New Age Learning

How do you learn..

Old school...
- go to a classroom listen to teacher, take notes
- purchase a book
- get a mentor, work with him/her, listen to him/her

New School

- go to a classroom listen to teacher, take notes
- purchase a book
- get a mentor, work with him/her, listen to him/her
- logon to Youtube
- register on Khan Academy, Code Academy and their ilks
- purchase e-book
- get a Kindle
- go to Safari online
- register with Udemy.com
- read a blog
- play a game
- learn online at Stanford, NASA or MIT

... and the list goes on.

Essentially with the advent of the internet and associated technologies there is no dearth of avenues to learn for those who want to learn.

There has been an advertisement on the TV from internet.org by Facebook that talks about people from remote places like villages and hill stations who achieved some feats like creating a windmill, or a hand-robot all by themselves without the help from any outside source. The voice in the advertisement then says what would have happened if they had been connected to the internet.

I chuckle and say...they might have spent the time on Facebook/Instagram or playing games online.

Jokes apart, the current times have really brought in a new age of learning where learning is more than readily available for anyone and everyone. The possibilities are endless for those who can save themselves from wasting time online and utilizing it to master topics of their likings.

On those lines I thought to share links that I find of good learning, hoping it might be beneficial to someone.  I know it is categorized, but for those who seek knowledge, it should not be a herculean task. Except for those Shakespearean who say "O this learning, what a thing it is!"



www.codecademy.com
http://bigdatauniversity.com/
https://www.drawspace.com/
https://see.stanford.edu/
http://betterexplained.com/
https://www.khanacademy.org
http://skillcrush.com/
https://www.udemy.com
http://www.e-learningforkids.org/
http://stackexchange.com/
http://www.howcast.com/
http://www.doityourself.com/
https://www.edx.org/
https://www.coursera.org/
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative
https://novoed.com/
https://www.udacity.com/
https://developer.apple.com/
https://code.org/
https://codehs.com/


Happy Learning !!

Career Advice from Richard Branson, Suze Orman, Michael Powel, Marry Barra, Chip Bergh, Maynard Webb, Beth Comstock and Robert Herjavec

Best career advice in one line check the infographics below

India Bilionaires

India has for the first time managed to find a place among the top three countries generating most number of billionaires in the world.

Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries'  at the top of Global Rich List-India 2015.
The list details about richest people in India with wealth upwards of Rs 6,000 crore. Mukesh Ambani Rs 1.2 lakh crore, followed by Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma with Rs 1.02 lakh crore. Pallonji Mistry and family of Tata Sons with Rs 96,000 crore assets find themselves in third place.




Read the full details here

Facebook lookback

Facebook has come up with a cool new feature called lookback.

It is a 62 second video, that picks photographs from your profile page and converts it into a amazing video with some sub headings like.

It gives a brief history of your journey on FB starting with when you joined, photos that you shared, your most liked photo and a collage of your pics. It is like a short movie of your story in form of pics.

This is an anniversary year gift from FB when it completes its 10 years on Feb 4.

This lookback is a sentimental experience for many and it has spread like wild fire. Look Back is all over the news feeds and has stirred up the social-networking world in a nostalgia.

https://www.facebook.com/lookback/   - A Look Back 

Enjoy your moments !!

Ford Mustang

           Ford Mustang 2015: The Retro Look Luxury and Style !!

                        Come 2015 and prepare yourself to take off with the all new Ford Mustang 2015. Coming a long way from its first pony car debut in 1964 at Newyork Fair, ford is celebrating its presence with all new Mustang 2015. It’s a merger of high definition style and sheer luxury. A test drive can bring on the ecstasy. Ford will be coming out with 2 different models, a 5.0 ltr V8 and another with 2.3 ltr 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine. It came to our ears that the new Mustang was not designed by an American rather a Scot, Moray Callum who happens to be brother of Ian Callum a top designer of Jaguar. A cool retro look and it comes close to the car that Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt. Although no price has been revealed so far for the Mustang 2015, but rumour has it that entry level might be priced at £30,000 with a few more thousands put in for the convertible. Surely with the new looks style and feature, this seems like a bargain. The number cylinders have been halfed and addition of plethora of new technologies is adding up to the excitement of most awaited car. All new features and technology is adding up to the expectations of power, performance, efficiency and experience from all new Mustang 2015.

           

            Below I explored a few features and style of all new Mustang.

