-insights-

Friday Wisdom #6

2012-01-13T10:38:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another Friday Wisdom with Foz....

I was stuck at below wall paper found in a FB page. I simply loved it, and thought I must share. In my opinion, freedom is what one defines for him/herself, not what others perceive... If it's applicable everywhere, why not in dressing?

Here is their FB page.

Friday Wisdom #5

2011-10-21T09:04:00.001-04:00

There were a few in my near circle, who passed away due to breast cancer and another few survived because they dared enough to fight against it and trusted that God would give them the best. As this month is being highlighted as Breast Cancer Awareness month, let me bring a quote from a breast cancer survivor, into your attention.

I have to admit, like so many women, I always knew there was a chance. But like so many women, I never thought it would be me. I never thought I’d hear those devastating words: ‘~~You have breast cancer.’~~
~ Debbie Wasserman Schultz

For all who survived breast cancer would be better knowing the meaning of below line.

Whoever said winning isn’t everything, obviously wasn’t fighting breast cancer.
~ Unknown

Friday Wisdom #4

2011-09-30T13:22:00.001-04:00

Let me join Muslim Mommy with a 'funny' quote this week.

The advantage of growing up with siblings is that you become very good at fractions. ~Robert Brault

I laughed out reading this because this sketches my life.
Having brought up with 3 siblings, and my younger sis being just 2.5 years younger to me, I have always had ego clashes with her. In fact, my mom says I was badly expecting that she would be delivering a baby boy and I went to hospital expecting to see a boy, but hated the fact that it was a girl.

I had come across umpteen incidents in life, where fractions were counted a lot. As a wee girl, I always looked at the difference in 'fractions' when we were given anything- let it be food, chocolates, ice creams, dress of gifts- fractions did count...lol!
Looking back to those years make me nostalgic. Those silly fights on the 'fractions' in fact contributed a lot of precious moments which we cherish and were the best days of childhood.

Friday Wisdom #3

2011-09-02T10:30:00.008-04:00

Whatever we perceive in the world around us tends to

reflect who we are and what we care about most deeply, as in the old saying,

"When a thief sees a saint, all he sees are his pockets."

~ Robert Frager

What's Friday wisdom?

Eid-ul Fitr

2011-08-30T05:35:00.000-04:00

What's Eid-ul-fitr?

It is the festival of purification after completing a month long fasting in Ramadan.
- Eid-ul-Fitr Salat is the prayer on Eid day, which is generally offered in an open field or large hall called an Eid-gah. This salaat or prayer, can only be performed in congregation.
- Zakat al Fitr is an obligatory charity on every Muslim at the end of the month of Ramadan.The purpose of Zakat al-Fitr is to purify the one who has fasted from any type of indecent act or speech he might have committed while fasting. It also helps the poor and the needy.This ensures that no one starves on the day of Eid. This is usually distributed as food item of the particular region. This should be distributed before heading to Eid prayer.
- After the Eid prayer, we usually scatter to visit various family and friends, and make phone calls to distant relatives to give well-wishes for the celebration, we cook special food, have it together with family etc. Eid is mainly about uniting and strengthening the bonds, as well.

Friday Wisdom #2

2011-08-26T07:40:00.003-04:00

The great dividing line between success and failure
can be expressed in five words:
I DID NOT HAVE TIME!
~ Franklin Field ~

What's Friday wisdom?

Listening to Somalia...

2011-08-21T16:14:00.009-04:00

That was truly a heart-touching fundraising program, the one I attended yesterday, right there in the banquet hall of ISNF, which was conducted as a part of collecting Zakat shares towards the cause of relief activities in Somalia. Former Prime Minister of Somalia was explaining the harrowing tales from Somalia and the dreadful situation he has been in while he was holding the PM's chair. Even though he personally traveled/begged to every country on the face of earth, to help them come out of the 'hunger', NO one except UAE listened to them. He concluded his speech saying "the condition right there is beyond your imagination and we need to act immediately".

How ironical it is, myself sitting near a table which was getting filled with multiple delicious items to break my fast as it was almost the time up for iftar and my little girl sitting on the next chair, munching her evening fruit snacks and sipping her banana-milk shake, while the horrifying silhouettes of starving children in Somalia were flashing through the screen!
Deep down, I uttered Thank God for everything I have in my life and I swear that was the most soul-touching, the most sincere and the most innocent of all moments that I have been grateful to Almighty.

My birth place wasn't my choice, but Almighty's decision. I am grateful that I was not born in Somalia. Having brought up in a village I have seen many people starving and suffering from poverty, while many others try to help them out with the tiny bits they can. Still, I was not only having food for three times a day, but being a picky eater I had my mom to cook and serve, every time I wanted. I had plenty of water not only to drink, but had enough to 'waste'. I have never experienced hunger except when I fast but I had plenty of items to break my fast.
When My daughter fell ill and wasn't eating and was only drinking some fruit juice and milk, I was terribly upset over it, OR when I invest time and plan my child's nutrition and recheck it hundred times, I did not bother about lakhs of moms out there, craving for a quarter glass of water to help their children survive.
While I worry about constipation when my daughter's pooping time gets pushed by a hour or two, I fail to remember that there are thousands out there who are not worried about diarrhea or constipation but just a mouthful of food to suppress their hunger.
While I was keen about picking beautiful, comfortable and branded outfits for my little girl, I never remember the children who are badly in need of a piece of cloth to protect them from heat and haze.
When I ensure that my girl is getting her vaccinations on time, I check her medical record many times that I don't miss the appointment date; sincerely, I never thought of those children who are born with innumerable diseases and they just don't even know about the vaccinations but deceases carving them from head to toe.
I am a mom, but I can not imagine the awful situation of a mom when she has to choose between her children- who should stay back to face death and who should flee and survive.
While I have seen people being fond of nuclear families and 'family plan' to have just one child, back in my homeland, I am speechless to the dreams of a mom in Africa when she delivers many kids hoping that at-least one will survive to see a new world and make a difference there.

How ironic is our life....!

Dr Ismail Mehr, the vice president of IMANA, was explaining the touching tales of his journey through the 'desserts' of Africa. I was forced to close my eyes, while he was flipping through the photos he clicked from there during his mission as a doctor and a representative of IMANA. How proud he was to say IMANA was able to collect a large amount of money towards relief activities from the non-muslim community of North America, as well!

Few points he mentioned-
* The the effects of the devastation are apparent everywhere- the roads are littered with remains of animals that could not escape the drought.
* The lucky ones are those who reached the so called refugee camps. Those refugee camps are dome-shaped huts covered with tarpaulins sheets, with hundreds cluttered inside.
* As per official statistics, 1000 children die EVERYDAY.
* They have hospitals, but just TWO doctors to look at approximately 400 patients at a time!
* Food items are flowing from different parts of the world, and heaped up in the airport, because there are no means to transfer those from Airport to the needy. Nobody is there to work on the GROUND of Somalia.

Dr Riyaz Hassanali of IMR- WNY (International Medical Relief of Wester New York) made a thought provoking speech.
Few things:
* USA officials recently visited Somalia and Kenya, who spent millions of dollars to plan their trip, ensure their own security and to have a peaceful trip. Prior to that a team had trained a Somalian lady to talk to Mrs. Jill Biden, the wife of U.S. Vice President. After Mrs. Biden was left, the lady was asked, what does she think about the gentle woman whom she talked to, her reply was "I don't know who is she, but I look forward to what difference she can make in our life". That says it all, every time the horn of a motor vehicle blows in the region, the less-fortunate people anticipate the arrival of a human angel to 'make a difference in their life'.
* He threw a question to ponder on :- the question was this : Why is West not interested in African Countries, even when it's been found that there are tremendous amount of oil reserves in Kenya and Somalia?

What do you think?

IMANA is joining hands with willing medical professionals across the globe and sending Doctors to work on Somalians hospitals (every month). The first team is going from Pakistan, followed by the team from Turkey and the third team would be from North America, Insha Allah. This is to ensure that there are enough doctors in the ground to address the needs of deceased and starving community. May Almighty Bless them. Please head over to their website to know more or to contribute a part of your Zakat/Charity.

If anyone has saved one life, it is as if he has saved the whole mankind ~ Quran 5.32

Friday Wisdom #1

2011-08-12T11:45:00.000-04:00

Nice wordings on Fasting!

There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less.
If the soundbox
is stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy makes you
run up the steps in front of you

-Jelaluddin Rumi

This is my first post as a part of Friday wisdom. What's Friday wisdom?

Ramadan is here!

2011-07-25T14:48:00.004-04:00

Another Holy month of Ramadan is at our door step.

For those who don't know what Ramadan is: The nine-th month of Islamic calendar in which followers of Islam, across the globe participate in 'fasting' by refraining them from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk.

"(It was) the month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur’aan, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance and the criterion (between right and wrong). So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadan i.e. is present at his home), he must observe Sawm (fasts) that month…" [Quran- al-Baqarah 2:185]

The act of fasting is meant to redirect our hearts away from worldly activities, to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm. It also teaches to practice self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and empathy for those who are less fortunate; thus encouraging actions of generosity and charity. In this month, we are ought to clean ourselves from doing/even thinking on harm to ourselves or anyone. We are obliged to fast only this month, but take the charity, purity of heart, prayer etc forward and practice throughout our life.

Nowadays, as Islam and Muslims are being watched suspiciously due to the brutal fanatic activities of few crooked people on the label of Islamic ideology and Quran, the holy month of Ramadan has more importance in our life. This is because, it is time for every one who follows Islam and participate in fasting (including me) to introspect and find out whether we are making best out of the Holy month and are we taking it forward? We fast through the month, we pay Zakat for our investments and earnings, we perform nightly prayers, but still do we have a generous heart filled with humanity? If not, why are we fasting through the month, if it is not serving the purpose it is suppose to?

Among the Indian Muslims, Ramadan has become the festival of food, people say their living cost increase during Ramadan, they eat more junk food in Ramadan. The fasting is also meant to teach us the value of food, the dreadful situation of a starving person. By filling our tummy with junk food after Iftar, how are we gonna 'learn' the value of it? {I am not a scholar to give lectures, but these are the questions I am asking myself.}

Personally, this year is gonna be the 'longest' of any Ramadan, I had in my life. Almost 16 hours of fasting everyday, from 4.30 morning till 8.45 evening. But I badly miss Ramadan back in Kerala (India), mainly because I know it would be very difficult to go to Masjid for Tharaweeh (extra prayers performed at night, which are not compulsory). Isha Prayer (compulsory night prayer) is at 10.30 night and Taraveeh should be done after that. With a 21 months old girl around, you know how hard it would be it make it to Masjid for night prayers. I hope there will be a way, Insha Alllah!

Whatever, we are getting ready to welcome the Holy month. May Allah bless us to draw the best out of this Holy month. Let's pray for the world to prevail in peace and harmony. Ameen!

Life in e-'era'

2011-05-13T14:53:00.003-04:00

Almost an year ago, I attended an interesting guest session by Geetha Krishnan at my office. While concluding the session he threw a strange suggestion 'stay away from news papers for 2 weeks and let me know what you feel'. Doesn't it sound weird and unrealistic? He did not say the reason behind, but after a week or so he did clarify that he was eager to know the power of social networking - is there any possibility that one could miss out the trending news if he/she does not read news paper for 2 weeks?

I recalled this incident because, after reaching USA, I had taken two quaint decisions.
1) No hard copy news papers at home

Reason: I am least interested in spending money and knowing/reading on

the worries spawned by local unemployment
where does Obama travel and how much does it cost to the country?
the sports and entertainment organized by Buffalo local clubs
who gets killed/imprisoned in Buffalo
buying an apartment or leasing a car
jackpots/lotteries
the increasing food and gas price and related hypes

(don't frown, this 'substantial' increase is just by a cent or two which is still affordable for an average American)

sophisticated pampering on pets ( I am sorry to say, but I do not understand the idea of treating pets more affectionately than our own kids)

the cheating and twisting ads on offers/discounts/clearances/take aways

Lastly, but no least I do NOT need a paper to wrap anything, when I can get a bundle of kitchen tissue for a much lesser cost than a news paper. ☺

2) No TV (... ancient huh?)

Reason: I am not at all interested in

most of above, PLUS
in watching divorce court/ judge a,b,c,d...z and verdicts/ who is father of some child in the locality (I mean the DNA test integrated programs..phew!)
I did not want my toddler to spend her entire day in front of TV! I was concerned that during snowy hibernating 6 months of winter, my wee girl would get addicted to TV cartoons (....paranoid mom, eh?)

It's been 6 plus months since I got rid of above two inevitable habits of life. What do I feel? Did I miss out anything?

Well, I did NOT miss out rather it imparts positive musings in me.

√ I have a new habit, I read at-least 5 e-papers daily (3 plus Malayalam, 2 plus English) whereas I never bothered to go and read an e-paper when I have already scanned every knock and corner of hard copy.

√ Even if I miss out reading a paper, the tweets or FB would definitely remind me 'ohh, something is trending today- I did not read news- let me head over to...'

√ An interesting thing about e-paper is I get to read many perspectives of the same news and get 'confused' (...that's exactly what the media aim at).

√ Many e-papers encourage discussions, which open up space for 'thinking outside the box' (at times useless discussion and thoughts are there too, but who cares..? I find myself entangled in the rants, hypes, fads, ramblings, rages... presented by media, yet able to frame or put down my thoughts too!)

√ I stream in few online channels- but very selective, not spending time on 'remote controller' to decide on channel I should be watching. I have very few options and I am happy with the 'few' options than when I have many.

Hence, not having a TV or hard copy news paper would NEVER keep you away from knowing things happening around, as long as you own an internet connection and a computer OR a smart phone.

Few dissenting thoughts after cricket fever!

2011-04-17T13:37:00.010-04:00

I was a cricket fan long back, more precisely before the wagering and gambling stories behind many matches were unveiled. For me, it sounds more like stupidity and wastage of productive time to anxiously watch a match, when there is a probability of partially or completely predetermined outcome. But yes, I watched few matches in this world cup - Ind Vs Aussies, Ind Vs Pak and of course the 'grand finale'.

Following are few things I did NOT like about cricket matches, especially in WC.

1) People make so much of hype when it comes to a cricket match between IND and PAK. Unfortunately the same never pops-up in any other games or sports. Somewhere we are behind a wrong impression that this is a time to express our patriotism. At least a few tweeted/Fbed that it is not a big loss if IND doesn't win Final but it is shame if we lose against PAK. Why do not we take it in a sportsman spirit? What is priority for each Kashmir man who lives every second with the fear of a bomb/grenade which could blast and change his/her life forever? If I imagine myself as one of those victims of political hatred, I can not digest the concept of 'mega final before actual final' anymore!

I did enjoy the game and did want India to win, but I knew a win or a loss could never make any difference in my life or in the lives of thousands in Kashmir either.

2) Sachin is God?- I have no doubt that Sachin is a great sports man, a brilliant batsman, with an outstanding career path and a humble, down-to-earth personality. He can be the synonym of the word 'records' but how can one idolize him as a living God? The whole idea is dis-respectful to the concept of God, faith in Almighty and simply absurd and ridiculous!

For me, comparing Sachin to God is not just a honorary picturization but it is degrading the concept of God itself. The simple and fundamental belief in Godly religion is that, God is a super natural power and the creator. I rather understand God as an 'absolute infinite and transcendent power' who is capable of doing anything beyond human or microscopic eye could never find.

3) I came across many posters on FB depicting Wahab Riaz kneeling before 'Sachin' god. It is a very obvious fact that he prostrated in submission of Almighty God and to express his gratitude to Almighty for blessing him with a wonderful achievement in the match. By depicting it as a keeling before an idolized human being is simply hurting and insulting the spiritual faith of our guest and our people too, as it is apparently known that every Muslim across the world (including India) prostrate before God every day in submission.

Being Indians living in a secular country we should respect the religious feeling of every other, if we can not respect it at-least we should NOT insult the feelings of any religious belief or follower. Communal harmony is extremely important in India and so far we have been able to prove our power as 'Unity in Diversity'. We have to encourage, highlight and practice it!

** I just loved this absolutely brilliant post by Jo!

Are we or aren't we?

2011-04-09T19:11:00.006-04:00

So the trending topic now is anti-corruption and Anna Hazare! I have no doubt that Anna Hazare has made a remarkable move against the most humiliating evil in world's biggest democratic country. He could prove that even a single person can bring about a radical change in the country. He could bring the nation together against a social cause, which is otherwise tended to unite and express the patriotism only during cricket matches and independent day..! He not only paved a way but showed that we must go a step further and 'do it' instead of merely lamenting it as a grievous, unscrupulous and harmful deed.

But, isn't a good time to introspect and see how much have we 'contributed' to the corruption in our country? How many of us can proudly say that 'I have not bribed even a single time in my life'? That is the most important question here!

Bribing is there everywhere- from the villages to the cities- from the schools till the parliament..from the poor to rich.. no gender, age, cast, class, language, color, region differences..

We bribe policemen when we are caught while jumping traffic signal- we bribe to get our driving license, passport verification etc. We bribe to get admission in good colleges, schools etc.. we bribe to get 'go ahead' certificate from municipality/panchayath while we construct houses or towers, it's there everywhere…it happily lives inside me, you and you...

So, do we have the right to speak against corruption until we erase it from ourselves and our vicinity? Let's hope this would be a beginning of everything- not just beginning of eradicating it only from business magnets and politicians but from each and every corner of India…So the phenomenal change we want is in ourselves, in each and every Indian. Support the movement against corruption, it is highly important that we should stop politician from eating the lion share of our country's wealth- while we must wipe it away from our vicinity too!

So are we ready to reform?

CSAAM April 2011: My two cents!

2011-04-06T13:16:00.014-04:00

Dedicated to Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) awareness!
Thanks to the blogging community, for letting me know that this April is Child Sexual Abuse awareness month- a serious matter which is least discussed, especially in India. I appreciate your effort and hope that the efforts will continue even after this 'dedicated' month.

Why this post: I am forced to write something on this because I am deeply hurt by flipping through news channels/online news papers and reading harassment against children very often.

I am born and lived so many years in Kerala, which is 100% literate state of India. The state is well known for its people's responsiveness and awareness about social issues as well. For last few months news channels and e-papers throwing up bunches of shocking news related to children being sexually harassed- the most recent issues are - LKG student being 'used by' auto driver while returning from school, 20 school going girls being sexually used by head master of the same school..etc etc..! It is shocking....it is shocking to realize that a mom can't sit peacefully at home/office until her daughter/son gets back home all safe and that's too in the 'well educated' state of India. So what would be the condition in other states and villages?

I may not be able to rise my voice with outrage and fight against it, but I am sure that I have the social responsibility to make (at-least) a few around me aware that there are lots of things happening around us, which needs much attention than ever, hence this post!

Did you wonder why harassment against children are increasing these days than ever before? I do not have a solid answer, but I am sure that every mom and dad should be much vigilant about their children!

Being a mom these are the things I would do to ensure my daughter's/son's safety:

- Educate him/her that there are certain parts of the body, which is meant to be secret and NEVER let any one other than her parents or grand parents to clean/reveal it.
- Keep in constant touch with his/her teachers, aayas etc and closely watch the surroundings she/he is in.
- Never let my child travel alone- even if I send them in a school bus, ensure that there is some one trustworthy picking and dropping her/him from/to the bus.
- Have a pleasant and close relation with children, spend time with them and try to understand what's happening in their life when I am not around.
- Take feedback about every person my kid is mingling to in a very informal way. This might give an idea if child is having any fear/hatred/bad impression about any one around him/her and find out the reason through friendly probing.
- Teach them NOT to accept any gifts, chocolates etc from strangers. These eventually lead them to trust any one easily and might end up in unfortunate incidents.
- Never leave the child unattended- I may want her/him to do things independently, but that doesn't mean that I do not have responsibility on their 'well-being'. Keep a eye on the child!
- Give surprise visits to schools/day cares/ play schools/play areas.
- Teach them to say NO when it is necessary.

Following are the things I would love school/play school/day care authorities to do:

- Make sure that every kid is picked/dropped by an authorized person in the pickup/drop point of your school bus. Never let your bus drivers drop them near the big apartment and leave as if you have done your job.
- If parents don't prefer school transport, make it strict that every kid is accompanied by some one very closer/acceptable to the kid and parents while they travel from school to home and vice versa.
- Make sure that no children is meeting teachers/aayas/helpers/drivers etc in person in a private room.

