New School, and the environment - Claire

Claire joined VIBGYOR school for the 1^st standard. She was in Kidzee till last year.

Claire was sent to JuzzKids daycare when she was just 7^th moths old. She was grown up in that environment and it was a second home for her. When she turned 4, she got admission in Kidzee, which was in the same building and was managed by the same management of JuzzKids. She was excited to go to Kidzee but it was easy for her to adapt. There was always a lot of people around her with who she grew up.

VIGYOR is a bigger school and has got a big building and a huge ground. It was all different for her. She must have got frightened, excited, and felt lonely when she went to the school for the first day.

Her excitement got over when I took her to the school for the first day. She wore the new uniform and her new bag. Even the socks were provided by the school and the name of the school was written on it. She liked the new environment. But she did not find anyone who she knew in the school and the class rooms were so big. And everything new. She could not stop thinking about the school. We went to sleep early but, she kept on talking about the school and to her teachers in the dream.  Ahilaa, her mother, could not sleep well as she got disturbed with this. She kept on asking Claire to sleep. There was a mixed feeling in her that she even said she wanted to go to toilet in the night.

In the morning Claire got up with a fewer it was 101 in the thermometer. She wanted to go to the school but she is not well. I asked her if she liked the school. She said that she liked the school. And so she took a days leave and I am working from home for the first half and will go to office in the second half when Ahilaa will work from home in the second half. 

Media is only one side of the reality. Think before you vote, but do vote.

As all the political parties are preparing for the next election, and as we all are been convinced by different means on who to vote for, requesting you to spend some time and think without being influenced by anything and any one.
Now all information that we are getting, are through media. Once we see what is happening in a particular location, we think that we actually have seen it. But the actual fact is that we have seen only those things which the reporter or the media wants us to see. You are not seeing everything which happened there, but you are seeing and believing what someone wants you to see and believe. And this is a great threat to the thoughts as we human beings are made in such a way to believe what you have seen. But this virtual reality becomes reality unknowingly and our brain is forced to accept it.

If you are religious, be religious, if you are of specific culture/breed, be proud of it.

Many times it is seen clearly that most of the people opposes a corrupt person and at the same time supports another corrupt person, for the reason that, the second has one common thing with them. It could be religion, cast, language, gender, region, village, state, district etc. and for the same reason, the second person is not corrupted or even though he/she is it is not a big corruption.   
Ask yourself if you are right. I really do not understand how we can be so uncivilised by supporting some people when you actually hear them talk. Most of the talk is happening with a secret weapon called “hate”. And you unknowingly start hating someone for the reason to support someone.
As far as India is concerned we want a good stable, government and nothing else. Even if you take 24 hours it is worth, as this will help you for the next five years.
We do not want a government which would help one particular cast, breed, religion, and what so ever groups we have in the nation. Let religion be religion, gods be gods and culture be culture. All that we are looking for is a party to form a government. We want just pure government and nothing else.
We want a party which can contribute to development, self-sustainability, good relationship with the rest of the nations and build a good government.
Let no wave take you from you.

Husband No. 1

I saw an unread mail in the inbox today morning which was from my child’s school. It was syllabus for the month. I thought it would be appropriate to send it to my wife immediately. I forwarded the mail to her. And I knew I did the right thing. In another five minutes I got a reply from my wife. There was only one line written.

 “Your daughter is in Senior KG and this month is March“.

I did not understand anything. I then looked beneath and read the subject carefully. It was written Syllabus for February. I understood that I was a month late to respond. As today is march 3^rd.

But why is it written that my daughter is in Senior KG? I checked the subject again carefully and read. “File: JuniorKG - February.doc, Description : JuniorKG Syllabus”. Alright, it is the syllabus for the Junior KG for the month of February.

Now it is clear to me,  it was a year and a month late.

Better late than never, I told myself.

A Managers Experience

It was late in the evening and I had returned home late from office as there was a delivery in following week. My team was working very hard as there were some changes which came in the later stage. We accepted those changes as there were some critical decisions taken with the existing contract. Though we were doing well at our end, it was not so great in the overall progress of the business.

I received a call from one of my team members. I picked up the call and he told me that he is leaving to his native as his brother had met with an accident. He said that he is not so sure about the situation and it looks like an emergency. I told him to leave immediately and not to worry about the work. I also told him to contact me if there is any kind of help required. He said he would return in two days and disconnected the call. While talking to him, I got a wild scene of disbelief, for which I felt bad about myself. I told myself that you could not be a bad manager. I made a plan for the situation at the project end.

