You have done your MBA from Stansfield School of Business. How did RJing happen?

I was studying MBA at that time, when John Vijay called me. I spoke to him for three minutes. He was impressed with my voice and asked whether I would like to work for Radio One as an RJ. I readily agreed. (Laughs). As a matter of fact, I was one of the employees in Radio One who got employed quickly.

The secret behind your voice?

Nothing at all. I don’t take special effort to take care of my voice. I would like to call it god’s gift.

Where do you derive inspiration from?

I read a lot of books. That’s where most of my inspiration comes from. I also observe people. Everyday is a learning experience.

Your most embarrassing moment on air?

At times, I run out of conversation on my show. I might sometimes not know the solution to someone’s problem. In such a situation, I tell the person that I don’t know the answer and ask for some time to get back to them. I feel embarrassed then. But again, I am not ashamed to own up, for it lends credibility to my show.

Have you ever experienced creative blocks?

I am not a creative person. I am a very sober guy. I like to remain silent. But when I get on that mic, it’s an altogether different me – the flow of thoughts, creativity, everything just comes to me with ease. When my show is over I am back to normal.

The freakiest thing you have done?

This incident was way back in school. One of the girls in my class liked me but I didn’t like her. The fact that she liked me was irritating me. On her birthday, I got hold of the creepiest creatures, like tadpoles, frogs, mice, etc., and packed them in a neat box and presented it to her along with a Five Star chocolate. (Addressing her) If you are reading this, please forgive me. It was just the age factor that made me do that.

The best compliment you have ever received?

A lot of callers on my show are frustrated with their lives. I solve their problems and they call me back to say ‘Thanks a lot, Gautham. You saved my life’. This I regard as the best compliment, for I am able to make a difference in people’s lives.

Define love.

Rabia, my girlfriend. She completes me.

Ten years from now…

Gautham will be a good father to his kids and a better human being.

First published in Tamil as “Arasur Vamsam” in 2004, the book was recently translated to English by Mrs. Janaki Venkataraman. According to the author Era Murukan, the English version is not merely a translation, but “a Tamil novel written in English”. The reading on Saturday consisted a chapter of ‘Arasur Vamsam’ followed by the same chapter in English.

Set in the 19th century, the plot revolves around the Arasur famity, grown wealthy from the tobacco trade. The question of which brother – Swaminathan or Sankaran - will carry on the family line is tragically determined by fate.

The novel abounds in some of fiction’s most unforgettable characters – Subbamma who echoes disasters to come, Swaminathan’s lover who lived three hundred years before him and Vaithi who drowns his ego in onion sambar - to name a few. As Janaki Venkataraman says, the novel is complete as it has a good plot, interesting characters, love, tragedy and a lot of sex.

Era Murukan (Murugan Ramasami) is a novelist, short story writer, poet, columnist and translator from Malayalam. He has made a mark both in mainstream as well as experimental fiction. A writer on Information Technology in Tamil, Era Murukan has published 18 books so far and is the recipient of numerous honours including the prestigious “Katha” and “Ilakkiya Chintanai” awards for literature.

Former editor of ‘Aside’, Janaki Venkataraman is a freelance writer and journalist and translates both fiction and non fiction in English and Tamil. The winners of the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards 2007 will be out on the third of July.

Thiagarajan, who was employed as a cable TV technician in South Chennai, came across Dileepan on Sunday night and poked fun at him.

At around 8.30 a.m. the next day, Dileepan along with friends Mohanraj, Elangovan, Yuvaraj and Praveen Kumar, all from the same locality, confronted Thiagarajan on his way to work. The argument turned violent when one of Dileepan’s friends pulled out a pen knife and attacked Thiagarajan on his right hand.

Thiagarajan received three cuts and ran for cover to one of the streets nearby. Assuming that he had fled after being threatened, Dileepan and friends left the scene. Unfortunately, Thiagarajan was profusely bleeding from the cut on his hand.

He lay there unconscious until some of the locals found him and rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced ‘brought dead’.

Dileepan and his four friends were arrested by the New Washermenpet police within hours of the incident and later remanded to custody.

Prior to UniverCell, Babu had spent 10 years managing sales of water purifiers and this experience taught him two important lessons – turning a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ and retaining your workforce – both of which came handy in the creation of a retail giant.

Towards the turn of this century, Babu sensed a vacuum in cell-phone retailing in the Indian market. “I personally like to have a choice while making a purchase and that choice just wasn’t available for mobiles. I wasn’t the only one, there were several more like me,” he says. When he began UniverCell, he targeted “those with cars” for only they could afford to pay an incoming tariff of Rs. 17 per minute on a post-paid connection.

In stark contrast, these were also the times when an SMS was free, simply because nobody was sending one. Sensing another opportunity, Babu set about popularising it amongst customers. In 2000, the government helped a fair deal by lowering taxes (from 21 per cent to a near zero) and reducing tariffs considerably. The cell-phone, slowly but surely, became an indispensable part of life, across all stratas.

Babu and UniverCell have also come a long way – from five employees to over 1,300 and from one showroom on T.T.K. Road to 155 showrooms across the Southern peninsular. His ascent has also meant that he now has to fend off national and perhaps international competition but this hasn’t changed his ethos.

“I have always believed that if you provide the best service to people, they will come back to you.” Not one for just talk, Babu ensures that his staff undergoes rigorous training at different stages to be better equipped to handle customers. UniverCell’s customer relationship management software also does its bit to help in up-selling and roping in repeat customers.

Much is spoken of UniverCell’s aggressive promotions. The communication first began with print, with Classified Mart Ads that spanned 10 words. A far cry from occupying primetime on television. In 2007, UniverCell signed up Madhavan, the actor, to be its brand ambassador.