I would love to see following actions from Govt side:

- Come up with a powerful law to immediately punish the culprit. It is a fact that kids will never come and make an allegation against the auto driver or head master and especially on something which they are least aware of. So they are making an allegation means that it needs immediate attention!
- If the infringing activity is from someone who is suppose to lead, instruct and develop the good and moral traits in the children - like teachers, close family members, social workers etc- double the punishment.
- At least make a law to ensure that 'Never leave you child unattended' boards are hanging in all public places especially in parking areas, shopping malls, play grounds etc.

Work from Home- pros and cons

2011-03-16T15:21:00.034-04:00

A major part of last 1.5 years, I have been working from home or remotely. If I count the days I worked from office, it is comparatively very less. While it is advantageous in many ways, it has few disadvantages as well.

Pros:

As a parent!

You get more time with your kids: Kids are too demanding and they need your quality time to spent for them. WFH helps you address all their needs on time and lets you prevail as a good mom.

Facilitate your child's learning: Every child develop their first set of skills right from the home. Their surroundings play a big role in their physical and mental well being. You can facilitate, control and be a guide and supporter while they advance in their early childhood.

Watch your child grow OR know where is he/she: It is an awesome feeling to see the little champs growing up. Missing out the best moments of their life is a great loss which can not be compensated with anything else. Every milestone they overcome, make you feel proud. You will get to watch them, know their potentials, understand their weak points and behave accordingly.

Plan your kid's day: When it comes to kid's eating, most of them are fussy eaters. You can control their nutrition, have a healthy and nutritious menu and can plan a 'meal' time table. You can encourage them to have a sound sleeping hours. This is highly important in the mental and physical development of every child.

As a working woman!

Keeps your career safe: You will not have a career break-up and will never feel the 'gap' and difficulty in getting along with changes happened during your 'absence'.

Flexibility of working hours: You can have flexible hours for home and work. Early morning and late evening can be dedicated for work, especially when you have any work in the bank, appointment with doc or when you need to go out for a grocery shopping or when you have unexpected guests etc. You can meetup with other parents and kids in the play areas/park nearby. You can opt to work on regular hours when you have nothing else to distract you.

Cons:

As a working woman!

You miss out fruitful, informal discussions: At Kern, chats on the lunch table, during tea breaks etc are really thought provoking times. People get around and discuss everything under sky. From learning solutions, usability to movies, songs, all contemporary issues etc. I guess such situations are common in all work environment where you get to learn a lot from the informal set up around you.

Missing out the formal/brainstorming sessions: There occurs few brainstorming session, which may not be a part of the work you do, but might be an interesting subject for you. While in the office, you always have the opportunity to peep into the discussions and learn from the experts.

For example, there used to be discussions by Usability team on their recent field study, or edits session for budding IDs. These may not influence my day to day work, but definitely provide lot of insights which help in long run.

Flexible hours can be weary too: Having dedicated working hours helps over flexible timings in many cases. Most of the times, we end up working through day and half of night as we utilize frequent hours in personal work. This could sometimes make both official and personal work incomplete/imperfect. If not utilized properly 'fexi' working hours could be a big headache.

As a parent!

Kids become more 'dependent' on you: Kids may need you for everything around them. They might not do things independently.

You can't get time to yourself: You end up doing 'anything' and 'everything' for everyone around you and may not find effective time for yourself.

Tips for designing m-learning in Flash

2010-06-09T01:42:00.033-04:00

Mobile phones are an integral part of our daily life. We no longer miss our computer while traveling; our phone provides the functionalities of a computer. What a change from a few years back when we would use the mobile to only make calls! This extensive reach of mobile phones has opened up the scope for learning using mobile phones (mLearning). Given below are a few things that we noticed as we stepped into mLearning using FlashLite.

1. Screen resolution and Size:
The most challenging factor in designing for mobile is the size and resolution of screen. Each handset has different size, resolution, and orientation.
Therefore, the ‘nugget’ designed for handset A may not play in the desired way in handset B. You need to keep this in mind when designing for different devices.

Fig: The nugget designed for model B working on model A.

Tip: During storyboarding, define a fixed area within which the instructional designer can work. The work area should be the same as the handset resolution.

For example, if the desired handset size is 320x240 , your work area should also be the same. This helps ensure that you don’t have to force fit elements on your screen at a later stage.

Fig: Screen shot of our storyboard

2. Learning Content:
Reduce text on screen as much as possible. You are migrating from computer to mobile device also means that your work area has reduced from1024 to 240 pixels. Keep it short and crisp. Too much content will mean that you may need to have a scroll feature. This is not advisable. Make your content more visual and less text heavy. Identify the maximum number of words that you can include on your screen.

3. Use of Fonts:
In e-learning, the On Screen Text (OST) is Calibri, 18 point. This is usually clean and readable. But on the mobile device, 18 point is too small. For mobile devices, it is preferable to use 22 points Calibri. This is legible and easy to read.
Fig: Uses font type Calibri and Size 18,25 and 22 points.

4. Color Scheme

The colors or gradients, which look good in your computer screen, may not be visually appealing or even readable on your mobile device. Use contrast colors to increase visual appeal and increase readability.

5. Display Quality:

Display quality of the mobile device plays a big role. The module may appear different in different phones with same resolution. It may look extremely good in handsets that have a powerful display.

6. Use of Graphics:

Use simple graphics with less gradients or glows. Use PNG format to avoid loss and best display in most of the phones.

7. Usability:

Usability of the learning modules is another challenge. In e-learning, the navigation can be made very clear and usable. Most of the times learner has Next/Previous buttons to navigate. When it comes to handset, the users do not have a mouse and have to use the keyboard to navigate.
For eg: In one of our learning demo, we have used few scenario-based questions with 3 different options. While usability testing, few clicked 1,2,3 in the keypad to select the respective options while others used handset navigator to move up and down. We had designed such that the options are selected using the handset navigator. We had to rethink this post learner testing.
Hope these tips have been useful to you. Please do share your experiences/tips too.

Read this post on Learnability Matters.

Don't just learn- develop talents

2010-06-01T01:51:00.005-04:00

Mr Geetha Krishnan had delivered an interesting and interactive session at Kern. One interesting point he has made was whenever a new social n/w is introduced the next day people start taking about how it can be used as a 'learning tool'. Why is it so? Is it because we have an 'insecure' feeling about out learning.

I have been thinking on this for past many days. I could not find-out the actual reason behind, but few interesting discussion on learningden gives me some insights.

Eventhough Mathew Kuruvila and Tricia are representing two extremely different industries, as both are heading Learning and Development in reputed organizations, the point they make about 'not just training or learning, but developing talents' makes lots of sense.

It is high time -learners: rethink about your learning- trainers/training developers: re-look at the way you deliver learning. Does your training help your employees identify and take out their talent to work-front?

Head over to lionsher and read interesting points people from different fields of education industry make.

Read, comment, enjoy..!!
Happy learning (oh sorry talent hunting)!

Sun (in)Direct DTH

2010-05-24T05:48:00.025-04:00

I was trying to recharge Sun direct connection yesterday. As always my default option was 'online' payment. The home page of Sun Direct website itself confused me. Home page has 'Recharge Your Account' option twice, both are leading to same page. See the screen shot below.

I do not understand the difference between Recharge your account option in 'Quick menu' and 'Experience the Difference'. Than helping me for a quick access, it confused me. But yes, I experienced the 'difference' later. :)

Well, I reached the page 'payment gateway'. Filled in the long form with my address, phone number, CC number etc. Clicked the button 'Top Up'. Nothing happened!! The screen remained same.

I repeated the process in different browsers, different machines, but nothing happened after clicking 'Top Up'.

Finally I had no option other than calling customer care(confusion creators I should say). It took some time for the executive to understand the situation. He was keeping on saying 'mam please drop into outlet, buy a recharge coupon and recharge'. Had to ask him if this was the only way why do you hold a website with online payment option.

At last, he explained that the form will not work unless I register and login to the website.

I do not understand:

1) Why do they keep the form available for public when it can not be used unless I register?
2) Or why do not they at least mention somewhere in the page that you should register to pay online?
3) Why do a registered user need to type in his entire address, pin code, and contact number again?
4) At least when I click 'Topup' the site could have told me where I went wrong.

Home, baby, work and so on..

2010-02-22T04:30:00.009-05:00

It's been long since I blogged, not because I do not have anything to share, but because I love spending free time with my little one. It is fun and exciting to look at and analyze our little kids, at their each development stage.

Lots of things were keeping me busy these days. Taking care of baby is a toughest job, but equally exciting. It is challenging when your home maid doesn't handle anything as expected. Schedules work well with your office but never with babies. They create their own time tables. She is not a cry baby, but very calm and cool, yet naughty. Cries very rarely and for particular reasons- may be hungry, or a wet nappy, or just that she is damn sleepy and can't realize that she wants to sleep, or when she sees her mom sitting with laptop and she wants to sit in her mom's lap and look at the screen for a while!

Babies turn cranky whenever moms think about taking a break or a nap or a glance at TV or having food – this is a universal phenomena.

Taking care of baby, house, hubby and doing official work all together with no complaints from any one is a real tough work one can do. Unexpected things keep you busy. It might be tougher to find free time to watch TV or to go for an outing. I salute all working woman professionals who take care of their baby, hubby and house plus do a great profession..You are just awesome!!

I believe there are quite few factors which help you out. First and foremost an understanding partner, next a great employer, and so on.

Luckily I have both, together make my life happy. I am proud and happy to be a part of Kern and thank my boss for understanding the situation and helping me with initial half day mode, work from home and for allowing me to work in flexible timing. These actually help me to manage my little one- her bathing, massaging, nap, feed, nappy changing, playing etc etc. Of course I have an eye on her even when I work. Lastly, but not least – blessing from Almighty God, keeps me happy and proud.

I wish if all employers understand their woman work force and create options like these for them.

..an eventful year passed by..

2010-01-01T05:26:00.008-05:00

'New year' has never been something to celebrate for me. And I never write down New Year resolutions as well. Earlier, it was an indication to change my wall calendar. Now I just don't look at wall calendars (my comp and mob do the purpose) or I just don't hang them.

Sometimes, I introspect, to know things I wished to do, I have done, I could have done, I have ignored and lesson learned from my mistakes; I call that is my new year day :)

Looking back to the fallen year, it has been a great one for me. The most happiest thing happened in this year is the birth of my daughter Liya. Alhamdulillah (Praise to God), for such a lovely baby.

If I ask you, have you ever enjoyed some one's cry and if you say yes, most probably you are a mother or (the worst) you are a sadist. The first cry of your babe when he/she feels the world is really amazing; same as your first bonding with babe...That cry is soothing to your ears. I remember three cries she made. It fell in my ears like the most expected melodious song. And that cry wiped out all troubles I have been in for past many months. I couldn't wait to see her face. The face, which I have been waiting for more than 9 months!

I remember seeing her face for first time, though I drowsy due to Anastasia. She was very cute, fair baby with chubby cheeks.

Motherhood changes everything. Mainly your preferences - for many years you didn't have any one to give preference, after marriage you consider your partners likes, but after having a baby he/she is the main concern. It matters for everything - your food, dress, nap, traveling, entertainment, free time etc. But yeah it is a unique experience to be a mom. I feel great about it, something which words could never express the intensity of it!

The whole year went by expecting and feeling her (for 9 months) and post delivery care for two months. Sometimes, 9 months appeared like 9 years- time just didn't fly by! My free time I spent in maternity websites, learning more and more about my child's development everyday.

I remember the day I experienced her kicks inside my womb. And the kicks appeared like fluttering of butterflies throughout my tummy. From then I experienced the motherly love growing inside me, day by day. I was eagerly waiting to hold her in my hand, to kiss on her lovely cheeks, and to bond her with me, cuddle her...

8 hours in ICU

2009-10-28T02:19:00.041-04:00

It's been quite long time since I blogged. I have a great news to share with my readers. We are blessed with a little angel on 11th Oct '09 at 0.37 AM. Since then I am spending my time with little one always, and just didn't feel like blogging.

I was thinking for long time to write on my little one and experiences so far. But right now I want to share my experiences at Intensive Care Unit post operation.

I was moved out of operation theater to ICU by 2.00 am. I was very drowsy and could not even open my eyes even though I had a spinal anesthesia. All I wished was 'to be in a quiet place and sleep well'. I closed my eyes and about slip into a deep sleep; I heard some one breathing terribly next to me as if he is right in front of death. The sound was too high and scary so that I could not close my eyes. I could hear doctors and nurses running around, giving instructions to each other. From their conversation I could understand that the patient is a really old man. I felt sad for his condition, inside my mind I prayed God to bless him with the best.

After some hours he looked fine and he started breathing as normal. Later I came to know that he is an asthma patient. By 5 am he was all fine with his breathing system and since then he behaved like a mad man. He got up from bed made annoying noise, called his daughter by pet name loudly, I could hear all other patients in the near by beds getting irritated. He began pulling his urinary catheter, oxygen tube etc. He was demanding that he is all well and wanted to go back home for an hour and would come back. Soon he became violent, began to scold all nurses, started kicking and biting many of the male nurses.

Later I knew that he was in the same condition for last many days. Many of the male and female nurses got good sized kicks and bites from him already. He was making very loud noise and I just realized that I can not get peaceful sleep there. Finally I talked to 2 or 3 nurses and head nurse and expressed that I just can not stay here, all I wanted is rest and peace, which I can't find there. They were equally helpless. They explained their helplessness to me. According to hospital rules, I have to be in the observation for 6 hours after c-section. They can not shift me until my doctor gives green signal. My doc had gone back home as she came only for my emergency surgery. My doc was suppose to come by 8.00. Old uncle continued his performance and made all nurses, and doctors busy.

It was 8.00 am, and my doctor didn't turn out. I was inquiring every half an hour about her arrival. The nurse smiled and told me "Today is Sunday Nishana, doctor will be little late. She may come by 10.am Also, she left hospital by 3.00 am only." Old uncle's violence worsened. I started feeling scary to sleep in my bed as his bed was next to me. I was frightened that he might turn to me with his all temper tantrums.

Now he wanted to urinate. He removed his oxygen mask, got up from bed, saying "I 'll come after urinating." He didn't understand that there is a catheter placed to pass urine. Everybody was explaining him that he has a catheter placed. He just didn't listen to that and told I don't want to urinate here in bed, it will be stingy and so on. After half hour long debate he passed urine and next he wanted to go and clean up!

I was really amazed that even after all these issues, and all his violence on nurses, none of them said any bad words, or didn't show any hatred. I could hear them speaking in English "after all he is a very old man, and it is our job". I really admire all of them for the patience and care they have shown to that patient. It is simply amazing. Now I know why Malayali nurses have got high demand around the globe!!

In between all these, the life saving equipments connected to the young lady (lying opposite to me, who had a heart attack during c-section and was in dangerous situation) began alarming some danger. Within seconds docs and nurses came running pressed heavily on her chest. They were quickly connecting some other equipments. Utilizing this break, old uncle tried to escape from ICU. He had reached near the door, when 2 male nurses tucked him. Another granny lying right to me was not listening to any of the nurses and was not letting them take injections etc.

Later I heard head nurse advising colleagues to report his violence and condition his by-standers and letting them take decision on his stay in ICU.

It was almost 10.15 when my doctor stepped in. And she smiled when I was explaining her my condition and allowed me to move out after a thorough check up.

That's all about my 8 hours stay in ICU. It was for first time in my life I stayed in ICU and actually it was my first hospital admission itself. I have always hated hospitals (just wondering that as a wee girl I wanted to become a doctor, thank God I am not, God you know the best!).

Now I realize that ICU is never a peaceful place for patients. (I was admitted in one of the leading hospital network in Kerala).

Hospitals and ICUs need to undergo lot of design and implementation changes!!!!

Vodafone website and error message

2009-08-25T01:03:00.014-04:00

I have noticed this issue in Vodafone website quite few times. I usually recharge my pre-paid connection through vodafone website. It is been few days I am getting the error message shown in the screen grab below.

The message says "Sorry, we are unable to process your request at this point. Please do try again later". I get this message after the processing is over, the talk time is credited in my phone, and the money is deducted from the Card. It should be "Your request has been processed successfully. Thank you for using Vodafone".. or something like that.

But why does it display error message when the transaction was successful?

Linkedin- few funny observations

2009-08-19T09:51:00.017-04:00

Below given are few things which I noticed very often in linkedin and keep me thinking why is it in this way.

Add Nishana to your network:

Refer the image given above. It is clear from the image that Nishana has logged in (sign out, edit option are enabled), but still asking me to add me into my own network?

My curiosity forced me to click on the same and I got a weird window shown below. How do I know me? Friend, colleague..??? Ooops... it is the time to think!!!

Send a message to Nishana:

Why should I send a message to myself from my linkedin profile?

I was trying to change my status. I clicked on [update] below my current status- I got window to enter new message. I entered new message and then I was asked to login again. It is again clear that I have been logged in. Why should I keep logging in every time I change my status or add a person or add a discussion or edit my profile?

Who is going to 'EAT' Apple?

2009-08-12T10:50:00.040-04:00

Recently I bought a MAC book and was so excited to experience the high quality and highly precise design of it. All excitements turned into sadness when one fine morning I realized that the Cute pie is not turning on. rushed to the place from where I purchased it and the vendor was equally surprised to hear that MAC book was down after 2 days of purchasing. He sent it to Apple’s service center.

I kept calling them to get updates– I was wondering if Apple also started behaving like MS. Service center people wanted 2 days to repair it. And I have been told that the Switch was not properly installed. So it got spoiled and they have to replace entire Key board as switch is integrated on the KB.After two days I followed up, and they wanted another 4-5 days! What the hell? It is Apple’s product after all !!!

I had to be rude with them and gave them the deadline of next day evening and fortunately I got it back on time.

Story starts here!

I got back home and it was a Saturday evening. As I switched it ON I realized that it doesn’t connect to my wireless network but other HP laptop detected and connected as usual.

I went browsing through all network setting but the Cutie didn’t detect any of wi-fi networks (my neighbor’s n/w too ;)). Tried to connect via Bluetooth and it threw few errors when I tried to pair Cutie with my phone. It didn’t allow me to pair either.

Next experiment was with CD ROM. I inserted a CD and Cutie detected it and I browsed through CD and copied all required things to hard drive. I sighed thinking “Oh! At least this is working fine” and ejected the CD. Unfortunately I could hear the ejecting sound but the CD didn’t come out, instead it went back to drive and again Cutie detected it as a new CD.

I was wondering why all these happening. I have never heard any such issues with MAC books, which are more than a year old. And mine is brand new!

Next day I packed Cutie, and stepped into the vendor. I had decided that at any cost I should get it replaced with a new one. The vendor was listening to the problems as I explained and he was also wondering that such issues usually do not happen for MAC books. He agreed to replace it.

When I was about to leave he recalled that issues like this had happened few times earlier after getting the servicing done from service center and he explained me the possible causes for these issues.

* All n/w related issues may be because the wires are not plugged back to the required ports after replacing the KB
* The CD issue could be because of the wrong screws inserted in wrong holes. MAC book has a highly precise engineering done with thousands of screws and each one is different from another - at least 1mm difference.

He offered to open the machine right in front of me even though he is not suppose to do that (Apple products should be repaired at Apple’s service center only).

As he was pretty confident and had lot of experience in repairing out of warranty MAC machines, I agreed to his idea.

It took lot of time for him to open it as it had lots of thin and small screws in many parts of the machine. As soon as he opened it I notices that the network wire is unplugged! And he experimented with CD drive and it screws and it worked!

Wondering what Apple service center is doing here. I can understand if some one forgets to plug wires back. It is still OK if the screws are getting interchanged(we are human beings). But why don’t they at least test the machine and ensure that everything is working fine? I wonder what would have happened if I had sent the laptop again to service center!

So if you take your MAC machines to Apple service center, ensure that you are thoroughly checking all the functionalities once you get machine back.

Steve Jobs, wake up—it is too late to start exclusive Apple stores and service centers in India. Otherwise these people are going to KILL Apple. If things are going this way, Apple will be added to the same category of HP, Microsoft etc..

What do you expect from a workshop?

2009-08-11T12:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I attended a technical workshop conducted by one of very famous technical research and training firm. From then I was wondering why people are reluctant to move out of traditional way of teaching/learning/presenting? Why do not they introduce innovation in conducting and presenting workshops/seminars?

