Moving on

Though the decision to move out of Aptech was my choice but strangely (or not so strangely), the past week has been an emotional one. I knew it was time to move out and I know now is the time to move on. But somehow I know it will be strange not to see those familiar faces on Monday, whom I worked with, got to know, shared frustration, guided and was guided, for the past 3 years. Although I know the bonds will remain, somehow it will not be the same. Will miss my team, working with them. Somehow I keep finding myself choked with emotions.

So there is this strange apprehension, bothering to nervousness starting something new on Monday. A new chapter will begin and the old ones will be looked fondly upon but never to be forgotten.

Lastly, one thing I am glad that there will be certain people I will never have to interact again. Hope  the good Lord either gives them sense or they shift out 'cause they are killing off a department with great potential.

Miss you Team :'(.... a lot... a lot :'(

Memories

Time goes by, whether slowly or fast, nut leaves behind a memory to hold forrver. Things that you can choose to look back and smile and cherish forever. Memories can bring you joy or be a bitter reminder of your sorry, something that can uplift you or bring you down, but reminds you that you have to carry on. It could be anything, for joy or sorrow, happiness or sadness. Something that can elate you or make you depressed.  But something thay will beours forever.  In the end we all must go and all we leave behind is our memories.

Who should be our next Prime Minister?

In just under a year (or over it, not too sure L) the country would be have its Assembly Election in order to elect the next Central Government. There are whispers (and some noise) on who the Prime Ministerial candidates are, but there are no direct acknowledgement (as of yet). There is a notion that it would be a battle between one Rahul Gandhi versus another Narendra Modi, a Congress led government versus a BJP led government.

The Congress (and its allies) are the current ruling government and from all the scams and scandals that has mired it term, things don’t look good for it to return to power. The silence of Mr. Singh, the taunts that it is a remote controlled government, the numerous scams, inflation and the current state of the economy, all cuts its chances of winning the election. Moreover, its face for the election (though not officially declared) seems to be Rahul Gandhi, who is totally wet behind the ears with huge case of foot-in-mouth disease. He doesn’t have the experience, credentials, as of that of his adversaries or even have the oratory skills or persona like them. Definitely someone not suited to lead the world’s largest democracy.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, our current Prime Minister, has proved to be an able administrator with previous governments, is surprisingly in effective leading the current government. His silence has come on under heavy criticism and the butt of many jokes. He seems to have lost the plot, somewhere along the way, for whatever reasons. The growing amount of scandals and scams that are creeping through the woodwork, makes you question what is he doing? Why is he silent and turning a blind eye? What is he doing for the widespread corruption that is rotting our system, eating at our lives? The current economic situation, inflation, price rice, the cost of living and all, are seem to be running around uncontrolled.

On the other hand we have the BJP, a party known for its Hindutva agenda, backed by the VHP and RSS, Hindu hardliners. Its face is Narendra Modi (all but anointed the official candidate) is someone who gives me the creeps. Someone who constantly has the sword of the Gujarat riots hanging over his head. No matter what he does, the question of the riots always pops up. Someone who know how to use the social media to his benefit (judging from the post I constantly keep reading on Facebook), someone who is techno-savy.  Someone who, at time, comes across as arrogant and overconfident. His constant smirks don’t read humility. He may feel that he is not guilty for the riots and has nothing apologise for it, but the question is what did he do to control it (if not to prevent it), to bring the culprits to the books. After all lives were lost, whether it was in the burning of the Sabarmati Express or during the Godra riots. Innocent lives were put to the sword, raped, burnt, put to an end, all in the name of religion (whether Hindu or Muslim). The taint of the riot is something that will never go away. Another question for Mr. Modi is how is his ‘Gujarat model’ going to translate on a national stage. Yes Gujarat’s progress is admirable, but how has this contributed in relieving the pressure on other cities. We don’t see ads for jobs in Gujarat or post in there.

