Bloganand

Donation Time !!!

2016-12-20T13:09:00.000+05:30

It's time of the year when the Fitness centers gear up for Donations from fitness "freaks" across the globe. In Pune, almost all the Gyms have attractive discounts on annual memberships. New year (01st Jan) is the time everyone is waiting to start the fitness routine !! Since you have waited most of the year to once again start your excise routine, why not wait for 10 more days and start again??? "This time, I am going to be very regular and meet my fitness goals..." This is a very common feeling and thinking with a lot of people. Why not sign-up for the annual membership? and yes, there is 40% discount if you sign-up right now !!! Everything seems to be working out well.

Many of us get into this trap and donate money to the fitness centers. My sincere request is to think more than once before signing-up. I have nothing against the fitness centers, but if I can save at least one person from this voluntary donation, I will be more than happy. There are better places to donate your hard earned money. Fitness is a mission and not an impulse. Make it a habit and commitment to yourself before signing up !!

Stay Fit, Stay Happy !!!

Donald Trump - No more an Entertainer...

2016-05-10T16:59:00.000+05:30

US presidential race 2016 is getting more and more interesting with every passing day. Most of the people did not expect Donald Trump to get so close to Republican nomination. Somehow Google seems to still categorize news related to Mr. Trump in the 'Entertainment' section.

I think its time for Google's algorithm to categorize him appropriately.

Thank you Mr. Modi (The Leader...)

2015-04-11T23:13:00.000+05:30

On my last day of The Netherlands trip, last evening I was planning to travel from Venlo to Amsterdam to stay at my cousin. This is an experience which prompted me to write this blog to thank our Prime Minister Mr. Modi.

After checking out of the hotel I got a taxi to the train station in Venlo. Dutch is the local and default language here even though the people of this country do speak English. At the ticketing counter I wanted to avoid (language issue) using the ticket machine and hence was looking for the manual ticketing. For some reason, the ticketing counter was closed and there was no option but to buy the ticket from kiosk. I was looking around for someone to help me with buying the right ticket to Amsterdam Central station.

I approached the first person who I thought could help me. Here is the conversation -

Me: It seems like the ticket counter is closed. Can you please help me with buying ticket to Amsterdam central station with the kiosk?

Him: Oh sure, let me help you. Our country is not so friendly with visitors.

Me: You have a great public transport system and I did not find it too difficult to be here for the past week.

Him: Where are you from?

Me: India.

Him: Oh...India, Modi's India? He is a great leader and your great country will do much better under him.

Me: How do you know about him and India?

Him: I watched him first time during his US visit and was very impressed; I also searched online and found him to be a great leader; in the course I also found a lot of interesting things about India and Indians.

Me: Thank you. Please visit us sometime. (handed him the debit card for purchasing the ticket from kiosk)

Him: Oh sure; one day I will. Your card does not seem to work with this machine. See such a stupid system we have here. I am sure in your country it is not as difficult to get just a train ticket.

(....I did not say anything.....) Let me buy you ticket with my card.

Me: Oh. Thanks a lot. How can you say your country is not friendly when people (like you) are so friendly.

Him: Here is your ticket.

Me: Thank you ( I paid him cash and was trying to pay the last few cents to complete the transaction)

Him: Oh, never mind a penny here and there. I am happy to have met someone from India. Have a safe trip home.

Me: Good bye; truly appreciate your help. Please do visit India sometime. Bye...

Him: Good Bye.....

Thank you Mr. Modi for your leadership which has built a positive image in the eyes of the world.

A personal thank from me, an Indian...

Thank you...

A Great Leader - Dhoni

2013-07-18T11:58:00.001+05:30

What a game of Cricket it was last week when India won the Triangular Series final by beating Sri-Lanka in a nail biting match. All credit to captain MS Dhoni for the special knock one more time. Dhoni is a real Leader and consistently leading from front for quite some time now. Cricket in India is a religion and THE only game followed by whole nation. That means the team members and especially the captain goes through a lots of pressure situations to live upto the Nation's expectations
The debate on 'who is the most successful captain in the history of Indian cricket is no more.

What makes MSD such is a consistently successful Leader? Here are the 10 things in my view:

1. Know your Stuff

- Mahi knows the game very well. The conditions, opponents, requirements, challenge in each game is different. A great leader knows all these parameters very well and plans the strategies, risks and opportunities. The knowledge of the core domain for any leader is vital and alignment to the changing environment is the key.

2. Know your Team

- MSD knows each and every team member in and out. He is aware of their strengths, weaknesses, mindset, temprament, egos and just about everything. This is possible with a deep level connect with each individual team member. Communication with everyone, individually as well as a team is crucial.

3. Lead from Front

- Quite frequently MSD leads the team from front. He comes up the batting order depending on situation and quite often carries the game till end. Plays in tandom with all the team members, gives them opportunities and at the same time does the work himself when situation demands. He is able to strike a right combination of delegation and doing himself.