As Ripul always says-we are used to liking bad design, are we used to liking the traditional way of learning and knowledge sharing also?

"It is high time to change!"

Let me note down few points, which I believe a good workshop should have.

I) Before you start:

Make sure that you have necessary logistics and absolutely no network/connection related issues
Do dry runs and mock sessions to ensure high quality delivery
Do all needful to ensure that the program is going to be a knowledge sharing and open discussion as well.
Make sure that your entire workshop and topics covered are around a theme.

(For example if you are conducting a workshop on social networking, you can frame it around a learning theme - how best we can use social networking for learning- otherwise it is going to be a seamless thing where participant gains nothing)

II) Sessions:

Highly interactive sessions - interactions among the participants and presenters as well.
Should have a clear learning objective. The organizers should set the expectation of each participant before starting the sessions and at the end map if all the expectations set by learners are met.
Clearly defined target audience

(The one I attended was having 4 different target audience which made it a mess--(a) technology experts from IT companies -they are good in practical science may be bad in theory (b) Faculty from engineering colleges- with great theoretical knowledge and less practical experience (c) college students - who may love to practice them but never came across chances- and theoretically also lies some where between category a and b (d) Professionals who work in Govt firms - technically weak and no hands on latest technologies)

Open discussions and introductory sessions (introducing participants to each other)
NOT more than 15 participants in a workshop
Understand- When you say 'workshop', participants expect hands on experience on things discussed. So have clear plan for participants to 'experience' the theory.

III) Content, PPTs and other materials:

Material should be designed and delivered by considering the profile of target audience.
Slides with less content and high visual representation
Ensure that you include activities to supplement few of your slides, which enforces informal learning.
Experiment with latest trends on the web, technology etc to make your presentation an unforgettable experience for the participants

IV) Presenters:

Should have in-depth subject knowledge and good communication skills.
Should be able to tackle the participants who goes on and on debating something useless.
Ensure well planning and schedule adherence
Should have a plan on his/her mind about the time he/she going to spent on each slide
Never read out the text on the slide- at least know that all of your participants can also do the same, and they are here expecting something above that.
Practice well before you go live.
Always remember that each second the participant spend in the workshop is precious and ensure the workshop is excellent enough NOT to make them bored at any point of time.
Be prepared with all possible questions
Understand that interaction doesn't mean that you answer all the questions asked by few of the participants.
Ensure that you go through the content many times before you go live even though you find yourself as an expert in the field.
Never under estimate your participants-understand that few of them may be having deeper knowledge or crazy ideas about things discussed. Ensure that you dig them out.

(V) Take away:

Not all participants believe that the take away from the workshop should be some papers or pamphlets.
All expect a great insight to something new for them or an added learning or at least having the experience of attending an innovative way of conducting workshop..
Ensure that they feel inside it was a day worth taking out from work or all personal matters.
Something to apply directly on their work place or any other suitable situation
They also expect creating a professional network in between the participants or presenters. See that upfront when you plan things and make sure that you provide them a platform.

VI) Feedback:

Keep in mind that feedback provides best inputs to improve yourself.
Ensure that you do not take ONLY an over all feedback at the end especially if you had different presenters taking sessions throughout the day. (This puts participant in trouble :))
It is always good to take feedback at the end of each session and force everybody to add their suggestions as well.
Plan for an over all feedback session at the end of workshop and give chance to participants map their expectations and achievements and discuss their thoughts and suggestions.

At last but not least ensure the quality of food you provide, and especially when you conduct a paid workshop!

Assessments in Elearning

2009-07-09T01:19:00.001-04:00

Assessments In E Learning

View more documents from Kern Learning Solution.

Bicycle waala and traffic signal

2009-06-30T01:37:00.010-04:00

Read my old post on traffic rules in Hyderabad.
Few days back we had a discussion on lunch table about driving in Hyderabad. Sandeep was talking about the attitude of some men when a woman drives a car. He had noticed very often in Necklace road that even bicycle waalas can't digest if a lady riding in a car is overtaking them. They try hard not to let the woman go!!

As I have written earlier, driving is quite difficult in Hyderabad city. So if you are a frequent driver in Hyderabad and try to drive in the same manner in any other part of world, most probably you will be caught for traffic violations! Because you have either forgotten traffic rules or your hands and legs itches to do a rash drive as you are used to do the same!!

Today morning, I was stuck in the traffic near paradise circle and was the first one in the line. I hate to be the first one in traffic jam because, I just can't bear the shouting and honking that my following drivers/vehicles make alerting me not to wait for green light to move my car!!

Few weeks back one person got out of his car and knocked continuously at my window, for not trying to violate traffic rules (ie, for stopping my car when Red lights are on)!

Anyway, coming back to today, few minutes after me a bicycle rider came and stopped his bicycle right in front of me. He looked at me and suddenly pushed his bicycle in front of my car in the opposite direction. Now his bicycle is actually covering complete road in front of me and I can never make a move until he decides. And I have to take a right turn!

The green light was on and the fellow was looking at me and with a weird laugh as if "I can not let a woman ride peacefully in a car." I kept honking and he continued looking at me with a weird smile. Everybody behind me started honking 'asking' me to move. The cope was wandering here and there as if "this is not my job, you please sort out. I am not finding any means to fill my pocket".

Signal light almost turned into yellow and that is when he decided that he should let me go. He pedaled with all his energy as he didn't want me to overtake him in that crowd.

More about MOODLE

2009-06-26T03:36:00.000-04:00

MOODLE - Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment - is a SCORM compatible Open Source LMS. According to moodle stats, it is the most popular LMS which is used in 202 countries and supports 75 languages with 2,351,125 courses and 24,983,528 users all over the world. The site with most users is Moodle website with 710757 users.

Let's look at features which makes Moodle the most popular LMS.

- Moodle is free. You can go to moodle website, download the suit, and implement in your web server. It is very easy and quick to implement and moodle has a support forum which will help you sort out all implementation related issues.

- It is highly customizable. You can change the look and feel as per your company's branding. You have the freedom to choose or discard the N number of features moodle brings to you.

- You can download different graphic themes from moodle website, which is absolutely free.

- It supports different authentication methods.

- Varities of Roles which can be assigned to user as per privilage required like Administrator, Teacher, Non-editable teahcer, Course Creator, Student, Guest.
A teacher has full control over the course in which he/she has been assigned as a teacher. He can add other teachers and students to the particular course.
An admin has full control on entire moodle suit, while a student has less privilages.

- Moodle provides different enrollment options - like guest login, guest login with password, student self enrollment via mails or registration form, restricted enrollments as decided by teacher or admin etc.

- Course formats such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focussed social format, AICC/SCORM.

-Flexibility in selecting activities like Forums, Quizzes, Glossaries, Resources, Choices, Surveys, Assignments, Chats, Workshops, Blogs,SCORM/AICC etc.

-All grades for Forums, Quizzes, Assigments etc for a particular student can be viewed on one page (and can be downloaded as a spreadsheet file).

- Slide 19Full user activity logging and tracking - activity reports for each student are available with graphs and details about each module (last access, number of times read, days left to finish etc) as well as a detailed report of each student’s involvement including forum postings etc on one page.

-Slide 20 Mail integration - Copies of forum posts, teacher feedback, new course enrolment etc can be mailed to the people involved, in HTML or plain text.

MOODLE Activity Modules:

A) Assignment
- Assignments can be uploaded with a specific due date and a maximum grade. Students can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server - all the assignments will be time-stamped
- Late assignments are allowed, but the number od days the assignment has been delayed will be shown clearly to the teacher.
- Teacher feedback will be appended to the assignment page for each student, and notification can be mailed out.
- The teacher can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading (for regrading)

B) Chat
- Smooth and synchronous text interaction
- Supports URLs, smilies, embedded HTML, images etc
- All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available to students

C) Forum
- Forums can be teachers-only, course news, open-to-all, and one-thread-per-user and so on.
- Discussions can be sorted by nested, flat or threaded, oldest, newest etc.
- Slide 28Individual subscriptions to each forums
- Discussion thread copies can be sent via email
- Slide 28Teacher can force subscription to forums
- Teacher can choose not to allow replies

D) Quiz Slide 28
Slide 24

- Teachers can define a database of questions which can be re-used in different quizzes.
- Quizzes are automatically graded, and can be re-graded if questions are modified
- Can have a limited time window outside of which the quiz is not accessible
- Can be stored in categories for easy access, and these categories can be published to make them accessible from any course on the site.
- Teacher can customize to attempt multiple times, show/hide feedback and/or correct answers.
- Quiz questions and options can be shuffled (randomized) to reduce cheating.
- Questions can be imported from external text files.
- Attempts can be cumulative, if desired, and finished over several sessions.

Questions Types
- Multiple Choice - single or multiple answers
- Short Answer (words or phrases)
- True-False questions
- Match The Following
- Random questions
- Numerical questions (with allowable ranges)

E) Resource
- Display of any electronic content- Word, Powerpoint, Flash, Video, Sounds etc.
- Files can be uploaded and managed (zipped, unzipped, renamed, moved, etc.) on the server
- You can create and manage folders
- Internal web pages (html formatted) can be created

Testing E Learning Products

2009-06-19T00:35:00.003-04:00

This is a presentation by Kern Learning Solutions on Testing E Learning Products.
Testing E Learning Products

View more OpenOffice presentations from Kern Learning solutions.

LMS and SCORM explained

2009-05-27T04:50:00.006-04:00

We often face many issues with LMS and SCORM packaging as we program for different types of LMS.
How to figure out where the problem exactly lies?

In order to overcome the implementation issues, you should first understand:
- What is the content packaging structure, dos and don's?
- How will you ensure that your e-learning content is SCORM conformant?

Read more about this on Learnability Matters.

Drawing shapes using AS3 in flash

2009-05-14T03:25:00.007-04:00

Step 1: Open Flash CS3 IDE.
Step 2: File -> New ->Flash File(Action Script 3.0)
Step 3: Click on the key frame and copy paste following code

Drawing a Square:

var square:Shape = new Shape();
//Place the instance on the stage
addChild(square);
//Specify the styles for the square boarder: Thickness, color(yellow)
// graphics property:Specifies the Graphics object belonging to this Shape object, where vector drawing commands can occur.
square.graphics.lineStyle(3,0xFFFF33);
//Specify the fill color(Blue)
square.graphics.beginFill(0x0000CC);
//Drawing the square with X,Y,WIDTH,HEIGHT
square.graphics.drawRect(50,50,200,200);
square.graphics.endFill();
square.x = stage.stageWidth/3-square.width/3;
square.y = stage.stageHeight/3-square.height/3;

Drawing a Circle:

var myCircle:Shape = new Shape();
myCircle.graphics.lineStyle(2, 0xff0000);
myCircle.graphics.beginFill(0x000000);
//Drawing the circle with X,Y, Radius
myCircle.graphics.drawCircle(130, 220, 80);
addChild(myCircle);
myCircle.graphics.endFill();

Life without mobile phone

2009-05-13T00:20:00.044-04:00

Last few weeks were mobile tragedy weeks for me. One pick pocketed, other attacked by virus and had to re-install the software and third one is now hospitalized as the display has gone
after 'falling' from my hand! That means I have lost all my contact numbers from all the three phone memories and can't recall any of the numbers other than my home and husband's ones.

It's been a week since my phone is hospitalized and now I just can not imagine how I lived before owning a mobile. Just can not live without it. I realize that my phone was something more than a phone for me... or the fact is that it never served the purpose of a phone, as I usually don't get many calls other than the ones from my husband.

After losing my mobile phone, I realized that:

1) My ears are so used to listening reminders at least one in a day. The reminders alert me a lot of things from - the calls to my hubby and home, recharging phone, filling gas cylinder - to - my work related things. According to my family members and friends I have a good memory and no need to keep any reminder, still I miss the 'alerts' badly.

2) I never ever thought of hanging a clock on the wall in my flat. The fact is that I never realized the need as I had my phone near to me always. I stopped wearing wrist watch long back (from the day I owned a mobile phone). Yesterday I had to switch on laptop to see the time as my husband was not at home and I had no way to find out the time. Later I found that my AC remote can tell me the time. That was a great comfort for me.

3) The songs and tones assigned for my closed ones made me happy for nothing whenever it rings. I miss that pleasure!!

4) No calculator for me other than the one in computer, which I just hates!

6) I lost all contact numbers and now feel like I am not living on the face of earth!

7) Lost the pleasure of looking into small apps and animations made by me for my phone. I miss all those screen savers and wallpapers which had a 'done by Nishana' tag!

8) No alarm sound to remind me that 'it's time to sleep more'.

9) Missing the loving calls from my hubby, at least four in a day.. (to check if I reached office, left office, had lunch, had medicines...etc)

10) I miss browsing through the photos and funny audios stored in my mobile.

11) I badly want to click the mobile cam to capture everything I see around when I have no other work to do (the movement of fan...the cockroach running through the floor..the funny English boards on the roads..etc etc)

12) I have stored a lot of info in the phone other than the contacts and photos including short notes for my future reference.

13) Can't repeatedly listen to old Mappila songs :)

14) No 'Right button' to easily access the calender. Back to hard copy era!! I just hate the calender in my comp.

15) Nothing to keep in the dash board of the car when I drive

and last but not the least

Nothing in my hands to fall down all times I walk :)

-Yes I drop my mobile from my hand very often and I blame that its covering is too soft and silky-

So my friends, family friends, relatives, classmates, colleagues and ex-colleagues, please take 2 minutes out of your valuable time and mail me your contact number!

Why CSS is better than HTML tables?

2009-04-21T01:00:00.005-04:00

Ever since the growth of the world wide web, professionals of the industry have sought ways on how to make their websites visually appealing and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness. Style sheet languages such as CSS have perfected this need and became the universal language for designers and developers alike.

So what are the reasons why CSS is much more useful than the tables in the HTML?
Several advantages has been cited on the use of CSS in web design. Let’s have a quick analysis on some of them.

1) Faster loading of the web pages.

Loading time for tabular structures is much greater than css based templates. This is usually caused by using too much markup tags in one HTML file such as "td align", "td width", "bgcolor", "width", "height", "br", etc along with the content of the HTML. CSS separates the content of the web page which is text and images into the HTML file and the visual presentation such as the web design, positioning, and text sizes into a CSS file. In a CSS-based layout, table tags or markups are replaced by using its own language such as "div".

Using tables make your page bulky with presentational data scattered here and there. Every time your visitor has to view a new page, he/she has to download the data for your page afresh.

Less code means faster download times.

2) Efficient and easy redesign, and consistency

CSS is much easy to use when you have to redesign your webpage. As the CSS file separates the content from layout, redesign is much quicker, easier and efficient. Suppose you have to change the design of a table-designed website, what you will have to do is rebuild all your pages again. But with a css powered design, you will only need to modify your style sheet and the job is done.

3) SEO friendliness

CSS based layouts are more search engine friendly than table-based ones. This is because the pages loads faster and having very less mark up tags will make the search engines to crawl through the website content very easily.

4) Accessibility

A website should be accessible to anyone and everyone. Tabular structures reduce accessibility for viewers with disabilities even if the designs may look fine on screen.

You must take into account that your website is not viewed only on computers, but also on mobile phones and PDAs. These devices will have a very easy to use website if you use a well written CSS. As a result of the separation of design (CSS) and structure (HTML), it is also possible to provide different layouts for different devices, e.g. handhelds, mobile phones, etc.

5) Usability

By combining CSS with the functionality of a Content Management System, a considerable amount of flexibility can be programmed into content submission forms. This allows a contributor, who may not be familiar or able to understand or edit CSS or HTML code to select the layout of an article or other page they are submitting on-the-fly, in the same form.

6) Maintainability

By use of CSS, virtually all of the layout information resides in one place. Because the layout information is centralized, these changes can be made quickly and globally by default.

7) Sophisticated Layouts and Designs

SS offers absolute positioning of elements paired with the z-index property allows CSS-based designs to position elements on top of one another, allowing for more unique, complex, and beautiful layouts.

8) Bandwidth Efficiency

CSS file is downloaded just once by your visitor's browser and re-used for different pages on a web site. This optimizes your websites download for your visitor and also the bandwidth used.

SCORM 2.1 and SCORM 2004 standards

2009-04-17T04:24:00.009-04:00

The Learning Management system conforms to the SCORM 2.1 & SCORM 2004 standard, at the following levels:

SCORM 2.1 Run-Time Environment Conformant—Minimum with Some Optional Data Model Elements

All except the following optional data model elements are supported:

cmi.comments
cmi.comments_from_lms
cmi.objectives._children
cmi.objectives._count
cmi.interactions._children
cmi.interactions._count

The LMS provides the full set of functions to comply with the SCORM 2004 standard, so the ones available to a SCO [Sharable Content Object] are:

• Initialize(“”)

• GetValue(parameter)

• SetValue(parameter, value)

• Commit(“”)

• GetLastError()

• GetErrorString()

• GetDiagnostic()

• Terminate(“”)

Below is a summary of the parameters and data-types available within the GetValue and SetValue functions.

(RO = Read only; RW = Read/Write)

cmi._version (characterstring, RO) Represents the version of the data model

cmi.comments_from_learner._children (comment,location.timestamp, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.comments_from_learner._count (non-negative integer, RO) Current number of learner comments

cmi.comments_from_learner.n.comment (localized_string_type (SPM: 4000), RW) Textual input

cmi.comments_from_learner.n.location (characterstring (SPM: 250), RW) Point in the SCO to which the comment applies

cmi.comments_from_learner.n.timestamp (time (second,10,0), RW) Point in time at which the comment was created or most recently changed

cmi.comments_from_lms._children (comment,location.timestamp, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.comments_from_lms._count (non-negative integer, RO) Current number of comments from the LMS

cmi.comments_from_lms.n.comment (localized_string_type (SPM: 4000), RO) Comments or annotations associated with a SCO

cmi.comments_from_lms.n.location (characterstring (SPM: 250), RO) Point in the SCO to which the comment applies

cmi.comments_from_lms.n.timestamp (time(second,10,0), RO) Point in time at which the comment was created or most recently changed

cmi.completion_status (state (completed, incomplete, not attempted, unknown), RW) Indicates whether the learner has completed the SCO

cmi.completion_threshold (real(10,7) range (0..1), RO) Used to determine whether the SCO should be considered complete

cmi.credit (state (credit, no_credit), RO) Indicates whether the learner will be credited for performance in the SCO

cmi.entry (state (ab_initio, resume, ""), RO) Asserts whether the learner has previously accessed the SCO

cmi.exit (state (timeout, suspend, logout, normal, ""), W) Indicates how or why the learner left the SCO

cmi.interactions._children (id,type,objectives,timestamp,correct_responses,weighting,learner_resposne,result,latency,description, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.interactions._count (non-negative integer, RO) Current number of interactions being stored by the LMS

cmi.interactions.n.id (long_identifier_type (SPM: 4000), RW) Unique label for the interaction

cmi.interactions.n.type (state (true_false, multiple_choice, fill_in, long_fill_in, matching, performance, sequencing, likert, numeric, other), RW) Which type of interaction is recorded

cmi.interactions.n.objectives._count (non-negative integer, RO) Current number of objectives (i.e., objective identifiers) being stored by the LMS for this interaction

cmi.interactions.n.objectives.n.id (long_identifier_type (SPM: 4000), RW) Label for objectives associated with the interaction

cmi.interactions.n.timestamp (time(second,10,0), RW) Point in time at which the interaction was first made available to the learner for learner interaction and response

cmi.interactions.n.correct_responses._count (non-negative integer, RO) Current number of correct responses being stored by the LMS for this interaction

cmi.interactions.n.correct_responses.n.pattern (format depends on interaction type, RW) One correct response pattern for the interaction

cmi.interactions.n.weighting (real (10,7), RW) Weight given to the interaction relative to other interactions

cmi.interactions.n.learner_response (format depends on interaction type, RW) Data generated when a learner responds to an interaction

cmi.interactions.n.result (state (correct, incorrect, unanticipated, neutral, real (10,7) ), RW) Judgment of the correctness of the learner response

cmi.interactions.n.latency (timeinterval (second,10,2), RW) Time elapsed between the time the interaction was made available to the learner for response and the time of the first response

cmi.interactions.n.description (localized_string_type (SPM: 250), RW) Brief informative description of the interaction

