How to bridge the gap between Institute offerings and Industry Requirements

On 10th October, 2015, I got a chance to visit Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida. I was invited to attend the discussion on Industry-Institute Interaction. On this golden opportunity, offered by Mr. Mustafa, I got the chance to interact with various delegates from various Industry Verticals. The verticals included primarily Computer Science and Information Technology, Bio Technology, Law Firms, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Engineering and others.

The main topic of discussion was on how to bridge the gap between Institute Offerings and Industry Requirements in terms of skills and knowledge students have when they come fresh out of college. This discussion was unique in a way. Every time, we hear that there is a huge gap in what Indian Institutes are offering and what is required by the Industry. But this time, a college has taken up the task to gather a group of Industry representatives and get their views on what they require and their suggestions on how to achieve it.

One major output of discussion was that the students knows but can not apply in real world. Out of all the discussions made, here are a few points that I strongly feel should be taken care of -

1. Guest Lectures - We agree that most of the times college faculties have a great deal of knowledge and they know how to impart it to students. But most of the times, this knowledge starts limiting to books and year by year, due to repetitive teaching, the newness starts diminishing. Moreover, what the real world is looking for becomes somewhere back in mind, and the faculties' are rated on how much marks the students are getting. A Guest Lecturer can provide the insights on how this bookish knowledge is converted into real life situations. The understanding of students will increase greatly by such lectures. Now I had my fair share of experience when it comes to college life. On one hand, I attended IMSEC where we never got any guest lecturer. On other hand, IMT provided us Guest Lecturers and Industry representatives from time to time. The level of real knowledge imparted by a guest lecturer is far unique then a Regular faculty. Now I am not diminishing the role of a faculty, as it is required in making up the basic concepts of course. But together with a guest faculty, it will do wonders.

2. Industry Adoption Models - In India, it is hugely required that the students should learn on how to implement the knowledge. And a better way is to do HandsOn. Now as the lady heading the Bio Technology company (sorry for forgetting the name) mentioned that it is not very much possible as it requires huge investments in terms of machinery when it comes to her field. But in case of CS & IT, it can be very well managed. A company can hire a group of few students, and provide them to work on real project tasks. This will help the students in understanding the concepts and make them more professional in doing their work.

Another discussion included the role of faculties in such a model. The house was divided on this one. Some wanted the faculties to be accountable on the tasks, while some wanted students to take the responsibility and accountability for the tasks. My personal opinion resided with latter.

I always look back at my college life and feel that what could have changed to make it better. T do not regret on what I got. I had one of the best person to be mentored by - Chitale Sir (our HOD), Khan sir, Dubey Sir, and others. But an analysis on the past could help us in making the future of others better.I still feel there are a lot of things that could be done by colleges to make better IT professionals. Some of them could be -

1. Use of Code Repositories and accepting the projects on same. It will give students a platform to mention on Resumes too.

2. Increasing the code quality by not accepting the code without implementation of proper coding standards on the platform they choose to work on (eg., Lint or Flake8)

3. Accepting the database models in a particular Normal Form.

These could be starters. Any more ideas are always welcomed. I hope that in future NIET will implement some of the ideas and we will have at least one institute (other than top leading Indian Institutes such as IITs, IIMs, NITs, or top private B-Schools or E-Colleges) where the students have high employability.

Please provide your comments on the idea.

Journey of Py Solutions

Tomorrow, ie, on 23rd Feb 2014, Py Solutions is going to complete its first year. If I have to describe  this journey of mine in one word then it will be "adventurous".

I started Py Solutions with a team of 5 young guys (Akshay, Ashwin, Harsh, Kumud, & Karan). Some dropped, some continued and some new guys and a girl (Vishnu, Naman and Anu) joined us.

And somehow it seemed to me that I was not happy with so much uncertainties in my life after leaving some jobs and starting this new venture and so much of workload, I decided to take my life on a more adventurous ride. I joined a Part-time PGDM program. Although I did not had a plan for this, but it happened all of a sudden.

And amidst all this, one my client and very good friend arranged a trip to Malaysia for an international technical training in OpenERP.

