RIP, the Man of Laboriousness and Success

Undoubtedly his company's the No 1 dealer in India selling home appliances and we can’t easily point out someone who sustains the top rank continually and firmly for the last 35-40 years and it’s impossible without laboriousness.  Vasanth & Co is the brand name created by H Vasanthakumar (a member of parliament) who himself was the ambassador of the company and products he sold and he continued to taste the success in the competitive world even after the arrival of online shopping.  He’s someone who earned people’s trust in selling quality products, because people don’t trust anybody easily unless there's some truth and we have personally experienced it and as a regular customer we’re proud and content with any of the products bought from him. More than half the appliances that exist at our home are bought from Vasanth & Co and my first choice still to pick a product rather than online could be his and I always recommend purchasing from the same.

It’s really shocking and sad to know the man behind the successful brand is no more - he died at the age of 70 due to Covid 19. He picked up his business as a seller of home appliances from door-to-door in instalments and later opened his own shop in the shopping centre – T. Nagar, where our first television was bought. In 1984, a year before I was born, my parents bought a black and white Solidaire TV from him and he had enquired them about their income and the ability to pay the install amount, with personal care. My parents had mentioned this many times to us, and now watching his news of demise couldn’t stop them repeating the same. Should I need to mention anything more, how could he have come up this long (with 80+ showrooms across south India) without the concern and care about the consumers and supply of quality things? And he hasn't stopped there, rather chosen the field of politics or public life to serve the poor and simple people, as he himself comes from the same he understands the people's need and did what he could from his source of income and the posts he held as a Member of Legislative Assembly and Member of Parliament.

He chose Congress as his political party following his father and elder brother – Kumari Anandan, a veteran congress leader – and he shone well in the state politics and held office of working President and Vice-President and the Chairman of the Traders wing of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. Upon everything, it is his laboriousness that put him on all these chairs and what everyone would admire him as an entrepreneur and his life is a good lesson to read by anyone to reach various heights. And like a gem on his crown he has written three volumes of his autobiographical book series Vetri Padikattu (Ladder to Success) focusing on his entrepreneurial success and community building initiatives which I really want to read sometime. He’s such a simple and humble being lived to easily access is what everyone close to him says and he is a familiar face of Tamil Nadu and never a day passes without seeing his smiley face on television. Though it's all for the business, his reach and popularity at the homes of Tamil Nadu is not easy to dismiss. People will miss him but not his face.

RGB Monday

 

A fruit vendor on the street... pushing the tricycle loaded with fruits.

We usually avoid buying fruits or vegetables from these vendors as they sell mostly at overpriced but during these lockdown times where people are advised to stay home these vendors are an easy choice to pull off in front of the house. The government also allowed selling vegetables in mini trucks and they came around the streets with a loud speaker calling people to buy veggies. But for us, having a vegetable shop beneath the house next to us, we don’t need to look after these vehicles (and what they sell isn’t fair enough and good to encourage) and we purchase it fresh daily rather than loading the fridge with veggies (like before pandemic) bought from the market once a week.    

Even though the partial lockdown still exists, the activities on road make feel almost back to normal and the only change was many of them wear masks. But I can’t say all!

 “The WHO says young people are increasingly driving spread of virus”

I believe it's 100% true. I see people on the street and mostly it was the young people coming out without wearing masks. I wonder if they really have any sense or are they alien to earth to have any idea about what's happening around. I believe they knew everything in the smartphone era but still they come out in indifference, thinking only about their healthy self rather than those weak at home. With strong immune power, young people come easily out of corona but who fall prey were the elders with chronic diseases. We all pray for the legend singer SP Balasubramanyam. He seemed to be asymptomatic at first but now fighting for life against Covid but how come we all forget someone like him at our homes whom vulnerable to infectious.

I wish people stay away, stay safe, wear masks and strictly follow the social distance.    

