Indian soccer may have suffered its worst body blow yet with Bharti Enterprise, which promised to invest Rs 100 crore, now rethinking its investment following wranglings within AIFF, reports Ayon Sengupta.

one but don\u2019t know how to say. If you
fall in the later category here\u2019s an
opportunity to master the art of

World Storytelling Institute is conducting a
course in storytelling from July 11. You
could be a parent, teacher, counsellor, tour
guide or someone interested in becoming a
professional storyteller to attend the course.
Each participant is required to bring a
traditional story that he/she would like to
work on telling. It could be a grandmother
story, a Raja-Rani story, a Tenali Raman
story, a fairy tale or a story in which
animals speak.
What you will be taught? Styles of
speaking, symbols in stories, types of stories,
what makes a great storyteller, storytelling
accompanied by illustrations, puppets and
props, etc.
The course is spread across eight sessions
and is priced at Rs. 2,000. For details log on
to www.storytellinginstitute.org or call Eric
Miller at 98403 94282/ 4208 0890.

he Government Railway Po- lice (GRP) on Monday ar- rested two men who

travelled in AC 2-tier train compartments and stole gold je- wellery and valuables from co- passengers. The men struck over 30 times in various trains in the state and had \ufb02ed with 352 sover- eigns of gold. A total of 285.5 sov- ereigns of stolen gold jewellery were recovered from the duo, making it the biggest seizure by GRP in the last \ufb01ve years.

Following repeated complaints from train passengers over the loss of valuables from 2-tier AC compartments, special teams were formed under the supervi- sion of the Superintendent of Po- lice (Railways), Chennai, to nab the culprits.

Meanwhile, on Monday morn- ing two unidenti\ufb01ed persons at- tempted to rob a 40-year-old women passenger at knifepoint on platform no. 1 of Chennai Central station. Police personnel on the premises rushed in to ap- prehend the duo after the victim raised an alarm.

Upon questioning, the men ad- mitted to the crime and also vari- ous other thefts from rail passengers in the state over the last two years. The duo from Ran- chi in Jharkhand were identi\ufb01ed by police as Rajan alias Rajan Ram Srivastava (47) and Amar

alias Amarnath Jaiswal (43), who used to buy AC 2-tier tickets in trains after registering fake names and addresses.

\u201cAfter boarding the train they would wait for the passengers to fall asleep at night and in the dark open their bags and extract all items of value from them, secure the luggage again to prevent any sign of break-in and decamp with

the loot. The victims would not even realise that they had been robbed till they went home or opened their bags,\u201d said S. Ma- noharan, Superintendent of Po- lice (Railways), Chennai.

The accused were remanded to custody and sent to Puzhal pris- on. Police is conducting further investigations to ascertain if more people are involved.\u25a0

The duo from
Jharkhand stole
jewellery and
valuables from
AC 2-tier
passengers after
boarding the train
under false names

Fastrack is offering 20 per cent discount on all its watches and
sunglasses. The watches post-discount are priced from Rs. 475 and
sunglasses at Rs. 555. The offer is valid till July 26 and available at all
World of Titan showrooms and Titan Plus outlets.

When you protect your duty, you get protected by the du- ty.

This has been the philosophy of Giri Trading Agency Pvt. Ltd. \u2013 an epitome of rags to riches. The com- pany was started by T.V.S. Giri and is popular for books on philosophy, mythology, slokas and devotional songs. Its \ufb01rst shop opened in 1976. Ranganathan Giri, MD

of the company and youngest son of T.V.S. Giri, says, \u201cIt was dur- ing the early 50s. My father wanted to buy a

friend\u2019s son\u2019s thread ceremony in Mumbai. He couldn\u2019t \ufb01nd one there and this triggered him to start selling traditional books in the city. He immediately took a trip to Ma- dras and bought a few books to sell in the Matunga Railway Station and soon he had a shack in a nearby street. This went on for nearly 20 years.\u201d

Ram Narayan, Iyer Srinivas and T.S.V. Hari \u2013 felt the need to expand the business when they were in their early 20s. In mid-70s, T.V.S. Giri along with his sons and daugh- ters \u2013 Sharada Prakash and Mee- nakshi Balu \u2013 opened a 200 sq ft shop in Mylapore, next to the Kapa- leeshwar Temple. They got a small space inside the temple and sold minimal pooja items like camphor,

However, the family did face their own hardships in nurturing the business. \u201cMy brothers used to cycle to Parrys Corner, Thi- ruvanmiyur, T. Nagar from Mylapore to buy

goods from the wholesale market. The rest of the stuff was sent to Mumbai. And in Mumbai, my sis- ters used to take books in baskets to sell in stores,\u201d recalls Ranganathan.

By late 80s, they got popular. Ranganathan says, \u201cWe opened our \ufb01rst showroom in Mumbai in 1990 and another shop in Mylapore in 1991. We began selling all pooja items,veshtis for Shabarimala pil- grims and eventually devotional

Since then there was no looking back and they opened up branches in Mumbai, Bangalore, Coimba- tore, Madurai and Mylapore, Adyar and Nanganallurin in Chennai.

The devotional song cassette business prompted one of the brothers, Aiyapan, to begin music company, Gitaa Cassettes, in the early 1980s. By chance they started a radio station, SS International in early 1991 and it ran until 1999.

The Gitaa Cassettes Company al- so picked up simultaneously. \u201cTill now we have together released over 300 cassettes and CDs of various ar- tistes from Madurai Mani Iyer to M.D. Ramanathan to S.P. Balasu- brahmanyam to Nithyasree to P. Susheela.\u201d

Giri Trading was registered in 1993 and from its inception they have clients from all over the world. Currently the company, handled by the second generation, is guided by Chairman T.S. Raghavan, COO E. Bala and CEO V. Subramanian. Ranganathan sums up, \u201cWe plan to go into private equity and we are seriously thinking of starting anoth- er branch overseas.\u201d\u25a0

(Made in Chennai is a column that
showcases the evolution of home-
grown businesses)

Matunga Railway Station
1976 \u2013 First shop in Mylapore
1983-84 \u2013 Gitaa Cassettes music company launched
1990 \u2013 First showroom in Mumbai
1991 \u2013 Radio station SS International launched
1993 \u2013 Giri Trading Agency Pvt Ltd registered
2007 \u2013 Mylapore shop expanded into 3 \ufb02oors

The stores in Mumbai and
Chennai; (inset) TVS Giri,
founder, Giri Trading Agency