Skilled Facilitator

Roger Schwarz describes group facilitation as a process in which a person whose selection is acceptable to all members of the group, is substantively neutral, and has no substantive decision making authority diagnoses and intervenes to help a group improve how it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions, to increase the group’s effectiveness.

I wanted to understand how this works and started looking out for more details and some practical scenarios where I can apply this and understand if this really works. The result were surprising and it all made sense. I am going to share my experience at a Scrum Alliance sponsored event in Bangalore on 20th Feb. Details @ http://playscrum.com/bangalore-meet-2016/  

Preyesh Malde - a genius I had the privilege to work with!

 

It is not everyday in my professional life that I come across people that I want to keep with me forever. This man had something about him that I always admired. I was never sure what that was but I knew there was something special.

He is one of those kind who does not let you enter his good books, but once you are in, it is nearly impossible to get out of it. I feel that I did make it through. I know I am going to break a lot of hearts when I say this but he did mention on his last day in office with us that "of all the people, he enjoyed working with me the most."

I met him about a year and half ago when I was in London to learn from him. I still have the first diagram that he drew on the white board to explain the overall architecture of a product. I also remember that I out in a lot of effort in documenting whatever I learn from him. The first document that I wrote was in a Q & A where a person is asking questions and an expert is answering them. I never could gather the courage to tell him that when I was writing that document I had his picture in mind and also quoted some of his statements. That remains my most loved and treasured document in my current professional sprint.

Everytime I was in London, he would make sure things were planned to perfection, every evening we were drunk (well almost). He introduced me to the best coffee I have ever had in my entire life (Taylor Street Barista). The sound of the words 'skinny cappuccino please!' is still fresh in my memory. We had a few Old Fashioned in my first visit to London @ Sushi Samba and we loved it. He then made sure he had a new venue ready for us to visit and drink that loved drink of ours whenever I was in London.

Well all of this was outside the office hours. I am in no way hinting that we only enjoyed, we worked together and we did deliver a lot of quality stuff. We shared a great chemistry. Although he was the one who used to guide me through most of the work, he was never shy to take any comments from me and include them. In his leaving card I wrote to him saying that he is the one person to whom I attribute all my technical success of the project. One of the colleagues who read my note on the card also mentioned that "you have attributed all your success to him, there would have been others as well." The answer is yes there are others as well, but technically he is the one person that I have learnt the most.

This picture is all that I have for memories. I would have spent about 6 months in London working with him (while he was working for the same organization) but I never even thought that there could be a day when he would leave the company and go else I would have clicked one picture with him. I am sure this is one the tasks that I want to do on priority next time I am in London. I am sure we will meet whenever I am in London. 

I would like to conclude by thanking you mate for all your help support and love throughout the journey. I wish we get a chance to work again in the future. Till then I have a lot of code that we have written together to live with. It has been a pleasure working with you Mr. Preyesh Malde. 

Open/Closed Principle

As most of us know, Open/Closed Principle is a design principle while working with Object Oriented Programming. The wikipedia definition reads:

In object oriented programing, the open/closed principle states "software entities (classes, modules, functions, etc.) should be open for extension, but closed for modification” that is, such an entity can allow its behaviour to be extended without modifying its source code. This is especially valuable in a production environment, where changes to source code may necessitate code reviews, unit tests, and other such procedures to qualify it for use in a product: code obeying the principle doesn't change when it is extended, and therefore needs no such effort.

This is a design principle that we generally follow in our day to day development cycle. Recently I have been doing a lot of code reviews and I have been working with the teams to ensure some good practices are being followed within the teams. To my surprise, there have been cases where I see the Open/Closed principle has been applied but the definition of open and closed have been reversed. I have seen implementations that are closed for extension but open for modifications. What this basically means is that the designs are flawed and there is a lot of re-work required to sort out the mess. 

It is funny how life lets you chose your own interpretation of things !!!    

Agile Estimation - PlayScrum Delhi [25th July 2015]

What is Meetup

It is a social community of people who meet face to face to share their experience and learn from the experience of others. It is an informal way of interacting with people and learning from each others experience.

What is PlayScrum Delhi

It is group of Scrum/Agile enthusiasts within Delhi NCR who want to collaborate with others in the same region sharing the same interests. Details available here.

Who decides what we will discuss

The people who attend the meet-up collectively decide what area or topic we want to discuss. Agile Estimation was agreed to be the topic for the meet-up on 25th July 2015.