Next day I called up for the meeting and told rest of the team members about the sad incident happened. I also told the team that we all will have to work a bit extra to ensure that his work is also completed. I also requested help from my managers for an extra resource for some days as we need to complete things on time. Keeping the offshore manager informed about the absence of one member and making him understand the problems it might cause in the delivery, I got some of the deliverables excused for this delivery.

While the day progressed, I thought of calling him and asking him about the situation. His phone was switched off; I could not get in touch with him. My worry increased as there is no information about him. Not knowing what happened to him after leaving that night.  I kept on calling him for one more day and shared my worry to some of the team members who were working closely with him in the current assignment. I also kept my manager informed about the situation.

On the third day when there is no information from him, I send a mail to HR copying my manager on the situation. We in the project have got a practice of keeping emergency contact number of all team members. This will be a local number and a number of his permanent residence.  I reached the first number, which was of his friend who lives in Bangalore. He said he did not hear form him for some days and do not know anything. I got more worried and decided to call the other number which is a mobile number. 

Before I call, I decided to think for a while on what to say and what not to say and called the second number. It was a lady who picked up the call and was talking in a regional language which I do not know. I again got help of one of my team member, who is from the same region, and asked him to talk to the lady and know what the situation is and where he was.

The team member kept on talking for some time to the lady and kept the phone. He turned to me and told me that, it was his mother, but she does not know anything about the accident and also not sure if she felt it appropriate to answer the questions as she is not sure who is calling. Now we both were confused.

In the very next minute I received a call from my team mate from some other number. He was very upset and was worried that, his mother, who is a heart patient, to who they have deliberately kept the news of the accident hidden, because of her health condition, now know that her son has met with an accident. He also told me that she is now taken to the hospital as she was feeling chest pain. I felt sorry and felt that I am an idiot to call her. He then told me that he is in the hospital with his brother who is in a very bad situation. He said that he could not call me because his phone was not working for some reason and now he is calling from his cousin’s phone. He said that he got this number as I called his mother. He told me that he can only come back after a week and is arranging money for his brother’s treatment, which would come around 7 lakhs. As he had no money he needs to sell his farm which is the bread and butter of his family. He said now his brother is in a coma stage, as there is a stone which got into his head in the accident.

I felt so bad about myself and realized that this guy needs help. I talked to my manager and other team members and made them understood about the situation. His phone continued to be offline and whenever I tried his cousin’s number, his cousin picks up the call and says “ I am somewhere outside and will ask him to call you once I reach him”.

Delivery of the project was nearing and we managed to deliver all that we promised on time. It was a great team work. Rest of the team members worked extra hours to complete the tasks on time. I was very happy, but there was always pain thinking about the member who is now in the hospital taking care of both his brother and his mother. Though there was an excuse in some of the modules, those where also completed, but testing was incomplete. So it was excluded in the delivery.  Offshore manager was happy for this delivery and we agreed to include the excluded parts along with the next delivery which is planned in a months’ time.

I tried his cousin’s number. This time I got him on the call and asked about the situation. He said he would come back tomorrow. He said his brother is still moved to another hospital and gave me details of the new hospital where his brother is admitted now.

The very next day, he came to office he said that he is going to apply for a month long leave to take care of his brother and his mother. I called up an HR manager and told him about all that happened and asked him to talk to him and see if he could help him in this situation.  The HR manager talked to him and called me and said that the situation is true and should give him maximum leaves you could give. If he needs more leaves then there are other policies which would support and he needs to avail those.

I called for a meeting with the rest of the team members and told them that I am probably going to give him some money for his immediate expenses. Some of the other team members also offered to help, but two of the team members were so hard hearted that they said they do not know if the accident is true and would not be interested in giving any money. Though I thought it was rude, it was a different angel to the whole situation to think and decided that we should pay directly to the hospital and tied to reach the hospital.

I then called up the hospital, and told them that I am calling to know the situation of a patient and would like to pay a share of the bill. They were happy to help and asked me details of the patient. After some time, they told me there is no such patient admitted in the hospital. I asked if there is a coma patient in the hospital who was admitted a week before and it was an accident case. They could not find any coma patients in the hospital and told me that ICU unit has got a separate register if patient is directly admitted from the emergency. They then transferred the call to the department. I told them the very same reason and asked if they could tell me the current situation of the patient. To my surprise, they told me that there is no major accident cases admitted in the hospital for the last many months. And they never had any coma patient in the hospital.