cmi.launch_data (characterstring (SPM: 4000), RO) Data provided to a SCO after launch, initialized from the dataFromLMS manifest element

cmi.learner_id (long_identifier_type (SPM: 4000), RO) Identifies the learner on behalf of whom the SCO was launched

cmi.learner_name (localized_string_type (SPM: 250), RO) Name provided for the learner by the LMS

cmi.learner_preference._children (audio_level,language,delivery_speed,audio_captioning, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.learner_preference.audio_level (real(10,7), range (0..*), RW) Specifies an intended change in perceived audio level

cmi.learner_preference.language (language_type (SPM 250), RW) The learner’s preferred language for SCOs with multilingual capability

cmi.learner_preference.delivery_speed (real(10,7), range (0..*), RW) The learner’s preferred relative speed of content delivery

cmi.learner_preference.audio_captioning (state (-1,0,1), RW) Specifies whether captioning text corresponding to audio is displayed

cmi.location (characterstring (SPM: 1000), RW) The learner's current location in the SCO

cmi.max_time_allowed (timeinterval (second,10,2), RO) Amount of accumulated time the learner is allowed to use a SCO

cmi.mode (state (browse, normal, review), RO) Identifies one of three possible modes in which the SCO may be presented to the learner

cmi.objectives._children (id,score,success_status,completion_status,description, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.objectives._count (non-negative integer, RO) Current number of objectives being stored by the LMS

cmi.objectives.n.id (long_identifier_type (SPM: 4000), RW) Unique label for the objective

cmi.objectives.n.score._children (scaled,raw,min,max, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.objectives.n.score.scaled (real (10,7) range (-1..1), RW) Number that reflects the performance of the learner for the objective

cmi.objectives.n.score.raw (real (10,7), RW) Number that reflects the performance of the learner, for the objective, relative to the range bounded by the values of min and max

cmi.objectives.n.score.min (real (10,7), RW) Minimum value, for the objective, in the range for the raw score

cmi.objectives.n.score.max (real (10,7), RW) Maximum value, for the objective, in the range for the raw score

cmi.objectives.n.success_status (state (passed, failed, unknown), RW) Indicates whether the learner has mastered the objective

cmi.objectives.n.completion_status (state (completed, incomplete, not attempted, unknown), RW) Indicates whether the learner has completed the associated objective

cmi.objectives.n.progress_measure (real (10,7) range (0..1), RW) Measure of the progress the learner has made toward completing the objective

cmi.objectives.n.description (localized_string_type (SPM: 250), RW) Provides a brief informative description of the objective

cmi.progress_measure (real (10,7) range (0..1), RW) Measure of the progress the learner has made toward completing the SCO

cmi.scaled_passing_score (real(10,7) range (-1 .. 1), RO) Scaled passing score required to master the SCO

cmi.score._children (scaled,raw,min,max, RO) Listing of supported data model elements

cmi.score.scaled (real (10,7) range (-1..1), RW) Number that reflects the performance of the learner

cmi.score.raw (real (10,7), RW) Number that reflects the performance of the learner relative to the range bounded by the values of min and max

cmi.score.min (real (10,7), RW) Minimum value in the range for the raw score

cmi.score.max (real (10,7), RW) Maximum value in the range for the raw score

cmi.session_time (timeinterval (second,10,2), WO) Amount of time that the learner has spent in the current learner session for this SCO

cmi.success_status (state (passed, failed, unknown), RW) Indicates whether the learner has mastered the SCO

cmi.suspend_data (characterstring (SPM: 64000), RW) Provides space to store and retrieve data between learner sessions

cmi.time_limit_action (state (exit,message, continue,message, exit,no message, continue,no message), RO) Indicates what the SCO should do when cmi.max_time_allowed is exceeded

cmi.total_time (timeinterval (second,10,2), RO) Sum of all of the learner’s session times accumulated in the current learner attempt

adl.nav.request (request(continue, previous, choice, exit, exitAll, abandon, abandonAll, _none_), RW) Navigation request to be processed immediately following Terminate()

adl.nav.request_valid.continue (state (true, false, unknown), RO) Used by a SCO to determine if a Continue navigation request will succeed.

adl.nav.request_valid.previous (state (true, false, unknown), RO) Used by a SCO to determine if a Previous navigation request will succeed.

adl.nav.request_valid.choice (state (true, false, unknown), RO) Used by a SCO to determine if a Choice navigation request for a particular activity will succeed.

For full details visit SCORM Run-Time Environment documentation.

In memory of a sports day..

2009-03-31T05:06:00.000-04:00

It happened long back. At school, I was always good in studies and bad in all sports and games. The fact is that I have tried my hands(or legs) only once in sports. I am gonna tell you that story.

I was in 4th standard, and it was the time for sports in my school. Out P.E.T teacher, divided each class into different 'houses'- Blue, While, Yellow, Green. I was in the 'Blue house'. The house captain was really energetic and was working aiming to list the over all trophy. The ladies' captain, whom I knew personally, insisted me to join for an 100 meter race, but I was not interested. Finally she managed to add my name also in the list. I was more interested in some other stuffs than 100 meter race.

1) I thought that the glucose powder that the house captain distributes among the contestants just before the competition starts, is something really different and tastier than what I used to have. So I wanted to taste it.
2) The lime juice that the contestant would get once the race is over is something really amazing. So I wanted to have it.
3) Each contestant will have his/her own badge with his/her 'number' written on it(just like a prisoner). I believed it's a precious moment to have that badge on my chest and walk proudly throughout the ground. So I need a contestant number this time!

The next few days were really tougher for me. Practice in the ground.. spent very less time for lunch. Spent my P.E.T hours in practicing... running...

Finally the day reached. There was a marriage function in my neighborhood and I didn't attend the function but reached school early in the morning waiting for my turn.

Who would bet that tomorrow I won't become another P.T Usha??

Finally the most expected time reached. All the contestants for '100 meter race in junior category' are ready in the track. I was in the middle track. House captain came to me and gave me lot of glucose. Advised me "don't look around, just run with all your efforts when you hear the GO"

I put the glucose powder in my mouth and of course it was tastier than I expected and I just closed my eyes to enjoy its tastiness. And I didn't hear the 'One Two Three Go..'. All other contestants had covered half the way when I realized that its time to run.

Anyways, I started running, and the competition had already finished when I was in the half way.

That was the first and last sport activity, I took part in my entire life time. But still I believe that I had achieved my all three goals. Winning was not my goal, of course it was a goal set by house captain.

Don't you think so?

My newspaper boy

2009-03-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, we had been for a small evening outing with few friends and family followed by dinner. Everybody except us were parents of at least one kid. All the mums had few stories to share about their one year babes locking the moms in the bath room and crying terrifically without finding a way to unlock it.

If your one year babe is locking you inside your bath room or bed room, even though it is a shocking and helpless moment in life... with no one to help you around in a closed flat..I think it is our mistake that we have ignored the curiosity of a growing kid and were not alerted about our own baby's curiosity and 'learning by doing' nature.

But what will I do with my newspaper waala? He is not a one year babe but behaves like..!!

Our main door has too complicated locking system and it is always locked not in the normal 'direction'. If you want to lock it you have to turn it in the exactly opposite way, what you do with normal locks. More than that, it has few more extra automatic locks to ensure that it is pretty complicated to unlock.

Other than all these there is a latch which can be closed from outside. One fine morning we both were ready to rush to office, and door is not opening. I realized that some one has closed the latch firmly. We tried hard to open it, no way!! I came into balcony and looked around for help. No one is listening to my shouting. Our watchman who understands only Telugu, that's too in its most colloquial form (the common words I learned to manage him and his wife, are also useless in front of them and they never understand other than my gestures), had no clue what I was trying to say. He just gave me a foolish smile. From the balcony I tried to talk to nearby localities and none of them understood my helplessness or didn't come to upstairs to find out if something is going wrong.

Finally, my neighbor, (who always closes his door whenever we open ours -like a reflex action- ) opened his door to see whats happening around. I opened the window and requested for his help.

I came down and shouted at my watchman, even though he didn't understand what was I talking about, he just understood that I am angry. It is a fact that there is no language for scoldings, because human will understand scoldings no matter if he knows the language or not. I asked him why didn't he come to upstairs to see whats happening, he again gave me a foolish smile which made me angry again.

I thought, it might have done by some kids in the neighborhood and I went to office.

After few days, the same thing repeated and this time my watchman's wife was kind enough to come and check what's going wrong and she understood. Still I could not figure out who is the culprit.

The same scene repeated once again and we noticed that all the times the newspaper is firmly held in the latch and now we have the culprit.. Yes, of course the foolish news paper guy who closed to the latch to ensure that the news paper is not falling off!!!

Watchman had warned the news paper guy and he is not closing the latch for past many days. But I fear that he might repeat his foolishness after few days.

I wonder, why didn't he use his common sense to understand that the people staying inside can't come out of home if it is locked in this way? Even my watchman's wife, she is illiterate and can't even write or read Telugu or can't even speak/understand pure Telugu, understood and laughed at paper waala's deed!!!

Election..

2009-03-20T01:05:00.006-04:00

It's been so many months since I started receiving lots of SMS from different political parties, clearly aiming the upcoming general election. Many messages are asking me to vote for Chandrababu Naidu to get good career opportunities... to eliminate poverty..illiteracy...

These days my mail box is also flooding with mails campaigning for different parties. Came across a blog by Marxist party- Kerala, with their agenda for election and the name for the blog itself is asking me to vote for them.

I am being a humble citizen of this largest democratic country, confused at effectively utilizing my right to vote and elect the leader of this country. (I have never utilized my opportunity, this year also I am sure that I can't go down to Kerala to mark my 'vote')

But I am amused at the newer ways of campaigning. When I was school going, I knew the election was ahead, with the jeeps rushing with parody songs and announcements... the big banners and colorful bands decorated throughout the road. I remember the small baskets hanging all over the road with the Marxist, Muslim league and congress symbols and colors...

When I was in the 1st standard, I think UDF was not formed and Muslim league was an independent entity.. no alliance with congress. The Muslim majority district of Kerala, being very backward in education level also, believed that Muslims should vote for Muslim league. As my grandpa was a worker of congress, my grandpa told me "we all will vote for congress (the 'hand')".. Ladder is the symbol for Muslim league... My schoolmates declared that "Nishana will not go to heaven, as she is not voting for Ladder".

I was confused... should I go to heaven or should I stand beside my grandpa....(even though I was a minor didn't have the right to vote!!)

Firbug: Learn and edit CSS easily

2009-02-09T03:51:00.016-05:00

Have you ever faced this scenario?

You are browsing for website designs and came across many with amazing designs, and with look and feel you would like to have for your site. You refresh your CSS knowledge and break your head in imitating similar kind of design. You may spent days and nights experimenting, to achieve similar kind of design.

Firebug marks an end for such long experimenting and designing on CSS. Now you can view and change the CSS locally for your favorite websites and you can even copy paste the styles.

Firebug is a Mozilla Firefox plugin which looks at the underling CSS, HTML, and Javascript structure and shows you where in the code individual elements are. It finds the HTML elements buried deep in the page very easily and also lets you edit the HTML live. Suppose you came across a website and you would like to see the same website in a different background color, you can easily edit the back ground color by going into your firebug tool. Within seconds you will see the website updated with new color. Don't worry, it is just a local editing, it will not change the look and feel of the actual site.

All you need to do is:
1) Install Firebug using your mozilla firefox.
2) Go to the website you wanna see the underling design.
3) Select Firebug from Tools in your firefox browser.(Or click on the 'bug' icon at the bottom right corner of your browser. You will see a window opened at the bottom of your browser.

4) Enjoy learning and editing the website design through CSS files!

Listen to Joe's video here

Joe Hewitt: "Welcome to Firebug 1.0" @ Yahoo! Video

Myself as a driver- 2nd day at office

2009-01-29T23:04:00.004-05:00

Second day morning, things moved peacefully. The road was not much crowded and I was the first one to reach the parking area. I parked the car in its usual place, dreaming that I can take the car out easily.

Evening, the moment I entered my car, an auto with lots of goods came and parked right behind me. I was really irritated by doing reverse and forward, finally to take the car out!

The moment I crossed the exit, I saw the road very crowded and could not imagine crossing the road in another 30 minutes. The road right in front of our office is not vast, but vehicles passes to and fro. More over, the moment I see a bit of chance to move the car, some pedestrians walked in front of my car. It was horrible and time was almost 6.30 pm- peak traffic time. Finally one uncle was kind enough to stop his car and allowed me to cross the road with a pleasant face.

Whatever, I made a huge traffic block for 5 minutes and finally managed to reach the main road.

The way from main road to my home is not very vast, but always crowded with pedestrians.
I didn't have any problem there also. I peacefully reached home. This build a lot of confidence in me.

The moment I entered the parking area, I remembered that our parking place is really narrow, it would be difficult for even a good driver to park car everyday day in such a narrow place. Actually, nobody parks in such corners. Still I was confident enough to experiment reversing and parking in that narrow corner(As my dad tells some times ignorance builds confidence in people). I think that is a part of my personality itself, I am always over confident, and just go ahead and do experiments with anything which I feel challenging for me. Most of the times that nature is helpful for me. But, I had a lesson waiting for me to learn in next few minutes.

Our security was guiding me from left side so that my whole concentration was on right side. He confidently asked me to take reverse and suddenly I realized that car is about to hit on the pillar, I applied a sudden break, the security was still asking me to come reverse. The car stopped by hitting the left side forcefully on the pillar. I got down and realized that the left front door is almost completely 'decorated' with scratches and with a bend inward. One accident had to happen, and it happened.

So I realized: Confidence is essential factor when you drive especially in heavy traffic in city. But over confidence is a something which can lead you into an accident even in an empty road. So be confident when you drive, never be over confident.

I could not find time to get it repaired till now, because the work shop guys will take at least three days to get it repaired. They need to change the whole sheet near to left front door.

I believe that at least once an accident(or scratch or hitting the wall etc ) will happen for every one when they just start driving. I never made even a small scratch when I was learning driving. But it happened once I became comfortable in driving. But the accident became a blessing in disguise, because:

1) People always give me sides in the heavy traffic and leave some space when the vehicles are stuck in traffic jams.

2) My neighbor shifted his car parking into some other area, so that I got a bit more area to park.

3) I became extra careful in driving and very soon mastered the art of reversing and parking in our parking area.

4) As Jazeel always advices me, I understood that the moment a driver believes that "I am comfortable enough at driving", he/she actually building an over confidence inside his/her mind, which makes him/her to gradually start experiments/rule violations on the road, that ends up in accidents. So, I understand that I am not bad at driving, and always block my mind from being over confident at roads. Because the lives are very precious, no matter if I reach 10 minutes late!!!

Myself as a driver- 1st day at office

2009-01-29T22:15:00.003-05:00

Click to Read- My driving experiences in Hyd- part 1

As I promised, here I come with my funny experiences. The first day, I was little scared, because the whole way from my home to office is new to me. The very next day after we shifted our stay to Begumpet!!! Didn't have any problems on the road, except the sunlight which was falling straight in my eyes.

The moment I came inside office parking area, I was the first one to reach(obviously who will reach office at 8.00 am??), so parking was not at all a problem for me. I had the vast area to experiment the first day parking.

I have seen people parking in an 'angle', so I decided to park straight and right in front of the lift area. Because everywhere except the area right in front of lift, people park two wheelers on the other side so that, I guessed it would be difficult for me to play with reverse and forward, in the evening.

I had lots of work at office and I could not leave office as I planned. It was almost 7.30 when I finished with my deliverable. It was dark outside, and I hate driving at night because I just can't see anything on the road other than the head lights, and the bright lights from other vehicles irritates me and even forces me some times to close my eyes!

But what to do? I can not leave the car in the office and go home!!

I was planning to try my night driving, but Jazeel had guessed it already. He just called me up saying he is on the way to my office, and do not try my night driving. I was little desperate. Still he did not allow me to experiment. It is difficult to take the car outside the office and enter the road right opposite to the exit. Coz, everybody wants to go first and no body will allow you to go, especially in the peak hours. You need to be over smart with your car!

On the whole, first day was peaceful. But second day had something horrible waiting for me. A very bad day!

You telecom- the latest status (2)

2009-01-28T06:16:00.006-05:00

Today within last one hour, I received two more calls from customer care again.

First call
---------
Exe: Madam, we have activated your account.
Myself: Who asked you to activate? I have already terminated the connection and returned the modem back to your office. Why the hell you are calling me to say this?

He just kept the phone.

Second Call:
-----------

Exe: Madam, your connection is under suspension. Please do the needful to restore it.
Myself: Why should I restore a connection which I have discontinued already. I have the right to decide which ISP I should go for.

Exe: Madam, why did you disconnect it?
Myself: I have told you it is my choice after all. I get minimum 3 calls everyday asking the same question. Do I have to tell the reason to each and every person who calls me? It is my choice. And I do not want to tell you the reason.

I have no idea, what is wrong with these people.

I again thought of sending a mail. This time I wrote a mail to pratap.reddy@youtelecom.com and CCd to evs.chakravarthy@youtelecom.com as a thread of my yesterday's mail.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Respected Sir,

I would like you to go through the mail thread. This is the mail I sent to You Telecom business head yesterday, as I was getting many calls everyday from your employees, which is of course a disturbance for me. I had sent the same mail to the ID sivaram.prasad@youtelecom.com, which I got from your website.

I am really thank full to the concerned person, for taking immediate action and they have taken the modem from me within minutes. I really appreciate the help.

But, today again I received more than 2 calls telling me that "your connection has been activated". I request you to take an immediate action in closing down my connection details and making sure that I am not receiving any more calls from the customer care, for things which I am not responsible at all.

I would like to get answers for some queries:

1) It is my right to make a choice about the ISP, I would like to go for. I have terminated the connection which is 100% due to your faults. Does it mean that I should keep on paying bills even after terminating the connection?

2) If I have returned the modem back, why do your people calling me to remind that "your connection is under suspension, please restore it" or "your connection is up now"?

3) Every person who calls me (I get minimum 2 calls everyday with same dialogs), forces me to say the reason for termination. Is it my responsibility or your call center guy is suppose to update the details of each and every call he/she makes?

I expect you to do the needful and also hope that I will not get any more calls from You Telecom customer care.

Thank you very much in advance,
Nishana

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

After few minutes, I received a call.

Exe: Madam, have you given any complaints about customer care?
Myself: Yes, I have.

(--Repeating the boring story again-- But very rudely)

Myself:---So I would like you to close down my account and delete my contact number from your database. Also I expect you to update your database.

Exe: Sure!!

----------------------------------------------

I have no idea, what is gonna happen next. But I understood one thing. The only way I can get things done at You telecom is by escalating to the top management.

Dear CEO,

Here after, if your mail box is flooded with complaints , I am really sorry, but I have no other way. I am forced to post your email ID here, because I am sure that this would be helpful for thousands of people who face same kind of issues everyday. As long as your customer care works like this, I believe that having you email ID in my blog post would be a great help for all the people who has no other way to get things done.

I will definitely delete the ID when your users do not have to highlight each and every small issues to you (to get the solution).

You telecom- the latest status!!!

2009-01-28T04:09:00.016-05:00

Old Posts: You telecom- bad service multiplied- Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

I thought I should do something to get rid of these irritating issues with You telecom. I went through contact us page of you tele website and found the email ID sivaram.prasad@youtelecom.com as the Appellate Authority for Hyderabad related issues. I framed an email, including links to my four blog posts. Interestingly I didn't get any reply or call. (Today, I noticed that this email ID is no more in the same page, instead they have posted a new ID: pratap.reddy@youtelecom.com ).

I went through the online complaints forum for existing users to add up my complaint and found that it is mandatory to select the category of complaint and it had only 5-6 options, where I could not find my category.I just closed it and went to online complaints forums for new users and filed a complaint there, including links to my blog posts. Within minutes I got a call from executive. This is how the conversation went:

Executive: Madam, we have received a complaint from you. What is this???
Myself:(I don't know what is the meaning of the question "what is this"). Yes, your people are disturbing me everyday asking to pay the bill for a connection which I discontinued.

Executive: You have not submitted any termination request.
Myself(controlling my anger): Ohhh... If I have not put any request for termination, why do you guys calling me to find out my right time to take the modem back? Or do you take modem from your users for no reason? You are planning to take modem back means that you have received a termination request, right?

