms. Photos of this trip are available as a slideshow below. 

Branding tender coconut Observed that some coconut vendors in Pondy have started branding the tender coconut they sell, by attaching a sticker to it. To me this looked like a cheap and useless imitation. A detailed post on this I have guest authored at Churumuri blog. Read that here. I think it is a good idea to guest blog in other blogs once a while. Your regular readers will be seasoned to your way of writing and may blindly agree with whatever you say. Also well known friends may hesitate to give negative comments. Guest blogging at other blogs bring whole new set of readers and gets new new perspectives and also some sharp criticisms. Some nice debate has already triggered there... Wanted to write part 2 of Manipal visit but that is still pending. Some updates are too small to qualify as blog post, so posting them at my twitter account-you can keep an eye on my twitter page for quick updates.

QuestNet International and its members in troubled waters Chennai police are cracking whip on Quest Net, a multi level marketing company which has spread its tentacles all over India (mainly among IT folks) and many other countries, spreading false hope that everyone can become rich by buying coins and referring others to do the same. Now several victims who were lured to invest in this pyramid scheme coming out to lodge complaints against QN. We need to see if law enforcement agencies can do something effective to stop this kind of companies. I had written earlier about this company in this post but due to time constraint unable to keep track of the latest developments. Mohan BN is following this development effectively and closely in his blog. 

May 17 update: Mohan used to follow this story closely but recently has deleted several posts related to this issue. I don't have great expectations from the police investigation, but the negative publicity is going to make it very tough for QN to sign-up new people. May be they would go for a name change again-let us see.

Live Blogging at WebInnovation.in Summit, 8 May, Hotel Grand Hyatt, Mumbai Leaving for Mumbai this evening to take part in a one day summit on Web 2.0, called Webinnovation.in. Taking '1 minute manager' for inflight reading. With the complementary registration offered by the organizers I’ll be live blogging the event on the event website. I enjoy journalism (read my journalism experiences) and live blogging will be akin to live reporting. I am sure I’ll be able to enjoy that. Keep an eye on blog section of event website for my live blogging posts. Each of my trips generate enough content for atleast 5-10 blog posts but not sure when and where to write and publish them all…