Panda - My second ResQ

I am writing this post after about 3 weeks of doing this rescue. It was around 2 PM when I got a call from Neha requesting me to join her for this rescue. She had received a call from a regular caller, who informed her of an injured dog on Pashan road in Pune.

When we reached there, sure enough there was this full grown black and white dog lying on the side of the road with laboured breathing and also bleeding slightly from his nose and mouth. Apparently didn't have any external injuries.

As usual, Neha wanted me to handle this too. I muzzled the dog (as a precaution since we couldn't make out if he was aggressive) and I gave him a sedative shot. Inspected him for any broken bones and we slung him into the rear seat of Neha's car and headed towards the kennels. It was apparent that he was hemorrhaging.

En route, Neha started calling the vets in sequence to see who was the closest and could take a look at him. We were lucky to have Dr. hatekar in the vicinity, heading towards his home.

Doc, asked for him to be taken to the kennels so he could start his treatment. We started him off on a drip with required medications. While this was on, we cleaned up the dirt & blood around his mouth to make him comfortable. While filling out his case sheet, Neha was wondering what to call him. She kept recalling recent movies and we came across "Kung fu Panda"...voila his name is now Panda (he is as cute as a panda :-))

Its been almost 3 weeks, and steadily he is recovering. At first he couldn't walk, fortunately he was eating. By and by he is now able to walk and is returning to normal. he is still at the kennels awaiting a green signal by the Vet so he can be dropped back at the same spot (or adopted...which is a little difficult considering his size and age)

I have to admit, that my first reaction was that if its internally bleeding, it might be a gone case. However since I have been working with this organisation, I have been seeing a very striking blend of practicality and a clinical determination to work on each case with the same enthusiasm and level of detail until recovery. The feeling is that "I must give this my best shot, even if there is a 10% chance of the dog recovering"

I admire this quality and this is what really attracts me to this group. Keep it up guys.

Reply to Ariane's comment on my blog post about Loiu by first resq

Dear Ariane
Unfortunately you didnt leave any way for me to contact you with regards to your request. Yes of course we would be happy to add to our volunteer network. Please contact me when you are in Pune. You could write to me at sunil_uttam at yahoo dot com.

Loui - My first ResQ

It was bright Wednesday morning, when I received a call from Neha, asking me to join in for a rescue near the airport road. By then I was almost at work (near Baner) and decided that I might just hold them up by travelling so much. The most effective aspect of this model is that you call in the nearest volunteer to support.

In the evening, when I was on the way to the GYM on FC road, and I asked her about the morning rescue, she mentioned she was trying to coordinate another one near about Alka theater and there was no volunteer in that area. I volunteered to go check it out, since I was so close by.

The case was reported by a family staying in the by lanes near Kaka Halwai on that road. When I landed there, I saw a puppy lying on one side and with these people from the family watching over it. A student (who expressed his desire to become a volunteer) was also part of the group. The puppy had been hit by a vehicle and his right hind leg was broken just below the elbow.
Even though it was a small puppy (around 4 kgs and maybe 4 months old) I used my newly acquired training before handling it. I checked the spine, I felt its body for being warm and sensation, I checked for bleeding. I was told that he had been howling every time he moved. Also observed that he had his right hind leg pulled into his body (mostly in pain). I didnt feel the need to muzzle him or sedate him since he was quite down anyways.

I carefully moved him into the jute bag, (like a makeshift stretcher) holding him by his scruf (to prevent any bites to myself)...he did howl a lot. With the help of the family, I moved him into my car and got him to Neha's home.

She made me give him a shot, cleaned up his wounds, applied an anti flea powder, we tied his leg in a makeshift splint, and let him sleep. I left him there, after which I learnt that he was taken for an xray and his leg professionally done with a splint to help him recover and he was christened Loiu (since he looked like another dog they had got who was called Mario and loui was mario's brother :-)

This was my first rescue with PAWS (i have done several others but would typically move the animal to the Blue cross pound so that a vet could attend or else if I couldn't move the animal, call Dr. Ahir from the pound to check it on the spot.)

Here I observed that the PAWS team takes ownership of the helpless lone animal, nurtures it back to health and rehomes it. I have to comment on the tenderness with which Neha handled the animal. There was a deep concern and desire to see that the animal would be well. At that moment, she was with the animal completely and didn't for once think of it as another one in the crowd. That animal was treated with utmost respect and as a unique spirit. I am sure the others in the organisation think similarly, which explains the mission and passion with which it is run.

Most people I know, would say that someone else will come and take care of it (shrugging off responsibility). I say, we need more people like these, and the family which not just reported the incident but also stood by until we reached there to take charge. Like Osho has said, forget about humanity, and instead lets work on the individuals, the world will be a better place automatically. So citizens, please be more aware while you are living on this planet and sharing the same space with other living beings who deserve as much if not more respect.

