gone again

hey
which bird are you
you look like sparrow
just as agile
as unsettled
as quirky
but little darker
little longer
hey look here
OMG
you flew away
don't you realise
am human
human being
no respect
nothing
just flew away like that
as if I don't exist
huh..
oh come back, you looked different
let me have a look again
ah...back you are
and gone again
and gone
gone
exist
gone
exist
exit

Air Purifiers - A symbol of Rich Poor divide

The heavy layer of smoke and dust we saw in Delhi on 2nd of November saw advice coming from all corners - stay indoors, use AC at home, use AC in cars, use Masks and it wasn't long before Air Purifiers got added to the list, got added to people's Amazon search history, and got added to advertisements in the newspapers and in the mobiles.

Now I won't even talk about rest of the species that reside in Delhi, I know they don't matter to us since ages, and Nature will take their revenge with time. But what about some of us. How is a labourer supposed to use AC in the car, how is the gardener supposed to stay indoors, how are the kids of the construction worker next to my home going to put on the masks -  no body is even at home when 5 of these kids spend their day playing outside their temporary dwelling.

Don't they have a right on fresh air? Yes they do!!
Don't we have a right of fresh air? Yes we do!!

But something socially toxic has happened recently. Air Purifiers have sneaked into houses. In those very houses that have ACs, that have Cars - houses that contribute most to pollution. And this will continue. Over next few years all these houses would have Air Purifiers just like we have water purifiers. And then, a few years down the line, when there would again be that dreaded layer of smoke and dust the questions will come again....

Don't we have a right of fresh air? Yes we do. We have it at home, you know the air purifier! Its like this only every year.
Don't they have a right on fresh air. Well...who ??

And here goes the poor fellow.

Just like cars have not left any space on roads for people to walk, to cycle. And no I am not talking about people who would want to walk/cycle for good health once in  a while. I am talking about those who don't have cars. They have to walk. And there is no space to walk. And its accepted now that roads are for cars billowing smoke thrusting dust into the nostrils of those trying to walk. That itself is a symbol of Rich Poor divide.

And so will the Air Purifiers be. A new normal. A bad normal as they pollute the fundamental theory that fresh air is for everyone !

Cheers,
Manish

My dear flowers

A little hindi poem on Pollution

प्रदूषण रोको प्रदूषण रोको
सब यह शोर मचाते हैं
और फिर जी भर के
प्रदूषण फैलाते हैं
घर के बाहर पेड़ काट
Parking बनवाते हैं
फिर एक पौधा लगा
खुद को ग्रीन बताते हैं
ग्रीन बेल्ट को काट कर
सड़क चौड़ी करवाते हैं
और फिर कार-फ्री डे मनाते हैं
दो  कदम की दूरी है
SUV में जाते हैं
उसमे बैठे बच्चे को
प्रदूषण रोको समझाते हैं
बाहर बारिश हो रही है
फिर भी AC में नींद पाते हैं
Local warming फैला
Global warming का शोर मचाते हैं
प्रदूषण रोको प्रदूषण रोको
सब यही समझाते हैं

- मनीष जोशी

Dolphins are from west !

That is what I have believed all along. Why? Whenever I have seen them performing in swimming pools on TV, its always been with equally beautiful western trainers, on western channels. Oh yes, I have seen them with some Japanese trainers as well. But then, Japan is west to west. Isn't it.

It wasn't until I visited Goa, and we were taken on a dolphin trip..aw..where we could see dolphins in the sea, I realised that Dolphins are in India too. wow. Alas, the trip had to be cancelled mid-way (or say mid-sea) due to ugly weather.

I still thought these must have been some kind of second class Dolphins. Hey, we are in India, and Dolphins are from west.

Similarly, I had never taken half a million 'Olive Ridley' turtles that arrive in Odisha for nesting seriously. Hey the name is very western, what could they be doing in India. It must be some low key affair, I thought!

Not until I read the recent news of 66 feet whale found in Odisha, or 45 Baleen whales stranded in Tamil Nadu, or another 40 feet blue whale rescued in Maharashtra, and another 30 foot Bryde's whale found in Mumbai that I realised that there is rich marine biodiversity in India.