A Weather, Reminder of Mountains

The weather has been pleasant and cools these days (in Chennai) and it wasn’t raining either but still, the clouds, continue to seize the sky, kept low the temperature that lures me to dream of mountains. Though not exactly, I feel a mild cold in the air to embrace me and my mind cling to the memories of the same feel. It’s been more than a year I visited mountains or stayed overnight other than the home esp. this cool weather is impossible to restrain the thoughts of Smokey Haven or what I call a bird paradise – Thandikudi – nestled in the lower Palani hills of Kodaikanal. It was a place that wasn’t too cold as Kodai or hot as plains but comfortable weather to stay all day out exploring the locality of coffee and pepper plantations and listening to birds in woods.

 

Glad my uncle built his wood houses there, so it was always a hassle-free and home-like stay for us and it would be fun if two more families of my uncles join the stay. I too used to the comfort of the woodhouse or to say my uncle had built the house easily accessible by the wheelchair so that I could visit it anytime without difficulty. He knows how I enjoy staying into nature or travel to hills and the woodhouse was first executed for personal use before the idea of renting happen. The weather is one pleasing thing about this place and no matter what the season was, it never drops out of comfort and the weather in Chennai right away is something that makes the mind think about. Perhaps due to Aadi (the season with high wind blow, falls between July-August) is believed to bring a successful year of rain and these cloudy moments brings hope as the southwest monsoon had smashed this year.
 

I leave you with some nature and cool images for the glimpses of the locality from different times of the visit. I love being there any time of the season and it has something to please or offer with the arrival of differences in nature like the migration of birds, flowering environment and wind.  

Linking this post for  Good Fences by Gosia

No Liquor Please!

It’s obvious how Pandemic battle down people on earth and our situation in India kept worrisome as we lose nearly thousand lives every day and fifty thousand plus new cases. While Chennai sustain a slow and steady pace of pandemic cases, the cases in districts follows the same to count 5k+ daily, and in this situation the govt. has ordered to open the liquor shops in Chennai that was closed for last 5 months or from the beginning of lockdown. The govt. had opened the liquor shops already in districts other than Chennai and its suburbs in May but their decision to open in the city caused no surprise rather made feel regret about their quicker move.
 
I felt not good actually when the govt. announced shutting down of liquor shops in the state, due to pandemic, as I believed it’s not easy for those addicted to alcohol to sustain without drinking and would cause a perplex leading to violent behaviours.  I know some people who find difficult to skip a day without drinking and lead a life quite dedicated to drink. I thought about them and it isn’t that I support them but I understand the pattern of their lives from my perception and wanted them to be alive rather drinking something more poisoning. But to my surprise, the people’s response was superb apart from few abnormal cases of drinking sanitizer (due to alcohol content) and commits suicide because of the unavailability of liquor.  
 
The drinkers in Chennai has already adapted to the lifestyle of sober in last 5 months of lockdown, and without drinking; now opening the liquor shops will certainly turn down the newly adopted norms, people practiced all these days despite many difficulties and emotional fights. Many a family felt a sigh of relief when the liquor shops were closed as the men in the family doesn't need to hurt women or extorting money anymore (although it is temporary) it keeps the suffering away. Tomorrow, the opening of government liquor shops will break the cells of self-controlled alcoholics, who truly amazed me though their sustainability in lack of liquor what I thought of quite impossible.
 
The nature and environment healed a lot during these pandemic lockdown periods and the shutting of liquor shops is another gracious thing happens at this time and I wished it turned out to be permanent. I know it’s not that possible unless government stops obtaining money from the sale of liquor, but I think there couldn’t be a better situation that this to regulate or create a s ober like circumstance that could be good for the country and home. I know however we cry the govt. isn’t going to tilt the ear. At least until the pandemic is over or reduced enough the liquor shops can wait rather become a spreading zone of Covid 19.

Haiku Fence

 

Yellow flowers grin, 
the barrier in chain fence 
couldn’t stop its outgrowth.

Linking this post for  Good Fences by Gosia