Agile Estimation - as it happened

Introduction

We started with a round table introduction of the people attending the workshop. It helps build an understanding of the breadth of the participants.

Estimation Game

To set the context of what was coming later on in the workshop and also to make sure everyone is involved, we started with an estimation game. People were grouped into small teams and then they were given some fruits and they had to come up with an estimate of how much effort will be required to eat that particular fruit.

The purpose of this game was to:

• prove that estimates are not scientific and they are limited to the local teams and not generic.
• the interpretation of '8' could be different for different teams.
• show why it is easy to use a benchmarked unit as against hours/time.
• to underline the fact that estimation is sizing the problem and not the solution.   

Why Estimation

We discussed why is estimation important and what are the different techniques that people are using to estimates. The purpose was to communicate that any of the approach could be used and there is nothing that scrum prescribes. The teams are free to use what ever technique that serves there purpose. Some common techniques were using Functional Points, Story Points etc.

Story Points

This is one of the ways of estimation used in agile projects. It has come from XP. It is an indicators of the Uncertainty, Complexity and the Amount of Work that requires to be done for a feature/story/task to be complete.

They help drive Cross Functional Behaviors within scrum teams as the size of the problem will remain the same from a DEV, QA, BA or any other perspective. It is also a relative measurement unit.

We took the analogy of building a room to explain the concept. To build a room you would need a 600 sq ft area, 3 windows, 2 doors etc. Now the size of problem to build this room will remain same. How it is built would defer. We concluded that estimation is for the WHAT and not HOW.

Story Point Matrix

This is a way of organizing your historically estimated data which can be used as a benchmark in the future estimations. Essentially this would a map of the possible story points with some example of stories against them.

Examples:

2 - preparing a cup of black tea

3 - preparing a cup of white tea

5 - preparing a glass of cold coffee.

Velocity

It is the amount of work that the team has been doing within a sprint. If you are estimating based on SP then the Velocity would be the No of SP delivered within the sprint. This is useful while planning your iteration as it helps you come up with a base number of SP that your team has historically delivered and hence helps you plan for future.

Exercise 

To clearly understand the concepts we discussed a problem. The problem was:

• There is a company with 3000 employees
• There are only 7 people in the IT support
• People are complaining that there IT related problems are not being solved and that is hampering their productivity.
• The problem gets escalated to the CEO
• The CEO calls a meeting and asks the team to come up with a solution to fix the problem within 24hrs. He emphasized that he needs a solution that goes live in 24 hrs and not a plan.

We then divided ourselves into groups and tried to solve the problem. The aim of this exercise was to prove the fact that the size of the problem was same for all the teams, the solutions were different. 

No Estimates

There could be different ways of estimating. People have started talking about not estimating at all. Some other ways of planning your iteration is to limit the number of stories in you sprint. This would mean that all the stories are relatively sized. The teams split the story if they feel it is growing bigger, this eliminates the need of a separate estimation session.

Conclusion

This is just interpretation of what we discussed during the workshop. I might have missed some points. If you feel there is a change that i should make, leave a comment about it and i will incorporate it.

Pre-paid Auto @ Ghaziabad Railway Station

For the last few months a pre-paid auto booth had opened up at the Ghaziabad railway station and everyone was happy about the fact that the transport was readily available and it was regulated with fixed rates and prompt service. I have been travelling a lot in the last few months and was enjoying the facilities and was very happy about it until today.

 

This morning when I reached the Ghaziabad railway station, I walked up straight to the pre-paid booth to book my auto. While I was walking towards the booth, I was a bit surprised that the booth was deserted. I have always seen long queues of the passengers as well as the auto drivers. I walked up-to the booth and asked the person sitting there to give me a taxi. He said that there is no taxi available at this time. I could see at-least 10 of them parked just alongside. I pointed towards them and he said that they are not willing to go. You can talk directly to them and hire them. I was a bit surprised at this but nevertheless I walked up-to one of them.

 

I asked the driver how much would he charge me. He hurriedly replied 120. The general fare was 100 plus some extra for the luggage that you were carrying. I just had a backpack so it would be 105 or 110 at best. But I thought it is ok and I did not want to stand there fighting for 10 rupees in the cold morning. I agreed to go with him.