Only that I have been very ignorant and I just don't know. And many Indians just don't know.

And now I miss not having see the Dolphins in Goa. By the way, Goa is our western coast ;)

-----------------
Here is another interesting article on Mint with similar thoughts

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/iwGE8OwFUUQ6Zv5B1eJQoL/Are-we-neglecting-Indias-rich-marine-biodiversity.html

प्रकृति

ओ माँ
तूने हमें क्या क्या दिया - 
पेड़ और पौधे दिए
पशु और पक्षि दिए
पहाड़ और समंदर दिए
जल और वायु दी
और तूने ही हमें पैदा किया

और माँ
हमने तुझे क्या दिया -
जंगल हमने काट दिए
ग्लेशियर गला दिए
हवा में धुआँ फैला दिया
पानी में कूड़ा मिला दिया
और माँ तुम्हे भुला दिया

हमसे तो ग़लती हुई माँ
पर तुम ना हमें भुलाना
तुम ना हमें भुलाना !!

A little poem I did for my kid to recite in school. Please feel free to reuse/republish it.
- Manish Joshi, Sep 2015

Met a cow on my way to office

Where is she going ?

 Met a cow on my way to office
...going somewhere
the question came up - where?

I tried asking her, she doesn't understand me
still walking
head jerked to left, tail to right
tail to left, head to right
walking straight in the line, eyes down, on the road

Does she know where the road leads to
No
What if she forgets the way back
Probably there is no home,
no stuff in there
and no need of way back

Is she going to meet someone
Is she going shopping
No
Is she going to find something to eat, or drink
She doesn't know, but going she is.

Not that she is going no where
Somewhere she is going
I wonder - is here, there and where same for her as for us
And I realise that she is not going anywhere
She is just leaving there
And she just keeps leaving there step by step
Unless she gets to a better 'there'

- Manish Joshi, Sep 2015

Car Free Day

On World Car Free day I walked down my kids to their school, 2kms from home. Great experience. Walking on the road with kids is lot different then walking alone or with an adult.

Many realisations - one, we are talking about need of cycling tracks but there are no walking tracks to begin with. There is no option but to walk on the road. And as such there is no incentive doing that - took me more time to drop them, cars and buses zoomed past with less than a foot to spare many times, and more pollution to inhale. Cars tend to put you in risk to avoid a pothole, and we have ample of pot holes as well. And not to talk about honking.

But interestingly, kids were very excited since day before, woke up early, and on reaching school, kids declared that they would walk down to school every Tuesday. Great! And I was glad too for having contributed to a social activity.

One thing is clear, there is no more space for additional cars. Any more cars on the roads is a lose-lose situation for everyone. And I don't know why its a economic-crisis like news whenever car sales dip.

And solution is not in banning car sales or taxing them higher. We just need to connect city with walk-ways and cycling tracks. People want to walk or cycle. Raahgiri days in Gurgaon have shown the way. Service lanes can be converted into non-motorized roads once a week.

Finally, hats off to Gurgaon Traffic Police that is demonstrating so much creativity in the form of Raahgiri Days and now Car Free Days.  Its very rare that a govt establishment like police is so creatively involved with its citizens. 

Together, we will get somewhere & without a car.

O Bhindi !

O Bhindi!

Yes dear, I do appreciate you now
for you took three months from that seed
with daily water, & monthly compost
with endless little white moths
for those hibiscus creamish flowers
that hosted countless ants when they were buds
and then they shed to let flourish the fruit - you
you - well, books say you are a vegetable, not fruit

I do appreciate you now
for peer tomato plants died long back
while capsicum never awoke from its seeds
for spinach is down with all the bugs
and here you stand, with a brother of yours

O God, I do appreciate you now too
for giving me this bhindi
out of thin air, literally
for the amazing science you applied
we are still dissecting it
and for showing my limited mind
that a bhindi is photogenic too

O farmer, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you now
for it took me months to get - one Bhindi!
and you have been feeding me
my family, the whole humanity, since ever
Am going crazy
- thinking how many bhindis the world eats daily
you got a big task man
and you have been doing it silently there, somewhere
while I have been busy on my growth, on buying a new phone, you know, a smarter one

I do appreciate you now.

