Post 1 : The beginning of my journey on IBM Corporate Service Corps ....

It was on 12 October 2017, my manager called me with excitement to inform me that I have been selected to the most coveted assignment that any IBMer would dream of.   That my application to the Corporate Service Corps has been selected.

The above few lines, marked the beginning of my CSC journey.  After years of experience in Volunteering and Community Service, to be recognized and given an opportunity to work on an assignment with the Organization you work for has been the reason for excitement.    I know it has to be several months of wait before we actually get deployed in 2018 or 2019.


This confirmation followed by several mails with congratulatory messages and best wishes.   I still preserve my manager Kumaran's email which boosted my confidence and eagerness to look forward


So, what is this Corporate Service Corps all about?

IBM launched the pro bono Corporate Service Corps in 2008 primarily as a vehicle for global leadership development. Teams of from eight to 15 members partner with government, business and civic leaders in emerging markets to address high-priority issues such as education, health and economic development. Individual CSC teams spend three months learning about the communities and the problems they’ll address before spending four weeks on the ground working with local organizations and other relevant local stakeholders to develop recommendations for short-term and long-term actions. The program has achieved its primary goal—equipping IBMers for the challenges of working and leading in a global organization. Many of them on return call their deployments life changing. Since its launch, the CSC has emerged as a new model for leadership development and social engagement in the 21st Century. It’s a living laboratory for experiments and learning at a time when corporations are under incredible pressure to transform the way they operate because of globalization and technology shifts, and when economic challenges and social instability threaten to slow human progress.

To know more about IBM CSC:
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/

A month after .......

A month slipped away without you

Silently taking all the tears I could shed

I hear your brave voice, asking me to raise again

This time, with your divine blessings to regain

Yes, you were behind me when I did my best

You stood ahead to protect whenever I lest

You were my true lioness often brave and wild

I know you will only be proud

When I raise again and focus on what next

Your loss is a forever pain that nothing could heal

But who can dare the lessons and memories steal

When I had you back at home, taking all the care

I could fly with wings wide and dream big to hold

Now, I need you to give me the comfort and courage

To take those steps again and arise with a new sage

Love you Amma! 

 

Miss You Amma! Rest in peace My Guardian Angel!

A stronger heart stopped beating

Hard working hands at rest,

It broke my heart to see you go,

God only takes the best!

They say that memories are golden

Well may be that is true

But I never wanted memories

I only wanted you

Your life was love and labour

Your love for family true

You did your best for all of us

We will always remember you

I sat beside your bedside

Heart crushing and sore

I did my duty to the end

Till I could do no more

In tears, I watched you sleeping

Watching you silently fade away

And though my heart was breaking

I knew, you could not stay

Our lips never spoke how much we loved

Our hearts cannot tell what to say

But God only know how I miss you

In our home that is lonely today

I fought with you as a child

Behaving rather weird and wild

Today, I weep like a craving child

Waiting for the comfort hug even mild

Every time I fell, you gave your hand

To raise again, to emerge more stronger

Every time I made a mistake, you were my eraser

Wiping away the dirt, and letting me rewrite

Rest now Angel, in peace, n comfort

With no clinical syringes pricking you to live

Rest now Angel, in happiness n strength

Having reunited with dad after so long

Rest now Angel, with no pain of sickness

With no watching over motors or meters

Rest now Angel, with no waiting for calls

Or for those few days you get to rejoice

Rest now Angel, the peace is now all yours

With no one to interrupt or take away

Rest now Angel, within the God's wings

Not hearing the barking dogs or whispering hallucinations

Rest now Angel, knowing for sure

That you have raised children who are strong

Rest now Angel, knowing for truth

That you have left behind a legacy unparalleled

Stay there, calm, healthy and at peace

Until we get to meet again

Stay there dear mom, for heaven is your place

That gained with so much sacrifice

Love you loads mom, for you are no ordinary woman

You are one of resilience, inner strength and strong will

Love you loads mom, not because you left us behind

Just because we just got lucky being your kind

Words cannot suffice, to heal the pain

Our loss today, is heaven's forever gain

Our beloved mother, Smt. P. G. Sampath Kumari passed away on 7 Aug 2018, Tuesday.

She was a symbol of woman strength and sacrifice battling all her life, with a chronic asthma that squeezed her lungs,  with the unexpected tragedy of losing our dad when she was in mid-40's and there after having had to raise 3 minor daughters all by herself with her government job in Madras Municipal Corporation where she worked for 35+ years despite all physical and emotional struggles.  There are plenty of takeaways from her life.   She never showed emotions or expressed love in words, but she did her duty diligently.   She build her home step by step, brick after brick, with her blood and sweat, the tired steps she took with her pulling asthma.   She used to preserve every penny possible so that we had the best of education.  She had master 5 year plans to ensure all three of us got married at the right time or even earlier. All this with no loans and systematic planning on the meager salary she earned.  She showed all her love and care for her three grandchildren who became her world in the last few years.   She loved travel and managed to make trips to USA, Canada, Nepal,  Singapore and Malaysia and all over India.   She missed her most planned trip to Europe due to the hand fracture last year.  Probably she is now in a much better place traveling all over the skies watching us over and keeping us safe.  Tribute to an epitome of motherhood.

