useful (free) mobile apps

Using smart phones without apps - I think its a very unlikely scenario. Here in this blog, I just wanted to share some first-hand info about some of the useful mobile apps that can come handy in completing the day to day activities, both personal and professional.

Anyway, this is my experience and this can very well vary with others depending on their need and choice. An apt example could be FB. I have never installed an FB app in my phone. Because, I am not an FB person. Whenever I want to check, I better do it in a laptop. However, its evident that most of the smart-phone users in the world have FB in their phones. Please see my top 10 list below - :). This list also depends on the country of residence. Some of the apps can be available in US and not in India. My blog here is specific to India. 

1. Whatsapp - No doubt, information exchange was never so easy. Video, audio, image or text, everything can be shared so quickly and easily that, this is a must in your phone. Also, creating groups and sharing at once with a large number of people is another super cool feature. Whatsapp call also, but is it working flawless as of now?

2. Google maps - Hmm.. not sure if the default iPhone Maps app works correctly, especially in India. Also, there might be other default map apps for Windows and Android but none can be matched with Google Maps. It works like charm. Its kind of lifesaver and a must in the phone. Yeah, but don't forget to add a bit of commonsense while using Google Maps. If the map says to turn right and you see a pond there, don't just drive yourself into the pond !!!

3. Cloud storage ( Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or MS One Drive) - I am a victim of laptop hard drive crashes, hard drive thefts and humanly errors like forgetting the stored location of a doc or a photo. The result is always painful, sometimes very painful. The solution to all these is storing your photos, docs etc in the cloud. Hence keeping an cloud storage app in your phone with an auto-sync on is a must. Guys, but remember if you have turned on auto-sync you have to be very careful in setting it up properly. There are lot of physical security issues. I will write separately on this.

4. Any music app (Gaana, Saavan, Jukebox or Hotstar) - If you are storing 100s of songs in your smartphone, please be aware that you are not using your smartphone smartly. You are unnecessary wasting the storage space. Any music app can be installed, as per your choice. Music app is a necessity, as, at some point of time we need to hear some songs to cool ourselves off. Yeah one thing that can cost us here is the mobile data. But you can use it in office wifi. This is an informed choice you have to make as how many songs you want to store and how long to use the music app, especially when your data is being eaten up.

5. Any video call app (Skype or Webex) - It depends how much you use these. It also depends on your office culture. Whether they use Webex and Skype much for meetings or not. Generally people use this a lot for personal as well as professional needs. Hence this app is kind of a necessity and gives flexibility to attend meetings while you are away from your desk. I have given interviews through Skype using my phone while I was roaming around in the streets. Well, yes!

6. Notepad app (Evernote or MS One Note) - This is particularly needed if you are into lot of meetings and are finding it difficult managing the action items and minutes. These apps are designed to address this and they offer a lot of features. In the mobile world Evernote is kind of ruling now but I never found it easy to use. So I depend on MS One Note, even though One Note offers less features in the mobile app. On a side note, MS One Note is a wonderful tool. However, its the most underestimated. I am sure most of you have never used it. Just start using it in your laptop and explore the features you will surely be in love with it. Stop using notepads and words in taking notes and minutes.

7. RSS Feeder (Feedly or anything similar) - We follow many sites everyday to check news, tech updates, sports updates, follow blogs etc. Invariably people install the news channel app itself or check it in the mobile browser. I think this is not the right way. Instead we can configure the rss feeds of all those sites in a rss feeder website and use that rss feeder app. This way it becomes easy to track all the updates coming through your favorite (news, tech, sports) sites.

8. Mindmap app (SimpleMind+ or anything similar) - As you all know mind map is the best way to organize thoughts and ideas. Wherever you are if you have any idea coming to your mind the first thing is to note it down somewhere. Be it in a paper or in a mobile phone. If you have this app in your phone you can straight away organize your ideas, rather than just writing it down in sentences and then thinking over it again and putting it in a logical manner. I think this kind of app is very helpful and a must.

