What do you do?

When someone asks me this question, I sometimes feel tempted to tell them this:

I get up in the morning and get ready for Office.
I go to Office and come back home.
I have my dinner and spend some time with my family and go to sleep again.

Wondering why I am writing this?

You see, when I was a kid, I used to watch my Dad do this for years together, sincerely, and relentlessly. As a child, I used to convince myself, look Dad with only so much Education couldn't afford much but go to Office everyday, when I grow up, I would have studied a lot, and will do better than going to Office.

Today I am over thirty years, I had the education I wanted, but I observe even I am doing the same thing my Dad did and still does.

What alternatives do we have, can I say to myself today, Ok enough of work, I want to go somewhere for a few years no work, just go around and observe people, just travel, or whatever?

In the depth of it, there are these big questions in my mind I want to pose to you too.

1. What are you working for and for how long?
2. When would you stop working if given what you are working for right now in this moment.
3. If you have no need to go to Office as you have everything for the next few generations of your family, then what would you do instead of going to an Office daily?

I would like to read from you!

I'm growing old!

For literature folks out there, here's a bit from a very famous peom:
"I'm growing old,
I must wear the bottom of my trousers rolled!"

Let me narrate to you what happened recently with me. I teach guitar to a few friends in my leisure time. Some of them are youngsters who just finished their college. They keep requesting me to play songs from the latest Hindi flicks. I was amazed to notice that I hardly would have listened to the songs they tell me. I would not even know the name of the movie or the cast when mentioned.

I go back to my school days for a moment now. Half of you, I am sure, will share this feeling with me. In those days, I would know every movie up for release. Would sing along every song from all the famous movies of the time. What is more, even today, if a song is played from that era, I would surprisingly remember all the lyrics by heart.

What has happened to me now. Why am I losing track of music so badly. It occurs to me that this is probably the School. How we forget everything about our school. It is simply because of the friends at school and our enthu for everything that made us so lovely, bubbly, cheerful, and versatile.

Maybe it is Office and Home that occupies our time. Maybe we have forgotten those small little ways of enjoying our life. Maybe we have become too busy for all these things. Not sure which of these is the reason. For a moment, my life came to a stand still thinking about all these things.

Do these things occur to you sometimes? How do you folks react to this? What is your take on such situations? Would love to read from you. And those who recognised the poem on the top of this post, do share it with me. My heart will be filled with joy to know someone is reading literature even after a busy day's work.

My journey as a Technical Writer

I started my career teaching English to a bunch of students at a College. I then moved on to become a Technical Support Analyst. I am now a Technical Writer for the past three years.

Those days are fresh in my memory when my senior at University used to make me sit next to him and tell me what he does as a Technical Writer. He was sure I was only going to waste a few years by becoming a Technical Support Analyst. Looking back, I don't regret my stint as an Analyst. As an analyst, I had learnt the art of gathering requirements well; of understanding the concerns of a Client; of coordinating with onsite teams. My performance now both as a writer and as a member of a team is largely driven by my experience I gathered there.

When I became a Technical Writer one day, I was new to the field. I owe a lot to the team of senior writers who mentored me patiently for a few months.

If you are wondering why I am putting all this down, then I would sum it up this way. Technical Writer doesn't come to someone on its own. One must first develop a flair for such writing. Second, one must read up as much as one can to gear up for it. Third, one must be lucky to get good mentors. Finally, one must work in atmospheres that allow you to assimilate the kind of experience that you need to become a good Technical Writer. Not all of us are lucky to have a combination of all of these things. But a fair degree of all of these things are definitely a must for someone who aspires to become a good Technical Writer.

This write-up is dedicated to all those Technical Writers out there that have a smile on their faces even as they brace themselves up for this recession. My Good Luck to all of you!

A second look at the so-called concept of Security

Security also brings with it the connotation of secrecy. Something that is secure also has to be kept a secret. For example, you have a high-end security system at your office and only you can enter a particular cabin using your access card and others cannot get in without having similar permissions or access rights on their access card. Now, quite obviously the company maintains the coding and the technology behind this card system a secret. The Company knows the code is secure and no one out there will know.