Moreover the BJP is known to be communal. Who can forget Ayodhya. There have numerous attacks on churches in most of the states run by their government. So a lot of minorities do not feel safe. With Modi stating that he is Hindu Nationalist, it may seem right in his eyes, but it reads of vote bank politic trying to win over the Hindus. We need to remember that we are a country with no official religion. So when someone uses his religion will looked upon with suspicion. I would never trust someone who stated he was Religious National, whether Hindu, Christian or Muslim.

At least for now, both these parties seem unsuitable. But who do I choose. Should I choose the lesser evil? I know I have to choose between corruption and my sense of security? What I do know is like always we are going to have a hung government, which is not good for the country. What we can do right now is just to wait and watch and see how things shape up and play out. See who are the likely candidates and what they have envisioned for the country. Just hope whatever the outcome the nation benefits from it.

The Good Samaritan: Then & Now

The parable of The Good Samaritan was narrated by Christ, a thousand of years ago, to highlight the point "loving your neighbor", but the incidents of the story continues to happen even today.

No matter how modern our sensibility may be, how many times on our "road to Jericho" have we come across people in need of our of help, a victim of some heinous act, lying by the way, all tattered and in pain. And how many times have we chosen to look the other way, just go the other way, turning a deaf ear to their pleas, turning blind to their suffering. No matter what reasons we may have, what excuses we have to offer, we are like the priest and the Levite in the parable who chose to ignore the man lying on the road and go the other way. It takes courage and guts, to reach out and help someone lying by the way, someone needing our help. Consequences, self-doubt, suspicion, hesitation, fear, all hold us back from reaching out to help.

If we really want to show that we love our neighbors, the way God would want us to, we need to get over ourselves and our doubts. We need to put into practice the words we profess, cause who knows, on our roads to Jericho we find ourselves as the victim, hoping for a Good Samaritan to come along and save us.

Has Cricket Killed Off Other Sport???

If Cricket is a religion in India, then Sachin is a God that millions of Indian worship. India is a cricket crazy nation as much as Brazil has its football/soccer fever. But the question here is, has cricket killed off other sports in India?

Yeah, cricketers get the bulk of the attention and fuss, they are always front and center of any event, be it their million buck endorsements, their love life, the after-parties, the scandals and match-fixing, and yes occasionally playing the sport for which they have been selected. But we do see other sports and sporting personalities slowly but steadily stepping out of cricket's gigantic shadow.

Other sporting personalities too have made their mark and have gained popularity (and some endorsements). Be it in tennis, badminton, archery, shooting, boxing and above all wrestling. We have Grand Slam champions in tennis in the form of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, with Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza not far behind. Saina Nehwal is ranked at the top with the Chinese player and even got us our first medal in badminton during the summer games at London. Of course Vijendra Singh made a name for himself famously in the boxing ring (infamously outside it). And who can forget the inspirational Mary Kom. Finally our wrestlers, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sushil Kumar, did us proud and helped us get our best medal haul at the Olympics and taught a lesson of humility and dedication.

Besides these personalities, football has been a part of our school systems for quite a while now. The various inter-school divisions have been around for over decades. Besides football, we also have various hockey divisions in schools and colleges. Football has a sizable fan following here too. There are ardent fans of the top clubs in the  English Premier, the LA Liga and the Bundesliga and their players (even though not a single Indian player feature in them). Surprisingly you will find more teenagers sporting their favorite club's  jersey than even any IPL franchise. Formula One too is finding its footing here with the Indian Grand Prix. And you have the supporters of the NBA.

All this points to the fact other sports are alive and kicking, in this country. These sports may not match the blind devotion that people have towards cricket. So in short, cricket hasn't killed other sports. They are very much there and making their presence felt.

It's Not My Problem

There is this story of this mouse that lived on a farm. One day it seen the farmer come home with a packet. Thinking it was food, he tried find out what it was. However, to his great horror, it was a mouse-trap to catch him.

He panicked and ran to his best friend on the farm, the chicken. Breathlessly he told her, "Our lives are in danger! The farmer has brought a mouse-trap!" The chicken laughed and told him, "My dear mouse, I don't see how this concern me. It's your problem."

