ExpertDabbler

It was 10:30 in the night when i started from work towards home. Its been sometime since i worked like this. Nobody asked me to sit late and finish the work before leaving for the day. But all the work i did today made me feel good. There is definitely a sense of pride involved in a hard day’s work.

Some people think that having all the time in the world will give a person options to do whatever he wants to do and hence make one happier. But having options does not matter if one is not going to exercise any. The real enjoyment is in getting oneself totally engrossed in work - where time and place lose its relevance.

I read somewhere that satisfying work and fulfilling network of people (family, friends, spouse) area better indicators of happiness than money or power or mindless sex or prestige. How True!

Someone as recently as last week asked me what I do for a living.
When I say ‘designer’, the image that immediately comes to their mind is cool 2D flash animations and 3D animations, special effects etc. And when I venture to explain them, all I get is a vague “oh, ok” and some wild guesses which clearly betray their lack of understanding about what I said. Mind you I am not talking about laymen, I have faced the same blank faces even among my techie co-workers.

So how do I earn all the money required for those idiappams in Pichu pillai street?
I am an interaction designer. I am concerned about how the user interacts with the software application my employer develops. In another words i’m a user experience professional. But since I am not formally trained Product Designer, I restrict myself to designing user friendly web based software applications(the likes of Yahoo mails, ecommerce portals, shaadi.com, IRCTC etc):)

Usability can very well be extended to everyday things and objects.
Donald Norman has written a phenomenal book on this subject.

So what’s usability? It’s about how usable or user friendly a product is.
How easy is the interaction to remember, to learn, to prevents errors to the maximum extent etc. It draws from disciplines as diverse as cognitive psychology, human machine interaction, aesthetics, ergonomics etc. So it’s a one big time kalavai. Just like me
All leading software companies like Google, Microsoft and gaming companies invest millions of dollars in research into Usability and Human computer Interaction. People like Jackob Neilsen, Steve Krugg, Scott Berkun are considered usability celebrities.

Infosys, Cognizant and HCL have full fledged usability labs and practices. IBM is offering usability as a service offering.

Usability can be explained more clearly with examples where its lacking. Let me try with a fairly common place machine.

I guess most of us are familiar with ATMs. Typically, each bank follows its own standards and methods for ATM interaction. Even within banks the ATMs installed are of different variety. Some spit the card out even when as we proceed with the transaction. Some ATMs treat card removal as the equivalent of logging out of a system.

The card holder is sometimes to the right of the monitor, sometimes its at the top-right corner. Some ATMs insist the user to enter the password right away. Some would allow you inside and then ask for 4 digit PIN password. Some would have an enter button, some do not.

So for the same process the lay user has to learn 5 different ways of accessing my account in ATMs of 5 different banks. This is one classical example of misplaced creativity or bad usability in my opinion. The reason for this is the lack of standards in designing ATM user interfaces here. As a result, each design and implement the way they think is best. The worse part is, most of the times the user tend to blame themselves for the trouble in using the devices or machines.

For more real world usability issues in real world objects, check out Bad Designs website

Why did I write about this?

I keep hearing the demand for qualified usability experts far outstrip the supply. But unfortunately not many are aware of the opportunities in this field.
They simply follow the “I want to be a programmer” clan.
If you love programming, by god please do that.
All I wanted to say is that a satisfying career in software is wider than writing code. That is the reason why people like me with no formal training are kuppai kottufying.

Where can one learn about user interface design? The best places to learn this formally in India is NID Ahmedabad and IDC, IIT Mumbai. For learning-by-doing pros like me Human factors is running a basic level course.

I hope this information is useful to fresh graduates who are facing that million dollar question “What next?”

My friend suman has started a blog here to record his experiences with the wonderful kids in SOCARE. pls. do check it out.

Suman is very dear and special to me more as a friend than as a fellow blogger.
One of the few person whom i would consider as my mentor Our friendship is one more testimony to the ” Facts are stranger than fiction” saying
And as a writer, the way suman writes nowadays is just mindblowing.

You can also check out his other blog here

I just listened to “Pani Thirai” composed by Jay Krishnan - Ghannu Bhai’s friend. Man, that was something special. I could not believe that this piece of work is by a weekend musician and recorded at home studio. The output was so damn professional. Guess Paul Graham was spot on when he wrote about open source and blogging here. People are good at doing stuff they love no matter what the constraints are.