Not quite right. What the Company is doing here is closing itself to the possibility of someone cracking their secret. As a result the technology is perceived as indegenious and quite affirmatively even leak proof. The problem with this is that, if someone can crack into this technology and crack the code, there are limitless possibilities of fraud and guess what? The company will never know what is happening.

Off late the concept of security is being revisited. There is a need to make a technology more publicly accessible so that possiblities of fraud become more easily detectable. Its good for the technology too as upgrades, enhancements become the order of the day.

About Software package and Welfare schemes: A Weird but relevant post

There are some uncanny similarities between a welfare scheme announced by a ruling party for the people and a software package.

A software that one purchases typically has a lot more features than what we actually know or what we end up using. Many features are such that we know about them but hardly use them for our needs. An average user of any software is likely to be using about 30 to 40 % of the features; will be aware of about 60% of the features; will find about 20% of the features not useful to them.

A welfare scheme is designed for a very big pool of people, sometimes may include the entire middle class population of the country. Some people do not want the scheme at all, some find it useful only to some extent, some find it useful and may well use it but are not eligible for it. And finally, many are either not aware of it and even do not know where to get more information.

All about my trip to Goa

My trip to Goa was quite exciting. This was my first holiday with my wife. The last time I visited Goa, I was a bachelor, we had a lot of fun then. I was not sure what this trip had in store for me, but I had a good time.
My wife doesn't know how to drive, but she went ahead and hired a bike (Honda Activa). She got a hang of it in minutes and we were on the road cruising through north Goa. We covered the whole of North Goa in a day. We had little time left as the airport is too far away from our resort, two of our days went in getting to the airport.

I am posting some pics here for you.

Writing Business Content

Writing business content is an entirely different experience when compared to writing software documents or writing research papers that are purely academic. I have highlighted below, some points to keep in mind when writing business content:

• The choice of words and the clarity in the flow should be such that it instills confidence in users towards the business that you are doing or towards the service that you provide.
• Your content should reveal your leadership in the business area, it should also indicate your extensive research and experience in your area of business.
• Based on the type of deliverable, you will have to choose the pitch of writing, for example a sales pitch for a promotional brochure.
• It should educate the users of two things - one the proposed solution and its advantages and two, the drawbacks in the existing system that the user has.
• Finally, a user never goes in for anything new unless you show how much time it really saves them. Be sure to highlight this as well.

With well written business content I am sure even a monk can sell his Ferrari.

About Relationships

That was the second time I was meeting my Fiancée. It was a pleasant March evening when my dad and I walked past a few shops in the busy streets of a fast growing metropolitan. The moon shown brightly on the lawns of the park and there were a few children still playing. I seated my dad on a bench at a distance and went to the ladies hostel to call on her.

My Dad had not met her after the first meeting of our families a couple of weeks ago. He was hoping he could speak to her and understand her better. After all, he was curious to know if she will fit in our family well enough.

She greeted my dad cheerfully and began telling us about her father who passed away a couple of years ago. I was sitting in the middle of the bench and was feeling awkward when each voice reached me from either side. I then stepped into the lawns and started walking about. Playing as a child would, I climbing in and out of the metal frames of children’s playthings in the park, I at once plunged myself into the early days of my childhood. Time flies, taking with it those precious moments of life, leaving only the memories behind.

Relationships are like saplings, when you nourish them they grow and give shelter to you. When you neglect them, they perish and are no longer fulfilling.

Digital Trail spreads its wings without your notice!

We put a lot of info about us on the web. It may be difficult to control this info. Every time we refer to a friend of ours, we are also enlarging their digital trail. It costs an awful lot of money to get your trail completely off the web. It has infact become a business now, there are specialists who can get your information completely removed from the web if you pay a price.

