Chai Masalas

A Warm Christmas @ Charleston - SC, Savannah -GA

2017-01-04T13:33:00.001-08:00

Search for a warm place landed me in my next travel destination - Savannah, Georgia.
This time it was not just me . It was my whole family and friends.

Sounds perfect isn't it?

All of us friends - Shilpa, Venkadesh, Shwetha, Madhu and my husband Harsha joined together and came up with a travel plan.

Our plan as follows:

Day 1 : Drive -> Lunch -> Drive to Charleston -> Fort Moultrie-Arthur bridge - Festival of Lights
Day 2 : Magnolia Plantation-> Lunch-> Water front Park -> Drive to Savannah
Day 3 : Savannah Historic District, Cathedral Church -> Lunch -> City market and River street Savannah
Day 4 : Georgia rail road museum,worm sloe historic site and forsyth park and drive back

Once our plan was ready , we booked the hotels for the Stay.

next my Food plan : As i m strict vegetarian and try to avoid junk ;)

I carried the below Food Items:

Idli - 25, Chapati -25, Ready to Eat MTR ,Ready to eat upma, instant noodles , ready to eat dosa
frozen roti ,apple, organic fruit juice,chips,biscuits, Brown Bread

	Sat	Sun	Monday	Tuesday
9:00 AM	Breakfast at home	Continental Breakfast	Continental Breakfast	Continental Breakfast
1:00 PM	Vegetable Rice	chapati + Mint chutney	puliogare	Roti , Subji using MTR ready to eat
8:00 PM	idly + chutney	Frozen roti + Subji using MTR ready to eat	Rotis, Subji using MTR ready to eat	Lemon rice

As planned our journey began on Sat 24th 2016.

Day 1 went as planned.

We reached Charleston after a drive of about 6 hours with short breaks in between drives.
Towards late afternoon , explored fort Moultrie along side beach.
Enjoying the sunset , we bid bye to the Sun and let him travel to the other side of the world. Haha

My Shadow :)

Divine isnt it ?

Bye bye Sun

Sand Castle made by kids :)

We checked into hotel for a quick dinner. After dinner , we started towards the Festival of Lights.

Festival of Lights was breathtakingly beautiful with unique themes.
Christmas tress, Snow flakes, reindeer, hopping frogs , hopping bunnies, Arthur bridge were all created using lights.Visuals were really amazing and the ambience was very festive , All set for Christmas.

We winded up the day with a jolly train ride and headed back to the hotel.

Day 2:

Magnolia Plantation was very pleasant. It has a Petting zoo, Peacock Cafe, Conservatory and a gift shop. Our kids loved the zoo as here we could touch the animals, feed them and click selfies.
Walking along riverside , we experienced nature with full of flowers and greenery.
Also there are The Plantation House Tour, Nature train, Nature Boat, Swamp Garden.

We took the Nature train post lunch and toured the diverse landscapes, witnessed sun bath of turtles, Aligators, Live oak trees and beautiful greenish lakes.

Late Afternoon, we traveled towards water front park.

Water front Park is along side Cooper river and it is one of the best places to spend an evening. It has well designed fountains and seating with Large swings to bask in the sun.

We winded up the day with drive to Savannah.

Day 3:

A visit to Savannah Visitor center started the day followed by rail road museum.

Post lunch we visited Cathedral of St John's Church.

@Lafayette Square, Savannah

Cathedral Church

Early evening was a drive to Tybee island and this was a change in our plan.

But the weather was chilly and breezy. As the clouds loomed over the beach, we spent just about an hour at the beach followed by drive to the hotel.

Day 4:

One good info is Savannah has some free transportation options.
The DOT is a fare free service that includes shuttles serving 12 stops in the Historic District.
We roamed on the streets of City Market using DOT.

Byrd's Shop is world famous for cookies. Get all kinds of cookies here :)

River Street is place for good walk and sight seeing.

Harsha :)

Writing this post brought back all the good times I had with my family and friends.

Thank you Charleston and Savannah for a warm experience during December 2016.

More Pics:

Feeling the Sky!!! @Pilot Mountain

2016-12-15T13:08:00.002-08:00

Exploring new places is a beautiful experience and a refreshing one.

So on one of the weekends , I decided to visit Pilot mountain State Park.

Its at a height of 2000 ft and offers scenic look with camping , hiking.

Below pic is clicked en route to the state park

On top of the mountain, feeling the deep blue sky.