4. Enjoy your Game

- Whatever the situation may be, MSD seems to be enjoying each momemnt of the game. He is always present in the moment, too much not showing on his face which is going in his mind. He has a great control on emotions and his mind is well trained to focus on the moment. During any up and down during the game, he seems to Enjoy each momenet of the Game without worrying too much about the result. This is one of the core principles of Bhagwad Gita 'Do your Karma well without worrying about the end result'

5. Keep your Cool

- Even if a team member does not deliver as per expectation or luck does not favor the team, MSD does not loose his cool. You will never find him shouting and fuming on the field, neither on his own team members nor the opposition.

6. Be Brave while making Decisions

- There is just too much at stake if you loose an important game since whole country is following the match closely. Still, MSD never hesitates to take brave decisions. He is also open to new experiments and trusts the team member with the responsibility in a given situation. There are times when the result is not favourable, but deciveness goes a long way in creating a sussessful trend.

7. Trust yourself and Team

- Many a times Dhoni promotes himself up the batting order and more often than not, takes the game to successful completion. As a leader he has tremendous befief in himself and also the team.

8. Be Innovative

- MSD is not one of the most stylish batsman; he does not follow the book only. He is innovative with his batting style (helicoptor shot) and innovative in the decisions he makes. Innovation is the key for success as a Leader. One needs to constantly challenge existing processes and come-up with innovative ways to improvise.

9. Show respect and reward high performance

- There are occasions when MSD has shown respect for the senior team members by seeking their opinion and letting them drive the show when necessary. He also praises his high performers in front of the world which motivates them for even better performance.

10. Its a Team Game

- MSD knows that its a team game, he does not play for his own records. Right from selecting the right team for a game, knowing each individual team member's strengths and weaknesses, trusting them with responsibilities he brings out the best team performance.

Online Me...

2013-07-17T10:47:00.000+05:30

We were looking for a tenant for our Nagpur apartment recently. Apart from letting some relatives and friends know about the vacant apartment, we posted ads on a couple of web sites. Not surprisingly enough, most of the leads came through the online channel. Yesterday, we were about to finalize the deal with one family. We did not know the person earlier nor there were any other references who knew the person. However, based on the person's name and employer, it took less than 10 seconds to locate him on Facebook. We could read all (almost) the attributes of the person which we wanted to verify before making a decision to rent our home to him. Who are the people in the close circle, what kind of family they are, the educational qualifications, their likes are dislikes, and many more things.

It is very important to carefully commit anything into Internet since there is no 'delete' or roll-back button there. With advent of Big-Data technologies like Hadoop, it is very easy and near real-time to dig out the needed information. One may seriously lower or exceed the chances of success (job selection, finding a home, a business deal, life partner, and you name it...) based on one's online personality. The 'Online Me' is at least as important as 'Me'.

It is very important to carefully establish connections online as much as in real life. "A man is known by the company he keeps" holds even more true with the online personality. Especially for the professional life and professional networking. The casual 'likes' and 'dislikes' also need to be carefully done. Since there is virtually no difference in 'Me' and 'Online Me'. The difference if at all any will be no more in very near future. The online personality development is as important as the real one.

There is nothing like Work-Life Balance…it’s all about Life’s Balance

2013-02-28T17:38:00.001+05:30

In the corporate environment, “Work-Life” balance is the buzz word used by organizations and employees to measure and qualify the quality of Life. WiKi defines Work-Life balance as “A concept including proper prioritizing between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation). Related, though broader, terms include "lifestyle calm balance" and "lifestyle choices".” Although it differs organization to organization as well as person to person, in the current times when we are always ‘connected’, most of us end up spending 12 hours a day (out of 24) for the work. If we consider remaining 12 hours as ‘Life’, there is a 50-50% split between Work and Life really. However, the term ‘Work-Life balance’ seemingly means, work time is something not to be worried about as quality time and the reminder needs to be the quality time. However, if the time split is 50-50 or more in favor of work time, there is nothing like ‘Work-Life balance’. There cannot be a clear-cut separation between these times. The point is we should enjoy our work, every moment of it. That is only way to live a balanced Life.

Live in the moment –

There are many a times, we think, I will have peaceful and happy state of mind , as soon as….

· My examination is over,

· The production deployment is done,

· I change my current job, home, location, etc.

· The kids are independent,

· Next financial year,

· I get next salary raise,

· ….

There are other times when we think, it would have been better if…

· I studied more for the examination,

· We did not accept last minute hot-fix to production environment,

· I did not change last job, home, location, etc.

· Kids are still with me,

· I planned my finances better last year,

· ….

Future is not there yet and past is gone. All we have is the current moment, today, this-month, this-year, this-job. We need to learn the art and science to live in the current moment. If we are not living in current moment we are living in illusion. Living in current moment creates an impact on emotional well-being and as a matter of fact on physical health too. Living in current moment is like living with acceptance (there is no option any way). We are then accepting life as it is ‘now’, not how we wish it would have been. Living in acceptance follows the sense of completeness. If we do not live in the current moment, we are giving up the Life and the power to create and change. There is then nothing like ‘Work-Life’ balance, if we live in the current moment all the time.