Open up to a new level of luxury

           

            Retro look, two large tubular gauges, circular air vents, forward canted dashboard, HVAC controls with MyFord Touch screen, the all new Ford Mustang is nothing short of evolution. Mustang 2015 also debuts with itself a next-generation system with redundant buttons, switch gear and ambient lights and surround speakers competing some of the best luxury cars like S-class.

The Design

           

            New retro looks, and sensual but on the inside all Mustang. Headlights are typical of Ford family; it’s an amazing fusion of Fords Aston Martin and pony car. The design process took good time to justify the all new look retro and chic. A pair of large vents lies on the hood, making it muscular and powerful; the sequential signals remain as elegant as ever. It comes in a regular and a convertible style as well.

The Cockpit

            The Retro design from exteriors also transcends into the interiors, well balanced analog and digital accessories, shifter is well placed and the steering wheel feels just right. Prepare for a dynamic and adrenalin rush of driving experience; of course do not forget your provisional driving licence.

Performance & Features

            There is a V8 5 Litre and V6 3.7 litre with increased power paired with a EcoBoost engine, the all new Mustang 2015 is all set to rock and roll.

The Technology

            All new Ford Mustang 2015 has redefined technology into cars; it is an enhanced driving experience. The advanced sensors and communication system adds to the luxury and style of this most awaited beauty. The chasis is having a rear suspension not seen in Mustang for long; this definitely goes into improving the handling and rising comfort. Ford is also looking at shedding about 200 pounds with all new Mustang 2015.

I have already added this beauty to my dream list, how about you! 

How to grow and build your website hits

I have been blogging since the Sep of 2007 when I created my own blog, however I never did worry about seo at that time and I was content with creating a blog website of my own. I was very happy. Advertisement and add revenue were last on my mind at that time. I did not worry much about hits as I was content with my friends hit on my own blog posts. Concepts like driving website traffic, hit counter, facebook marketing, website builders, affiliate marketing, email marketing, google apps and tools for seo optimization were alien to me. Primarily you see it was self satisfaction that I was seeking and not add revenue. However one day while managing my blog on blogger.com it appeared to me an option of monetizing the blog. It was then that I actually came to be introduced to the world of seo and content marketing or ad revenue generation whatever one may call it.

Even after that I did not bother to do much about this stream as I was pretty much busy in my job as a IT Consultant, blogging as just a get-away or more to say a very interesting and creative hobby where I would like to just unleash my thoughts or record my varied experiences during the course of my journey of software development. I would record my events and also post some challenging technical problems that I might happen to solve. When people would have a look at it, or benefit on it, comment and appreciate that was what my real payment (and still is till today).

However in recent times, I realized that to become a professional in any field you should be effectively be able to generate revenue out of that otherwise it remains a discreet amateur hobby. It is only when one becomes a pro in something then he/she can give value to its consumer or audience.

Anyways, philosophy apart, coming back to topic of discussion here, I actually came across a lot of good content and links which might help anybody in increasing the ranking and effectiveness of his/her website. With the advent of social media it has now become a mandatory factor for any business which is inherently online in nature or relies heavily on online world to be part of the social media space and have a significant presence as well.

So here I would like to definitely discuss a few very excellent tips and tricks for developing your content and also effectively increasing your webpresence as web hits per se.

Keyword Research – the right way

Each Keyword has an intrinsic value of its own. To properly value a keyword’s potential for your business, first ask yourself how relevant your pages would be to the user searching for that keyword.

Look for keywords that your users would type in that would make them delighted and thankful to find your site. Examples might include “golf clubs for women” or “flights to Paris under $1,000”.

This delicate balance between generic versus specific is the sweet spot for keyword research.

Test Your Keyword

Once you have your ideal keywords chosen, it’s time to see if your visitors feel the same way. Type in your keywords in Google and notice both the top and sidebar paid ads:

Utilize some Keyword Research Tools

There are a few free and paid keyword tools that can help you with the research process. Each one offers varying amounts of data for a price, but give more than Google Keyword Suggestion tool to provide tracking trends, related keywords that may refer to brand names or product names

These tools can also help you mark ever-changing value of specific keywords due to changes in the economy or on social networks, some even let you spy on the keywords your competitors are using.