I sometimes get overboard and talk ill of certain things in my blogs which i could very well avoid. I write all that and then feel if i am hurting someone. Sometimes i also feel if blogging is worth anything at all.

But there are some bloggers who have been exceptional. NV Sir - kavidhai, encouraging others, music interest,
Jo - need i say anything more about his voice?
Ganesh - musical talent, encouraging others,
Jay - awesome music and photography, RS for her short stories,
The Satya of old times for humour( when he did not have projects etc.),
Arun vaidyanathan - film making
Sidin - humour in english,
Kutti Priya - tamil blogs and explanations for Thiruvasagam,
Subha’s Thamizh blog (azhagu thamizh) and
Dubukku (special brand of humour in Tamizh) these people have taken blogging to another level in some aspects.
Jeevan - for his amazing spirit.

These blogs all of us enjoy irrespective of our political, ideological affiliations
I would not have known any of them if not for blogging. Thanks blogger and thanks to all of you folks

To say that my reading has taken a backseat because of blogging is an understatement. It had all but vanished in the last six months. I bought one economics book recommended by vatsan and was struggling to read past Chapter 4.

I wanted to see if I can finish a book in one sitting. I could do that with Five Point Something. I chanced upon this novel “Appam, Vadai Thayirsadham” by Balakumaran in Higginbothams a few days back.

The day before yesterday I had to bunk office. Not knowing what to do in the latter half of the day, I took out this balakumaran novel.If I could finish that 360 odd page book in almost a single day, credit should go to Balakumaran.

Balakumaran is brilliant in depicting the travails, dilemmas and struggles of a poor, orthodox brahmin family which is finding life difficult in their vaidheegam and who eventually decide to make it big in the material world. If I could smell that Thayir sadham(aka thachu mammum), appam and could visualize the Mayavaram station of a good hundred year’s time, it’s because he has done a fantastic job. It’s always interesting to read about a community’s way of life, their customs and beliefs etc. And brahmin customs are something I could always identify with and relate to since childhood and this made the novel all the more interesting.

Balakumaran has used one family symbolically to trace the way the brahmin community has grown from Mayavaram to Chennai to Delhi, Mumbai, Gulf, and then to the US. How one community adapts to the changing scenarios and strives to grow legally and ethically with sheer hard work, taking up opportunities wherever they could find one is depicted very well through one family in this novel. And even the professions for the characters are in a manner which we could all relate to.

From vaidheegam to selling Thayirsadham in Mayavaram Railway Station to starting a Hotel business in Chennai and then bureaucracy in Chennai, Delhi and then business in Mumbai and then comes jobs in Gulf and US,It’s one fantastic journey for a family. All this are interspersed with some history (First World War, Second World War, Maniyachi station murder, Independence, Gandhi’s assasination etc)

One thing I did not particularly enjoy is the way brahmin women are depicted in this novel. All those pomanaatis are just doing the “singing, dancing, cooking and conceiving” and supporting their husbands in all the six/seven generations.
I could understand if Samba Siva Sasthrigal’s wife did that. But Shankar’s girlfriend trying to be a good wife and nothing more is … well:)

I thought women had an indiviudal identity of their own. I know several iyer aathu ponnus, my close friends, doing very well occupations as diverse as landscape architecture to Software Engineers in US. My best buddy is making a documentary for a Stanford initiative. It’s hard to imgine her as someone who will just blindly support her husband

If its just a case of a women in a particular family, i dont have any issues. But if the author intended to convey the growth of a community through that family, he falls flat in this aspect.

Another thing i did not like are some sweeping generalisations. “Ozhukama irukanumna life la munneranumna gayathri jabam pannu” kinda messages. Again if its the belief of that particular family for generations, then its fine. But if its an implied message to all and sundry, i do have questions about its validity.
As much as i respect Gayathri jabam, I know several day-light robbers who do sandhiyavandam twice a day and who have nothing to with sincerity, integrity blah blah.

Overall, a good novel which comes with a message “Whatever you do, do it sincerely and in good faith, Learn to adapt to situations and circumstances, Success is all yours”.

Peter F Drucker was one true colossus in the field of Management thinking, ideas and philosophy. I have always been in awe of this man. It was he who championed the concept of Knowledge Worker 4 decades back. I remember Googling the net all my free time sometime back to catch a glimpse of what Drucker is all about. I would search for every article, interview by him and about him and try to make sense out of it. I was never well endowed to buy his expensive books those days. I never had the inclination nor the time when i had the money. Maybe i will buy in future.
His PFDF site has been the one-stop shop for everything Drucker for guys like me.