Exe: Yes, that's true madam.
Myself: If you get or make any call from/to your customers, you need to update the details in your database right? So whenever I requested for termination, you had to update it in my connection details, right?

Exe: Yes, madam. We are suppose to do so.
Myself: But I am sure that you haven't done that. That's why all these confusions!

Exe: Sorry Madam, I will do it right away. Please give me your customer ID.
Myself: Sorry, I am in office now. I do not have the details of connection with me. Please give me a call by evening so that I can get the details for you.

Exe: Sure!

The call ended.

Thanks to Ripul, who found out the Email ID of You Tele CEO for me (evs.chakravarthy@youtelecom.com). I sent him a mail goes almost like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Respected Sir,

I am a resident of Hyderabad city and was using You broad band service for about an year, later I discontinued it. I was really happy with the service when I was a regular user. But now your customer care people are disturbing me for things which I am not responsible at all.

The connection is registered with name : Jazeel P N

I have written my whole experience with You telecom in the following blog posts. If you really value your customers, I request you to go through the links given below and do the needful.
Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Your help is highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance
Nishana
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I did not receive any reply. But within some minutes I received a call from You Telecom. The conversation is as follows:

Exe: Madam, we have received a complaint from your side.
Myself: (--- explaining the whole story again---)

Exe: So you have the modem with you now?
Myself: Yes, of course.

Exe: Are you available at your home now? Can I take it if I send my representative?
Myself: Yes, of course.

Exe: Thanks, my representative will come down in 15 minutes. I think you stay in Begumpet now.
Myself: Yes, I am staying In Begumpet.
(I did not give my address)
Exe: Sorry for the inconvenience Madam, He will reach there soon.

The representative reached my home in 15 minutes and I returned the modem.

So the moral of the story "Keep the Email ID of their CEO, no matter if his inbox is flooded, the only way you can get things done is escalating to the top management!!!"

The story is not yet over. Please wait for the latest update!!!

Elearning: Basics of some tech terms

2009-01-27T06:02:00.006-05:00

LMS Vs Web server:

LMS- Learning Management System is often heard when we deal with e-learning. How it is different from a web server?

Fig: Diagrammatic representation of web server and it working.

The above diagram shows the working of a web server in a very basic way.
a) You are typing a URL or clicking a link.
b) Your computer send the request to the server.
c) Server retrieves the page and send the data back to your machine.

What we need in web based e-learning?
1) Richer and reliable interactions
2) The instructor needs more control over the students.
3) Instructor needs to track the progress of specific students in multiple courses.
4) Need to track the score in the post assessments.
5) Deliver different kinds of courses and content in right way.

If we stick in to a normal web server for e-learning how can we achieve more control over the learner? So we need something more than a normal web server to deliver the e-learning content over internet.

This is where LMS comes to picture. In simple words an LMS is a server in which the instructor or admin has a control over his/ her learners.

Customized LMS

When companies understood that LMS can do a lot more for web based e-learning, they started building their own LMS, according to their needs and likes. Such LMS is termed Customized LMS, which could present any type of web content on any subject with many different design possibilities.

Fig: Diagramatic representation of a Customized LMS

But the customized LMS has its own weakness also. The main thing was 'the content must be specifically designed to fit with in a particular LMS in order to work properly'. That means, if I develop a course for an LMS called X it may not fit for LMS Y.

Now think about a standard, by following the standard you can ensure that your courses will fit into any LMS which follow the specific standard? This is where SCORM comes to picture.

What is a SCORM?

Fig: Diagramatic representation of SCORM

A SCORM is a competitive edge conformance which helps the user to :

- use standardized packages of learning content.
- recognize individual students and collect info about their progress.
- use meta data

So now, your LMS can offer different feature sets, have differerent strengths, and be very different in look and feel but as long as they follow SCORM, the courses work pretty well.

Features of SCROM:

- Accessibility
- Adaptability
- Affordability
- Durability
- Interoperobility
- Reusability

Few questions to You telecom customer care heads

2009-01-26T23:43:00.005-05:00

Respected Sir,

I was a user of your broad band connection for about an year. I request you to go through my posts related with your customer care people. I request you to save me from the disgusting calls, that I receive from your people everyday. I have few queries to you:

1) What is the security you assure for me, when I hand over contact number and address to your people? Why do you give the number to your N number of field workers and allowing them to call from their cell numbers/public booths which you can not even record?

2) Don't you have a system, where you can update the status of each connection, according to the request from the customers, or as per the calls you make everyday?

3) Don't you have a facility to record the calls that your executives makes and some one to monitor if they are moving in the right way?

4) What is your business goal? Is it "just make money as much as we can in few years and get away from the business?" Otherwise, why do not you respect your customers?

5) Have you ever checked if your contact center people 'CARE' the customer or 'DISTURB' the customer?

I am a person, who will never go for your connection again in my life time even if you are ready to give it for zero cost, just because of my worst experiences with your customer care people. More over, I will recommend any one whom I know "not to go for You telecom service."

Please go through: You telecom- bad service multiplied- Part1, Part 2, Part 3

Thanks,
A 'happy' customer.

You telecom- bad service 'multiplied' -(contd 2)

2009-01-26T23:13:00.013-05:00

Read here: Part 2

In January I started getting calls from you tele customer care, almost twice in a week, asking me to pay the bill. I politely replied "See, I have terminated the connection and I had confirmed that I do not want my security amount back". Later I began to reply in a rude tone but still they continued phoning me. Nobody asking for their modem, just asking me to pay the bill for a service which I discontinued in the middle of December.

23-01-09 : Office time

The lady called me "regarding the delay in bill payment" I replied: "I have disconnected the service one month back. Do you think I am suppose to pay for a connection which I discontinued?"

She did not give me any answer for my question. But I recognized her voice, she is the person who called me saying they do not have feasibility and I confirmed her to terminate. I recognize her voice because, she is the person who called me many times, when I was using the connection. The voice is very familiar for me.!!!!

She asked me why did I disconnect the connection and I repeated "first check where and all you have feasibility". I did not shout as I was at office.

I had no way other than shouting at another lady who called in the same day evening asking me to pay bill. I just could not control my anger and shouted :"I have terminated the connection more than a month ago, and your people are disturbing me day and night by asking me to pay the bill. This is the second call I am getting today. I do not have to pay for a connection which I have already terminated, right? A group of people calling me up asking to pay bill, while others calling me to return modem as I have terminated. What I am suppose to do? Here after, if I get any call from your people asking me to pay the bill, I will be forced to move legally. I will definitely file a police case against you. Because it is a big headache for me."

She just disconnected the call.

26-Jan-09: Evening

This time it was a male voice, I just handed over the phone to my husband, asking to just shout at them. The male voice " Sir, we have feasibility in your area, shall we give you connection???"

My husband: "We do not want your connection at all. Please ask your people not to call and disturb us everyday. "

Just now, When I was about to publish this post I got an SMS from You telecome. It reads like this: "Dear customer, Your Suvidha account is suspected due to non payment for RS 1126. Please pay immediately to enable restoration of service call 98660-77898"

My bill amount for a month is 500 rupess, and for December (even though it was customer care poeple's mistake), I have asked to compensate with the security amount. I have no clue from where this 1126 came ???

I know the story will not end here, because the modem is still with me. I might throw it into Hussain Sagar, if they don't come down and take it in a week's time.

Let me pause the story here. I might go mad if I think again about this!!

You telecom- bad service 'multiplied' -(contd)

2009-01-26T07:44:00.019-05:00

Read here: Part 1

It was on 24th December, I had to leave for my home land and the office was closing down for Xmas new year holidays. I had a hell lot of works to finish and some one started giving me miss calls and as usual I just ignored it. Later the person called me when I was in an official call and started talking in Telugu. The only thing I understood was that he called from you tele. I requested him to talk in English, and he didn't know English, so talked in Hindi. He wanted to know what time I will be available and I informed him that I will be there at home between 3.00 PM and 5.00 and after that I will not be available for 10 days. He promised me that he will come down at 3.30 to take the modem.

By 2.00 he again called me, asking for my address. He told he has reached in the housing board area (the place where we were staying earlier). I told him "I have shifted my place, and have not reached back home from office." Again he asked for new address. Words are not enough to explain my feelings at that moment. I repeated "I wont give you address, I have already given the address in your office. Please take it from them and come down in between 3.30 and 5.00 pm."

How can I give my address to a guy, who just called me from his mobile phone, and I did not find him as a customer care executive from his behavior? I have given my mobile number to you tele as my contact number, why do this poeple hand over the numbers to the poeple who does not even know English and did not appear like a customer care executive. What is my security then? I am suppose to give my address and available time to any one who just calls and tell "I am from you tele?"

I just can't understand!!!

The story still continues.

2.30 Pm:
I am receiving a call from the same person and asking his broken Hindi "Madam, will you be available at 3.30, I am on the way". My reply:"Yes, I will be available".

3.00 pm:
He again calls saying that he will be late by 30 minutes and will reach my home between 4.00 and 4.30. I controlled my anger and replied "Please come before 5.00, I am leaving for my native place by 5.00".

4.00 pm:
He calls me, I picked the call expecting the person at my door, but he asked "Madam, can you please give me your address, I lost it!!!"

This time I was bit angry and told "See, I have already told you, I will not give my address. Please take it again from your customer 'CARE' poeple and come down."

5.30 pm:
I left my home for station, and nobody turned up till the time.

6.30 pm:

I am waiting for the departure of the train, my phone rings. The same person "Madam, can I come down now? "

I can not bear it any more, I shouted at him "How many times you are calling me today, and I am repeating the same answer?? I had asked you to come down before 5.00, what is the time now?? I am on the way to my native place, Will be back after 10 days!!!"

He replied: "Ok, I will come once you are back, please give me your new address, the call center poeple are not giving."

I shouted: "If your call center poeple are not giving my number, I am not responsible for that, I repeat you I will not give me my address again to a stranger."

He said OK a wiered laugh and I just kept phone.

After two days, I was enjoying my vacation, but these poeple were not ready to leave me alone. It was another person:"Madam, I just called you up to tell that, you have not returned the modem, but you have terminated the connection".

I controlled my anger and replied "See, I have already told your representative that I will be available only after 10 days. More over, the whole day I was waiting for him to come down and take the modem, but nobody turned up. Is it my fault or yours? Do you want your customers to postpone their travel and wait for your representatives? "

He didn't have any answer other than asking me, when will I be back, and I told "I will be back on 5th Jan and please give me a call on that day, find out my available time and take the modem. Your modem is a burden for me. I request you please update these things in your database, I do not want any disgusting calls from any of you till 5th Jan"

He agreed, and thank god, I did not get any calls till I finish my vacation.

And nobody called after that asking for modem. But the story still continues. Something else was waiting there to happen!!

You telecom- bad service 'multiplied'

2009-01-26T06:14:00.003-05:00

I realize that my blog posts are moving like a customer complaint box, where I put my own bad experiences with different service providers. So I deliberately thought of not posting my horrible experiences with a broad band service provider. But I am forced to write. Only they are responsible for this post, because they have tortured me more than one could bear, and finally ended up myself bursting out !!

As usual it is a very long but disgusting story. I was using You telecom broad band connection for about one year, when we were staying at Kukkatpally and I had given my mobile number as the
contact number. I never had any kind of disturbance from the contact center people, may be because we paid the bill before time and always got some percentage off on next bill as a token of appreciation.

When we decided to shift to Begumpet, we just did not think about a new connection, rather thought it would be better to shift the connection also. We paid the bill for the month and connected to customer care with our queries exactly two days before the next billing cycle starts. We informed him that, if they do not have feasibility in our new area we want to terminate the connection. The customer care guy searched in their data base and confirmed that they have feasibility in my new area and he took the request for relocation and upgradation, and my new address also. According to him the connection would be shifted within 7 working days, we need to pay 500 rupees extra.

We were happy, thinking that we do not have to run behind these things again. After 2-3 days, I didn't hear from them. So I was forced to check the status. They repeated "it will take two more days". The next day a lady called me, during my office time and inquired if I can come down to their office in Begumpet. She did not tell the reason. As it was office time, I informed that I can not come down at that point of time and also she had no reason for me to visit their office.

After some hours, she called me again and told that they do not have feasibility in my place. I was wondering why the hell these people are behaving funny. The first guy had confirmed that they have feasibility in my new area and for my all follow up calls they had confirmed the same thing and asked me to wait for a week!! The lady did not have any reply for my queries and she seemed adamant. I just told her "Please terminate the connection, I just hate to continue with you even if you have feasibility". She told that it is better to terminate and I asked her to do the needful for termination. She agreed!!

By the time we had entered the next billing cycle, just because of the call center people. I would have terminated the connection when I called earlier itself. Since they provide the connection here, I just thought of continuing the service and now I have to pay the bill for a service, which I am not using at all. Just before the payment due date, the executive called and asked me to pay bill. I told, "I will not pay for your mistakes, and never ready to pay for a connection which I have already disconnected." The executive told me that they have not received any request for either relocation or termination!!

Can you please think about my state? What do these people think about their users? How do these people value their customers? Did you understand why these people lose their business? When I worked in a project exclusively for call center people, I had realized the value that their business heads want each executive to provide their customers. Their motto is "customer is king, just make your customer happy no matter you come across bad/angry/polite customer". But what is the use for all these effort done by the top management, if the people who interact with the customers are not sincere at what they do???

Anyway, my story doesn't end there. It was just beginning. The person argued with me and wanted me to pay the bill. I was stern in my decision and told I will not pay the bill, and I do not want the security amount either. The security amount was similar as the billed amount. I believe that I have the right to get the security amount back, and no need for paying the bill also. Still I wanted to be polite as much as I can. Then the person asked me to return to modem back to their office. I told "I can not come down to your office and handover the modem. Please send your representative to my home and take it ".

He asked for my new address, and I replied "I wont give you my address again, I have given my complete address in the relocation request, find it out and come down". The person asked me to hold the call and searched in their database and asked me to confirm the address. The address was correct and I confirmed it. What will you do in such a situation? The person had told me they have not received any request from my side and when I was not ready to handover my address again, he easily found out the relocation request and confirmed my new address!!!

He promised me that some one from their end will come down to my home at my comfortable time to take the modem. But things moved in the opposite way.

AICC code

2009-01-15T04:04:00.006-05:00

I had searched a lot for AICC code and other useful information about AICC programming. But could not find anywhere in the net. I did not even come across good forums or blog posts about AICC. The only place where you can find loads of info about AICC programming and related stuff is: http://www.aicc.org/

This site gives you lots of info, including AICC sample lessons, Source codes for the samples, AICC test suits etc.

You need to fill in the online license agreement in order to download sample source code for PENS/AICC or to download the test suit. You can get both Flash and Authorware samples.

Disabling Print Screen option in flash

2009-01-12T04:18:00.008-05:00

You want to disable the print screen option in your flash file, so that the user will not be able to take the screen shot of the information presented?

Here is the code:

// Use System.setClipboard function, and set the clipboard to something you want.

this.onEnterFrame = function (){
if (Key.isDown(44)) {
System.setClipboard("YOU CAN NOT COPY- PASTE ME!");
}
}

'HP'eriences- the experiences at HP service center

2009-01-10T06:54:00.064-05:00

Thursday was a holiday and as usual I had added a bit of things to my 'to- do' list. The main agenda was to finish the book which I am reading for long time, then finish and publish the drafts in my blogs...etc etc.

The moment I opened my blog, Internet connection went off and it happens very often after I changed my connection, so called up the customer care and their IT guy guided me. But connection failed again. Finally the IT guy concluded that the problem is not with their connection but with the laptop, its LAN card driver is not working!!!

I had no choice other than agreeing with it because its long time since I noticed that laptop is throwing so many bugs. Yes, let me go to HP service center and get it repaired!!!!

I called up HP customer care, and they reminded me to prepare the recovery disk and to take back up of all the data. I started the 'back up' files program in HP, and almost 3 hours over, and I got an error message saying, the destination folder can not be found. Great, I can see the external hard disk connected to the laptop and I could even open it.

I thought of repeating the backing up process, and after 3 hours, I got the same error. I lost valuable 6 hours of a holiday!!!!

Finally I decided that it is better to take the back up manually and it was almost 3.00 PM when I stepped out of home. I was happy hoping that the laptop will be fine from today onwards since I am taking it into the doctor.

I reached HP service center, and got my token number. It was a small room with lots of people awaiting with their token numbers for their turn. It resembled me of the queue front of Out Patient unit in the medical college.

Finally my turn came.

Engineer: Hi madam, tell me what is the problem with your laptop.
Myself: There are so many small problems... Card reader is not working if I put micro SD, but works if I put SD card. IE has lot of problems, it shuts down often and makes all other programs running 'not responding' and most of the times forces me to restart. CD writer also stopped working. The main issue is I can not access Internet. Moreover, the system is very slow even though it has more than 40GB free in the C drive. And tried to take backup of files, 'file back' program is also throwing errors.

Engineer: (He connects the laptop to their Internet connection). LAN card driver does not have any problem, it works properly. The problem is with your connection.

Myself: The service provider checked it and confirmed that the connection is proper and problem is with laptop. When I use any other Internet connection I can access Internet. This is a new connection, in which the Internet is registered with laptop IP address.

Engineer: I am also testing with a connection which connects by detecting IP address. And I am sure that your laptop is not having any problems.

Myself: OK fine. I will check with service provider, but I have a doubt. The same connection when I connect to router and access through wireless, works pretty well. But when I directly connect the cable to the laptop, it does not work. Why so? If it is the problem with connection it should not work through wireless also.(It may be a foolish question came inside me).

Engineer: Sorry, Madam. Your LAN port works pretty well. You need to check with your service provider.

Myself: Fine. What about the rest of the issues.
Engineer: That is OS problems. All these might get resolved if you reinstall the OS.

Myself: OK, this laptop is purchased from USA and it came along with Win Vista installed. So I do not have any CD for Vista. Will it create any problems while reinstalling? Or do you have any inbuilt tracking?
Engineer: You can create a Vista CD at any time from this laptop. I will show you how to do that. Before that I need to get permission from our customer service team to take this case.

Myself: Why?
Engineer: You please call to our customer care, inform them that the note book is purchased from USA. Handover the product and serial numbers to the executive. Also discuss all the issues you face with laptop. They will add to our database and give you a reference number, if we can repair this laptop in India.

Myself, calling to customer care, and repeating all the issues. The person took product and serial numbers and finally told me that "Sorry madam, we can not repair this laptop in India. You need to go to parent country."

Myself: But why?
He replied: This particular product can be repaired only in the parent country. And the warranty also belongs to repairs in USA.

Myself: But warranty period is already over!!
Engineer: Sorry, we can not repair this laptop in India. You need to take into parent country.

It was almost 5.00 PM when I got back home. Wasted a whole day doing nothing!!!!

I was wondering what is the next step? Should I take this to parent country or go for a MAC or repair it in my own risk???

It is surprising that HP being one of the best laptop brand and having service centers across the globe, could not reinstall Vista in a machine which is purchased outside India. Or they could not even tell me how to reinstall if I am ready to take risk!!!!! Really surprising. If customer satisfaction is their aim, why don't they at least suggest me alternatives???

Later I came to know that, a friend of my hubby got his laptop repaired from the same service center, same HP Pavilion dv 6000 purchased from USA itself.

Finally I decided to use my limited knowledge. I googled to know how to make Vista CD, and interestingly I found that, I do not have to make any CD. They have already put the Windows install on a small, hidden, section of the hard drive. When ever I want to reinstall Windows, simply press the F11 key as soon as the computer is turned on, and it will go to that hidden partition and run the Windows install for me. (However HP does not recommend the dual booting system.)

Wow, interesting!!!

Thanks to Ashim, he suggested me to install Service Pack 1 and also suggested the topic of this post(HPeriences). So I decided to install SP1 first, and if the issues still exist, I can go ahead and reinstall Win Vista.

Finally today, I installed service pack 1 and found that all the problems with the laptop got resolved. Internet connects pretty well, card reader is reading micro SD, IE works properly. Interestingly speed of the machine also increased. Cool!!!

Wondering why HP customer care guys didn't even suggest me to install SP1 as they know my Vista is two years old, and probably one of the first buggy releases. I suggest to all, just google and try to fix yourself, before you go to service center and waste your time!!!!

Back to college days-first year

2009-01-06T05:50:00.150-05:00

Few weeks back, Ramees's mail to college group ID dragged me back to the college days. That day I realized that, I have written a lot about my work, my school days, my childhood, but never about my college days. It's the time to look behind.