 

As I reached his auto I could see some one was already seated, I asked about the person sitting, he said that I have to share the auto with him. I declined the offer and said that I want to book an entire auto and not share with anyone. Hearing this he just walked away. Stunned, I move to another one and he agreed for 200 rupees and said that this is the new rate. Hearing this I was sure why they are not going the pre-paid way. If you are charging double of what the rate is, why would you go with the pre-paid rates. I said that the rate was 100, he said fare has been hiked and this is the correct fare. He even said that I can check the rates at the pre-paid counter. I walked back to the pre-paid counter to check the price and the price he said for my home was still 100. After a long 15 - 20 minute in the cold morning I could get one auto that agreed to charge 150.

 

Such is the story of the transport here in Ghaziabad. If I book a taxi from my place to the railway station, it costs me 250 for non AC and 300 for an AC indica/indigo. The problem is that these taxis are not available at the station hence I am left with no other option than to surrender to the un-realistic demands of the auto drivers. All of this signifies the lack of control that the government and the concerned departments have over the transportation in and around NCR. So they are correct in saying that once you are out of Delhi you better get ready to pay hefty amounts as conveyance else walk.  

The art of making tea !

I have not been very fond of drinking tea, in-fact it has just been a few years since I have started drinking tea. But there have been so many instances now when I had the urge to have tea that I could now understand why do people feel so much addicted to tea.

 

As I said, I only started drinking tea few years back, it was more of a act to accompany people that were with me to kick off things for me and gradually I started enjoying it. I would like to walk back and narrate a few of my most memorable tea breaks. These are in no specific order.

 

• The first instance that I remember was my flat at dwarka where the 4 of us, Yogesh, Yashpal, Deepak and myself used to have tea at about 3:00 in the morning (mostly Saturday's) after the 11:00pm - 2:00am movies. The taste of that tea is still afresh in my mouth and I can still feel its warmth. Although most of the time it used to be me who had to prepare tea but I still loved it and I must say it was worth the effort.
• The other instance right from the top of my head is the early (lazy) morning tea around 10:00 with Pranjali and Shruti at my place in Ghaziabad. This is generally a Saturday or at times a Sunday morning. This is important as this tea break was a break from sleep. We woke up, had tea and then go back to sleep. A lavish and very lazy but effective way of spending a weekend.
• Next one that I can remember is the tea breaks at FirstRain with team-mates who were more like family to me. The likes of Yogita, Ajay, Ankush, Yogesh, Deepak, Chilu and lots more. That tea break was the only break where tea was just for the name of it, we actually ate more. I still remember lots of fun and leg pulling that we used to do while on the break.
• Most recently I have started having tea breaks which end up becoming long breaks with colleagues and chatting about features and futures. I at times feel that now my tea breaks in office are more of brainstorming session rather than a break from work. It gives me the feel that I have now matured as a professional. Still those tea breaks have proved useful and my friends Lalit and others would agree.

 

I was reminded of the advantages of drinking tea by a friend when I questioned his urge to have tea every couple of hours and he has made me go down the memory lane and remember the magical moments that I have had drinking tea. Whether I know the art of making tea or not (most people believe that I do and love the tea that I prepare) I am sure it has coloured my life with colours that were not known to me. Having said all of this I wish I never have to choose between Tea and Coffee.

Sharon chali Haridwar

Allow me to introduce you to Sharon before I narrate her story.  She is a young girl, who wants to be happy and enjoy her life but always finds herself in a situation where she does not know what to do and what not to. She is happily confused, ever smiling, cooking up hypothetical situations and then planning for them. Overall she is a great girl and a treat to be with.

 

So this time Sharon has a family picnic planned to Haridwar. When I say family it includes her parents, elder sister and her grandmother along with few other families of her father's friend. She always wants to go around places and enjoy herself. But this time she is confused. She wants to go but she does not know if she really wants to go. Her elder sister is not going now and she is left with her cousins, whom she is not very fond off, and her parents. So a trip that she thought would be a great one has suddenly turned into a trap for her. So she decides to give herself a chance by allowing fate decide if she goes or not. Hence she:

• points out 2 fingers to me, and says one she goes and the other she doesn't and asks me to choose one. I pick the one that says she goes and then she says you should have picked the other one.
•  asks me to toss a coin, head she goes and tail she doesn't. It came down as heads, hence I cheated.
• she says it is her trip so only she gets to toss the coin. You know what came, didn't you? 

30 minutes earlier she was convinced that she is going and now she is delightfully confused. She calls up every possible person so that she does not have to go. She calls up one friend in a hope that she can come along, but that does not work out. She calls another friend and she declines as well. Now she  is sure she does not want to go. Well wait, she says but she should go as she is very tired and bored with the daily routine and she needs a break. Another 15 minutes down the line she tells me that most probably she is not going.

