My Day at a Design Thinking Workshop Dieter Rams, the famous designer, says “Good Design is as little design as possible”. I came closer to understanding what he meant when I attended the Pre-Conference Design thinking workshop organized by “Women in Data science”, Pune. Obviously, the facilitators were two women from IBM, Pune: Maithili Prabhu, an architect and a designer by training, and Dhanashri Srivastava, a software engineer, turned Usability expert. The workshop was about the widely used ‘Infinity Process’ - the iterative design thinking process. The process focuses on the following actions: 1. Empathize, 2. Define, 3. Ideate, 4. Prototype, 5. Test I enjoyed the workshop and thought I should outline my positive and fulfilling experience here. The workshop was conducted as learning groups of 6-8 people each. Our group was so excited about the Infinity process that we even made pun out of it and called our team as "8 is great” (a play on the “∞” sign.) We then focused on applying the Infinity process in a group setup. Each group had to formulate a problem statement around the theme of ‘Safety’. The problem statements were in the form of "Make --- safer for ---“. e.g. Make ‘roads’ safer for ‘senior citizens’, make ‘toys’ safer for ‘young children’ etc. The “8 is great” team chose the statement: Make ‘oceans’ safer for ‘humanity’. At the face of it, the problem statement looked very vast. But the trainers assured us that we would be able to come up with a solution for at least part of the problem by end of the day. As part of the ‘Empathize’ step each team had to create a "persona" who gets affected by the problem and write down about him/her. We chose our persona as Lakshmi who owns a fishing industry. Because of all the pollutants and plastic being thrown into sea water, her industry is affected in a huge way. She's not getting a healthy catch. There is a lot of wastage of resources. In spite of increasing the number of boats, the catch is reduced year by year. It is getting difficult for her to fulfill the customers' demands. It is challenging to keep her employees happy since her profit margins are reducing. Overall, Lakshmi is fighting on multiple fronts to keep her business thriving. After coming up with a persona, each team had to write what their persona: 1. does, 2. feels, 3. thinks, and 4. says Using these four types of actions, we created the ‘Empathy Map’ for our persona. After this, we had to think about "a day in the life of Lakshmi, the fishing industrialist" and come up with a ‘Journey Map’ for her. Since our problem statement was quite generic, we narrowed down to solving the problem of plastic entering the fishing zones affecting the quality and quantity of catch. After the voting and coming up with the problem statement to solve in the near future, we were asked to come up with at least 2-3 "How might we" questions for our problem. Again, we would vote on the most important one and look for solution of that question. For Lakshmi, the most important issue was the quality of the catch. So, we voted for "How might we stop plastic from entering the fishing zones so that Lakshmi is able to deliver healthy fish to her customers?" For the ideation step, each of the team members had to come up with at least 3 "big ideas" to solve the problem. Each idea should have a name/title, a statement and a drawing to accompany it. We were encouraged to come up with at least one absurd idea! Why not? We all know that more often than not, the most absurd idea takes shape into an effective solution! Again, using voting dots, each team finalized on one big idea to solve the problem. For my team, the idea was to invent an Internet-Of-Things based mechanism to track each piece of plastic entering the oceans and to return that piece to the offender! We further explored our big idea by 'story boarding'. Each of us drew pictures with actors and speech-bubbles (like a comic strip) on 6 post-its stuck onto a paper; our own interpretation of the big idea! Again, we voted on the best story from the team and were ready to present and rationalize it before the audience. The last step in the workshop was the "playback" of all the steps. We were given 15 minutes to brainstorm on how we would present our problem, persona, idea and solution. My team decided to present it as a skit with each team member playing a part of a stakeholder in the problem statement. It was fun to quickly decide on the parts and come up with dialogs for the skit. All in all, it was a very productive, informative and hands-on workshop! There was not a single dull moment! :-) Thanks to Thoughtworks, Pune for making their facilities available and providing beverages with a hearty vegetarian meal. Also, thanks to the ambassadors of "Women in Data Science, Pune" for thinking through the required steps for a beginner to learn data science and arranging these workshops as a build-up to the conference.