 You can get some wonderful tips on this link of Neil Patel’s website http://www.quicksprout.com/double-your-traffic-in-30-days/

Coming back to my personal experiences of blogging, although lot of tools tips and support can be found online, but it come downs to one thing which is passion. Passion and high interest drives any line of work and so does this. If you are committed to increase the hit and traffic of your website then you might as well do it, with or without help. However, if you are doing it just for the sake of doing it without your heart into it then probably the fire might die down mid-way. The best way is the right way. Your website is what you know best, it’s content and material is what will actually drive the traffic.

A few interesting concepts that I came through in my quest for right approaches landed me into below gems

Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

“When I talk with most marketers today about how they generate leads and fill the top of their sales funnel, most say trade shows, seminar series, email blasts to purchased lists, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing, and advertising.  I call these methods "outbound marketing" where a marketer pushes his message out far and wide hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack.

I think outbound marketing techniques are getting less and less effective over time for two reasons.  First, your average human today is inundated with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways to block them out, including caller ID, spam filtering, Tivo, and Sirius satellite radio.  Second, the cost of coordination around learning about something new or shopping for something new using the internet (search engines, blogs, and social media) is now much lower than going to a seminar at the Marriott or flying to a trade show in Las Vegas.

It's Time to Transform Your Marketing” 

Read the whole story ...

            12 Things You Should Be Using Your Blog For (Besides Blogging)

1) Solicit Content From High-Profile Sites

2) Work on Increasing Subscribers

3) Optimize Past Post Titles

4) Optimize Your Calls-to-Action

5) Update the CTAs on Old Posts

6) Update the Content of Popular Old Posts

7) Conduct a Topic Analysis

8) Make it Social

9) Optimize the Pages Blog Visitors Click the Most

10) Use Your Blog to Test New Offers

11) Use Your Blog as a Source of Content

12) Leverage Your Blog as a Sales Tool

You can read the details of above points on main blog.

Apart from above links which I posted, there are a few other links which I liked very much and worthy of mention here. What I most liked is the question answer format adding to authenticity of the post.

“Growth. One of the most important factors for any online business. Increasing relevant traffic often correlates with an increased bottom line.”

“The problem is that people immediately try to focus on rankings; and that's where the massive link building campaigns come in. But if you focus only on increasing your overall search traffic, and not battle for any specific keyword, your traffic just grows and grows. Over time, your increasing social network takes over and multiplies the impact of your writing.

ES: What were the important steps that got you to 3,500 visits/day?

FC: Right from the beginning of the website, I integrated a daily email newsletter into my publication schedule, so I was accumulating email subscribers a handful at a time. Over the years that list really built up, and served as the very core of my audience.

There's nothing more powerful than a distribution platform that you can reach out through. So my initial audience came purely through word of mouth and building that subscriber base one person at a time.

ES: Now let's hear about how you got to 100,000 visits per day. What were the most important steps you took to get you to this remarkable milestone?

FC: A lot of that growth happened naturally, but I became aware of the importance of search engine optimization about three years ago. Once I started incorporating SEO into my overall content process, my traffic jumped up in leaps and bounds. Until that point, I was only blogging and reporting on news, but I realized there was a whole class of evergreen content – the kind of concepts that people are always searching for.”

Read the whole story here

Hope the points might have been useful, I have been utilizing the above points into my blogs and websites and enjoying some wonderful results.

Now if you happen to be doing something which is working for your website then do share here. 

Word of Mouth – Will it work ?

Besides social media and television studios, the AAP is hoping word of mouth will do the magic. Will it work? [source]

This was a question posed on the website of a very popular news channel a week before the Delhi Assembly elections. ‘Will it work?’ I believe the question has been answered rhetorically and an astounding and deafening Yes has been said by the delhites.

Sitting on a peaceful Monday morning sipping tea, I was really wondering on the strategies of Mr. Kejriwal, I myself had friends calling me and securing my vote for the debutant and I heard a lot of small group meetings being formed and people being made aware of a new non-corrupt emerging party. They were such discreet that probably it sent it’s most of adversaries and competitors off-guard. The next thing I know was congratulatory notes flooding my FB wall for debut party.

Anyways, my intention was not to discuss Delhi politics, but it was to capture an amazing observation of a growing trend called ‘Word Of Mouth’.