Looking back to those days I spent on GECW or GCEK makes me energetic always. Each and every moment comes in front of me as it just happened. One of the best times in life I should say.

It was the time we celebrated, we shared our dreams and worries... we confronted with difficult situations.. we learned toughest lessons of life... We had meaningful serious discussions about everything under sky, sometimes we had meaningless chats also.... Those fights on silly silly things...Those tensed faces on university examination days... those fun and laughs. ..The place which transformed us from the school going kids to matured, professional citizens... The time we transformed our dreams, hopes, feelings... and thoughts... Some times, it acted as the land of political hatreds and egos, and competitive, selfish minds also.

It was on October 2001, the first day at college, so many frightened but equally excited faces gathered in the drawing hall carefully listening to Principal's speech!!! The faces were frightened because we have heard enough about the ragging in the Engineering colleges. Of course we were excited because we were on the door step of a professional course. A group of equally talented guys who cleared Engineering Entrance examination and stepped to a Govt college with a heap of dreams and hopes. They were worried about the the issues regarding the college building, as the ruling and opposing political parties were fighting to each other for the college. So we were sharing college building with Govt arts college, by expecting an end for the war.

Our respected principal(I think his name was Mohan), was going on and on by addressing the freshers. He was talking about the importance of having good internal marks, to the necessity of a sweater during winter season. I could clearly hear the sound of a strike call. I do not remember which party called for strike and for what, but I remember hearing 'On strike... on strike..' It was the starting... and is the most commonly heard sentence in the Govt colleges in Kerala.... I felt pity on the guys who bunk their classes and go behind politics... I was thinking why don't these guys study and try to build their career. But it didn't take much time for me to understand that at some point of time, the students have to come out and fight for their rights... especially if you study in a Govt college, which is already under political tug war.

Fig: Play ground and building- we shared with Arts college.

We were sixty, when we started our engineering. Later some guys shifted the college, some came in, some dropped out on the way to 8th semester. And finally we were 54 when we finished our engineering.

Canteen was very near to our class room(S1-S2 ECE). So we often bet/treated for Pazham pori (Banana Fry) or parippu(Dal) vada or tea. Those were the things affordable by us as we were not financially independent. College play ground also was nearby. So it was very easy to disappear in the ground when we notice that a boring lecture is gonna happen in the very next hour.

Fig: Our HOD- Ravindran sir on Freshers day.

In the first months of college life, everybody was really punctual and sincere in their studies. Everybody had their syllabus ready in hands to refer, and enough note books and text books. Twice in a week came happily by hanging mini drafters on the shoulder like an AK-47. The faces were really excited and curious when we were going for the first drawing class. It took some time to understand how to fit the drafter correctly on the drawing table. Our drawing teacher, was strict and always communicated in his funny English. Students made lots of fun and stories about his English grammar. The very common dialog to us was "if you are not interested, you can go out, otherwise I will give you some attendance". But he was one of very few lecturers who visited class regularly and done his duty pretty well.

As first year students, the naughtiness did not come out directly. But we had found our own ways to show the naughtiness. We were scared to speak or comment during lectures for first few days(because we were not completely out of Plus Two class strictness). So the attraction of first year was the slips passed from person to person, with funny comments(I still have the collection of all those slips passed in first year, at my home). As the days passed, it became outdated and we showed enough courage to speak by ignoring the boring lectures. Some smart people ignored the boring lectures and wrote assignments for next hour. Assignments were always copied from the persons who do it on time. It was really tough to differentiate between original and duplicate. Later teachers (had to) came up with innovating ideas to mark an end for these copying activities, while some lazy teachers just closed their eyes towards these copy cats.!!!

As I told, during first year we were very curious about everything new to us. Except the irritating mechanics. Mechanics was one of the subjects that a majority of the guys hated and found difficult to understand. Most of us could not understand what Ansu sir was talking all over the hour(I remember Jeena's comment "Ansu sir looks like a kitten")!! Mathematics was the repetition of what we learned in 12 th standard. Electrical lab seems very interesting even though it involved the one way, two way, hospital wiring etc. Our faces shined when the bulbs flashed after our wiring. We made noise by hitting with hammer and poker. We walked proudly with screw drivers in hands. Electrical/ mechanical workshop was another interesting thing. We were extra careful while dealing with big transformers and some big machines(Sorry, I don't even remember the names).

Ragging, even though we had a terrible image inside our minds before getting into college, I should say it was nothing terrible for us(may be because we girls never knew its extremity, more over the rules were very strict in Kerala from that year onwards). Our seniors were extremely good to us, always guided us in selecting books, and in the university examinations. First few weeks they showed the superiority of a senior to us( that is not a problem, that is right of a senior). One of our seniors had his lunch on my expense from the canteen. But very next day, he treated me, with lunch. I am sure that he does not even remember that.

Fig: Our seniors on Freshers day.

The main items of ragging happened in the Hostel was, 'doing imaginary things'. Imagine that you are in a car, and drive the car, with all the noise, and should be seated in the same was as you sit in a car. Imagine you are a hen, how will you behave? Show how will you catch hen, or how will you climb coconut tree? Propose a senior guy... write a story with the characters and conditions that they provided... dance, sing, jump like a frog etc etc....Some times we were asked to write the assignments for the lazy seniors, or write their notes since they need to submit instead of assignment. One of the 3rd year senior, asked me to write a whole note book almost half of the syllabus, along with an instruction "Your hand writing is too good, and mine is very bad, so do write in a bad way, otherwise madam will make out ". Of course, it was fun(at least for the girls)!!!!

Fig: This "corridor" was the silent witness for our all deeds.. It was fed up of hearing the strike calls at least once in a week. During exam days, her ways filled with heavy books and studious folks. Other wise she gave place for the 'love birds'..

Everything was fun at college.Class started at 8.00 am for first year students. So we enjoyed the commuting via our great college bus during chilly winter season and our bus driver Kasimkka was a very good person. We had an emotional attachment to the college bus as much as we had with the library, class room and the corridor. While reading news paper at college library- we always ignored the scary smiles of the thick engineering books which were waiting for some one to take up, in the shelves. But later we knew that each and every book the college library is important for us. Because, most of the subjects throughout the engineering we had to learn on our own. Very few lecturers we sincere enough to do their duty or sometimes, we had a shortage of staff itself in the college.

Fig: Our college bus in her new 'house' in the new college building.

Most of the days, we could hear ..."on strike..on strike..." calls, the moment we heard it from any corner of the college, we packed up our bags and were ready to leave for hostel, no matter which party called and what is the purpose, what all we knew was 'it's the time to leave college'. We eagerly waited for the strike calls some times.....

ECE batch was the naughtiest batch in the college, but very talented, no matter which year, or semester. We also followed the same foot prints in that matter. Extremely naughty people, but I remember some teachers saying, still they love to teach in our class because, guys were really responsive and bright. There was an unbreakable bond between ECE and CSE. CSE batch mates were our close friends, we had a heart touching relationship with CSE batch till the end of engineering. We still keep in touch....!!!

The days passed very soon. And it is the day of third semester registration. Yes, we are not freshers any more. We kept waiting for our juniors to join the college, because we would be their humble and simple seniors(hmm, we wanted to show our superiority and wanted to take out all the items that our seniors used on us). It was the turning point in our engineering life. Things started changing drastically from there...!!!!

Workshop on Web2.0

2009-01-05T03:20:00.004-05:00

Kern Communications- Brandon Hall award winner for excellence in learning, is conducting workshops on How to use Web 2.0 Tools (such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and virtual world). This workshop is designed for HR Managers and training heads who implement training in their organization.

Overview of the workshop

Understand Web 2.0 – the changing face of the Internet.

Discuss training using sharing, collaboration, co-creation, user generated content, social networking
Explore the use of tools such as wikis, blogs, virtual worlds, podcasts, videocasts, social networking to design effective training
Discuss case studies where trainers have effectively used these tools for training purposes
Experience learning and training in the Virtual World

To register for the workshop and know more details, you can contact Vaishnavi Shankar
email: vaishnavi@kern-comm.com and office phone: 040-40171313.
Read more

My car driving experiences in Hyderabad

2008-12-23T22:00:00.007-05:00

Finally,

I did that!! My dream has come true. I started driving to office. You may be wondering why am I so excited. Let me tell you some of my experiences here, before I started driving to office.

Most of the times, driving four wheeler in Hyderabad, especially Kukkatpally, Ameerpet, Hitech city area is difficult than winning a gold in Olympics for India....
It was when I started driving car in Hyderabad, I learned or observed or formulated new traffic rules of the city.

Scenario One:

You are driving at 60 kmph. Suddenly you see a median or a pocket road joining to the road. What will you do?

Answer: Increase you car's speed to 80 kmph, so that you can go before anybody comes from the pocket/ side road.

Scenario Two:

You are stuck in traffic jam and in the first row.Where should be your eyes?

Answer: If you answered Signal light, you are not set to drive in Hyd. The answer is ' Look at all the roads and whenever you see the number of vehicles coming from other side decreases, start your vehicle and rush to your destination, no matter if the signal light is still red. If you do not do so, the chance is too high that you might get a slap from the auto driver waiting just behind you.

Scenario Three:

Again you are in a traffic point. But now you are some where near to last row. What is the immediate action you should take?

Answer: Turn of your car and wait...??? Sorry, you are wrong again. You should start honking. You do once, the person waiting just in front of you will do twice, the one in front of him will do thrice, etc.. etc... the first row person will keep the horn pressed... !! (I do not know the logic behind this honking, may be some one thinking that the Policemen standing at the traffic point will get tired of listening and will allow vehicles to move from your end.... or the signal counter might have programmed in such a way that if number of honking crosses N,it flashes green light... he heeeeeee)

Scenario Four:

You wanna take right direction, then which line of the road you should take before you reach the turning point?

Answer: Right!! Ooops... You are not writing theory exam my friend. This is practical examination. Actual output will be always different than the theoretical output. So you should be driving through the left most line. And at the point, you will realize that all the poeple who were taking right most line are taking a turn towards left and at the same time most of them who where driving at the left most line, taking a right turn. The outcome is a traffic loop and a lots of fights where each on blames other one and everyone wants to go first.

Scenario Five: You are driving a car, or an auto or a bike and happened to hit on a car. What is the next immediate action you should take?

Answer: If you are riding on a bike, increase the speed of the bike and escape from the spot, before the car driver gets down and check if it caused any damage for his car. If you are a auto driver, and came to know that it just made a scratch on the car's bumper, tell the car driver that it is bumper with a 'silly' gesture on your face and escape. Because bumper is a place reserved for 'bumping'. It is your right that you can hit on bumper as an Hyderabad resident.

Scenario Six: You are driving a car, auto or bike , but in a wrong direction, and happened to hit on a car coming from the proper direction. What is the next action you should take?

Answer: Get out of your vehicle, before other person gets down from his vehicle. Start arguing and scolding the person asking 'Don't you have eyes on you face? Don't you know driving...Bla bla..' and escape before the other person realizes what was going on. Remember that whoever starts fight first,(or who can raise his voice higher) is the winner.

Scenario Seven: You are driving through a one way road. What is the most important quality you should have?

Answer: You should expect vehicles from all the 8 sides of you.

Scenario Eight: You realize that your driver is listening to music through a ear phone. What will you do?

Answer: Will ask him to remove and concentrate on road... Poor man, you are still in theory class??? You have to do nothing. He is actually not listening to music, but saving his ears and concentration from the 'honking fights' in the traffic jam.

Scenario Nine: One fine morning, you realize that the right mirror has been broken by some street kids. Now what?

Answer: Buy and new mirror and replace the broken one..??? My dear friend, why wasting money? Right mirror is not at all required here to drive a car. Because even if there is enough space to over take through the right side, poeple are used to over taking through left side. (I have noticed that many of the drivers keeps their right mirror closed!!!)

Scenario Ten: You are driving at night. You can not see anything because all poeple have put their head lights in bright mode. What will you do?

Answer: If your head light is in dim mode, switch it into bright mode. Still you can not control your anger, next day go to work shop and fit some extra lights so that whenever you meet some one driving in bright mode and you can't see the road, turn on all of your lights and he might automatically switch to dim mode.

To conclude: By following all above rules, the main advantage you gonna get is you might reach a fraction of second early in your destination(some times these things might delay you journey also, but you can ignore that possibility).

Always remember that the thought in most of the drivers here are 'Let me go first, who cares about others life...

Recently, I heard from a friend that, in the outskirts of Hyd, indicator serves a different purpose. It tells the vehicle behind you that, ' I am not taking any direction, you can go ahead and overtake me'....

God..Exactly opposite meaning!!!

Now you might have assumed why am I so excited to start driving to office! Definitely, I will write about those experiences later. A lot to tell!!!

My first Eid in Hyderabad....(II)

2008-12-23T03:16:00.011-05:00

On the way back to home we bought chicken, fish, milk etc. The moment I reached home I was really tired with bad headache. Obviously because of the less sleep at previous night. I could not just get into kitchen. Finally I went to bed and slept for an hour. I was feeling better when I got up. Finally we decided to prepare ghee rice and chicken mulakittathu (a Malabar special spicy chicken) for lunch. Since we have friends coming for dinner, I thought it is better to make Biriyani for dinner.

I felt the ghee rice and chicken curry was tastier than I ever prepared in my life. May be because I was really tired. Again went for sleep after lunch! At home, we never go for sleep at this time, instead this is the time we visit all the relative's houses and it is compulsory that we should have paayasam from each and every house!!!!

It was almost 5.30 PM when I got to to realize than I have few guests coming for dinner, and have not prepared any thing yet. I had asked them to come by 7.00 PM.

I do not like to order food from outside for my guests. I would like them to have the food cooked by my hand(even though I am not a great cook..:)).

But I managed to finish my cooking by 8.00 PM, even though my guests had reached home on time.

Hmm, let me share you my menu for the day also. Cucumber juice as welcome drink, little different from usual Eid, the main dish was prawns biriyani, instead of chicken biriyani. Apart from that, appam and chicken curry, and fried chicken. Custard mixed with fruits and ice cream and caramel pudding also to fill dessert needs. Even though I could not prepare everything I had planned, I was happy to finish my cooking in 2 hours!!!

Dinner party was really good. We had a great time with friends. It was almost 10.30 when we broke up!!

And my Eid celebrations ended there. Back at home, we malabarians celebrate eid for 7 days. For me it ended in a day. The very next day back to my work.... codes, bugs,delivarables...

Still I should say that Eid at Hyd was great in its own way!!!

My first Eid in Hyderabad....(I)

2008-12-23T01:29:00.012-05:00

Eids are the celebrations of Muslims, which Muslims around the globe celebrates every year. There are only two celebrations for Muslims and of course two eids... The first one indicates the end of month Ramdhan... while the second one is linked with Hajj(compulsory pilgrimage).

It was for the first time, we celebrated Eid here in Hyderabad.

Eid in Malabar is the real celebration... Days before Eid we get ready with our new clothes and other shopping.. The previous night of Eid... is always a great day...The prayers and slogans praising Almighty Allah comes from the tongues of everybody... and also from Masjids through loud speaker....

The kitchens are live till late night.... The tempting smells of sweets and goodies... ,mixed with the smell of Mehandi... The long queue of Kids and girls (relatives and from neighborhoods)to put mehandi.... The mehandi decoration will continue till late nights....

The kiddus... even if we apply mehandi all over their hands and feet, they wont be happy.. they still wait in the queue...saying...'one star here, one flower there... here mahandi has gone off.... she fought with me and it went of from this corner..her design is beautiful than mine....' Finally you end up redesigning... but the moment you finish doing.. they fall asleep.... by keeping their hands closed.... Your effort is waste.. but still that is a part of joy and enjoyment.... especially on Eid nights!!

Phone keeps ringing... Eid Mubarak wishes from friends, relatives..... Kids can not just afford waiting for the next day to wear their new dress and to show their mehandi hands to their chotta friends.....

Here, in the previous night of Eid I was 'killing bugs' in a running project...!! ha ha....!!
No long queue to put mehandi... I did not even put it on my hands.... Did not prepare any sweets and goodies other than the desserts needed for the next day.Did not purchase any grocery or food items.. not even chicken....It was almost 1.00 AM when I went to bed.

The day of Eid is really beautiful in Malabar. Early morning, we get up, wear new clothes and head to Eid gaah(the ground were Eid special prayer and namaz happens)... Malabariyans are really broad minded... and so you can see a mob of ladies as well....No restriction for ladies, instead the men will arrange special place for ladies....

I could not think about celebrating an Eid without going to Eid gah.... For me Eid is incomplete if I can not do the prayer.... Here in Hyderabad, of course it is really tough to find a Masjid where ladies can go for prayer.. or an Eid gah where ladies can also be a part of...!!

My husband, called up all the Muslim friends he knows here, finally we got to know that there is an Eid gaah some where near to Golconda main gate.... Did not have much idea about the place...It was little far also.. Still we decided to go...!! The namaz is scheduled at 7.00 am. We go up so early, and headed towards Golconda by 6.00 am. I was really feeling sleepy... But did not care about that. I was so excited that I am gonna see a ladies gathering in Hyd. Of course it is a rare thing!!!

As we expected, we could not locate the place, we were wandering here and there near to Golconda. Whenever we ask any person, he showed us the place of his like. Yes, there were so many Eid gahs in that area, but only one where ladies can participate. But people did ignore when we mentioned we are searching for the one where ladies can go in.

We were driving through the road back and forth....Later we realized that we had spent 20 extra KMs only by searching for the place itself..!!

It was almost 7.15, and still could not locate the place. No point in searching now, because the namaz must have finished by this time. We had no other way, so thought of giving up. Jazeel can go to some Masjid and I may have to sit in the car.

I felt so sad...!! Then what's eid for me this time? Just having a biriyani, and wearing a new dress??

Suddenly I saw some bikes going, carrying burqa wearing ladies behind. My hopes came out again. Why can't we give a try once again???

We followed the bikes, and finally we reached the place.. Thank God.. Finally...!!!!!!!!!

It was a very big Eid gah. I am sure that more than 500 ladies were there and Jazeel told more than 1000 men should be there...

The moment I entered into the ground, all the eyes fell on me... some are staring at me..... Because every one expect me came in Burqa, and I was the only one in Maroon saree and full sleeve blouse, with maroon bangles on my hands, and black scarf... A lady coming to Public without Burqa...!! I felt so sad that ladies here are not getting much chances to learn what their religion teaches them...!! Most of the poeple do not know what is Hijab and why and where it has be followed...!!!

My thought flew to Eid gahs in Malabar. Eid gahs are colorful places, where every body comes in their new eid dresses, but of course in Hijab also. The kiddus wear all the latest model dresses and run through the ground to show their new dress. It is a place where I meet my old whom I have never met for long time...!! The place where we meet many of our relatives...!!

But here I could not find even a single face which is familiar to me. More over I was the center of attraction. Everybody was staring at me...!!

But I should say that, I was so happy to be there. Because I became part of a rare Muslim ladies gathering. The namaz was followed by Kutuba(Speech), that I find extremely good.

After namaz, we started back to home. We were really hungry and did not have even a cup of tea(Did not get time to prepare:-(..). Finally we ended up in having break fast from hotel. First time in my life I am having food from hotel in an Eid day!!!!!!

We visited one of our friends place, and it was almost 11.00 we reached back home. Half of the day is gone!!!! Still, have to buy chicken, fish etc... to prepare my lunch. I was expecting some of our friends to come for dinner.

Sending email from Flash using PHP

2008-11-26T00:58:00.067-05:00

This is a small tutorial which sends out mail from your flash file. This works similar to 'email to friend' options in websites or 'comments' in blogs. This is a basic tutorial which will help you to send emails to a particular email ID.

Step 1: In the Flash IDE create 3 input text fields. One to enter the Name , second to enter Email ID of the sender, third one to type message.

Step 2: Assign instance names for the input text fields as follows. 'userName' for Name text field, 'userEmail' for Email ID text field, and 'msgText' for message text field.

Step 3: Create a button say 'GO' and assign the instance name as 'submitBtn'.

Step 4: Now create a new layer and rename it as 'action'. Press F9. Here you need to right your program.

Copy paste below given code to actions layer.

Selection.setFocus(_root.userName)//This sets the cursor focus into the Name text box.
stop(); // This stops the movieclip.