Vipassana Experience : 2010

I attended another 10-day Vipassana Course (my 4th one over a period of 9 years!) from April 21 through May 2 2010 at Gorai, Mumbai.

The reason behind choosing this center was to visit Global Vipassana Pagoda that has been recently constructed next to "Essel world" amusement park in Mumbai.

There is a Vipassana center right next to the pagoda. It is also pretty new and a lot of construction is still going on. The occupancy of the center is around 110 students (60 male and 40+ female studentsplus serving staff, teachers, managers etc.).

This time around I had registered to serve the course.
I reached the center at around 12 pm on Day 0. Travelling from Pune by bus upto Borivali, then by auto rickshaw upto Gorai Jetty (ferry boat)dock and then by the ferry boat upto the island was an experience in itself.

The entrance to Esselworld and Global pagoda is the same and I (along with other Essel World visitors) was greeted with some music on live band right at the entrance! First thing that came to my mind was: The course is going to be a different experience this time! In the middle of all the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, I was impressed to learn that so much land was donated for the global pagoda and a meditation center! But I knew that this center may not be as calm and quiet as other centers (e.g. Igatpuri, Markal near Pune etc.)

I had lunch, registered myself as a server and helped other students to fill their forms and register. The course started on time at 7 pm on Day 0.

Even though the center is supposed to conduct "Executive courses" only, men and women from all walks of life were present and I did not find the course structure and schedule any different than other 10-day courses. The only difference is the meditation hall and all residential quarters (rooms) are air conditioned.

It being summer time and the center being on an island, the air conditioning is a must.

The center is 2-storeyed. The registration counter, manager's office, kitchen, dining hall and some rooms are at the ground floor. Rest of the rooms are spread across 1st and 2nd floor. The Dhamma Hall is on the second floor.

Within next 11 days, I would have climbed the flights of stairs on an average 4 times a day! It was the only exercise I got during those 11 days! :)

The course started smoothly. Out of 43 students, 23 were old students! So I expected that none of the serving staff or teachers would have to monitor much during the day. The students would pretty much follow the rules and routine. Most of them did.

Serving a course in India is an interesting experience. There are old women with a bunch of ailments taking lots of medicines, used to a lot of rites and rituals throughout their lives, used to a certain kind of food, some of them used to having servants at home; a lot of variety!

Then there are young girls either compelled by their parents to attend or who look at the course as an experiment or novelty. There are pregnant women who look at the course as a way to relax and stay away from household chores!

So, in effect, there is a lot of anxiety, lot of questions to the assistent teachers and serving staff and some special favours asked off the servers for first 2-3 days.

In my course, almost all the women wanted to have a chair or "chowki" to sit or wanted to lean against the wall and so asked for a change of seat right from day 1! It was very difficult to convince some of them to stay put and try to sit at the alloted place for the rest of the time!

I found the Gorai center quite lineant in terms of schedule. We were not asked to wake everyone up at 4 am for first 10 days! So, old students used to sit for the morning sessions quite religiously. But there were not many new students getting up and sitting for the 4.30 to 6.30 am session.

The assistent teachers were a couple from Kolhapur district: a very calm, composed and inspiring couple! Just looking at them sitting on the "Dhamma seat" inspired me to meditate as much as I could.

The female assistent teacher was very sweet and accomodative. She talked to all the students very compassionately, answered all their queries, gave special attention to elderly and pregnant students and performed her duties really well. Even though she could not speak English, she answered all the queries of foreign students, explained various means to concentrate and to overcome pain and anxiety and showed a lot of concern if any of the students faced problems. It was a lot of pleasure to work as an interpreter for the students with her!