9. Scanner apps (Cam scanner or similar) - This comes handy when you have to send any doc to someone over email or you have to keep a soft copy of any doc. Yes, there is an alternative way which is, just take a photo and store/send it. However, photo is not an great option for this because of the size in the first place. Additionally, scanner apps give plenty of other features like directly uploading to cloud or emailing etc which make those apps just irresistible in the smartphones.

10. Photo editors and games - All work and no play, makes Jack कृष्णा (Krishna, an common Indian name instead of Jack) a dull boy. Bit of fun guys :) Oh yes, we need those couple of games to which we are absolutely hooked up. Just for taking pressure off we can turn those games on and play for 15 min. Side by side we can make some photo editing for fun and send those in whats app. Howz the idea.

Ok, so here the top 10 list ends. As I have said, this is personal choice and based upon the need. No list is right or wrong. Do share your list. :)

self motivation

In this rapidly changing and throat slitting competitive world, keeping your presence felt is a work of Hercules. In this tough situation it is evident that lot of times you will feel low or people you make you feel low for various reasons. This is the real tough time and this is when you should keep your cool and should proceed with great calmness. Remember, this kind of situation exposes the difference between a chicken heart and a lion heart. This is the time when self motivation is most important and comes handy. Infact self motivation is one among very less tools that can save you from disaster during hard times.

Even though I am not sure that self motivation is a born quality or not but one can enhance this quality with time. I am listing out some of the points below that could help you building self motivation.

Be honest to yourself: A very important aspect of self motivation is self honesty. I have seen many examples wherein people fall in pit just because of their mistake but they cannot see their mistake. They always blame others for the situation. It is important that you realize your mistake and correct it the next time. If you can identify your problem that’s like your job is half done. Now prepare an action plan to correct it and vow yourself not to repeat it. That will give you an enormous amount of motivation for sure.

Don’t worry about things beyond your control: We come across so many situations which are beyond our own control. In these types of situations you cannot do much, similarly you should not be worried also. You are certainly not at the end of the world. Rather think and analyze the situation carefully and honestly. If you find, you could have done atleast something better to not be in the situation, remember it and apply it in future. If you find after a thorough analysis nothing could have been done from your side then just chill. Yes, just chill. It is possible, you need some practice though. So if you can find that the bad times are just out of your control you will find some motivation and you will ride the stressed period successfully.

Indulge yourself in hobbies: An effective tool for self motivation is hobbies. If you have past time activities that you do, it is really good. When you are in stressed, just do not think about the situation and make yourself engaged with your favorite hobbies, you will see it will give you motivation to continue with your work and you can soothe yourself quite well.

Think positive: Always think positive no matter what the situstion is. When you are in bad moments, whoever mistake it is, just think that it is a learning for you. Learn from it and use that effectively in future.

Set a long term goal: There are lots of things you can do to motivate yourself and not to go deep into depression state. You can have a long term goal set and always work towards achieving it. If you face any situation on the way, just ignore it and think about your goal. Evaluate yourself and see if you are still on correct path or not. Get yourself an ideal personality and try to be like that person. If you have any problem in achieving it in the middle just do away with it and continue working towards achieving your main goal. A goal for sure will give you motivation.

Compare yourself with people: When you are in some unpleasant situation compare yourself with people who are in more troubled situation. That will soothe you and give you energy to come out of your situation. In the other hand if you are in comfort zone everything is going good compare yourself with people who are above you and better than you in some respect. You will get motivation to work hard.

I do not have more to share on the topic. Just remember one proverb, which is my favorite proverb also. “When going gets tough, tough gets going”. To make youself tough and get going in tough situations you need self motivation.

Educational qualification for politicians

Last week during my dinner at a local hotel I met with a group of people who were debating on the “educational qualification for the politicians” topic. Below is the gist.