Some reasons why you must be careful about what information you put on the web:
1. There are some companies who trace you to your blogs, social Network profiles to know more about you and your credibility. Obviously, they wanna make sure they are hiring someone well worth the trouble.
2. Some insurance companies also track people on the web for various obvious reasons I need not elaborate here.
3. You can yourself come up with a few more points to add to this list.

You may say, “I have used high security on my networking profile, only my chosen friends can view my profile info.” But do you know that there is no way of stopping people from putting some malicious code in the applications that you add to your profile.

BBC has recently created a data miner application that could look just plain to people from outside, but inside when it is added to a profile, it mines info from the profile not only of that profile but also all other profiles attached to it. Guess where they tested this? Facebook! Yes, Facebook.

I agree that privacy is promised to us. I also know that we all sign an agreement that we will abide by the website terms of use, but not everyone is a good guy you see.

Should we now panic, should we get our profiles removed from these sites? Not really, but we ought to be very cautious of what we reveal on these sites. Beware! Private settings are not really private.

April is the cruelest month!

This title rings a bell in your mind. Yeh, you are right. T. S. Eliot's Wasteland.

April is the cruelest month,
Breeding lilacs out of the dead land
Mixing memory and desire...blah blah

Hyderabad this summer has been scorching. Never in the past ten years have I experienced this kind of weather during summer. Heat waves engulf the city throughout the day, strangling people with heat and spreading sunstrokes and dehydration. Even when standing in the shade, the winds have the potential to bake your brains and fill your ears with blazing hot air. Its like you are inches away from a furnace this time.

Nights are no better. Where have those winds gone that used to cool the city at night and lull everyone to sleep? Are we heading towards a situation where every household must definitely have an air cooler or an air conditioner?

If this is a temporary change in weather I am not going to crib. But just imagine if this is a consequence of rising temperatures globally. If this continues, I am afraid all of us have to start contributing to reducing global warming in a big way. I am scared and worried. Are we slowly making this Planet inhabitable for ourselves and many other species of living things.

Where are we heading?

Life is Beautiful!

I have spent a lot of my time looking for meaning. Everyone does. Our education system is such that at every given stage we are loading our brains with more and more of something. This something just keeps growing with time. Human being as a species is unique because it has developed a taste for something called the meaning. There is a craving for it in us. We have become such slaves to this that if we do not understand something, we just cannot associate ourselves with it whatever that something may be.

Let me try and delve into this a bit more. Have you ever experienced a feeling of complete inactivity? That is your brains is quite active, but your body is numb, refusing to budge. It takes the energy of a thousand galleons just to raise your eyebrows. I am not talking about the time when you are either in a drunken stupor or when you are fast asleep and experiencing something like this in a dream. I am talking about general, normal times.

When you see a child hardly one year old, playing, smiling blissfully, completely unmindful of its surroundings, what do you feel? Why are you and me not able to experience the same blissfulness? Let me put it a bit more straightforward, can you tell me when and how do you think you will be able to experience that blissfulness?

From my entire learning so far, I have only and truly learnt just one thing. And that is that every now and then, there is a part of my body that starts aching, it wants something, even if no one had taught me anything, I probably would have know what it wants. If I were a child and was dependant on others, I probably would have conveyed my need to them in some way. If I was a grown up, then I would probably help myself.

Tips for taking effective videos using your camcorder or cellphone camera

I was watching a program on BBC recently. They had some interesting tidbits on how not to look like an amateur when taking videos. Almost all cell phones now come with reasonably good cameras. Everyone is into capturing something that interests them. So, I thought I would share these tips with all of you.

Buying a Camera
If you are buying a camcorder, buy something that offers advanced video formats, has flash memory or pen drive facility, has more buttons rather than layers of touch-screen options. Usually 10x zoom is good enough; a zoom more than this would only obscure the picture.

Some handy tips for a shoot
1. Hold the camcorder by standing still in one place at a fixed height from the ground. Movement on an axis yields better results than forward or backward movement (for this you can use zoom).