BTW, i went to the kennels to look at loiu. The cute guy had his leg up in a plaster and was sleeping peacefully. Anybody want to keep him at home...I guarantee you unconditional love by Loiu :-)

Cheers

ResQ - The paws pack

Recently while going to my office, I saw a donkey sitting in the middle of the main road, right across the lane leading to my office. Its not abnormal to see donkeys resting near or on the road, typically separated from their pack or with their pack in the vicinity. But I noticed that he didn't look too well. The traffic flow was heavy and despite people trying to move him (stubborn as they are), he wasn't moving. But I could see that it wasn't a steely resolve to stay put but a lack of energy.
That's when I called the PAWS pack, which is an animal rescue organisation, started and managed by three like minded animal loving girls (Neha, Shruti and Tanya). I got through to Tanya, who gave me basic instructions, guided me to contacting a vet, coordinated my meeting with the vet, so I could go and bring the vet over to the site.
The donkey was diagnosed to be having a high fever. The doc gave him a couple of large shots, we fed him a couple of times and the guy recovered. Before long he disappeared, probably joined some passing tribe. I also learnt that PAWS was already aware of this case (was called by some more people) and was keeping an eye on the donkey via some of its volunteers
After this incident, I was inspired to become a member of this team. The concept is amazing...a central point of coordination, relationships with 20+ leading vets in Pune, a 50+ strong volunteer network to cover the city. The model is to get a call of an injured or needy animal, send the nearest volunteer to get first hand information, report back to HO, while the team organises the protocol to rescue the animal.
While running this setup, they I guess, figured that it would be useful to have the volunteers be able to administer basic first aid to stabilise the animal (thereby increasing the chances of survival) while more help comes its way.
Leading towards this they organised a first aid work shop last Sunday, which I attended. It was extremely useful to learning about the common ailments, common protocols to approaching and muzzling the dogs, and very basic treatment (of course in consultation with the vet network).
How can we help this cause?
1. Become a part of the volunteer network.
2. Participate actively in the rescue or help in the back end operations (organisation)
3. Funds (always welcome). Currently the girls are pursuing related professions (like Tanya is a dog trainer & behaviorist, Neha is studying to be a canine nutritionist) to support the cause financially.
4. Awareness...spread the word and educate the masses to help prevent accidents and treat animals with respect.
5. Support by buying/selling their produce. They are now manufacturing dog snacks to generate revenue

Hats off to the effort of the girls and their core team.

A new High

Hmmm...so did I go looking for another mountain to climb? Well yes and I also found a more challenging one. Close to Pune is Sinhagad (fort built by Shivaji) located on a high hill. There are two ways to reach the fort, one by trekking up via a trek route of about 4 kms, and two
by a road of about 11 kms (parking at the base to parking on top). The road is continuously inclined with a very little respite for a small patch. It has more than 6-7 hair pin bends.

So I thought, now that I can climb mountains, why not this? I chose a Saturday (on a holiday the road to Sinhagad is packed with people) and drove upto the base of the fort, carrying my cycle in my car harnessed to the back on a cycle carrier.

I started the ride around 7 AM. I started strong and kept the cycle in a higher gear to cover ground quicker. At first I was quite comfortable, but after around 4 kms, the high gear started to tell on me. The road was continuously inclined & steep. I shifted to the lowest gear and pushed myself just saying one thing to myself...that I should encounter a horizontal patch of at least 10 metres to get some relief from the pressure. But that wasn't to happen and towards the end, as if it wasn't enough to have a steep road, I also encountered wind resistance. I was steaming, dripping with my mind screaming to turn back and feel content that I made it so far.

That's the lesson, the mind always tries to settle you back into the comfort zone and will try all kinds of tricks to convince you to give up. It will attempt fear (if you go on like this you'll get hurt), confusion (still a long way to go, you wont make it), procrastination (come back tomorrow and try it), give up (not for you...this is for Lance Armstrong), etc. Here you need to do some soul searching to see if you really want this...if you want it, nothing can stop you. I have noted, that whenever ANYBODY REALLY wants something, he gets it, no matter what.

Well, I made it to the top, and lived to tell the tale. The feeling of reaching a new high is unmatched. You have to experience it to know how it feels. I urge you to go for it.

Technically, it took me 1 hour and 15 mins to reach the top covering 11 kms climbing. I took 3 breaks of 30 seconds for regrouping my body. and I followed all that I wrote in my previous blog on eating to recover.

BTW the next time I did it, I was more comfortable, did it in the same time with only 1 break.

Matter over mind :-)

Cheers
Sunil

Over the top

Dear friends.

Although the blog may appear to be a self praise note, I would like to clarify that the intention here is to share the learning from my life with my friends. I would like to spread the word on what worked for me and what didn't, so you all can benefit from this. Please look at this in the light of the above.

In one of my previous blogs I wrote about "Reaching the top". How I trained to overcome perceived physical challenges and a mental image of "impossibility" to improve my cycling capacity.

In this note, I would like to share how a human is capable of adapting to new situations, latching on thus allowing one to go further up and beyond.

As I continued to train myself, I found myself being able to cycle up the mountain in lesser and lesser time and also recovering much quicker from the grueling workout. I managed to cut my time from 1 1/2 hour to 1 hour in about 4 weeks of training. Also recovery improved to the point, where I can do this twice continuously.

I learnt that the inherent capability was present in me (read all humans) and I had to overcome my mental blocks to have the faith that I could do it and all I had to do was train myself scientifically to prevent a physical burnout or injury. I also realise that by visualising each trip in the way I would like it to turn out, I was able to achieve that and more. Let me caution, that at the physical level, you have to be scientific in the training, rest and nutrition. My training wasn't all about cycling endlessly. No, in fact it has a a solid mix of resistance training to develop strength, stretching to keep my self injury free, cross training cardio like running, a biweekly massage to help recovery, solid nutrition and good portion of rest. If I didn't do all this, I wouldn't be able to get to work and do my job without sleeping out of exhaustion.

Most people arrest their progress by "thinking" themselves into inaction. Overcome your mind to reach over the top. (I'll write a note soon on how one can do this)

Some ground lessons to serious cyclists/athletes for text book style recovery:
1. Eat a banana before you start a long session (2 hours+)
2. Carry and sip water which has glucose (dextrose 3 tablespoons to 1/2 a litre of water)+Electral powder to allow you keep hydrated. Believe me, it makes a big difference in being able to keep going without breaking down.
3. Have 1/2 litre of water for every 1 1/2 of exercise to compensate for the water loss.
4. On returning, immediately have a protein shake (1 scoop whey protein with milk/water).
5. After 1/2 hour to an hour, have a whopping meal consisting of potatoes (excellent carbohydrate source), grain (like chapati, rice, thalipeeth), fruit and curd/yogurt OR eggs.