Farnam Street Blog

Some months back Mint newspaper introduced me to farnamstreetblog.com in an article. The article talked about quality content on internet. After being on this blog every other day for last few months and trying to absorb the content, I almost feel compelled to share this with friends.

It reminded me of the days of how Wikipedia would be a site that we would access first in free time, and then how we moved on to facebook and left everything behind including free time.

Now Farnam Street Blog holds on to me during those free time breaks. I won't comment on what's in there - check it out, and if you like it, check it out again.

http://www.farnamstreetblog.com

Cheers,
Manish

Bulbul 1, Bulbul 2, Bulbul 3 - had a baby

Bulbul 1, Bulbul 2, Bulbul 3
had a baby
teaching it to fly high up
finding it to crashing down
chirps go shrill, its a matter of prey now
as it jumps on the ground
dad put it in a plastic bowl, on the branches, in the tree
it moves out to perch on tip of the branch
.....flutters bravely

Bulbul 1, Bulbul 2, Bulbul 3
had a baby

Next morning
chirps go shrill again
Rufous makes a dive
in Bulbul's Ashoka tree
the three Bulbuls
chase Rufous away - or try to
Maina joins them too
while Robin remains watchful

And then I see - the baby
sitting on the ground
ducking inside under open sky
And I see Rufous spotted it too
I leaped towards it, and Rufous dived
A few leaps here, a big sweep there
the baby is gone
some feathers in the air
some noise
Robin flies away
Maina gone too
Bulbuls are nowhere to be seen
........quietude

Bulbul 1, Bulbul 2, Bulbul 3
had a baby
.





(Dedicated to nature's commotion: to the Bulbuls, to the Ashoka tree where they live, to the baby - that lived, to Maina who joined other birds in fighting the predator, to black and white Oriental Magpie Robin who whistles beautifully, to rightfully merciless Rufous Treepie who produces so many kinds of sounds, to noise and to absence of it, and to birth and to death.)

will they get water next?

with my shades on
from the comfort of my AC car
that I am driving from my AC office
to my AC home
and as I observe that its scorching hot outside
I wait on this traffic light
and I see these doves
doing what they do the best
dove tailing each other
lovingly, playfully and beautifully
comes the thought  - do they know where will they get water next?

do they care about some
that I left in the balcony for them
actually lot less than I flush in one go
do they have the Maps to get there
would the doves who have seen it, Tweet it
do they know the Weather tomorrow - its going to be hot
It seems they don't care
I sure know that we don't care
- after all they aren't Angry Birds, they look happy

but still, flies by the thought - will they get water next?

Ambala City - can it have a character too?

Had a chance to visit Ambala for a day in Apr'14, and my expectations to find anything interesting in the city were as low as they can be. But was pleasantly surprised during my hour long walk in the market. The market held a character in the buildings that held the market.

Most buildings were pretty old, worn down, still showcasing a vibrant market.

Benarsi Daas has been faded into background by new age Bata.

Somehow shopkeepers there would know in a moment that you are not local and they had a watchful eye on my observer walk. Can't even imagine walking there with a camera. Now I do appreciate mobile photography :)

The point that city makes - old goes down and new comes up.

It took me some time to understand why I did not feel very welcome there. Feeling was just like this building below, where 'Friends' was sitting under this partition.

Later, a group of three elderly got friendly, explained me that this place was primarily Muslims occupied, who left during partition, and was later occupied by Hindus who traveled from Pakistan to India. Of course, having been part of most unfortunate part of Indian history, there would be multiple scars keeping a sharp subconscious on - making outsiders like me clearly stand out.

The elderly group showed me this building which was their only means to know time in childhood - the clock is stolen now.

The building below holds a factory. Its square in size with peace all around - difficult to find any thing like this now.

This temple had something written in Urdu/Arabic. Am yet to have it translated:

People don't remove Peepal trees coming out from walls and windows. There are ample houses with Peepal on the wall.

Below house has been well preserved by owners. I just loved these windows.

And the old doors were there all around. Most were locked adding to the character of the place:

This massive place holds a Kinder Garten now:

And the final one, the tea centre under this run down building. Where would you go if you step out of these doors. And what would you find, if you step in these doors!

