'Landmark' visit

After a gap of some months went to Landmark at Citi Centre, looking for a birthday gift for my brother. The entrance itself was enchanting with a colorful display of books and the whole place smelled like a perfumed car interior. The buffet of a riot of books was too much to digest as the bookstore was wearing a new look with the popular Tamil books occupying the front rows.

After so many years, I was surprised to see the full dialogue book of the Rudriah movie 'அவள் அப்படித்தான் '.  More prominent was the presence of the recent sensation on "Rajiv Assasination' by the erstwhile SIT official Ragothaman. Amongst the usual heaps of Sujatha & Balakumaran, what I noticed as different was the mushrooming of every popular book translated in Tamil. I could see Robin Sharma, Rangarajan of Infinithoughts & also many self development books but the one that stopped me on my tracks was ' யார் என் சீசை நகர்த்தியது'- an exact translation of "Who moved my Cheese"- It was difficult not to be reminded of Junoon & also suppress a laugh!

But, along with the colorful wrapper the prices were also prohibitive; perhaps the publishers have included the overall costs also liberally. Saw a medium sized book 'Make or Break" and while I was making up my mind, the cost broke my thought & also my back and I hastily moved to the next rack!!

Surprised to see some Dummies book after a long long time - this time not for Windows and Internet, but for Social networking, Blogging & a separate one for LinkedIn!! It was difficult to resist travelling back to those days of 'Dummies'.

I was disappointed not to get either of the books I was angling for - 'Road less Traveled'  & Parthibhan's Kavithaigal- both out of stock.

A visit to Landmark will not be complete without browsing through the maze of CDs and the host of stationery items where the old time 'Maths notebook' which we used to buy for Rs 2.50 was priced at Rs 25/-. But still, I could not help have a feel of the smooth pages before leaving with a book of Sudoku for my bro. Considering the cost of the articles inside , still the car parking fees of Rs 30/- was much less and I wonder when this will also be jacked up  - a price that the reading habit has to pay !

While I was wondering about the increasing prices of books and driving on the R.K.Salai, I was shocked to see the turbaned and heavily silk swathed bridegroom on a horseback in front of a popular marriage hall being unceremoniously thrown off the mule's back, as it was clearly overwhelmed by the crowd and loud music. Though it was very disturbing to see the Mappillai in such a posture, it was fortunate that he did not sustain any major injury, as he hastily got up to cover the embarrassment. Hope the boy takes it in his stride and does not feel being thrown off the pedestal even before the marriage!

Some reqd skills to come on TV

Discussion sessions in TV during prime time has become the order of the day, be there a bomb blast or stampede or an approaching parliament session or a global incident. There is no reason required to have such sessions and if there are no such incidents, people will still discuss on "what is going to follow this unusually quite phase of eerie silence". Though almost on the same lines one does not require any special skills to participate in the same, there are some qualities that could enable one to be chosen ahead of others for participation. What are these? 

My one rupee worth of thoughts:

1. Must be capable of putting up a smile even when you are being crucified
2. Rock like belief in your side's stand , even though you are not personally convinced
3. Must always refer to the Guru/author/creator of your group in the most revered terms, quite often during the discussions
4. Must draw parallel anecdotes, mostly not connected & tangential to the current topic of discussion
5. Before disagreeing with the other participant, always talk high about him/her and then say directly opposite views
6. Never pay heed to the words of the anchor or others and wake up only when you want to speak.
7. Most importantly, must always talk in a voice above others and NEVER NEVER stop when others are trying to answer your points or question you- Keep talking.
8. Only cite the words of other people who are not alive
9. The more irritated you are,  more wider you should be able to sport a grin
10. Erase the word 'Logic' from your mind and also attempt to into others

Glad that I don’t qualify on any count above

Celebrate with Optimism !

Have you ever wondered how many around us continue to do what they have been doing despite the hiccups, failures and pitfalls? It's encouraging to see so many around spread the power of HOPE amongst us.

The ever optimistic sun raises everyday with the hope that it is bringing cheer to others. The expectant lotus is not disappointed & blooms with a blush.

The supportive moon hangs around for some time, so that in case the sun oversleeps, people are not deprived of light!