I had taken up hall duty as a part of serving the course. I was responsible for ringing bell for all group sittings, gathering all students in time for the sittings, making sure the ACs were switched on 15 minutes before the sittings, and also to be switched off after the hall was empty. For all 10 days, I kept on experimenting with the ACs because no matter how many of them I switched on, a group of the students used to feel either too cold or too hot. I got a nice chance to test my "equanimity" in this process! I could not get upset because of the AC arrangement or because of the students' demands.

Also, every evening I had to gather English speaking students to another hall and start the evening discourse. I had to attend English discourses, but they used to get over earlier than Hindi ones. So, I used to listen to part of the Hindi discourses also.

Even though this was my 4th course, I enjoyed the Hindi as well as English discourses as much as last time.

The highlight of the course was an opportunity to meet Mr. S.N. Goenka in person on the 4th day! He is indeed a very simple, happy and divine personality as we see him in videos! I was quite overwhelmed with emotions when I paid respect to him. My assistent teacher introduced me to him saying that I was there to serve the course. His word were: "Seva dogi to meva milegahi!" (If you serve well, you will definitely get good returns!)

Those words really inspired me to serve the course to my best level.
I used most of the opportunities and time slots for my own meditation during the course. I did not miss any group sittings, I sat for at least an hour in the early morning sessions and also sat in between group sittings and breaks. In fact the sittings gave me motivation to perform my duties as server and serving motivated me to sit for meditation at a stretch. So, I think, what they say about serving a course is right. It pushes you to your limits mentally and physically.

For every 2 to 3 10-day courses that a person sits, he/she should serve a 10-day course.

Like all other courses, this course taught me the same set if things:

1. There is no substitute to daily practice - I am still not able to incorporate it into my routine.
2. Every serious meditator should serve at least 1 course. It teaches you a lot of subtle things that cannot be explained in words.
3. The success of a course is as dependent on an assistent teacher as your own determination and willingness.

On the 10th day in the afternoon all of us were taken to the Pagoda. When you stand in the middle of the huge structure, you realize that it is really a modern day construction wonder. Although a lot of construction is still going on at the site, the inside is very serene and calm.

The pagoda already accomodates 1-day courses on every Sunday and big national level conferences.

In future, the center is going to be dedicated only for long duration courses (30-day, 60-day etc.). So I find myself really fortunate to have attended a 10-day course there.

Govt. College of Engineering : Golden Jubilee Alumni Meet

I attended the global alumni meet organized by student alumni association of Govt. college of Engineering, Aurangabad on 26th and 27th Jan. 2010.

I had decided to attend it months ago and was very excited to travel to Aurangabad alone on 26th Jan.

I entered the college campus on 26th Jan at around 5.30 pm. There were hundreds of people already registered and some ahead of me in the line to register.

Just before the event started, 1600 alumni had registered and were present on the campus!

The evening was full of surprises, excitement and lots of nostalgic moments for everyone!

Out of 23 students of the first batch from GECA who graduated in 1963, 17 were present with their wives on both the days!

There were lots of other students from 60s, 70s and 80s! Most of the retired Principals, HODs and other staff were present too!

Everyone was acting like a student hugging each other, trying to recollect name, commenting on the baldness and other physical changes! The atmosphere was full of smiling faces, laughing groups and lots of nostalgic emotions.

The space between main building and workshop was used to arrange for around 2000 chairs, a dais and a pandal for food. The arrangement was very good. The students of SAT (Student alumni team) had taken lots of efforts and I could see it right from registration counters. Each one of us was greeted with a red rose. The chairs were arranged in terms of batches so that it would be easy for the alumni to find each other.


Mr. Prashant Deshpande, alumnus of 1986, conducted an event called "E-coffee with GECA" for about 45 minutes. People from all over the world who had logged in sent their wishes for the event.