We gained a few projects, lost some of them, finished off a few of them and with all this kept our knowledge increasing day by day. I will say, that I not only increased technical knowledge, but I came to know about a lot many things.

In this journey so far, my parents have played the most important role. I don't know that how many times I have created problems for them, but what I know is that even if I am able to complete my 1 year in Py Solutions, it is only with the blessings and support of them.

My vision of Py Solutions is to make it in a place where there are team members working for each other. Our clients, our internal team, our vendors and all the other parties associated with Py is a team member. The environment should not contain the toxicity of pressures that lowers the quality of output, but should have the professionalism in it. The campus should be a place where every team member like to stay and feel energized.

Future is unknown to every one. But it is planning, perseverance and hope that drives a man and the company to achieve its goals. I don't know for sure that what is going to come in the next year, but I am sure that it is going to be much better then what it is today. And I know in my heart and in my head, the "one day" Py Solutions is going to be a pioneer in its domain of work.

Life@Mysore Campus

I bought a new laptop yesterday. And today I copied all my pics from mobile to laptop. Browsing those pics again and again brought so many memories of that time. The fun with the friends and the beautiful campus. Swapping my id card, which use to hang from an orange tag, in front of swipe in and swipe out machines, I spent 4.5 months in India's most beautiful campus. Bridge, Intermediate, Stream & POST are the four words that define my journey in Mysore campus. Names like Shalabh, Venkat, Prashant, Pragati, Manish D., Siddharth, Aprajita, Koli, Sandhya, and Shanmukh define my life in campus. Hey I am missing all of them. I wish that time flies back and I could meet all of them in the same environment.

When I use to climb up the stairs of GEC 1 or take the escalators in GEC 2 I use to feel every moment of it. Afterall I was in the campus about whom so much had been written and said. I use to feel proud. Each day, every module, every class, was so much full of life. When we talk about life, we count so many things lke happiness, fun, tensions, guilt, sad, and many others. Happy about endless things, fun with friends, tensions for module tests, guilt of doing something wrong, sad when my friend left the campus and while loosing my module, living the time with so many friends around and at times feeling lonely, missing my dear and loved ones..  In all I lived in Infy Campus. And believe me, in the 4.5 months, I had felt all the feelings that define life.

There was life in everything. Like long queues for the movie.. it doesn't matter that what the weather was. Even if its raining like hell or a burning sun was out there.. the queues used to last upto 2-4 hours. Sitting there and chatting endlessly with all the friends, sharing past stories, present cases and future plans... There was life in every module perception test. There used to be similar tensions shared by all of us - together and at same time. It used to be the time when every one use to sit continuously in the classes and study to either pass the exam or to maintain a certain grade. On loosing the 5-pointer mark, everyone use to grin saying that he lost his virginity (once lost can't be gained back). There was life in Amphitheater.. DJ nights, Bhangra night, Indo-Pakistan match.. all were full of life. There was life in washing clothes. It is the worst nightmare of all the bachelors when living in a hostel facility. A hectic, time taking process but necessary one. And this one was made so easy with the laundromats. Now I used to listen songs but other found many other forms of life.. watching TV back in the room, going for lunch, or sometimes going to Gym.. Multitasking... or sometimes sitting in front of washing machine and watching the dance of the clothes on the rythm played by the machines. There was music all around in campus. Birds chirping and sometimes crying loudly, bands played in the Music room, singing songs beneath the great banyan tree, the shrilling laughter of girls while walking in the campus.. it was music everywhere. The lush green scenery maintained in the campus, absolutely clean (clean like heaven), beautiful architecture and at most pollution free air to breathe... how can one forget that campus in his life, come what may.

Here at Pune, we usually discuss the masti and fun of that great campus. One day when we all were discussing the same topic, Raj Bhai and Rupesh Bhai said that they are gonna visit the campus before switching the company. But Vipul said that it is not about seeing that campus... its about feeling that campus when you stay there. Truly said by him... its living each and every moment in that campus and feeling the campus around you.

After a long time...