As this visit is in December, it’s pretty cold up there. But the view is worth it.

There are three picnic areas at Pilot Mountain State Park. One picnic area is near the summit parking lot and two are near the Yadkin River. The area has many picnic tables and grills. As I had carried food for lunch, we spent couple of hours at the state park enjoying the nature.

And it was time to go home for a hot cup of tea

Super Moon 2016 : View from Jamestown North Carolina

2016-11-18T10:53:00.001-08:00

Clicked on Nov 16 Early Morning!!
@Jamestown, North Carolina

The Magic of Niagara

2016-10-28T10:04:00.001-07:00

The thought of a waterfall will bring in Radiant rainbows, whooshing water, and a lot of mist to the mind’s imagination.
Yes , with these thoughts I was holding the boarding pass in one hand and with my lil one on the other. I boarded the plane with my lil one and my parents destined towards New-York city.

From the altitude As I clicked the clouds:

After an exhausting tour around New-York city, my journey towards Niagara continued but this time , I boarded a bus from New York to Niagara.

After about 8 hours of bus travel , here I was in Niagara.

First stop was at Niagara Fort. It was originally built by French but now serves as a museum.The restored fort provides a glimpse of 18th century battles that took place on the site, as well as period dances, fundraisers and other special events.

Walking through the Niagara State Park.

And Finally , breath taking beautiful NIAGARA

There are cave of the winds, Maid of the Mist, Trails ,I-MAX theater and few other activities at Niagara State park.

I-MAX -> One of the good places to hear the stories surrounding Niagara falls over the centuries.

One of the below videos taken while on the Maid of the Mist boat

With fear, mystery and Magic , Niagara will definitely cast her spell on everyone for the rest of our lives. Although the waterfall is shrinking by 12 inches each year, which means it will disappear in about 10000 years from now ,
, N-I-A-G-A-R-A is a miracle and MAGIC!!!

My first painting!!

2016-10-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to try my hands at painting to paint one of my fav characters –

The Buddha.

It’s Full Moon and a bright lotus and from the dark, there is an image of the golden Buddha symbolizing light from ignorance.

Learning an art is an incredible experience as you become aware whenever u learn something new.

Will continue to post more paintings.

Day Out with Thomas

2016-10-04T12:57:00.002-07:00

The nostalgia of toy train or travel by real train is always cherished.

Perhaps a toy train was gift… Looking back, do you remember the spark of joy and enthusiasm accompanying it? For many, their first toy train triggered an enthusiastic hobby for collecting model trains and creating miniature railroads spanning towns/cities. …not only can this be an incredible hobby but it can be rewarding for the entire family.

Thomas & Friends, a small creative fiction on the steam locomotive in The Railway Series book by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher has now grown to be a weekend destination.As it is one of the favorite TV series watched by my daughter,
I decided to spend a day at North Carolina Transportation museum for the event
"Day Out with Thomas".

Its not only fun loving but also educative, informative and creative.

Below are the pictures and videos that creates a longing to go back again.

A day in the Smokies!!

2016-09-16T13:40:00.001-07:00

National parks are usually one of the best getaways to rejuvenate and soak in nature.

So on one of my weekends , I decided to visit the smoky mountains.

Firstly, every traveler must grab a map of the park being explored before the start of travel in to the park.

So here is the map of Smoky mountain.

Its geographically located between two states of United States : North Carolina and Tennesse.

I explored the mountain from North Carolina side. My drive was through Cherokee to Oconaluftee visitor center.

There are fields near by which are habitats of wild life of the smokies. These fields can be explored by walk.

After a brief walk on one of the fields, we drove towards Clingman’s dome and Newfound Gap.

Enroute I could get a glimpse of many campers going back towards stone age era.

Its amazing how human mind always goes in search of something nonexistential

On top, we get a very nice view of the smokies.

We finally winded up an exhausting day at Sugarlands.

Next day, we explored Cataract falls, Laurel falls, Sugarlands visitor center and a wheat mill.

After a rejuvenating time in the smokies, we finally bid good bye to the mountains and headed back home.

How to earn PDUs to maintain PMP certification??

2016-09-14T07:13:00.001-07:00

After a mammoth task of clearing the PMP exam, the next task is to earn the PDUs to maintain the certification.

Let me share my experience of earning the PDUs.

We need to get 60 PDUs over a period of 3 years to renew PMP certification.

The 60 PDUs are classified as follows:

In Educational category , One needs to get 35 PDUs.