Everyone know how their politicians are and about their educational background. Same time everyone will be agreed that it is always good to have an educated person in politics rather then an undereducated one. This is for sure that educational qualification does not make a politician or a person great but educational qualification is something which opens up the attitude towards everything and gives a character to a person. Obtaining degrees from aboard not only makes them a qualified person but also makes them qualified to judge the difference between developed nations and our country. They can very well see and compare both the nations and work towards making our country a better place to live. Yes, it is agreed that it is not as easy as it is told in the last couple of sentence but for sure an educated foreign scholar is a better man to handle a country. Atleast they can take better logical decisions because of their wisdom.

In the same time this is what the other group says, “Serving for a country, having a good vision for the country, taking decision for the goodwill of the country, taking the country in a right direction and utilizing the state recourses in a meaningful way for the betterment of the country are essential qualities that constitution expects from those serving public life. Education teaches you to read/write. How much do they teach about above things? Also good education not necessarily means person will take right decision and will be corruption free. If you see majority of scandals or corruption the involved people are engineers, builders, clerks and managers who of course are graduates.

Critics’ voice please.

How good are you in remembering?

Based on the way people remember things we can divide them in 4 groups.

1. SoFo – Remembers everything soon and remembers it forever.
2. FoFo – Remembers after forever (long time) and remembers it for forever.
3. SoSo – Remembers soon and forgets soon.
4. FoSo – Remembers after forever and forgets soon.

So what do you think? In which category you fall?

15 easiest dressing tips for men that will make them you look smarty !!!

Food is according to your choice but clothing is according to other’s choice.

Looking smart or looking fashionable does not demand more money. Its just about right choice. With a clean, fitting, ironed and proper color combination you can look great. The shirt, pants and shoes need not to be branded or expensive ones.

I am not a fashion guru. But there are some common fashion mistakes men do that are pretty evident. I am just pointing those out here.

1. Always wear fitting dress: Doesn’t matter how your physique is, whether you are tall, short, dark, fair, skinny or chubby but whatever you wear should be fitting to you. That wont cost even a penny more or it won’t take more effort. Especially with trousers be very careful. If it doesn’t fit you don’t buy. It’s a waste of money and you will not look attractive.
2. Don’t mix shoes and belt colors in the outfit: It’s a rule of thumb, when you are wearing a black belt wear a black pair of shoes. Similarly a brown belt calls for a brown shoes. Do not wear black belt with brown shoe or vice versa. It’s awful. If you are wearing a designener outfit, color of belt and shoes would change but wear that matches and looks good.
3. Contrasting belt and trouser: Try to use contrast color belt and trousers. A brown belt and brown shoes with black trousers will look more attractive than a black belt and black shoes with black trousers.
4. Don’t put full sleeve button without tucking your shirt: Yes don’t do it. It looks ugly. If you are wearing a full sleeve shirt and you have no intention to tuck it, please do not put the full sleeve button. You can wear the full sleeve shirt folding up to the forearm or biceps, depends on what you are wearing. But in any case if you are not tucking your shirt you don’t put the full sleeve button.
5. Shirt pocket is for showoff: You should know that. It’s not meant for keeping things. Its better not to put anything in the shirt pocket. A pen and any item especially if it’s heavy or bulky, bulging out of the pocket, it looks totally ugly. A piece of paper or a note may be fine. In some cases with a perfect formal dress a matching pen (yes only a matching pen) would look cool but why take a risk. Avoid putting anything in the shirt pocket.
6. No for trouser pockets also: Trouser pockets also follows the same rule as shirt pocket but it’s not as strict as shirt pocket rule. You can put things in trouser pockets but just that make sure its not a bulky purse or a cell phone that bulges out and makes the outfit ugly. Additionally pay attention on how you are arranging things in your trouser pocket. A big cell phone kept horizontally in a front jeans pocket looks uglier than the same phone kept vertically.
7. Calf socks and shorts, a big no no: Man, you will look like a clown. If you are wearing a shorts do not wear the normal mid-calf or crew socks. Wear an ankle socks with a pair of sports shoes.
8. Formal trouser with t-shirt, be careful: You are not going to a golf course, are you? Often it does not look good wearing a t-shirt with formal trousers. Some cases it is fine but the color, design of the t-shirt and the shoes what you are wearing has to be appropriate.
9. Be safe, be black and denim: A black formal trouser and a denim jeans can save you from all the confusion. Black formal trousers and denim jeans matches with most of the shirts and shoes. So always have these pants ready in your wardrobe.
10. Say no to narrow belts in wide belt strap: If you have a pant that has wide belt strap, wear wide belts fitting to the belt strap. Do not wear a narrow belt in the wider strap, it does not look good.
11. Shoes as per dressing: This is the most common mistake men do. Watch out for this when you dress for the next time. Many times people wear perfect matching shirt with trousers but they do not give importance to shoes. Wearing a matching and well groomed pair of shoes is very important. A polished black or brown formal shoes with formal attire and matching casual shoes with casual attire is the most important part of dressing.
12. Light colored pant with dark shirt, careful: Often it is not a right choice wearing a light colored pant with dark colored shirt. Most of the time the color combination do not come out good. If you have to wear a light colored pant check it out with black shirt, most of the time a black shirt comes out good with any light colored pant.
13. Usage of inner t-shirt: If you are wearing a light colored shirt avoid using a dark colored inner t-shirt. Especially with white or off white shirts wear only plain (no writings) white inners. With dark shirts use contrast inners.
14. Just waist: It does not look good/looks oldish when you wear the pant on/above belly button (high waist). A pant should be worn at the hip (low waist) on the waist or just above the waist.
15. Sandal and socks is like oil and vinegar: They never mix and match. When you are wearing a sandal there is no question of socks.