The mouse then went to the pig and told him the same thing. "I can understand your concern, my dear. But I fail to see how this mouse-trap can harm me. However, you better take care!"

Finally the little mouse went to his last friend on the farm, the ox. "Can you please help! The farmer has brought a mouse-trap and all our lives are in danger!" The ox laughed at him saying, "O come on! It's not our lives but just your life in danger. I don't see how I can help."

The dejected mouse went away and awaited his faith. IT so happened that night the mouse-trap caught something. On hearing the loud noise of the trap trapping its intended victim, the farmer's wife went to check the trap. Since it was dark the farmer's wife went about feeling her way. Unfortunately, the trap had caught a snake, which bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. However, she came down with fever.

As one of the way of treating fever is a soup with chief ingredient being chicken, the farmer prepared it for her. However, she failed to get better. Now there were a number of people who came to see the farmer's wife. In order to feed them, the farmer slaughtered the pig. Unfortunately the poor woman took bad and passed away. In order to feed the people who had come for the funeral the farmer had to butchered the cow.

In life we may feel that the problems of others may not have any percussion on us and ignore them. But somehow it will surely affect us in the end. So whenever you find a friend in problem remember the mousetrap and know that the whole barnyard is in danger.

The Dirty City

Recently someone commented on Facebook how Mumbai was ranked as one of the Dirtiest Cities and how true this fact was. This got one my friend totally upset as this person was a so called out-of-townee who was earning his keep in the city. According to him this person was totally ungrateful for what the city was providing him with.

One thing I will agree is that Mumbai sure is dirty. But I have seen places that are more filthier than this city. Secondly, this city is dirty because we let it be dirtied, and dirty it too. How many of us haven't used the city's roads and streets as our own personal garbage bins and spit bowls and open-air toilets (of course not this one). We ourselves dirty the city and then we ourselves scoff our noses up at the smell and grime that we see all over. The city maybe polluted but I know of many other cities that are more polluted. A recent trip to Juhu beach left me shocked to see the amount of garbage and litter lying all over the beach. The people there were from all walks of life, Mumbaikars, non-Mumbaikars, residents and tourists, rich and poor. The beach was polluted because people just threw things everywhere, except in the garbage bins, and there were no one to clean the mess. Think about whats going to happen with the fast approaching Ganesh festival.

Mumbai provides over 40% of the country's income in the form of taxes and receives a very meager amount of benefits in returns. It provides job, shelter and education, bread and butter to people not only from Maharashtra but from all over the country and possibly the world. But still gets back very little in return. I know of a very famous actor who along with his family lives in the city and earns his living here but goes ahead and promotes a state where he hasn't lived in at all.

For me Mumbai is always the best city in the world. It's my origin, the place where I was born, where I learned so many valuable lessons, made friends, formed bonds, found love and discovered myself. Mumbai will always be a part of me. And I will try and do my best to make this city a better place to live in.

Don't Mess with Nature

Many may view the floods and devastation in Uttarakhand as The Gods' punishment for our wicked ways or the result of moving an ancient idol, because of their beliefs and faith, for me this calamity is Nature's way of telling us "You mess with me and there will be a price to be paid." For me this not necessarily the great floods of Noah. For me this floods exposes our greediness, our lack of preparedness to face calamities. While we pray for the safety of those affected and those stranded and for the brave hearts who risk their lives to provide help and bring people to safety, we see the wickedness of man rear its ugly head, taking advantage of the situation. It is sad to see their plight as they face the fury of nature and wickedness together.

Somehow we never ever seem to learn from any of these calamities. I see the rampant destruction of mangroves, our protection from the fury of the sea. I see encroachment and reclamation of land from the sea and lack of clearing of rivers and nallas and drains and not to forget pollution. It makes me wonder how prepared are we for another 26/7, for another cloud burst. IT shows the laziness and mass corruption of the people who duty it is to see to it these calamities are avoided.