The reason why we cannot live in the moment is our mind is continuously talking to the self and keeps reflecting the past and future. The mind needs to be trained to stay in the current moment. A simple practice of Mindfulness meditation every day is one good way to tame the mind. The meditation needs to be practiced for as many minutes as person’s age in number of years. (30 minutes for 30 year old person). It will take about 40 days to develop the habit and change the brain wave pattern. There is nothing like ‘Work-Life’ balance after that, it’s all about life’s balance.

One on One Meetings – Team Management’s Best Practice

2013-01-30T23:23:00.001+05:30

Irrespective of the number of direct reports a Manager has, One-on-one meetings is THE best practice a (s)he can follow for building a great team. A great team is the one which works towards a common goal and takes pride in team's success. A great team's member sub-consciously (in most situations) rates team's priority over individual when they conflict. (S)he is self-motivated, ensures smooth communication with all the stakeholders, propagates positive energy, confronts problems or issues up-front instead of hiding or procrastinating. Almost sounds like a dream right? But, it is very much possible to get close to having such a team; without it being a mere coincidence where all the 'great team members' are assigned to work in your team. It is possible with one-on-one meetings.

Here are some of the best practices, if followed well, can turn a good team to a great team –

As a Manager, schedule a formal, time-boxed one-on-one meeting every week or every alternate week depending on the team size.
1. 15 minutes of time-boxing has worked well for me.
2. If the number of direct reports is more than 15, the meetings can be every alternate week.
As far as possible, the meeting should be done at the same time and same place every week.
Ensure to stay away from all the distractions (laptop, phone, friendly visitors, etc.)
1. The undivided attention to the direct report communicates the message that (s)he is important for the manager.
Unless there is a real good reason (URGENT situation), do not skip the meeting for the week. Try to re-schedule sometime on the same day.
First 5 minutes of the meeting are for the direct report to talk about his/her updates.
1. They are also welcome (and encouraged) to share any personal milestones or events which can be shared with Manager.
  1. This establishes a personal connect and helps to remove the 'Boss-Subordinate' barrier.
2. The team member also talks about the milestones achieved/missed during the week along with the plan for the next week.
The next 5 minutes are for the Manager to talk about his/her updates.
1. The Manager can share any personal milestones or events which can be shared with the direct report.
2. The Manager then talks about any significant milestones achieved/missed, during the week by himself or the work unit, followed by the plan for next period.
The last 5 minutes are for a mutual discussion on combined road-map and to discuss any inputs/suggestions/areas of improvements or anything that needs to be changed.
Manager as well as the direct-report takes notes during the conversation.
1. Recommended way is on a notepad (of course any tool can be used for the purpose as far as it helps in tracking the action items).
The notes are referenced during the subsequent meetings.

Some of the immediate benefits of the one-on-one meetings are –

Establish a good working relation between Manager and the direct-report.
Small problems/issues surface sooner than later and taken care of before they get bigger.
Team's goals are tracked by Manager as well as the direct report, resulting in better changes in meeting those.
The communication gaps are filled and trust eventually builds.
….

Ready for the World!!! [First Day at School]

2012-08-02T15:00:00.000+05:30

Dear Sharvari,

Yesterday was your first day at the Play School, really the first step out of our home. Here I am wondering how fast time flies; you were a small little angle in our life just a couple of years ago. All the small skills of life you acquired over this period brought a lot and lot of joy in our lives. I know you are getting ready to see and face this beautiful world around you. I want you to live your life to its full and go on exploring it with great courage and joy. You need to learn to live the current moment and embrace the present; the past is gone and future is yet to come. Life is only as long as the happy moments we live. You do need to cherish the past but not let it hamper your present and at the same time plan for your future and not let it overshadow your current moment. I know it’s going to be a balancing act but I am confident you will be able to strike it.

You tell us your play-school name as ‘Rabbit and Tortoise’ and you also know the story of Rabbit and the Tortoise where the tortoise wins the race slowly and steadily. The world has changed quite a bit after this story was originally told. You need to be as fast as rabbit and as steady as the tortoise to win. Again, I do not want you to get yourself into the mad-race. Choose your field carefully without following the herd and acquire all the good qualities to win. Winning or losing is part of life but you succeed as far as you have tried. I want you to try hard and not worry about the result, leave the result to God.

There will be times when you will have to make some choices; I will help you to be ready to make those. You have to always make a conscious choice between right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, short or long, quick-dirty or slow-elegant, yes or no. I am sure you will eventually learn to make those choices on your own. And once again, you will always get an opportunity to learn from your mistakes but also learn to not repeat the mistakes.

It was hard for me to leave you at the school yesterday when you wanted to be with your daddy, but that was a decision I had made for you.

Wishing you all the very best in life with lots of love…always…

Your Baba…

Google Rocks !!!

2012-07-26T14:50:00.000+05:30

Once again Google is proving that it is on a quest of continuous innovation and working hard towards simplicity with all its applications. Happened to see this improvement in Google Search, just enter a mathematical expression and Google comes up with a scientific calculator. This is too good, once again I have to say “Google Rocks !!!”