2. When shooting, focus on your subject, offset it rather than making it the centre of your focus, hold your shot for a good few seconds, now pause and change the angle and refocus. Try and contain actions inside the frame. Using different angles, pausing frequently, and holding a shot for a while each time is the key.

3. To avoid shaky movement, use your body as a tripod or lean on a static object close to you.

4. Light is generally friendly for taking good videos. Morning and evening sun is good. When you are shooting at other times of the day, do not use auto exposure. Instead, choose your subject and lock exposure. Or choose objects and backgrounds with similar amount of light on them.

5. Avoid Auto focus for dense or packed backgrounds. They leave your camera confused.

6. Sound is often neglected and can easily reveal your amateurishness. Maintain appropriate distance from your subjects so that you also capture sounds well.

7. Do not use effects such as fades etc during the shoot. Add them later in editing.

8. Think about the composition of your video. Each video tells a story, so plan your shots accordingly. Based on the theme of your composition, you can edit them later to add background music etc.

9. For editing videos you could use basic software like Windows Movie Maker.

10. For tweaking audio files, you can download a free tool like Audacity. I use audacity quite often for editing guitar compositions for my upcoming guitar website for Indian learners. It is a simple-to-use tool with some basic documentation available to get you started.

Hope these tips were helpful to you. Leave a comment or send me links to some of the videos you took. I will be happy to watch them.

WebWatch, my new sidebar element for fun browsing

If you have visited my blog recently you would have noticed the sidebar element that I have conveniently called "WebWatch." Watch this element for info on a new website or webtrend. I will give a brief overview here and if you like whats on offer, might as well go to the site to check it out.

That said, Digital Lego is my first post on WebWatch. As a child I played Lego till the bricks became loose and wouldn't fit into each other any more. I did not even know the name of this game at that time. I enjoyed every moment I spent creating structures with the bricks. I still recall how I used to run to my grand pa to show my creations.

This one here, is a digital lego. That is, you download the .exe file, intall it on your computer and get started.Unlike the physical lego, the online one is cool 'coz there is no end to the shapes of lego bricks you can choose from. If you dont have what you need, just write to the lego team and they will get it for you. If you register, you can borrow unfinished creations from others and complete them, you can share what you have created with others and so on.

Those of you really longing for a break from work, this can get you refreshed instantly.

The website is http://factory.lego.com/.

Only beware, it is very addictive ! :)

Me, Myself and the Web!

My dear Readers,
From now I am going to introduce you to an interesting website every now and then. Some studies proved that taking time out of our daily routine to do some general browsing, playing a net game that tickles our brain, or gathering some general gyan from the web is doing a lot of good to us.

This much-needed break not only refreshes us, it also fills us with renewed energy to finish up the rest of our work for the day.

So, when you are looking for a break, just drop by.

if you have enjoyed what I post in this context, leave a comment and I will be happy to read from you. For those who already know of the websites I will be talking about, well, you can pat your back ‘coz you are keeping up with this ever expanding landscape of the web.

Off I go for now, but I bet my next post will keep you busy clicking.

Painting, a mere painting!

Look at those sketches

You’re right

That’s my music room at home

Me playing the guitar and all

Those are my friends

Been with me through thick and thin

Those blank faces and naïve smiles

All dizzy with smoke and drink

When we found us

Something just collapsed in between

That day I felt it again

Something was collapsing again

I am never the same again

They are never the same again

We are never the same again

We sure had a good time

A painting, a mere painting

Faces that speak the truth

Gazers that read the truth

Me, and me alone, that knows the truth

Cashless World: Are we heading towards one?

The smell of currency paper blending with the smell of polished leather from the wallets that carry it is too hard to resist. The Indian women have the habit putting currency in all sorts of tins and containers giving them varied fragrances of spices and stuff. The touch and the smell of currency is quite an amusing thing.

