Advanced Lifeskills

Why we can not make money from buying that dream house

2015-01-31T23:37:00.000+05:30

From my last posts on RE(Real Estate) investment in India, you can assume I am biased towards not buying a house as an investment and views are personal not to influence anyone for their RE investment decision. In continuation of the same, here is my observation on why you can not make profit on buying a house in current scenario.

Let us consider the scenario the process of how a flat is built and sold to an end customer like us(salaried people buying a house with 80% home loan).

First the Land: Most of the land in city outskirt or even prime locality(where the flats are constructed) belong to people who are either inherited agricultural/ancestral land or bought years back at very cheap price. Now the land cost is as good as a piece of gold so the owner sells only in case of urgent need of money or they do joint development. In either case the owners are either too reach to hunt for a buyer or not so smart to find one. Identifying the real owner of such land in a growing city and exploiting their needy situation is the handy job of a local land broker. So very rarely they make a deal with 1-2 % brokerage, usually they make an agreement with the real owner at a much lower price than market price(distress selling) and find a buyer(usually a builder who are always hunting for land). So within few weeks or months they make a killing ranging as much as 20-30% of land value.

Then the builder: They make a project plan with good number of flats with a very good margin on their selling price. Reputed builders even give sub contract for construction of part or full building. So you can imagine they are doing their business and having their real good margin at every level. Even for construction its not handled by a single contractor, there are different persons who supply different raw materials like one person sand, brick another steel and iron another cement and another electrical fittings another bathroom fittings for the project execution. They all have margins on top of the market price and bribe for all approvals.

Now house is ready, but the builder doesn't sell directly, its out sourced to a marketing agency who actually makes the deal with us. They have their margin priced in the rate we are quoted. That is the price we pay. Again we don't pay with our own money, we take a loan and we pay interest. So the interest cost is also added to the cost of house. If that is not enough we have to bribe to register our own house in our own name with our own hard earned accounted(white) money even if you ready to pay the full government guidance value.

Now where is the margin for us to make a profit after every body has taken their share - we have to find another bakra(scape goat) to off load the used flat at an appreciation in future which is easier said than done. In current scenario, RE has become one of the biggest industry and a big cartel of builders, black money holders, politicians, banks etc who want us to buy that dream house. The demand is artificially created to trap us. We will see the real demand when we try to sell the flat.

The full page ads are coming for the last few flats at that incredibly lowest price for the lucky few for last few weeks in every festive season. So you can imagine the real demand. You can go for site visit in free cab, Pre-Launch offer at half the rate, No PRE-EMI, Free modular kitchen, Booking by just paying Rs 10K or even online booking of flats in eCommerce sites. The builders and marketing agencies are sitting with huge inventory of unsold incomplete flats with a good amount of debt burden so we are the only people left to rescue them with money more than we need without any clue about how to make best use of them :).

Are you(financially) literate?

2014-07-30T23:42:00.000+05:30

I know, you(anyone reading this blog) is not only literate but educated(or may be highly educated) as well. How ever very few of us are financially literate, we hardly understand the basics of finance or money market instruments for which we become the easy target of financial product mis-selling. It's not just one off a case, I have so many friends and relatives who have been sold rather I would say I have hardly found anyone who has not been a victim.

Do you want to check whether you are financially literate or not, answer below questions( even though it looks like a subjective matter, I have tried my best to make it as objective as possible). All the answers are Yes/No type and you can consider yourself literate only If you can answer all of them correctly.

1. Do you know the difference between saving and investing?

2. Do you understand how equity mutual fund works?

3. Do you believe your money is safe in fixed deposit?

4. Do you consider investing in stock market is risky?

5. Do you think real estate is the best investment?

6. Do you know what is a term insurance?

7. Do you consider insurance as an investment?

8. Do you believe in instant stock tips received through SMS(from unknown numbers) or business news channels?

9. Do you understand the difference between simple interest and compound interest?

10. Do you know how much interest your savings bank account is giving?

The above questions are my own and as per my own assessment of people's knowledge or perception. Below are the answers(Yes/No) but with little more explanation to help you understand why these are so crucial for your financial literacy. You can consider your self literate only If you are correct for all 10 questions( and your answers are aligned with the explanation). AS I told I am trying to make it as objective as possible so result would be either you are literate(know all the answers correctly) or illiterate( you are not correct for any one or more questions), but there is no in between or you are 60% or 90% literate.

Answers:

1. Yes ( Savings to preserve the capital i.e. fixed deposit but investing means appreciating with time beating inflation i.e. equity or sometimes real estate or gold)

2. Yes ( Money from all investors or unit holders are pulled together and managed, i.e. invested in equity market, by experts called fund manager)

3. No ( After tax return is less than current rate of inflation, i.e. the money you are left with after a year in an FD won't have the same buying power of today)

4. No (Its risky If you invest without knowledge or just speculate, else in long term,more than 5 years, historically it has given the best return among all asset classes)

5. No (It may beat the inflation in long term, in some special situation in short term you may make good return but its not sustainable)

6. Yes ( Pure insurance, very low premium and with very high assured value, no investment component - No return If the insurer is alive after the term but very high value in case of demise)

7. No ( A large portion of the premium goes for mortality, administration, commission etc. absolute return will be less than or equal to FD)

8. No ( None gives free advice, there are vested interests behind those tips)

9. Yes ( Simple interest is just interest on the capital every year, in compound interest the interest earned is added to the capital and interest is calculated on the total capital periodically)

10. Yes (Typically 3-4% PA with a couple of banks offering 5-7% PA)

Next time you buy an insurance or any such investment product do some research, understand the features and your requirements then buy. Verify each word of the agent keeping in mind that he is going to get very good commission out of your investment.

Why should you run?

2014-06-18T16:27:00.000+05:30

Can you run a km or for 15 minutes?

No!!

What If a bunch of street dogs chase you on your way to home, assuming you are walking?

Running for life - Not to save your life from hounding street dogs but this basic activity can lead to a healthier lifestyle. Running is the most basic skill human has since ages. You will need very minimal training rather guidance to start, no equipment needed. By default we have been taught to run. Anyone can run. You don't have to take lessons or spend lots of time learning how to run -- everyone knows how to do it!!!

However as we have grown up we have forgotten to run.

Can you imagine a small kid in an open ground or park?

Do you remember your child hood days?

But now even If you run for a minute to catch a running bus, you will be gasping for your breathe.

You don't need any special equipment. Beyond a pair of shoes and some running clothes, you don't need anything. Don't have a park nearby? That's okay!

Just wake up early morning tomorrow and run on the road near by your house.You may find many known faces on the road.

We live in busy cities, what we see during the day: roads full of vehicles, streets full of shops, people running around to reach their destinations and the usual background noise of all these. Go for an early morning jog to the busiest places of your city, you will see a different scene. You can feel the tranquility of our habitats without the chaos and will wonder how they transform during the day – a very good chance that you may not be able to recognize – Is it the same signal we pass through every day?

Running gets you into nature. One of the best things about running is that you can go for a run in the morning and find the same street dog that barks at you in night, staring at you, watching you pass by. You can be by yourself without distractions.

Well that is not all.

It’s a fact that a strong heart and strong lungs will make you healthier and live longer. You may live for many days without food or water but not even few minutes without your heart beating and pumping blood into your body and not without your lungs taking the air through your nose and separating what you need, i.e. Oxygen and releasing What you don’t, i.e. pollution and carbon dioxide. A strong heart and strong lungs are the right ingredient of a healthy and longer life.

Running is the most amazing cardiovascular exercise you can practice without much preparation. Cardio is heart and vascular is lungs and its attached parts. You run, your heart and lungs get exercised and they become stronger day by day. Our body is a machine, so all the parts have a limited life time. Our heart can pump blood for a fixed number of times so as our lungs can process our breathing. A strong heart will pump more blood each time; our body’s requirement is also constant per day. Hence our heart will actually work less so can stay stronger and work longer. Similarly, strong lungs can supply the most essential oxygen to the heart for longer.

We are now young, so able to roam around and do our daily work comfortably. But our body, even hands and legs have also limited life. Unless we exercise and keep them strong you may lose this activeness sooner than later. Running also makes your muscles stronger. They can withstand pain and exhaustion better. Do you feel the difference between, how active you were when you were kid and now? You can extrapolate the same to 20 yrs. later. Our sedentary life style itself is the cause of many diseases.

Exercise makes people happy. Hard to believe, but it's true. Exercise is a great outlet for relieving stress. After a hard day at work, going to the gym for a workout will make you forget all about your evil boss and nagging colleague.

It’s a great way to exercise your will power: you are not going to lose your legs or any body parts with the pain (but be careful and listen to your body before running too hard or too much) but you can push little more defying that pain remember - Pain is temporary but pride is for ever. Its more mental than physical.