Also, It was here that i came across my other favorite management thinker - Jim Collins.

This post is my humble tribute to Drucker.

And to catch a glimpse of his thinking, check out this article
He was as active as one could possibly be even at the age of 90+.

May his soul rest in peace.

After a whirlwind 6 months in blogosphere as expertdabbler, i am branching out in new two distinct avatars.

Folks, watch out for my story blog at kadhaineram.blogspot.com
and Photography blog at minbimbangal.blogspot.com

Actually i too had j’adore’s idea of serving up everything in one place but i see a situation in the near future where i would be writing a story, taking photographs and writing my daily life and observations. No, that’s not a distant possibility but a distinct possibility:)

Watch out this space for more.

I kindly request all bloggers to bookmark the new URLS and continue your support by visiting them as usual
I am planning to move the photo and story stuffs to the respective blogs by the weekend. Things should be smooth sailing in these blogs by Monday

It was 7:15 in the morning when Seema Sharath got into her company bus. Konark operated 53 buses from all parts of the city to take the associates (as it prides itself in calling its employees) to Shozhinganallur. The bus stop was walkable distance from her apartment near the Kellys Telephone Exchange. The bus usually starts from Perambur, touches Ayanavaram before picking her up at Kilpauk and then goes through KMC, Chetput, Sterling signal, Nungambakkam, Gemini and then cuts into Kotturpuram before reaching Adyar. Then goes into Thiruvanmyur and ECR before joining Old Mahabalipuram road exactly at Shozhinganallur junction. It picks up Associates enroute till ECR and reaches the company office by 8:25AM.
In other words a long, arduous journey of approximately 35 kilometers in city traffic.

She took the vacant seat just above the rear wheels after the customary,“Hi” to all the known faces in the bus. She took the window seat and looked outside.
She could see the stares, smiles, frowns, awe her from the public in the roads towards the Bus and her.
‘What would they be thinking about me?. Will it be something like ‘There goes yet another spoilt software techie”? She smiled. A smile which she herself was not sure whether of pride or tiredness.

‘What do they know about me? That I look good? That I earn a lot when young? Well that’s true. I don’t look my age. And I earn ok even by my industry standards. 10 Lakhs per annum is no small amount. I have a 1400 sq ft flat in Kilpauk. Not to mention some properties back home in Madurai. My husband is a SAP consultant on a project in Pasadena, CA. He is working for another IT major in chennai. He is also earning pots of money.’

‘But this is just part of the story. What these people might not know is I am not entirely happy. I am not happy with this high-paying but sucking job. I want to do something else. But dont know what. I am not happy about my dear hubby Mr Sharath Chander staying abroad in L1 without bothering to take me there. I am not happy about leaving my only wonderful kid Ashok who yearns for his mom every evening till I come back. I sometimes manage to come by 7:30 for which I need to catch the 5:45 bus. Sometimes I am back only at 9. The little fellow who makes my life worthwhile is asleep by that time. What have I done to this kid in all these 5 years? The only sensible thing i have done is, i have put him in a nice school near house. Not in a prestigeous school at a far off place. What i have done in fact is much less than what a middle-class home-maker mother would do to her child.’

‘Yeah, I am going to work because I don’t know what else to do. I write Executive Summaries for RFPs for Major Investment banks because I am asked to. And I will be screwed if I don’t deliver on time.’

‘But then it has always been like this. I studied because I was asked to. Got into BITS because that was considered cool. Did MBA from Symbiosis because I missed IIM which was the benchmark. I remember Appa was not happy about that at all. I married Sharath because I was asked to. This time by Sharath for a change. Appa was doubly happy. Not because Sharath was particularly good or I love him. But more importantly he belonged to my community, and he was my classmate.’ Having said that i don’t ate him either. It is more of an indifference than hatred or love.’

‘Later Sharath wanted a child. My parents seconded him. And so Ashok was born.’

‘On the other hand, certain things which I always wanted to do have always remained empty wishes. The paintings that I used to dabble with on weekends, the guy who I really wanted to marry when I was in my 10th standard, the NID course which I wanted to enroll myself and to which my Amma objected.’