“We didn’t narrow down on a star and then attach characteristics, we wanted someone friendly and approachable and he fit the bill,” says Babu. A golden move, given Madhavan’s association with Airtel that will only help UniverCell when it looks beyond the South.

And that isn’t speaking of the distant future. “We’ll be in another region by the next quarter,” says Babu while adding that the 1000 showroom mark will be achieved by 2010. UniverCell is also taking the cell-phone to rural India.

“We’re in the test phase for a colour mobile manufactured by Motorola that will be priced at Rs. 999.” The launch will follow shortly. Music, e-mail and gaming are amongst the other selling factors that UniverCell is banking on for the times to come.

Similarly, director P. Vasu wanted to shoot a similar song for Kuselan and he invited all Kollywood stars. But, to his disappointment, not one of the top actors turned up for the shoot. The song now only features a few minor stars – no Ajith, Vijay, Vikram or Suriya.

P. Vasu refused to speak about this and defended the stars saying it was due to improper co-ordination that they were unable to show up for the occasion.

In effort to keep audiences engaged even when they’re not by their TV, FNMTV, posts new videos and allows viewers to post their comments and interpretations of different music videos as well as upload their own, user-generated content.

Although this strategy is only being used on music videos, MTV plans to broaden this strategy to other shows as well. Brian Graden, president of programming at MTV said the process will work because, “There was a time when the music video itself is what happened in culture, but now it’s the music video and what everyone has to say about it that is what’s happening.”

When launched in 1981, MTV revolutionized music the music industry, and MTV has been taking efforts to get back to it’s roots — actual music, and moving to the web, which Graden calls ‘a fundamental shift in technology.’

So far 36 couples are set to get hitched.

“I was always the one to choose the road less travelled,” he says. Renie’s dreams of pursuing a career as a Marine Biologist led him to take Zoology at Madras Christian College. However, the Internet changed everything.

“I launched a website for the college in my first year, which became a thriving community for old and present students,” he recalls. With encouragement from family and friends Renie decided to try his hand as web developer/designer. Later, he started his own web designing firm, which ran successfully for two years.

“Starting my own company was a huge learning experience. We ran out of a small office with three employees, and never had shortage of work,” he explains. “However, I learnt that running a business meant spending less time on what I actually loved doing, and I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.”

He later quit to work as a consultant. “If it wasn’t for my first entrepreneurial experience, there is no way I could have made IndiBlogger what it is today,” says the blogging geek. Today, Renie and his team (Anwin, Naveen, Anoop and Balaganesh) are creating a buzz across metros, bringing bloggers on one platform. In fact, it was the Pune meet which proved lucky for IndiBlogger.

“We signed up with a private investor,” says Renie, a great move considering that the portal has been running on a non-commercial basis. Talking about the only real difficulty he faced in launching IndiBlogger, Renie says, “We started with no capital, so we had no way to market ourselves. We had our product ready, but bloggers didn’t know about it.”

The portal is coming up with plenty of features that would attract every blogger. “Once we have these features, we will have a few avenues of monetization,” he says. And for all this Renie has his bunch of schoolmates from Nagercoil, who are into their respective professions continue to play an active role in IndiBlogger’s growth.

The team is next gearing up for the Bloggers meet in Chandigarh and add more numbers to its community. “We have barely scratched the surface,” Renie says.

If you are an entrepreneur with a successful business model or know one, write to us at firstinnings@goergo.inRenie [ third from left ] and team. Photo: SS Kumar

The unit is now shooting scenes at Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal in Madurai. The movie is being made in Telugu and Tamil simultaneously. Ilayaraja scores music for the film. The movie is produced by Murali Cine Arts and directed by N.K. Viswanathan.

But to put up that kind of performance, I should be in the best of my form to exploit every possible opportunity that comes my way,” Sharath said during the course of an exclusive interaction with Ergo recently. He made a visit to our office and sportingly accepted table tennis challenge from most of us. It’s anybody guess how we fared.

The country’s No. 1 paddler will leave for France on Monday to prepare for the Beijing Games. Speaking about the secret behind his success, Sharath said: “You need to practice hard. I practice for eight hours a day but a few of the top players, especially the Chinese, stretch it to 10 hours a day. There is lot of movement in table tennis and for that you need to strengthen your legs and hips.

I alternate between running and workout throughout the week.” He is banking on his good form this year to cause an upset or two at the summer games. “I have played well this year. My team came second in the European League and personally I have played well.

The exposure and experience was great and I have grown in confidence. Hopefully the stint in France will help me further and I want to reach Beijing at least two weeks before the game to acclimatise with the conditions there,” Sharath said.

Predominantly a right handed player, Sharath can take anybody out with his powerful forehand, but he feels the difference in play at the top-level is bare minimum. “All the top-100 players can play every kind of strokes. It boils down to your mental strength. The Chinese are mentally much tougher and that shows.

The sheer number of world class players coming out of China helps their game immensely. They never give you a chance to get a foothold, whereas against the Europeans you can always play yourself in.”

Sharath feels table tennis is not a spectator-friendly sport but he is not surprised with the popularity of the game world over. “Table tennis never looks good if you are watching it in television. Even as a spectator in a stadium you can hardly follow the game because it’s so fast.

But I think everybody everywhere in the world has played table tennis at some point in their life. Most of the schools, colleges and offices have a table tennis game and anybody can play.

You will be surprised to know that we have state ranking tournaments every week and you get 500 entries. But you need systematic, scientific approach of training from a very young age to reach a certain level,” Sharath added. Sharath and Neha Agarwal from New Delhi will be the country’s sole competitors in the table tennis arena at Beijing Games.