Independence and *WE* kas

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स्वातंत्र आणि विकास
Independence and WEkas

आपल्या संविधानाची सुरुवात एका महत्वपूर्ण वाक्याने होते WE THE PEOPLE आणि ह्यातला WE हा मला ठळक नमूद करावासा वाटतो.

लवकरच देशात निवडणुकेचे वातावरण तापायला लागेल. गेल्या 70 वर्षात सर्वच राजकीय पक्षांनी विकास (VIKAS) ह्या मुलभूत गरजेचं राजकारण करत स्वतःचा विकास करून घेतला. आणि आजही ह्याच मुद्द्यावर तुम्हा आम्हाला भुलवल जात.

गेल्या काही वर्षात ह्यात एक गोष्टीची प्रकर्षाने भर जाणवते. ति म्हणजे इंग्रजानी घातलेल्या पायांड्याची divide and rule. बरेच राजकिय आणि निमराजकीय संघटना लोकांना लोकांपासून तोडण्याचा (धर्मावरून, जातीपाती वरून, समाजवरून, खाण्यावरून, कपडे घालण्यावरून आणि बरीच अशी विविधता जि आपल्या देशाची खरी ताकत हाती, आहे आणि राहिली पाहिजे) प्रयत्न करताना दिसत आहेत आणि हे सगळं चालतं एका शब्दांमागे तो म्हणजे विकास (VIKAS).

मि तुम्हाला विनम्र आठवण करून देतो आहे की…

• विविध प्रांताच्या, जातीच्या, समाज्याच्या समस्थ स्वातंत्र्य सैनिकांनी एकत्र (WE) हे स्वातंत्र आपल्याला दिलं आहे,
• आजवर देशाने जो विकास मिळवला आहे तो एकात्मतेची (WE) भावना जपत आणि पुढच्या पिढ्यानपिढ्याना देत मिळवला आहे,
• स्वातंत्र्याची 100 वर्ष आणि त्यानंतरचा विकास हासुद्धा ह्या एकात्मतेवरच शक्य आहे.

तेव्हा VIkasachi भाषा करत तुम्हाला फसवण्याऱ्या राजकारण्यापासून सावध रहा.

स्वतःमध्ये WEkasachi जाणीव जिवंत राहू देत, ति तुमच्या आजूबाजूला पसरवा, त्यासाठी तुम्ही लोकांना प्रेरणा द्या आणि उज्ज्वल भारतासाठी तुमचा हातभार लावा.

त्यासाठी देव आपणा सर्वाना सद्बुद्धी आणि लागणार बळ देवो हि देवाकडे माझी प्रार्थना.

जय हिंद, वंदे मातरम, भारतमाता की जय !!!

समाज म्हणजे काय?

मला असं वाटतं समाज म्हणजे…

• सतत माणुकसी जपता यावी यासाठी मानवाच्या उत्क्रांतीच्या इतिहासात काही समजूतदार माणसांनी जन्माला घातलेली व्यवस्था.
• सर्वांनी माणुसकी जपली तर सर्वच माणसांना जगणे सोपे आणि सुखकर होईल कदाचित ह्याच हेतूने निर्माण केलेली व्यवस्था.
• कदाचित सम + आज म्हणजे कोणत्याही क्षणी/दिवशी सर्वांच्या अस्तित्वाला, गरजांना आणि भावनांना समान मान असतो ह्याची जाणीव असावी असा लपलेला संदेश.
• सर्वांच्या मानवाधिकारांचे जतन करता यावे म्हणून सकस मानसिकता जतन करा असा संदेश कायम देता यावा ह्याची तरतूद.

समजलं तर खरंच सोपं आहे… पटतंय का?

(Help-Learn -ne Share-Knowledge)

Last week I was in Chennai delivering a training on PowerShell, at a very short notice.

This was a very different experience. I was called to deliver a batch on Automating Administration with Windows PowerShell®

More than the content, the context was different this time. This was started by another trainer but the participants were not happy with the delivery. The requirement came to me on Monday evening after 7:00 PM. I was expected to start the batch on Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM. That was definitely tough. I spoke to the vendor requesting at least a day to understand something about background and the context, which he agreed to. There were other surprises as well

One, 5 days content squeezed to 3 days.
Two, client was in Chennai.

While the first one was not quite a surprise as most people are trying to get the staff back to production/delivery sooner. I made sure that the expectation was set so that there are no arguments later over the duration and overall feedback. Thankfully, the vendor team agreed to the assumptions to avoid feedback risk. Fundamental assumption was most of the participants are experienced server admins and they know some level of PowerShell already. Therefore, 3 days were planned to cover the agenda.

The second surprise however was a bit hard to manage as I had to start travel in few hours. Having managed to get ready, it was fortune testing time for me.

The flight was scheduled for a 10:30 PM departure. After getting on the runway the pilot decided to go back to parking bay. The aircraft had some technical glitches making it unsafe for take off. It got rescheduled to 12:30 AM and eventually I reached Chennai at 3:00 AM on Wednesday. I barely slept for three and half hours. The training was to commence at 9:00 AM and I reached at 8:20 AM to class room.

Participants were told 9:30 AM so I got some preparation time. That’s the only hour I got to plan my delivery to ensure that the training goes smooth. By the time everyone joined it was 9:45 AM and the training eventually started. I had to share the last evening experience with participants before setting the tone for agenda.

Introductions are generally 10 to 20 minutes but this time I extended to almost an hour. It was not just to get names, I wanted to understand there area of work, expertise and what they expect from the training. That conversation helped me so much to get an exact idea about what needs to be done to help them learn. The day one feedback was 4.8 out of 5.

After seeing that, all the stress taken 24 hours before was flushed. It also gave me a motivation to finish on a higher note (which did happen with similar feedback).