// -----Here comes the form-----

var gatherForm:LoadVars = new LoadVars();

function sendForm() {
// The mail ID to which the mail has to be sent.
gatherForm.email_to = "recepient@domain.com";
// Catching the inputted value in the user name field
gatherForm.visitor_name = _root.userName.text;
// Catching the inputted value in the user Email ID field
gatherForm.visitor_email = _root.userEmail.text;
// Catching the inputted value in the message bo
gatherForm.visitor_message = _root.msgText.text;
//this points to the script posted below
gatherForm.sendAndLoad("email.php", gatherForm, "POST");
}

Step 5: Trace the action from Go button

_root.submitBtn.onRelease = function() {

if (_root.userName.text == "") {
_root.msgText.text = "There seems to be an error, Please check that you have filled out the form correctly.";
} else {
sendForm();

_root.msgText.text = "Thank you. You will receive a confirmation e-mail from us here at wherever.";
/
}
};

Step 6: Now create a PHP file with following code and keep it it your main directory. Save the file as email.php.

//******?php
$sendTo = "recepient@domain.com";
$subject = "My comments";
$headers .= "Reply-To: " . $_POST["visitor_email"] . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Return-Path: " . $_POST["visitor_email"];
$message = $_POST["visitor_message"];

mail($sendTo, $subject, $message, $headers);

?>****/

Explanation:

////?php This indicates the the beginning of the PHP code. This tells the server that we are gonna write a PHP code!!!
//mail() ---> It is a great PHP in built function which allows you to sends out mail. It is worth noting that the mail() function is not suitable for larger volumes of email in a loop. The syntax for mail function is as follows:
mail (recipient, subject, message, other headers);
//$sendTo = "recepient@domain.com " ---> Replace this code with the email address you wish your form to send to.
//$subject ---> In PHP '$' denotes a variable. Thus this is the variable called subject. The values here is the text you assigned. The same will appear on the subject line of the mail.
//$message ---> The variable message. This will have the value inputted by the sender through your flash file.

//$_POST ---> This is for retrieving values from the variables that Flash sent. Since Flash sent the variables using post, we would use $_POST to get them into variables of our own. $_POST is a special global variable in a PHP script that contains all of the posted variables sent to that script as an associative array. Using brackets ([]) and a variable name, you can then retrieve those variables. For those variables sent by this particular example, you would obtain their value in PHP using $_POST["visitor_name"], $_POST["visitor_email "], and $_POST["visitor_message"].

?> ---> Indicates that the PHP code ends here.

Please note that this program will work for LINUX based server which supports PHP and with SMTP enabled.

Terror strikes God's own country??

2008-11-03T05:35:00.042-05:00

These days Malayalam news channels are celebrating the latest findings in Kerala. The reports says that roots of Kashmir terrorism are spreading through the veins of Keralites also, especially in Malabar. It was a shocking news for all the Keralites when a terrorist died at Kashmir in a fight, was recognized as a Malayali. Later the Police men arrested some related persons, who revealed almost 300 guys have been recruited by Kashmir and Pakistani terrorist groups from Kerala (God knows the truth..!!).

Being a Muslim, a Keralite and a Malabari too, I feel something inside my mind, can't recognize whether
- it is a sympathy towards the guys who have been mislead by some 'sadists' (I believe they are sadists otherwise no one can enjoy killing a human being) and misinterpreted Islam and Jihad stands for killing and insisting the ideology?

- Or sadness and guilty feeling to realize that, a religion which stands for and meant to spread peace and humanity for mankind, has been misinterpreted, and I am being a silent witness who can literally do nothing!

- Or the grief that the Malabarians, the most lovable and helping people I have ever seen, the people with innocence as the greatest asset, are deviating from their values and moving towards terror?

- Life in my country India is becoming more terrific day by day, and the well educated Keralites are also contributing to spread terror in my country?

May be all these thoughts together making me sleepless.

The terrorist died at Kashmir, later recognized as Fayaz, belongs to a Muslim family in Kannur- Kerala. Recently I read some reports saying he was a criminal and was caught for some robbery cases earlier. The report says, the person was a drunkard too. I don't know the authenticity of this report. But wondered why people calling him Muslim, when Islam is strictly against steeling even a paper piece of others, when Islam strictly prohibits liquor, and Islamic rules says not to hurt or kill any innocent human beings!!!!

But his parents did a great thing, in a way. His parents did not accept his dead body and his mom bravely told to the police "We don't want the body of son who was a traitor and owed to kill innocent people ".

...this is a day in my life......(contd)

2008-10-22T04:59:00.036-04:00

Previous post

We entered our apartment and parked the car. We were just stepping to the first floor, when I heard a horrible sound just behind me. As if something fell and broke in the floor. For a moment I told Jazeel "I think some transformer has burnt, how will I finish my work, if power is not there", and I ran towards the gate to see what happened.

I remained breathless for a moment, when I saw the scene. A person laying on the floor, on the way to gate. He is not even moving, but blood has formed a pond around him. Did not know what to do for a moment. I showed the scene to Jazeel. No one around, and Jazeel ran to call the watch man. We could not figure out how the person fell there all of sudden. First I thought some body might have thrown his body from some vehicle outside. Later I got to know that he was falling from fourth floor. (Or a suicide attempt or a murder attempt.. dono clearly). He fell on his face, and the posture seems like it was not happened unknowingly.

Watchman's wife(my maid) came and asked us what happened. We both were standing near to the body. She just saw the body and fainted. She didn't come for work at my home, next two days after that!!

Watchman's boy ran and called the person's family. I was expecting them to come yelling. But all of them came and were standing little away from the body. They remained calm and cool. Still, the signs of life was there in his body.

People were watching the body, and were analyzing what happened. And some poeple were digging the stories and happenings prior to that at his family.We offered our car, if they want to take the person to hospital. They refused it and called up ambulance.

I stepped into my flat, I was shocked at the unexpected incident.Completely forgotten about Rashmi and the files she was waiting for. The moment we crossed the gate of our apartment, I never ever expected to witness such an horrible incident. Within two minutes everything got changed!

I was still thanking god. What if that person was falling just two minutes before?? He would have fell right in front of our car, in the same area, which is slightly bend and you may not be even able to apply break in that slope, for such an unexpected moment, he might have lost his life also.

We were lucky too!

Don't know what happened to the person exactly. Seems like it was a suicide attempt. No body complained at Police, and so the only two witnesses, we both remained free next two days! The next day, his family locked their flat and went some where.

I did not ask my maid also. Because I am sure that I wont understand the stories she is gonna tell in Telugu.

It took some time for me to come back to the normal state and finished my work. It was almost 12.00 pm when I uploaded the files for Rashmi.

Next day morning, my dad called me up and told that my granny had undergone a surgery, since she fell in the bath room previous day evening.

What a day for me!!

PS: Next day my fever increased and somehow a rumor has spread at my native place that I got fever because I witnessed an accident.

Am I that softhearted??????

...this is a day in my life......

2008-10-22T04:31:00.020-04:00

It was on last Friday, I was having a major project delivery to do and so started off early from home. As I have always noticed, whenever I rush for something, I meet obstacles on the way. The train which comes all the days on time, was almost half an hour late. I reached office late and some how it was 6.00pm when I got out of office.

These days, all the trains are getting late and so I thought of taking an auto all the way to Kukattpally, because I still have the files to be uploaded for Rashmi. I had promised that I will finish my work from home and upload files for her. Each second was precious for me. I got into the auto. I was having bad fever and cold also. I just wanted to reach home as early as possible.

The traffic in Secunderabad to Kukkatpally road is always horrible especially you can not just move ahead in an evening of any weekday. My experience at Hyderabad till now says that, if you are driving by obeying all traffic rules, you wont even moved a bit ahead. Here everybody drives in apna apna rules. This auto person was keeping all the rules, and was waiting for green light to come at every signals. He was getting lot of scoldings from other drivers, for not 'violating' rules.(My learning: auto people should never be good. he heeeeee)

Right after the Balnagar, the auto showed the signs of some inner desease. It was stopping after every 100 mts. I got irritated, and could not even find any other auto to take. The driver was trying hard all the time to some how start his auto, and all the time he was able to move the auto 100 mts. The scenario repeated for long time. I started my travel by 6.00, and it was almost 7.00 pm, still stuck at Balanagar.

It hardly takes 45 minutes, even in horrible traffic to reach kukkatpally. I was getting irritated. But the autowaala, I should say that he is the first good auto person I have ever seen in Hyderabad. He seems sad at the behavior of his auto, and he told me that the tube, through which the petrol comes was blocked by some particles. He was murmering that, 'madam wont be able to find another auto from here, I don't bother whatever happens once I leave you in Kukatpally. I am just worried about your safely'.

What he told was a fact also. Finally he asked me for 10 minutes, and he pulled out the toolkit and started repairing the auto. He was repairing the auto, and I was left awaiting, and praying if the auto run properly after his work.

But his work also did not help us at all. The same repeated. Every 100- 200 mts the vehicle stopped, he got out and pushed the auto. Like that it was almost 8.00 pm when I reached my home. Two precious hours...!!

Did my bad luck for the day stop? No..!! Still something was there waiting for me. We had dinner from outside, and I badly wanted to finish my work and sleep nicely.

But I had something terrific awaiting!!

Read my next post.

A trip to Nagarjuna sagar 4- Ethiopothala waterfalls

2008-10-22T03:33:00.020-04:00

Ethiopothala waterfalls is almost 15 KM away from the dam area. This spot is picturesque and greenery prevails at the backdrop of the waterfall.

You have two options to see the waterfalls. Take a ticket worth Rs15 and enjoy the water fall from above, or walk to down stream and enjoy playing in water( Danger zone board is there just like a formal way to announce that we won't be responsible if you meet with any accident. Crocodile zone warning also was there.)

Fig: Top view

We took the ticket and entered inside. The view was beautiful, still I don't think that the ticket money was worth. We moved to down stream, and the whole way was not well maintained. The dirty smell spread on the way might make you puckish. But in the walk way there are some rocks, which clearly tell you that there was a time filled with water all over. Rocks are carrying the signs of flood.

The way to down stream is filled with beggars, especially girls. One girl she was walking behind us all the way. We gave her money three times to avoid her(just because she was continuously irritating us), but she was still following us.

fig: from downstream

We spent some time near the down stream, and returned back to our vehicle. All were tired.

Now we are on the way... back to Kukatpally.We reached back home by 9.00 PM. Yes that was the end of a Saturday too....!!

A trip to Nagarjuna sagar 3- few words about Nagarjunakonda

2008-10-22T00:31:00.083-04:00

My previous post on trip

Nagarjunakonda at present is an important archaeological site where great pieces of architecture of Buddhist civilization were excavated. Numerous relics and objects, which bore religious and historical importance, have been excavated. The Budhist sage Nagarjuna lived here and propounded the philosophy of Shunyata- the void- in the Andra kingdom of Vijayanagar around the 2nd century BC.

I have heard that the whole area has been reconstructed, recently(When they built the dam). Obviously, the dedicated archaeologists managed to salvage almost everything, rescuing the ruins brick by brick. The original site of Nagarjunakonda, complete with monasteries, stupas, and an Aswamedha sacrificial altar has been replicated on a little hill-island in a man-made lake. The site has a 14th century fort, medieval temples and a museum constructed like a Buddhist vihara(I have never seen a Budha vihara, but I have read that this museum is constructed similar to that!).

We stepped through the walk way. Saw the remnant of the past there. Even though I am not interested in archeology, I enjoyed everything. Saw the place with a long dip and some stones kept as boarder. The board told us that, this is a reconstruction of the place the Budhists used for funeral. I am very bad in history and archeology also. Forgive me if I am wrong!!

Walking through the forest, in an after noon time was too difficult. You find yourself as the most foolish person in the world, if you walk even without an umbrella. There were different types of cactus spread all over. Some people who were having lunch right after their launch, were sleeping below the trees. (Some people are like that, they sleep nicely even if the sky is about to collapse right above them. Once I met a person at Ramoji film city. Inside the sight seeing bus at film city, when the guide was uttering the importance of each nook and corner, this guy was in deep sleep. Don't know why did he get into the bus instead of sleeping in the garden!!). Anyway the place remained calm and silent.

Next, we moved towards Anupu. Anupu is a site of Buddhist excavations reconstructed to perfection with painstaking effort. As I told you during the construction of Nagarjunasagar dam, the ruins of an ancient Buddhist university were excavated. These have been reconstructed at Anupu, 4 km away from the right bank of the reservoir.

The Budha statue seems ruined but still difficult to believe that it survived 100s of years.

We all were really tired, and thought of walking back. On the way we visited the museum also, a museum with rare antiquities in its possession. There we saw the remnants from stone age, neolithic age etc. I got bored very soon inside museum, because I usually don't like museum. As Paulo Coelho told, museums are the monuments of past, why wasting time by seeing the jewels, vessels and stones our forefathers used, which do not give us anything...???

Please don't throw stones at me for above comment. That is just an excuse, because I can not enjoy things at museum. Whatever, the museum has a collection of Buddhist relics, friezes, jewelery, coins etc. To be frank, I didn't cover the museum completely. For a while, I enjoyed sitting near to the fan kept there!!

We all decided, it is the time to leave Nagarjun konda, more than enough for a weekend...!!

Started back to the boarding place via a boat. The lake was still calm and beautiful. Far away, I saw a tree standing alone. It was a beautiful sight, a tree all alone in an ocean. I was wondering, what would be the height of that tree. Already the water level is too high, and still many parts of the tree is exposed to the world. It should be having very strong roots under the water, which make it stand against the storms and flood. I felt that, the tree is lucky to be the only one to give shelter for a lot of birds which fly above the water everyday and she is not even knowing the polluted particles that the air and water carries, far away in this city of pearls.

Our next destination is Ethiopothala water falls. Coming soon!

A trip to Nagarjun sagar 2

2008-10-20T11:26:00.100-04:00

My previous post on trip

The journey to Launch station was via the road built through hills. There were lots of hair pin turns and once we just escaped from a collapse with an Innova, which was coming on the opposite direction. I was wondering why people were not honking and authority did not keep any sign board in such dangerous turns.

Whatever, the way was really amazing. Driving through the magic of greenery..away from the polluted, unclean, crowded city... traveling through the heart of nature...by sensing the heart beat of nature. In between it started drizzling... and soon it became heavy rain..We were scared that our weekend trip might wash out in the rain. Still I was enjoying each rain drop fell on the earth. Have you ever traveled through a ghat road when it rains? I think that, it rains in hilly, greenish ghats very often without any signs... Any time you can expect a rain there.. But I am sure that such rains would be really enjoyable.

A soft breeze was spreading the fragrance of the soil mixed with rain. For me it was a wonderful trip, because I love nature and rain.

Finally we reached the launch station. Now, our travel is not via car. Any guess? yes, we are moving ahead by a boat.

We moved to take ticket. I was just roaming around the place, while Jazeel was in the queue to take ticket and Prabhu and Athira was waiting outside. The view was great from the balcony.

Fig: Balcony views

Let me share few things I noticed.

1) We saw the board saying food items are not allowed inside the building, or in the boats or in our destination(ie, Nagarjunkonda). But the funniest thing is that, most of the people were carrying big vessels, containers, bags and polythene covers with food items..!! During the travel I saw a lady, who was sitting in front of me, throwing lot of polythene covers into the lake. I was wondering how keen we are in littering the beauty and purity of nature!!!

2) Saw the board at ticket counter "Maximum two tickets will be allowed per person". We were worried that it would be difficult for us to get four ticket and only Jazeel was standing in queue. It was too late and the queue was already too long. But we did not have any problem. When he asked for four tickets the person at ticket counter gave it. No questions.. No arguments.. Don't know who kept the board there and why?

Finally we got into the boat. By the time, the climate was too humid and hot. The boat started towards our destination .The journey will be almost an hour.

The moment we got into the boat, we realized that all the seats were either occupied or booked. Yes, our people are good at that also. Some how booking our seats, by placing kerchief, or books, or paper, or bags. We were standing on the front side of the boat for some time. Some how we found some place to sit. The lake was calm and the water seems very clean and clear green water. The water was almost steady, with small waves.

The journey, it was a nice one, of course. The whole atmosphere was calm and quite except some tourist gangs, making noise while taking group snaps. There were so many mountains and small islands on the way. All those made the lake and surroundings a heaven. Far away, the hills were not visible because of the barrier created by the reflection from water. But the scene was amazing.

FIg: Views from boat

After some time I felt like "if we reach the island soon". You might have guessed, the sun was dancing right above my head. I regretted again for not taking the umbrella.

Finally, I could see the landing place for us. People were rushing out. I gave way for the 'busy' people to go. I have nothing to do even if I land two minutes earlier. So let the busiest people go. What you say?

BY the time we landed in Nagarjun Konda we all were really tired.

I am so sorry Prabhu to put my comment here. I have no way to avoid writing that conversation here.

Athira: I feel that all the people here are talking in Malayalam. Do you guys feel?
Prabhu: ............that means you are hungry.

I liked that joke very well. But it is a fact that, when our stomach is empty, we won't be able to enjoy, whatever happens around us. After all food is a basic need for human being.

I was thinking while we were stepping towards the hotel,"what if we were not having the feeling 'hunger'???"

What an awkward thought, that is too during a trip! What to do, I was thinking upon that! Then human won't go for work. Cause he does not feel hungry, does not need food at all. Then what is a Human??? Still human needs money, for building house, to buy cars, to live with all luxury. Or all these are again dependent on hunger?? Ooops.. let me control my thoughts..I might go mad!!

We went to the restaurant there. There was nothing except some biscuits and soft drinks. The cashier told lunch will be ready in half an hour. Had some soft drinks and biscuits, the we walked towards the rocks in the water.

There I saw lots of plastic bags thrown simply in the land. Don't when will we learn to keep our surroundings and nature neat and clean. Authority had kept a crocodile zone warning near to the steps.

The rocks were slippery, still we managed to sit on the rocks, letting our feet to rest in the water. There were some people playing in water. Some others were enjoying scenery. Some people were having food, by sitting under the trees(of course the food they carried with them).

The lake seems like an ocean now. We were killing time there, because our first priority is lunch now!

After sometime we revisited the hotel and had Veg biriyani. That was Veg biriyani by name and plain biriyani by properties. Prabhu seems so happy when he got a small piece of carrot from the rice. According to him, the only one vegetable he got from the biriyani. When we stepped outside, everything outside appeared very beautiful. Yes, our hunger has gone away..!!

Read what we saw in Nagarjunkonda in my next post 'A trip to Nagarjun sagar 3'

A trip to Nagarjuna sagar...

2008-10-19T01:08:00.079-04:00

It was on October 10th evening, my hubby's friend Prabhu called us asking to join them for a small weekend trip to Nagarjun sagar. His plan was like this, we four will leave Kukatpally on Saturday early morning, will reach Nagarjun sagar by 10 am, a over night stay, and return back to Hyderabad on Sunday morning.

I could not take a decision, as I was having tight week days, and was waiting for the weekend to sleep nicely after one week long night stretching. But I also liked the idea of a weekend drive. It took some time for us to finally sign off the idea.

We started off by 6.00 am. Since I was stretching the previous night also, I could not prepare any food item to carry for a weekend drive. So all over the travel I felt, something missing. And finally consoled myself..."next time I will compensate".

Before we move ahead, let me tell you about Nagarjun Sagar, the things that I know.

Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is one of the largest dams built in Asia, located between Guntur and Hyderabad. It is built on the Krishna River between Guntur and Nalgonda districts. It is one of the earliest hydro-electric projects of India.

It is almost 165 KMs from our place- kukatpally, and may be almost 150 Kms from Secunderabad.It is a most prominent Budhist center- the name Nagarjuna also came from the name of most revered Budhist monks. One of the very early river civilizations took birth here.
Nagarjuna dam, which was inaugurated on 10th Dec 1955 by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and construction was completed in 1966, is 124 metres high and 1 km long has 26 crest gates. The lake, which it straddles, is the third largest manmade lake in the world. This is the tallest and biggest masonry dam in the world.

Prabhu had taken the print out of the route, which he got from google maps after many hours long searching. He had marked the route properly, still we had to ask some people on the way.

As I have heard from friends , if you ask route to any pedestrian or auto people in Hyderabad you will get a single reply, no matter we you want to go, "eki rasta hei sir.. seetha... ". The same repeated here also, for our luck the actual rasta was always 'seetha..'