However, in the past decade, India has seen tremendous rise in the issuance of Debit and Credit Cards making it unnecessary for us to carry a lot of cash. Three out of every five shops in the cities now accept cards for any shopping that you do. Even places like filling stations accept cards for as little as one litre of fuel. What’s more, Online Banking has also caught up fast enough. You can even pay all your utility bills online.

Though it is likely to take more time for this to spread into the semi urban and rural areas of the country, it is definitely a trend that cannot be taken lightly.

If we are in this age, then why not see what are the advantages of this:

• Huge reduction in cost of printing and distribution of currency.
• Reduced security problems both to institutions and individuals.
• Increases the scope of surveillance of account transactions thus giving improved access to law enforcing agencies and the government to cash flow metrics.
• Reduced use of hard cash may even reduce corruption to some extent.

Even if you take the world as a whole, it is still quite difficult to imagine a completely cashless system. A lot of transactions will always remain miniscule. Your bus fare when roaming within the city limits, your local metro weekly pass, your ten rupees worth vegetables for instance.

Not yet, you cannot probably think of referring to the end of currency on the wikipedia. Currency may outlive us for sure.

The magic of Web 2.0!

What is this Web 2.0 and why is this term everywhere?

In a nutshell, what happens in Web 2.0 is users participate in the activity of sharing what they know

• This enhances each other’s knowledge.
• Improves the degree of access a user has to information
• Improves continuously, the quality of the information a user is seeking from time to time.
• Connects people faster than ever before.
• Brings together people with like-minded interests and ideas again faster than ever before.

Where is it more comfortable to do this than on the Internet? With mobile internet access speeds reaching broadband, the Internet fast evolved as a platform for web 2.0. Ease of use became central to all this ‘coz otherwise you cannot get users to participate; you have one site but you can login with any of your existing webmail login credentials; you have one site where you can network with both friends and business allies; you have one site where you can now do literally every activity of interest to you.

The early birds have more number of users, while sites that started late have more number of features.

The term Web 2.0 is attributed to any present day trend which enables some or all of the above things to happen.

Information sharing websites like Wikipedia, Social Networking websites like Orkut, Facebook, Hi5, etc are web 2.0.

If you have a webcam in which you shoot an event, post it on the net all while you are on the fly, that’s web 2.0 alright.

So, do you have a product for which you can say, “Wow! How very web 2.0!”

Road Widening in Hyderabad!

I am happy to note that many roads in Hyderabad are being widened. However, I am deeply concerned about the number of trees felled in the city over the past one month.

The existing roads had plenty of trees on either side. Even if you consider an average of 5 trees for every hundred metres of road, GHMC must have rooted out hundreds of trees in the city.

I hope they come up with an ameliorative plantation drive after the road widening is completed. Otherwise, it is a loss for which we, the city dwellers, will pay a heavy price. Lack of sufficient greenery in the city will cause terrible imbalance to the ecosystem of the city.
It will be years before we can hope to bring back the balance.

Best Practices for your first draft of a document

If you are a Technical Writer and have just completed creating a document from scratch, then read on.

Always complete this checklist before submitting any document as your first draft.

1. Spelling and grammar: Run it through a spell-check, check for punctuation, Avoid using passive voice unless it is unavoidable. Make sure that the word processor you are using is set by default to the Client language, US English or UK English for example.

2. Clarity: Avoid using ambiguous words and phrases.

3. Consistency: Use same type of words and sentence constructions for similar tasks. Check if all headings have a consistent structure. For example, if you are using –ing form be consistent in its use.

4.Completeness: Check if all links, cross-references, etc are working. TOC is updated, all sections are completed, etc. Some tools allow you to mark the completeness of a topic. Use this feature to effectively manage completeness of topics.

5. Conciseness: use small and shorter words and phrases instead of long ones.

6. Organization: Organize your sections, subsections, topics, and subtopics carefully. Spend some quality time, creating and editing the first TOC you come up with. Remember, the bigger picture and its clarity adds to the logical flow of a reader.

