Towards a Cleaner Environment...Using Technology or Human Efforts... Let's Make our World a Better Place to Live

Writing this as I sip my morning cuppa tea...

My experience as a lecturer in a military college long ago provided me an insight on how tough, dedicated and sacrificial the life of military personnel and their families is - at least the sincere ones. 

Lessons of brotherhood learnt in school revived when I witnessed them being practiced there.

Vancouver Island University reiterated the values inculcated in school on the importance of a clean environment.

And here I am, at present, practicing it by taking a tiny humblest initiative in getting my environment cleaner...for my fellow beings, me...with the advancement in technology when everything is digitized, I could file in the issue online.

And, there was a time, when I was a kid, when it was not so easy...

(I use a broom, vacuum cleaner etc. to clean up too.
I would respect a janitor more than a majestic abuser.)

Let's use technology to make our world a better place to live in...one step at a time by each one of us and we go miles...:)

Tribute to Scientist, Teacher, Prez and MahaRishi (a great sage) Dr. Kalam!

This blog pays respects to late President Dr. Abdul Kalam. The great personality who is an inspiration to me and probably many more. A person who was a scientist, a teacher and a President.

Our beloved scientist Dr. Abdul Kalam passed away. But he simply passed away in body. His spirit ignited many minds and will always remain immortal.

Dr. Kalam was born in a Muslim family but there was no communal hatred that he inspired among people of other religions. He was loved by people of all sects. I think, he was a perfect example to show how wrong people are who exploit and wrongly use religion to divide people in India. He was a (maha)rishi - a (great) sage.

I learnt on 27th July 2015 noon that he passed away. The next day, I stepped out to buy newspapers to read articles on him and how exactly he passed away; a good old hard copy is much better than online news and the television on some occasions. But, do you know, there was not a single newspaper at two news stands! All the newspapers that day were sold away! That was and is a perfect indication of the love, respect and admiration that Dr. Kalam inspires among people. I finally went to a very large news stand far away from my residence and found some copies of newspapers which I could finally purchase and read. :) RIP.

Raw mango salad with watermelon juice ~ Heaven in summer...

Here's a very delectable dish I prepare to beat the summer heat. Raw mango salad that’s seasonal and perfectly healthy. Add to it crushed lentils soaked for an hour, season it with sugar, salt, asafetida plus chilli and other spices fried in butter.

Serve it with watermelon juice...and there you are...ready to be transported to a cooool heaven during summer.

A Tribute to Yoga Teachers

I learnt that B.K.S Iyengar passed away last night.

This reminded me of all the Yoga teachers who have guided me in my Yoga learning. Yoga is an art and science that cannot be learnt without a preceptor. Yoga teachers perform the noble task of enlightening students on the correct way to attain and remain in Yoga positions.

Thank you all my teachers!

Quotes that impressed me...

Hello! I was moved by these quotes, and wish to share the beautiful thoughts, they ring true...resonate with what I think, happy reading! :)


(https://www.pinterest.com/jyotichitre/)

On leading a meaningful existence

 

• Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.

• Without hard work nothing grows but weeds.

• Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.
  (Our world is very dishonest, and our leaders encourage dishonesty by setting bad examples - by lying, being corrupt and using political sleight of hand to gain and sustain power)

• Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. 

On gossip mills and petty attitudes

(These quotes are shoes. No size fits all. Wear the one that fits you!)

•  What do you speak so loudly that I do not hear what you say?

•  Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

• Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

•  Don't worry about people who aren't happy for you,
  They probably aren't happy for themselves either!

• Gossip is a disease spread from mouth to mouth.

•  If you didn't see it with your own eyes or hear it with your own ears...
  Don't make it up with your small mind and share it with your big mouth!

•  The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
  But because of those who look and do nothing.

• It's funny how the people who know me the least have the most to say. 

•  (This one's original:) The majority of men (and women too) are a spineless breed - They dance to the tune of some bitch.
  Spineless men get kicks when women bitch.

  On pain 

• I am proud of my heart
  It's been played, stabbed, cheated, scarred and broken
  But somehow still works.
  
  Royal or  royal pain?

Working in the Agile Environment - for Technical Authors

During the course of my work on various projects as a Technical Author, I adopted the Agile methodology to author and update documents while I collaborated with software engineers. I aim to help Technical Authors who have not worked in the Agile environment catch up on the trend. I did come across many posts by Technical Authors regarding their helpnessness to catch up with the development team who uses this methodology which prompted me to write this post.

    

 

What is Agility?

Agility in English means moving quickly, lightly and gracefully. For years, our software industry followed traditional methods to manage software development and consequently documentation.