I was surprised and called him for a meeting, I asked him to tell me the truth and told him that I could help him even now knowing that the whole thing was a story which he made so as to escape from the delivery responsibility. He was defending himself and telling that his brother is in the hospital. I had no better option left than to leave it to HR to handle. I called the HR business partner for help and while talking he accepted that he did not want to show that he could not complete the things he was supposed to complete and in his absence he wanted other team to do it. 

I remembered what Shakespeare told: Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time. And that is what happened in this case. He lost me for life.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's driver claims he can't have died in plane crash

While a number of books were published on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and committee and commissions set up to solve his mystery, a living witness and close companion of Netaji was never contacted by anyone. 
 Nizamuddin, a 107-year-old man who claims to be the driver of Netaji in Azad Hind Fauj (AHF), lives in Islampura, Bilariyaganj, in Azamgarh district. He claims to have spent four years with Netaji after joining the AHF in 1942. The TOI team also visited him sometime back. Recently the volunteers of a local organisation also went to his place to honour him. 
 Nizamuddin was also sure that Netaji was not killed in the plane crash in 1945. "How can it be possible when I had dropped him by the car on the banks ofSitangpur river near the boarder of Burma and Thailand about three-four months after the incident of plane crash?" he wondered. He has no idea what happened after he dropped Bose on the riverbank. He said that he insisted to accompany Netaji, but he was commanded to return with a promise of meeting again in Independent India. 
Ref: TOI

A 102-year-old man claiming to be Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's driver-cum-bodyguard has claimed that the freedom fighter was not killed in an air crash in 1945.
AZAMGARH (Uttar Pradesh): A 102-year-old man claiming to be Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's driver-cum-bodyguard has claimed that the freedom fighter was not killed in an air crash in 1945, but died a natural death in oblivion, decades later in Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
''Netaji was not on the plane that crashed in Taipei in 1945, as he changed his plans to board aircraft at the last minute. He was not killed in the crash, but died a few years ago as Gumnami Baba in Faizabad,'' claimed Nizamuddin, the driver-cum-bodyguard of Netaji in the Azad Hind Fauj, he said said on Thursday at his house in Shahabuddinpur village in Billariaganj, 12 km from the district headquarters.
  
''I ran away from my house in Dhakwa village in Mubarakpur area of Azamgarh district in 1924, when I was barely 20. I reached Singapore by ship, paying a fare of Rs 24, and was later blooded into the AHF,'' said the centenarian who can now walk only with the aid of a staff.
  
''Netaji, who was addressed by everyone in the AHF as 'Babu', asked me to become the driver of his 12 cylinder car, donated by a king in Malaya (now Malaysia). I was later appointed his bodyguard too, carrying a Tommy gun,'' said the man who was rechristened Nizamuddin from Saifuddin, to hide his identity in the AHF.
Endorsing the Mukerjee Commission findings on Netaji's death, Nizamuddin said Justice Mukherjee had arrived at the truth behind Netaji's story.
  