A rigorous exercise can give you a high even much better than any drugs or alcohol - the so called runners high. Pituitary Gland spinal cord and various other parts of the brain and central nervous system produces neurotransmitterscalled endorphins – A kind of chemicals transfers through neurons in our nervous system. It interacts with the part of brain called hypothalamus which contains the pain receptors of our body which actually suppresses the pain. It becomes cyclical process once you cross that threshold, i.e. when you run more you produce endorphins which reduces your pain hence you can run even more for long time. That is the secret behind the marathon runners.

If this is not enough take inspiration from Fauja Singh – world’s oldest marathon runner – running a full marathon of 42.195 KM or 26.2 Miles is the ultimate goal of all runners but few go to the different level - Ultra marathons(scroll till the end) .

I had delivered a speech on this topic in my Project 2 of Toastmasters Club. - See more at: http://www.prasannasabat.com/2012/03/failure-is-not-opposite-of-success.html#sthash.sXZoMwCi.dpuf

I have delivered this in Toastmasters Club prepared speech for Project 7 - Research your topic

I had delivered a speech on this topic in my Project 2 of Toastmasters Club. - See more at: http://www.prasannasabat.com/2012/03/failure-is-not-opposite-of-success.html#sthash.sXZoMwCi.dpuf

Eight Most common Money Myths

2014-06-16T19:50:00.000+05:30

In no particular order or priority the 8 common myths I have come across among friends or acquaintances on money:

1. Money is safe in savings account or fixed deposit : The most common and dangerous myth I have ever heard from anyone, savings account gives you interest of 3-4%( except 3 banks give up to 5-7% ), fixed deposit give you around 9%, post tax it will be 6-7% depending on your tax bracket. If your money is not giving better return than inflation, actually you are losing your money every day. Better you spend that money today than keeping in such instruments resulting lower buying power in future.

2. Investing in stock market is risky : Unfortunately very few people have made money from stock market in last five years, so every one is convinced its not possible to earn money. But in long term this is the only instrument which can beat inflation with highest margin( may be gold or real estate can also beat inflation but very less chance for FD or RD). Its risky If you invest in stock market with your limited knowledge, the next best option available is mutual fund where your money is managed by professionals.

3. You can never go wrong with investing in real estate( or gold for some people): Only in special cases you may get a bumper profit in real estate(or gold) investment, otherwise the annualized return on investment from real estate(or gold) won't be more than 10-12% PA. If you consider yourself to be lucky to catch the special situation, check the top 5 weekly or monthly gainer list published in any financial site or news paper : you can find many (penny)stocks giving more than 100% return weekly/monthly, you have better chance of catching them.

4. Buy a house to stay and save tax : The tax savings(interest up to Rs 1.5 Lakhs per year currently) on your first house is almost same as the HRA exemption you would be claiming which you can not claim anymore (at least legally) once you occupy your own house. You get more tax benefit If both husband and wife own the house and contribute for the loan equally or when you buy your 2nd house as mentioned in my previous post.

5. Money in SBI( read the nationalized banks) are the safest: All the private or nationalized banks have to follow RBI guidelines(same for both) to operate in India. So all are same and equally regulated just the difference is : The nationalized bank has sovereign guarantee(Government of India) and private banks have their owners or share holders.

6. I'll start saving when I have higher salary and more surplus income : Here you are missing the most amazing concept of investing - The power of compounding. Check this below:

For same investment for minimum 8% ROI(return on investment) annualized for saving Rs 1000 per month your total capital can multiply more than 8 times higher If you start early(investing for 30 years) than starting late say for 10 years and two and half times If you start mid way like invest for 20 years. So start as early as possible and increase the savings as you earn high. Investing Rs 1000 every month with total investment of (1000 X 12 X 30) Rs 3.6 Lakhs in 30 years with just 8% ROI can become 15 Lakhs.

7. Taking loan is not good: It depends on how you are using the loan and repaying. Taking loan for buying an appreciating asset like land or house or education is not bad. But loan to buy any consumer product like mobile phone or even car or to invest in stock market(even though its appreciating) is definitely a bad idea.

8. Using Credit card is not good: Again it depends on how you are using and repaying. It gives you around 50 days of interest free money instantly. You get numerous offers for cash back, free movie tickets and discounts. But If you don't pay on time the charges and interest is very high, If you use it carefully you can definitely benefit but careless usage will be very costly, just like any financial instrument discipline is the key.

An interesting video - One Idiot

2014-05-19T17:46:00.004+05:30

I found this video in another blog and found its quite interesting even though I knew the concept or the underlying message of the video, I liked the way its presented. Its little long around (33 minutes) but worth the time specifically who think investing or planning for money is not a cool thing. A good introduction to the world of investment and personal finance, it may change your prospective.

If you really like it, you can check another three videos here but not this long, 3-5 minute ;)

How our goverment gives undue incentive to home buyers

2014-05-15T17:33:00.000+05:30

In last two posts(1 and 2) I wrote about our love for house and its consequences for the economy, but you are not the only culprit. You are conspired to fall in that trap by the number of undue incentives provided by the government or tax authority of India. The nexus of real estate industry and law makers are hand in glove to incentivize the whole process to turn the most part of surplus income to real estate.

First, you get a tax exemption on the 1st house(where you leave in) for the interest on the loan to the tune of Rs 1,50,000 per year. We don't get such exemption in any other loan except education. The argument can be to help people buy their home, check the next point. In all loans we pay interest which is the income for the bank which is also taxed, so we should get tax exemption on all loan interest or the exemption should be abolished for all loans(except education loan which I feel is justifiable). We can argue even a car or fridge or personal emergency(personal loan) is equally important, but we don't get any incentive for those loans. In addition to that you also tax exemption for the principal repayment of Rs 100000 per year.

Second, when you buy the second house(and give it on rent), you can claim the whole interest on loan for tax exemption. Not only that, If your income from the property(through rent) is less than the interest paid per year, you can offset that loss with your any income. No loss from any other financial transaction is allowed to be offset with any other income, like short term capital gain tax from equity trading is only allowed to offset with income from same source in future years. If tax exemption is for providing a house to common man, there is no need of these incentive for the second house. So people after buying one house buy one more and so on.

Third, house loan interest is the lowest among all type of loan. You won't get a car loan or personal loan in that range, not even a business loan which can employ some people and even the poorest of poor take micro-finance loan at twice or thrice the rate. Because our banking system considers a house loan with the house as collateral is much safer than any other loan.

The last but not the least, you can save the capital gain from selling a house after three years of possession by purchasing another house.

As a result real estate investment has become so lucrative and you benefit more If you purchase more(like your second house or third house). Everybody knows real estate is the largest beneficiary of black money and that also keeps the price high. So slowly the bubble is building up in the sector and no government or policy makers going to disturb this equilibrium which employs and benefits so many people. But we know how dangerous can be a housing bubble unless it is controlled at the right time. My only point is be sensible while buying your house, one of the most emotional investment of lifetime.

How your dream house is contributing to the National Black Economy

2014-05-07T19:07:00.005+05:30

In continuation of my last post I want to emphasize how your love for that home contributes to the National Black Economy(NBE). This is just like bribe, everyone hates it, against it but silently pay and get things done when their turn comes.

When you see a good house, you purchase even though the seller demands a portion of the money in black(unaccounted/cash), this contributes to the NBE. Then you register the house at lower price, save few bucks in stamp duty and bribe the register office fellows. Then the income from the house property(like rent) you don't add to the income fully. So just imagine how much a single real estate transaction contributes to the NBE and we just blame the politicians and bureaucrats for black money.

You think it doesn't bother you but the same black money affects you only, you only pay for it - When you pay a portion of the house price in black, you are providing a cushion for the price fall. Say you bought a house at 40L by paying 20L as black and registered for 20L(your loan is on 20L), now If the price drops you can not exit to protect the real money(which you have paid in black). So you will hold on to the property and show a brave face that you are sitting on a higher value house.

Banks also don't bother as they know the buyer will serve the loan to protect his own money than the house which is registered at low value. So in India banks loan are hardly defaulted by individual buyers. As the market price(even after fall, say it became 30L from 40L) is higher than the register price(20L). So bank can sell and easily recover the money, but If you sell its your loss.

Now the same black money the builders(also broker) received from you is invested in real estate in black. So they hold on to price fall(as they know that is just their unaccounted money,they are not paying any interest on loan) and they wait for some one like you to come for their rescue. This cycles goes on and you are trapped without your knowledge.

So think before paying in black to your seller or register your house for lesser value to save few bucks in tax.

How that dream home is killing Indian Entrepreneurs!!!

2014-02-17T19:18:00.000+05:30

The most preferred investment option of Indians is real estate or more specifically buying your(own) house. Whether peer pressure or family pressure or excess cash from working abroad, the first priority of every young Indian is to buy a house. Most of them buy a flat in a multi-storied apartment complex. How wise is this decision is a debatable subject.

There was a time (at least 5-7 years back), the flat price was at attractive level, those who could afford to buy at that time made a killing. But that can not be extrapolated to the current situation. Real estate prices in most cities are inflated and at all time how level now. Then why do people mindlessly fall in that dream house trap. Owning your own house has its own emotional satisfaction but I would be more interested to analyze the other side of the story.

