IT @ Arasapura

I did a community project in 2007, just uploaded all related videos in YouTube. Looking back, the project has given me great amount of satisfaction – in fact I am proud of it.

I did the project as part of Landmark Education curriculum, one of the important milestone of that course is doing a community project; interesting rider - I shouldn’t do the project alone instead I should enroll my friends/stakeholders in such a manner they should get inspired, engage and drive the project. Of course it was challenging and had a roller coaster experience.

First, selection of project – I gave in to my strong suit and selected IT related project. Idea was to empower rural students with IT skills by teaching them fundamentals of computers, immediately I had two choices – a) I can go to my grandma’s place in Tamil Nadu, it’s a proper village in Thanjavur district and conduct classes there. b) Select a school in a remote village of Karnataka. I opted for option B, one of the main reasons for the selection was – As a Tamil, I want to show my love towards Karnataka – land where I work & live for past several years.

Initially I thought of choosing a village in northern Karnataka… but when I was discussing with my friends, Raghavendra suggested his own village, Arasapura – it’s approximately 100 kilometers from Bangalore and situated in Tumkur district. So I went there in early June 2007, Raghavendra’s father was so kind to receive me and he took me to the high school. Alas – they closed the school early since it was Saturday. I requested him to inform the School about my plans so that I can visit again early in the morning next Saturday.

Arasapura and the Kannada medium high school suited my requirement – even though it’s approx. 100 kilometers from Bangalore, it takes nearly four hours to reach the school. Need to take Hindupur/Gauribidanur bus and then get down in Gauribidanur, from there again take bus to Tumkur/Madugiri and get down in Arasapura. High school located approximately 1 kilometer from the bus stop so need to walk from bus stop to school.

Following weekend, I went again and met the school teacher Ms. Nethravathi, explained her about the intend & plan, key points I conveyed was a) there will be approximately 10 classes for 8th or 10th standard students on computer basics (outlined that it will start with “what is computer?” and gradually move on to overview of MS Office applications such as MS Word, MS Excel and etc.) b) classes will be taken in Kannada by my friends c) no fee or whatsoever will be charged for the classes – since it’s a social initiative and done by volunteers. She got convinced however I didn’t have an immediate yes. Since approval was required from school headmistress and also from Parent–Teacher association because students have to stretch an hour or so after school hours on Saturdays.

Over the week I got the approval and school teacher communicated through Raghavendra’s father. Also it was decided that classes will be taken for 10th standard students (approximately 50 – 60 students, to be exact 64 students) every Saturday from 11.30 AM to 1.30 PM. By that time, I had reached out to most of my friends and almost everyone was excited about the idea. Udai was willing to borrow his personal laptop – I dropped the plan of arranging a projector since I learned that there wouldn’t be power supply in alterative weekends in Arasapura.

Week 1 – Computer basics – Part 1:

I convinced many friends to take classes and even some committed dates… however none was available for the upcoming week – I was in the “Right now” mode and don’t want to postpone the classes by giving some reason. I continually pursued and my friend Sudhakar gave me the contact of Peer. Then I contacted Peer over the phone, he was enthusiastic about the project, however he told his unavailability for next 2 weekends due to other committed work but he gave me the contact of Ramesh. I spoke to Ramesh over the phone and he agreed to take the first class and he did – a nice introduction on computers to the students. One of the school teachers also attended the session, appreciated and thanked us at the end of the session.

I was not ready to take any credit/appreciation for the first session happened – all that was going on my mind was “it just happened – people like Sudhakar, Peer and Ramesh were keen towards society upliftment and they have done many such work earlier so when I contacted them, immediately they helped. So nothing great about me enrolling them”. That mindset caused breakdown the very next week – even after having so many friends in IT field, I wasn’t even able to get a single person for the second week session. But inside that breakdown, I got a breakthrough to recognize that I caused the first class by enrolling friend’s friend’s friend.