In my last 5 training’s, I was able to help the participant implement PowerShell learning to solve their existing problem. For some, it was a migration from the batch files to PowerShell and for some it was how to approach automation with PowerShell learning.

I repeated my practice of encouraging participants to talk about real-life technical issues they face. By the third day there was one participant who could change his two batch file approach to a single PowerShell script for their production. This was an acknowledgement for me that I delivered a successful training in true sense.

So my learning,

• Be real about your capabilities and limitations and overcome inhibitions.
• As a trainer focus should be on enabling learning & discovering than knowledge sharing & content delivery.
• Knowledge sharing may limit to content delivery however learning enablement pushes students/participants to think about solving technical problems.
• Knowledge sharing may remain as notes with participants but enablement helps them accomplish something real and remember for a long time.
• While planning is good, sometimes one has to take bold steps/risks to establish credibility.

Remembering the Guru

Today morning, looking at the calendar my daughter asked me what’s this day Guru Purnima? Thinking what should I explain this 6 year old. So I spontaneously said guru is someone who teaches us. She was immediate to react oh its teacher’s day!!!. I was not in position to say clear Yes Or No. Somehow in the school time rush she forgot confirming but that kept playing in my mind.

While I was in that thinking mode I got a call from Ulhas Jogale. He wished me Happy Guru Purnima. It’s not the first time that he had called me. For last 12 years he calls me on this day without fail. I am really touched with his gesture. His tenacity to remember & call me every year even when my numbers were changed, struck me. I do have gurus but I was never so punctual in calling and thanking them. I just kept my feeling inside me about them. Ulhas’s call helped me find answer and made sure I don’t waste any opportunity now to thank my gurus.

Teachers do great job not questions about it. Teachers day is apt to say “Thank You” for their contribution.

So here is my realization, “Every teacher can’t be Guru but every Guru is definitely a teacher.” I am not claiming only I discovered this, I am just saying I realized it now in my life. I can’t explain this to my daughter at her age, hope she will discovers as she grows.

I did commerce graduation from Mumbai university. During 2001 to 2005 I worked for a company called Synergetics. My first job started here. I met some of the brilliant teachers (for me the best teachers) in Indian Software Industry. After a year of work as technical coordinator I was given more challenging responsibilities of managing IT system of the company. Of course for on the job learner it was definitely a lot of work. That’s when I got introduced to Ulhas Jogale. He used to work as office assistant for operations and finance teams. He didn’t have strong financial or educational background but he was very sincere with his work. In his spare time he used to stop by me for quick chats on latest news on politics, fun events & being Sachin Tendulkar fan we used to chat on cricket a lot. After sometime he started helping me in moving systems, providing helping hand in network setup etc. Sometime it was instructional from his managers and sometime he will voluntarily come forward. That’s when I realized he wants to learn about computers more. He knew basics or connecting, starting computer but not much beyond that. So while getting helping hand from him I started teaching him small things about operating computer and using MS Office applications. Later he started exploring on his own and used to get his understanding corrected from me. This went for months and he became more confident on basic operations. This had given him good name in the company as people started appreciating his work beyond his routine stuff. Then came a time he was getting work to burn the course content CDs for training programs. I am not very sure if he was getting paid for that extra work as well. More important for me was that his value to the company had increased and so does his confidence. Since then every Guru Purnima he started wishing me. I still don’t know what he exactly feels but hearing Thank You from him make me happy.

I realized why I can’t Thank my gurus who has changed my life over these years. Parents are first gurus, so how much ever I thank will be less.

For the others I immediately messaged Sanjay Vyas, Amol Vaidya & Anurag Dwivedi.

Why Sanjay Vyas – After my B.com graduation I was little frustrated as I was not getting a good job. I had done software diploma but still I was not lucky. I had decided to leave Mumbai if i don’t get job by December 31, 2000. Only my family knows about this. My father & elder brother convinced me not to. Somehow I agreed to try once more in next few months. Come January 2001 I saw ad in Times of India which I still have laminated with me as cherisable career moment. Synergetics have given job for me but Sanjay Sir was the one who really saw true potential me. My job was to process training feedback in excel files and prepare reports. Sanjay sir made me learn programming, computer hardware and so many new things about technology. In the initial year I would have hated him like anything but I never kept anger inside me. I kept doing what he wanted me to. His guidance and support on exploring technologies changed my way of thinking. It was those 4.5 years with him set me for big challenges and helped me work for the world’s best software company (Microsoft) in past few decades. On my resume 10 years at Microsoft is more visible but at my technical soul it’s those 4.5 years with Sanjay sir are more valuable as they give me confidence.

Why Amol Vaidya – Sanjay Sir taught me how to explore and learn new technologies. It was Amol who helped me keep that learning simple & meaningful. His guidance over the years has helped me untangle the confusions and make every learning effort meaningful. Without his guidance I would have never thought of delivering trainings.

Why Anurag Dwivedi – Back in 2007 when I was transitioning from phases in personal & professional life, he came into picture. After spending 2 years in Microsoft I was looking for next growth chapter. I knew I was not perfect in few areas. Two such was Reading Business and Leading People to grow. He became my manager and guided me like Guru . During 2008 to 2011 was by far the best time I had in Microsoft. I learnt many new things, contributed effectively to the business. I will always consider Anurag the guru who ignited my leadership skill and helped me understand management skills.

So you see none of them are my teachers but they turned out gurus who changed my professional life.

Someone may ask how can you have more than one gurus. I feel what if all them help me discover myself, my potentials and achieve positive things in life, the number doesn’t matter.

To close this post, I wish all my gurus Happy Guru Purnima & pray god to bless them with happiness & prosperity in their lives.