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was reported to have died in an air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945. His body was never found.
“He did not die in the air crash. The plane did not carry him, but instead had on board Captain Ekram, Lal Singh, a Bengali soldier and a woman, all AHF members, besides two to three Japanese,'' Nizamuddin said.
He reminisced that he met Netaji and brother Sharat Chandra Bose in 1946 over a bridge on a river in Thailand, a year after the alleged death the in air-crash.
The leader, he said, told him that Indian leaders, in collusion with the British and United States governments, were playing a political game using his alleged death.
''Jo jaisa karega woh waisa bharega,'' Netaji had told me when I asked him what he thought of the Indian leaders trying to pronounce him dead.
That was the last meeting I had with 'Babu', who disliked being called 'Sahib' by AHF mates, Nizamuddin added with tears in eyes.
''I wanted to accompany Netaji, but he asked me to go to Rangoon, the capital of Burma, and promised to meet me in an independent India.''
In Rangoon, he married a Burmese girl of Indian origin, Habibunisha, with whom he had six children -- four sons and two daughters -- all married.
While in Burma, he worked in teak plantations and as a tourist guide, but was forced to leave with his family in 1969 due to hostility shown by locals towards Indians.
''I came back to my village Dhakwa and settled in my ancestral house, with a belief that Netaji would have died a natural death by then. But by sheer a quirk of fate in 1971, I met in Varanasi, Swami, the Madrasi right-hand man of Netaji, who confided in me that Babu was alive and residing in oblivion in Faizabad district under the disguised name of Gumnami Baba,'' said Nizamuddin.
The old man recalls that he never doubted Swami's startling revelation, as Netaji had mastered the art of 'disguise', using it many times to hoodwink the British.
''I was a poor man with no job, but somehow arranged Rs 150 to go to Faizabad to meet Babu, but failed as Babu had left for some other place, though temporarily, probably sensing some danger,'' claimed Nizamuddin.
The meeting in Thailand, he said, with turned out to be his last with Netaji.
''It was Swami who met me several times at the Mission Hospital in Azamgarh and gave me messages from Babu.''
According to Swami, Netaji, who was then living as Gumnami Baba, was happy that the country had gained independence, but thought the battle had been partially lost with the nation's partition.
''Netaji said the way the country was moving, many more partitions would take place,'' Nizamuddin said, adding that had Netaji been in the government of free India, the country would have stayed united.
''He was a real secular leader, who reposed faith in a Muslim as a driver, and along with AHF mates refurbished the grave of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in Rangoon,'' Nizamuddin said.
''Netaji died a few years back in Faizabad and the Bengali lady who had given him shelter also passed away later,'' said Nizamuddin.
He said the news of Netaji's death was the last he had heard from Swami.
Justice Mukherjee's findings were right, he said, adding that the ashes in the Renkoji temple were not that of Netaji. But he was sore that none of the three commissions set up to probe Netaji's death, including the Mukherjee panel, had bothered to meet Netaji's driver who accompanied him to several countries including Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Laos.
Ref: DNA

K-Community meet Feb 2014

On 22nd Jan  I could make to the KM gathering at Unisys. The session was very informative and got introduced to people who have similar interest. In the session there were people from different companies and also independent KM practitioners. Dr. Madanmohan Rao is a KM author and consultant based in Bangalore, the editor of The KM Chronicles and four other book series also a co-founder of the Bangalore K-Community, was the moderator for the session.
Session started sharp 6:00 PM.
Key presenters
1. LNV Samy, VP, Global Technology and Delivery Centre (India, China and Australia), Technology Consulting and Integration Solutions, Unisys
2. Nirmala Palaniappan, Senior Manager – Social Enterprise, Oracle
3. Ved Prakash, Global KM Practice Head – Application Management, CGI
4. Raju Ramakrishna, Group KM Manager, Wipro
5. Dr. Pushpa who has taken his doctorate in Knowledge Management over social media was also present who presented on how social media is effecting knowledge with respect to the speed of getting information, and other new dimensions of KM over social media.
There were also KM leaders from Mindtree, Tech Mahendra, Societe Generale, etc who shared their thoughts on KM in their respective organisations.
Key notes and highlights.
Most of them highlighted on the importance of involving stake holders to make the initiative successful.
A message to ensure that not to get hung up with technology was given by most of them, which was again on the topic of debate.
Everyone agreed that when comparing quality with quantity we should focus more on quality and not on quantity.
1. Unisys is focusing on bringing KM in to the root level
a. The revenue benefit they achieved was showcased
b. Reuse strategy to increase revenue
2. Oracle is working on an expert locator which involves data from the HR system and also integrates feedback taken from the employees.
a. Introducing big data in to the KM system and to make better benefit out of it
b. Ensuring the usability of the KM system is made better
c. Making objectives for each year which is flexible so that if there is a business requirement, the objectives can be remodelled.
3. CGI had the biggest success story among all
a. Integration and cultural difference which KM had to undergo
b. ACTIONED! Framework
c. Changing the perspective of strength in each technology with horizontal connections.
d. How KM is built around the key objectives of the organisation
4. Wipro believes that the KM that they have now has reached a stage where it has to be re modelled and they are coming up with the next generation KM. They have divided Km in to three so as to keep focus
a. KM to customers (connect to customers and allow customers to reach out to the KM system so as to ensure that knowledge spread across is collected and shared)
b. Internal KM ( KM within the organisation)
c. Next generation KM ( Focusing on the quality and connectivity, collaboration and social networking)
d. Collecting feedback from individual teams on how KM has helped.
e. Creating use cases KM benefits.
f. Included KM as a question in Customer Satisfaction survey
g. Focus on revenue, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction with respect to KM
5. Tech Mahendra had a different story to share
a. They have a full ledged studio in Hyderabad for KM where videos are taken and shared on specific topics
b. Focused more on those areas where KM could show great importance.
Session got over by 8.