If I may happen to recall you, not so long ago in the yester-years a young passionate person by name of certain Mr. Mohandas karamchand Ghandhi (our very own Bapu), happened to collect a huge crowd of followers for the famous Dandi march, with no social media, internet or even telephone to assist, how did he manage to spread the word, that too with media being against him totally. It was simple, yes, word of mouth…a philosophy as old as the mankind itself, i.e people will always be talking to people on any subject, thing, cause or product of interest. The most nascent form of advertising and probably the most powerful as well.

The most important feature of this strategy is the personal touch and sense of ownership that is incurred into the people participating in word-of-mouth as happened in this case of AAP where most of the supporters felt they were promoting was something they owned and part of a larger picture.

word of mouth is not something that the Indian politics is getting aware of, it is something that the corporate world is also realizing and many companies has resorted to these techniques for movement of their products and services.

Companies hiring through this mode of referencing and asking it’s employees to spread the word in return get some benefit and thus substantially cutting down on their advertisement budgets and get some trustworthy people on board. Freelancers and SMEs getting their clients and customers through this channel of advertising and marketing.

Similarly has a new industry flourished where corporate world is waking up to this medium, getting it’s customer base talk about their products and services and creating a win-win situation for itself and their existing customers as well by sharing a percentage of profit which happened because of the marketing and further revenue generation, something getting popular being known as Referral Marketing or Word-of-Mouth Marketing, creating an amazing source of income for people and equally amazing less costly way of advertising for the company. Some say this is the start of a new beginning, only time will tell.

No wonder, Mr Kejriwal succeeded as this is the most time-tested and powerful medium of building anything substantial, word-of-mouth.

Essentially word-of-mouth is the talk of the day so as they say Wake up and smell the coffee.

Happy Talking !!

Why I hate Paneer !

          Being a practicing muslim one of the challenges I used to face was finding halal food. Many a times it happened that some mouth watering dishes of chicken/mutton were placed before me and I had to content myself with Paneer (one of the reasons why I hate paneer and thus inspiration for the post title). I believe many of my muslim brethren might relate to the feeling.

          Well, for long I had been searching for some service which might ease me of this problem, until I stumbled upon this piece of wonder, a savior, awesome piece of creativity and a tomb of service.

           http://www.halaljointsindia.blogspot.com/

Captured from their website

"

HalalJointsIndia is your one stop solution for finding restaurants and places keeping halal food, where you can enjoy mouth watering dishes.

We strive to provide you everything that you might want to know about restaurants & joints that serve Halal food. From the smallest joint to the most lavish of restaurant in your city, we provide you all the information you might need to locate a good Halal Food Restaurant: menus, reviews, ratings, contacts, services etc.

"

I simply loved this website, though they do need to improve on their listings, but something is better than nothing ....

Bon Apetite !!

Retirement before the age of 40

         Essentially this has been one of my burning desires even before I had started my career. Now why would a sane person think of retirement even before starting a job ... well 2 things..one when did I say I was sane (joking u need to laugh), two who says retirement means sitting on a broken chair reading newspaper and waiting for the fated time.

This thought got 'Inception' (Since I watched this movie I have really been fascinated by this word) probably during my college days at AMU, where I had a gala time at the hostel and fairly enough I got to interact with a lot of people who were from different streams than me, like PhD(English), Doctors, Engineers, Bio-Technologist, Fine Arts students and due to my diverse friend circle I collected a lot of ideas. The most powerful ideas implanted were of entrepreneurship. Secondly I come from a background where all of my family had been into a job, I saw my mother work for 25 years imparting education, helping others, raising kids (including me) but never a time for herself; and also my father who worked for his set of life years and most my uncles and elder cousins, essentially all I grew up with was people working and working hard for money and saving and hoping to retire in peace. Now this was somehow very scary for me, because working for 40 odd years..boy not my cup of tea. I couldn't see myself doing 9-5 for another set 20-30 years.

So, my idea of retirement is time. Working for money is old school now, working for time is the key. The most valuable commodity is time and if I can have more time for myself along with maintaining my lifestyle and for my family is what is I strive for. Now after spending 9 odd years working in a job, I am clear that this path will never lead me to my destination which is when I started to lookout and got a fantastic option and grabbed it immediately (now that requires a separate post).

To cut a long story short, time-freedom is what is most important i.e I should be free to utilize my time my way for what I like which gives me happiness and I should also have the moolah to do what I want. I am not alone in this thought process and there are a lot more, especially these are the best times to break the jinx , follow your dream and make it real and the best way to do that is to think beyond the box (rather cubicle [sic]) !!!