Why do we need a Financial Advisor???

2012-06-22T17:49:00.000+05:30

With globalization and open trade and economic policies, there is a consistent rise in India’s per capita earning. With this, we have the biggest pool of middle and upper middle class households. As a result there is an ever increasing need for better management of individual’s funds, resulting in a need (hype?) for financial advisors. The real question is, ‘do we need a financial advisor?’. I do not think so. I happened to read an analogy for justifying the need for financial advisors. A TV manufacturer, say SONY, can manufacture a TV for a few hundred dollars whereas if we want to individually assemble a TV, we can do that with a lot of efforts but the end result far from what we can go and buy from a SONY showroom. I think this analogy is too far stretched for a extremely specialized area. When it comes to managing our own funds (and making sure they work for themselves), I do not think there is a need for a professional financial advisor.

Here are the reasons –

1. Financial advisor is a human being who tends to make mistakes.

2. A financial advisor is not a saint; his ultimate goal is to make money for himself. His advice may be biased towards improving his own bottom-line.

3. Why do we want to open our personal financial books to someone else; if there is a potential of managing our own funds ourselves?

4. There is a plenty of information available online, if we know how to make money, we can also learn how to manage it. I am still talking about middle class and upper middle class income levels here.

5. Ultimately, the money we make and retain has a direct link (sometimes invisible) with our Karma. Always have a feeling for poor and help them some way or the other, your financial plan will not fail.

Here are some of the tips for moderate risk appetite.

1. Invest in real estate about 35% of your monthly take-home income can be diverted towards EMI.

2. Invest 15% of your monthly take-home income into 2-3 mutual fund schemes through SIP.

a. Spend some time online doing research into good rated mutual funds. Do not get carried away by the marketing.

3. Invest 10% of your monthly take-home income into a Gold ETF.

a. Spend some time online doing research into Gold ETFs and choose yourself by verifying all the facts.

4. Invest 5% of your monthly take-home income into equity.

a. Buy only blue-chip company shares.

b. Have a long term perspective.

c. Buy on dips with appropriate stop losses.

d. Book profits at appropriate times.

e. Do your own research online and do not trust any tips against some facts you see for yourself.

5. Spend 10% of your monthly take home income on health/life insurance.

a. Treat insurance as insurance and not as an instrument of investment.

i. Buy term insurance only.

b. Carefully check the health insurance provided by your employer and add adequate coverage if necessary on top of that.

6. Spend rest of the money to take care of your expenses.

7. Spend some quality time consistently, every day on your health. This is an absolute must. As they say, you do not want to spend all your health to make wealth and then all your wealth to earn health.

Vision 2020 ??? (Please vote what do you think)

2012-06-11T18:17:00.000+05:30

Over last few days, three things deeply disturbed me about India’s social and political future.

1. Child Labor – While looking for a shoemaker for a quick shoe polish, I visited a local road side footpath stall and surprised to see the job handed over by a father to his 4 year old kid. When the child started polishing the shoe, I asked his father, “Why don’t you send him to a school instead?” the man replied, “He does not want to go to school”. This is the state of affairs in India 2012. I do not know the exact numbers but, there are millions of small kids kept away from education, and some of the basic human rights. On the other hand, there is a generation of growing middle and upper middle class kids spending more than 3 hours a day on Facebook and other non-productive activities, spending (wasting) money on luxuries and addictions. There is a widening gap between haves and have-nots which in turn disturbs balance of the society. The ever increasing cost of living makes it difficult for the lower middle class families to manage their living expenses.

2. Female Foeticide– Recently this issue has surfaced and it is surprising to see the numbers and ways in which girls are aborted from seeing this beautiful world. For some stupid rituals and customs a girl child is hated in India for centuries now and the practice of mercilessly killing these innocent girls is still continuing. If such is the state of progressive (so-called) Maharashtra state, one can imagine the numbers in the states like UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc. This practice is critically disturbing natures balance and the sex ratio in modern India. No doubt, in a long run, the social consequences will be devastating for the health of India as a country.

3. Grand Welcome for Raja at Chennai – Granted that his involvement in 2G scam is not proven yet and he is not marked guilty by the Supreme Court of India, the grand ceremonial welcome he received on his arrival in Chennai is really depressing. In a country where genuine social workers and organizations hardly get any recognition, the way our politicians are celebrated for all the wrong reasons deeply hurts. I am sure most of the young party workers do not even know what they are really cheering for, they are not given to think about the right and wrong. They are all paid cheer-leaders who are uncertain about their present leave alone the future. They all become directionless youth with all their energy drained into meaningless celebrations; in the end leading to a dark future.

In summary, widening gap between rich and poor, declining-sex ratio and rise of political leaders due to wrong reasons (region, cast, language, etc.) and deprival of deserving and truthful politicians is the current state of India. I am not a pessimist, I truly want to see a Better India and a developed India by 2020 but at this juncture (less than 8 years for 2020), I see some serious flaws and ignorance in the vision statement of some of our beloved leaders, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and N.R. Narayana Murthy. It’s not wrong to be optimistic, but I feel we need some serious changes in place for at least moving in the right direction to achieve the goal of ‘Better India’ by 2020. Its sad but true, in my view that we are moving in a wrong direction.