I can just prey that this devastation hopefully never ever happens again and people do not have to face sucha a situation.

Humility

Last Sunday, my mom and aunt were watching a serial where the mother of the groom, on the instigation of her meddling aunt (total Shashikala mode), suggested that the bride's father should wash the feet of the groom according to some ancient obscure tradition (what I felt). And you should have seen the expression on all the character's face as if they were humiliated and insulted, as if they were asked to wash an unmentionable body part. Of course, as with all Hindi shows this was about Household politics, it seemed quite outdated though.

We have seen Christ wash the feet of his disciples and encourage us that in order to be first we need to humble ourselves and be last. The Church and the Pope talk about Servant Leadership, in order to be a leader we need to be the servant of all. Even in the Mahabharta Krishna became the driver to Arjun's chariot during the war. Here we have two very great human beings, Gods, who humbled themselves and served others. This made the thought of that scene from the show absurd.

Maybe my train of thoughts drifted from the core of that scene. But somehow that scene led me think about this.

The Core of Elearning

"What do you think is the Core of Elearning?" asked my interviewer, calmly as he sat across me in the meeting room. After a few seconds of thinking, I nervously (as I alway find myself during an interview) stated that according to me, the core of elearning is making learning effective and efficient. It is delivering content in a manner that it would be understood and applied in an effective manner. He calmly looked at me and said that was not the core of elearning and encouraged me to take a couple of seconds to think about the question. So here I sat and racked my brains about the possible answer, after all I wanted to create a good impression about my knowledge (somehow I always underestimate my ability). And then I slowly, and not so confidently, stated that it was how well we delivered and how effective we could make learning for the audience. Yet my interviewer state that it was not the core of elearning. My answer spoke about the mean but not the core. He said that the core of elearning was "Learning".

Later, as I walked back dejectedly from the interview (obviously I knew that I had blown the so called opportunity), I kept thinking what the hell did he mean that the core of elearning was learning, after all all the Gagnes, Blooms, Merills, Kellers, Kirkpatricks, spoke about how to make the delivery of learning effective (or at least that was what I thought). So what was he talking about. And so my mind refused to see it any other way, at least for the next couple of minutes (or hours, or days). But as I let this thought marinate in my head the more I started to see it from my interviewer's point of view. And so I put  forth this question to my peers and friends to see if they could help shed some light on this topic, I felt they were better equipped than I was on this topic :).

And as I kept reading each response and liking each of them, I realized the answer (as usual) was staring at me in the face. Yeah, all the ID theories spoke about effective delivery of elearning and making learning meaningful and fun but at the center of all this is indeed learning. We design content in order to aide learning. We create WBTs, CBTs, ILTs, SGs, FGs, in order to help learners to learn, to understand new content, to form new neurological connections, and in the end effectively apply what they have learned. An elearning is successful only when the learn is able to learn and understand the content and apply what they have learned.

Yes, all the ID theories talk about making learning effective, an insight into the psyche of a learner, and provide us with guidelines on how to go about developing content, but in the end in the center of all this learning. Our whole world (I mean an ID's world) revolves around learning (of course it is already present in the industry name). Whether it is about the transfer of knowledge and information, learning new processes or being on-boarded into a new company, our job is to facilitate learning and make it more effective. No matter what and who our learners are, we look towards help them to learn new information and gain better knowledge.

So I found the answer that I was looking for. So to all the respondents, and of course to my interviewer, I thank you for opening up my mind and helping to look at my chosen career path in a light that I had (unfortunately) not considered in the past. Can't say I gained enlightenment, but I know I gained a lot of helpful information and came pretty close.

Ifs and Buts

Life so full of them. So full of ifs and buts. What if you had gone down that path or have made that choice instead of that. What if you have gone down the rabbit hole instead of standing here on the service. I made this choice but would it help me.

Life so full them... So full of question and second guessing of ourselves. All the ifa and buts and choices and decisions. But we have got to remember that our choices and decisions help us to define who we are, help us to learn lessons and to grow.