Anuradha Sridharan

பயம் என்னும் திரையை விலக்கலாம் ஓடுதலின் வேகத்தை குறைக்கலாம் பூக்களின் வாசத்தை நுகர அணில்களின் செல்ல சிணுங்களை ரசிக்க தூரத்தில் ஒலிக்கும் கோவில் மணியை எண்ண மழைத்தூறலின் தாளத்தை கேட்க உன் மூச்சின் ஏற்ற இறக்கங்களை உணர   நேரத்தை கொஞ்சம் ஒத்திவைக்க கைபேசியின் கூவல்கள் காத்திருக்கட்டும் முகநூலின் தகவல் ரேகைகள் ஓடிக்கொண்டிருக்கட்டும் வாழ்க்கை ஓட்டம் ஆமையாக சில மணித்துளிகள் மாறட்டும் கண்கள் நோக்கி முழுமையாக உள்வாங்கும் உரையாடல்கள் வேண்டும் காதுகள் கவனமாக கேட்கும் பொறுமைகள் வேண்டும் எதுவும் உன்னை விட்டு போய்விடாது உனக்கென்று சில மணித்துளிகள் ஒதுக்கினால்

I should thank YouTube for introducing me to Mrs.Bharathi Baskar's works. On one of the bored Saturday afternoons, I stumbled upon her talks given at an Engineering college orientation programme as part of my YouTube recommendations. If you can understand Tamil, I highly recommend the two videos. My hubby who doesn't watch much of Tamil programmes loved them too. Later I realized that she is one of the prominent speakers in various pattimandrams (debate shows). For me, pattimandrams remind me of my childhood when TV channels would play them on festival days at 10 AM. The elders in my family would be glued to them while we (kids) would be happily munching on some sweets or taking a nap. I was never a fan of such debates in growing-up years. Anyway, coming to the topic, Mrs.Bharathi's speeches are multi-dimensional - humorous, contemporary, thought-provoking, passionate and most importantly, she knows exactly how to connect well with an audience. I have been listening to...

I came across this concept in my Science textbook in 9th or 10th grade. And for some reason I still remember it even after so many years. Ivan Pavlov observed how his dog would salivate when he would ring a bell and bring food for the dog. As days passed by, the dog would salivate just by hearing the sound of the bell in anticipation of the food. This observation led to his research on classical conditioning theory.  It gives good insights into how a conditioned stimulus can lead to a conditioned response. We all experience this often in our day-to-day lives. Our smartphones have transformed us into Pavlov's dog. You hear a notification, vibration or even a blinking LED, your hands automatically reach out for your phone to check what's new. Mobile app makers understand this phenomenon and ensure their first and foremost user engagement strategy is "Notifications". They personalize these messages, make them variable, interesting, whacky and what not. I started...

Having been born and brought up in Tamilnadu, my friends found it strange when I told them that I had never been to Pondicherry. " You must go, Anu. You'll love it ", one of them recommended during an evening chai meetup. When hubby suggested that we go for a long drive to celebrate our wedding anniversary, I knew exactly where to go. Cleartrip somehow got a peek into our "offline" conversations and sent a hotels flash sale email on the very same day :-) We got a great deal in one of the CGH Earth Properties at Pondy, Maison Perumal . Day 1 A light drizzle greeted us early morning and we left Bangalore around 5:45 AM and drove straight to Vellore - the route that has become very familiar thanks to our Chennai trips. We took a short detour inside Vellore to have breakfast at our most favorite place - Saravana Bhavan. Loaded ourselves with some amazing dosas, yummy pongal and refreshing filter coffee. After Vellore, we took a right turn towards Arcot (route SH5...

A few weeks back, I was interacting with organizers of executive MBA programme at Institute of Product Leadership. They asked me if I could deliver a talk on design thinking and share some of my experiences from past projects. While I was thinking about the relevant topic, I also came to know from them that the students are already doing a course on design thinking, know the concepts and that it would be more useful if I can link the concepts they have learned to real-life experiences. I observe that many startups do not seem to invest enough time in understanding the problem space, exploring the user/customer's context and diving into their motivations. This directly relates to the first 2 stages of design thinking process - Empathize with your users and Define the problem statement . So I structured my talk around these 2 stages and shared relevant examples from the two startups I have worked with so far. Here are the slides: Why the first 2 stages of Design thinking are impor...