So now whats next...like I wrote earlier I am looking for the next challenge. By innovating, I could challenge myself on the same route progressively e.g. cycling up in a higher gear deliberately, or pushing for a faster speed to cut time down, doing it twice, carrying a heavier bag to add weight, push to stay ahead of a truck struggling to go up the mountain, etc.

Look for ways to make your life interesting. You can discover gems even in the same path you walk on daily. Push yourself to achieve more (isn't that what life is all about?), innovate, challenge and keep looking ahead. Live on the edge.

You do this, while I seek the next mountain to climb...all towards my goa trip on a cycle :-)
Cheers

Silent retreat

Recently Mithi conducted a Corporate SSY program for all our employees. The focus of the program is build people by teaching them how to cleanse and maintain the building blocks of life viz. the body, mind and soul. The thrust is on ensuring harmonious functioning of these elements for optimal performance of the person.

Many corporates we hear are now making this a mandatory training for their employees. We found that the corporate version of the more rigorous version of the SSY is as good or even better in providing clarity and understanding on management than many westernised management training programs. But this can be known only after experiencing it.

As a follow up to this, recently I and a few of my colleagues had the good fortune of attending an SSY retreat where we go and stay in the wilderness for a few days away from any stimuli in terms of time (watches), communication (phones/mobiles), money and be in silence for that period.

Being with people but being by yourself.

Going back to the roots, playing, meditating, practicing Yoga and basically doing nothing.

The results are amazing. The energy creation in silence. Being meditative with eyes open. Learning to live on natural foods.

Definitely a battery charger. This is the form of rejuvinating holidays which should be taken up more often. The idea is to come back refreshed and not exhausted (as typically happens on most regular indulgent holidays where one ends up over eating, drinking, overdoing, or over sleeping)

I would definitely be integrating these kind of 2 day getaways into my routine, to recharge.

I strongly recommend this for you too.

Go experience it to know how it feels.

Cheers.

The inevitability of a crisis

It was 7:00 AM, and I was 50 hours without sleep and we were just about done. So whats going on?

We had scheduled a project to execute in 3 phases over 3 nights since we couldnt take downtime on the servers in the day. OUr execution time had to start at 7PM and had to finish by 1 AM (6 hours scheduled downtime).

The product development team took up this deployment project with me (the product manager) leading this to get a first hand feel and sensitise ourselves to what the deployment and support team faces when they use our creation (the product).

We experienced on the first day how it feels to execute a project which has been planned well and executed as per plan with no deviations done or needed. Here we experienced a form of comfort zone, feeling more and confident as time went by that the result will be as expected.

Even though we didnt face any problems, the time estimate was way of the mark, due to slow execution speed of a few servers. Our learning may have been limited to small challenges coming in the execution steps. That phase ended at 6 AM in the morning.

Even though the team managed to go get some sleep, I was too hyper to get any. The nights happenings, questions, answers, thoughts, learnings, notes, kept flashing in my mind keeping me wide awake. I ended up having a normal working day pondering deeply on how to make our product such that these reconfiguration exercises can be actually offloaded to the customer. I didnt see any scale in this exercise.

Same day evening, we start again. This time we experienced, how it feels to execute a well planned project, which throws up an unknown/unforeseen situation throwing the plan of track. We were faced with a situation of a currupted database on all the servers due to wrong data input to the program. We had to undo the damage and redo the operation properly. An unforeseen situation for which we were not ready.

Here you are pushed out of your comfort zone since you realize the repercussions of what might happen. Its a crisis situation, especially so at 2 Am in the morning when you really cant think that well.

Here however a proper structured response with levels of participation is required to ensure a successful result. If we all had piled into the details and started fixing each case with inadequate discussion or planning we would have created multiple crisis situations within the main crisis.

As an observer, I quickly stepped in to set a framework and document the cases of the failure with an appropriate action plan. Once this was done, I also quickly stepped back. Thereafter the team handled it wonderfully by writing new scripts, meticulously executing these and ensuring that the servers were finally setup as expected.

What did we learn from this:
1. Acknowledge the inevitability of the crisis moment. No point in blaming, getting frustrated, angry etc. Accept and act.
2. Managers to step in at the right time and step out at the right time. Much as you might be tempted to roll up your sleeves, move everybody aside, and start running the machines, I suggest that to keep up the team morale up, restrict yourself to set the framework and the direction and move aside.
3. Plan, act and take unbiased data driven decisions with responsibility.
4. Divide the work amongst the team, but work together and support each other in whatever way possible without too much interference, always staying alert to the changes in the situation.
5. Dont forget to assign, the coffee boy job to someone responsible :-).
6. Once the crisis is over, think prevention, to ensure such a situation doesnt recur. Ask yourself, what you could have done to prevent this situation.

This blog is being published on the third day of the project execution at 1 AM. Estimated completion time for today's project is 6 AM. Good night.

Reaching the top

Whenever I share my vision of making a trip to Goa on a cycle from my home town in Pune (500+ km), almost everybody has the same expression on their faces - as if saying "have you lost it", "isn't it better & more fun to go to Goa in a car, lounge on the beach, down beer bottles by the dozens and eat like a pig", envy (by those people who would actually want to be seen doing that but actually don't have the energy to do it, or possibly wont be allowed by spouses :-), family etc).