7. Accuracy: Run the application or the software reading your document. Make sure there are no gaps. Get the doc reviewed by Testing/Functional/Subject Matter Experts for functionality and conceptual accuracy. Always remember you can only bring as much clarity to the document as your own understanding of the software. It is essential that you thoroughly understand the software to present it to the user in the simplest way.

8. Screenshots: If you have used screenshots, check all screenshots to make sure that the right screenshots are embedded in right places.

9. Document Properties: Check इफ Headers and Footers, Page numbers, document properties, Page Properties, etc are done well. This is very important, because the users should not have trouble reading your help in any format they like. एक्साम्प्ले: online, print, etc.

10। Finally, go through the whole document once looking carefully at the structure to rule out any extra page breaks, line breaks, formatting issues, etc। This saves paper when printed, and will also make the document ready for conversion into other formats.

These steps are not in any logical order but sooner than later you will realize that all these steps are mandatory। I am sure you can come with the order that suits you best when you run several documents through this list।

The lesser the users seek help, the more the product’s success. It is, therefore, in our hands to make these few visits of users more fulfilling. Let us not distract the users with flowery language and excess formatting.

Mobile phones and what they bring to you!

Mobile phone usage is becoming increasingly painstaking. Wonder what the cell phone manufacturers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and others concentrate on. If bringing a new model every month is the only concern then they are leaving the users in the dark.

Some of the problem we are facing as users are as follows

1. Batteries almost always have lower life than guaranteed. If you are going to blame it on me saying lack of awareness of usage, than I will say come up with better solutions. Batteries and battery chargers are a problem. If a battery goes down completely, you cannot afford an authentic new battery as it cost as much as a new cell phone. The same is the case with a charger.
2. For heavens sake can you device ways of getting rid of the problem of having to remember that I have to keep charging this phone. Can you make them more intelligent so that they can tell me when they are completely charged? Can you get them to disconnect from the charger when the piece is completely charged.
3. Too many devices in a single phone never work properly. You don’t have to pack the whole world into my phone. I don’t want it. Something or the other is always getting stuck if you do this. If nothing, the batter goes down faster when I use these and again I have to charge it.
4. I cannot figure out the Office mode idea in a mobile. If you expect me to remember to switch between the normal mode and office mode after eight hours today and then tomorrow and then for the rest of my life every day then don’t you think I have better things to do than this. May I just have this automated please; it has bugged me for quite a while now.
5. Why are you making the phone so small that I cant even trust it in my pocket. How do you expect me to hold it in one hand and then also type an sms. Where are the keys to type? Why are you giving me a stick to type, you mean I should use both my hands every time I use this mobile phone?
6. And then Help, Help, Help, why can’t you provide some help in the mobile phone itself. Do you expect me to go home and read my manual if I get stuck when using the phone in office?
7. Why don’t you run an automatic, service-provider-independent toll-free contact number on this mobile to the manufacturer customer care? I want to call you and give you some feedback on improving my phone.
8. My dear manufacturer, please do not make the phone so rigid that I buy it once and then I deal with what I get for life। Make it more flexible, give me a chance to upgrade the functions in my phone without having to buy a new piece. Not everyone has the money to buy a new version of your phone every time you release one. Otherwise, take my phone back and give me a new one for a few bucks more with every release, no questions asked from me about what condition my phone is in.

I loved my phone when it first came into being. Today I still probably love my phone but only temporarily.

Dealing with increasing traffic conditions in cities in India

Considering some of the growing cities in India such as Hyderabad and Bangalore are struggling to cope with the increasing traffic, I was wondering why not I write some traffic tips from my own experience of years of local travel in the cities.

Many city roads (both arterial and inside roads) have not been planned for too far into the future. This is partly because we had no idea cities would grow at this rate. No matter how much the traffic cops try to ease the traffic, it is we the daily commuters who need to co-operate to make the situation better.

I would like to point to some general scenarios that I observed.

