My 6th Hackathon Experience & the Great Surgical Strike

This week I took part in another Hackathon, it was my 6^th one!! Last hackathon which I participated in, we were not able to complete the solution as we were working on really niche next generation technologies, and we did not get the required technical support on time. Out of the 6 Hackathons, I have taken part in, I have been able to complete 5,the one we did not complete, we did do the presentation and completed the participation.

 I remember my first Hackathon in 2014, it was a great experience and it encouraged me to keep going forward. I learnt new things with each participation, and also evolved technically, I also kept getting better. Every hackathon was different, with different themes and different technologies, some of them I did not even know the name of the tool\platform, and ended up using it.

This time around the focus was on domain and not so much on the technology. The Hackathon was hosted by the client I work for, which is an MNC in banking domain. We decided on the theme which was closest to our strength, we choose the user experience theme. We built a web site with sleek user interface to display the status of all our batches. ROI is, it saves minimum 3 hours daily and also has a huge user base as well who could use it.

I attended the demo call and got a chance to look over other team’s solutions. Couple of them looked extra ordinary and unfeasible in the allotted hackathon time (this happens in all hackathons).Some were really good and the effort was shown, some were good attempts, there were few no shows as well. Compared to others I had a very simple, yet very effective interface which suited my requirement. There was nothing to refer to for our solution, and we did brainstorming on pen and paper to choose the best design of the layout.  Time was invested to get the right placement of the components, and the color combination, in line with the assigned theme.

End of the day I was happy with what we had made. Even the next day, I was playing around the website, it is very user friendly and the color combinations are really good, we had invested time on it and glad it came out good.

Another thing I wanted to write about since long time is India’s surgical strike in terrorist hideouts in PoK. It was a bold move, it was a correct move and it was definitely a memorable day in the history of modern India. Hats off to the Indian army and also to the Prime Minister for this. The next few days were tense as well as exciting, but definitely the whole of India is proud and thankful to the army and the Prime Minister…Jai Hind!!!

India & The Olympics

 It was a busy Monday, although I had a day off at work, there was some renovation work happening at home all day which kept me engaged. Feeling a bit tired, but still nevertheless have some juice to pump out this post.

 Post after a while, have been busy in office. But yes enjoying as I am still learning new things everyday. Major thing this month was the Olympics in Rio, Brazil. Had great time watching it, Indian athletes did a splendid job. There were a lot of firsts for India this time, and surely the medal counts will increase next time in Tokyo 2020.

 India ended with just a couple medals and no gold, but still I am happy and proud with the performance. There is a lot of politics still present in sports, and lot of funds not utilized as expected. There was a big useless administrative contingent along with the athletes, even the chief of medical staff was not a proper doctor but son of some politician enjoying a free trip abroad.There are very few sports facilities of international standards in India and not much financial assistance to athletes, Indians were counted 70 years behind world's best athletes at Olympics, despite all this the athletes did a splendid job.

Things are improving in India, and I am sure they will continue to improve. We are fortunate to have a wonderful prime minister. There are some good cabinet ministers as well, but still many corrupt greedy worthless politicians present. However, a lot of good things happened to me in last one month, which portrays that things are indeed getting better in India, government servants and government work is getting professional and efficient.

To start with I had to renew my passport, which is considered an international document. I did all pre-formalities myself and online. I even got an appointment to ensure there is not much waiting time. The complete process at passport office was very streamlined, the staff for the most of it was co-operative and helpful. Complete procedure took 90 mins for me at passport office. I believe Pune office processes at least 1000 passport applications everyday, and everything is online. When I was on my return journey home, I got a notification saying passport printing started, and I got it home in 3 days, kudos!

 Another good experience regards to my electricity bill. I got an unexpected high bill, I called up the customer care and registered a compliant. I got a local office contact number and was told will need to go to office and sort it out. I was thinking it will cost me a leave and transport cost additional. However, the person of local office who attended my complaint on the number was helpful and was I was able to resolve my query on phone.

 Finally currently I am watching 'Discover India- Mumbai Railways' on Discovery channel. They are showing a documentary on long distance journeys from CST. The logistics and procedures of long distance trains. They even showed the command center at CST which is simply awesome. We do not realize the number of people and amount of effort goes into preparation of a long distance train. Also we have a wonderful rail minister currently. Glad to be alive during this period of time in this great nation!!!

India Truly Shinning this time!!

 Normally I abstain from political/religious comments or posts. I am a techie, a traveler, a sports buff and a non humble freakin genius! However I am highly impressed by the work done by the new BJP government, and based on all the changes I see in the country, the changes I see in the way of thinking, the change in how we Indians see ourselves and are ready to compete and dominate at world level in terms of intellect, innovation and business, makes me feel really proud and happy.

 India had a lot of hope from Narendra Modi. BJP got unprecedented majority, and they formed the government. The numbers were so one sided, that there were not enough seats to form a single party opposition! However, Modi did not stop after taking the hot seat. No doubt he is an outstanding orator, but he is also a man of his words. He is a man of passion who wants to really make India shine. He is from humble backgrounds, and has worked his way up to the top. He knows the problems of people, he has lived their lives. He is a common man too after all! 

 The wonders he has done to Gujarat, one can only imagine what lies ahead for our great country. I don't know about others, but I myself have changed my thinking. I was earlier planning to settle in Europe, but now I feel a lot more patriotic. I want to live in my country, and do my bit for the country. I also have started doing a lot of charity work. I am associated with 2 NGOs now. It feels good, and I do it happily. 

 Another change which has come across in my thinking is to abstain from the incorrect. I do not want to do anything which would break the law, or make my life easier by giving bribe. I normally do not do anything like that, but now I also ask my friends not to do so. The thing is there is a man at the top working his ass off, trying to make our country the best, we all should support him as much as we can at our level. This time India is truly shinning. 

 Our hostile neighbors have been attacking us by violating rules and engaging in cross border fire. They just did that again recently, but this time the lion responded. PMO gave full authority to fire back, and that's the way it should be. It felt great, and I also thought the army would be more happy because till now it was like they were never given a complete go green to respond, they had the potential, it was all about the freedom to respond fire with fire. India has never invaded another country in it's history, but if someone does something like this, this is how we should respond...great job by the government in that aspect too!! Jai Hind!!