Then the "Sangeet Rajani" started with professional orchestra. Alumni were encouraged to present songs, mimicry etc. Again, the people from 60s and 70s were enthusiastic and sang very good Hindi and Marathi songs. This inspired me and I also sang the song which I had sung with my classmate in the one and only gathering during our Third Year 19 years ago! It was very nostalgic moment for me. I wished my classmate was there to accompany me! This time I was alone! I think I managed it quite well! :)

Slowly, the professional singers started picking up the mood of the crowd and sang all the latest Marathi and Hindi foot tapping songs and medleys. People were dancing and cheering crazily. One batch had come up with the idea of dressing themselves up with Maharasthtrian "Phetas"! They were looking very handsome and enjoyed the evening by dancing in front of the stage with all the songs!


I met my batch mates from Electrical, E & TC branches. But from CSE and E & TC I was the only girl representative attending this event!

Overall, the representation of 90 through 2000 batches of E & TC and CSE was very low. I think most students from these batches have settled outside India or outside Maharashtra.

The dinner was full of Chaat, North Indian and Maharasthtrian food variety. The service was extremely well organized and the overall arrangement done by the caterer was outstanding.

The second day morning session started at around 10.30. The auditorium was full and later over flooded. The student alumni team had made sure that senior people sit in the
front and hence did not have to climb too many stairs. All the students from 90s and later were requested to sit at the back of the auditorium and they took full advantage
of it! :) People were whistling, commenting, laughing and cheering their favorite teachers, principals and other dignitaries.

The alumni president Mr. Jabinda had a short and sweet speech. He left the podium with a Sardar joke as is the tradition of his speeches, he being a Sardar himself! :)

There was a very heart warming and nostalgic slide show of old and new photos of college campus presented by Mr. Mukund Kulkarni. I liked his commentary on each photo.

Also, a movie put up by the current students complete with latest Hindi background score about "College days" was a real emotional experience for me! Hats off to the efforts of the students and the alumni association! The movie is available on the alumni web site currently.

Then the felicitation program for the students from first batch started. They got standing ovation from the whole auditorium. I am sure it must have been an unforgettable moment for them! Also, most of the retired Principals and HODs from the college were felicitated.
The first lady engineer of our college, a mechanical graduate of 1967, Ms. Girija Deshpande was also felicitated.

After the felicitation, a number of alumni went on the stage one by one to announce their plans to help the college in some or other way. Some students announced donations towards different causes; some showed interest in taking responsibility of industrial training, hiring, lab setups etc. Some offered donations in terms of equipments.

The program ended with a very positive note and lot of enthusiasm shown by everyone to do something for the college.

On the way out, there were booths of local entrepreneurs who are GECA alumni to showcase their products. Also, there was a booth selling golden jubilee merchandise. I liked the idea and bought a coffee mug with GECA picture on it. I also bought a T-shirt that has Golden jubilee year embossed on it. There were other souvenirs like picture frames, key chains, hats, back packs etc. I admire the idea because I am sure the alumni association has made quite a lot of money by way of selling these.

The lunch was also very well arranged with a variety of food items.

I also visited the Girl's hostel and entered my room with permission from the current residents. I talked to them. They were very friendly and bright people! The only issue I found was that the rooms have been over crowded with 5 students living in a room where only 3 should live. The hostel is already 2-storied and still insufficient for the influx of students. When it was constructed, it was a single storied building with about 20 rooms. In each room only 3 students were accommodated. Anyway, I found that the students are happy that they at least have a place to stay and it is cheaper than private accommodation.

I left Aurangabad at around 3 pm on Jan. 27.

I am thankful to the whole staff of GECA (especially Mrs. Madhuri Joshi whose enthusiasm and passion is unmatched) and the student alumni team for their hard work efforts to make this event so successful and memorable for us!