In Giving back category, One needs to get 25 PDUs.

Also Educational category is further divided into 3 subcategories:

1. Technical

2. Leadership

3. Strategy and Business

Giving Back category is divided into 2 subcategories:

1. Work as a Practitioner

2.Giving Back

I do lot of online reading , listen to webinars to get PDUs in Educational category and its also free.

For example: http://www.projectmanagement.com/ has lot of online materials which are free and we can claim PDUs.

Below pic shows my reading content :

The next category is Giving back:

We can claim PDUs by practicing project management methodologies in our profession.

In my work , I follow Agile methodologies via JIRa tool, Daily team meetings etc.

Also I create content through my blogs and claim PDUs.

Once the knowledge is gained or created , it can be reported via

All the necessary details wrt content need to be filled in and submitted. If its approved, PDUs will be accumulated in the CCRS dashboard.

This is one of the simple and inexpensive way to gain PDU.

Hope it was helpful.

Do share your comments.

How I cleared my PMP exam 2016!!

2016-08-29T02:29:00.002-07:00

As a working professional, I always felt the need to manage myself more efficiently and to take control of situations. As an aspiring project manager, I understood PMP certification would give a good platform to grow in the path of project management.

I started with the basics of how do I go about getting PMP certification during December 2015. I started comparing different materials on the internet. Over a couple of weeks , I concluded along with study guides PM PrepCast would give me sound knowledge and basics of project management.

Today , as PMP certified professional when I look back, I made the right decision. The PM PrepCast is a very good study material especially for those new to project management. The concepts are explained in a clear and concise manner as in PMBOK guide. PM Simulator is of great value especially in understanding stress levels, timing constraints in planning for real exam.

I prepared from materials Head first PMP, Rita Mulcahy PMP prep book eighth edition and PMBOK guide fifth edition. I listened to all the videos of PM PrepCast and refined the concepts using study guides. I spent 4-5 hours per day for almost 8-12 weeks. I practiced about 2500 questions.

Lessons learned from those PMP certified is of immense help as it gives an idea of how to go about your preparation time and study materials. Thanks a ton to Cornelius Fichtner for explaining the concepts in a structured and organized manner. Difficult concepts such as earned value management, network flow diagram, forward pass, backward pass, Procurement management are explained very well.

And I passed PMP exam in my first attempt on April 5th 2016. Relieved !!!

Coffee time across Geographies

2016-08-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

A lot of my friends tell that office life is boring and hectic.

But I feel otherwise often. Although I eagerly wait for weekends, I do enjoy being at office, meeting new people, understanding different cultures, learning new stuff and of course chatting at coffee table.

Coffee tables are the best places to meet new joinees, have an informal chat about anything under the sun

I always had a group of friends to enjoy my cup of tea with all office updates at usually 10.00 am and 3:30pm on most days.(@Bangalore office)

I had made a group on Skype messenger named "Coffee Friends" so that I can ping my friends just before I go for coffee.

It feels refreshed to talk to a friend about how your day was both at home and work.

Its feels good to kick start your day with a cup of coffee in office cafeteria.

Although a chaotic place with varieties of breakfast, a lot of noise, different flavors of coffee, tea to cater to many moods of people, a feel good factor always comes in.

Happiness or sadness, anger or frustration -> everything dissolves with a hot cup of Tea/Coffee :)

In USA, its usual to see that colleagues exclusively do not dedicate their time for coffee.

Most coffee/tea are sipped along the Hallway or at desks glued to their monitors.

Although it’s a lot more productive to have coffee/ breakfast/lunch at desk, somewhere the people connection is missing.

A Moment to share your laughter at work, A moment discuss your issues at work may now seem distant.

Within the same organization, how people sip their coffee/tea varies across geographies.

Although my logical mind tells me to be more productive, my emotional mind tells me to ping my friends

"Shall we go for Coffee?"

Enjoy the Small Things!!

2016-08-04T10:24:00.003-07:00

Background: Team environment in which one of the team member Adira goes on vacation. Other team members are Aurav and Joe working on the project.

Vacation...va..ca..tion.. its vacatiooooooooonnnnnnnn!

Adira was so excited about her vacation to the national parks on the west coast of United states of America.

On the other hand, Aurav being the hardworker was busy working and getting anxious about the workshop with the supplier the week ahead

Like a humming bird, Adira just finished the work and left office to board her flight.

Aurav looking at Joe sighed "Good times"

Aurav pulled it through the workshop with team member's support.