Let us analyze the reasons for which people make that decision:

Pressure from family or peer or relative is one of the reason for people to buy house. We compare all friends or colleagues or cousins owning house and try to catch the bus before its too late. Everybody has bought a house, so should I without analyzing their situation(and compare with mine). I won't go any more details on this, as the reason is more emotional than rational.

Tax saving may be another reason for buying a new house and also you get more tax benefit for the second house( all the interest can be claimed for tax exemption). So If someone can afford a second EMI or down payment go fort the second house. More over the people who are buying the second house are the ones bought their first house long back(some 5-7 years ago hence they had made killing), so real estate has become the most fascinating investment for them and they encourage everyone to buy house as soon as possible( I'm sure you are familiar with one or more such characters).

The third but most logical reason is, you need your own house for a peaceful living. So is it wise to buy the house which you can rent for one third or one fourth of the EMI? In recent past, house rent has increased in most part of the cities. At the same time, if you put little more effort, little away from the metro stations or the IT parks, decent houses are available at very affordable price(rent).

Last but not the least, investment, most of the people buy for the capital appreciation. You will find very few people(like me :)) who have not bought a house or no plans to buy, so everyone perceives it as the best investment opportunity. Yes the house price increases in most of the cases, but so as your interest burden(as we loan 80-90% of the cost). All your friends, neighbors, relatives, developer, broker, banker,evaluator,architect are in favor of purchasing that house as they all will be benefited directly or indirectly. Most of them also maintain at least 15-20% higher market price for their own house, like : " I had bought it for 45 Lakhs three years back, now my house worth 85 Lakhs" really? Post an advertisement for sale and check your self. Don't go by the prices quoted by developers and brokers for houses in your area. Only 10-20% people go for an old house and they bargain hard for the final price. Do a calculation of the total cost including the interest and the opportunity cost(down payment paid would have earned some return invested else where). Also its not so easy to liquidate your house when you are in an emergency. So in most of the cases the investment becomes just an unsold one, so you become forcefully long term investor.

The other part of the story is: The real estate is the largest stock of black money, the whole builder, developer, government machinery conspire you to buy you that home and pay loan for rest of your life, I'll write more on this in my next post.

So only thumb rule I would give : Buy the house only If you can pay at least 30% down payment comfortably(no extra personal loan or loan from friends or relatives) and the rent of the similar house should be at least 50% of the EMI you would be paying.
Regarding the title of the post, If you have a home loan, you can never think of taking any risk to invest your time or money for another venture and you work for the bank whole your life.

Tips for Toastmaster Humorous Speech Contest

2013-11-14T19:25:00.000+05:30

I learned the most, during my journey from the club level contest to division level in last couple months, of my toast master journey which I want to share.

How to write a Humorous Speech:

Find a topic which connect to your audience across the age group.
Find a subject, a personality or a object or even your self which you can describe to very minute details and people can also co-relate.
Humorous speech need not be a series of jokes, but find the subtle humor in the most common experiences or subject you have chosen.
The most important thing is to create a built up or set up by exaggerating the facts around the subject and give them a twist.
Watch some stand up comedy shows, humorous speeches, to get the ideas on how humor works, but never copy them.
Make sure to have good punch during first 30 seconds of your script or even better If you can start with one, before audience start creating wrong perception about your speech.
The speech evolves over time, so don't hesitate to change for good idea or suggestions.
Make sure to end the speech with a good punch.

How to practice:

A good humorous speech is like a mono-acting,you need to perform not just speak, see some wining speeches from youtube.
Work on the script for timing and mark the punches you cannot afford to miss.
Practice in front of mirror/record your voice and work on them.
Mark the lines where audience laugh during practice in front of some people. You can consider modifying your script as per audience recommendation.
Practice as much as you can till every punch and their sequence is printed in your mind. Sometimes your mind will be blank due to nervousness during the speech, rigorous practice can be helpful for those situations.

Delivery of your speech:

If you have done the last two steps perfectly, here you just need to relax and give your best. Just imagine your are describing a funny situation to your close friends. Make yourself free on the stage and forget about wining. Enjoy the moment rest is history.

Wake up call for our generation(Born in eighties)

2013-11-13T17:56:00.001+05:30

I am trying to generalize a common problem among my friends and known people of our age group and may be you can also co-relate your( or some one you know closely) situation. To narrow down one more level, the middle class fortunate ones who are not born with a silver spoon. Most of us have an engineering degree or even a MBA degree landed up our dream jobs from the campus. Life has become so predictable including our daily routine and weekend activities.

Probably our monthly salary is equivalent of our parent's yearly salary or even few multiples. Earning so much in so less time and at such early ages made us confident of our capability. The same reflects in our spending pattern. The average age of owning a house is now close to 30 which is almost halved in last few years. The latest LED TV or smart phone is well within our reach, thanks to the credit cards and zero interest EMI options. We all have a (potential) surplus monthly income with few options to utilize them. So we have become the easy targets for numerous financial product sales force or the real estate marketing cartel.

Having said that, among so many other blunders, the single most common mistake I see is : Inadequate financial planning for retirement. Our previous generation were mostly government employees or the corporations with provision for pension, as it used to be one of the criteria for a preferred employer. Unfortunately now, all our employers, mostly private or MNCs don't provide that facility(pension). So I feel the first and foremost thing we should think about is retirement planning to maintain the same standard of life as we have now after we retire from the job. The way inflation is hitting the most basic needs for survival like food, residence (house rent) healthcare and education (children)etc. a haphazard planning can lead into a major financial trauma in the future.

But there is no need to panic now, as age is on our side and things can be sorted out with smart planning. The bottom line should be to beat the inflation adequately to protect your saving as well as multiplying your capital with the power of compounding(considered as 8th wonder - do your bit of homework If you are not aware ).

Answer the below questions(Yes/No) to know If you should be worried for your retirement plan:

1. Have you ever thought or planed for your retirement?
2. Do you know at what age or after how many years you want to retire from full time job?
3. Do you know your monthly requirement after retirement?
4. Do you know the amount you can expect (monthly or lump-sum) from your retirement plans you have invested in?
5. Do you know the rate of annualized return on your investment for retirement?
6. Do you have sufficient(at least 10 times of your annual income) insurance cover?
7. Do you own a house where you can stay after retirement?
8. Do you have any passive income source?

If most of the answers are 'Yes' then you need not worry else plan to make them 'Yes'.

Can you be a fast learner?

2013-05-24T18:48:00.000+05:30

The common misconception is : " He is God Gifted", "It's in his gene", "He is very talented". Most of the times talent is over rated. But the people who are considered as talented (by others), don't believe in this or the day they start believing, everything goes for a toss.

So can you be a fast learner? The answer may be 'Yes'
But If you ask Can you remain a fast learner(till you die;))?
The answer is a big YES.
I strongly believe we all are fast learners by birth, just our education(and some times our parents or relatives) spoils us. So its not the question of how to learn fast, rather it's how to keep that quality alive within us as we grow.

Few days back, I was going through a job advertisement for a important role in a start up, one point that stroke my imagination : "we believe the most creative people have kept their childhood alive within themselves"

When is the last time you have jumped in joy like a baby?
Do you get bored more often?
How you get hooked up to an activity which interests you?

All these qualities we had but slowly we forget them and grow older and become mature to turn slow learner.

You would have seen now a days small kids are very familiar with smart phones or laptops or any gadgets. They learn handling them faster, play games and other features better than us(an adult).

Have you ever observed how they do that?

My five year old nephew plays games in my mobile better(scores more) than me. I got curious and started observing him when he takes the phone. I got a new phone recently and like always he would always demand my new phone to play game. I gave him and observed how he started using a new phone.

First unlocking it, the key combination to unlock is different from the older phone, he is familiar with. So he started pressing the key combinations, keenly observing the result in the screen. In the screen, it actually displays the keys to unlock symbolically. In few times he got it and unlocked the phone.He remembers that combination for ever, he unlocks the phone now effortlessly.

Then navigating to the game folder. He browsed through the icons, opened them checked If games are there. Like that he tried one by one and reached the game folder and started a game. He can not read English, so he can not understand the options like menu,setting,start,exit etc. But within few minutes he tried all of them and figured it out which option did what and started playing the game. While playing the game also, normally I read the instruction to learn which buttons does what. But he just started the game and pressed keys randomly. The game was getting over but he was not getting irritated or bored. He was keenly observing, which keys did what. He didn't got bored of trying rather laughing and shouting seeing the screen even though he was not able to play the game. But something was happening in the screen and he was happy with that. Then I got bored and just told him to use the joystick in the middle to move right left top bottom. Then he started playing the real game. After few days, he could complete new levels that I am still struggling to complete.