On many occasions I tried to show them my side of the coin...the journey is the reward, food is not the only way to celebrate, just undertaking such an endeavour will expose me to and teach me a lot about myself and the geography, etc. But in vain.

Anyways this journey is all for myself.

As part of my endeavour to improve my capacity to cycle long distances, I would ride small hills, flats for long distances and work out in the gym regularly to build up my strength. Many a times I would think about the several ghats (mountainous roads) that I would have to cover in my journey to Goa and doubt myself if I would be able to climb those steep roads on my cycle. I would recall all those times when I have found even the car struggling to get over those roads (i have driven to goa several times in my little wonder).

Near my house there is bopdeo ghat which leads to a village called Saswad. The top of the Ghat would be around 10 kms from my house, a more or less continuous climb with the last 5 kms really going all the up in a Z shaped carve in the mountain. One day, I decided to overcome my doubt and work towards reaching the top.

I started by breaking down the distance into 4 parts and worked towards doing this in 4 weeks. I set myself the goal of covering more and more distance each time I rode this route, once a week. On other days (with appropriate rest days thrown in) I would cross train by gymming, treadmilling and riding the cycle on flats (sprints and quick climbs on smaller hills).

Guess what, I actually made it to the top in 4 weeks...something I thought I might never be able to do and would have to walk the distance in my journey. No doubt it wasn't easy (I had to do about 5 kms on the lowest gear and had my legs bursting out of my shorts)...but the reward of being on the top and having reached there without a car was amazing. Now the next logical thing is to set a higher and longer goal.

I learnt a lot from this experience.
One, that we are limited by what we think we can do rather than what we actually can do. We actuall build a wall around our selves simply by our thoughts which are limiting and become a self fulfilling prophecy.
Second, breaking down a goal into smaller doable goals and also allowing your self to adapt to the new situations and stresses makes it easy to achieve the big goal (read...I would have failed if i had attempted to do this in one attempt, without preparation and possibly would have given up totally thinking its not for me).
Third, my experience with the bike can be applied to all activities of life - personal, professional, society, family etc. Set lofty goals, break them down, go after them.

Life is about abundance.

Invest in your passions & Experience to know the difference

I drive a small car which I have owned for a long time (about 10 years now). Its not that I didnt feel tempted to change this to a big or different car, but I mostly shooed the idea away since I am a big believer in the philosophy that one must only buy stuff which one really needs. I convinced myself that I didnt really need another car and what I had was serving the purpose of taking me from point A to point B. Mind you, one of my passions is driving.

A couple of days back, I had the good forture of driving a Honda Accord from Mumbai to Pune. It was my first experience driving a big highly refined car. I was totally impressed by the thought process of the designers in creating a machine which actually assisted and made the job of the driver easy. The power was amazing, allowing me effortless overtaking or speed maintenance on the e-way. The comfort and ergnomics of the seat was unmatched. The AC was actually pumping fresh oxygen into the cabin. While I drove in the wee hours of the morning, my buddies actually slept in the back of the car all through the journey and didnt wake up until I parked the car (wonderful suspension). I could go on and on highlighting the good points, but thats beyond the scope of this article. I actually emerged from the car at 4 AM feeling fresh and quite energised.

Normally, whenever I would do this journey (and longer distances) in my small car (and there were innumerable such journeys done in the last 10 years), I would actually crawl out of the car, be totally fatigued and be ready to hit the sack. I realize now, why it would actually happen; the cabin the small car (at least mine) was not totally sealed, so it would let in the pollution. Secondly the non-assistance by the car (suspension, steering, seat adjustments, etc) would actually make you struggle to keep the car steady and running.

What I realised is that one has to open oneself for experiences to actually develop an understanding of what all the universe has to offer (I am extending the experience to beyond purchases and including absolutely any kind of experience), develop a deep connection to your passions, and actually go out and get the best equipment to drive/support your passion (for all the spendthrifts, best does not necessarily mean the most expensive). So if I really enjoy driving, then I must go out and buy myself the best car (within my means ofcourse).

This is against buying or doing stuff which brings temporary joy. I have observed that there are many people who buy stuff on impulse, or just because they feel it could bring them some joy, or because the neighbor has it so I must too, etc. Its not that these purchases bring these people any lasting joy or peace. I know for a fact that these people who indulge themselves so, are not really any better off in terms of "growth" due to these purchases....basically all not so great reasons to sign the dotted line.

Moral: If you have a passion for something, go all out to experience that throughout your life.

My Himalayan trip photos

Sorry guys, simply forgot to mention this address here after writing about my holidy in 2006.
Enoy the pictures
http://photos.yahoo.com/sunil_uttam

Are you going to be graduating soon?

"If so, how many jobs are you going to create"

This is a poster in a popular US university, which in a way is encouraging youngsters to be entrepeuners and risk takers. This was mentioned by Dr. Mashelkar (President of CSIR labs in India) in his talk on how India can rise to the challenge of creating an environment to nurture ideas to become economic succcesses. This was at the inauguration of the NCL innovation part in Pune, where they plan to nucleate and nurture technology and knowledge based enterprises and support research projects which have a potential of growth in the global markets.

He mentioned how the youngsters in India are beginning to think differently and are willing to take risks to follow through their dreams. Of course this calls for a major culture change in the mind set of the youngsters.