Ahh!! feels great to be on my blog after such a long time. This is the place that I love very much. So much has changed in this much time. I spent a wonderful time in Openlabs, had an awesome training in Infy Mysore and now enjoying in Infy Pune. From Sphinx Docs, and Python Codes of tryton and openerp, I went thorugh the JSF and JSPs and now got a project in Support and will soon be solving tickets.

So much has changed for my friends as well. One of my friend has got married and is miles away from his wife. Other is badly heartbroken. Third one is dating Loneliness. I feel so much sorry for all of them. All  of them are working in their own company. Working hard and learning hard. There was a time when we all four used to be in one room working together very hard and enjoying the time, enjoying working in that startup, enjoying every moment. The only good thing I feel is that two of them are in the same city and I hear that they meet frequently.

When my buddy left Mysore campus, I was all alone. But learnt how to be alone and enjoy being alone. I spent times in deep thinking. And I learned a lot about myself in that time. I felt that everyone should spend times in silence and think only about themselves. This is a great way to know your strengths and weakness and how to turn the latter in former.

Now in Pune, I got two roomies and five team members. Both my roomies are good guys and have the same first name. All the team members are boys. In these first few days I find my team to be like what an ideal team should be like. One of them is getting married - Congratzz to him.

Now I don't know that my life is going to be and where my journey of life is going. This is one phase where I am nearly clueless about my future. It can be good and it can be bad. Till now my god has helped me to bring me upto here. He gave me what I wanted and whatever he didn't gave me, I knew that there is some hidden good in it. There were many times when he gave me good things even when I had not asked for it. I bow to him.

In these days I gave a shocking surprise to my family. I went home without telling them. The dresses that I bought for them were all weird. Too fast colours for my parents and slightly oversized for my sis. I think that my gifts were really a shock to them. But anyways, it gives me an experience to be careful next time.

I also got a chance to meet my mentor, my teacher and my friend - my HOD and that too at his home. This was like a pilgrimage to me. I am also proud to say that I am a friend of the lifecoach of infosys and many a times I shared my feelings with her. Being with her was like feeling the presence of someone highly experienced and very intellect. I got to learn a lot from her.

Now its the time to packup from my desk and catch the bus from bus-bay. I have to reach my flat, have dinner, wish good night and luck and then go to Sleep. Bye!!

Realties of Life

I am not a person who reads poems... and has got a literature taste. But Sh. Dushyant Kumar is one of the poets who really interest me. His way of writing is so impressive that after reading his collection of poems, I thought that what should be better than this. I am not criticizing others or saying that others are not so good. But for me Dushyant is best. He shows how real world react to situations, what are the real people like and what is real life like.

Here I am quoting some of his Shers: -

"Ho gayi hai peer parvat si pighalni chaiye,

is Himalaya se bhi Ganga Niklani chaiye"

"Mere Seene me Nahi to tere Seene me Sahi,

Ho Kahi Bhi lekin aag lagni Chaiye"

T - If not in my heart, then be it in yours,

There must be a FIRE anyhow

Doesn't matter who changes the world, but it should be changed.

"Jale jo ret me talve to hamne ye dekha,

bahut se log wahin chatpate ke baith gaye"

T- When feet got burned in Sand, then I saw,

Many of them sit there only

When reality comes, many persons just don't try. They get failed because they want to cross the difficulties.

"Dukandaar to mele me lut gaye yaaron,

Tamashbeen Dukaane laga ke baith gaye"

T - Shopkeepers got robbed in Fares,

The viewers have opened there shops now

The Genuine people are pushed back, and fake persons take their people.

"Ye soch kar ki Darakhton Ki Chhaon Hoti Hai,

Yahan Babool ke saaye me aake Baith Gaye"

T - We thought that trees give shades,

We sit beneath the tree of Babool (Acacia),

Took help from wrong persons just because they have got such big names.

"IS sadak par is kadar keechad bichhi hai,

har kisi ka paaon guthnon tak sana h"

T- There is so much Mud on Road,

Every leg is mudded till Knees

Politicians, Lawyers, Doctors, Business Persons, and lot many

"Rakt varshon se khaulta h,

aap kahte h chhanik uttejana h"

T - Blood is boiling from years,

And you say its a seconds boil..