The point is trying trying and trying without getting bored or irritated is the key to learn new stuff. Sometimes I feel the kids are ignorant of the feelings like boring or irritating which we learn as we grow. We also stop trying instead seek others help or try shortcut. From childhood we are always told by parents or teachers : Don't do this or else you would fail or you suffer. So we slowly stop trying new things and just follow the tried and tested paths and get ordinary results. We also lose our focus or keen observation power slowly and get distracted easily. Then last but not the least, getting hooked to something interesting. If you know about the 10000 hour rule: you need to practice 10000 hours to be an expert of any skill. So when people say Sachin Tendulkar is a Genius, they actually discount the amount of hard work and practice behind his performance we see on the matches. You may be talented but to excel you need to practice and hone your skills.

What next after you woke up?

2013-04-22T18:40:00.001+05:30

This is the sequel of my last post : What to do If you are wake up by the last post? Many of the readers asked me, we know all this is happening in our office or work place.

"But what is the way out? What to do?"

"Its very easy to point out the loopholes. Tell us the solution."

Yes you are right, we should seek the solution and the solution lies within us only. The IT industry is nothing but we all, working here and consider our-self as a fraternity. We have achieved a lot as an industry and recognized all over the world. A few rotten apples in the basket is quite natural but we should take the responsibility to clean it as well before it spreads to the whole basket.

In all the scenarios, the situations have been created by few individuals who compromised the ethics to achieve some selfish goals, or in some cases even people wanted to achieve their goals through easier ways. So easier said than done, you have to resist these type of temptations. But its difficult as an individual to keep the short cut to success aside and abide by the ethics and principles. If you can do this you will definitely have long term benefits than the short term goals. Sometimes you will be considered a black sheep in your team for calling a spade as spade. Your work ethics can also affect your immediate appraisal.

There are two types(mostly) of people I have come across : People work for the company or its brand or for a specific exciting product and the other type work for their managers. However you have to work for your self, you need to work on your skills and be a competent resource for which you need not please the company or the manager for everything in your life. There is always an excellent demand for skilled people irrespective of company and industry. Moreover, If you live by your principle, You will be more confident and dependent on yourself than anything else.

Having said that,from my personal experience, you need to learn to craft your words smartly when voicing your concerns. We are working in a professional environment, so even If something bothers you a lot, you don't have the right to misbehave or mistreat anyone. Its important to control your emotion and convey your view points. Sometimes, you might also be wrong, as you may not know the bigger picture which your supervisor be more acquainted with. If you loose your temper, people are well prepared to take advantage of it.

Enough of philosophical lecture, some personal suggestions, for betterment of our IT industry:

1. Never refer your close friend or family members to a position in your company, when you know he/she doesn't fit the requirement.

2. If you think your career has become stagnant, think of your father who spent his whole life with the same employer.

3. Never commit which you are not sure of achieving to neither your boss nor your subordinate.

4. Reward people who deserve, not your lunch time buddy or Gym partner or more common boozing partner.

5. Keep your emotion out of the office place.

6. Never repeat the things you hated in your boss when you become one. Read this.

After all, these small boosters cannot ensure you a rewarding career. In long term everything will get even. If you plan and work for a goal with a little longer time frame(say five years), you can achieve a lot and these petty things will seem quite useless. The interesting fact is: we overestimate our goal with 1 year target(hence try all this shortcut) but grossly under estimate our capability for a period of 5 or 10 years.

Wake up call for Software professionals in India

2013-04-05T18:37:00.000+05:30

Analyze the following scenarios:

1. A friend's brother(say his name AB) sent me his CV for opening in IT few months back. AB had completed his MCA with 70% in year 2010. He had mentioned 5 programming languages in his CV including Java, C++ ; Oracle and MS SQL as well. I asked any one language or technology he was proficient, he told he had completed a course in ORACLE in some institute in Hyderabad. I spoke to him in 2012, so for around 2 years(after passing out in 2010) he had achieved this apart from his 3 years of study including 6 months of mandatory project work. I gave him couple of websites where he can find job as intern like let's intern . I needed a personal website, so I told him to develop a website for me and I'll pay for that and he could even have it in his CV , as his project. I received few more follow ups as mail or SMS from him for any opening in my company for his position. But yet to get an update on the website I asked for, its more than 6 months now. Last month I went to my native, his father came my home and requested to get him just any job with my reference in the IT companies.

2. B is working in a software product giant, a MNC with more than ten thousand employees in India. Three years back, his(B) company acquired few of their consultants as full time employees. One of the consultant turned full time employee became B's manager who had around 12 years of experience in IT in some 9 companies at that time. He could not reply a single mail with the excuse of "new to the product" for 1 year; till now he could not gather courage to reply as the different modules are handled by the team members and they only take care of it. They were twelve members at that time, now they are three and he still continues to be the manager. His team didn't get good hike or bonus as he(the manager) was not getting anything. His team members who were competent enough quit the company or changed their team as they could not get any opportunity for their own career growth.

3. A super cool manager,named M, working for a large product based organization. M had joined the company as application engineer with a MS from some unknown university in US. He got promotions in almost every promotion cycle,i.e. around 1.5 to 2 years. In nine years his current designation is "Director". M was very close to his boss then manager and now VP,named G, they have the same mother tongue. They were so proud of their mother tongue that they couldn't help speaking even in some of the conference calls.

4. D, an Engineering graduate from NIT, joined a product company few months back. Their hierarchy in office : Staff > Senior > Lead > Principal > Manager. There is not much distinction between the experience or expertise level in the job requirement of Senior,lead and Principal. He negotiated hard to get the senior designation. Within few months they have openings for lead and principal, their company recruited resources from out side with similar experience but didn't give promotion to their own resources in the team who are well qualified as per the job description. D's team mates who are also Senior Engineer only took the interview for Lead and Principal positions. Now they have hired principal engineers, who are more experienced and competent than the current manager in the team.

5. XYZ was working in a large software company in a technical support role in a lower job band with less compensation package. XYZ has an engineering degree but could not secure a placement in campus, so joined in that profile thinking to switch to a better role in internal transfers. She did a course in some institute outside and with self study she learned a programming language. Then applied for jobs within company to move to a developer role. She was through and joined the new team. After 1 year in the new role, she had the most tasks in the team as she was new and highly enthusiastic to try hand in the new job role and technology. In the appraisal cycle she got the lowest rating as she is the junior most member in the team, and just doing what was expected from her, i.e. just meets the expectation. She had not arranged any birth day celebrations, she didn't go to project parties (as she is married and have a small kid), she had not taken any initiatives, she had not trained any new resources, rest of other team mates had accomplished most of these extra curricular activities. So her name was not familiar with the 2nd and 3rd line managers, so her manager could not fight for a better rating. But she had got appreciation mail from the client for resolving a very critical production issue working till late in the night. But that was just her project work so no extra points. She got a laptop only after working for close to a year in the team. Her other team mates had laptops and they hardly come to office unless there was some celebrations or meeting where face to face attendance was mandatory. As she had still the lower job band(as per company policy they could not change the job band or salary for internal transfer), her salary was peanuts compared to her team mates. After lots of negotiations,begging and fighting with her managers she got highest hike in the team. But as her salary was very less her net hike in salary was less than the net hike her team mates got with lower hike percentage. So this year she had been given few more extra initiatives in addition to her project work. If she accomplishes all with flying colors, she might get promotion to next job band and salary correction next year. Now she is thinking whether to stick to the company or change with showing experience in the new technology she has worked. However,as she has total five years experience and just little over 1 year in the new technology (even though she is well versed and competent in that), she is sceptical about what she will mention in the CV.

6. R joined a pharmaceutical MNC(will refer MNC hence forth),they were outsourcing their IT needs to an India based service provider(will refer SP hence forth), where R was working before. SP was billing very high for its resources deployed at the MNC. The rates were even higher for the leads,managers, onsite resources however majority of the work was done by offshore team. The experience and expertise level of the actual resources working were not matching with the profiles provided to the MNC. In last few years, there were few Indians joined the MNC at their headquarters at top management level. They first distributed the projects to multiple vendors instead of one, that also didn't work out, they want to cut their IT budget. Finally they decided to open their own development center in India. Hence they started hiring most of the good resources from SP(like R) for their India development center. Initially some of the top IT managers from their HQ stayed back in India to manage. Slowly MNC hired new managers locally and transitioned all the projects from SP and other vendors to their in house development center. All the resources are paid well but that was much less than the billing rate of SP(and other vendors) to the MNC. Now the current India development center manages the IT needs of the MNC at much lower cost with higher employee satisfaction.

7. Few months back P was attending the all hands meet of her company, i.e. an open meeting with top management with employees. At the end, they had a Q&A session. P asked a question, which summarizes as follows: "What is the criteria for getting work from home option for the employees. Is there any well defined policy? More often the decision is based the managers discretion and genuine people with right reason don't get it however people with close proximity with their manager enjoy the benefits more frequently." There was no specific answer and they meant manager had to take the call and give the option of working from home. In the background, in her team, a group of team members and the manager having common mother tongue were actually using the benefits. After that she went through public comment, taunt and mental harassment by them in office. She complained to the 2nd line manager who promised to talk to the team. But nothing happened for weeks and they still continued their harassment in different ways. She talked to the HR as well who also told to look in to the matter. After few weeks and following ups the same HR suggested to change the team instead of following up on the issue and she did that actually.

