A pleasant function at Durbar hall

I was one of the special invitees for the Book launch function held at the beautiful Darbar Hall of the Raj Bhavan in Chennai , yesterday. The Hon. R.N.Ravi , the Governor of Tamil Nadu released the 1100^th issue of Kalaimagal, the 92 year old Tamil magazine and a book titled `Suthantharamum Muthamizhum` authored by Kizhambur Sankara Subramanianm the editor of Kalaimagal for the last 27 Years. First copies were received by some eminent personalities of Chennai .  In his talk the Governor talked about the role played by thousands of Tamil freedom fighters who had sacrificed their lives and also recalled the role played by Kalaimagal in freedom struggle. He congratulated the Kalaimagal team for bringing out the magazine for the last 92 years without compromising  the values established by its founders. In his talk responding to  the address by the Chief Guest Kizhambur mentioned that this was the third time that one of his  books was being launched at the Raj Bhavan and thanked the Governor for agreeing to  be the Chief Guest and host the function at the Raj Bhavan .

I was attending a function at the Durbar Hall for the first time and was quite impressed with not only  its elegant look but also the excellent facilities offered at the hall. The staff were also very courteous and went about performing their duties efficiently. The meeting was followed by High Tea. I am glad that I could participate in this pleasant and memorable event which I thought I will miss  if I had left for Coimbatore  on Friday, as per my original plans.

 

 

Gut feeling or Intuition

Google says, `Intuition or a gut feeling is an understanding or knowledge of a situation without specific data or evidence at the time.` I am sure many of us have used our gut feeling to make major decisions in life or judge people. I have done it many times. My instinct about people is 80% of the time right. The same applies to other decisions that I have taken based on gut feeling.

I remember an incident in connection with the mega IFRA Expo India in Chennai which my small team at IFRA was handling. I consider IFRA Expo India in Chennai 2007 as the crowning glory of my 18-year association with IFRA ( now called WAN-IFRA)*. With over 100 exhibitors participating, nearly 3000 visitors, and over 600 including 200 foreign delegates attending the parallel conference, IFRA Expo India was a resounding success. As a part of the programme we had planned to have a beachside dinner for the 600 delegates at the beautiful Fishermen Cove Hotel owned by the Taj group. The month was September when generally the weather was fine with clear skies.

A few days before the event, accompanied by my colleague I visited the Hotel to check on the arrangements for the open-air dinner we were planning. A special dance programme featuring a well-known dance group was to perform on a specially erected stage facing the Sea. The dinner was to be served in a covered area on the beach. But the audience was to be seated in the open.

When I asked the Hotel team about the possibility of sudden rain ruining our open-air programme, the hotel assured me that it does not rain in September and in the previous ten years only once they faced a problem. When I expressed my fear about the possibility of rains happening that year the Hotel team told me that they could put up a temporary Shamiana covering the audience area. But it will cost Rs 3,00,000 extra. Though my colleague was not keen to incur that extra expenditure my gut feeling told me that I should not take the risk. I cleared the supplementary budget.

On the day of the event, after successful meeting sessions, the delegates assembled at the entrance of the Conference Centre to get into special buses organized to take them to Fishermen`s Cove for dinner, a distance of about 45 minutes by bus. As we proceeded on the East Coast Road I could see dark clouds slowly enveloping the city. By the time we reached the venue, there was a slight drizzle. On reaching our destination the guests rushed to the closed shamiana to take their seats. As soon as the last guest had taken his seat, it started raining cats & dogs accompanied by thunder and lightning. Thanks to the protection of the closed shamiana, we could continue with the dance programme, which the visitors thoroughly enjoyed. Fortunately by the time the programme had ended the rain had stopped entirely and the guests could have their dinner without the rain god bothering them.

If I had not taken the decision to go ahead with the Shamiana based on my gut feeling the evening dinner would have been a disaster. Needless to say, both my colleague and the hotel staff commended me for my foresight! I did not tell them that I had also promised my favourite elephant god at Gandhi Nagar that I would offer 108 coconuts if he ensured that the function went off without any hitch!

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** The World Association of News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, is a global organisation of the world’s press headquartered in Frankfurt in Germany. It is a global network of 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs.