Back in 24 Hours

February 2, 2006 General

The title seems like a sequel to the movie Gone in 60 Seconds but it’s my trip to Delhi today which I am talking about. I had gone for a meeting with one of our Technology head and I had decided to stay overnight at the capital city. I know that meetings can stretch beyond limits and there’s nothing that we can (sometimes) do. Besides this was a great opportunity for me to get an inside look into Zope which is an open source content management system. So here I was packing everything that would required for a longish stay.

Traveling to Delhi means catching an early morning flight – usually Kingfisher which is also my preferred airline for most reasons. Luckily our meeting with the practice head finished early and I was left with an entire day on my hands. I decided to come back to Mumbai and rescheduled my flight ticket for the same evening by Kingfisher, although I had to pay some charges for this I was happy that I will be back in Aamchi Mumbai (Marathi for My Mumbai). After a Mexican lunch at a restaurant called the Rodeo in a downtown Gurgaon mall and some shopping as well, I moved to our wonderful guest house at Oakwood Estate. It’s a colony of some lofty apartment blocks which overlook a tennis court and a swimming pool (which was surprisingly empty). I had to spend few hours here before my scheduled flight at 6:25 to Mumbai but I had to remember the ongoing strike by the airport authority and planned to reach early at the airport. The housekeeper was very kind in arranging transportation for me. The flight and the subsequent journey was peaceful except for a stray incident where the hostess dropped apple juice on herself while serving me :-)

BTW, Kingfisher has a Power Fly Scheme which entitles passengers like me, who travel by the airline twice the same day, for a cash prize of Rs.1K (approximately $ 23). So all’s well, that ends well :-)

Movie of A "Third Kind"

January 27, 2006 Movies

Rang De BasantiThere are films which are remembered for its music. There are some films that have instances of fine performances. And then there is a third kind – like Rang De Basanti. It’s difficult to sum up anything about it. The performances were exquisite; the songs were magical; the storyline is the best in recent times. Then if there’s Aamir in a movie, there’s hardly anything that can go wrong with it (only if the movie is titled Mangal Pandey – The Rising or Mann).

Rang De Basanti presents a nice intersection of the mindset of the youth of 20th century British India and the present generation through 5 friends – D.J. (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth making his debut in Hindi Cinema), Laxman (Atul Kulkarni), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi) and Aslam (Kunal Kapoor). Sue (Alice Patten) comes to India in search of actors for a movie which would be based on her grand dad’s experience in India as a British jailer. She starts to identify the characters of her film in the 5 friends with help from her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan Pataudi) whose also a student in the University. The film-making experience becomes more memorable when it helps the cast to recognise their true self and awakens them to do better things for their country. Madhavan (as Ajay in the movie) plays a small but pivotal role in the film as well. The movie, as a whole runs high on emotions and spirit and you’re left thinking in the end about the state of affairs in this country. The music of the film by Rahman is excellent and it’s difficult to single out a particular favorite number but I will vote for Rubaroo, penned wonderfully by Prasoon Joshi. It’s also played at a very crucial point in the movie and the lyrics hit you immediately. If you are free this weekend please watch Rang De Basanti at a theater near you.

» Visit the Official website of Rang De Basanti

The Spirit of India

January 26, 2006 Happenings

NamaskarI was sifting through the Indian Express India Empowered edition of today and I could not hold back the joy of being an Indian. It was carrying some wonderful essays on the Indians who were a part of the original Constituent Assembly which formulated and promulgated the Constitution of India. Hence 57 years ago on this day The Sovereign, Socialist, Democratic, Secular Republic of India came into being – Bharat Ganarajya.

Continue reading…

Workshop Wrap-Up

January 22, 2006 General

Abhishek in & as BluffmasterThe Human Factors seminar ended quite nicely today and I admit that it has made a huge difference for me. As I have said earlier when I attended the very first workshop, the first few hours itself were enough to change my mindset completely. Both Hitesh and Neha, our instructors for the Practical Usability Testing workshop created enough interest and excitement to make the 2 day workshop very absorbing. I am now going back to my sweatshop desiring to put some of the gained knowledge to actual practice. I am also hoping that the management gives a serious thought in constituting a body of usability experts from the industry who can work in tandem with the developers in making usable web and software applications.

After the day ended with some emotional goodbyes and hand shakes and promises of keeping in touch over email, it was time for me and Aadesh to chill out. Being movie buffs, we hopped over to Huma Adlabs at Kanjurmarg and watched the Rohan Sippy directed Bluffmaster starring Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Nana Patekar amongst others. It’s the story of a deceiver Roy (Abhishek) and Simmi (Priyanka) and their lives. Nana as Chandru, a local don has been amazing throughout the movie.

The movie has been shot wonderfully. I say this because it presents to you some of the most scenic images of Mumbai which have hitherto been unexplored. I personally liked Abhishek’s apartment and the magnificent view of the city from it. There’s no point in narrating the story and spoiling the fun. The least that I can say is please go to the nearest theater and enjoy the movie :-)

Usability Training Workshop

January 20, 2006 Design

Human Factors InternationalI have been keeping busy these days with the User Centered Analysis and Practical Usability Testing workshops at Human Factors International (HFI). The course is very extensive and I hardly get time to spend at home these days. But I am happy that I have found something which I can pursue with great passion. These training sessions are enabling me to better understand the needs and the strategies that are currently being employed to design GUIs.

The User Centric Design course is an extensive one which deals with forming design strategies. These strategies are based upon some studies and surveys which the stakeholder (owner) undertakes before he embarks upon making a full fledged website. The study of design goals and other such criteria enables to better understand the tasks and thus design a better user experience. The Practical Usability Training course deals more with formative prototype testing and interviewing the affected user groups to understand their mental models when they view specific websites. Of course, this is a very shallow explanation that I have given here for both the courses but you can visit the website for more details on training and certification.

We have a large audience this time attending both the courses from all across the country and especially from the bigger Indian IT companies. This accentuates the fact that more and more organizations have started to look at usability as a very important factor for designing web and software applications.