Witnessing a strong generation of girls/women in Today's India

I have been getting exposed to a very interesting kind of search these days - Suitable match for my brother!
I have grown up witnessing so many arranged marriages around me that I had never imagined it would be so difficult to find a match for someone in a country like India. You see, there are over 25 million young people (between the age 18 and 32 or so) in this country. Maharashtra is one of the states where the boy-girl ratio is not so bad (907 girls for every 1000 boys born is what I heard recently); Maharashtra is also a state where girls are quite well educated (at least 1 degree or SSC/HSC certificate + some vocational courses) and there is a vast number of urban middle class population.

Still, it is not the case that we have a lot of choice! Are we missing something? Are we expecting too less or too much? Are we targetting the wrong market? I wonder how we should really tackle this situation.

There are a set of observations that I can note down while going through the process of calling the girl's relatives, exchaning basic info and just waiting to hear more from the other side after the initial talk:
1. In a typical Maharashtrian urban middle class family (mostly brahmins), girls have started paying more attention to studies, extra activities and overall personal growth. In a family with multiple children, girls tend to be more focussed on studies during their teen age and early twenties. Even if they are not putting in more than a couple of hours in studies, they seem to be able to manage the juggling between academics, sports/hobbies, housework, reading, TV, general gossip and basically having fun!
2. If you look at the same age group of boys, I wonder if they are as focussed. While a 10th standard girl is studying in her house at 5 pm in the evening, you will find her male classmate either roaming around her house or playing outside or generally passing time outside! This may not be true in every case. But that is my observation.
3. Since girls manage more things in the same given time, their confidence, self esteem and behavior in public is different than boys of same age group. Boys who are confident may be managing multiple things during the day, but their interests are different; expectations of the family from boys are totally different than those from a girl.
4. Girls can do everything that boys can do plus some more! This phenomenon is like a two-edged sword from my point of view. Since girls can really manage a lot of things at the same time, they demand equal rights: equal remuneration at work, equal treatment at home and work, equal personal space and obviously equal respect! But, unfortunately, India has still a very long way to go to achieve this. In a typical Maharashtrian family, girls are still expected to be within limits when it comes to having friends, going out, talking on the phone etc.
As the only girl child in a multi-children family and later as a parent of a boy and a girl, I have been struggling to assert my rights and later act as a fairly unbiased parent. But I can assure you both the things are quite difficult :)
Even though I used to assert my right of equal treatment from my parents and family , when it comes to bringing up my children, I am biased towards the boy! He is discounted in so many things! I know this is bad, but I need to work on making him realize his own responsibilities.
I hope my daughter learns to be even stronger in spite of the bias that we all show against her! :)

Some points to consider for the upcoming generation:
1. Make all the children in the family realize the importance of team work! In a family where both spouses are working or have to work because of financial responsibilities, everyone has to chip in and make it easy for others. There is no such thing as "his chores" and "her chores"!
2. Talk to your children on all kinds of subjects from an early age. Share your experiences from work place, try to understand their opinions about certain issues or situations. Provide different scenarios to them and ask them how they would go about handling them.
3. Lead by example. If parents show mutual respect, children will automatically learn to respect.
4. When they start thinking too high about themselves, bring them down at the very moment. Teach humility. This is true in case of boys as well as girls.
5. Be mentally ready to handle a bunch of strong girls/women around you! :) Try to have a sense of humour, but at the same time be careful while making gender specific jokes!

As far as finding a suitable match for a male family member is concerned, looks like we will have to keep on trying until we all agree on certain terms and the girl's family also finds us suitable.