The birds hid themselves in the tree near my balcony, when the 'NILAM' cyclone was battering Chennai, in the HOPE that the sun will rise soon. And when it did, they came out to chirp stronger & louder.

Despite the rising petrol prices, people still book and wait for their favorite cars- in the belief that someday either the petrol price will come down or their salaries will be increased to meet it.

Despite everyday's threat as the concluding part of news about the steep climb of bullion rates, serpentine queues are seen at popular jewellery shops. Some are optimistic they could encash later while others believe they are buying before the next hike.

Despite losing his patient the previous day, Doctors appear at the hospitals in spotless white coats, hoping that they could save the next one.

Despite a 'lost cause' medical report, the attendants wait with bated breath, while the Doctor examines the patient- Hope!

Even after the iron chain snaps, 'Malaviya' ship prepared for the next tug of Pratiba Cauvery at Chennai Marina -Hope!

After unseating the party in the last elections, people elect a new group in the HOPE that they will perform better!

Despite giving a close race, people of US gave another chance in the HOPE of a better phase this time!

Despite fairing badly and getting unseated, the lost party still battles and keep the party afloat in the HOPE that they will have their day soon.

Despite a poor rating and a nasty verbal duel with the boss over appraisal, the employee is back before the system and continues the job in the HOPE that he will be given a better deal next year

Despite a laughable paunch, the walker on the Marina beach sweats himself in the HOPE …..

Despite a few arrears in the last exams, guys at the street corner reassemble as usual in the HOPE that March & September alternate and they will have their day soon.

Despite its known problems, people still throng IRTCTC site in the HOPE that they will be lucky this time!!

The whole world around us is hopeful and nobody has resigned himself to the mercy of destiny.

On this festival of lights, when some celebrate the destruction of evil, let us also celebrate. It's time for us to be optimistic, as the whole world around is so optimistic.

Let us HOPE that - this day will mark a new beginning, will make people more happy, will make my sick relative recover, will make my son an Engineer, will see my daughter get married, …..

Amongst all these HOPES let us enjoy a thing that is certain - that we are HAPPY today.

Season's Greetings and Best wishes!

Hour of joy !

Around festivals, vacations, marriage etc., the mind automatically switches to a joyous mood in anticipation of things to come. Right from the weekend to the festivals, I feel the mind celebrates more in preparation of the moment rather than the moment itself.

While at the office, my mind started to relax after that important weekly review meet on Friday afternoons and the seemingly bigger challenges are warded off to Monday, which is two days away! The sight of people leaving early silently, the mounds of backpacks stashed at the entrance, people in their casuals - all indications of the spring to come and the sparrows would warm up their wings deep inside my heart. However late I come in, when I switch on the special dim light around the dining table for a relaxed dinner with a soft tune on my lips, my family knows its weekend time. After I quit office, I see my daughter doing this and couldn't conceal my smile!

Years back when I used to prepare the crackers list many times over and over again, before presenting the final demands to my dad, it was more of a celebration time than the actual Diwali!

Around vacation, the preparatory activities, the planning, trouping to the railway station for booking tickets in the pre IRCTC era and the eve of the departure when the whole house will be packing, it was joy all around. I remember the eve of our family's Varanasi's tour in 1996, when the house looked like as though we were preparing to vacate the house.

When I purchased my first Siva PC in 1988 at an astronomical price of Rs 25000/- , I could not sleep the previous night as I kept dreaming as to how I could do all things that I was doing at the training school!

Prior to the booking of our new dream apartment, we kept on discussing for days, planning customization  exclusive places for our pet activities and articles. It was days worth remembering.

The night before I actually got the appointment order for my dream job, which was a lifetime ambition, I hardly slept. I was spreading & smelling so much joy, the smile was on open display on all faces in the house.  

I feel the days preceding the celebrations are more enjoyable than the D Day itself. So, enjoy the days before Diwali with crackers, sweets, friends and family. Let the light of hope, camaraderie, prosperity & health,  prevail all over the world! 

Happy Diwali !