8. RT, after few years of experience in IT, did his MBA from a top B-school and joined in the business development/ consulting team of a top IT company in Bangalore. His dream was to work in the sales team of their company and pursued his goal for few months with his upper management. After a year finally,RT got a chance to present few slides in a prospective client presentation. He spent few sleepless nights to give his best, as it was an extra initiative in addition to his normal project assignments.He gave his best shot in the meeting. After 3 hours of presentation , the Mexican IT manager of the client told let's go over the billing portion(in the presentation) again. Ultimately a part of the project was awarded to them based on the discount and other incentives they could offer on the billing. He spent few more weeks when the project started till the technical team took over. He transitioned his responsibility to an expert senior project manager, who had a very good reputation of handling the tough clients. The IT manager awarded more projects to their company(there were multiple vendors) in next quarters. It seems the IT manager was getting a cut of the quarterly budget he was approving for them in billing. Now RT has joined a product start up as program manager.

9. PR has a IT consulting(say SC) farm. They have top MNCs as clients who hire their contract staff in their(SC) payroll. He has a two room rented office and just eight employees, some of them also work at their client place. They have a very simple business model, one contractor salary for every three contractor hired, is shared with the HR,hiring manager and some unknown top management in the MNC. PR was working till few months ago as HR Manager in another IT service provider, his wife is the MD of the company(SC). Except them(husband & wife), rest all are also billed to the client as support staff. They are earning quite a good amount after all the operational expenditures. He also gets a month's salary from candidates who don't have genuine experience and get recruited in their payroll for some MNC.

10. TK was working as .Net developer for last 5 years. He got his H1 visa last year, but he was not getting any onsite opportunity for months. There was an onsite requirement in another project but for a Java resource. He made all the arrangements and went to the client location as Java architect. Few months back that project got over and he was asked to return back to offshore. He pleaded his onsite manager to retain him there as he has taken a huge home loan. Now he is in testing team for another client in a different location in US.

All the above scenarios are just my dreams in my last few years of working in IT, If you find any of the characters mentioned above sounds familiar, make sure you pass this post to him or her. I won't claim any copy rights on my dreams. But every time I saw them, I just woke up and could not sleep for few nights, so I call them wake up calls ;)

You may have your own inference from them(read the respective points below for the above incidents), but the followings are mine and I strictly claim these are my own personal opinion:

1. The days are gone to get a job in IT industry with an Engineering or MCA degree and appearing some English/Aptitude test as fresher or even without a degree and attending some course in unknown institute with reference.

2. There was a time people with any kind of experience, only count the number of years, became manager. If you are not lucky till now, you need to try hard as those managers are not going to let you go up the ladder even If you are more competent than them.

3. To have a rewarding career you need more than the skills that you have or your your manager is asking to develop.

4. Everyone wants to be a manager, then who is going to work hands on?

5. If you are not lucky enough to enter at the right place at right time, you need to try really hard.

6. There is a serious threat to the service industry when it just boils down to cost effectiveness.

7. What you get from the top is just lip service, behind the door they are all together.

8. You do what ever you want, ultimately what matters is budget and billing.

9. Don't get frustrated with the quality of contract staff you are getting in your team ,there are reasons beyond what you see.

10. You can not buy a decent house unless you have a onsite trip, else you can keep working for the bank(to pay the loan) for rest of your career.

Still I am working in this industry and many of my friends who could not get through(and working in core sectors) envy my job because either they think they can not go abroad as they are not in IT or some girl's parent in a matrimonial site rejected their candidature for their inability to earn in dollars.

SOA Testing Framework

2012-11-15T18:57:00.000+05:30

The framework is the foundation of the automation testing; it’s synonymous to the design document of development. It consists of the approach, assumptions, rules and guidelines to manage the whole SOA testingprocess. It’s the reference point throughout the testing life cycle, it consists of (but not limited to):

· Coding standard

Structure and flow of scripts
Script naming convention
Test Data Management
Test log Management
Test reporting Management
Error and exception handling
Back-up and recovery Plan

There are different approaches followed to design the framework depending on the nature of application, like:

Keyword driven Framework
Modular Framework
Data Driven Framework
Hybrid Framework

All the type of framework will have the above mentioned components but their sequence and integration will be different for the different frameworks. All the types have their own pros and cons, so choosing any framework are purely based on need of the application under test.

Let us briefly discuss about all the frameworks, before selecting the suitable one from the SOA prospective.

Key word driven frame work is to create the application flow using the key words, the keywords can be application components or actions. The execution flow is driven by the sequence of key words arranged in a tabular form which covers the whole application functionality. This is suitable for web application with a graphical interface, not very suitable for SOA application to test services.

In modular framework, small scripts are built based on application modules. The script structure replicates the application structure with respect to the different modules and executed as the application flow. This can be used for SOA but more suitable for modular application with number of modules.

Data driven framework emphasises on testing of scenarios based on different set of data. The script uses in built data table or external sources to cover different flows. This is more suitable for SOA application. The main component of testing the SOA application is the services, which accepts the input XML, process them and give a response in the form of output XML. So the input XML tags can be parameterized and as per the business scenarios, the services can be invoked with different set of data. All the SOA testing tools provide the option to parameterize input data using XLS or any other external data source like SQL DB or ODBC connection.

Depending on the application complexity and business flows, any one particular framework may not accommodate all the automation need, so best fit would be the hybrid framework. As the name suggests it’s a hybrid of all of the above approaches. As per the need of the application customize the framework to cover all aspects of it.

Let us see diagrammatically how the framework looks like:

The driver script is the starting point of the execution flow. As per the business flow or application flow, the driver script is designed integrating the scripts. The scripts can be specific to an application module, which in turn calls the validation scripts or the reusable scripts to complete the main validation of the requirement. To execute the scripts driver script need the other parameters like test data, environment details, configuration files and details of specific actions to be taken when any error is encountered during execution.

The driver script runs on the specific tool as adopted for the platform with the add-ins as required. During execution, the execution log is captured which helps to debug the execution and provide more details for logging defects. For SOA, capturing the exception is also very important to identify issues later. Then after the execution of the scripts it should provide the execution report, all the tools provide intuitive graphical execution reports depicting the summary of the execution. Then the report can be attached with the defect report.

The framework should be an evolving one, as you mature with the automation process refine and update the framework. We can work even without a framework, as it’s only a guideline which you may or may not follow, but using a good framework enhances the code modularity, re-usability, portability, maintainability of the automation infrastructure. It helps you to improve the process with time, tracking and analyzing the whole process. This is only a generic guideline; the best framework may not fall into any of the above categorization but should accommodate all your automation need.

I love Khan Academy

2012-08-23T19:28:00.000+05:30

The next in line of my "I love..." series is Khan Academy. In simple words I can say they are going to revolutionize the modern education system. This a not-for-profit social enterprise,founded by MIT and Harvard educated Sal(Salman) Khan. They provide free video tutorials in the site on subjects starting from Algebra to Physics to Finance and Banking system and also for different competitive examinations like IIT,GMAT,SAT etc.

What I liked about the website or rather the videos is, it really teaches you the fundamental of any subject. How complex the subject it may be but you can learn it through a short video of just 10-12 minutes. The style of teaching is not like any bookish knowledge or full of definitions or technical jargon. Anyone with no basic knowledge of a particular subject can also understand the concept and that is what I call teaching. The actual learning is when you don't have to remember but understand the concept which lasts long in your mind as well as you can apply when required.

Let me take one example, I saw this video long time back may be a year or two. This is one of the very first videos I watched there and it has a permanent impression in my mind. I remember this video not because it is awesome, but it actually cleared all my doubt in mind related to the subject(equity and fund raising, watch the video please to understand the context)and I have used that concept many times in my real life. I don't have to remember or understand any technical terms. I didn't require any prior knowledge on the subject. Yes it was the first video of that topic, so obviously you should not expect this kind of clarity If you watch just any video from the list. So in simply terms you can not ask more from a online video.

Khan academy is one of the favorite hangout place(online) for a knowledge hungry person like me. I have come across another excellent site Udacity, but the topics are not as vast as Khan Academy.

Today I ran for 60 min(8 km) non stop

2012-08-07T20:49:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: I ran on treadmill at 8kmph

It was just 4 months back, I was gasping for breath within 5 minutes of started running. I was envying people running for 20-30 minutes. I had thought stamina for running is an inborn quality and is going to take long time to develop. I just hated running, hence avoided that. In gym I will do other Cardio exercises but not running. I used to say myself even cross trainer or stepper were as good as running on treadmill, so why to strain yourself by running. These are all excuses for overcoming that fear and pain of running. I tried many times running for longer durations but used to give up for severe pain in lower legs or knees or thigh muscles. Another excuse came to mind was : I'm overweight hence my legs are unable to withstand the pressure of running.