Prof. Sir Richard Friend from Cambridge, who has launched two successful ventures from the small town of cambridge mentioned now a town with a population of 100,000 has 900 small companies generating an employment of 27,000 (averaging 30 people per company). Each of these small companies is a valuable asset to the UK nation, since they have a solid potential to scale economically thus enabling wealth creation for the people and the nation. Of course its a daunting task to convert science to technology to products which can be mass manufactured, but all the speakers stressed on the importance of enjoying your work through the pains and the joys of being cashless, struggling to acquire and retain talent, fighting off the predators (read large companies with full koffers), innovating to maintain leadership, and maintaining gumption through all this for a rewarding journey which in itself is the biggest takeaway.

Dr Mashelkar mentioned how Chinese universities have successfully incubated 2800 small businesses generating employment for about 90,000 people (again averaging around 30 people per company).

The question to be answered is, that if USA can do it via Silicon valley, Europe can do it via a small town like cambrdige, Asia can do it as demonstrated by China, so why cant India ? I think we the people have to do some introspection into our basic values and create a culture of loyalty and commitment, risk taking, wealth creation (not the same as earning via jobs) to lead a more fullfilling and visible life.

Amazing Himalayas | Amazing Holiday

Hi Friends
I'm just back from a very refreshing trip deep into the Himalayas. This was a 15 day outing with 7 days of heavy trekking thrown in. Trekking through the mountain ranges in the North western part of Uttaranchal (Garhwal region) is an experience where you discover yourself. You are in totally disconnected territory with no electricity, no connectivity, no motors - just basic living where you walk, eat, sleep. The note below describes our journey briefly (I went with a friend Sunil Khanna, who shares my passion for the outdoors) and we had a ball.

1. Reaching base camp:
This was a journey through the city jungles via planes, trains and buses. We went for this trip with a group called Yuvashakti, who are Pune based and organize treks and outings. We were a group of 36 participants (which I thought were too many), with a mixture of young, middle aged and old people. Most of the participants chose to come by the train from Pune to Delhi (we chose to fly to save a business day). After an overnight halt at Delhi, we proceeded to Dehradun by train. Temperatures touching 45 deg Celsius caused us to sweat buckets. In the 6 hour train journey, I drank 3 liters of water. In Dehradun, while most of the participants stayed in the hotel accommodation arranged by the organizers, we chose to stay with our friends in their beautiful picturesque home overlooking the valley. Next day morning we set out in a bus to Sankri covering a distance of about 280 kms mostly traveling along the mountain ranges of Uttarkashi district and along the Yamuna river. This was a back breaking journey through broken roads, gravelly roads and sometimes no road (due to frequent land slides) (This part of the Himalayas is landslide country). This 12 hour journey gave us an opportunity to get to know each other and amidst a lot of singing and chatting we proceeded towards Sankri, the last motorable point along the route.

At Sankri we stopped at the GMVN (Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam) (Government managed guest houses with basic amenities like beds, toilets and a canteen). We were greeted with news that our booked dormitories were allotted to some other guests and there was no solution coming forth from the staff in charge. The participants patiently waited while the group leader tried to sort out the issue. After about an hour we saw a stalemate situation and then some of us tried to intervene and after 3 hours finally managed to get a dormitory for the ladies and quarters of the GMVN employees for the men. Was uncomfortable to say the least. Sankri was cold and on the instructions of our group leader, tried to acclimatize by delaying wearing our woolens.

A note about the organizers: Previously Yuvashakti would book these GMVN guest houses for a fixed period and have a resident camp leader who would oversee the arrangements and handle the traffic of the batches of participants. However, this year onwards they decided to outsourcing the entire arrangements to a local group of people run by a leader named Nautiyal. I guess they paid him per participant and expected him to handle all logistics of staying, guidance and food from base camp to base camp. This incident however showed how such an arrangement can go sour in the absence of local supervision and having reached so far there is no way but to go along. These local people were out to make a quick buck and were using every possible trick to cut corners like providing cramped accommodation (reduced billing at GMVN), skimping on food preparations, etc. This was the same story along the entire route. But I guess for the participants it was a failure on the part of Yuvashakti.

2. First look at Bliss: Day 2 started early and we had to pack our haversack with minimum but all that is necessary for each of us to survive 7 days before we return to base camp. It was recommended to keep the bag below 10 kgs to avoid strain. My bag was around 8 kgs. Arrangements were made for some participants to load their bags on Khacchars (horses) who would walk with us. Most people however chose to carry their own bag. We had breakfast and set out for Taluka. This was a level walk of about 12 Kms through dense pine forests and over rivers and waterfalls. Was simply amazing. (I have a lot of pictures taken and will be putting them up for you guys to see). We stopped drinking our bottled water and started drinking from the streams. Natural mineral spring water. Crystal clear and ice cold. It was my first encounter with the splendor & beauty of the might Himalayas. After a leisurely walk we reached Taluka in about 4 1/2 hours. Its a small village with a small cricket ground and a few natives. I observed that the problem with the villages after Sankri was the lack of medical facilities. The nearest doctor is in Sankri (only approachable by foot), and for advanced medical facilities, they have to go to Dehradun (almost 300 kms and a 6 vehicle change). We had a native come over and ask if we have a doctor in our group. His wife was suffering from chronic stomach ache...Unfortunately there was no doctor in our group. Taluka and Sankri are at around 1900 meters above sea level.

