Lucknow Residency – A Poetry in Arches

Every wall has a story to tell,
Every arch is a poetry,
Every brick a verse..
Are you listening?

Some images from the Residency, Lucknow.

Victoria Memorial – Four views

Colours of Dilli Haat

Diwali is here

This picture was taken last year. Diwali wishes to all Indians.

Dissertation, Hypothesis and PO

With whatever little I know about the method of doing dissertation, what I am able to make out from this exercise is that students must be exposed to the processes of research, which includes data collection and analysis. To be able to do this students must select one topic to be studied in depth and start with a ‘hypothesis’.

Hypothesis, is an essence of any dissertation. It lets you start the process in some direction. Hypothesis is based on certain assumptions and all the evidence that one may already have. Unfortunately, in many cases, students are already convinced about the hypothesis and its conclusion. So their research is more focussed on proving the hypothesis right than wrong. They consciously ignore, eliminate and avoid the path that disagrees with their hypothesis.

Hypothesis may not only end with YES or NO. There could be something neutral, mean or beyond that. PO. PO was coined by Edward De Bono, which looks beyond YES and NO. PO, lets you explore more possibilities than just YES and NO, sometimes resulting into something unimaginable.

Teachers, guides and students must explore the possibilities of PO. Not having an answer at the end, or having a mean, or having a very different answer than Hypothesis is alright.

We only have 24 hours a day

“Trafficjamdelhi” by NOMAD – http://www.flickr.com/photos/lingaraj/2415084235/sizes/l/. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

This morning  I was supposed to meet an important person who holds a very high position in the Indian Government office. The discussion would have only lasted about 15-20 minutes, I am sure. Considering the traffic in Delhi in morning hours,  the time spent commuting would have been about three hours. Three hours of commuting for fifteen minutes of meeting. Waste of 150 minutes. But, the matter was important and the appointment was set.

I decided to call up the person in morning to confirm the meeting before starting from home, as many times I have experienced the last-minute cancellations specially with people from Government offices. The person on other end asked my location and the time it will take for me to reach his place. After hearing my answers, he asked me promptly “Can’t we then just discuss it over phone?” I was surprised. I never saw that coming. Seriously. Matter was equally important for him. He surely wasn’t trying to avoid meeting me. In fact the matter was more important for him than me.

He continued, “You can later send me an email on whatever we have discussed. I will look into the matter.”

I agreed happily. We talked for about 10 minutes on the matter, and the meeting was over.

Now, if only we could do justice to the technology around us, we will save many man hours every day that can be put to better use. Surely, we will also be helping environment a lot.We have phones, Skype, emails and more where meetings could happen. We will be causing lesser traffic jams, and frustration thus health problems.

Travel – India

My wish is to travel across India, before I die. I prefer travelling by train over road or air. Air is my last priority. One gets to see the real India on stations, in second class railway compartments and more in general class. Of course there is India which is also. traveling by upper class (air-conditioned, three-tier and above). But, majority of India travels by general class and sleeper class and many times without reservations and tickets. Some pictures from my last travel:

The fault in my stars

I am not a voracious reader as many friends of mine proudly write in their bios and many of them are. Though, I would like to be one. Slowly I am picking up on reading and so far I have read couple of stories by Carl Hiaasen and Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is my favourite.

Now, onto the fault with my stars.

I didn’t give it a second thought after watching the trailer of the movie ‘The fault in my stars”, story adapted from the book with same title by John Green, I went ahead and ordered the book from Amazon. I was in Deolali on vacation, my home town which is more than 1000 km away from Delhi, more like my work place.

Amazon is my favourite among all shopping portals, for its reputation, pricing and customer support. The portal delights you at every step.

I was promised the delivery within 2-4 days and to my surprise, it didn’t happen. Just after two days of placing the order, I started receiving messages that the delivery could be delayed due to ‘Network Issues’. I didn’t understand it at all. FedEx is an internationally reputed courier service, through which I was to receive the book. I contacted the customer support at Amazon on the scheduled day of delivery and enquired about the status. I was promised the delivery at the earliest, and the promise was fulfilled. The book was in my hands very next day.

Like I said earlier, I am not a voracious reader, I didn’t start reading the book immediately. I read introduction and blurb and kept it like that for few days. I recently started reading the book and again to my shock it appeared to me that the book could be a pirated copy. May be. There was misprint on inner page and paragraphs ended abruptly. Almost immediately, I decided to get the replacement. But alas, refund was possible, but no replacement. I decided to go for a refund.

Amazon has a very User Friendly Interface that takes you through the process of refund / replacement in a swish. But then, there was another trouble waiting for me and that was Amazon’s stupid policy. The Policy says that the order for refund can only be picked up from the address where it was delivered. But, I had come back to Delhi. I contacted Customer Support and they advised me to ship the book to Amazon and the refund will be made within 10 days after the book has been received. Also, the cost of shipment will be refunded. fair enough, I was happy with that.

I understand that it is getting too long, but one last paragraph.

I received an email describing the process of packaging and shipping the book back to Amazon. It isn’t easy as it may sound. The link provided in the email detailed out every step and it was a major put off. But then, I have no other choice. I will have to follow the steps and get the refund. All said and done, I would still highly recommend Amazon for its service quality and customer support.

Doctors’ Day – My Message

On Punctuality

Image Credits: news.dm

There is no dearth of people who know how not to be punctual. But, they fail to understand the value of other’s time. I am not sure if I should go to an extent of saying the following:

“Never ever trust a person who knows that s/he cannot make it in five minutes, but still says “I’ll be there in five minutes”. Better even, cut off all the ties with such person.”

Sounds extreme? But that is what I am feeling like now.