Tuesday, April 7, 2009

ABYTE OF LIFE

SLOWDOWN BLUES

Employees now prefer publictransport

FREE CIRCULATION

Vol. 3No. 65

PRIYANKACHO PRA

on the raining awards

1002

A chat with the

GEN NEXT MP

All of 27 years, Agatha Sangmais the youngestMP of the 14thLok Sabha andalso theGeneration Nextface of theNorth East. AyonSengupta caughtup with therising politicalstar overtelephone, afterrepeatedattempts andnearly giving upon the interview.

PAGE 07

P H O T O : R . V . M O O R T H Y

ERGO

Tuesday,April7,2009

NAMMA CHENNAI

he fifth edition of the HDFC StandardLife Cup 2009 concluded recently, withPrecision Infomatic beating TCS eServe in anail-biting finish. Over 64 teamsparticipated in the event, with participantsfrom Nokia, Verizon, Accenture, HP, AjubaSolutions, Renault Nissan, Toyota, FordTechnologies, Schenider and Inautixshowing their skills in game of cricket. Thefinals were an edge of the seat thriller withPrecision Infomatic scoring the last 4 runswith just 2 wickets to spare.The low total of 67 all out in 15.2 oversmade by TCS eServe was defended withPrecision at 23 for 5. But a goodpartnership between Karthik and Harishhelped Precision to chase the runssuccessfully.Samuel Mathew, Zonal Manager Marketing,HDFC Standard Life Insurance, Ravi Chikkan,Zonal Operations Manager and Dilip,Director, Gifts N Awards gave away theprizes to the winners.

all it cost-cutting or a way for employees to show theirdispleasure with the man-agement, most IT profes-sionals are increasingly switching over to public modes of transportto commute.The headcount of those travell-ing in company buses that ferriedemployees to and from the work-place is dwindling, along with thenumber of buses plying. Reason:the increasing bus fares haveblown a hole in many of the em-ployees’ pockets and a way toshow the dissent is to stop com-muting on them.TCS, for example, has in-creased its fares from Rs. 1,000 toRs. 2,500 (for those residing be- yond 20 kms). “We cannot protestmuch now when they are down-sizing staff, so we decided to dis-courage the system by taking public transport,” says Balaji S.(name changed), who shuttlesbetween Perumbur and Siruseri.Many of his colleagues haveshown their protest by either tak-ing the MRTS or car pooling to work. Employees say the increase was unwarranted at this point of time, as the fuel prices have alsobeen rolled back.Equally grim seems to be thescenario for bus operators whosemajor business comes from thesecompanies.Parveen Travels plies around600 buses to 12 IT companies inthe city, but the slowdown hasmeant a big blow to its businessas well. “Around 120 of our busesare without any service. Compa-nies are also thinking twice aboutsigning the three-year agreementthey sign with bus operators,”says A. Afzal, managing director,Parveen Travels.To further cut the operationalcost, companies are decreasing the number of shifts or reducing the said number of buses that was generally required for a cen-tre.HCL Technologies, on the oth-er hand, claims that they haven’thiked bus fares but instead in-creased their occupancy. “Previ-ously, if a bus had 60 per centoccupancy, we have now in-creased it to 80 per cent.So if occupancy increases thenumber of buses can be de-creased, thus cutting cost in theprocess,” says a senior ofﬁcialfrom the company.Infosys Technologies alsohasn’t increased bus fares but hasreduced at least half-a-dozen of its buses. Whether these measures arebeing taken due to recession or if they are a means to drastically cut down on company busesneeds to be seen, say profession-als. Apparently, the governmenthas offered to provide dedicatedbus service for IT companies onthe OMR stretch, which is high inservice and cheap in cost, butcompanies seem to be having mixed feeling about it.

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Companies are increasing bus fares and reducingthe number of buses in the process

LIFFY THOMAS

liffythomas@goergo.in

Not a joy ride anymore

It is tough times forbus operators, too.

FILE PHOTO: S. S. KUMAR

Mind and body

Ronit Aizenberg, founder of the Center of Yoga Advancing in Israel, will beconducting a yoga workshop for parents and children. This workshop promises tocreate better understanding between the parent and child, work on stretching,building muscle strength and balance posture and bond better. The workshop willbe held on April 11 at Vanilla Children Place. For details call 44 45534145 / 146.