"Ho Gai Har Gaath par poori Vyavastha,

Shauk se doobo jise bhi doobna h"

T - There is full preparation on the banks of rivers,

Get drowned by your own wish

"Doston ab Manch par suvidha nahi h,

Aajkal Naipathya me sambhwana h"

T - There is no scope on Front Stage,

Now a days there are lot of opportunities on Back Stage

Writes about Clandestine People..

"Khuda nahi, Na Sahi, Aadmi Ka Khwab Sahi,

Koi Haseen Nazara to Hai Nazar Ke liye"

T- There is no proof of existence of God, Might be a human dream,

But it is a very nice satisfaction for the eyes...

Shows that many a times in real life there are no real facts but only the decorations and misleading illusions created for mass.. This whole poem refers to that, I have taken only a couplet.

"EK Ubharte Jwar Ka Aaweg Madim ho chala hai,

Ek halka sa Dundhalka tha kahi, kam ho chala h,

Yeh Shila pighale na pighale, rasta nam ho chala h,

KYON KAROON AAKASH KI MANUHAAR

AB TO PATH YAHI HAI"

T - The speed of tide is slowing down,

There was fog somewhere, it has reduced,

This Stone may not melt, but now the path is easy,

WHY TO LOOK FOR SKY,

NOW THIS IS MY WAY!!

This poem is based on the compromises of life...

Really the life is full of lot many Truths, Compromises, Love and Struggle. Dushyant Ji has portrayed this very beautiful in his short collection of Poems.

Courtsey - Geeta-Kavita.com

An Encounter with Euphoria

I was chatting to one of my friends and the topic came up of the Euphoria performing in Melange 2010. EUPHORIA and that too in our college.. Is it some kind of a joke?? A Rumour?? I contacted other friends... everyone has heard of news but no one confirmed it. Finally I got this confirmed with the help of a poster (on Picassa Album).

7th March... Sunday Eve... Springs in its full swing....Cool Breeze... An Awesome Setting for the Awesome Event to happen...

Par ye do kaminey... Shalabh n Mayank.. No decision till last moment (highly tired, busy bees).. After high discussions, they both finally agreed to attend the concert.

But what the hell... Entry closed before 7.00pm(as we came to know) and we reached there by 7.45pm. A good mob of students waiting to get in.. Thanks to some good students (who used their sources) and Uday Singhta Sir that we were finally permitted to get in... Thank God..

Finally after high drama we at last entered the campus for concert...

EUPHORIA

Euphoria is a state of mind in hypomania where they say that creativity is as its best.

Euphoria were among the first to bring rock culture to India. they mixed Electric Guitar with traditional instruments like the Tabla, Dholak and Sitar to create mesmerizing effect. With Dr. Palash Sen (yeah.. he is MBBS, a gynaecologist) as its lead singer and the mind behind this band, Euphoria is also decorated by Benjamin Pinto (Benny - Man with Long Hairs on Keys), Debajyoti Bhaduri (DJ - a Bassist and Acoustic Guitarist), Rakesh Bhardwaj (Percussionist), Prashant Trivedi (Tabla), Ashwini Verma (Tullu - The powerful drummer) and Hitesh Madan (Rikki - The Cute Guitarist).

Concert

I got late to attend the beginning of the show. But by the time I reached there Palash Sen was up there on the stage performing. Am I really in my college... Man this is great to see Euphoria live in front of your eyes - Performing and that too in IMS (my dear friends from IMS will get this line).

There was Rikki on the Left Side, Benny on Right Side, Tullu far in the middle, Prashant and Rakesh on the Far Left Corner and Polly the Great right in front singing. DJ was on the right hand on Polly.

Some of the memorable moments were the Special Jugalbandi between Tullu and Polly, the soft romantic song with Mobile Phones of the crowd lighting and swinging in the air, the Don performance by Benny, the special Tabla by Prashant and the Maaeri & Dhoom Pichuk by Polly. I specially loved his "Lai Meri Pat Rakhiyo Bala". This is one of my fav songs and I loved it when Euphoria performed it in their own way.