Week 2 – Computer basics – Part 2:

Week after that Peer took the second class on Computer basis. Unlike many, he is not an IT person but still he managed to teach the basic concepts clearly to the students. He touched upon computer hardware, types of computers, software and etc. One striking fact I came to know when he interacted with students was; they were not aware of Microsoft or Bill Gates.

Week 3 - MS Windows:

At the beginning itself Lohith booked the slot for third week and he honored it. He clearly explained students on operating system, Windows and its components. He also decided to spend more time on demo than theoretical class and obviously students liked it.

Meanwhile I was keen on knowing what students have understood so far in 2 - 3 classes so I interviewed almost each and everyone, also added a question about their aspirations. Interview gave me several insights – one of the takeaways was, revisiting the fundamentals at the beginning of each classroom sessions in order for them to grasp it.

Week 4 - MS Paint:

There were few people who dauntlessly encouraged & supported me through out the project and Prashanth was one amount them. He took a class on MS Paint with hands-on session so that students practiced whatever they learned.

In the mean time, in my office also I enrolled some of my friends and one of them was asking how exactly it works – since she doesn’t had any prior experience in teaching, I did a mock and explained her. Then she was confident and agreed to take the upcoming class.

Days passed, Friday late evening she told that she can’t come and take the class next day due to project deliverables, so I accepted the reason! – Breakdown!

Immediately I contacted Sudhakar & Prashanth, Prashanth convinced his brother and Pradeep was all set for next day class in a very short span of time! – Breakthrough!

Week 5 – MS Notepad:

Pradeep revised previous classes then taught them MS Notepad, and also basic components of windows application – brilliant show. Also I believe students enjoyed his Akbar & Birbal story that emphasized presence of mind and communication skill.

Week 6 – MS Word:

My friendship with Shashi was not so great but once I saw him as a possibility, relationship got transformed and I felt much closer to him. He took a very nice, neat and lengthy session explaining all basic aspects of MS Word.

Week 7 – MS Excel:

As planned (unlike prior ad-hoc), Pradeep took an outstanding session on MS Excel. Highlight of the class was a problem solving technique he taught to students.

Week 8 – MS PowerPoint:

Geetha gave me the reference of Rohini and due to the work pressure Rohini in turn recommended her sister. Revati, basically a civil engineer but did a challenging job of explaining PowerPoint in the blackboard beautifully. (Since there was no power supply that day in Arasapura to charge the Laptop battery)

For week 9, initially I suggested “Internet” as the topic to Mr. Suresh. Instead he preferred taking “Indian IT industry”, he wanted to demonstrate how IT is handled in real-time business environment. My initial thought was it would go over students’ head however I want to be unreasonable and so whole heartily told yes to his topic.

Week 9 – Internet:

In an unexpected twist, Mr. Suresh decided to go with “Internet”. He came with a projector and gave an excellent presentation on Internet. Students were amazed when he pointed out a scholar from their locality in Wikipedia.com.

In fact earlier I had some unnecessary hesitation in asking him to take class since he was my ex-boss. But my SELP coach Satish was quick to point out the pothole and then I saw Mr. Suresh as a possibility of wonderful teacher/person.

School teachers were pleased, appreciated all our efforts and Headmistress asked me to convey her thanks to each and everyone who conducted the classes.

There were few incompletion like a) a session on hardware with demo preferably by Raghavendra b) arranging a permanent computer(s) to the school through corporate sponsorship c) similar classes for students in upcoming years and etc.

But overall project was successful and I was really touched and moved by the encouragement & support I got from my friends.

Bye bye 2007 – Hello 2008

Even though I had coordinated many parties before, last Thursday’s (27th Dec 2007) one was the first that I organized in a full-fledged manner. Party went well and met the objective; the feedback I received from my teammates was good. But still I feel there is lot of room for improvement and I could have performed much well. Listed down my key observations not to justify my act instead to take it as a learning for forthcoming events.

1. Check headcount.
Just before bus started I took the headcount and ensured everybody are in, but came to know that Sowjanya has not come to the office only at that moment.
Impact: a) Passed a wrong information to Thanik saying that ALL the people are travelling in the bus. b) 5 – 10 minutes delay in departure.
Learning: Never assume all the people confirmed will turn-up or communicate their unavailability. Every single person is important, check the headcount on the event day morning and during travel.