3. Today was tough...with a 17 km walk with 2 very steep climbs and the air thinning slightly as we are now ascending to a height of about 2600 meters. The best part of the Himalayas is the different view and experience as you walk deeper. Each part as breathtaking as the previous. Of course lack of full commercialisation and difficulty of access has helped to keep the place clean and pollution free. Lets hope it stays that way. We walked to next base camp with 2 stops along the way for snack and lunch (we carried packed lunch). The other option is to buy food from the way side stalls setup by villagers where they serve Maggi noodles (yes the ones available in the city), eggs, roti (fresh whole wheat bread), tea etc. The walk took us almost 8 hours + the 2 hours of rest. Was gruelling and I think the longest part of the trek. We reached our base camp in a village called Seema en route via Dartmer, Basanti Nagar and Gangahut. Osla is another village on the map close to Seema but at an elevation above Seema. Osla is a much bigger village with about 50 homes. One of the amazing observations was how each home has a solar panel to capture energy into batteries and they use that to light up small lamps at night (or some of them had tape recorders). Another observation was that each family had a store house separate from their home that was snow proof, rain proof, all weather proof to store grain to last them through difficult times. These store houses are made of solid wood and have innovative locks with keys as large as my arm. The grain is kept open and not in gunny bags. Their homes consist of 2 stories, the lower one for keeping their animals (goats and cattle) and the upper one where they stay. Homes are also made of solid wood (no dearth of good wood in the Himalayas).

4. Reaching Har ki dun (Shiv ka maidan - The play ground of Lord Shiva) was the toughest part of the trek. Was a 14 km walk but the ascend of 1000 meters did the damage. The last 2-3 kms were covered stopping every 10-15 steps and then catching your breath. It took a long time to acclimatize to the thin air at 3500 meters (for first timers at this altitude). Some people even developed High altitude sickness (feverish, nausea and hallucinations). None the less it was the most beautiful spot I have ever seen. Picture perfect rivers, meadows, lots of varieties of flowers and completely untouched. This is the last point along our trek. From here we were very close to the Jamundar glacier (could see it) and the other snow capped peaks. The snow line had unfortunately receded by about 11 kms and our local guide decided against going upto there. During our last two days of walk we encountered sudden showers (In the Himalayas it can rain anytime and for any duration) with hail storms. After an overnight stay where most people couldn't sleep due to the extreme cold (around -1 deg Celsius) and the thin air...we walked to a nearby glacier and kind of relaxed on that day.

The rest of the days were going back to base camp along the same route. I strongly recommend this as a holiday for all my friends out there. The local arrangements can be done by local guides who charge about Rs. 700-900 a day for walking with you, putting you up in tents, arranging for food, et all. Be prepared to rough it out though. Definitely I will be going back for more...

Investigate all problems

I just came into office, a few days after the last release of our product, feeling relaxed and thinking about the new release. Just then my colleague, who was working on introducing a new LDAP backend, and was testing the migration code which he had written came up to me and reported a flaw in the upgrade/migrate of the just released version. As I have been sharing with you guys, we have a well defined process of making a product release with clear steps and forms which are filled up and recorded to help track back when required. I looked up the release records and found that the particular test which would have trapped this flaw was performed and the tester had reported a success on that. Surprise...Surprise...Surprise. Was it an oversight by a tester or was it a flaw in the process. So lets get to the bottom of things...

I've been very inspired by the program "Nat Geo investigates" on the National Geographic channel, where they do stories on investigations carried out for plane crashes, space shuttle crashes, and other such life threatening disasters. Last week, I saw how the investigators (combined from several countries) looked into a Swiss air crash in the Atlantic, spent over $50 million and 4 yours of painstaking work to recover the splintered millions of pieces of the aircraft to get to the bottom of the cause of the crash. Amazing...Its no wonder that the airlines industry is six sigma.

We have been following similar principals, where we analyze each issue, waste, problem and see how it can be fixed by technology, processes and training (in this order) In this particular instance, it turned out that the process form had an item to confirm that the logs are clean after upgrade....Hello...Which logs, how to check if they are clean...How much time has elapsed since the test before you check the log (logs rotate due to automated cron jobs and leave behind an empty log file which will have no errors). Improved the form immediately and retrained the QA team.

Every problem is an opportunity to improve the system which drives your business. Don't waste it.

Ideas - The light bulb...

Everybody goes through this phase (some stay in it forever) where maximum amount of time is spent in conceptualizing, ideating, and discussing the new thoughts. We as a team also used to do a lot of it previously. Undoubtedly an idea can be powerful, can provide breakthroughs, and we as humans are lucky to be the rare gifted species who can imagine things and conjure up images about the future. There was a time when just discussing an idea would provide immense excitement.

However, of late I realized that my attitude towards a good idea (or ideas in general) had become quite subdued. In my job, I am grappling on a daily basis with the just GTD (Getting things done)/execution. We learn daily about how complex it is to convert an idea to reality which is marketable, usable, scalable. For me an idea will excite me no end if I see it executed at least partially if not fully.

In my sphere of influence, I find that many people are caught up in idealogical world where they spend a lot of time thinking about the future (read dreaming), marveling at the creation of other people/companies (grass is greener on the other side of the fence), reading a lot about new technologies (mostly out of context and more than required) and doing precious little themselves to get any substantial work done.

Mind you, I am not disputing the power of an idea...but nothing can beat the power of a well executed idea. So what am I saying?
1. Think and learn in the context of the work in hand. (Lean thinking, lean learning, lean execution)
2. Execute it with demonic focus (read my previous blogs for some tips on how to do this)
3. Marvel at your own creation (Let other lazy people also marvel at your creation)

OK so lets get back to work now :-)

Being thorough

It was close to 10 P.M., with a release in progress. All the issues pertaining to the current development/checkin had passed the QA. But as part of the elaborate QA process, one of the elements is a smoke test of the entire product (recently introduced step, previously we would smoke only the changed areas of the code since we have a very dense automated testing system). During the 'full' smoke test the QA team started reporting issues unrelated to the current checkin and as I kept analyzing each issue to see where it originated, I discovered that these were a result of our old bad habits (quick development where the developer declares the code complete as soon as the file has been saved, cursory reviews with no review checklist/framework, hurried checkins, hurried or incidental QA with inadequate support via test cases, or automation etc.).