I was just falling short of few steps to be in front. Suddenly there was some sort of disturbance in Crowd. Ahh!! This gave us a huge space and we came up right in front. Than I shot some wonderful pics of Euphoria. (Check out on my Picassa Album)

Initially we enjoyed to the tunes of Euphoria... but it was not possible to stand still and listen songs... We came back in open and then danced to our hearts...

Over there I met Prabhat, Shahbaz, Vivek, with their friends dancing like weirds... Novil Choudhary showed his break dance skills. Shalabh with his some special leg dance skills was rocking. And Tuchha (Shivam Mohan Sharma) with his punjabi moves. Except Mac, everybody showed their dance skills.... Kabhi dance nahi kar sakta, sirf Cricket khilvao isse.

After enjoying, dancing, jumping, shouting and doing lots of other crazy stuffs, the concert came to end. We had our dinner in the Mess, chit-chatted with some friends and finally came back to our rooms driving scooter without headlight.

Today morning, 8th March, when I woke up I found my voice lost due to unlimited shouting, and legs paining hard. By noon, I felt that my whole body was paining as if I have just done a lot of exercise. Yeah after all I did a lot of it..

Additional Links:-

Official Website of Euphoria

Wikipedia

My Album of this Concert

Lyrics - Aage Jaane Ram Kya Hoga

Hey-e-ey aa re meri dhadkan aa re

Chaand ke hain sang sitaare

Saath rehtein hain woh saare main akela re

Khilkhilaati hain woh nadiyaa, nadiyaa mein hai ek naiyaa,

Naiyaa ka main hoon khiwaiyyaa kyon akela re

Ab aa bhi jaa sab ko bataa kya tera mera naataa re

Tum ho meri main tumhaara

Chhotaa sa sansaar humaaraa

Aage jaane Ram kyaa hogaa

Kehtaa hai jo kahe zamaanaa

Tera mera pyaar puraanaa

Aage jaane Ram kyaa hogaa

Jaise diyaa aur baati, saare sukh dukh ke hum saathi

Behki purvaiyaa hai gaati main tumhaaraa re

Ho...Raat meri din hain tere, Tere aansun ab hain mere

Pyaar ke honge sawere na ghabraanaa re

Ab na sharmaa sab ko bataa kya tera mera naataa re

My ERP Training

This Blog is related to our corporate training on OpenERP that took place from 22nd June to 6th July 2009 at IMS Engineering College. Please do take time to leave some comments. Thank You.

Beginning
Last year itself I came up with the term ERP, thanks to my HOD Proff. S. K. Chitlae and one of my senior. From that time only I felt connected to this Technology. I also had ERP as a subject in my 6th Sem, and came more closer to it.

My Senior, Mr. Satyamitra Maan, one day called me up and told about this training and some of his plans regarding this. It was before the start of my Examination. During my vacations, I really wanted to do some good training (At least not any .Net or Java course). And then came this opportunity of ERP Training. Examinations went over and we started looking for more students for this training.

But due to his bad policies, this training seemed to be in Darkness...

This person - Mr. Varun Kumar, whom I met on 23rd May at Satyamitra's Place, came to help me out. He also wanted this training, and me also. We had same targets. And then once again I started working Day and Night for it

My Team
There was this girl - Ms. Tanya Gupta, was ready to attend this training. She came all the way from Rajasthan to attend this training.

This girl - Ms. Tanvi Manchanda. She was doing Java course in her native place. And she got ready to get trained on this training.

That was it - Only Six of Us - Me, Shalabh, Anuj, Mayank, Tanya and Tanvi.

Anuj is a very practical boy. A person who has a mature thinking and and at the same time keep the environment very light.

Mac - Mayank Goel is a very (very very) simple guy. His one of the passion is programming (other than Cricket).

The last person Shalabh - I have no words for him. In other way, if I take them from any vocab book... It will take hours to write.

Varun Sir made a decision to start the training with only six of us.