2. Always reduce/nullify the gap.
It was a surprise when resort people told that high tea wouldn’t be served instead each of us has to pick it up; I was not ready to accept the situation since team was tired after playing games and comfortably sitting in the chairs. Had an argument with resort people and finally they served half heartily. There was also gap about the place where hot drinks were served.
Impact: Delay in serving high tea, unnecessary arguments.
Learning: Always expect the gap and take it as an opportunity. Instead of keeping in dark I could have communicated to the team that not only dinner, high tea is also served as buffet. Not only menu, even the place where it’s going to be served also need to be finalized. Visit to the place before the party might help to eliminate the gap.

3. Prize distribution.
Although Sreedhar is friend of mine, I could have avoided throwing the prize to him. Of course it’s not a big gift, just a 30 Rs. chocolate but still I should have been distributed aesthetically. Panth not received his chocolate itself; Again I could have avoided the argument (!? :-)) with Kanchan on chocolate.
Impact: Unprofessional prize distribution.
Learning: Always buy gifts to with equal value (whenever applicable) and distribute it properly. Better give the responsibility of buying/keeping/distributing gifts to a person. Decide when/where/how before the event.

4. Communicate and set the expectation but be ready for imperfect delivery.
Service providers have their own way of doing business – accept it even if the delivery is not 100% perfect. They aren’t as professional as we think.
Impact: Heated argument with cab coordinator on delay in cab arrival and departure, lost the patient in some places.
Learning: I should always be conscious that I am not coordinating an UN meet where all nation’s leaders are participating instead it’s just a project party so stay clam. Especially IT people are magnanimous enough to forgive small mistakes/delays in parties.

5. Carry cash for bill settlement.
It was there in my mind on Thursday morning but vanished in afternoon.
Impact: Resort people told they would charge 2% extra for card payment (Thanik had a last minute negotiation and resort people charged only the bill)
Learning: a) Start maintaining a checklist before start of any event, record all action items and check it at every stage b) Personally I might always prefer card payment instead of cash but need flexibility in mindset when occasion demands.

6. Have contact numbers of all the teammates / participants.
It’s a blunder since I haven’t learned it from my past experience. I communicated and received the safe arrival update from the last person getting down from all the cabs, but still I missed individual communication from Ravi & Dinesh. I was unable to reach out since not having their contact numbers. Of course there are other means to contact them but it would have been better if I personally carried it.
Impact: Restless feeling and not confident enough to communicate to Thanik saying all team members reach safely.
Learning: Please carry the contact number sheet, maintaining it in desktop alone wouldn’t help.

7. Capture the sweet memories.
Oops! Forgot to carry the camera – a vital item during outing.
Impact: All those memories would be present only in mind and not in physical memory (Fortunately Thanik brought the camera)
Learning: Maintain a generic checklist and never miss to check it. I just started preparing it @ http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p7K-ipXMxrKaJ6WTSYP0nfg&hl=en

8. Break the invisible wall.
People not mingled together as I expected. Don’t want to say it’s better to be like that in drinks party.
Impact: Ineffective team building.
Learning: a) Time management – If I could have kept "Touch the Tail" as first game then there was a chance of more involvement and interaction. Since the game was not prioritized, it got skipped. b) Relationship – I need to improve further in this area especially with opposite gender.

There are so many good things to tell about the party and the way that was conducted. One key thing that touched, moved and inspired me was the support provided by my teammates while organizing the event.

It’s really amazing to know the amount of experience an event brings to the life.

Professional and casual

I like to acknowledge and appreciate the cartoonist Mr. Prakash Shetty for drawing my caricatures exactly as per my requirement and expectation in just couple of minutes.

What is the most happiest moment for a programmer?

Of course there are some obvious answers like client appreciation, receiving a pat on the back from manager, seeing the program output that exactly matches the requirement, writing a code without any quality non-compliance points, completing a program in the specified time, financial rewards and etc. I agree with all.