Formula 1 [F1] Grand Prix 2011 - First Time in India: 28th-30th October

After a long wait, F1 cars are going to roar on the roads of India. It’s the biggest event in the Indian history as well as in the history of Formula racing. Really, a dream has come true; India is mounting in all directions. The mainstay of the western world is going to be a part of Indian sport. The first Indian racing team Force India F1 is full of enthusiasm to conquer the world at its feet.

 

Team managing director Dr. Vijaya Mallaya founded India’s first racing team in 2007, October, which was earlier known as Spyker F1 team, now rechristened as Sahara Force India F1 Team after Sahara India company purchased 42.5% share of this team for $100 million, nearly equal to Mr. Mallaya.

 

First racing field for this team has been Melbourne with not so good performance. Spyker F8-VII car boasted of being a part of Indian team, which is now called Force India VJM01.  

The latest F1 racing event held at Japan on 9th of October, and the current F1 championship is hosting by Korea between 12th – 14th October. India has got the pleasure to host this dream event between 28th to 30th of October. And, the next destination of F1 would be Abu Dhabi in the first week of November.

The first Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan’s legendary performance popularized this motor sport among Indian racing fans. Currently twelve teams are allowed to participate with maximum two cars and according to the F1 rules only eight engines can be used by a driver in a season. The leading car manufacturers Renault, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari are going to be a part of F1, along with some engine suppliers like Ferrari, Cosworth, and Mercedes-Benz etc.

Gautam Buddh International Circuit located in Greater Noida is chosen for racing track. It is a 5.14 Km route with 16 turns and highest elevation of 14 m. The top speed for a F1 car on this circuit is set 320km/h within 18m – 20m width of the track. With all the high quality amenities, total seating capacity for viewers is 1,10,000. This Gautam Buddh International Circuit is designed by german racing track designer Herman Tilke, with a total cost of 400$ million. It is designed as the fastest and most exciting track with some challenges, racers and audience both would love to experience this heart throbbing juncture. 

The logo for this circuit is designed by Jaypee sports, which is a modish bold letter “B” denoting the first word of Buddh and Bharat as well with sacred color combinations of our Indian Flag.

So guys, only twelve days left. Gear up your cars to grab the most whopping moments of Indian sport history.

F1 Formula racing tickets should be purchased from only the authorized ticketing partner of Buddh International Circuit (BIC) i.e. Book My Show. 

There are currently 3 channels of sales:

• Online – http://www.bookmyshow.com/sport/formula1  & http://www.jaypeesports.com

• Call center - +91 22 39895050

• F1 Tickets also available at select outlets like, Cafe Coffee Day , Puma and Mercedes Benz. http://in.bookmyshow.com/sport/formula1/outlets/

Please be careful from counterfeit and fake tickets as they would not be entertained at the F1 venue.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.jaypeesports.com/

http://www.formulaonebooking.com/formula_1_in_india_circuit_logo.htm

http://www.bookmyshow.com/sport/formula1

India Rising

Around 2 decades back India started it's courtship with an Industry that was to become benchmark of all developments and industries. The mark of Indian IT industry started with a huge enthusiasm. Youth of India caught up with the rising trend of computer education and IT industry. Initially there were apprehensions but gradually the trend put on. Universities and colleges started courses in computer education and applications. Before anybody could realize India emerged as a big provider of software support and services of which a major part was development of software products. Private MNCs started heading towards destination India. Indian software engineers were more hot than the hot-cake itself. Lo and Behold the great India IT revolution came. Many cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad were transformed into Cosmopolitans. Alongside the rise of support industries also started and as a ripple effect IT became back-bone of development of many industries as money started flowing in. Very soon trips to US and other European countries were a norm for any ordinary graduate with a degree/diploma in computers.

In our country we always had a charm for English. Starting from nursery/KG English was always a matter of pride for anybody. Please/Take/Thank-you/Hello/How r u / are some words which were used even by a rickshaw-puller. This knack of the language English payed dividends when another revolution called ITES (IT enabled Services) came through, BPOs, KPOs (… more lovingly called Call-Centers) and now the latest LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing). These outsourcing models changed the whole structure of our society in many terms but most specific was job. Now even a 12th pass out could earn handsomely while pursuing his studies in the background. Studying your brains off till the sunset of your youth was no longer in fashion.

Latest fad to list is IPL.