My journey of becoming a Lawyer :-)

This is the story of a man who had great dreams for his daughters.   A ordinary middle class state government employee had great aspirations, a wonderful heart,  a lovely smile on his face always and happiness was his only goal in life.   He was simple man with high thinking.  He raised his daughters equal to sons in the gender discriminate society.  And one of his dreams was to make one of his daughters a lawyer.  He injected the seed of service and aspiration to pursue law in her when she was young.  This seed grew into a passion and became the girl's most favorite dream.  However, destiny had its own say and took him away before even his girls could reach the college.  Life turned overnight

A man who dreamt big for his daughters and mother who did the best she could

There was no room for dreams, passions or aspirations.  It was only a struggle to survive.  A mother with 3 minor girls was left alone to raise them.  The woman could not give space for dreams for the need of the hour was more important, to feed them, to give them the lifestyle they had when the father was alive, to give the best of education, to ensure they are married off and settled as soon as life gave a chance.  To her, the only goal was to see them married off.   This young girl could not pursue her dream of law when she was out of the school and was entering college.  She had to go by what her mother could afford,  could provide and finally ended up with a different education and career followed by a marriage that even needed more attention and adjustments.  

Despite all the changes in life, the struggles and successes that embraced her in different spheres of life,  the young girl, now a middle aged woman, still held her dream tight in her head.   It was in 2015,at the age of 39, a year before her own daughter was entering college, she took that one daring step to pursue her dream....get back to college of law, to fulfill her passion and do her best.   There were no plans to leave the career she built over two decades, however, the pursuit of happiness lies in making her dream come true.

With a full time job, a family that is dependent on her, her commitment to the social work,  and then this one step to study further.   It was not easy, but not impossible.  It took 3 full years to focus on the course.  Several weekend trips to Bangalore to the college, lot of early morning and late night hours studying and continuous encouragement from her friends, full support from family,  sharing books and study material and tips to crack the exams from her closest batch mates,  those early morning dormitory revisions, long weekend stays in hotels to have uninterrupted study hours, working after exams, and then taking those many train journeys gave so much of learning and experiences of lifetime. 

Finally on July 28th, 2018 after 3 years of chasing this dream, the much awaited results of the final semester came in.   The one three letter word 'LLB' became her own.   She dedicated this graduation degree to her father who injected the dream in her.  

Yes, officially Umasree Sampath Kumar LLB is now a reality.

Many of my friends asked me if I am quitting IT and pursuing Law as a career full time.  It is a decision that time alone will decide.  For now, I am just happy being a Lawyer and helping the NGO's I am associated with on the legal advice and rehabilitation of abused girl children,  cage girls,  HIV affected and transgenders. This will not have conflict of interest with my work that I still love doing.  Project management to me is way of life.

Those weekend Practicals! Rajiv Gandhi College of Law, KSLU

I am grateful to my husband and daughter, my loving sisters, my beloved nephews and few closest friends, my colleagues  who were strength to me in chasing this dream.   Today, I am happy soul.  Feeling contented and fulfilling.  To many it may just be a degree. but for me it is a dream that came true...

Midnight flight to Bangalore to attend the Moot Court-  Toppers!

My closest friends...bonded in law, friendship that is beautiful

Brian Regu started the Moot Court Practicals

Umasree Raghunath aka Umasree Sampath Kumar, B.Com, CWA(Inter), MBA,LLB!

Z for Zachman Framework

The Zachman Framework is a visual aid for organizing ideas about enterprise technology. It is attributed to IBM professional John Zachman, as presented in the article "A Framework for Information Systems Architecture" published in the IBM Systems Journal in 1987.

IT Experts describe the Zachman Framework as an "ontology" composed of a matrix that orders the aspects of enterprise resources and stakeholders. One axis of the matrix is composed of the traditional "5 Ws + H" model used in traditional print journalism, i.e., who, what, where, when, why and how. The other includes labels such as "scope" and "model" that further define projects.

The name Zachman Framework was trademarked by its original author.

The title "Zachman Framework" refers to The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture with version 3.0 being the most current. The Zachman Framework has evolved in its thirty-year history to include:

• The initial framework, named A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, by John Zachman published in a 1987 article in the IBM Systems journal.^[5]
• The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture, an update of the 1987 original in the 1990s extended and renamed .^[6]
• One of the later versions of the Zachman Framework, offered by Zachman International as industry standard.

Collage of Zachman Frameworks as presented in several books on Enterprise Architecture from 1997 to 2005.

In other sources the Zachman Framework is introduced as a framework, originated by and named after John Zachman, represented in numerous ways, see image. This framework is explained as, for example:

• a framework to organize and analyze data,^[7]
• a framework for enterprise architecture.^[8]
• a classification system, or classification scheme^[9]
• a matrix, often in a 6x6 matrix format
• a two-dimensional model^[10] or an analytic model.
• a two-dimensional schema, used to organize the detailed representations of the enterprise.^[11]

Beside the frameworks developed by John Zachman, numerous extensions and/or applications have been developed, which are also sometimes called Zachman Frameworks, however they generally tend to be graphical overlays of the actual framework itself.

The Zachman Framework summarizes a collection of perspectives involved in enterprise architecture. These perspectives are represented in a two-dimensional matrix that defines along the rows the type of stakeholders and with the columns the aspects of the architecture. The framework does not define a methodology for an architecture. Rather, the matrix is a template that must be filled in by the goals/rules, processes, material, roles, locations, and events specifically required by the organization. Further modeling by mapping between columns in the framework identifies gaps in the documented state of the organization.^[12]

The framework is a logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive representations of an enterprise. It is significant to both the management of the enterprise, and the actors involved in the development of enterprise systems.^[13] While there is no order of priority for the columns of the Framework, the top-down order of the rows is significant to the alignment of business concepts and the actual physical enterprise. The level of detail in the Framework is a function of each cell (and not the rows). When done by IT the lower level of focus is on information technology, however it can apply equally to physical material (ball valves, piping, transformers, fuse boxes for example) and the associated physical processes, roles, locations etc. related to those items

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachman_Framework
 https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30657/zachman-framework