His high level of attention to details and excellent debugging skills makes it hard for any supplier to defend himself.

Alas the supplier.

The following week Adira returned from vacation.

After settling down with work,

Adira being curious asked Aurav "so When do you go on vacation?"

Aurav: I hardly go on vacations"

Adira : What"?

Aurav : Yes I do not go on vacations..

Initially i was saving money so I couldnt afford a vacation for myself.

but now I never make it a point to treat myself.

I never know what i really miss by not going on vacation.

As one gets into professional life, he/she gets so engrossed with work and career that they forget the outside world. but vacation is not just about going far away places or enjoying luxurious food and hotels,

its about leaving something one previously occupied with.

it should rejuvenate the mind and body so that one feels enriched and relaxed.

it also reminds that there is whole world out there which is so beautiful.

Quite often, we are constantly thinking about the materialistic things so that we can be happy.

but happiness is being able to accept yourself, smile from heart, feeling the heat of the sun, enjoying the rain, feeling the nature, things that sing the melody of the soul.

Lunch Table Conversation with John Bate

2016-07-19T14:16:00.001-07:00

It’s one of my usual days at office. Clock was ticking; I was busy working on one of my components. Soon I didn’t realize it was lunch time.

I went out for lunch with my team mates. Though the Cafeteria is filled with all the yummy food ready to be served, I resist the temptation and carry freshly made home food.It’s been a habit for a while now.

We are a group of electrical engineers. One of my lunch mates John Bate has been with the organization for 17 years now and he still brings in so much energy to work every day.

I am always overwhelmed at his interest and energy levels during technical discussions. I was curious to know the secret behind this and picked up conversation with him.

Me: what made you stay so long with the organization ?

John:

I am always thinking about improving our work environment, how to make it work better, faster, less waste, and about how I can contribute to the product with my knowledge.

My group once noticed that they were making a lot of design mistakes. Every mistake cost lots of time and money in terms of project development. I thought about what we were seeing then figured out how to automate some of the testing to at least catch a few of the easy issues. It is similar to someone finally inventing a spell checker. Spell checkers are so great and tell you about the spelling problem very quickly, mostly as soon as you make it. Of course, it could not tell you that you chose the write word, and that your smelling was correct. It wasn’t a good grammar checker, just a stupid computer. Thinking was still important.

Another time I noticed an engineer working hard to get all the schematics ready for a documentation release. I asked what he did, he explained that he had to put a Title on each page, number the pages, put a Table of Contents on the pages, build cross reference pages of all the components (alphabetical of course), etc. How long does this take I asked? Oh, about 2 weeks – I might have to start over if there were any last minute changes.

I gasped. Let me try to automate this for you. So I worked on and off for about 6 months, learning about the scripting tools, testing, and experimenting. When it was all done I had scripted the work to give not only what they had started with but included sorting the components, multiple levels of table of contents, etc. The scripting ran, and it ran fast.

Scripting reduced the manual work down to 10 minutes (from 2 weeks). So, basically, the scripts saved the project 2 man weeks (80 hrs.). The nice thing here also is that late minute changes were not going to kill the project. We just reran the script, over and over again until everything was right. The engineer could now spend that time on more important things, like going home at a reasonable time to be with his/her family. This work is still in use in my company’s USA, Sweden, Bangalore and China offices.

My current team operates mostly in a fire fighting mode. It has requests and new designs and testing issues all the time. It is hard to keep up with it all. I recently helped start an new way of working (Agile Kanban) to at least begin to reduce the crazy chaos – the changes are ongoing and only time will tell if this will help. I think it will as we can get a better idea of the work load on the team, maybe we’ll have data to support hiring an additional engineer.

The key on much of my work is that I think. Is there a better way to do this? Is this step really really necessary? What can we do here to improve the quality, the delivery, reduce the cost, and reduce the waste? One should never stop thinking – even after you get out of school you should never stop thinking. Are the engineers really using their talent to “engineer” something or are they using their talent to make fix spelling mistakes.

Difficult people do exist. You can never change a person if that person does not want to change. Never. In those somewhat rare cases I cannot do much except move on. Fortunately it is not often.

I have my share of good and bad days at work – the good days are fun, but with the bad I try to think positive. Positive attitudes always help.

Wow it was a great food for thought. Thank you John!!!

Yes, As John said when we bring in creative energies at work; bad days aren’t bad anymore but rather challenging.