Of course we have come a long way and now (thanks to continuous and relentless improvements) can boast of a formal and very elaborate process for development, reviews, documentation and QA. As described in my previous blog posts, we have introduced templates (forms) for each stage and formalized the process to prevent slippages. As a result each checkin goes through heat treatment and typically results in almost no kickback in terms of reopened issues. In fact our lean production system with one piece flow allows us to make a strong release almost every week.

But last night, I realized something very important - after working with many developers during my tenure as a product manager, I can recall only a handful who were really thorough. This handful of guys, without any formal process, could produce high quality stuff, checkin all by themselves and get that code released. Today some of the reviews I do make me wonder, as to what would happen if I would let that get checked in as is (used to happen before and would cause Murphy's law to apply all the time - if anything can go wrong it will). Mind you, we are talking about really smart, intelligent and capable programmers who can design and construct good code but miss on the details/or are too distracted to be thorough in completion of their work or dont know what is completion.

I am sure if you are a product manager, project lead or development lead, you might have faced this type problem in your work...So how do we tackle this issue. I feel that being thorough is a habit/style of work that can be cultivated. Its not a genetic encoding.
For you the manager, you have to foster a culture of thoroughness:
1. Formalise the processes to define completion. Have forms which prompt and trap information which would otherwise be incidental. This makes quality consistent and not 'one of'.
2. Record the filled up forms with the checkin/release to help do post mortem analysis in case a problem is to surface later. This will help you identify process improvements, or genuine lapses in following the process.
3. Don't fix the code given to you for review - return it for rework with honest feedback to the developers on the problems, good points and recommendations. Use this as a way of mentoring. If you tend to take a shortcut and fix the code, you are actually leaving the developers with the impression that they have done a great job.
4. Stop when you face any problem and immediately fix the process, templates, infrastructure or whatever is required.
For the developer, be a hawk with an eye for detail:
1. Just coding is not enough: Please understand that just writing and compiling code successfully is not enough. You need to ensure it integrates well, all connections to other code are maintained, test cases are thorough, documentation of the design and code is done to promote easy maintenance, coding standards are followed, an honest self review is done etc.
2. Be thorough: Develop this habit (was the motto of my school) to get a grip on the details (remember god lies in the details and BTW the devil also lies in the details :-), make notes, search through code to handle changed connections (many times a product has modules/components written in different programming languages, legacy code, and a certain change may not get directly caught by a compilation e.g. dropping a database table from the storage but having the code still refer to it, will not get caught by a normal build of the code and if you are unlucky may never get caught unless it is too late).
3. Stay focused: Keep disturbances away (refer to my earlier blog posting)
4. Throw a challenge: for the lead/reviewer/qa to find bugs in your code (For this you have to be really confident...comes from following my tips above)

I hope the above tips help you grow as an individual and also contribute better to the company where you are working...All the best (P.S. I am toying with idea of rating developments and also reviews on a scale of 1-10)

Keeping disturbances handy

It was noon and I sat down to do a design/code review as part of our development process. I had just wrapped up my sundry tasks of responding to mail, checking the status of ongoing projects, going to the loo, drinking water before settling into the review. Yes, for me a review of design and code before it goes further down the pipe is the most important part of the process. (Refer to my earlier postings about the importance of reviews, or where it is cheapest to fix bugs). Just as I started reading the specifications and design, my cell rang. It was one of our deployment engineers onsite at a customer location asking for some help in using one of the new features. After I finished the call and struggled to revert my attention to the review (yes its very difficult to switch your mind amongst activities easily), one of my team members called out to me for some quick help on some design decisions (Yes I don't have a cabin and sit in the middle of my group and am easily accessible - a boon and a bane). Once done with that, I again struggled and restarted the review. But by now my initial focus was disturbed and the two discussions (during the disturbances) were coming back to me to think about. It was like not being able to work at work.

I stopped what I was doing to reflect on this. I looked around and observed what other people in my team were doing. I also walked around to other divisions to see what those teams were doing. I saw one set of people intently doing their work (coding, diagramming, documenting, invoicing, selling etc) and another set of people talking to friends, chatting with friends on IM, browsing unrelated sites, and generally appearing to wile away their time. This was of course a sampler at a given moment but I also realized that these are the same set of people who keep their "disturbances handy" like I did when I started my review. i.e. Make it easy to be disturbed ( I am assuming that they are committed to the job; there are a set of people who wait for the day to end... this article is not about them). I also realized that there are two basic types of activities one where you create (a document, code, design, review...) and another were you maintain (run a process like front desk, recruitment, etc). In the case of the former, being disturbed is sure to bring down the quality of the work since the very nature of that work demands undivided attention and laser like focus to get it done (no wonder that Bill Gates takes two weeks off by himself on an island to figure out the future of Microsoft). As for the latter, the mind is not creating and is not in a stressed state trying to retain connections, make logical links, theorize etc so it can afford to be disturbed)

My recommendations while creating:
1. Isolate yourself so you will not be disturbed during that time.
2. Schedule such work at times when you are least likely to be needed urgently.
3. Turn off the phone, email and chat pop ups since these are like the door bell (Humans are inadvertently trained to respond to the doorbell and phone ring, dropping whatever they are doing, literally).
4. Focus on the task at hand.
5. Divide your time into sections where you are available for discussions, you respond to mail, return phone calls etc and sections where you are invisible.