Gem of India (भारतरत्न)…

2012-05-22T15:24:00.000+05:30

At the moment, there are two major sport events in progress. One is IPL-5 (Indian Premier League – Season 5) and another is WCC-12 (World Chess Championship 2012). I am more than sure that 95% of Indian population knows about IPL for one or the other reason and only less than 5% of the Indian population is aware of WCC-12. No doubt with a right (?) mix of Cricket and Bollywood, IPL is a grand success and it is truly enjoyable to watch the matches on ground. I experienced the IPL magic during very first match on Pune’s brand new stadium. It’s a complete package of entertainment and as IPL-5 gets into the play-off round from today, there will be even more enthusiasm on Pune’s stadium and the match between Veeru and Gambhir promises to be a terrific one. The television viewership will be at all time high and the rest of IPL-5 will receive a lot of India’s attention (media, common man, Bollywood, gamblers and all…). At the same time, Vishvanathan Anand is battling hard against Boris Gelfand of Israel for retaining his World Championship. As of today, the match of 12 games is tied at 4 points each. What a victory Anand had in the 8^th Game. Wow!!! I am looking forward to remaining four games and wish Anand will retain his title as World Chess Champion.

It is sad but true, Anand is fighting his battle for India all alone (almost). Compared to the focus that a tournament like IPL gets in India, the attention (from media, common man, Bollywood, etc.) received by WCC is negligible. That brings me to think once again, who is the real Gem of India? Is it our beloved Sachin Tendulkar or Vishvanathan Anand? This is no way an effort to take credit from Sachin for his outstanding consistency and commitment to Cricket and all the glory (including World Cup) he has brought for India. It may not also be possible to compare them on certain grounds, they are just the best and we all are proud of them, period. However, if at all we are to decide who is the ‘Gem of India’, or rather who should be the first sportsman to receive it, I would vote for Vishvanathan Anand (believe me I am a big Sachin fan myself). There is nothing wrong in our passion for a particular sport in the country but we should also think about other sports if at all we want to progress as a Nation in sports (London Olympics are round the corner and I wish, Indian participants get fortunate enough to get some % of attention this time). Here are my reasons why Vishvanathan Anand should be the first one to receive Bharat Ratna if at all we decide to give it to a sport person.

1. The game of Chess is originated from India. It is our own game.

2. Vishvanathan Anand is as consistent as any other sportsman when it comes to Chess.

3. He is fighting the battle almost on his own without all the cheering, support and attention that cricket receives.

Please comment and do support Vishvanathan Anand for retaining the WCC title. Good Luck Anand!!!

bingle

2012-05-11T16:33:00.000+05:30

bingle

On Thursday, 10^th May, Microsoft announced to introduce a set of changes to Bing that it says will improve searches with help from loads of information available with Facebook. In order for the search results to be relevant and personalized, there is no better data source than Facebook as of today. Seamless integration with Facebook will definitely an advantage to Microsoft. This new version of Bing is the biggest update to the search engine since Microsoft introduced it in 2009. Google has already integrated the data from Google+ in its search engine.

At this time, Google serves two third of US web searches compared to 15% for Microsoft’s Bing. This is a wide gap and Google more than dominates the search space; to the extent that ‘Google’ is synonymous with ‘Search’. There is no doubt that majority of the internet users remember Google when it comes to searching content on internet. Microsoft is trying to bridge the gap as much as possible with collaboration with Yahoo and Facebook.

Just out of curiosity, here is a comparison between search results between Bing and Google – (IE 8 – v8.8.7600.16385, Download Speed – 9.64 Mbps; Upload Speed – 4.96 Mbps)

Google - Bing Comparison (Click to enlarge)

Observations -

Comparison (Click to enlarge)

There are some striking similarities between the search results generated by Google and Bing (Page rankings are close). Microsoft seems to have no better way to represent search than Google apart from some alignment changes. Looking at the past however, Bing will definitely try and catch-up with Google (just how Windows PC caught up with Apple Mac). Where ever this search battle goes, there is no doubt the end internet user will be benefited with more relevant and very personalized search offerings.

Bingo!!!! .

Way to go Bingle.

2012-05-08T10:31:00.003+05:30

Good News…There is a Better chance to get a Tatkal Ticket on Indian Railway Site

How many times have you tried to login to the Indian Railway Official website for a Tatkal Ticket and got it successfully? I have more often than not failed to get a Tatkal ticket from IRCTC. One of the known reasons is that during peak travel times, the agents book all the tickets by logging in right at 8:00 AM. For a personal user like me, there was always disappointment in store with the Tatkal tickets. The site gets very slow at 8:00 AM and finally when you login, the tickets are over.