Bondingover cricket

The winners: Precision Informatic

Tuesday,April7,2009

ountdown has begun for theIndian Premier League andif you haven’t made any ar-rangements to make it toSouth Africa yet, there is no needto frown. There are many packag-es to choose from which offers –airfare tickets, match tickets, ac-commodation. All you need is your pockets full and your bagspacked and you can watch andcheer your favourite teams.

Matches and Sightseeing

SOTC is the ofﬁcial tour part-ner of the IPL-2009. The SOTC of-fers a package of Rs 60,000comprising—travel and matchtickets, daily breakfast at 3 nights4 day stay at a 3 star hotel withdaily break fast. They also assureproper and close view of all 8teams playing in 4 matches. Withsight seeing also part of the deal,unwind yourself at Johannesburg and Durban. However KashmiraCommissariat, head outbounddivision Kuoni India says, “Wecan also tailor make packages ac-cording to the client’s require-ments.”

Matches with luxurious stay

Thomas Cook has tied up withKingfisher Airlines which is theofficial airline for the IPL haspackages for three nights andfour day stay at 3 star and 4 starhotels for Rs 43,900 and 59,900respectively. This package whichincludes air fare, transfers, ac-commodation, daily breakfast,travel insurance, visa and matchtickets is ideal for those who just wish to see the matches and havethe most luxurious stay at one of the finest hotels at the cities asper the client’s choice. NaliniGupta, President and head of Marketing says, “We are expect-ing to see good response by this weekend.”

Twin trips

If you wish to make a trip perperson on a twin sharing basis,Go World Holidays has somepackages for 3 nights and 4 daysat Cape Town and Port Elizabethfrom 18th to 20th April starting with about Rs 59,500 from April.Their other package is for aboutRs.62,500, per person twin shar-ing basis for 4 Nights and 5 Daysin deluxe hotels – at Pretoria from21st to 22nd April and the follow-ing two nights at Johannesburg.The icing on the cake is half day sightseeing at Cape Town andPort Blair, Pretoria and Johannes-burg . Ram Sridhar, CEO of thecompanies says, “Our packageincludes air fare, airport-hotelvice versa transfers, match tick-ets, hotel stay and we can help ingetting our client the visa. We arealso planning a 7-day packagethat would be around Rs 72,000.”

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DEEPA VENKATRAMAN

GoIPL

Budgetedaccommodation

For all those who areplanning to arrange yourtrip to the IPL on your own,here is a budgetedaccommodation at CapeTown, Durban andJohannesburg. Quickly,become a member of theYouth Hostel Association ofIndia and can avail hostelaccommodation comprisingsingle room, double/twinroom, 3 bed private roomand 6 + bed private roomor a very reasonable price.While each bed in thedormitory is from Rs 550,the room with one cotvaries betwen Rs 1000 to Rs1500 and the bed room withtwo cots ranges from Rs1300 to Rs 2000.For further details log on to

www.hihostels.com

Treat yourself toIPL and South Africaat one go

23-year-old man bit thehand of a woman policeconstable who chased himafter he forcibly hugged andkissed a young woman nearMarina beach on Sunday.The man was caught soonand sent to prison.Marina police said the ac-cused, identiﬁed as P. SasiKumar of Ayodhya Nagar inTriplicane had misbehaved with an 18-year-old collegestudent while she was walk-ing on the pavement near Vi-vekanada House. Lady Constable Chitra, attached tothe 10th battalion, who wasposted nearby, witnessed theincident and attempted tocatch Sasi Kumar. In a questto escape, the accused bitChitra’s left arm and ranaway.Charles, Sub Inspector of Police, Marina and party who was on patrol nearby, nabbedSasi Kumar a while later. He was produced in a city court,remanded to custody andsent to Puzhal Prison onMonday, police said.Chitra was hospitalisedsoon after the incident.

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ERGO CORRESPONDENT

Man bitesconstable’shand, held



Wide-eyed young visitors at the Marina meet a monkey and its master.

PHOTO : R. RAVINDRAN

Monkey business