Isn’t IPL a coming-of-age event that has happened to the world? The whole concept of cricket has changed and of entertainment too. European football franchises and clubs who prided themselves on their business and hefty fees to star players are now looking askance at the rise and rise of IPL. Right now IPL is the most sought after thing that could happen to any cricketer. isn’t it something that county matches offered not so long back to a cricketer...name/fame/money and most of all recognition. Players from all different countries striving to become a part of IPL teams named mostly on Indian states, managing to speak Hindi (checkout the latest TV commercial advertisements involving foreigner cricketers). Also heard that European football clubs are interested in taking up IPL teams in auction.

Well all of these surely point to a rising india. India as a country has matured well enough to become self-sustaining, independent. Indian companies are creating jobs in US and European countries isn’t it a turn-of-the-tables or maybe start of it. Yes there are glitches and hitches but I believe they are just part of the game of development-in-progress.
Yesterday I was going through a newspaper and one thing caught my eye; Indian youth (under 20) would amount for 55% of the population in next 15 years (i am not sure if this is a verified data) but it must surely be quite close. So our black-horse the population promises to become a Stallion if gromed properly. I believe our golden period is ahead of us and yet to come in terms of development and world leadership.

India is surely rising and will rise.

Recognition

How does it feel when standing at some place with lots of unknown faces you suddenly have a glimpse of someone known, a possibility of talking to someone to at least kill a bit of time or may be catch-up on some news current or old.

something similar happened to me this evening but with a difference …

It so happened that I went to meet someone, and reached before time so had some time to explore surrounding area. Strolling in nearby 'bazaar', I was hopelessly looking for a familiar face, a known fellow to chat, to kill time. Just then I caught a glimpse of someone in an adjoining shop, delighted I tilted my head back to catch that knowing smile again, it smiled back at me, my heart leaped at such a familiar face, he seemed so known, I could talk to him, say Hi! share stories ... within a millionth of a second these thoughts raised past, I could se the same twinkle in his eyes as in mine...just as I was coming to terms with these thoughts I saw the twinkle fading in that very familiar face, it was only in the next millionth of that second itself I realized that, that was a mirror and the very familiar face I was eagerly looking at was none other than me, mimicking back the same feelings and expressions I was having, but from the restraints of that mirror.

well a short story indeed but I found this incident so amusing to myself that I thought to pen it down on my blog and wait for another such similar happening coming from any of my readers and friends.

A Morning Affair

To begin with, this night was supposedly a hectic one, unexpected, tiresome and to be spent with my other-half (hang on guys before u jump to any conclusion), I was referring to my job which demands so much of time and commitment. Well I won’t go into any cribbing, just to cut short I had to stay back for some urgent client support and ended up spending a night here. Period.

The night was as dark as itself, but most refreshing thing that happened to me was it’s morning (as they say after each dark night comes a beautiful morning). Have I lost my sense of writing and cannot get any better words to describe as beautiful phenomenon as a morning. Well may be. May be for those joggers, early birds, faithfulls, and host of others who get to see rising sun each day, is not a big deal. But for people like me, who spend late nights sitting beside their computers, watching tv playing games or doing some other mundane tasks like blogging, rising sun is like a delicacy.

Muezzin calling faithfuls for namaz, a priest praising the Lord through his bhajan, birds chirping and rays tearing apart the darkness and paving way for the sun’s chariot is a sight that one can only feel and not explain, specially if it happens to you once in a blue moon. It’s not that I am a late riser, but I seldom have the will to go out and look into the sun directly in it’s eyes, feel it’s freshness and be refreshed.

I don’t know if tomorrow will be same but yes this Morning was a costly Affair, as I forgo dear sleep to have a peek at the rising sun.
No morals, but only thoughts sketched after fighting bouts of sleep at this hour :)

1 Sentence

Once a King asked his Vizier, give me a sentence which when said in happiness makes one sad, and when in sadness makes a person happy.

After a moments thought, the Vizier answered ...

"This time will pass."

Gap between academia and the industry - A thought

Long time back one of the staff in my university administration commented that an education institution is there to impart degrees not jobs. Was he true or just candid?

Well he was not exactly aware about the processes that are in place to ensure that a graduate lands up with a decent career. There are career counseling cells, Training and Placement Officers and various other units who help a student take next steps for his or her career. There are campus visits by various companies for hiring potential freshers. However these visits are usually limited to professional courses. Educational institutions offering specialized courses attract the highest number of companies from the relevant industry, breeds of the IITs, IIMs and top notch central universities take the lions share when industry goes on a hiring spree.