Irrespective of the outcome of the situation what I am most concerned about is the uncertainty that we have in our lives. I have been guilty of getting into situations that I do not see a way out. But there are a few things that you just have to do on instinct and there is no logical backing behind that. I am not sure whether Sharon would go or not but what I am sure is that she gives us a perfect example of how our mind follows our heart. I am impressed by the fact that situation is very normal and almost all of us have been in situations such as these but there is no definite answer as to what to do when you are in such a situation. I just follow my heart in such situations, I have been guilty of taking some wrong decisions and also feel proud about the others. But one thing is for sure that I never regret any decision that I took following my heart.  

So if you are Sharon, or you feel that you have been through a similar type of situation my advice is to follow what your heart tells you. I generally like to leave my audience with open questions, so I will leave you to decide whether Sharon should go or not.

Fast and Furious 6

If you have reached this blog searching for a review to the movie so that you can decide whether you should watch the movie or not. I would say that you are wasting your time, read no further , go and watch the movie. It was a movie that had all the familiar faces playing together once again. It was awesome how they emphasize on them being like a family. 

 

If you thought that you have already seen 5 versions of this movie so what else would they have in store for the 6th time, the movie just proves all of that wrong as it comes up with sequences that have not been filmed earlier and which most of us did not even expect. They have military tanks running on the roads crushing cars, they have a set of cars who bring down a big plane and also have a sequence where Toretto drives his car out from the cockpit.

 

If you have not been fortunate enough to watch the earlier versions of this series and you may feel that you might not be able to understand the strings and hence the movie so trust me that is not the case. Even when the movie makes references to version 4 and 5 in the series, you are still able to map things and understand what is going on. The movie has action sequences that are bound to drive you crazy. 

 

 

We have seen that generally the movies that come in sequences run out of steam as they move on but F&F is the only sequence that has improved every time with the later version. Even though most of the stunts that they have shown may not look feasible or practical but still they make you fall in love with this movie.  The star cast of film and the characters that play seem to compliment each other perfectly. I am personally a big fan to Vin Diesel and who could forget Dwayne (The Rock). These two were against each other in the fifth sequence of the movie and this time they are on the same side so you can imagine the fun and destruction that they might have caused. There is sequence in the climax of the movie, when these two giants get together to kill a monster like criminal and you could imagine a wwe tag team move. 

 

I would rate this movie as 9/10 and for me it is a much watch for anyone irrespective if you watched the earlier sequences. I can assure that if you watch this movie, you will go back and make sure you add all the other sequences to your collection or watch list. I will not let out any of the secrets of the film and will let you watch it for yourself and enjoy. I just want to conclude by saying that there is definitely going to another sequence to this movie and that will be starring Jason Statham. I am hopeful now that the next one would be even better.

 



 

Mother's Day - really ?

You may call me rude, ignorant, misbehaved or whatever but I have not wished my mother today for the so called mother's day. I did talk to her over the phone, as I usually do, but it was all normal and nothing to do with the fact that the world is celebrating mother's day. I was even questioned by few of my friends, If I have wished my mother today?

 

I simply fail to understand why we  have started paying so much importance to days such as these, have people before this not loved their mothers? Or mothers could not feel the love and respect of their children without them wishing her formally or publicly? I do not need an occasion to appreciate the love of my mother or any of the family member for that matter, for me every day is a special day and every day I live I owe it to my parents.

 

I am not against celebrating any specific day or against the concept of having special days for our family, I am just against the 'follow the herd' policy that we seem to be working on off late. I say this because I have just learned that, after Christmas, Americans spend more money on Mother's Day than on any other holiday in the year. Do we even know from where the concept of mother's day came, do we know why it was celebrated and the reasons for it. Are we doing it just because others are doing it, do we actually need to celebrate days such as these. I know friends who called their mother's bang on the stroke of midnight to wish her a happy mothers day. I mean, like seriously, are you kidding me. Calling up your mother at midnight to wish her mothers day, that is a little too much for me and I must admit I would never do that.

 

Well having said all of that I still believe that it should be ones own decision if one wants to celebrate the day or not and I am not asking anyone of you to change, I was just a bit surprised to see all the social media flooded with all the mothers day stuff and I thought is it really that big an occasion or are we just doing a bit of show off.

 

P.S. I love my mother as much as anyone of you and she is the most important person in my life.