Take Off
It took off on 22nd June. We had with us Ms. Divya a Charted Accountant to explain all the terms of Finance and discuss with us all the aspects of accounting. Actually Finance is very typical for Technical Guys to understand. And Varun Sir knew it very much.

On 23rd, came the young entrepreneur Mr. Lepeesh Parat. He is Founder & CEO of ZBeanz Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and came all the way from Kerela to teach us Functional Aspects of the OpenERP. He is really a Man of Action. A young and hard working Entrepreneur. He came and gave the introduction to OpenERP.

Phase One
From 24th to 27th he taught us the Functional Aspects of OpenERP. He very well knew the minds of Starters. He started from Parters, Products and on last days taught us Finance and Manufacturing and Stocks. He told us many a things that we were really unaware of. He taught us in the most wonderful way that we rarely faced any problems. We didn't faced any disconnections regarding the functionality of OpenERP. He opened each page of OpenERP in a way that a begner could not feel out of focus.

Now imagine.. a person, who didn't see any Business Practices, Workflows of Buisness.... and today is ready to be a part of the implementation team. Actually I am talking about all of us - the whole team. So who would you actually praise.. students .. NO. Its the teacher.. Its his words that made all the fog of ERP vanish. His positive aura just use to fill our lab. A very Simple and Sober Personality. Helpful nature is one of his most valuable asset.His politeness was a factor that when he was going I felt that if could stay for one more day.......

But before going back he made us listen his music, and talked a great deal about his work experience. Someone said - "Music has no Words". And I am still in wait of his music to be released or if he could give it to me for personal use. It was really a wonderful piece of Art.

A company like ZBeanz, and his team are the real blessed persons on this earth. They have got such a nice BOSS... I am very much sure that in days to come you will hear ZBeanz among top 100 companies of India and in more future among Fortune 500 of world and finally a number 1 company in whole World. After all companies grow due to the Leader.... I wish you all the best in you future....

Phase Two
On 28th, came Mr. Sharoon Thomas. The way he took off the technical aspect was in a way that I can not tell...

Now imagine once again.. None of us knew how to work on Linux, how to install any software on Linux (leave OpenERP), and Python - forget it, we never even saw it, don't ask about using. And before leaving he made us create our own Modules, Views, Wizards, and many a lot of things. He generated a sense of Confidence in us that yes its we who can do it.

Now within 7 days I started hating Windows and started loving Linux.

He was the most frank person I ever met. He has a clear view that was has to be done... how it has to be done.... till where the Train has to be taken and which are existing tracks and which tracks had to be laid of. ("What is the use of laying the tracks where train has not to go?" he once said to me) . He taught us how to create actual professional reports. (In our curriculum, we only copy the reports... do not prepare it) It was simply a complete change. Like a bird learning how to fly so that it can be the best flyer.

I am very much sure that if is at 21, what he is, after 10 years whole India will know him and after next 10 years he will be a global face, pride of India.

He was a very simple yet energetic personality. He is a person that keeps focus on his actions and yet remain so jolly, witty and humorous. He use to call me "Big Guy" and "A Happening Guy". Whenever we called him sir, he used to ask that if he is that much old. He made us all call him by his name. But it was not that much easy for us. So we still call him "Sharoon Sir".

After this training, today on 7th July, I feel completely transformed. Getting trained from persons like Mr. Lepeesh and Mr. Sharoon is really an experience that doesn't come twice in life. The two personalities who carry with them a positive nature and an environment they create is simply wonderful. They solve the problems even if they are extremely busy. They just balance each factor so well that they have time even for starters. I am extremely Lucky to get trained by the two wonderful persons.

Person behind this
Behind this training, the extreme work was done by Mr. Varun Kumar. My senior whom I met for the first time when he was about to leave the college. He made each and every situation so easy that we don't even thought about it. He made such arrangements that we could focus only on our training. We never faced any difficulty in whole training period. One of his precious possessions his is foresightedness. He is able to look into future and thus prepare for the upcoming possibilities. He always remains extremely positive and very bold in his decisions. I am hundred and one percent sure that he will be a very successful manager, leader and in total, a very successful Entrepreneur. Wish you good luck sir....