Then one fine day in April I decided to start running and develop stamina at any cost. I targeted for TCS World 10K and registered for the same. So started running in a park near by my house for few days. It was not actually running practice, walking and running. But I tried very hard to run for more time, it was tough. I had not measured how much I used to run but around 45 min to 1 hour. Then I participated TCS World 10K. That event just changed my mindset for running and I set a tougher goal.

But,due to my work timings, running outside early morning became just impossible. Working out in gym was kind of easier for me. Even though there is a huge difference between running on road and tread mill, I thought of something is better than nothing. For a starter like me both were equally difficult.

I just want to share my experiences:

1. To start with running is a mind game, the sooner you realize this the faster you can work on your stamina. Running for long time is painful, yes it hurts. You check with any long distance runner, it hurts during the time they run. But If you surrender yourself to that pain, you can never run longer.

2. Initial few minutes are tough but trust me once you overcome that the feeling is really awesome. Just consider this way If you stop then you need to start from the beginning. So just carry on.

3. Learn spending time with yourself and listen to your body. But you need to push your body bit by bit. I don't have any scientific backing for this, but I believe any pain to my lower body is harmless and I can recover once running is over. But pain in your upper body, say chest pain or headache or nausea might be a warning signal.

4. Like first few minutes, first few days are very important, that is when(including me so many times) people stop. Because for first few days, the pain may be there even after running. So warming up and cooling down,including stretching, is very very important for minimizing the pain and avoiding any internal injury. Take some advice from a experienced runner or trainer.

5. Progress slowly but progressing is important. Slowly either increase your speed or time. Don't let your body be comfortable to a routine. Let your mind deceive the body gracefully, say you are running for 15 minutes push for another couple of minutes, run little more, change your goal slowly.

6. Always remember you are practicing for running not for walking. So don't walk in between and run. Hope you know the difference between walking and running, even If its slow, run slowly. Run at the same speed of walking, but that running is important. The way your body moves is different in running and walking, so make your body habituated to that style. Initial days, you might get severe pain in the lower leg or ankle or knees, but it is not for your body weight but because those your weaker parts in your body. But don't worry with practice they will be strengthened.

7. Find your rhythm, it will take time. When you run for longer time, you spend long time with yourself. Find the exact way you put your foot and push it back, put again, how you move your other body parts, how you move your hands, how you move your head. Try to find the pattern which is most comfortable, you need to follow the same for long running. The right posture and rhythm will protect you from injuries. You can take a expert advice on your running posture.

8. You will be sweating a lot so sip a little water in between. Even If you may not spend much on energy drinks, you can just add little salt & lemon to plain water and drink the same. It will prevent you from getting dehydrated.

9. For starter like me running on treadmill has some advantages : I can see my speed and timing, I may push myself little hard without stopping or reducing the speed where as stopping or slowing down is much easier running on road.

10. Initially take break in between If you are running for longer time, but slowly you will realize stopping completely for couple of minutes and starting again is tougher. As I told you earlier, If you stop you need to start again from the beginning. So rather than stopping for a break, run slowly for some time and than increase your speed again.

11. This is the best way to train your will power. To just keep on running in spite of body pain which would have been constantly urging you to stop can be a real challenge to overcome. You can keep yourself busy in music or some other thought. Enjoy the pain in your body as its only temporary.

12. Give yourself a break in between and allow the body to recover. If you have stretched yourself to the fullest one day, take rest or do some cross training or work out only for upper body.

13. Running with a partner is a good idea, but not necessary. Because its only you(your mind) who is going to fight with your body.

14. Eat well(may be you should consult a nutritionist If not sure), it will help you to recover and prepare you for the next run.

15. Participate in the long running events like marathon, it gives you that important boost.

These worked for me,hope it might also work for you, let me know your views.

Is the market down today?

2012-08-05T12:27:00.001+05:30

How many of you have come across these questions or have asked the same?

How is market today?

Is market down(or up) today?

This is the most common question I have been asked by my friends and acquaintances. Actually they refer mostly SENSEX(sometimes NIFTY) and consider market is up or down depending on the index is up or down. Please don't embarrass your self by asking like this. If you really want to ask, the right question might be "Is SENSEX or NIFTY down today?"

In no way SENSEX or NIFTY represent the whole stock market and its not going to affect in anyway unless (read till end to understand).

SENSEX consists of 30 shares in BSE and NIFTY consists of 50 shares in NSE. Actually there are thousands of shares listed in the respective stock exchanges. The index is created with certain weight for each share with the intent of representing the market. Their price movement every second during the trading hours determines the index price. But actually it represents a very few number of stocks. So SENSEX or NIFTY up or down only represents the 30 or 50 share movement. Even though it should represent market, it actually not. In no way you can say If the index is down, market is down and its all negative.

You or your investment will be affected only If you have invested in any of the index shares. So If you have not invested in them, then you don't have to worry. Non of your investment decision should depend on the index level. The actual gems are not in the index, those in index, are already in everyone's notice. So most likely they are priced as per their value. So see beyond the index for investment decisions and stop asking that stupid question.

Are your goals written?

2012-07-25T00:43:00.001+05:30

We all have small or big plans for future, it may be as simple as finish today's work and go home or may be to buy a house or car or reaching a particular position in our professional career. Everybody has some or other goals in their mind, there is nothing unusual about it. Even a street vegetable vendor or rickshaw puller or even a beggar has a goal. However the sincerity to achieve the goal varies from person to person and hence the probability of achieving it.

One interesting fact about goals, I have come across is, only 3% people write their goals. Only three percent people have their goals written and most of them who have their goals written actually achieve it. Very few of the rest who doesn't care about writing their goal actually meet their goals. I heard this long time back but never took it seriously.I thought it was so stupid like you might be thinking now If you have never tried writing your goal before. I could have never realized how just writing them can make a difference until I tried them on my own. Just writing your goals could make a huge difference and I couldn't help sharing the same.

Before jumping into writing your big goals, try this, the way I started and realized the difference. Many days in your office or personal life you must have come across with very busy days. Lots of things to do, running around for people and places. Just make a To-Do list either in the morning or the night before : note down all the tasks that you need to accomplish and If possible prioritize them in accordance with their deadline or importance. You can use the priority quadrant or use the free TO-DO software available or simply write in your diary. Complete the tasks as per their priority. Prioritize any unplanned tasks coming up and work accordingly. When I did this, I found my days were much organized. I had the clarity of what I am going to do for the day. My days were extremely productive. I could plan my days much better. I realized many of the days are not really hectic as it seemed to be. I used to spend more time in juggling and prioritizing the tasks, then actually working on it. It completely changed my work life balance.

Now just extrapolate this to little longer period of time. The goal in a written form can only be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time bound(SMART). The goal which is SMART can only be worked on hence achievable. Say for example you are thinking to buy a car in near future. But its not a SMART goal, just in your mind. You may buy it some day when you accumulate the money needed or make arrangements for other requirements. But If you right it down like :" I want to buy Maruti Swift by December 31st 2012" the result will be different. Your requirement is clear, you know how much money you need by that time. Hence you can plan exactly how to arrange the same, whether you have to take loan, for how much and how much you can save by that time. You will find out the waiting period for the particular model, so you will book accordingly to receive by the time. In the previous case(the goal only in mind), you may also buy a car, but may not be in a particular time frame or may not be the exact model.

The goal is just a wish until its written down concisely. Then it becomes a actionable plan. You will realize what all is needed to achieve the same. The bigger goal can be divided into smaller ones in lesser time. Say a 10 year goal to yearly goal to monthly goal to even weekly or daily. Then you can align your daily tasks to your goal. The effort, the skills, investment or any other ingredients may sound huge for a 10 year period. But when you break down into daily or weekly targets it will be much more achievable.

A written goal has tremendous mental effect. Quite a bit of unconscious factors work towards your goal when its becomes clear and concise in your mind. You can also put your goals(The photo of the luxury car or home you want to own or the life you want to lead) in a visually appealing manner in a prominent place where you can see them anytime. It will take your mind space, it will improve your focus on the goal and rest other things will fall short for it. You will be motivated to overcome all the obstacles as the only thing taking bigger space in your mind will be the goal.

Writing a SMART goal itself is a challenge. If you have never done it before, it may seem little odd initially. But just start with your daily TO-DO list or just write down what ever in your mind as goal. Once you write your mind, you can actually visualize what you want. The you will realize how much actionable those are and you make it better, clear and more specific.Then Slowly, with time the goals will become SMART and you will be closure to achieve it. So just go and write down what you want in life without any more delay If you really want to achieve!!!

How you can be a fast learner!!!

2012-07-20T17:03:00.002+05:30

As per me learning is the most important ingredient of personal growth. Learning is not just acquiring some technical or soft skills, but in my opinion, its the way to be a better or smarter person tomorrow than what you are today. There are so many stuffs to learn and know, the faster the better. So I always wanted to learn, how to learn things fast, how to acquire the subtle nuances of life quicker. I did little bit of research and tried to learn : How to learn fast? I want to share my findings(learning).