Acting and Theatre - miss you everyday

"You that choose not by the view, Chance as fair and choose as true. Since this fortune falls to you, Be content and seek no new. If you be well pleased with this And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is And claim her with a loving kiss" .... the famous lines from Merchant of Venice were the last lines that I had delivered on a stage and it has been almost a decade and no more acting and theatre for me. I still remember that day, those lines, the entire audience, the judges and some of my colleagues (who were making me laugh). I was very confident that I would make it through the auditions and get selected but as always life had other plans and I was rejected because my accent was not up to the mark.

 

When I walked back home from the auditions, I was very sure that I would come back with lots of practice and re-appear for the auditions and get selected for some other play. But I never knew that would end up being the last stage performance in years for me. To be honest, I have not really been serious about it in the recent years else I might have tried it once again. I still miss it and hope that life would give me one opportunity at one of my passions in life. As they say it is never too late.

 

I met somebody few days back and we were casually talking and somehow the subject moved to something that I used to do in my life that I miss even today. I kept quiet for a while, walked down the memory lane, smiled and replied 'Acting'. Since that day it has been all over me and I seem to miss all that even more. It has been all over me since that day and I just want to go back in time and enjoy and experience all that just for one more time. Memories are all I have and some very good ones indeed. I never wanted to make a career in them but still I wanted to be in touch with theatre, art, stage shows, radio programs, and even those stupid roles that I did when in school.

 

When I was in London, I made sure I visited Shakespeare Globe theatre and thought and even imagined myself on the stage performing on one of his plays. This in itself proves that my passion for acting has not yet died it is just that the professional life and the work pressure that has taken center stage and everything else has just taken a back seat. I wish someday I will still be on the stage.

The greatest entertainer - Chris Gayle

Just when I started following and enjoying cricket, I was reminded of an innings played by the great Kapil Dev where he had scored 175 runs and I could not accept it and used to tell myself that it was just not possible. I was then a witness to single innings score of 400 by Brian Lara and I was shocked. The we had this 200 from our very own Sachin Tendulkar in an ODI and I thought that this was a record that was never going to be broken. But that was easily overhauled by Sehwag. But what has happened today is beyond imagination and I am sure no body would have believed it. 175 in a 20 over game by an individual with 17 sixes and 13 fours and in only 65 balls.

 

I am speechless and have no words to describe what has just happened. I cannot still believe that we have seen a 100 being scored in just 30 balls. I was just reading through an article on cricinfo and I think it describes the entire episode very aptly. Gayle smashed the fastest century in the format, brought off 30 balls; made the highest individual T20 score (175 not out); struck the most sixes by a batsman in a T20 innings (17); helped Royal Challengers Bangalore hit the most sixes for a team in a T20 innings (21) and reach the highest total in T20 cricket (263).

It was an exhibition to say the least and I consider Chris Gayle to be the greatest entertainer and one of the best ambassadors to the game of cricket. I have always been an ardent follower of this master mind and have loved the way he entertains the world with his craftsmanship and also the gangnam style dance that he does. I have already written a couple of posts about him, you can read them here and here. I was in office when history was being written so I could not witness it all live but the fact that it has actually happened has not yet sunk it.

 

I do not think there is more that needs to be said about this spectacle that the world has just witnessed. It is going to remain in the hearts of all the people who had witnessed one of the most destructive innings that the game of cricket has ever seen or will ever see (I keep my fingers crossed). Till we see another spectacle...

       

Lalit 'FIX' Sharma - pundit of the modern era !

I grew up in a card board box suspended on the edge of St Kilda Pier with a penguin who until I was nine I thought was my brother. If you read this anywhere you can safely assume that this is Lalit that I am talking about. On a more serious note, he is my colleague at RBS and one of my finest mates from my professional career. To know him better you can visit him on LinkedIn or Facebook. 

 

His activities, the way he treats life, his ideologies, methodologies, the way he approaches a problem and the ease with which he works has literally forced me to write this post. I owe you this one. Apologies in advance for having stolen his picture and for letting out some of his secrets.

 

To cut the long story short, we have been working on several FIX connections or sessions and he has been the person driving that within our team and now we consider him as the FIX expert hence the name Lalit FIX Sharma. He believes if you want to be an expert on fix you must know Cameron and he is himself trying to go that path and learn all about it (this is soleley his theory). But that is not all for which he has made it to the privileged few who make it to my blog, there is much more to Lalit than FIX.

 

He is happily married, to the love of his life, and has a darling son to be proud of. He is one of the most energetic engineers that I have ever come across. He is always game for fun, sports (recently was part of the team that won the football tournament), and drinks. He is one of those ardent followers of freshly brewed beer that I would not be shocked if they put up his picture right next to the entry at his favourite place Vapour.