If you have had same experience in the past, there is good news, Indian Railway website has implemented a new feature by which only two transactions are allowed per IP address between 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. That means, people who are bulk blocking the tickets, cannot do that on the same scale anymore, giving that much more chance to personal users like us to get tickets.

Well done Indian Railways, IRCTC is definitely one of the best and the largest e-Commerce site in India and if more such efforts are taken, the disappointment of consumers will be converted into customer delight in some time.

Good luck with online ticket booking!!!

2012-04-26T18:34:00.000+05:30

Experiments with Google Translator

Google translator is a great tool for translating text between more than 60 languages. It can also detect the language as you type the text. Simply out of curiosity, I tried to test the translator between Hindi to English. Here are the results.

Hindi to English Translator (click to enlarge)

In all the sentences above, the translator is unable to convey correct meaning in English, although it comes pretty close to the context. I am very sure that Google will perfect this, just a matter of time.

English to Hindi Translator (click to enlarge)

English to Hindi translator works better than Hindi to English one. Here is an example. Good job Google.

Tune of Gita..

2010-03-15T17:18:00.000+05:30

Shreemad Bhagwad Gita also more simply known as Gita is a sacred Hindu scripture considered among the most important texts in the history of literature and philosophy. This is the conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna taking place on the battlefield before start of war of Kurukshetra. Numerous philosophers and spiritual gurus have tried to extract the meaning of life from Gita. All time great scientist Albert Einstein said "When I read the Bhagwad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous..", Mahatma Gandhi said "When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagwad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day.."

Since my childhood days, I have heard similar praise and respect for Gita at our home. After returning from USA in late October-09, my father started teaching Sanskrit verses from this great text to Devyanee. She has memorized those verses from a new language in a surprisingly short span of time. I am feeling so proud of her when she has completed 12th chapter recently. Looking at this, I have realized the importance of presence of elderly at home.

Rain in Summer

2010-03-12T16:02:00.000+05:30

It's mid March here in Nagpur. The temperature in this part of India at this time is (should be) going North day by day. Last two days it is raining like rainy season. This kind of sudden climatic changes are observed in last few years. As soon as temperature starts climbing, it rains. This impacts some of the crops and mango produce dramatically. I think these are some of the effects of Global warming which may get worse day by day if we do not act NOW. It's already high time and we as a society seem to have realized it as apparent from some of the initiatives taken by government and non-government organizations with participation from public. Here are some of the things we should do to improve the situation -

Increase the efficiency of public transport, the daily commute to office, workplace, etc. should be easy and convenient for all.
Discourage use of private vehicles as much as possible.

Increasing the cost of ownership of vehicles
Collect tolls on roads and for parking
Increase age limit for driving license to

Impose strict norms on emissions (the PUC should not be a formality)
Encourage and provide assistance, guidance to plant and maintain at least a tree on Birthday (if necessary give tax exemption). Even if 1/4 of the population can participate in the program, we get a good number of trees planted and conserved.
Encourage use of unconventional natural resources (solar energy is abundant and we should spend on research on increasing the efficiency of converting it into electricity)
Install sensors on all the street lights to keep them ON only during low light conditions. (We see so many street lights ON during day time)
Reduce electricity transmission losses.
....
....

Time to act is now. Else we are going to experience rain in summer, dry HOT conditions in Winter and wait for rain in rainy season...

Holi Hai....

2010-03-02T20:41:00.000+05:30

Devyanee had a lot of fun with colors yesterday. When we brought the water gun day before yesterday, she could not wait to start playing with it and woke up early in the morning and got colors all over her, I remembered my childhood days and the excitement of this day. In our modernized society, where our tolerance limits are shrinking and we all are getting more and more self centric, such festivals / traditions get us together and keep personal bonds intact. On this day, no one minds even if a stranger throws colors on them. I wish one day I will get to have all this fun once again with my childhood friends, till then....

Wa Sachin Wa..

2010-02-25T14:15:00.000+05:30

Sachin Tendulkar, this man has conquered cricked world with his magnificent double century yesterday. He started his International career when I was a kid and he is still at his best when I have two kids. There was a time when we used to take some time off from school and watch Sachin's magical batting and now we wish it was a holiday yesterday and saw his innings. Indian batting = Sachin Tendulkar was my equation for long long time. I used to switch-off the TV right after Sachin got out. After all these years he is still the same person hungry for runs and does not let his success rule his senses. I still remember his two consecutive centuries against Australia at Sharja. We did not care about engineering exam papers the next day and found time to watch him. He has entertained us tirelessly for more than 21 years now. Consistency in any field with peak performance for such a long time is definitely a result of passion for the game, hard work and the right attitude to keep feet on ground. Even at this stage after so many landmarks, we still expect more from him. We want to see him making a 300 -400 in test cricket and bring world cup to India. Sachin, you are the best, wish you more and more success and more such delightful innings to come..

My PMP Experience

2009-11-12T15:46:00.000+05:30

Dear PMP Aspirants,

I passed the PMP exam last night and thought about sharing my experience with preparations and the actual exam while the memories are still fresh with me.