Noise over Diwali noise

Come Diwali the noise about the noise of crackers in more pronounced as though it is being realized only now. Every year there are some objections to people firing crackers at night, authorities stipulating some norms and warning people of violations. It kills the joy out of celebration and festivals. It was so pronounced that few years back when some self styled guardians of public safety suddenly appeared before our apartment complex on a motorcycle, lighted a firecracker and just threw into the compound and sped away ! Their way of punishing the 'wrongdoers'!!

I do agree there has to be some reservations, restrictions and norms for firing crackers but should this be taken to extremes? After all it is a festival celebrated across major parts of the nation and should be respected atleast for its decades of observance. Have we suddenly realized that the noise levels are above the permissible levels of decibels? No user checks for the limitations or its violations when they use it. In which case, why can't such crackers be banned at the manufacturing point itself? Same is the case with pollution levels too. Please impose whatever restrictions that are required for people's welfare but don’t put the onus of its implementation on the users and shirk away from the authorities' responsibilities.

In every community, every religion and every belief there are few days when the celebrations / observance exceeds noise levels and are slightly on the higher side. I feel this must be tolerated. Otherwise how can one explain as to why should the public tolerate the noise of loudspeakers and crackers during election time. What about the unnecessary honking of horn by vehicles on the roads restricted due to hospitals and schools? Are all such vehicles being booked? What about narrow streets and street corners where there are speakers fitted for public meetings which disturb old people and students right from 5 PM upto near midnight?

Let us allow the children to celebrate and enjoy before they embark on the serious years of education, profession, family, money, worries, tension & stress. In their later years they will re-live the short periods of celebrations, which let us not kill.

In a society, there could be occasional acceptable excesses and with a better understanding they could be tolerated. It is such tolerance that has brought India, a nation of such diverse culture and beliefs to this great stature. It is amusing to find people suddenly waking up to these as such humongous hindrances and raise a big hue and cry, whipping up passions. Tolerance is the keyword for co-existence.

Doubts over US Elections

Recently concluded Presidential elections in United States, have raised some doubts. Request some American voter to clarify pl:

1. Was there agents' booth at every street corner, which distributed voter slip to the voters at their doorstep?
2. Was a line painted on the road before 100 meters of the polling booth?
3. While scores were waiting to caste their vote, was any prominent politician given preference to walk into the booth and vote ahead of others?
4. Were autos transporting voters from their house to the polling booths?
5. More importantly, were any voters dropped back at their house after casting the vote?
6. Were autos & taxis zipping fast as the closing time of election approached?
7. How many were turned back, as their names were not found in the voters list with the booth?
8. Was any voter shocked to know that his vote has already been caste?
9. Was an indelible black ink was used to mark the person voted?
10. Were any illegal voters arrested?
11. How many booths were captured?
12. At how many booths, reelections have been ordered?
13. Were schools, Colleges & offices closed for the day?
14. Was there any violence near the counting venue?
15. Were any sops given to the voters such as gold ornaments inside Laddus?
16. Were the symbols of the candidates - Donkey & Elephant- paraded for the voters to get familiarized?
17. Were there any challenge votes?
18. Has the result been contested by the vanquished?
19. Has the vanquished asked for an enquiry into the poll suspecting malpractices?
20. Was there any advertisement/appeals in TV urging people to vote as it is their right?

 Just for the sake of clarification to compare with other big democracies !!

Software Testing - Time to shrug off that slumber ?

Sometime back I was invited to a Chennai city college to deliver a lecture on Software testing to an audience of senior students and faculty of computer science department. During the course of the session I was surprised to realize that not many in the group were aware of 'Software Testing', as a concept, barring some studies on the topic as part of their curriculum. Later few weeks back, when I again faced a similar audience at a college in deeper Tamilnadu I learnt that they have also not heard much about it. Earlier my own nephew who has been working in an IT major was putting up a long face and was about to break down narrating as to how  he has been 'unceremoniously' shifted to a Testing project after having worked so long in development , which he was obviously enjoying. The above in a nutshell summarize the awareness or the lack of it about software testing among people who matter.

Initially it was rather shocking to realize how a potential area such as software testing could be considered so low and how some could afford to be even ignorant about its relevance and importance. Some reading and searching revealed that the problem does not lie with a single entity but at a larger level.  