 

For me a man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the notion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber.  All of you who know him will agree that he does not fulfill all of the above requirements of being a perfect man but if you are Lalit you need not be perfect. He has his own way of doing things, which may not be the most elegant way of doing it but certainly the most effective way. He is a bit disorganised theoretically, specially the way he keeps his money in his wallet (every time I look at it I want to fix it for him). He for me is the perfect man to carry the tag line do not try to straighten my mess, you may end up fouling the system.

 

You are a true friend and if one was to believe in Oprah's definition of a friend, lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down, you need not go any farther than Lalit. I have been lucky enough to have known you, and worked with you. We have shared lots of things related to our professional life and not so professional life. We have laughed over several things, best being the joke around the 'Hotel' that we went. We have shared our anger,  disgust and disappointments. We have criticised people, abused them, praised a few and most importantly we have been friends. Thank you mate you have been a true friend and colleague and the best part is that the journey has just begun.  

St. Mary's Convent Allahabad will miss you

Starting 1974 when most of us were not even planned, a lady started her job as a teacher in one of the most reputed schools of Allahabad, St Mary's Convent. And this was after a good resistance that she put up because she did not want to become a teacher. But she never knew that a journey that she started just because she was pushed hard by her parents and family would last for 39 long years. Yes you read it right 39 longs years. She called it up end of March this year (2013) thus completing one of the longest tenure that I have ever heard about. If you are wondering how do I know so much about this lady and her life, let me tell you that this is the story of my mother Mrs. Chanchal Srivastava.

 

I feel very proud of the fact that I have been given a reason that I am actually writing this salutation note to my mother and arguably the best Biology that Allahabad has ever seen. I have known her students who came to visit her on a Parent's Teachers meeting because the daughter (of my mother's student) was know a student of my mother. I have met girls whom my mother has taught and I can see the glow when they talk to my mom and could only feel how proud would she feel if someone who she taught some 20 - 25 years ago still comes to meet her and gives her the same sort of respect. For me my mother has been one of the biggest inspiration and she still remains someone who I respect not only because she is my mother but also because she has been an exceptional servant to the institution of education. I am reminded of a quote I read somewhere "I only wish to aspire to the things you’ve achieved. Telling you that you’re appreciated does not do your service justice. You’re the best!"

All of you who might have known her would agree with me when I say that she has always been dedicated to her profession and never let her family come into the way of her profession. With two little kids, one of which was me, it was hard to manage things on personal and professional front but I am amazed at how soothingly she handled everything. 

 

I have been taught by teachers who have been students of my mother and the respect they had for me gave me a sense of how much they must have loved and respected my mother. I even remember talking to one of her students, who also happens to be teacher, telling me that "people come and ask me if they should go for biology or not and I tell them if it is Mrs Srivastava then you should not give it a second thought". I know number of her students who are now successful doctors and the experience that they share with me when we talk about my mother makes me feel so blessed that I am born as a son to this legend.

 

I would like to conclude saying that no words of appreciation are good enough and "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You. It will be still not be enough." I wish you all the best Maa.  

 

 

 

Best use of a Newspaper

If you have had the opportunity to travel in public transport specially in Uttar Pradesh you may know what I am talking about. Today, I was in a UPSRTC bus travelling from Allahabad to Lucknow, on my way I saw a man entering the bus with a hindi newspaper in his hand. As soon as he took his seat, he suddenly became the centre of attraction and the 12 sheet paper was split and it was being shared by at least 10 different people at the same time.

 

I was amazed at the way all the people around started sharing the pages of the newspaper. I was even more surprised at the way there was a mutual understanding and how the sheets were being rotated amongst each one of them. I am almost sure some of the people who were sharing the newspaper were not even aware about the owner of the newspaper.

 

When I thought I have seen enough for the day, I got another shock. The owner of the newspaper stood up and said that he has to get down at the next stop in about a couple of minutes. This broadcast was more than enough and I was shocked at the speed at which the split sheets of the newspaper were collected, bundled in sequence and returned to the owner. Looking the paper you cannot assume that it had moved through a dozen hands.

 

I have not seen a better use of any newspaper. For me this was the best use that can be done of a newspaper and it was a 'full paisa wasool' performance by the people. I simply loved it.

 

 

Struggle for Existence

This is a topic that has been discussed in various forums and by millions of people. All have their own theory and logic to prove them. I am not going to indulge into the perennial debate, I am going to present my own story and leave it to you guys to decide if that is actually 'Struggle for Existence'.