Cheers,

Manish, May-2014

When the music froze....

The whole stage was in rhythm with the music beautifully flowing in from Bose speakers sitting mighty at the top of the auditorium.

Kids were full of energy, and a demanding high paced Rajasthani folk dance was getting brilliantly executed.

We, and another 100 odd couples were engrossed in this performance by school students, aged 10-12, organized during our orientation as our wards had just got admission there.

Suddenly, the thundering music froze mid-way and…and so did the kids. Till now they were majestically running around the stage and had just formed a pose at the centre with both hands in air, head moving to a side, body slightly tilted; and now they were just there - in that difficult pose, no movement.

So now the group was in problem, music had stopped and they were supposed to be dancing to it. Clock was ticking 10..20...30....40.....50 seconds...quite a lot

But the kids, during these few but seemingly very long seconds presented a typical example of problem-handling which applies equally well to any team in an office:

- they all maintained the smiles, poise and grace (so come what may, maintain the positive outlook)

- no one stepped out of the formation (learning: maintain mutual respect and trust)

- they demonstrated complete faith in the background team workers; the music player here (learning: team is generally wider than what we end up believing in)

- they remembered what the coach must have told him every day for this moment (learning: have mentors and coaches, listen to them, and respect them)

- nothing beats the practice (learning: practice, practice, practice)

- (learning: keep looking forward) here they kept looking forward to music resuming which was evident….

as when the music resumed after 65 seconds, they just continued with the dance full of enthusiasm as if nothing had happened.

I was thoroughly humbled.

How not to have a queuing system?

In short: been to bank this afternoon, got a token from queuing machine, waited for 15 minutes, another guy waiting for 45 minutes and here walks in a customer - goes directly to one of the counters and voila, gets served. Got me irritated, walked upto that counter and representative told me that there are no pending tokens; so now they look at the screen and ignore customers sitting in holding area just next to them. Got to the branch manager: told by her that sir you must have missed your number! And the other guy as well missed it! It took my some time to figure out what's wrong, and a lot of stuff was wrong. But here are the solutions:

1) The tokens were not plain sequential. They are like GYC012, MWR048, RTV039. So a waiting customer would never come to know if she has missed her number by looking at the screen flashing the number which may be RWR120. So strip off all info from token number that is not relevant to customer. KEEP IT SIMPLE

2) It took me two minutes to figure out where the display was, simply because it wasn't visible from my corner of holding area. Numbers must be announced when the turn comes, not just flashed. There are people with not a great eye-sight, and with none as well at times. HAVE RESPECT.

3) If you have a token based queuing system, never entertain a customer without a token. There are people sitting and waiting with tokens. BE FAIR.

4) Physical bodies are far more important and easy to see than small slips of paper. Do visit the holding area every 5 minutes or so. Don't leave managing visitors just to a machine. VALUE YOUR CUSTOMER.

Why not to name the bank? Because that's not the point :)

The statistical pleasure of Like kills the conversation

I liked the like button of Facebook till the time I realised that I can not dislike it. There is no option!

It was a simple one click action to like something. People would post photos, thoughts, views, opinions, links and you could just Like it if you liked it. Even if you did not like the post you could still Like it if you liked your friend unless your friend never liked any of your likeable posts!

Ah..but, consequently, people started forgetting the Comment box. Lately I have seen posts with 50+ likes but less than 5 comments: hey where is the conversation now.

Even a photograph is liked by different people for different reasons - we don't know those perspective now, we don't express them now. A landscape photograph may be liked by the photographer for the greenery while someone may like the clouds, and some may like the goat standing in the corner, umm the left corner, which others may not even have noticed. There is no exchange of appreciation, there is no sharing of viewpoint - its only a statistical increase of Like.

Facebook being intelligent has probably sensed our inability to write our mind in Comments box, so they have planned to come up with Sympathise button if the post is - say worth liking but in a sympathetic way!

Now knowing that I can not dislike the Like button, may be I can Sympathise :)
After all feelings have to be let out, and we need buttons for that.