On joining an organization, various emerging technologies and platforms attract the young freshers and the crowd gets sucked like a fly to an oil sheet. Only the leftovers, which have little choice, are allocated to testing. Thus, this part of the life cycle has somehow acquired a dubious distinction of "last Choice".  In the 1970s anyone joining a bank branch will first be allocated to the dispatch section and people used to feel low about it. The testing situation is akin to it though bankers later realized that dispatch is the most important point of entry and exit where one can learn and be updated about all communications of the branch!

No job is mean and particularly if the software majors are investing and allocating huge revenue for Testing Services as exclusive business units, should one not think about the importance of such an opportunity? Where are we missing the bus, how to dispel the misnomer and attract the best of talents to this elite practice?

The Industry, Training institutes and the Academia have major roles to play here. 

Taking the last first, at the academic level, testing as a concept is yet to be recognized as its potential as job earner has not been realized and thus the whole concept sadly fail to catch the eye of the syllabus makers. Testing is just being touched upon only in a couple of chapters at the college level. Here too, the focus seems to have been only from the perspective of clearing the exams and getting an engineering degree and not from the vocational perspective.

Even century old Universities have curriculum which carries only questions worth 16 marks. Students can easily browse through these chapters from some popular books and if they choose to , can even conveniently opt to omit the same if they are confident of other options!  This myopic approach is bound to cost our students dear in terms of job options. Also, if this negligence is the result of an ill conceived notion that a developer need not be aware of the nuances of testing, then we are in for serious trouble. Certainly this is not the way to prepare the students for an industry which as per NASSCOM is expected to earn India around $ 15 billion @ by 2020 (http://m.businesstoday.in/story/are-software-testing-firms-worth-joining/1/184788.html)

At the Industry level, IT companies, as part of Initiation & later at induction levels, should have exclusive sessions on promoting this practice by underlying the benefits such as multiple domain exposure in quick time, better travel opportunities , to name a few.  No doubt, some are already into it but then clearly there seems to be more room for improvement considering the hesitation among the entrants to the testing practice. HR could also be directed to look deeper into the feedback through the exit interviews and provide crucial stats on attrition due to dissatisfaction on testing assignments. Organizations must also review periodically their policies and liberalize the awards and incentives doled out to those who acquire certifications and exhibit additional efforts to specialize in Testing. These initiatives are to be so humongous that they should create healthy competition and provoke entrants to opt testing ahead of others. When such practices erupt, the real impact and importance will be felt across the aspirants.

The Training Institutes which provide considerable number of trained Test engineers to the Industry always starved of testers have a good opportunity to prove their worth and have a greater role to play. They have the whole field before them, but only few have grabbed it so far.

Compared to the other two, the training institutes' choices are more complex but then so are their opportunities. On the one hand they need to sharpen their course content to attract the talent and lure them to the testing arena. On the other hand, they also should focus on how to make their candidates surge ahead of others and make them stand out as 'winning candidates'.

Their course coverage no doubt includes the basic concepts and requirements for one to start his/her testing career. But, when one competes against lakhs, it is necessary to have some differentiators which will provide the candidates the cutting edge to surge and dip their noses across the finish line. In the absence of such differentiators, the list of 'also rans' will continue to accumulate.

Training institutes should think differently and associate more with the Industry to learn about their practices, to be aware of major expectations from and challenges of testing and should modify their training methods accordingly. It is no more sufficient to produce simple testers but if they could provide resources that have an insight into such key challenges and visions to meet them - only such institutions are likely to stand out and be sought after both by the trainees and the industry.  There is also a good scope to design curriculum according to the trainee's line of specialization in the college, so that freshers get more easily attracted towards it. For this, more interactions with the industry and their key resources that create testing opportunities is a must.

That the government is insisting on even public sector units who develop their software in-house to subject themselves to a third party audit and certifications is a welcome indication on awareness and acceptance. So far even some of the IT giants were treating testing as a part of their development team but with the client expectations of an Independent testing team clearance, all organizations bent on quality outputs have started employing such teams as quality gate keepers to bring in better customer satisfaction. Such focus on testing only promises to increase the need for more testers and the above arms should do well to equip them as otherwise, there is every possibility of our friends across the border with enormous resource potential making their foray into this area too!  It's time to shake off the slumber to remain in the race.