 

I am presently in my hometown and I have had lots of time in leisure and have had the chance to roam in the roads that I have travelled once I was a Young kid. I passed through a lane that I am sure I had not been through for at least last decade or so. I saw an old man who was sitting under the tree with barely any clothes on him. I was surprised to see him there in the cold, I stopped to have a closer look and I was shocked when I was his face. He was the same man that I used to see, when I was in Allahabad, moving around the streets searching for food and clothes. I even remember my father giving him some old clothes. I was not sure how to react and I just moved away and walked away back home.

 

I have been sitting on that thought since then and I am still not sure how that person has managed to live with all the cruelties of life surrounding him. I did not know what to do but still I decided to give him a blanket. I took one from home and walked back to the place that I had seen him. I could not find him there, he was gone. I assumed that he must have gone in search of some food. I have not seen him since then.

 

There is nothing that I could do to help him but the mere thought that he has survived all these years without food and shelter made me think that we always struggle for existence in our life. I found this a perfect example for Struggle for Existence. I leave the rest on you guys.

SONY Entertainment Channel

I have been noticing this for the last few months and I really think that this is time when SONY guys should seriously start thinking about renaming their channel to CID. Yes there is no typo and you read it right. For the last few months it has happened that whenever I switch onto SONY channel, I only end up watching CID running. I enjoy watching serials that have a good theme such as Crime Patrol and Adalat but I must confess that I have lately started hating CID and to an extent I am becoming allergic to it.

 

I have nothing stacked against the show but I have seen anything change in the show in the last couple of years atleast. They still run on Qualis and have the same team. Though there have been a few changes to the team members but I am sure that would have been because the original team members would have opted out rather than new faces been taken in. I would have appreciated if they could have taken things few notch higher and showed some advance techniques of conquering the criminals, coming up with interesting cases and then solving them using some proper logic. I hate it when the ACP calls onto his men and ask them to collate a list of all the cars that are running on CNG and are hatchbacks and have been driven by a driver who wears sports shoe in the entire Mumbai and it hardly takes the man a couple of hours to come up with the list.

 

I am also amazed at the memory that the chai walas possess. They would ask any chai wala for an incident that would have occurred about a couple of weeks ago and the chai wala would have the entire incident just at the back of his hand. The forensic lab that they have, have equipments that could tell the DNA structure of the person scanning the image of his shadow. How unrealistic, come on give me a break. But still leaving aside any and everything that the show it kills to see it running almost round the clock. It is my humble request to the Sony entertainment network to either change their name to CID else have few more shows running.

 

'Skyfall' - Review

To summarize I must say that Skyfall is the perfect summary of the 50 illustrious years of the franchise. I would also like to warn you that if you expect to see fancy gadgets, illustrated action sequences and hot ladies, this bond flick is not the one you should be watching. This movie is much more intense and the director Sam Mendes plays with your mind throughout the film. It is a story which is heavily dependent on the psychological mind games.

 

The movie has a perfect start with the first 10 minutes setting the tempo and it all ends up with 007 being shot and eventually being declared dead. He is then forced to rise and come back from dead when the headquarters at MI6 were attacked and the internal security system of the secret service was hacked. 007 is made to go through a series of tests which he fails but still he is still sent to field to investigate the events that happened as he is the only one that M trusts. Bond then travels to Shanghai and Macao and finds Silva, a former agent, who is the mastermind behind all these attacks. He was seeking revenge for how the system had treated him.

 

The film is not just about bond and his sizzling actions, it is more about his relationship with M and the long career history of M with the secret service.It goes back in time and reminds of the vintage bond. There is a sequence where Q hands over a gun and a radio transmitter to the secret agent and says "What did you expect, an exploding pen? We don’t go in for that anymore.". It also portrays the bad guy in the film to be larger than life and the hero. He makes bond uncomfortable with his moves and ways.

 

I also loved the film being revolved around Shanghai, underground of London and a very cold countryside of Scotland. The vintage bond car and the use of hunting riffle in the climax amongst many more. It also marked the end of Judi Dench as M in the bond series. I was very moved by the movie and loved it. I would rate it as a 4/5. It was intense and it was good. 

Student of the year - unbiased review

Is this the Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander of the modern India ?

Is this the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai of today ?

Is Kajol going to have a guest appearance ?

