Save the cage girls

Mary Ellen Mark - a writer who first time wrote a lengthy article in India today almost 15 years back is my first introduces to the struggles of few children. Cage Girls. This article brought in lot of controversies for the kind of revelations that made and also brought in a dramatic change in the way I was looking at life. As a happy child with good and caring parents, with a secured childhood, a school that was more like a paradise, we could never imagine the plight of our fellow sisters who get throttled in this world in a very shady lives. Children as young as 11years were drawn to the child prostitution in the cities of Bombay and Calcutta ( now called Mumbai and Kolkatta). The names of these cities changed over the years but do not think the destiny of the children in the so called trade areas have changed despite the government and NGO efforts to rescue and protect them. People talk about child protection, eradication of child labour but in fact not many can even enter into the lives of these children and bring them back to the main stream society. As a young writer who got selected to do a survey for India Today, I had a chance to interact with few reports and writers during those times. It was under shocking circumstances that I saw what few children whose pictures these people were even reluctant to publish looked like. Writing this remind me of Kamal Hassan's movie "Mahanadhi" which portrays the lives of these unfortunate children. This cage girls will not see life better than being in the flesh trade unless and otherwise the whole society reacts to this silence hazard that is prevailing in the society. Its not just human rights commission, or the women forums and few NGO's to raise voice against such unimaginable state, but for the entire men and women who pull this children to understand that this is no way of making a livelihood and also to understand that what they are actually tarnishing is the future of this country. Government should take serious measures to eradicate this prevailing dishonour and make the lives of these children more meaningful. God Bless!

I love my Chennai

I used to come to Madras as a child during all my holidays. The fun of enjoying the Marina beach building sand castles, not only encouraged us to dream big, but also gave us lot of fun and time with family and cousins. Hailing from Eluru town in Andhrapradesh, to me the old Madras was the best thing that happened in all my summer vacations. Looking forward to eat sundal and muruku and have chuku kappi in the shores of Marina was a fun.. cane juice, giant wheel, collecting shells, mango with salt and pepper, and the best of kites and paper fans. Then to run to the Ice house (now called Vivekananda Illam), and counting statues that stand tall talking about the culture of Madras is something that i would cherish doing even today. The serenity of the city had changed along with its name. Namma Chennai is the slogan the old Madras now sings. The beautiful buildings, the vast marina, the might mount road, and the best of Adyar allzha maram are few things that would not change in this vast city. Having had the chance to go through out the city in my past 16 years as a resident I think I had the opportunity to taste the conservative strings of old Madras and the renowned newness of Namma Chennai.

I sometimes wonder if i am having a double personality just like this vast metropolitan of India. Highly conservative and traditional Chennai, with its aromatic flavours of Filter Coffee, Sambar Idly and Muruku sundal in food, the heritage of kalashretra and much older tradition of the Music, and enhancting classical and divine musical spell that makes this place a threat to live. Dance, drama and music is in the blood of the people here. All languages, religions and cultures mix up in unity and integrity. Diversity of the city welcomes people from all neighbouring states with a warmest hug and a open arms. Today old madras transforms itself as a seat of growth, tranquility, spiritual destination and the patronage of the ancient world class temples that speak volumes of the artistic brilliance of the people lived in the city. The other side of the new Chennai is hyped, modern, and a refreshing to the new generations. The city has the best of golf courses in India, beautiful stadiums, posh and well equipped sports facilities, new Squash grounds in Chetpet, artistically upcoming software technology parks, amazing communities that bring in new culture, expansion of the city with new opportunities in education and employment. The city lags no where behind the modernisation in terms of entertainment as well. The latest is all available in Inox, and Satyam multiplexs and Spencers is the sheer destination for shopping. Not just this, but young crowds have lot of welcoming pubs and discos, where they chill down not just on weekends but throughout. Saris, Salwars, Kurtha, Denims, all go well in this city and its all so synced up so well that you can just be yourself, the way you want to be. If you are person of old traditions, you have lot of places, and sabhas and temples that keep you busy throughout or if you are interested in the modern sphere of life, the city has enough to endear. Not just this, the city is upcoming destination for major industrial giants spinning the economy with faster acceleration. One of the most modern, safe and structured, organised and mostly a happy Indian City- That's my Chennai!!!

What makes a good tester?

A Good Testers need to follow ten basic principles:

1. Always think from the end-user/ customer point of view

2. Understand the requirement clearly and technically

3. Use your logical sense to the best of ability

4. Do not be a friend to the developer.

5. Look at the test cases from all angles- coverages, acceptance, co-relations, impact, dependencies etc

6. Learn to write good and comprehensive test cases

7. Learn to report defects appropriately- with test steps, sequences, patterns, screenshots of the defects etc

8. Followup on the defects till they are closed appropriately

9. Report issues to the right persons for immediate resolution

10. Remember you are the gatekeepers for the quality of the product to be delivered

Simple and realistic ten steps would not only make you a good tester, but would also make the products delivered consistent, reliable, competent and overall makes the application user friendly and meaningful.

Handling Failures

All of us enjoy and rejoice success, but not many of us are aware how to handle failures. In every aspect of life, it is important the people first learn to get into a mind set where they can handle failures in the same spirit as they would handle success. Life itself is a competitions, from the childhood between siblings, as teens with the schoolmates, as adults with colleague's, as business men with the entrepreneurs, as citizens with our fellow country men, life is a biggest challenge and not every time everyone sees success. The very spice of life is to see the failures and to realise the worth and wisdom it takes to over come disappointments, jump back into action with more energy, expectation, and enthusiasm, so that we do not repeat our mistakes that paved way for failures earlier. Learn from the lessons of the past and move forward. Be it a competition, a new business, expansion, work, studies, or even in a relationship. One should not impact the very existence of us as human beings and we should look forward for the next best opportunity. The more we keep looking at the closed door or a disappointing failure, we would actually fail to see the new opportunity or the new doors opening for us to continue with our quest for success. Leave the baggage of failure behind the doors, and pick the lessons that are needed to refine and rejuvenate us to go ahead with the next possibilities. Only people who are determined and are ready to take this move are the people who had been successful in life and history do give lot of examples of such achievers. High class achievers in the world are not the people who had never encountered failures, but they are the people who encourages themselves to look beyond failures and keep going ahead. They are the people who took life in their stride and moved ahead despite the most troubling tragedies in personal lives and devastating failures in the business lives as well. They emerged successful not because of the circumstances or all best opportunities but because they had the will to emerge and regain the spirit to make alignments and leave behind the failures as lessons learnt. Its not the destiny that takes you to your destination but definitely it is the way you take things and handle failure that make you successful. If your destination is called Success, do not fear the midway stations called failures and disappointments and do not disjoint your journey but keep your perseverance and hard work, faith in your possibilities till you reach your planned destination. Good Luck!!!