When two big vehicles run parallel to each other for some time they block all the traffic behind them. The ideal thing is to have these big vehicles such as buses; lorries, vans, etc move only one behind the other rather than one next to the other.

It helps a great deal if people follow traffic rules. Some examples are to overtake only from the right side, to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you, to indicate that you are taking a turn, to stop the vehicle well before the zebra crossing and not right on it and so on.

It is better also to maintain good distance for each other when waiting for the signal to go. If you do not do this, you are unable to move freely when the signal goes off.

Some really good to have things are, signals that function properly, police that is really alert and does not spare any traffic rule violators, imagine how nice it would be if we implemented lane system in India.

Indian roads are no longer safe for pedestrians; roads do not have good and wide enough footpath or walkways anymore। The existing walkways are being demolished for widening of road. There is no place for pedestrians to cross to the other side of the road either. Zebra crossing in many places particularly in cities like Hyderabad have little meaning.

In a city like Hyderabad, it is really unfortunate that many commuters are absolutely careless. They have no awareness of traffic rules. In Hyderabad, the general public is also very self-centered. No one is bothered when a person is breaking a traffic rule. Traffic police teams should be really very powerful. General public and commuters must respect them and follow rules for their own safety and for the safety of others.

Technical Writing: Where do you draw the line?

To submit your search, click the Search button.

Click File > Save As

These are plain steps for some procedure or the other.

These constitute the first part. The meaning derived from these few words arranged into a sentence will bring the user from one place to another on the application.

You place a question mark next to a field on the user interface. User gets stuck there, clicks the question mark and knows instantly how to proceed. Place a question mark, or choose to write an instruction right there on the screen.

You are leaving some signboards here and there. This constitutes the second part.

I am not done with this yet.

You now want the users to know everything about the product. Knowing how way leads on to way and that the user may never come back to read the entire help, it becomes really essential for you to package it for the user. So you place related topics links. When a user walks your way, you want to know if the user had a good time walking your way or not.

You are basically compiling your complete Help into one entity with a lot of gimmicks in it. This you want to present to the user somewhere in the product, again with a lot of gimmicks.

You are giving the user a roadmap.

This constitutes the third important part.

Even with all these with you, I am sure you will agree with me that you asked your way around in a new place you visited. You don’t know the person but the person, being a local, is likely to know the place best, so you don’t mind asking.

So there are support teams the user approaches when there is a need to ask. This constitutes another important step.

Now let me come to my questions.

I may be good at only one of the above. I may not have any say over many of the other things though I have a feeling that I can understand the user’s needs better than many others. So where do I fit in?

What if I am in a small firm where I am the king?

What if I am in a big firm where there is a separate department for one who thinks, one who types something on the keyboard, one who clicks on the mouse and one who sees the display on the computer?

And going back to the allegory, which is more important?

• The road
• The signboard
• The roadmap
• The local chap

I love music! Really, I mean it!

What do we mean when we say we love music? Its one things to just sit back and enjoy listening, its quite another thing to play. Its one thing to play, its quite another to compose.

I met a noted smalltime band guitarist once and had a long chat with him. He also happens to be the composer for the band. He said music is nothing but mathematics and physics.

Frequencies match to bring instruments in tune. Meticulous calculations of timing and rhythm bring out strings of melodies. I definitely admit that to be a composer you have to be good with math.

Is that all? Wait a minute.

If you want to sing to perform, you need years of practice. If you want to play an instrument, ditto.

If you want to compose, you need much more than just practice. You need to know or be aware of a few genres, need to be a singer or a player of an instrument for some time.

Do you know some instruments go well with others. If this never occurred to you, then try paying attention to what you listen from now. See which instruments are being played together. Which are following each other and so on. Now, you are at the other end of this whole thing.

If you want to be a composer, have you ever seen a music studio live? Just spend a few days in a studio, sit through a complete composition of a song or a jingle.

Oh, there’s is more to it than just passion.

If you are ready to go all the way it will take a few years for you. Get into the business and invest your time and money.

If you do not have the time or the money, music is still yours!

