Me.... My wife

My wife:

Circa 1991,November; I was just back from my stint at Bajaj auto & had just joined the Family business. A cousin of mine had a family function & I was entrusted with Transportation duty for this function. At the end of the day, I was to join a former Colleague & his family, who had come down to Bangalore on their further trip to Mysore, Ooty etc.

I was finishing up with my duty & handing over things there at the hall, when an Young girl accompanied by her mother walked into the hall. I remarked " Who is this homely Piece?" . This was the first & last time i passed a remark on a girl. My cousin said it was his Second cousin & mentioned her name, which I forgot eventually.

1994, was when my parents became serious to get me married & started to look out for a suitable bride who could carry their mantle forwards. They were very meticulous in their evaluation method, which left me to feel that the First Girl to pass the evaluation, would be my wife for sure.
Few months into the hunt, a marriage proposal came in from my Maternal grandmother & was looking like it was coming through with every thing suiting the needs & only the face to face meet up the only pending part.

At the same instance, another proposal dropped in & my parents moved into top gear on the same too. They went about the first round of face to face etc.. & My mother started to discuss the same with me. She started to talk about the proposal & was sounding that she had made up her mind of the second one as it came in much faster & more so from a known source.

Initially, my mother tried to describe the family background & relationships etc. I as usual could not get to understand the same.

Later in that evening, My mother gave me the photograph of the Girl & I was shell shocked for a moment & also amazed.... It was the picture of the Girl, whom I had commented as "Homely piece" a couple of years ago.

Sharada, was the Second child of Sri Govinda Swamy, Dy Gen Manager, HMT machine tool div & Smt. Chaya Swamy.

Entring the Internet era

2001 was when the Internet bug had begun to catch us up & we were forced into it by Bajaj Auto by shifting routine communications & parts ordering to Email based one over the previous Dial into VAX-8800 server to Internet based mail ordering.


The process of learning etc had built in some confidence in me personally that we could setup the net connection & use the net for our business use.
On the automotive front Bajaj auto had seen a dip in sales, with drop in volumes due to market shifting from scooters to motorcycles, was on the threshold of launching some exciting new motorcycles, which could change the image of Bajaj & the face of motorcycling in India. Eliminator came into the foray first followed by Pulsar Twins. The entire market suddenly saw some thing which was not seen before & thus began the Euphoria for these motorcycles.


The young informed obsessed buyers of these motorcycles used the Internet to pour in & pour out their concerns. The motorcycle was put under microscope & made the user become very critical about the same.

These were the Do or Die days for Bajaj & the new found Mutual respect amongst Cross Functional team members suddenly made people to rally behind things to ensure that the product would have succeed in the market.They were leaving no stone unturned.

Sam cherian, a former colleague & good friend, was deputed from service dept to the CFT & was the service assurance person of the team.


A few colleagues had pointed out to Sam, about the existence of a specific Group for Bajaj Pulsar on yahoo on the Internet, which was quite active & lots of things being discussed in it. Bajaj Management had restrained people from participating on fourm's on the net, wanted a cushion to handle the stuff.


During His visit to Bangalore, on a specific day evening, Sam suggested that I get into this group & try & help them prevent the Rumour mill spreading wrong things about the product. With my hands tied up with too many things I suggested to Sam to get better people into this act, than me. Sam only said that it was out of mutual trust that he wanted me to do this task & i could retire once the task was accomplished.


"Please Leave me alone" was what I told Sam & the reply to it was "I refuse to have dinner & leave your home until you get into this group"


I promised Sam that I'd get in in a couple of days as I was entirely new to this new system of groups etc. I had met up a young enthusiast by name Balaji Raykar, He was a member of this group on Yahoo & helped me to get on the same. Thus began My sojourn on the net, which did not end post stabilisation of the product, but continued to go on...


As things panned out, I went from being Shyam to Venkat to Venkat Sir to ..... no ideas What next.
Copy of the introductory mail is featured here

From: balray <balray@yahoo.com> Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 14:50:24 -0000


Guyz, As per the subject, i wud like to introduce to this grp, Mr.Shyam Venkat. He is the proprietor of Auto Service, an authorized Bajaj service station(pretty well know in bangalore). He is also a close friend of Mr.Sam Cherian(Product manager Pulsar - Techteam), the man behind THE bike itself. Following a mail from Shyam, i called him and during our conversation, he told me that Mr.Sam who was recently here in Bangalore, had asked him about this grp and his full fledged support to this group. On Mr.Sam's request Mr.Shyam will be joining this group and help us with our queries. Hence, once again on behalf of this group, i wud like to welcome Mr.Shyam Venkat. He owns a red Eliminator. With People like Mr.Sanjay Saraswat, whom we are greatly indebted to for his wonderful support, Mr.Shyam Venkat and Mr.Sam Cherian, I am sure this group will go a long way in making PULSAR signify a whole new way of life than just a BIKE. Contact details of Mr.Shyam. ----------------------------
Venkat shyam,BV
Auto Service #37, 28th Cross,
Indl Area, Banashankari-2 stg,
Bangalore -560070 Tel: 080-6711132
E-Mail: autobang@vsnl.net