Background -

I am a Product Manager with a mid-sized company and managing 'Projects' for about 4 years now.

I decided to become a PMP in June-08, purchased PMI membership and started preparing without scheduling the exam. I found all the possible excuses not to complete even one round of reading of PMBOK till May-09. One day received an email from PMI for membership renewal and then realized the importance of scheduling the exam and then studying. On 25th May I scheduled my exam for 25th July (giving myself exact 2 months (60 days) for preparation).

Preparation -

First thing I did was to buy 'Head First PMP' online and read it from first to last page. Its a joy to read this book. I did not skip any exercise. I think most of my preparation was done in first 15 days with this book. I got Rita's book from library but found it little overwhelming and dry. Read through her PMI-isms and 'Tricks of the trade' for all the chapters.

For next 15 days I was reading PMBOK and this time it made much more sense. I could never memorize the ITTOs but tried to understand each of those in the context of real life scenario.

Could not study much for the next week (for some genuine reasons).

The next week, i started looking online for some information, mock exam, experiences etc. I came across http://deepfriedbrain.blogspot.com. The search for online resources ended with this blog. Harwinder has done a very good job and all the information needed for passing PMP exam is present here.

The first full length exam i took was from 'Head First'. I passed it and it boosted my confidence but then someone on a forum said, its an easy exam and the real exam is more difficult. Then i tried to take all the free exams referenced on Harwinder's blog. I was too lazy to read the explanations for all my wrong answers. Practicing more and more questions made me understand the tone of the question and then getting to the right answer was getting easier.

3 days before the exam, I took 'Head First' exam one more time and got 185 qustions right this time.

2 days before the exam, started memorizing the process chart and the formulaes and practiced writing in less than 15 minutes.

Day before exam, i went to the prometric center so that there are no surprises on the exam day.

Exam day -

On the exam day, read through the Definitions in PMBOK's Glossary section.

The exam was scheduled at 5:30 PM. Took a nap from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

Reached the prometric center at 4:40, wanted to read through the formulaes one more time but they said i can take the exam early if i am ready. I was ready....

Exam -

The tutorial does not need 15 minutes. Browsed through the tuturial in 2 mins and used next 13 minutes to write down the process chart and the formulaes.

The exam interface is very simple and the fonts used are appropriate size.

The firxt question I got was easy and I knew the exact answer. That set the ball rolling....

The network diagrams and the EMV calculations were very simple.

I finished the exam in about 3 hours. Most of the questions are small and do not take a long time to answer. I marked about 30 questions for review as I realized that i will have plenty of time for review.

By the time i finished 200 questions, i had realized that i will be a PMP soon. But still scanned through the reviewed questions and changed 4-5 answers.

I could not sit for next 30 minutes and finished the exam. Took the survey and the saw the 'Congratulations !!!'.

In my personal opinion -

1. This is a simple exam (i am not a genius - believe me)
2. Two months of preparation is sufficient (schedule the exam before starting)
3. No need to buy any expensive exam simulators (the free stuff is enough)
4. Four hours of exam time is more than sufficient.

I hope this helps -

Best Wishes -

Anand D.

Note - This is my personal experience. It may not be applicable for all.

Mom Liberty

2009-08-19T01:42:00.000+05:30

Son: Mother, do you know in that palace lives a nice and beautiful lady. She is calling me for a cup of coffee.

Mother: Of course son, you can go and visit her place and have a cup of coffee. Convey my regards to her.

Son at Palace: Wow…what a nice house this is. I wish my house was also like this. It’s big, lash green garden with colorful flowers and crisp clear water streams and fountains. This is almost like heaven.

Mrs. Liberty: Hi there. How are you doing young man? Nice to see you here.
Son: It’s my pleasure Mrs. Liberty that I have an opportunity to visit your palace and meet you for coffee.

Mrs. Liberty: Have a cup of coffee and I will explain the work you can do for us here. You are one of the brightest and talented sons of your mother (in her mind..That’s why you are called here..); I do need your help so that this palace is more beautiful and all the systems get better.

Son: Thanks for the nice words Mrs. Liberty; I am definitely ready to use my talents and skills to help you.

Mrs. Liberty: That’s wonderful. How is your mother doing? And how is your home?

Son: Well Mrs. Liberty, my mother is suffering from some old diseases and I do not think much can be done about it; but I really feel bad for her. My home is also having its own problems it’s not as clean and beautiful as this palace of yours. I do not think it can ever come close to this palace. But I am really proud of my mother and palace.

Mother: Son, I am sure you had a nice time at Mrs. Liberty’s beautiful palace and liked the coffee. See I have made your favorite dish and was waiting for you to come back. After lunch, can you water the garden and bring my medicines from shop?

Son: Mother, as you know, Mrs. Liberty is so beautiful and rich and so is her palace. This time she is calling me to help her for a longer time and will have my dinner there. Is it OK if I bring your medicines tomorrow? You can ask someone else in our home, to water the garden.