Vipashyana Course 2008

Vipashyana Course - December 2008
I attended my third 10 day Vipashyana course at Igatpuri from 24 December 2008 through 4 Jan 2009.
Unlike the first two courses, I had gone with huge determination and serious mindset this time around. I think I have come out very peaceful, calm and satisfied. Vipashyana means seeing the things as they are without reacting to them.
Through the process of just observing your breath and the sensations around your nose and slowly graduating to observing the sensations all over your body, you try to learnthe nature of them as being so very changing every moment. Like the sensations on your body, everything around us is changing every moment. (I think I have given a very simplistic definition here but you can find out more at http://www.dhamma.org/). The technique was devised by Gautam Buddha and was passed down to his disciples formultiple centuries until it spread everywhere in India, Brahmadesh, Nepal, China, Tibet etc. Thereafter it vanished from most parts of India but was still kept alive in othercountries in the same "Guru-Shishya" tradition.
Mr. S.N. Goenka, a resident of Brahmadesh (Myanmar) learnt it from his Guru and brought this technique back to India in early 70s. Since then he has dedicated his life tospread the technique in India as well as all over the world. He setup the Vipashyana Research Institute at Dhammagiri, Igatpuri in 90s.
The 10-day courses are guided by him and are conducted by his assitant teachers using recorded instructions and discourses.

I reached Igatpuri on Wednesday Dec. 24 at around 1pm.
As soon as I entered the main gate, I could sense the difference between other Vipashyana centres and Dhammagiri. The place is huge, spread out on (may be) around 100 acres, very well designed and well maintained.
There is an occupancy of 300 female and 300 male students at the facility. There are single, double occupancy rooms and dormitaries constructed between the meditation hall and dining hall/office area.
After going through registration and other formalities, I was alloted a single occupancy room. Old students normally get single occupancy rooms at Dhammagiri. The room was self sufficient with a hard "Kadappa" bed with mattress and attached bathroom.
Day zero started with evening snacks and recorded instructions of the course. Thereafter the "noble silence" (Arya Moun in Hindi) started. From there on none of the students is supposed to talk to each other by any means (no talking, gestures, eye contact or body touch!). The first session on that evening in Dhamma(meditation) hall involves taking oath to follow the precepts for next 10 days.
Thereafter Day 1 through 10 were packed with meditation sessions from 4.30 am through 9 pm.
The first 3.5 days of the course are spent on just observing your breath and sensations in the triangular area around your nose. On the 4th day at 2 pm, Vipashyana is taught. That's where Mr. Goenka explains how to start taking your mind over to each part of your body from top of the head upto tips oftoes and observe the sensations at each stage.
All along, your mind plays a lot of games with you.
Pain is the first and foremost thing I have to start dealing with when I am sitting there for hours together. My body is just not used to sitting in one position for that long.
Concentration is another huge monster you have to deal with everyday. I had all the time to think about so many things in future and past that my day dreaming never stopped! Fortunately, the daily discourses talk about all kinds of games that your mind plays with you. The examples, stories and anecdotes touch exactly upon what must have happenedduring the day! E.g. Once the Vipashyana is taught, there are 3 rigorous sessions per day called Adhitthanas in which you are not supposed to move any of your body part for one whole hour. Goenkaji talks about how difficult it must be for each of us. You start the adhitthan session by taking a comfortable position. Half an hour passes into bringing your mind back to observe sensations on your body. Every 3-5 minutes, it again drifts away! Then you have to remember where exactly you were! By the time you really start getting some sensations and a "free flow" from head to toes, your legs slowly start paining, feeling numb or heavy. So, you decide to stay more on the legs while observing. But, the mind is not an easy beast. Your pain/numbness/heaviness increases minute by minute and all you are waiting for is the cue that the one hour is ending. After 45 minutes you start thinking, oh, the clock in front of the instrcutor must be slow or totally stopped!Or, is she asleep? :) By 50th minute, you are sure it's already 1 hour and have the strong urge to open your eyes and look at your own watch. In fact, you do it at least once in a way that no one notices! :) And then, you hear those magic words "Anichha vata sanghaya....."! Aha!Now, it's just 5 more minutes! Believe me, everyone goes through this in more or less similar fashion.