Sardar Ajit Singh - the Freedom Fighter

In recent trip to Dalhousie, came across this at a spot called Panch-Pulla. It was interesting to know that Bhagat Singh's Uncle was also a great freedom fighter - we always thought it was him only, and now I realise how little we think about people who got us this freedom.

Anyways it was great to know about him - he gave us ' Pagadi Sambhaal Jatta', and sad it was to know how much he was impacted by Indo-pak partition - he left the world on day after Independence day.

This quick post is to serve as an e-extension of this statue & writeup that was at his place of demise - Dalhousie.

"Come-Learn; Go-Serve"

"Come-Learn; Go-Serve"

This was written at the exit of a school in Manali. Quite an eye-opener it was!

Education is not available to everyone, its a privilege, a blessing. But for the lucky ones having it, its mostly a means of sustenance and beyond that acquisition - for self, and for the generations to come.

There hardly is any aspect of serving  others.

This gentle reminder to pupils that you are lucky enough to get the education, so when you go out, use it to serve others seemed very apt at the exit gate.

Decided to share this!

The Dance Floor

This was captured some days back in the office disco party. I liked this pic as it could capture the colors, lights, action, excitement of the dance floor

The Botanical Garden, Gurgaon

When reached this garden for the first time on a foggy winter morning, I found an island of nature sitting in the midst of concrete of Gurgaon. All I could see was trees, plants, mist, flowers, birds….All I could hear was chirping…one could feel the fresh air flowing in...

That moment I decided to share the beauty of this place with fellow nature lovers and garden lovers - by setting up a dedicated photo-blog for this.

http://botanicalgardengurgaon.blogspot.in/

And I wish this may induce some people to come here or to gardens near their homes, take a break from the race we are into all the time, and appreciate nature – to which we all belong, like a child does to her mother.

A kid is kid...

Couple of days back I was in a mall with some colleagues of mine, had lunch, were walking down to ground floor to grab some ice cream. Something caught our attention mid way..there was this three year old baby crying and running behind her mother trying to catch hold of her...well..usual stuff...but the mother was just marching on ...something was out of order in her march...the ruthlessness! Soon she was about to get on to the escalator on her way down..kid was just about to approach her...and whoa..she left him behind crying..and on the escalator she was..and lost her balance too but managed with the railing.

Now here is the three year old kid..standing in front of moving escalator unsure of stepping forward..watching his mom drifting away.....for some moments it made my heart sad at the emotions that were in the cries of the baby... emotion of  fear, terror, loss, non belongingness...

It was left to the writer to grab the kid, and get him safely down the escalator; handed him over to his mother, and bit unwillingly had to part ways there. Soon the march started again..jerking the kid flat on the ground...

I just had to move on. Some mins later my colleague pointed them out to me sitting next to each other.. probably trying to make up.

Am sure they love each other..and that mother is as special a mother as is any mother... just angry at some act of the kid ..but hey..he is just a kid and a kid and a kid and a kid. That's it. What max can he do to generate and face such a behavior? Lets all just learn to love humanity..right from the point and especially at the point when its nascent. That's one sure step we can take to not promote terrorism in long run.

Sania ki shaadi...

Its their personal affair, I quipped back when Dad said its not fair to Sania.No but Sania doesn't know the truth about Sohaib..he persisted. How do you know - I exclaimed!.. she just tweeted that she was aware - suddenly realising that I too was into this personal matter. My brother, quite till now but in deep thoughts, came out with the opinion that she is not doing right by leaving us Indians out and marrying a Pakistani. Its her personal matter - I exclaimed again! Its not! - my brother got back even more strongly...why is this happening in so much of publicity..they have not left it personal any more..I am involved..he stressed..and serious he was.

While on "Involvement" I recollected one Thackeray objecting to it, and another  Thackeray approving it ...as if she cared!

Fun..anyways...the whole discussion was..but even I couldn't figure out how personal a thing is for a public figure..and how personal they want it to be....

itunes and searchindexer.exe

Listening to music on iTunes, adding songs to a playlist in every 2-3 minutes..as I go along..and I notice my laptop's fan is going mad trying to cool down my machine. Peeped into the task manager and iTunes is taking upto 20-25 % CPU, and searchindexer.exe upto 40-50 %.