Even as I write this, I was disturbed thrice...hope you will excuse any break in the flow due to that :-). I am going home now to complete the review...at least there only my dog will disturb me.

How much testing is "good enough"

Yesterday I had a fruitful discussion with my colleague (Kul) on the above subject. We were debating the selection of test cases, which ones will provide maximum impact or which are not likely to occur in a normal working scenario or to ignore cases which even if they fail will not damage the integrity of the data or working. Although we didn't reach any conclusion yesterday, I reflected on it later and this is what I came up with:

I believe that if you have taken the pains to encode a behavior (and validation of data input is a behavior), then there must be a good enough reason for it. In its simplest form, it could mean that if a program accepts a domain name as a parameter, and if we pass a wrong domain name, the program will do no harm (who knows ?) but may not inform the user about it via a user friendly message. So we as programmers build in data input validation checks and report neat failure messages and stop proceeding further. BUT if we don't test this case (may occur rarely, or is not harmful as we understand), we stand a chance of hitting a potential failure (could be as trivial as an embarrassing error message or worst still some damage which wasn't envisaged.)

Testing is the science of validating ALL assumptions and behaviors of a program. If you have taken the pains to encode a behavior it needs to be tested OR else the behavior need not be encoded at all. Also remember that code is never one time; it is maintained by other programmers and a regression suite of COMPLETE COVERAGE automated suites will help the maintenance programmer make changes freely.

Hence my mantra
1. Make code easy to test. Write compact and simple code with easy constructs with only necessary checks and behavior. (In my experience I have seen that this is possible even for very complex code, if it is broken down into units. This constraint will help you write better code in fact.)
2. Write data validation test cases for invalid and valid data input covering all possible (necessary and sufficient) test cases to cover all encoded behavior. You could refer to code and its flow for designing the cases. Remember if a program accepts junk input, it is more likely to excrete junk output. Control input to control output.
3. Write test cases to check the functioning of the code.
4. Automate aggressively to allow for easy regression.
5. Put in a process to maintain the test cases when the code changes.

Happy bug free coding...

Formal reviews

Sometimes back I wrote about informal code reviews, since that is what we were following as a practice. However I found that the number of bugs in the checked in code was not reducing and the qa team had to work hard to not just validate the product but also to locate defects. We were practicing informal reviews as a way to "speed" up the development cycle. Unfortunately the reverse was actually happening - the code was checked in rapidly but the product languished in the qa stables for longer and also carried the risk of some bugs being discovered after release. As I wrote in one of my previous blogs, it gets more expensive to fix bugs as the code goes further away from you.

However, we recently introduced a formal and detailed process for review of not just the code but the entire design, test cases, documentation guidelines, and the code (peaceful reviews in the solitude of your cabin) with a defined checklist on what all to cover, including using the features of a developer build before checkin. We have had some amazing results...did some rough measurements and found that we trap about 90% of the problems before checkin especially framework plugs missed, silly errors, code connections, basic design flaws, messages etc. This is against trapping about 50% of the problems by the older method of review. On the face of it, the process seems to take longer but actually it outputs better quality code almost right first time reducing the rework thrash. Also such detailed drill down reviews provide benefits like
- Another perspective on the design, code thus bring it closer to extreme programming.
- Helps others to understand the code/design building in the redundancy into the team.

Yes, I know what you guys are thinking...that all the software books talk about formal reviews in which the developer sends code and lets people review it or the code is reviewed by multiple people as an event rather than "by the way", so why werent we doing it earlier...Like anything else, all practices if done in a context, adapted to your specific needs and learnt the hard way :-) bring about better results. Try for yourself, it works.

Get professional in your attitude

I am writing this in response to facing the brunt of purely childish emotional behavior by certain class of people whom I have worked with. No matter how talented, skilled and capable you might be, but if you have a bad attitude, are insecure professionally and lack confidence, you are a misfit wherever you work. You will always be disgruntled and untrusting of your colleagues, thinking that the next guy you meet is going to take you for a ride. I believe that as professionals, we have to deal with situations impassionedly and rationally. These are some of my tips for being a good professional:
1. Believe in yourself, be confident and be hungry to learn. Get involved in your work to widen your horizon.
2. Everyday, do an honest days work. Get connected to the overall vision/goal of the company and follow through with actions. Don't vile away your time...There's lots to do, just go do it.
3. For you to make a significant contribution in any sphere, and also for you to gain something worthwhile from this engagement, you need to spend substantial amount of time in the company. I feel that 2.5 to 3 years is a bare minimum. If you retire from the company, that's great.
4. Trust the company you work in or else quit. Don't hold resentment within yourself towards the management or hold feelings of being cheated or short-changed of opportunities or start indulging in politics like forming them v/s us groups. If such feelings arise, discuss with your manager candidly and sort them out. After that if discomfort still persists, it is better to leave. By continuing, you are creating more harm than good to yourself and to your company.
5. If you must leave, do it with grace and dignity. (If you are leaving for better opportunity, it's perfectly all right. Be forthright about that, rather than hide behind some farce of blaming the company for non-issues just to avoid feeling guilty. I feel that you don't have to feel guilty if you have adhered to points 1 and 2 in spirit.) Complete all unfinished work, discuss with the manager a suitable leaving date so that you don't leave in a lurch (we've had people who come in the middle of a product release and desire to leave that very day with no concern about their commitment to completing the job) and leave behind your contact details in case you are needed in future for some help. Also remember that this globally connected world is getting smaller, with technology enabling easier and wider communication (e.g. this blog to share my thoughts), good as well as bad references can make or break your career.
6. Stay in touch, since you never know when you may need to ask for some help/references from old contacts.
Wish you all the best.