My point of focus and concern are the educational institutions which lack in their expertise and vision to gear their students for their foray into the big bad world of professional industry. Is it a vision or resources that many institutions lack which result in not-so-ready-for-job graduates and companies think twice before finalizing such an institute for campus visit or simply dont-care attitude. I think latter is not true given the level of competition.

The other side of story
-----------------------
Industry would love to have some degree of professional skills in the fresh graduates they hire both soft and technical. That is the reason why many companies spend much on induction programs and training sessions for the selected candidates. Big companies have a built-in mechanism for such programs oiled and in-place with time, whilst small companies prefer to hire experienced persons reducing the training cost, if freshers are hired then at a very low CTC than their big CMM level counterparts.

Being on both side of the fence, I do understand and believe that both the academia and industry have their requirements and expectations from each other. Academia would love to have more of industry participation in honing skills of their graduates so that their employability factor . Vis-a-vis industry would care for a more ready-on-the-floor type of hires fresh from college.

So where does the problem lie or rather the solution. Frankly speaking right now I don’t know, but this is a question bouncing in my mind for quite sometime.

Googling and surfing on the net has resulted in some interesting links, articles, case studies and anecdotes which did hinted at the same issue. India is on the good side of a resource pool which is youthful and educated but less employable.

I did come across some good Samaritans who are working in the same direction but with varied paths. One such set-up is co-cubes (http://www.cocubes.com/)

excerpt from their website homepage..

"The word CoCubes comes from the first two alphabets of three words, connecting colleges and companies. The idea is to bring a paradigm shift in campus recruitment by bringing all colleges, recruiters, training firms onto a single platform. We are the pioneers in online campus recruitment and currently swamped with colleges wanting to go online and corporate looking for an efficient and effective campus recruitment process. To know more about us click here "

I know there are many more such helps available and another one doing a pioneering work is http://www.siliconindia.com/ in online mentoring and making easy for graduates to interact with industry professionals.

I strongly believe that this is a need of the hour .. a bridge for the gap between academia and the industry. The more there are such bridges the better it is. Destination should be same 'Enhanced employability of indian graduates', paths can be different.

What say? Any comments.

The Great Delhi Run

Nov 1 2009
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Gearing up...

A beautiful misty morning would have not been more enthusiastic without this marathon. Presence of 30,000 odd delhites and athletes from all over the world made it look like a mini-carnival. But carnival it was, fancy costumes, drums beats, thumping music, laughter and zest were all there. It went successful beyond the imagination of even the planners of the event, people were jostling for space, but nobody was in a hurry. People had come with lots of plan, prepared well in advance for the event.

The Airtel Half-Marathon attracted around 30,000 runners (refer) who competed in one of the four races: the half marathon, the 7 km Great Delhi Run, a 4.3 km run for senior citizens, and a 3.5 km wheelchair race.

I along with my collegues participated the Great Delhi Run which started and finished at Nehru park covering the satya marg, african avenue and vinay marg. we collected at the holding area after parking our vehicles at Race course. The holding area was a huge ground where thousands of people collected and it was difficult to search for someone. A helicopter was hovering above to capture the event. All Appluads to Delhi Police and organizers of the race for such a successful event, yes indeed we delhites showed so much restraint in presenting ourselves as a great sport (in the right manner). It was an international event with people from many different countries running along side.

Check-out the Great Delhi Run Route






Not only did delhites turn up forgoing precious weekend sleep but also there were many famous personalities (like from our film fraternity Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Bose ..), delhi CM Shiela Dikshit, MTV Anchor Nikhil Chinnappa to name a few



The Great Delhi run was a 2 hour affair with race beginning at 9.30 AM and ending at 11.30 AM, but what 2 hours it had been. Great fanfare, enthusiasm and fun. It was no less than a mini-carnival. We had joined with a theme of celebrating Common Wealth Games 2010 hosted by Delhi and pitching for Olympics 2020 for which Delhi is a contender.

Finally at around 12 noon we left the race ground with a great feeling and needless to say headed for the first restraunt in-sight. Although there were many suggestions but we zeroed in on Andhra Bhavan and had a delightful lunch.








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Some more pics from the event

Be careful while choosing a company

While surfing through the net this morning I came across an interesting article on Rediff.com on layoffs right from a manager on other side of table engaged in decision making for some layoffs in his company.