Hey, I exited searchindexer sometime ago...well went to Indexing Options from control panel and ...and it says "Its indexing..." amazing..now there is no option to snooze it too.

Learnt on web to remove .xml files (refer iTunes) under Advanced options of indexing; and it did make the difference straight away.

- MJ

Bi-Cycle

Two of my friends purchased bicycles over last week. Both of them are 30+, working and definitely quite different from college or school going young guys who would normally fit in the frame of our imagination of someone sitting on a bi-cycle.

I told them that its recession that prompted them to go ahead and buy a bi-cycle; of course both of them defended it out like any thing, and they were right that they did not purchase it to save money. They both come to the office in their own cars and would continue to...

In fact I never reasoned that its to save money, but the promoting reason was recession. Here is why: recession forced our minds to go back into our simpler less expensive times refreshing the life style we had when money was scarce. It brought out those happinesses that were less expensive and more happier. It recreated some less cluttered images of life in our brain. And from there, sub-conscientiously came out the BI-CYCLE a simple easy to acquire machine that takes you places, that was and always is a pleasure to drive, that reflected freedom...fun.. , that is one of the last pleasant activities we did around 10-15 years back when we used to just bicycle and have fun of it.

Of course none of them agreed to my this loosely founded theory, but no one agreed with Copernicus too...on something I don't recall...probably something I don't agree to ;)

Grand Punto

Hey Guys..saw a Fiat Grand Punto on road this weekend..and man ..after a long time saw a car that had class in it..that had a character in it...'non-aggressive admirable bold'.

Since long Maruti has been numbing our design admiration senses by turning out one after another bland design. Look at Swift Dezire's boot ..reminds me of car Ambassdor....the Ritz..hey unconventional abstract whatever you may call it....only problem is that you can't appreciate it.. 'A Star'..the front looked good when I saw it for the first time and the I saw its tail...entirely disconnected..looked like Lion's torso on rear of a goat.. Zen Estilo..swollen jelly bean...lets not even talk about it..its a shame on original cute jelly bean Zen - probably the only car along with SX4 from Maruti stable that have a design with a character.

Skoda Fabia, Mahindra Logan just added to the blandness on Indian roads.

Thanks to Hyundai's i10, i20 and Honda cars that kept on refereshing our design taste buds..one could still appreciate Grand Punto

-MJ

TOP 3....hey what about 4th!!

Since the time I recollect..have always been told about 1st, 2nd, 3rd ranks...be it my 1st Class, 10th, 12th, Graduation..or be it about a marathon held in Delhi, or Olympics in Beijing (hey they call them Gold, Silver, Bronze), or about winners of a lottery, or ..or..or..about ...pick top 3 of whatever comes to your mind..
...have started wondering now why its Top 3 not - Top 4 or Top 2... Rule is simple, 1st one bettered 2nd, 2nd one bettered 3rd, so did 4th to 5th. Had we lived in Top 4 instead of Top 3 we would certainly have had more winners all along (well 33%).. So what limited it to Top 3, probably the answer is in two parts..
one - we, the followers, have always seen Top 3 so we continue with that
two -the guy who termed 'Top 3' was either 3rd in the list of some competition at the advent of documented competitions in human age (blah...), or father of a prince who stood 3rd in some competition

...you guys can answer and choose Top 3 to be probable answers but one thing that still confuses me is why do I set my car stereo volume to 15 not 17 or 14 when my ears can't see ..and why do we have 5 rs coin..not 6 or 7... and hey why do we celebrate 100 runs and not 137 when latter is clear 37 more..probably Table of 5 was the easiest to remember in school..thats why!

MJ

Richa

Hey

How do we get to see those eyes once again

Thou used to blink in duplicate

How do we get to see that smile

That used to stretch till your eyes

How do we hear that laughter

That u created whenever under pressure

How do we have your presence

Which was so jolly and pleasant

How do we open your eyes

Which were never closed

Cause when world closed them

You chose to keep them open!

We know

We all know

You are there somewhere

In the sky, in the stars

Near god or a new one among us

Creating joy and splendour

Spreading smile and trademark laughter

Somewhere

Some where near!