We took the way through Secunderabad- Uppal- LB Nagar. After LB Nagar, the road was almost empty. Only a few vehicles were passing through the road, but road was not bad at all. Both sides of road were really beautiful, with small mountains, patty fields, farms etc. The whole way was greenish, which I have never seen in AP any where else. In AP, if you travel via road, especially outskirts of city, you will find a lot of empty dry places having huge rocks. Prabhu was driving in a speed of more than 100 KMPH. We saw very few shops on the way. I was wondering how people live there!!

Fig: We are on the way..

In between we called up all the resorts in Nagarjun Sagar area, but got to know that none of them were having empty rooms. May be it is school vacation time in AP, and it is holiday season also...Dassera, deevali.. we could not find a place to stay. So we had to change our plan...

Finally we saw beautiful hills and the signs of the reservoir also. Yes we were about to reach our destination. It was almost 9.30 am. I did not even feel that we had a long journey, instead I was feeling fresh both in mind and body also.

Fig: The first sight...

We stopped the car to enjoy the first sight of the lake or reservoir. A fresh and cool breeze passed by, which made me lazy and sleepy..!!Because of the reflection from the water, we could not see other end of the lake, so it seems like a ocean. We knew that a lot more way to travel to reach the launch station. Finally we saw the bridge of right earth dam and found the 'No entry' board at the starting edge of the dam itself and we could not walk over.

We got down there and saw a park and the steps to get into lake also. The sun was on the top of head, was too hot to walk through even at 9.30. Athira had an umbrella, and I suddenly remembered that I also have taken an umbrella. Jazeel searched for the umbrella all over our bag, in which we packed our cothes also. He could not find, and realized that he has forgotten to take umbrella and cap also. Athira had to swtich the umbrella between the poeple so that no body will be exposed to sun for long time. That was so sweet... lol!

(Oops, I forgot to introduce Prabhu and Athira. Prabhu is my husband's college mate, staying almost near to us. Just a 10 minute walking distance away. the common thing in us is, our marriage was on the same year, same month and the same day. So next month, we all will be finishing successful one year of wedded life...!!)

We spent some time out there, by walking around and capturing snaps.

Fig: Myself and Jazeel

Fig: How is the back ground?

Fig: A park near by the left earth dam

Fig: The bridge

I should say that my first meeting with this dam was really amazing. No wonder that it is the third largest man made lake, it is too vast, beautiful and calm.

A feeling of awe and significance overcomes you when you lay eyes upon the Nagarjun Sagar dam for the first time. Its sheer size and magnitude leaves you breathless and astounded. As the tallest and largest masonry dam in the world, truly stands as one of the wonders of engineering excellence. The reservoir is a vital source of irrigation for vast tracts of the surrounding region. I got ot know that, naturally also this has played a leading role in helping the state of AP to emerge as the 'Rice Bowl of india'.

We continued our journey towards the launch station. We 've heard that launch station is the main attraction of the dam. Now we are on the bridge exactly opposite to the left earth dam shutters and reservoir. The view from there was amazing. Its really amazing to imagine how they would have built it back then. There were too many people who were selling fresh oranges and mosambi. I am sure that those fruits are produced in that area, cause were greenish in color and had even leaves and stem.

Fig: Left earth dam...

Fig: The river near to the shutter

We headed toward the launch station. We saw the mile stone "6 KMs to launch station".

Coming up 'A trip to Nagarjuna sagar 2'.

"Kerning to Kolad"- the jouney ends

2008-09-26T02:43:00.017-04:00

Yes, we are on the way to Hyderabad. The exciting journey is about to over- but definitely the experience will remain in our minds forever.

We are on the way to Pune. It was a sunny day. Ruby restarted the game, but people did not show any interest. She gave up and was on the verge of crying. Suddenly, Yatin announced the awards.

Who is the most energetic person? From my all other posts you might have already guessed the winner, the energetic girl of group- Ruby, unanimously won the 'Most Energetic person' award. Most injured person, polls was more for Satya- and his response to the award was "finally I have won some award at Kern!". The whiner person during the trip 'Mouse'! The response from people was unanimously.. !!

Oh.. we have Anand getting married in next week. Obviously we are a group of married and unmarried people. So thought of giving some advices to Anand before wedding. It was Rip's idea, 'If you have a single line of advice for Anand, what would it be?'

Started with Mouse, Mouse had the complaint that "he always tells I will do it, but never he does"...So her advice... you might have guessed.

Baba "Do not tell tttooo mmmmuch of work to your wife"
Megs "Stop smoking"
Ruby "Never lie to your wife"
Satya"If you never lie to your wife, your married life will end in an year, so lie in such a way that you wont be caught"...
Rips "Prevention is better than cure"
Mini "Respect your wife"
Sneha "Don't stop smoking" , wondered why? "otherwise your wife will find something else to nag you"
vaivai "Make sure that you spend time with your wife"
Myself "Do not give lot of expectations to your wife"
Again Satya (the experienced hubby) intervenes "If you spend a lot of time with your wife again your wedded life is gonna end in an year"
Yatin "Do not listen to any one here, just do as you feel"

Everybody had a piece of advice to give...and definitely Anand was confused to choose in between!!

We reached Pune by 8.30 and had a nice sizzler dinner. Then back to the city of Pearls. Morning we reached back in Hyderabad. And by 12 , all Kernites came to office(surprising??)!!

That was the end of the trip!

Breaking news: Kern Wins 2008 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award

2008-09-26T02:43:00.007-04:00

Wow!!
Kern wins 2008 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award.Now Kern is one of the few Indian companies to win this award!
Read full story.

'Kerning to Kolad'- Day 3.

2008-09-25T23:47:00.020-04:00

My previous post

I must say– the previous night was really calm and quiet, and I did not hear any sounds. So I had a sound sleep. Early in the morning, we all were set to go for trekking to the water falls. I had my back pain getting worst, but as far as I am concerned I love mountains, water falls river etc, and of course I love to go for trekking. My excitement and motivation was so high that I had to ignore my back pain.

We crossed the river and the river was calm and beautiful, with no signs of rain. We went to a village by bus, and from the village we had to go by walk. Throughout the road in the village we could see cow dung. The houses were very small but the scenery was amazing.

There were too many stones and rocks and were slippery too, since it was raining heavily in the previous days. Some places we had to crawl through the rocks and floor. We saw varieties of trees, and small streams all the way. The climate was really good and fresh and we did not feel much tired.

I was really happy to jump from rock to rock. It reminded me of my childhood, when we went to river with elder members in the family. When my aunts were busy in washing the clothes, we the naughty kids -my neighborhood friends- kunhathummu and saifunnia- my sis and myself used to play by jumping from one rock to another. I realized that the same spirit still remains in me- does not matter that years have flown by!

Finally we could see the signs of water fall. The first sight itself was mind-blowing. We walked towards our destination. We had so much of fun. Mouse had a lot of trouble in walking through the rocks and slippery areas. So Satya was helping her.(Now, Kernites have found out why did Satya helpi her. When Mouse was in hot seat, she had mentioned Satya as the hansom and hot guy at Kern- according to Satya, first time in life a girl is telling that. Of course, anybody will have a soft corner to help right?)

The water fall was really amazing,- white clear pure water! All of the guys got into water first. After sometime gals followed them (hmm... they could not sit on the rocks by seeing the mind blowing water falls). The force was too high, but the adventurous sailors were sitting below the water falls, balancing against the force!!

BY 11.30 we started walking down to the village. That was the end of the exacting trekking. But Mouse was really unhappy and tired, and injured also. Mouse had bought a 3000 rs worth Reebok shoe but the shoe cheated her!

Megs was disturbed to see cow dung everywhere and was complaining later in the bus that "whenever I close my eyes, I can see only cow dung ", in her usual soft parrot voice!

Mini was still energetic and had spent whole lot of time in water. Ruby, was carrying the medical kit also, and was little tired since she got hurt previous night during Prey- Predator game! Sneha was walking slowly, don't know whether she was sensing the pulses of nature or was tired!

Vaivai was still energetic. Yatin was capturing the scenery around.

Later, people went for river crossing, Mouse, Ruby and myself did not go. So I am not a person to write about that. But I can write the comment of Megs after river crossing.

Me: Megs did you cross the whole river?
Megs: Whhhhaaat are you asking man, if I cross the whole river, I will die. I went only one by forth.

After river crossing we had the announcement of the winner for business idea competition, and Megs and team (Archie, Megs, Mini, Baba) won for having a clear idea and implementation path. Later we had an open house, where people shared their problems, and improvement areas for the company as a whole as for the benefit of each person.

After that, our cheerful crazy Rash left. Yatin had a small game, he gave a slip to everybody to fill up. It was an award session again- we had to select most enjoyed person, injured person, and whiner person during the trip. By the time we filled the feedback form and award slip,we had our luggages ready and it is the time to say Good bye.

What was the interesting part of return journey?
Who won the --- person of trip awards? You wanna know?

Comin soon: "Kerning to Kolad"- the journey ends.

'Kerning to Kolad'- Night 2 (contd)

2008-09-24T23:16:00.022-04:00

Yes, we are done with the exciting Prey predator game. Now it is the time for Camp fire cooking. We were asked to cook batata vada and chole. Everybody was excited, and Ruby told she will do the cooking. While we started cooking everybody was there, contributing even the small thing they could do. The cook of ecomantra had already kept things ready.

Fig: Awaiting...!!

One of those guys first came with a chimney, which I had seen in the houses of some farmers at my place- those people who can't afford buying a gas stove have to use that kind of chimney, and they collect woods pieces, coconut outer covering etc as the 'fuel'.

Fig: The chimney is getting ready

Ripul, tried al the way, but the chimney was not ready to cope up with the fire. He had a tough time, till the guy from eco mantra came with Kerosene which stimulated the flames!

Fig: Rips, the fire manager

When Ripul was fighting with flames, the girls had already started giving shapes to the vadas. Everybody was eager to prove their artistic skills. Especially Megs was thinking about the design patterns need to follow, I guess. Sneha might be thinking about the psychological changes inside the vada!!!

Fig: Girls busy in making Vada

Fig: Chola is getting ready

Ruby, started making chola curry, while Rash was helping her with necessary ingredients. Ripul, was still the fire manager, who managed the intensity of flame.

At the same time, Mouse and Vaivi had already started frying vadas. They were provided with another chimney(I believe that was the commonly seen one, we have the same one at my house also, but I hate to even go near by that. The chimney had two chambers, and was having an interesting technique to control the flame from other champers).

Fig: Vaivi and Mouse, about to start frying Vadas.

Fig: Shh...Yatin is busy in cooking!
Yatin also wanted to prove that he is a great chef. So once chola is done, yatin started frying vadas. Sushnath was there initially as the woodcutter. Mini and Satya were sitting little away and were discussing some global issue, while Anand, didn't even come near to the place, he was playing with ball. Myself, was the photographer.

Fig: How does Sushanth look as woodcutter? Does he need a scale?

Finally we had an amazing starter for our dinner. I should say, Ruby is a great cook. Others also had done a very good job! So Kernites are good at Kitchen also. Wow!

Fig: Yummm...Final output!!
After the camp fire cooking we had dinner. Right after dinner we had some funny talks and then it was ladies corner, were Ruby taught the ladies how to do Garba dance.

It was almost 12.00 pm when we dispersed to our own tents. This time, Mouse and myself had taken a step forward to put our cots together, and so we both had a nice sound sleep.

The next day's attraction was Trekking. Coming soon: 'Kerning to Kolad'- Day 3.

'Kerning to Kolad' - Night 2

2008-09-23T23:56:00.023-04:00

Now we have won the game. It was night when the lady who managed the farm came up with an exciting game. Name of the game was 'Prey and Predator'. The game was completely bounded with nature, and to teach us the importance of man in keeping the balance of nature.

Again, we dispersed into different groups, the groups were similar to the steps in a food chain, the first group was having more members compared to all other- say grass hopper, obviously the first element of a food chain. The second group was Frogs- the predators for grass hopper and the second element of the chain. It was having less number of people compared to grass hopper. The third group, you might have already guessed- the predator for frog - snakes, and forth one- Eagle, the only one member, who is a predator for snakes.

Each group had their own movements according to the category of creature they belong to and was suppose to move in that way only. I was in frog category first, and found really tough to jump like a frog.

Each group had its own dwell and when the moderator called up each group one by one, they had to come out of their dwell with specific movement and do their primary role in nature. For eg, grass hopper was suppose to fly around grass while frogs comes out and try to get their prey, and obviously snakes came behind the frogs with hungry stomach, and the only one eagle flew around to catch its prey- the snakes.

At the end of the first phase, the food chain had few grass hoppers , frogs, and snakes remaining obviously more than enough to maintain the equilibrium of the nature.

In the second phase, we had a the next(and the most destructive two legged animal) element of food chain, Man coming to picture.

What the man would do as his first step? All we all know, man hates snakes(for the first time in my life,I felt guilty for being a human who hates snakes), and killed all the snakes in the compound. What happened next? Since all the snakes were disappeared, the predator eagle also left hungry and died(so sad of him). We could imagine how the equilibrium of nature went for a toss!

The same way, what will happen if the man uses pesticides all over the earth to kill the insects including the grass hoppers? The community grass hopper or insects is no more in the world, and obviously the frogs are in dilemma- having nothing to eat. It again affects the whole food chain and existence of nature is a challenge now!

This is exactly what is happening around us, don't you think so?

The game was really exciting one, with everybody running to catch the prey, and kept alerted of their predators also. Some one screamed when a frog went and caught her "I am a snake man, I am already caught by an eagle". Yes, we were imagining ourselves as those animals?

The third phase of game was more like a team building game, which taught us the importance of verbal communication in team building.

We were asked to form a circle, and the moderator pasted some label behind us. The label was having the name of animal group we belong to. Basically, no body knew which group he/ she belongs to. And we were asked to communicate with each other through gestures and not using words.
God, the life of animals are really horrible, without communicating verbally. Me, Vaivi (Vaishnavi) and Megs had pre-planned through the gestures that we three will look behind each other and will convey the group name through gestures. In the same way, Rash and Satya also had communicated earlier about the steps had to be taken forward.(I forgot to introduce Satya, the business manager of our team, who can not live even a minute without telling his wife's name "shilpa"- basically for him everything starts and ends with Shilpa- the freaky guy of the team, always laughs - ha ha ha- highlights himself as one who doesnot know anything, but he is an all rounder, and always have a hundreds of stories to tell, main hobby is making fun of people around).

The game was really tougher one- since many did not know their prey or predator, and the team ended in a very unbalanced state. Some body has cheated Rips- a person told he is a grass hopper while other person told he is a frog- and he could not choose between.

At the end of the game, we were asked to share our learnings. I would like to list out my learning here:

1) Effective verbal communication is a main factor of team building.
2) If you cheat any one, or avoid a particular team, the equilibrium can never be achieved.
3) Identifying our own identity is an important thing in a team- which in turn helps us to set our goals forward, and keep our schedules.
4) Identifying ourselves also mean that identifying our strengths and weaksnesses.
5) Each person in a team is important, no matter what is the task allocated. B'coz, our aim is sustainabilty and equilibrium.

That was the first session of Night 2.

The second attraction of Night 2 will be up soon. Wait.. Keep your fingers crossed.. how interesting could it be?

Wait and read : 'Kerning to Kolad'- Night 2 (contd)

'Kerning to Kolad'- Day 2

2008-09-23T05:37:00.034-04:00

Read my previous post

Next day morning was pretty cool with clear sky and no signs of rain also. We had our main attraction of the trip - river rafting remaining. Even though I had a bad sleep in the previous night I was all set to go rafting. We crossed the river in the same rowing boat and traveled toward the rafting area in our bus. After 10 minutes we reached the place and saw a lot of excited faces there getting ready to go rafting. They had turned the shutters of the dams open so that the water level and the current in the river was too high.

Fig: Ready to go rafting

River rafting- It was a great experience. I would say, everybody should go for it at least once in life time. I don't have words to explain. I should say "Go once and experience it". A wonderful journey opposite to the waves and through the forceful current! We had a orientation program prior to the actual one. Our boat manager was great and helped us to do lot of adventuruos activities. At some place everybody jumped into river and floated in water. Some poeple started swimming also.

After rafting we reached back to our forest and we could not start on many activities because of the high water level. Some poeple took rest while others went for Kayaking in a near by pond.

I was getting bad back pain after the river rafting so thought of going for a walk all over. So I just roamed around alone, and everything I saw around me reminded me of my home place. A lot of jack fruit trees, mango trees, Mehandi leaves, Patty fields, small ponds, Cashew trees, teak wood, sapota trees, banana, jasmin, Eukaliptus etc. Instead of walls to differentiate between different farms they had planted Cactus, as I have seen during my childhood in Kerala, where poeple used lot of trees with thorns and other creeping plants to differentiate.

I saw lots of butterflies flying allover and one blue butterfly with white and black design was really beautiful. I went behind the butterfly with my cam for about one hour, but it was so adamant that did give me a pose. At last I had to be satisfied with the following photo.

I saw a bunch of mashrooms also, but I am sure that this is not the one we used for cooking. Coz, I have heard that Mashrooms are of different types- some of them are poisonous. So had seen ladies at our place taking extra care when they collect Mashrooms in rainy seasons.

Evening we had a game session arranged by Rips and Rash. The motto of the game as declared by Rashmi was "We wont allow you to sit idle". So you can guess right, the game was meant for us to run around.

So we were again divided into groups and asked to collect some things listed out by them.
1) 10 tiny stones
2) One live frog
3) A sapota
4) One litre of river water
5) One fresh cashew
6) One handmade pot
7) One song to frog
8) One umbrella
9) One burning candle
10) One dried shorts

And our team included, myself, Sneha, Yatin (the technical master of Kern, the pillar of usability team), and Vasishnavi(our young ID joined Kern few days back). And we were the ones to come with all the things first and got chocolates from the chocolate queen.

Anxious to know what was the attaction of Night 2? Yes, as you know I have some thing wonderful to tell.

Coming up: 'Kerning to Kolad'- Night 2

'Kerning to Kolad'- Night 1

2008-09-22T23:09:00.023-04:00

Read my previous post.

It was almost 11.30 pm when we left the meeting room. The way to our cottages were little scary and we were already warned that there are possibilities to see snakes. So we had torches with us to save us from the creatures. I am a person who is scared to see even the programs related to snakes in animal planet. Now you can imagine how tough would it be for me to sleep in an open room, knowing that snakes are crawling in the compound?

I could not close my eyes, and did not feel safe even inside the net which is meant to save from mosquito bites. I don't know when, but some how I managed to get sleep. My sleep got disturbed and I opened my eyes to realize the truth that we power has gone off.(We did not turn off the lights when we slept). Now I can hear all the sounds around me, each movement from the lap of nature. The ' flying crickets' were making high pitch sounds all over, and I could even hear the movements of leaves outside. The raining was still continuing. I could not see anything but could hear everything. At that moment I felt even my heart beat as scary. I did not have the courage to even breath loudly.

I was laying down, trying to close my eyes and get sleep. Everything changed when I heard a sound of something crawling, a bit away from where I was sleeping. I kept my eyes open, controlled even my breathing and listened again.

When I was trying to hide my fear, I heard Mousumi calling me, "Nishana, can you hear any sound?"
I replied "No, I didn't hear", by trying to get sleep. The sound repeated 2-3 times, and now it is horrible. I called Mouse and told, "Yes I can hear. What to do now? Power also went off".

We called Ruby and she lightened the torch and searched all over, but could not find anything. The moment she turned the torch off we could hear the sound again. The scene repeated many times and Ruby went for sleep in between. Megs also woke up and told me "Nishana, don't worry. I am there" and slept.

The power came for 10 minutes and everything was normal till the power went off again. I heard the poeple trying to start Generator and failing and so the bulbs were blinking. Suddenly I collected some courage to get out of my bed and lighten a candle. Then I saw a big rat running beside my bed. It ran out of the cottage and I felt relaxed "Oh.. it was just a rat". But suddenly I remembered that the sound was of something crawling through a polythene. I ignored it and went to Mousumi's bed for further sleeping. I tried to forget the theory "A rat and a frog can always be followed by a snake in a forest especially."

After sometime, I again heard the sound, but somehow ignored and tried to sleep. It was almost morning 4.45. That was the end of that terrific night!!

Coming up: 'Kerning to Kolad' - Day 2