For detailed article go through this link
http://getahead.rediff.com/report/2009/may/13/be-very-careful-while-choosing-a-company.htm

He writes his story and sums up with some pieace of advice as below :

My advice to any management

• Do not hire people unless you are sure about their roles


• Make long-term priorities.


• Employees should not be treated as physical assets but as living beings with emotions. If you are not able to afford them do not hire them

My advice to any youngster or an employee

• Be very careful while choosing a company.


• Small companies are becoming cheats these days by adopting American work policy of hire & fire


• Before joining a company, go for a history check.


• If an employer has the right to verify your professional background, an an employee you too have every right to verify the company credentials.


• Contact its previous or current employees and take feedback from them. You may get the real picture of the company


• While on the interview table, clarify each and every point with your employer.


• Do not hesitate to ask the HR manager to mail you the company's HR policies for its employees


• Last but not the least, do not always blame your manager for the pink slip you have received.

Nano – Changing face of Traffic

A major concern of traffic Pandits, that come Nano and traffic in some cities like Delhi will hit chaos. Traffic apart but this people’s car is surely creating waves. This is one luxury item which is going to penetrate across all segments. People in as humble as a profession like cobbler, pan-wala etc. are eyeing for this once upon a time Sahib’s vehicle. Not only the lower middle class but also the upper middle class segments are vying for Nano. One of my friends (who already owns two luxury cars) pointed out that even though they have enough cars in their household but taking a Nano would ensure you have one for any emergency when no other is available especially for ladies in the home.
Kudos to Mr. Ratan Tata for his dream project which holds the potential of making many a dreams come true. I couldn’t help but share this incidence when I visited two prominent banks and was amazed to see the crowd which was there to book a Nano. Right now banks have associated several personals and designated a counter specifically for these bookings.
What happens to fears of Traffic pundits that time will tell, but right now there is this celebrity which is getting all attention.

So much for words want to have peek into peoples car then browse through this link
http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/

Closing Open-Source

When I saw the news of Oracle’s takeover of Sun after IBM exit, the first thought was where is Open-Source headed. First it was a take-over of MySQL by Sun which worried many hearts that if MySQL would remain free. Now this news of Suns acquisition is a major concern for open-source community. The ever increasing materialization in professional world with much respected open-source companies available for a price is a jolt for community itself. Free software is more popular than propriety software especially in students, entrepreneurs and small organizations and startups. Although personally I see Oracle as more open-source friendly than some of other giants but this surely gonna hit free software in some way or other. On the other side it might be possible that all my fears come out rubbish and this acquisition comes out as a boon for MySQL, Java and hordes of other open-source technologies with support available from expertise of Oracle.

Elections 2009 - Hot Season of Politics

In India or may be any other democratic country Elections are a big part of life. The drama and activities may be doubles and tripples in as large a democratic country as ours.
Well the current government is completing it’s five years in office and is time for another general elections. Time to elect our new leaders. The election process is generally preceded by high drama of speeches and of promises (which usually have a way to remain unfulfilled till the next election), fight of words and flight of shoes (lastest emerging trend).
The amazing thing is the remark of politicians on each other, the language and the mud-slinging. Instead of coming together for betterment of country and new policies for youth they are busy in making plans and schemes in how to retain or gain their kursi. Ah! The dance of democracy indeed.
But this time there surely are winds of change which may not necessarily bring about a difference immediately but surely pave way for good in the future. The youth of today is the change, the literate, educated, informed youth of Young India. The leaders will be decided by them, smart, suave, visionary leaders. A leader whose ambition is the progress, peace & development of India instead of fighting to hold the post even if it is for one-time only or once in a life-time only. Time to see a person who is always with the people is a social reformer, a visionary, a preacher (if required), acts like a head of a family and shows up whenever required or may be each day but not only once-every-5-years. A determined personality who can make this country terror free, generate and cultivate fresh & new ideas for youth, let religion be a personal topic – a choice of an individual. Take India to next level of development and in a commanding position within our neighbours, generate jobs and opportunities for all, make education more available, take up social and national issues and make efforts to solve them atleast one-by-one. I think that is what we require from a Leader and much more.
Now is the time. We have to cast our powerful votes which is the wand for change to make India more developed, peaceful, terror-free, corruption-free country.

Jai Ho !!