But personally I always feel one particular moment as the most happiest, precious & personal and that is when I locate the bug in the program. Especially when the deadline is nearing and it's a large, complex program - I debug, debug and debug and finally finds out where the bug is and that moment gives me lot of pleasure and personal satisfaction. I think most of the programmers will agree that once you identified where the bug is, then it's easy job to fix it.

Quotes

I always like reading quotes - it's simple and effective. A single quote may produce a result that is comparable or even more than that of reading a self-development book. When I was working in my previous company (early days of my career, as a professional practice trainee) daily I used to send a quote to my group of friends titled "Today's Quote". There was quite a good amount of response at that time, when a person appreciates a particular quote; I was able to relate it with their personality.

I remember Divakar saying he liked the quote by Albert Camus "Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and just be my friend". Ms. Parimala and Shashi also pointed out some quotes that reflected their personality like a mirror. I was not surprised to see Lijo Joseph's signboard quote - "Don't walk as you rule the world. Walk as you don't care who rules the world".

One day I sent a quote of Aldous Huxley that says, "Maybe this world is another planet's hell". The very next day I sent the same quote, changing a word but the entire meaning, "Maybe this world is another planet's heaven".

Goodbye Kavitha!

Last Friday was her last working day in Bangalore, she is moving to our Hyderabad office. We were working together in my current project for almost a year now; coincidently we joined this project on the same day – April 11th 2005 along with BalaMurugan and Ramkrishna Potla. Her move was not totally unexpected because her Husband and son are living in Hyderabad and it’s very difficult to travel from Bangalore to Hyderabad every weekend – that to for a woman, in Indian conditions. I can understand how difficult it is, because to meet my mom I used to travel to Thanjavur every alternative weekend when I was staying alone in Bangalore.

Since our company started its operations in Hyderabad, Kavitha started intensifying her efforts to move there. In fact she refused her second onsite opportunity to be in London for a month as a silent protest for not transferring her to Hyderabad. And finally the D-Day came last Friday, there was small farewell party too, even Sonali came and praised her contributions.

Kavitha has lot of friends due to her modest character and also I feel she won more friends because of her language skills. Yes, she can speak Malayalam, Tamil, Telgu and Hindi so people felt comfortable to speak with her in their mother tongue, but I was comfortable in talking with her in English itself than Tamil. Her friendship demonstrates me that one year is quite good enough to make a good friendship. Feeling bit sad to miss her, I asked her to keep in touch at least through festival time greetings – hope she will. All the best Kavitha.

Public transportation

During my trip to UK, my colleague Girish Bhugra asked me "What do you like most in London"? My spontaneous reply was "Public transportation". Tube was available at every 5 minutes on an average - single smartcard - use it in tube, bus & etc - Concessions at various places due to it - Great. It might be ordinary for a person who is living in western world but not for a person from India and especially from traffic congested Bangalore.

Ultimately, if all transport were public (in the sense of shared), more people per vehicle would mean fewer vehicles on the roads, thus reducing and probably even eliminating traffic jams. Additionally, it would be easier to centrally coordinate the flow of traffic with phased traffic lights, eliminating the usually frequent stops at traffic lights and the absence of parked cars would even create space for extra lanes. Thus, public transportation is potentially much faster than private transportation.

I sincerely believe improving Public transportation especially bus transportation is the immediate solution to Bangalore traffic problem. Introduction of metro rails and other hi-fi solutions sounds good in long term but in short term introduction of more buses - Double-decker buses to all part of Bangalore will eliminate the traffic problem to a great extent.

Take my example; mainly due to crowd in buses I purchased a bike and travelling from Mathikere to Domlur (18 KM)! It's resulting in driving tension, time loss, fuel and etc. I am sure if there is more frequency and less crowd in buses then people - even people from affluent society will switch over to Public transportation.

Just before posting this Blog, just tried "Public transportation" in Google and came to know HongKong is using much more sophisticated smartcard - Wow!