 

I was not interested in answering any of these questions though I almost knew all of the answers. I was very firm that the magic that was created by KKHH and JJWS cannot be recreated. I was very sure, almost certain that Kajol would be a part of this movie.

 

I was not very motivated or excited about this movie and was not very keen about watching it. But I watched it yesterday night and then decided to write a review. I have been warned that I should write this review without any bias and with an open mind. I will try my best not get carried away and write exactly what I felt and then leave it to you to decide whether you want to watch it.

 

The movie is glamorous, fashion statement, out of the world high school drama and the characters look fresh. But that is pretty much it. The movie does not boost of any story line and is predictable all the way. The cameos of Rishi Kapoor, Boman Irani, Farida Jalal coupled with some really good punches at decent intervals keeps you laughing. Karan Johar maintains that he needs foreign locations, branded fabrics, dress materials, heavily decorated sets and some really tangy roles. Use of things like 'coach coach hota hai', the 'tatas' and the 'batas' and remix old songs like papa kahte hain, dhafli waale and disco deewane lift the movie.

 

But overall I did not like the movie, it was way too casual for me. There was no intensity in the movie almost at any time, the students were trying to step onto each other in order to move ahead. Plus the fact that the High School is never as glamorous. But this may be due to the generation gap which nowadays is being used as a sophisticated replacement for 'old fashioned and outdated'. Why I say this is because just the other day I referred to DDLJ and one of the freshers in my team said gosh how could anyone watch a movie like that, it was a torture. That made me realise that its been over a decade since I was in school. So maybe that is one reason that I did not like the movie.

 

As I mentioned it is going to be a unbiased review, I would give it 2.5 star and that takes into consideration that Kajol did make a guest appearance. If you like to watch fashion on the floor and if you are a brand freak and you like to see some fresh faces dancing it out ,it is the right type of movie for you. But as far as I am concerned Karan could have done better.

Writing on currency notes

How many of us are guilty of having written something or the other on a currency note? I bet the number would not be small. I for sure have been guilty of writing on notes when I was young. We friends had this game running for us where we were supposed to write our name or something to uniquely identify the note and then set it afloat in the market. We had a superstition that it it came back to you one of our wishes would be granted. I got none back!

Why I have picked this up today has a good reasoning. I was just rolling through my facebook updates when I saw an article that was there to spread awareness that writing on currency notes is actually a crime. I was surprised because I have seen lots of bank officials writing the total number of notes on the note at the top of the lot. So I started reading about the same and I was actually surprised to learn that it is indeed a crime. To add to this stapling the notes together is also not subscribed by the RBI. In November 2001, the central bank had stated that writing on the watermark window of bank notes is punishable under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act 1949. It also ordered to stop stapling fresh, reissuable or non-issuable note packets. In 2002, RBI had pulled up a public sector bank for continuing with the stapling practice.

 

When I tried to run back in time, I realised that there was a transition period where the bundles of notes started coming with a rubber band to keep them together as opposed to being stapled. This has made me aware and I know what to do when next time someone asks me to write my name or contact details on the notes. This is a common practice that the organisations follow in order to be able to track the origin of the note just in case it turns out to be fake. But I am not going to fall in the trap and commit a crime. Also being a student of law I very well understand that Ignorantia juris non excusat (ignorance of the law is no excuse) so I would not be able to defend myself on the context that I did not know about it.

Buddha's Lobster @ Yo China !

If you are a Chinese lover and you love seafood, the Fish O Mania menu at Yo! China is a will be a real treat for you. There are delicious delicacies like the King Prawn Singtu, long tailed red snapper in hot bean sauce and Buddha's Lobster Feast In Spicy Dan Dan Sauce. I had not yet had a chance to taste any of these items at Yo China. I have eaten them in Goa but that was a different preparation. This evening I got a chance to visit Yo China and had the Buddha's Lobster in Dan Dan sauce and it was awesome.

I must thank my friend Deepak who insisted that we do eat it. To be very honest I was not very sure I wanted to have it because it is priced at 895 + tax which would be somewhere around 1000 rupees. But on being insisted I could not resist the offer and decided to take it on. I must confess I enjoyed every bite of it. It was presented exactly as it is evident in the picture alongside and it was delicious. I would suggest that if you wish to have a lobster some day, today has to be it and I am sure by now you now where you need to be for it.

You may find it expensive and I would agree with you on this but still for one day you can keep your economic instruments aside and let your tongue and taste buds enjoy. I would assume it is high time I leave you so that you can find the nearest outlet and help yourselves.

 

~On behalf of all Foodies~