Why Agility?

Then, a question arose, do we have to be so rigid? Don’t we realize as we design, then develop that we missed some feature that could be crucial or required by our end user right away? Do we refuse such requests because they were never a part of the Specifications? This compelled experts / veterans to rethink our time and tested strategy. Should we not become adaptive? While a certain amount of rigidity is necessary to set a path to design our software products, we have to take note of certain change requests too.

How as Technical Authors do we implement Agilty?

This scenario set the stage for Agile software development. This framework promotes adaptive planning. This implies that as you design features in various iterations, you must update your documents in parallel. A slight update to the Waterfall coined term “feature” in the Agile world is the hierarchy of Themes, Epics, User Stories and Tasks. So, in essence a Theme drills down to Epics which in turn drill down to User Stories that are broken down into manageable Tasks. So, as a documentation expert, you have to align your documentation with these objectives and chart your plans accordingly. So folks, agility is about collaborating too. :)

Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted...!??? (Anti-social networks of rackets involved in digital and real life vandalism)

This blog airs concerns on the atrocities committed on innocent people when their privacy is infringed now in the Information Era (the Golden era of white collar crime) as well as when it was in the earlier times. It condemns the deplorable trait of these unethical bullies who do or do not hold formal power, abuse it, people who lack guts, do not stand up to them and spread the sewage. I have seen more spine in jellyfish than in people who bow down and act to the whims and tantrums of unethical tyrannical people engaged in organized crime. Power (and lust for power) corrupts and how!



(NOTE: I am NOT associated in any way with Shivam homeo pharmacy in Pune with the email address jyotichitre@gmail.com. That is a misrepresentation.)

"If you don't stand up for something right, you will fall for anything!"


"Management (& "Leadership"!) must not oppose the virtuous and support the wicked. " 

- Chanakya (a great thinker and diplomat) 

"Our world is very dishonest, and our leaders(?) <"Head" or whatever they do under the guise of "leadership" whichever way they "influence"> encourage dishonesty by setting bad examples - by lying, being corrupt and using political sleight of hand to gain and sustain power"

-Stuart Wilde 

The mark of the coward is that he attacks the defenseless.

A team is where a boy/girl can prove his/her courage on his/her  own.
A gang is where a coward goes to hide. 

“Don’t deceive yourself; laughing at someone’s weakness is not the way to reveal your strength. Your strength is in the help you offer, not the mockeries you deliver!”

"The majority of men and women are a spineless breed. They dance to the tune=bark of some bitch" 
-Me (original)

I recall that when I was young, I used to stroll around in the area where I lived. Mumbai was not as densely populated back then and there were properties that were not occupied or there were those where the owners did not welcome visitors. I would read boards there that said, “Trespassers will be prosecuted.” I never ventured to transgress those sections. 

Eavesdropping, indulging in malicious gossip and bullying (sly traits that surface on the playground during childhood) too was neither my forte nor of interest really. But unfortunately these traits could be observed in a lot many folks.

Today I am an IT professional. The old vices like trespassing, eavesdropping and gossiping are still prevalent and also have assumed a new form in our IT world right in our work areas and outside too. Passwords are hacked, cell phones are tapped and security boundaries are disregarded. People are bullied and harassed in this new class of torture. The internet too is used by malicious minds who can destroy reputations of innocent people. It hides the heinous crimes of the hackers. These bullies get the feeling of being powerful getting and misusing information that is in no way their concern and spoil lives and reputations of harmless innocent folk. Our world is an open field for low mentality sadists – akin to vultures who seldom attack healthy animals, but kill the wounded or the sick. These perverted rodents infesting our world teach others to despise people they don't even know. Innocents bleed as anti-social rackets thrive. Sinister demons lurk behind social facades. These destructive, dangerous, remorseless, narcissist, sociopathic megalomaniacs also misuse the dias to bias method to influence people. They scream till hoarse, shrill and make comments with crude  sexual overtones- every lowly tactic to hit below the belt. Haughty sensational speaking criminals who are cybercriminals too. And I wonder, “Will the trespassers ever be prosecuted?...!” 

"Tyrants who stoop to conquer

Vultures with never satiated hunger

Are guts such rarity?
Why do people feed the scavengers' vanity?

Why does amoral conduct run riot?
Scattered sycophantic vultures, bitches, rats and parrots...

Oh, an entire jungle put together
Unevolved neanderthal beasts in human attire!

So, crimes remain unreported
Silently suffer the souls who are tormented...

Why has social and moral conscience waned?
Why is justice so brutally maimed?"