मैं

Doston, have decided to publish my collection of poems here...starting with my favorite ' मैं '

so here we go...

मैं
अभी भी मैं ही हूँ
पर अब मैं वो मैं नहीं जो मैं था

मुझमे वो सब अब नहीं जीसकी वजह से मैं मैं था
पर जो कुछ भी मुझमे है, हूँ अभी भी मैं मैं ही
और मैं चाहता हूँ की लोग मुझे मैं ही समझें

पर यह कैसे हो सकता है
मैं तो बस मेरे लीये ही मैं हूँ
बाकीयों के लीये तो मैं - वो से वो हो गया हूँ

new mobile in recession time !!

so all of us changed our mobiles every six to nine months...yes yes ..we had reasons for that..new ones are jazzy..have new features...music..camera ..small..sleek..fresh..and that too everytime!

thats something most of us are missing while facing the heat of recession.

But I got a solution for this...few days back my wife was playing around with my mobile and she changed the display theme..oh man it looked very fresh again..almost new...now I know what to do some months down the line..right! change the theme again..

..and then this colleague of mine who had to change the cover of her mobile to replace that junky cover..and it was as good as a new mobile....Hmmm...

realised that combined 'theme and cover' change would be the killer combination..;)

you know what to do now..bye..go and have fun with your new mobile theme :)

lateral growth

This was in Kochi, (Kerala, India). It was different..difficult..how could the tree be growing laterally not vertically..and surviving. The image beautifully.. comprised of earth ..air..water..life..hope..struggle..beauty.

Ahum...

PMP Cleared, Lessons Learned

Hi,

Cleared PMP on 3rd Jun 2008. Here is an attempt on lessons learned:

Stydu material:

- PMBOK 3rd edition
- Rita Mulcahy 5th edition
- Vijay Verma's chapter on Delegation (3-4 questions come on delegation)
- PMI Code of Ethics
- Some research on PTA on google

I started off in Feb 08. Read PMBOK first and got an idea of complete framework. After that I started off with Rita and read each chapter in parallel with PMBOK. Completed three cycles of both Rita and PMBOK like this. Rita brings life in preparation, PMBOK is just too dry whereas Rita talks to you.

Used Whizlabs sample questions. Rita's questions after each chapter are excellent, even though you won't get any question in actual exam with detailed scenarios like Rita has, but it fine tunes your thought process which is much needed for the actual exam.

Make sure you check out Oliver Lehmann's 75 and 175 questions.

Regarding ITTO's there are many questions but none that tests you from memorization point of view, if you understand them you will certainly get them right. Most questions are not very long worded. There was only question where I had no idea about the answer.

During the exam, I created the download sheet depiciting Page 70 of PMBOK and key formulas during the 15 min tutorial. Answered all questions in 3 Hrs 5 minutes with around 70 marked for review. After review I was unsure of at the most 15 questions. So if you are well prepared you won't find paper too tough but certainly testing. I got 'Proficient' level in all 6 areas.

One key point is not to get tired. After 2 hours in the exam I noticably slowed down in grasping questions and answers, immediately took a 7-8 minutes break, and started fresh again after coming back, and it made a lot of difference. Took another break after completing all questions and before reviewing the marked ones.

Another point is that you don't get time to review all questions, so don't leave things for next round, do them right in first go and mark all the doubted ones.

Apart from this don't spend money for 35 Hrs certificate on these 5 days courses. There are many online course and considerably very cheap. I used the one from PMPrepcast.com. Later I realised that you get this with Whizlabs package as well. The PMPrepcast has audio lessons and gets you going if you drive a lot. Use any MP3 player and you get going.

Regarding scheduling I scheduled my exam only 5 days in advance. Purposely did so as the job has its own demands on your time, so once I got some time to push the studies I decided to go for it.

The Prometric center (Gurgaon in this case) was excellent, staff was very active, no noise, even though they had Head Sets as well, just in case! You have to leave everything in the locker including your handkerchief. Only thing you can carry in is your one ID proof.

Personally I discovered huge gaps in my knowledge while preparing for the exam; thats the best part, its not just another certification, its great learning.

Will update if recollect any thing else.

Cheers
Manish Joshi