When I think of fast learning, the first thing that comes to mind is some of my friends who learn fast, mostly technical skills. The next and most prominent fast learners, that you will also agree with me, are children or young kids. The slow learners are mostly adults or old people. These were my subjects of observations.

My fast learner friends, the most common thing among them is passion. Whether they are learning a programming language or playing tennis or swimming, the interest is intense in the respective subject. The other intention might be there but the passion has over shadowed them. The next thing is trying the same thing relentlessly, without getting tired or bored, may be this can be the result of the first point "passion". You will never get bored for pursuing your passion , rather find it interesting and adventurous to do the same thing. The next is discipline, devoting time regularly and sincerely. No inhibitions or assumptions or ambiguity in mind. They don't think much about it, normally what their slow learner counterparts think: what next ? is it really worth? Will it work? Can I do? Who has done it before? What will I get? These things are the hurdles for your learning. Trying and experimenting with their idea, without bothering much about its outcome, is another trait

What about the kids? Once they get interested in something, remember your childhood days whether it is cartoon network or comic books or video game, they hooked up to it. They try every possible way to fulfill their wishes. Kids follow advice from their parents or teacher without any reservations in their mind(sometimes they don't follow, if the activity is not interesting to them. But they never partially follow advises or follow with doubt or ambiguity in mind). The kids yet to realize the meaning of shame, fear, self respect(read ego), boredom, cheating, showing off etc. Which allows them to focus more on the learning part than anything else. Kids don't get bored in anything they are doing, you can see them busy in some very basic stuff which any adult person can get bored very easily in sometimes. Kids never hesitate or afraid of trying things newly or in variety of ways,experimenting.

Now I don't have to explain how difficult is for a adult person to learn a new skill. You must have marked, how your parents struggle to operate a mobile phone or a laptop or any electronics gadget. As we grow up, slowly, we forget these qualities of a kid. Getting hooked up to an activity without getting bored, trying sincerely(not seriously have you seen tension in a kids' face when he is struggling to ride his first bicycle?), lots of inhibitions/reservations/assumptions in mind, fear of failure or fear of rejection. We start thinking about others and its outcome while attempting the new skill than about ourselves or the task.

From above points the qualities of a fast learner(or lack of it in a slow learner) is common. There is a definite pattern.There might be some physiological specialty with the fast learners, but I didn't get any concrete evidence of it. Even If its there we cannot help it anyway, than why to be worried for that. But definitely we can work on our behavioral shortcomings to be a fast learner.In simple terms our attention and focus is served to multiple things, overcoming so many hurdles, that the actual task(learning the skill) gets sidelined. Hence we spend more time to learn.
Hope you got the point and can work on it. Let me know your view through comments.

Myths about communication skill

2012-07-15T21:42:00.001+05:30

The top three myths about communication skills which most of us have:

1. Speaking grammatically correct English in a neutral accent is good communication skill. This is the most common misconception among people which prevents them to take action to improve their skills. If you also believe this, just take a piece of paper and read it before a handful of audience. Then ask another person to read the same and try for some more people. Does the message received by the audience is same for each of the readers? Each word can be spoken in multiple ways by different people and that changes the effect on the audience.
Communication involves effectively connecting with the audience or your partner you are talking to. Not just the words you speak, the way you speak, the way you take the pauses in between, voice modulation, body language, facial expression, eye contact, your personality comprises in the communication. Your body language or gestures can convey hundred words to your audience. Skill fully choosing your word while speaking as well as carefully maintaining the silence is an art to be worked on.

2. If you have good technical skills, you may not need good communication skill : Another dangerous assumption among technical people, including me, prevents from working on their communication skills. Technical skills can only take you to one level, beyond that you need to communicate. I am talking about people even who wants to opt for the life long individual contributor role as a technical specialist. The bottom line is, you have to deal with people, even If you have good technical skills. You need to talk to and convince people on your technical design or proposal. I don't have to explain how good communication skill is needed for a manager. Recently one of our senior manager told, 70% of the escalations are because of bad communication either written or verbal and can be avoided.

3. To be a good communicator I should speak more(out spoken) : Once you hone your skills on communication skills you are more likely to speak more and talk more. But listening skill is one of the most vital components of effective communication skill. If you are a manager or leading a bunch of people you need to listen to them more than talking to them. But the irony is you won't find any training or workshop for listening skill, you can only develop by practice. It requires more patience and effort to develop this than verbal communication.

Overall The communication skill can be learn but it requires time and effort like any other skill. Most of us should have learn this in the school days but If you are from vernacular medium of education and made fun of people speaking English in college, get ready to pay the price.

Link Referral Update

2012-06-16T19:41:00.003+05:30

I had suggested for link referral in my last post few months back. I was using this for last few months and even promoting the same in my blog. But after using this for so long, I have realized its not really a tool to attract quality traffic, as it claims to be. If you follow its instructions, as I have mentioned in my last post, you can have some(10-15 per day) visitors to your site. But they are not the quality traffic. The system is like a chain reaction:"you visit my site and I will visit your site".

The instruction is to visit and review sites listed there, So If you visit others site out of curiosity(or obligation?) the site owner may also visit your site. Every one can visit or review only limited number of unique sites everyday. Hence there are good chance that people may visit or review your site as well which is listed. But they are not the quality traffic, they didn't really come being attracted by the quality of your site. So they are not going to visit again and again unless they are really overwhelmed by the content. Moreover, I doubt people really visit the listed sites(yours is one of them). Mostly they might be just clicking to open your site or write a generic review to complete their daily quota. I had spent around 15-30 min daily to exhaust all the allowed clicks and reviews and as a result my blog had gone to the top spot in the category and subcategory for that day. I had received some visitors, but not really quality ones.

But there is silver lining to this, If you have really good content, then some of the users may be your regular visitors(provided they really visited your site). You can get a chance to network with some bloggers of similar interest. So everything boils down to good content, there is not substitute for that.

Hence I am not endorsing Link Referral for a source of quality traffic, rather a networking place for bloggers. If you are upset about my endorsement earlier and now tracking back, accept my apologies. The tips and tricks are my own experiments and I keep them updated as per my experience, hence will update the same as well. So follow them with an open mind, and feel free to raise your voice If you feel otherwise which can be beneficial for all of us.

SEO for your blog - Key Word Research

2012-06-16T18:41:00.001+05:30

In my post I had mentioned about few simple techniques,you should know or learn to upgrade yourself to a pro-blogger. One of the very important and must have feature is SEO for the blog. Your blog should be optimized for Search Engines to get traffic. From my personal experience, Google is the market leader of search engine.If you focus on optimizing for Google, you need not worry about any other search engines. From my analysis of traffic to my blog, I have never got a single user from any other search engines except Google. In simple words, the aim of SEO is to get your blog in the first page of the search(not in the paid result area, top and right side with pinkish or bluish background) result. Hosting your blog in the platforms like word press or blogger, takes care of the basic SEO.But having your blog in your own domain has its own advantages and you need to take care of the SEO as well.

First understand how does it work. Google bot or robot or spider crawls through billions of web pages in internet, creates an index of the webpages based on a large number of criteria and weighting system, encodes and stores data to deliver on user search. The interesting part of SEO is, no body knows what are those exact criteria and their weight-ages on which the pages are ranked.Moreover Google also updates those algorithms periodically to serve the customers better and be competitive in the market. What ever knowledge is available with the SEO experts and websites are the experiment and experience of people. Nobody can guarantee to get the website to the first page of search results in a particular time span. With the ever changing intelligence of Google bot and your competitors endeavors for higher page rank, SEO should be an ongoing activity through out the life of your blog.

There are various techniques used by experts for SEO, we will discuss the most basic one in this post: On Page Optimization. So you have a blog and you want it to come to the first page of Google search result, so you must be knowing what your website does for the people who will look for it in the internet. So how you look for some information in the web page, you search with a word or phrase. Similarly find what would your target customers search If they want information related to your blog or the information related to the area or requirement your blog is catering to. So zero down to one key word or phrase for which you would like to optimize your page. If your blog is catering to multiple requirements, similarly find keywords for each page you should target to optimize.

Find the target Key Word for your site

One more important task is to find the right key word to optimize for your site. The key word should have low competition(less people are trying their sites to optimize for that) and high traffic(more people are searching) for those words. But If the keyword is attracting high traffic, then mostly competition will be more and vice-versa. So you need to balance between these two parameters. In my opinion, target for key words with more traffic even If it has more competition. You can use the free Google keyword tool to research for key word.


Key Word Research

So find the key word for your web site and each page, we will talk about optimizing the title,description and other HTML tags of the page for the key words.

Don't forget: Write for human beings first, machines will be taken care of themselves automatically

My first (mini) marathon experience - TCS World 10k 2012

2012-06-09T17:11:00.001+05:30

The experience of riding a cycle first time, driving a bike or car first time, getting first salary, going abroad first time are all different but awesome. Similarly the experience of running and completing your first marathon(its mini marathon, full marathon is around 42km), exciting and worth sharing. For everyone who is thinking its a tough thing to do, actually its not so for a 10k(10 kilometer) run. I ran the TCS Bangalore 10k last week and it was my first attempt in a running event.