I celebrate my birthday thrice a year.

Oh yes its true that I celebrate my birthday three times a year. It is not an impossible thing for that matter. It’s like people who are born in Feb 29th celebrate their birthday once in 4 years.

August the 22nd - This is my birthday as per English calendar. I was born on August the 22nd. I do hope that all the people who know me should remember August 22nd is my birthday. I like that date very much except as per the zodiac sign the date is a cusp. It’s a cusp of Leo and Virgo. Years ago I was confused whether I were a Leo or a Virgo, but after I read the characteristics of both the zodiac sign, I found out that I resemble more Leo than Virgo. Now I have taken it granted that I am a Leo. We are diverting from the topic, this is the date when all my close friends, my wife and my family members (not all, I will tell you later why) wish me happy birthday. This is the day I really feel like my birthday and I enjoy the most.

May the 22nd - This date is something like a guest who never leaves your home. Let’s see the story behind this. There was a time when I was too young to go to school. The school wanted me to be three months older then what I was. My parents then changed my birthday from August 22nd to May 22nd and I was admitted to school. This might seem strange to non-Indian guys but yeah my Indian brothers and sisters can understand what I am talking about. Matter of this type is exceedingly easy and common in my country. The plan was to change my birth day sometime later. The last chance to change the birth day or to register “the final” birth day was when I was filling my matriculation exam form. Whatever date you fill in the matriculation form that date would come in the matriculation certificate and will remain as your birth date forever. But that plan never worked out. Infact my mother reminded me and my father numerous times, yes numerous times, but we never listened. Then in the matriculation certificate the birth date came printed as May the 22nd. From that day onwards May 22nd officially squeezed in my life. This is the day when all my office colleagues celebrate my birthday. This is the day I receive lots of emails congratulating me. Those emails are from my bank, my credit card company, my insurance company and number of other sources where I would have registered my birthday. So this is the story of my 2nd date, my birth date I mean.

A variable date – Yes. This third birth date is not constant every year. I am not sure how I can make my non-Indian friends understand but I will try my best. There is something called Lunar Calendar. As per that calendar a particular date is not considered for a particular event. Its the season and the particular day as per the moon position is considered for that particular event. Like, I was born in August 22nd, that day was the fifth day (Panchami) of the “Krishna Paksha” (Dark-fortnight) of “Bhadraba” month. So this fifth day (Panchami) of the “Krishna Paksha” of “Bhadraba” month would fall on different dates as per English calendar every year. So my birthday as per lunar calendar falls on assorted dates every year. As per English calendar the date ranges from August first week through September first week. This is the day when my family members wishes me happy birthday. This is the day when my Mother and my Grandma do Puja for me. I love this day. This year I celebrated my birthday on August 10th.