We all enjoy listening to music, don’t we?

Remind me to remind you of it!-Ten (10) Ways to avoid forgetfulness

How often have you seen people forget things? How often have you forgotten something yourself?

There’s this friend of mine. When I say to him, “Hey, please remind me to call up my service provider tomorrow.” He would immediately say, “Remind me to remind you of it.”

When he said this for the first time the whole bunch of us laughed like crazy. But he is really like that. He had the habit of forgetting his copy of the room key somewhere almost every time he goes out to a party. He would come back to the room, fumble his pockets for it and then call me, “mate, my key is missing again, where are you?”

One day, I even bought him this long stylish looking chain which he could hook to his pants so he doesn’t loose the key any more. Now, he started playing with the chain, rolling it round and round his finger. He lost it ‘coz he never hooked it to his pants anyway.

All of us forget things once in a while, but can often recall it soon, but what if you cannot recall? What if you simply cannot recall where you left your Driving License or your Passport?

So, how can you avoid this problem?

You have only two options --gain the capacity to recall things you forget, or device ways and means of avoiding forgetting things.

In my experience with day-to-day activities, I made up a list of things that can help. Try them out, they worked for me and will work for you too.

1. A Number: keep a count of things

Count the number of items to be carried to office everyday. Always remember that number. Before leaving for office check if the number of items match that number.

Example: You need a bunch of keys, your goggles, a bag, a mobile phone, and a wallet before setting out for office. That makes it five (5) items. So when you are ready to go to office, just grab everything first, then count to see if there are five items. If there are less figure out what is missing.

2. Check before you leave

You are at a friend’s place, you are ready to go back home. Before leaving check the place to see if you are leaving any of your belongings there.

3. List them out

You are about to travel in a couple of days. On piece of paper, list out all the items you are supposed to carry with you. Tick them off when packing to make sure you have packed everything. Carry the list with you. Add new items to this list if you do some shopping etc. Check the list again at the end of your travel to see if you are bringing back everything.

4. Use Post-its, To Dos, Reminders

When you have to remember what to do and when there are many of them, just add them to your calendar on the email application, write them on Post-its and stick them around your personal room or car or other such easily noticeable places. Set up reminders on your mobile to remind you of events to come.

5. Keep a Diary/Journal

Keep a diary preferably a searchable password protected document in which whenever you have some time, you jot down important things, memorable events, etc. If you cannot recall something of the past, your diary may help you go back in time to see if you recorded it somewhere.

6. Organize your surroundings meticulously

If you are living alone or if you have cooperative companions, then organize things carefully. Keep useful items handy; at easy to see, easy to reach locations.

Example: You and everyone in your house know where a toolkit is located in the house. It will always be in the same place.

7. Plan ahead

We tend to forget things generally when we are in a hurry. Avoid last minute rush. Plan ahead and book holidays, tickets, etc in advance. When have a scheduled appointment, make sure you get ready well in advance.

8. Relax: Learn to be a more relaxed person

We forget things because our mind is occupied with many other thoughts. If you are relaxed you will automatically learn to avoid getting carried away by these thoughts.

9. Exercise your memory often

Device ways by which to keep recalling people and their names, places, events etc. as often as you can. Make it a habit of referring to people by their names. Make a mental note of shopping places you visit and bring them up in conversation often.

Example: Say, “Remember the City Lights restaurant where we met last December.” Instead of saying, “Remember that hotel at the street corner where we met last year.”

10. Pay attention to detail

Observe things more carefully than you are generally used to, This encourages the brain to participate more and more actively in whatever you are doing.

Example: You left your keys behind at your friends place. But if you had the eye for detail you would not have missed noticing the keys lying on the table right next to the door.

To remember something means more work for the brain. So wake up those parts of the brain that are dozing.

For those who decide to let the sleeping dogs lie, here is my BIG advise।

Do not keep anything in the safest place ever ‘coz if you forget you will turn your house upside down and will still not find it.