I go to gym and run for some time on tread mill but not more than 2 km and hardly have any practice running on road. But I registered and thought of giving it a try. I would attribute most of my inspiration for running to Swarup's Blog. Running,like any sport, is more mental than physical, I would say its the test of your will power more than anything else. I bought one good shoes and read little more about this from other popular sites on internet like runners world. I chatted with a friend who had run 10k before and he also emphasized on the same thing, prepare your self mentally to complete it. With all these input and little or no practice I jumped to the battle field with the target of finishing it before the finishing carpet is removed(2 Hr).

I reached the ground early morning, saw the crowd and the arrangements nothing less than a fun fare. Entered the stadium, saw people from all ages and walks of life and realized Why I didn't try this before. The elite runners category had started early and they were about to finish, it was amazing to see people(mostly the winners were from Kenya or Ethiopia) finishing 10K in 28 Min live(not on TV). With that inspiring event, the open 10k started.

The initial few hundred meters,till outside the ground it was so crowded, it was impossible to run. Somehow moved forward. There were so many people on the way taking photos and encouraging through out. Also there were cheerleaders or DJs arranged by the sponsors. After a kilometer or two I started gasping and that was the time I had a strong urge to stop. But I carried on. I took inspiration from elder people running with me, told to myself If they can do why not me? I can say till 4 or 5 km it was tough, then it seems to be little easy. May be I got used to the pain or endorphin effect?? Then when we took the U turn to turn back, it was a kind of mental relief that half way is over. Then seeing people still going when you have taken a turn gives you little more push, hence forth it was a smooth sailing. Then I reached 6k, 7k ,8k and I saw the most inspiring quote among many through out the way: "Don't think about the pain. pain is temporary, pride is for ever."

I had not seen the route map properly, I had expected the finish line would be inside the stadium. So saved some energy to sprint the last few meters. I saw the stadium gate and started running with full speed with all my last drop of energy and entered the gate. To my surprise it was the end point and marathon was over. I was slightly disappointed, but realized for the good: "Destination is just a point, enjoy the journey". It was an experience of life time, finished in 1Hr 26min.

The arrangements after the marathon were not so professional as I had expected,awful chaos in distribution of completion medal and refreshment. As I had read somewhere, I didn't sit or took rest at all after the run, just kept walking towards the refreshment counter. Collecting them were tougher than completing the marathon. Then finding the baggage counter was equally difficult, hardly any volunteers or security guards were able to point the exact location. I was new to the stadium, took two rounds to finally make it there.

With this experience I would urge everyone to try the mini marathon at least once, running 10 km is not that tough with such an ambiance and crowd. Once you complete, rest is history: You may just continue running ever after!!

What is stopping you from taking that important decision

2012-05-25T18:12:00.000+05:30

Many times you think to do something like changing the job, starting a new project or learn an instrument or relocate to new place or buy a costly item,but some how you don't act on it.
The wish remains as a wish only.

Why?

There can be many reasons(in reality) or you have found an excuse to not pursue the same. The same reasons or excuses are the difference between successful people and wanna be successful people. If you analyze the reasons stopping people to take that important decision, one thing is common among all of them. If you further drill down all the reasons and excuses most of the time all of them converge in to one single factor.

Let's take on some of the obstacles or reasons or excuses for which almost half of the people fail to go beyond the attempt stage. Those are like :"I don't have that skill set", "The project is tough","What If it doesn't work out?", "What my neighbor/friend/relative/parents will think", "I don't have time","It's risky","Its boring","Is it worth?","I need money to pay my bills" etc etc. You think too much on the task and its hypothetical consequences, which is preventing to make the attempt only. So less you think about it , you will be one step closer to it.

During the execution, there will be obstacles. There is every likelihood of encountering all the above situations and you can also overcome them. None of the problems are without a solution or work around. You are not the only person facing them, talk to any guy who is successful, he can tell you how many such situations he has come across. The only way is to focus on the goal and everything will fall in place. You need to keep your cool during that difficult time and think to resolve the issue but not about abandon the project at any cost.

Take an analogy, say you want to travel from Bangalore to Mumbai driving a car. You may get a map or GPRS with some other necessary stuff and just start or you think and plan about every turn, crossing and land mark on the way? Do you plan what to do "If your fuel gets over" or "you get hungry" or "get confused in a six way crossing" or "how to over take a big vehicle" or "how to cross the speed breakers" or "you met an accident". Its a journey, start with your destination in mind, solve the obstacles on the way as and when they come and you will eventually reach there. There is no point of planning every bit of the road and situations you can think of, obstacles and surprises are bound to happen.

Another interesting fact I am telling you from my experience. I took up a project, I had done the necessary due diligence and found some risk. I planned the mitigation strategy and started it. I completed it successfully. Then I found couple of my friends, who were interested for the same, but they had found more risks than what I had identified. So didn't dare to take up.In fact If I would have also thought to that detail level, probably I would have also done the same. But the reality is its not necessary that you will face all the risks, that you expect, which stops you from even attempting the problem. The same thing even I have found in people who are running a start up or taken up a new project.They may not be aware of so many negative aspect of the project, that outsiders think about it. Those are the people sitting at the fence, and realize later "Opps I had also the idea","I could have done that". So don't sit at the sideline, Still I am not telling to jump on to something without thinking but too much of anything is bad so as thinking. It takes some time(failed attempts) to identify the thin line between thinking and too much thinking.

The same way you must have seen people in a desperate situation(lost job or debt ridden), succeed. Because they don't have any other choice but to stick to the plan and execute it. They can not abandon the project at any cost,because there is no alternative. Do you know why Israelis are one of the most innovative people in the world, read the book Start up Nation (in Amazon)

So its all in the mind, If you can say to your self yes it can be done, "I can do it" and simply work on it things will be much simpler. So all the obstacles and reasons stopping you to pursue your goals are internal, once you decide in your mind the external problems can be resolved. The difficult part is to condition your mind to face the situations. Mental strength plays much bigger role in taking the decision than the suitability of external factors. Because the external factors are all same for everyone, its not only you who is facing the problems, then why only handful of people are successful. Because they have realized, the limitation is only in their mind not the external forces. Have you realized now?

Are you ALSO losing money in stock market?

2012-05-15T19:40:00.001+05:30

Many of my friends invest in stock market directly or indirectly(through mutual fund or ULIP), but very very few will acknowledge they have made profit out of it even some people say they haven't heard anyone making money from stock market.

So why people don't make money from stock market whereas its considered to be the best asset class to invest for long term. If you are one of those who have heavily burnt their finger and concluded stock market is not the place to make money, check If you have made any of these mistakes:

You follow Sensex or Nifty index in TV or Newspaper or websites(like money control)and say market is up or down accordingly.
You buy when market is in bull run, all positive and optimistic and sell when its the opposite
You buy or sell stocks on free advice by experts in TV(in channels like CNBC) or newspaper or your broker
You have entered the market with the intention of making quick and easy money
You only read stock tips and price targets in research report or stock recommendation
You don't remember all the companies you own(stocks in your portfolio)
You can not write at least 1 full page(500 words) for each of the companies you own
You have bought a share which you have never heard of till yesterday
You consider 3 months is long term investment
You don't know the difference between trading and investment
You think a stock quoting Rs 10 is cheaper than the one quoting Rs 100
You feel a stock quoting at Rs 5 will appreciate faster than the one quoting at Rs 2000
You consider IPO is the best way to make money in short time.
You daily spend more than 1 hour watching TV or websites to track the price of the stocks in your portfolio
You track only the trading price of the stock to buy or sell
You chase a stock to buy when its price is going up, but don't dare to touch it when the same one goes down by considerable amount.
You don't know the difference between mutual fund and ULIP but have both in your portfolio
You have either less than 5 or more than 20 stocks in your core long term portfolio
You have never read the annual report of the companies you own
You don't know the basics of reading the results or balance sheet of the company
You don't track even the quarterly result of the company which you have bought for long term
You never buy a stock once its appreciated by a good amount but you average a falling stock many times.
You buy or sell a stock in lump sum(suppose you want to buy 100 shares or 10k worth of one stock, so you buy the whole lot one time and sell one time)
You believe more risk results in more gain
You don't know the difference between bonus shares and split but buy before the ex-date to get more shares.
You are emotionally attached to some stock or brand and not able to sell them
You have become long term investor in a stock from buying it for trading as it went down
You feel the stock you buy goes down or it goes up when you sell

Unfortunately most of us fall into the above traps and ultimately blame the market and conclude stock market is not the place to make money. Buy the companies If you understand the business, otherwise for retail investors the best way to participate in market is through SIP in mutual fund. If you don't understand SIP or mutual fund, you can do a little bit of research or be happy with fixed deposit.

Let me know (through comments) If you have made any of the above mistakes and want to understand or clarify more about the same or how to avoid it.