So how was it? Interesting? Are you lucky enough to celebrate 3 birthdays in a year?

the job of a Software Engineer

Sometime during my lunch or over a glass of beer, we discuss about the work life of software engineers. The irony is most of the software engineers seem to be unhappy with their job. It looks quite amazing that a high paying, unsoiled, high-tech job also cannot make people happy. Some of the common complaints that most of the software engineers have are work pressure, bad supervisors, not proper utilization of skills, no onsite opportunity, heavy competition etc.

As I always love to be the devil’s advocate, I argue with people who say Software job is difficult. They have their complaints as above and I always have my side of words. Here is what I have to say….

I think Software jobs are one of the most easiest among available jobs. First let’s talk from the beginning, let’s talk from recruitment. Can you tell me what is the job which is easier to get than a Software one? If you are in an average standard engineering collage and have a good percentage of marks, you are most likely to be picked by a good software company in campus recruitment. If you are out of collage and want to get into a software job, do a crash course on Java, Data Warehousing or any hot technology you most likely will get a job. Even though its bit hard to grasp the technology in couple of months and crack the interviews but in order to get a similar status and similar paying job you have to work much harder.

When somebody says software is a high pressure job, I suddenly think about Policemen, Army personals, Doctors and Lawyers. I am not sure, I may be very well wrong but does this software job work pressure is anywhere near to the former jobs that I just said. Each and every job has its own pressure and tensions no doubt about it. Even a garbage collector has its own job pressure. They also have to complete their job in time and thoroughly. But the way a software engineer describes about their work pressure, I often feel like laughing. One funny thing I always remember. My father is a Criminal Lawyer. Once I was saying about my job and he asked me what if you don’t go to office for a day. I said, “Some work would be stopped, deliverables would be affected blah blah”. He said, “Well all that can be avoided if you work more the day before or someone else work on behalf you or in worst case the work can be put on hold for the next day. But if I won’t go to the Court for a single day you never know my client would be hanged or jailed or fined.”

Other very good things of software jobs are foreign opportunity, good salary (of course working 10-14 hrs a day). So these aspects are some of the rarest things that other people can imagine. A software guy gets to see the whole world which is a dream for all other industry people.

The secret weapon of software engineer is changing the job. In other industries it’s very difficult to change the job frequently. But in software if you have any problem with your boss, if you need a salary hike or if you need a higher role, you can switch the job easily to get all those. Other important aspect of job change is, once you do that, any bad comment or remarks associated with you are erased. You start a fresh career with the new company. In many other private jobs and in government jobs this not the case. If you have done anything wrong that will haunt you for sometime and affect your career.

Let’s talk about working with difficult supervisors and ill mannered co-workers. Without describing much what I can say is, it’s fairly easy to avoid these guys in software companies compared to any other company. You will definitely suffer once you are not in good touch with your boss but it could be easily avoided in software companies. If anything is not working, you remember the secret weapon!?

Now if you talk about the competition among peers, its very stiff in other companies. In software everything is scientific and measured. Everywhere else its more of artistic and lot of politics mixed, which makes it harder for anyone to handle. If you see in terms of number also the number of people you are competing with in a software company is lesser compared to other industries.

Other complaints like not getting onsite, no hikes this year, no proper utilization of skill, seem to be luxurious complaints. Which I never cared a lot.

Whatever say there are some real challenges for software engineers. Certainly its not a cake walk to be a software engineer. Like they have to be very dynamic and diversified personals, smart, they always have to live in a world of anarchy and ambiguity which itself is a tough thing. I am not discussing those here. I might write a different blog for this.