My trip to Washington D.C July 2016

2016-07-08T11:25:00.002-07:00

I was all set to embark on a trip to Washington D.C on the weekend of Week2616.

Being a strict vegetarian I pack all the food for the travel required.

This time my mother was around for help too.

so we did the necessary shopping, cooking and was all set to start our journey on Friday evening.

We planned to start at about 4.pm and reach Washington D.C by 10 PM as it takes 5 hours drive from Greensboro.

Our travel started as planned.Driving among the lush green trees was an experience in itself.

The beauty of North Carolina is very distinct and it feels like a green carpet laid everywhere.

Due to heavy rain and traffic jam, we had to halt our travel at about 9:30PM about 60 miles from Washington D.C.

A good thing about Road travel in US is you get good hotels anywhere on highway and there are clean rest areas for a pit stop every few miles.

We reached Washington D.C on Saturday at about 11 AM.

Little did we know that we had to walk and walk and walk to explore the history embedded in the buildings of Washington D.C.

Walking around the White house on a hot Saturday afternoon was tiring in itself.

So we hired a bus tour. We roamed around in bus tour covering most of the historic buildings.

We concluded the day with a visit to Madame Tussaud.

On Sunday Morning, we took a trip on metro. Being from Colorado Springs, Greensboro , Washington D.C was the first metro in the United States to step in.

We explored few more museums and memorials and concluded our bus tour.

We started our return journey at about 3.PM on Sunday and reached Greensboro by late evening.

Thank you Washington for all the wonderful memories you gave us.

The Capitol

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

@Union Station

Work Life Balance - A perspective

2016-03-07T15:55:00.001-08:00

On the occasion of women’s international day,

Good news for all female friends.

As per Research conducted by the Kenexa Research Institute (KRI), a division of Kenexa, on how male and female workers perceive work-life balance, found that women are more positive than men in how they perceive their company’s efforts to help them balance work and life responsibilities. The report is based on the analysis of data drawn from a representative sample of 10,000 U.S. workers who were surveyed through Work Trends, KRI’s annual survey of worker opinions.

One of my best friends Yashaswini has put forth her views on work life balance.

Here's what she says:

“For most of the working women balancing both is a big challenge. This should not be weaknesses in competitive world like today. Planning of each and every small activity matters a lot and also one’s passion towards work. Apart from this taking care of you should be as important as anything and everything. Because I believe when I care myself, Then I can care for others, family and organisation in a better way.

Taking my life as example, my kid is everything to me. I am his strength and he is mine. I plan to spend most of the time for him. You can think how in this busy life one can spend more time with their children??

Here’s the catch,

I will be with him for the whole evening from 8 pm to 8 am playing/dancing / cracking jokes / singing with him / teaching for some time , feeding dinner , taking him outside for a walk , making him sleep till he wakes up . I take support of my in-laws in planning and coordinating tasks at home for the time when I am at office

I wake up early morning before sunrise; spend almost an hour for myself in physical activities like gym, exercise, and meditation. This helps me to maintain balance both mentally and physically and gives positive vibes within myself making me calmer. Next 1 hr. goes in cooking good and healthy food and packing them. Once my kid wakes up, get ready and drop him to school and head toward my office. This helps me start my day on a positive mind where I can be innovative, go an extra mile in my activities.

At work, I help my team; deal with conflicts with situational awareness. I bring clarity of thought in technical discussions which help me grow. I take new responsibilities and keep getting better at it. This has created good visibility for me at higher levels in the organisation.

So friends,

Commitment and Planning towards one’s work, relationships can take us towards balancing our personal and professional life.

And Wishing Happy Women's Day 2016 to all ladies

Aspen - Its Color before Fall #Fall Foliage

2016-03-02T14:33:00.001-08:00

A Chat with Shankar Narayan

2016-02-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

People management in an MNC has become most sought after role in the industry today. Leadership roles on observing people, appraisals, deciding the careers have become a trend even though one may not possess apt skills for the role. It may not be an easy decision to quit one such role in an MNC and pursue what your heart wants.

Only few take the road less travelled when encountered with such situations in life

Let me introduce to the group Shankar Narayan. He is an enthusiastic embedded engineer with a passion for writing, philosophy.

Over to his words.

How did you raise to the role of group manager from an engineer role?

To be honest I was not a geek at all. I was an average engineer with a bit of more commitment and willingness to act upon things to complete them. I had a very good communication skills and also I could quickly understand and analyze people and the different behavioral aspects. I was given ample opportunity by Sujay my then boss to play the role of his deputy and I enjoyed doing it. I also learnt a lot from Mr Vishwanath CR the then Chief engineer on how one can empower the team to work. All put together I was able to identify myself as a good people manager and the opportunity came right in front at Volvo.