Mother: That’s alright son, I am glad Mrs. Liberty is happy with your work and she is offering you to stay longer at her palace and have dinner there. Son, I am sure you will come back to your home soon. I will be waiting.

Mrs. Liberty: I am happy with all the work you have done to make this palace a better place.

Son: Mrs. Liberty, I am staying here for a long time now; can I call you Mom and stay here forever? Believe me, I will stay committed to your interests and ensure that this palace is a better place.

Mrs. Liberty: Son, I am also happy with all your work and commitment, but I am afraid, you cannot call me your Mom as yet, I can offer this card (green card) to you so you can stay in this palace for extended amount of time. Make sure you do not spend long time at your home else I will have to revoke your card.

Son: Mrs. Liberty, it’s my pleasure to get this card. I will not stay at my home for long time.

Mrs. Liberty: Son, I am pleased with your commitment towards me and my palace, you can call me Mom now and stay here forever, I respect your mother back home but you will have to sing my songs and help me in all possible ways to stay strong and make this palace the best place on earth.

Son: Yes Mom……

Ye mera India...(in America)

2008-12-05T12:20:00.000+05:30

11:20 AM - let me call Prashant...."Prashant, actually they have scheduled Pest control at my apartment today and it was a short notice. They have asked us to vacate our home for atleast 6 hours."

Prashant: "Oh ok..why don't you all come to my home?"

Me: "Yes. That's why I called you. Devyanee has gone to school and Mugdha will come to your home now. Is Shilpa available at home?"

Prashant: "Yes yes.. she is at home. ask Mugdha to go to our home."

12:30 PM (at office) - Prashant: "Anand, I have a meeting from 1:00 to 3:00, so I just came from lunch after picking up Radhika from school. You can go to my home during lunch time for lunch...."

2:00 PM (at Prashant's home) - Anand: "No no..I am full.. I cannot eat more.."
Shilpa: "No you need to take one more Chapati (bread)"

3:00 PM (at office) - Prashant: "So how was the lunch? we will go to my home together and have Tea there...."

6:30 PM - After tea and some chit chat, Prashant/Shilpa: "So Anand/Mugdha, we will take dinner together here. "

Anand: "No Prashant, it's OK, we are more than 6 hours from the Pest control spray now..we can go home and have dinner there."

Shilpa: "We insist..I will cook something real quick.."

Mugdha: "Please do not take trouble..we should be fine at home.."

Prashant: "Anand..you need to have dinner here..I insist. How about ordering Pizza? Let's do that.."

Shilpa: "Yes that's a good idea but I don't mind cooking too.."

Anand: "OK let's order Pizza...but I would pay for it..."

Prashant: "What are you talking about????...I will pay for it dont even think about paying here..(you are my guest...)"

9:15 PM: OK Bye Prashant, Shilpa, Radhika and Kaku....

9:30 PM - We are back to home...without saying "Thank You "even once...

Golden moment

2008-08-17T21:26:00.000+05:30

Abhinav Bindra aimed the bull's eye and made India proud. India's national anthem was played for the first time for an individual medal in the olympic history. I could not hold myself from seeing the video again and again. Abhinav was standing as calm as nothing has really happened. The glamour, media attention, and anything else that was going to change his life forever did not seem to be in his thoughts at that time. He was enjoying the Indian tri-color raising at the top. Just browsed through his blog and he is a terrific person. Thanks Abhinav for making us proud and setting a possible stage for good days for India at the olympics.

8-8-8-8-8-8

2008-08-08T09:58:00.000+05:30

About six hours from now, on 8th August 2008, at 8:08:08 hours, world's biggest sports extravaganza gets underway at Beijing China. With more than 8 years of hard work and dedicated efforts, China will definitely be successful in hosting a spectacular show which will be remembered for a long time. This success would be more remarkable looking at the natural calamities and political friction and the dark clouds of terrorist threats.

India at Bejjing...

We are participating with 57 athletes and 42 officials (heard that one of the official is Sania Mirza's mother). As history suggests, we would be more than happy if we get even one or two medals. I was reading an interesting report yesterday related to an economical,social and cultural analysis of 80 countries which won atleast a medal in the olympic history. With India's economic growth in past few years, the report suggested 6 medals to India....I am hoping and waiting for the report to be true..

In the mean while, the third test match between India and Lanka also starts on the same day. Even if more number of Indians follow olympics than the number of Indians following the third test, I think we would be a step closer to someone's 20 medal dream at 2020 olympics...

Joyful Trajectory

2008-08-02T20:53:00.000+05:30

It was late evening yesterday at the grant park Pasadena, we were chasing 23 runs in 3 overs. A half minded run between the wicket saw me fielding on the leg side bourdry on the last ball. With 5 runs to get, Prashant was facing one of the fine ballers we have. My heart was saying he will hit a six but mind was just against it...

And Prashant hit a very nice shot and I started watching the ball coming in my direction. For a moment I thought I will have to dump my team's win by taking the catch....but wow..the ball had a joyful trajectory out of the fense.

We found a new hero yesterday and the satisfaction of having a Javed bhai in our team and Chetan in the opposite team...