‘Yeah, I am doing fine. I am rich, smart, wear trendy clothes on Fridays but am i realy happy? Job Satisfaction? Personal Life? 10 lakhs is small consolation for all that I don’t have’

She was not sure when she dozed off. The effects of returning late from work last night and waking up at 5 in the morning to prepare the morning breakfast and lunch for herself and her son took its toll.

Madhav woke her up.

“Elundhiru Seema. Office Vandachu. Ippove thoongina aprom seat la thookam varama kastapaduvey”

Madhav quipped and smiled casually.

LIFE AND KISS. this post shall remain at the top for sometime.

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I’m deleting the movie link because of bandwidth issues. I am also thinking about moving my stories and photos to separate blogs. Folks, please let me know what you feel.

It was around 1:30 in the afternoon. Prasanna was walking through GN Chetty Road crestfallen when his 501 Rs. RIM phone suddenly sprang to life. It was Shekar at the other end.

“Dei, dubakoor, ipdi agi pochey da…Vera edhavadhu resume la pottu tholanchirukka kooadaada?

“Dei, anda Hari yum Coimbatore la irundhirupaan, aduvum andha company laye irundhirupaan, naan CV la pottirunda site ellam avan nijamave pannirupaan nu enakku enna josiyama a theriyum?. Ellam neram da… Edhuna prachnai aacha unakku?

“Aama, yen fake candidates ellam refer panrey nu kettanga….”

“Sorry da, enakku help panna poi unakku prachnai”

“‘Enakku avanai seriya theiryadhu‘ nu sonnen. ‘Seriya theriyda candidates ellam yen refer panrey‘ nu thiruppi kettanga.. Seri freeya vidu. Konark la UX design team la oru opening irukaam. Angey irukara en friend sonnan. Avan mail id unakku anupiruken. Nee un resume ai avanukku anupi vai“

“Un friend endha ooru da?”

“Madurai, yen kekkarey?”

“Illa avanum Coimbatore la Pixelperfect la irundavano nu bayam daan”

“Dei, Idu oru freak incident. Naan avan kitte “payyan rombo creative, nalla work pannuvaan ana resume fake nu informal a sollirukken.. Epdiyum test madhiri vepaanga. edhuna site kuduthu layout design panna solvaanga……Adu nalla pannina onnum problem irukaadu. Experience certifcates laam ready panniruviya? HR la keppanga epdiyum”

“Adhellam onnum problem illa da… Epdiyum panniruven…Naan udaney anuparen da. Rombo Thanks da… bye. Aprom naaney call panren da” he promised as he ended the call.

He went to the nearby browsing center and promptly submitted his resume to Shekar’s friend. Shekar was more of Murali’s friend than his personal friend. Yet he showed more concern for his situation than Murali. That is one of ironies of Life.

That night Prasanna could not sleep properly. Thoughts of his fun-filled school life, his boisterous college years, his freaking weekend trips to Ooty in bikes with his college friends, the culturals they organized, the college elections, the emotional farewell, and finally each of his friend choosing a path and moving out of the city loomed large in his mind.

Life took a wicked turn for him when is father died in a massive heart attack all of a sudden. That was a bit too fast to react. Mr.Krishnan, an engineer, took his breakfast and went out in his Kinetic Honda but did not return alive for lunch. He had complained about a small discomfort and then collapsed in his friend’s shop in Tatabad before any medical help could be sought. It was all over in 10 minutes. Even before Prasanna culd go and see his dad alive for one last time.

Life has become sheer agony since that day. The embarassment at the hands of his relatives – both amma’s and appa’s, the cheating by the IT training institute where he did his course, the struggle in that 8×8 Mansion in Natesan Street when his mother Indira was struggling with the ways of the world in Coimbatore all alone…. Tears escaped his eyes.

He silently recited “Athimuga Vithaga Ingara Vinayaga..” his mom had taught him when he was a kid.

What if he did that test well in Konark and got selected?
Konark was in Old Mahabalipuram Road well beyond Shozhinganallur. Commuting will be a problem. But heck, nothing is a problem if he can get a break. He was even prepared to go to Afghanisthan for work, leave alone Shozhinganallur.
That thought of a good opening and a real chance in Konark gave him a lot of comfort. He slowly drifted to sleep..

Little did Prasanna know that life indeed was beginning to show its brighter side to him via Konark.

Prasanna would not have slept had he been aware of the heights he is going to reach in his life in Konark and beyond.