On your decision to join start up.

After taking inspiration from Steve Jobs biography, his speech at Stanford and a personal guidance from Vishwanath, the idea initially was to quit my job and do something on my own full time that would satisfy my passion to help people learn electronics and breed the culture of innovation. However, that was a big risk for me personally. Then I met Mrs Subasree Venkatesan a friend of Mr. Vishwanah and I was excited to hear what she and her team was doing in her startup. When she heard my aspirations to be an entrepreneur, she offered me to work with her if I was interested and that was when I started seriously thinking. I also expressed my wish with them to have a small firm of my own in the field of learning along with my job. She agreed on this and thus my journey started with Sriveda Emsys as a product manager and also as founder of Gluevity labs my learning center.

Few thoughts on career and leadership and job satisfaction:

Career is a word that will have changing definition at times! If at one time it is about earning enough money for bread and butter and other time it could be money or position. then there could be a phase where career means to set a bigger purpose to identify yourself. That is when hell would break loose :-)

Leadership is a subjective term. You can develop it only by finding more about yourself. I believe that no classroom learning can bring in the leadership. It is made of several ingredients like trust, decision, risk, empowerment etc. You cannot declare yourself a leader, you can only exhibit leadership and its for the world to identify you as a leader.

Job satisfaction

If you can go to your job happily on Monday morning then you are satisfied with your job!

Wasnt it brilliant and inspirational!!!

Why relationships matter in corporate?

2014-10-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Eshwar and Raj are two engineers working in the same team in a company. Although both of them have similar qualification, the personalities are completely different.Eshwar is a merry go loving friendly guy with an open mindset. He works smart at his job , has his share of fun with his set of gang at work. Raj is a conservative, shy person. Although he is good at work, he finds opportunities to put down others and boost his self image with the higher management.

During recession, as projects were being cancelled and people were laid off in the company, Eshwar and Raj look for opportunities outside their organization.

Raj finds a prospective job, resigns the current organization and joins the new one. Eshwar also eventually finds a promising offer and lands in a new company after a short span of time. To their surprise , Eshwar and Raj ends up being in the same team in their new organization. With background familiarity and being strangers in new office, both exchange greetings and hangs up with one another during breaks and share the work details often.

As Raj joined the new organization quite ahead of Eshwar , He was bit more familiar with the new set up and people. To his favor, the team leader resigns due to personal reasons and as there were no one other candidate other than him with similar experience Raj now gets the opportunity to lead a new team. Raj was always waiting for such a moment and makes use of this opportunity completely. He puts in more effort at work, projects his work to his manager and establishes his control in the new setup.

Eshwar ends up in a project activity that is quite stable with good learning and not very high on visibility.He starts his work with his own style and delivers what ever is required for the job.

Raj feels accomplished as he is in a better position compared to Eshwar. He gradually adapts to bossing instincts, works less and concentrate on monitoring people and spying about his team to his manager. His attitude towards Eshwar also changes and both of them turn hostile.

Though initially new members of the team are unaware of his nature, they gradually understand the kind of person he is and limit their talks with him. Over a period of time, the project activity which Raj was responsible for is delivered. Raj's team is split due to completion of activity and now Raj has no team member to monitor for.

Because of his untrustworthy nature, not many colleagues exchange friendly greetings with him on a day today basis. Also, Feedback of unsupportive leader is provided about him by one of his team member.

His manager who had promised him a promotion and a rosy picture of the organization now is unsupportive of him. He encourages another new member who has just joined the team and openly criticizes Raj to contribute more for the team. Raj now has all his hopes of being a manager doomed.

Meanwhile Eshwar takes a up new activity and establishes himself as a go to person in his team. He slowly builds the team, develops good rapport with his seniors and brings more work to his manager both in terms of quality and quantity.

Being good natured, he develops a cordial relationship with all team members and he solves issues quickly when ever support was required. He also receives good feedback as a trust worthy person among his team members. Now Eshwar is a prospective candidate for the next promotion.

This situation strongly send out a lesson

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team

Hence

Relationships matter to your career no matter the organization or level of seniority because every job boils down to interacting with people

Its 9:30 AM

2014-08-21T02:04:00.001-07:00

Its 9:30 AM,
DTL meeting started as usual in our team with all my fellow colleagues. As a routine each one of us brief about every day activities. I was surprised to get an update on social psychology course in one of my meetings. From a team that does core electrical work pertaining to micro controllers, it was a very different experience to understand human psychology and behaviours associated with it after work hours.

A short face to face interaction with every colleague gives good start for the day. It’s important to come out of one's cocoon and understand others work to lay hands beyond spectrum of one’s own work.

Many personal growth books have an overwhelming focus on efficiency which is self-focused and includes vision creation, goal setting, being disciplined but it’s only the relationship that takes one forward along with one's efficiency. As we spend most of the time around office space, it’s important to build valuable relationship that takes one beyond the length of work and create a value system and synergy in the organisation.

Emphasizing a famous quote that says it all "If You Want to Go Fast, Go Alone. If You Want To Go Far, Go Together"

As I drive to my office every morning amidst personal calls, traffic jams, pot hole filled busy honking roads, one thought continues to be in my mind,

“Reach office by 9:30 AM”

Made My Move!!!

2014-07-11T01:30:00.002-07:00

Thinking on what to move next, I was fully engrossed with my game of chess.

it was my second round and my opponent was Raghavendra. it was 5:22pm when the match was started and at 6:15 pm , both of us had hardly any powers left out to attack with just a horse and rook and few pawns. After 15 more mins, I got an edge on the game when my pawn was promoted to Queen and it was very close finish. Oh what a match it was!!!!

As an adage states Journey is more important than destination, i thoroughly enjoyed the game as it was being played with complete intent and focus with many of my colleagues as audience. The game just uplifted my spirits for rest of the day and I was revived of enthusiasm.

As the experience in the job increases, somewhere monotony sets in and it drains one's energy levels. At that point, we start to drudge about the regular routine work and kill our creativity in our day today hectic schedule of deliveries, meetings and more deliveries.

Once in a while a fresh breeze to instigate creativity is so refreshing and sets the tone for next set up regular activities with enthusiasm.

Appreciate the coordinators and all participants of the employee engagement for creating such an ambience.

In the beginning Woman was the Sun- Happy Women's Day 2014

2014-03-07T04:15:00.001-08:00

Supervisor: Where were you during lunch break?

Vijaya : I was outside office premises to visit my 5 month old baby

Supervisor: Who gave you the permission to step outside office premises? Who will compensate for hours outside office during lunch?

Vijaya : I come back within an hour during lunch break. I will apply earned leaves for uncompensated hours.

Supervisor: Who gave you the permission of applying leaves? Do you think this is school to come and go whenever you want?

Vijaya : OK I will compensate by staying back every day extra

Its Jan 19th 2012, Vijaya, An engineer working for an automotive MNC is all set to get back to work after her 5 month long maternity break . She informed her manager about her joining couple of days earlier who reluctantly nods for her decision. But within days of joining she confronts such words from her supervisor which makes her very upset.

Being career oriented, she is unwilling to compromise on her job and yet strikes a balance to carry out her motherly duties. She puts her complete focus on work during the time in office and gets her job done every day. She quickly masters the skills required for the new project she is put in. She never thinks about the discouraging boss she has. All she has in mind is to give her job her best and be there for her baby. Within couple of months, her immediate colleagues recognize her potential. She gets a customer appreciation and an award for outstanding performance in her team soon. She proves her technical expertise by filing a patent in the male dominated automotive domain proving the engineer in her.

As we unfold the year 2014 for another woman's day celebration, it is important to realize that we don’t celebrate womanhood by just a day dedicated for woman and have some activities stereotypically considered feminine. There are thousands of Vijayas out there struggling to raise the bar, break the glass ceiling to prove themselves in spite of odds and balancing to meet their bonds with the family.

Mary Barra, the highest ranking female executive in the automotive industry leading a hundred year old pioneer proves that women have come a long way. Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, IBM's Virginia Rometty are all leading a tech savvy industry with their innovations for the next generation. With multitasking abilities, empathy for team, good consumer insights, Women form a creative work force challenging others who look down upon them for biological reasons.

Going back to philosophical roots,

'Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari tatha

Panchakanya smaranityam mahapataka nashakam'.

Meaning

Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari

One should forever remember the panchakanya who are the destroyers of great sin even those God cannot forgive

They are the panchakanya's of Hindu mythology with utmost personal tragedies yet never lose their inner light, achieve self-actualization in their own terms, represent the epitome of feminism and change the course of history.

As Nature has created male and female to be complimenting with both these forces present in all creatures in varying ratios, it is only disappointing to see the latter being subdued by the former.

Since time immemorial as a daughter, wife, mother -> woman has shown path for generations with their thirst for knowledge, quest for better quality of life, compassion and human values. With Inner and external beauty, Woman form the epicenter of mankind.

Let me reemphasize in the words of a famous actress Deepika Padukone:

"Feminism isn't about being aggressive; it's about reaching the top yet being soft. It's about being YOU — FEMININE, STRONG and FULL OF WILL POWER.”

A Coach To Save Fuel - Going Green

2014-02-13T01:52:00.001-08:00

Recently I came across an App which when installed in one's mobile analyses the driving pattern and provide tips to save fuel.

Just Reminds me of the Fuel Coach Feature in Quester trucks which also does a similar job.

In the Quester’s display the driver gets real-time tips on how to operate the engine for best fuel economy based on many parameters collected from the vehicle and analysing the driving pattern. The display shows the driver when to shift,brake or accelerate for maximum time in the engines optimum fuel-efficient rev range,the so called sweet spot. The system is simple to understand and easy to use.

I wish such a system features in a two wheelers soon

which will encourage two wheelers on road and avoid traffic jams especially in Bangalore.

Are the Two Wheeler OEMs listening?

Filmfare's Fair

2014-02-04T03:18:00.001-08:00

Come Jan , Feb , we usually get to see Award programmes being telecast across all the TV channels in India.

It usually starts with Best people from technical arena of film making, People behind the cameras and finally best actors, actress with loads and loads of dance and drama. Although its entertaining to watch, When I think over , the artists are being awarded for doing their job and for being good at it relative to other artists. Also there is life time achievement award meant for very senior artist who would have created a distinction for themselves in the industry.

I wonder why in no other industry is there an award ceremony of such grandeur.

An award for the best engineer, best doctor, best teacher , best designer, best product, best architect and so on are all bound with in the organizational limits and not the wide industrial limits such as the entertainment.

May be the fact that entertainment is more revenue generating and artists are here to entertain in the name of award functions also using different medias..

Do write your views..

Life Automated!!

2014-01-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

As my day today work currently involves running test scripts, analysing NOK test cases, providing feedback reports to correct it,

I can observe the change in status on the testing productivity. Earlier if it was 50 - 60 test cases on an average, it now is 200 - 300 test cases.

Coming from model based test development background, i could very well appreciate the difference between executable specifications and hand written code. The main intention behind all these developments of technology is making life simpler. In other words, providing intelligence to machines to help it do things for you.

I have become so technologically dependent, that i need a Google search to search something missing at home, need remote to control even switches, Automatize the cutting vegetables and missing spices also.. Although I am very sure it is not very far from such a scenario becoming real, such turn of events do indicate something.

We expect a similar approach when handling our fellow people.

We expect others to understand what we go through rather than we taking a step to understand others starting from home, in a professional setup, in a social gathering everywhere.

Expect parents to automatically understand our job pressures, peer pressures, financial situations rather than we also trying to understand them and fail to take lessons learnt from them.

Expect boss to automatically give us great work and substantial hikes rather than improving our caliber at work.

Expect our subordinates to automatically understand the big picture and work towards it.

In short, expect things in one's favor everywhere.

Are our brains so tuned to machine way of thing that it has forgotten empathy and expect inputs from external environment?

Something to Search Internally....

2013 The Year That Was:

2014-01-21T22:24:00.002-08:00

I became a year older at Volvo with the passing of 2013, I would like to look back before curtaining the year that was.

With many colleagues joining InV and bringing their perspectives to the board it was a sign of expanding. But many friends also walked out as their thoughts went out of sync with that of here.

Started off with many onsite plans, project meetings, ideations, strategy goals, SOPs, Advanced engineering discussions; it was a very good learning experience. Although personally I was on parental leave for a couple of months, my friends here didn’t make me realize I was out of this place and coming back was so easy. With constrained budget targets, low on cost requirements, 2014 promises more challenges to look ahead.

With Automation gearing up speed, I can imagine a scenario controlling all the rigs in lab simultaneously running scripts and doubling the productivity. HaHa

Going forward , Can focus as a new team(Functional Verification) and increase the complexity of work as small teams are more efficient.

2014!!!!!- Unwinding

A must watch video about vehicle precison and control.

2012-08-17T01:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zXwOoeGzys