Goenkaji's examples about different organized sects (he never calls them as religions), stories, shlokas etc. are more apt in Hindi discourse. All the people who can understand Hindi will enjoy his Hindi discourses better than English ones I believe. I found the Hindi words like "Samata", "Dhara Pravah", "Samavedana", "Arya Moun" quite entertaining but more apt than their English translations like "Equanimity", "free flow of sensations", "sensations", "noble silence" etc. He uses Shlokas from Bhagvad Gita, Richas from Vedas,stories of Rama, Vishnu, Kali Mata etc. I found his style of explanation and use of words in Hindi more convincing than in English.
The discourses act as a big motivating factor for you to get up the next morning and start afresh!
For me, the breakfast and evening discourses were 2 big motivations this time around! I stayed on "Nimbu Paani" and "Gud(Jaggery) ka Pani" for 9 out of 10 days in the evenings. So, by 5.30 every morning, my stomach used to start demanding for food! So, I used to really look forward to the breakfast!
The Igatpuri facility is quite spread out. So, after lunch, I used to walk for about 35-40 minutes everyday. There is also a walking track developed in one corner. But there was some construction work going around it. So, one side of it was closed. But, some of us used to manage to walk in the available space everyday.
Goenkaji talks about 2 "milestone" days during the 10-day course. People who cannot concentrate on the very first day in their first course, may want to leave the course on the 2nd day.Once you get past that, again, on the 6th day, you may have propblems in understanding the sensations throughout the body and may want to leave. It is quite frustrating to not be able to concentrate and observe the sensations. So, by 6th day you may give up! Once you get past that also, then you will definitely complete the course. And believe me, you will not regret after 10 days that you stayed!
As I mentioned earlier, I have done my first course in pregnancy when I was on insulin for 4 times a day because of gestational diabetes! But I completed the course! I saw somany pregnant women attending the course in Igatpuri also! Those babies are called "Dhamma babies" :) They turn out to be happier. I can certainly claim that with my baby.
Some take aways from the course for me:
1. Dealing with physical pain - I could achieve it with determination and by following the instructions of the teacher. I think I've become stronger now.
2. Reaction to any conflict, disagreement or action of others - I think before I react to many day to day situations now. This has been helping me since the first course.
3. Talking (Or rather not talking) - I have a long way to go in this case. But, I'm trying. I am slowly understanding the importance of pause, a smile instead of actual words or just walking away without losing my cool in certain situations! This is related to #2.
Where do I go from here?
As with any other technique, Practice is the key to get the most benefit out of Vipashyana. I have not been able to maintain it. But, I am trying to fit at least 15 minutesof sitting every night in my schedule. I'm involving the kids also in this activity.
One 10-day course a year is another recommendation. I've been able to manage 2 courses within last 2 years. But, I'll see if I can really make it once a year!
There are a bunch of small groups doing regular practice at their private residences, attending 1-day courses at nearby centers, serving the courses or part of courses as and when they get time. I would like to start getting involved in such manner, but that may take couple of more years.
As with any other technique, each of us can take what we like from this technique and leave aside what we don't like. But, we should start the process by attending at leastone 10-day course!

About me

My name is Pratima Joshi (formerly Pratima Jogdeo). I am a software professional and a mom.
Like all other working moms, I have been going through a lot of struggle to keep everybody happy, but have realized that I lose my happiness in the process. That's life, I believe.

I have spent about 14 years in the software industry in India and in US and I still wonder how I survived all of it! It has been quite interesting ride. When I took admission to Computer Science and Engineering course in Govt. College of Engineering, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, I could not visualize or dream about anything except to be the first graduate in the family.I guess, part of my journey until now has been possible because of sheer luck. I was at the right place at the right time. The information wave was just about to start. I had made the right choice for my career.

Of course I had to work quite hard to graduate and then to prove my skills in the professional world. But I got a nice and encouraging companian on the way and that made it a bit easy!I hope to keep on going with the same qualities that helped me until now.

I have learnt:

1. There is no substitute to hard work.
2. Positive attitude is very important.
3. People will listen if you have good intentions and convey them in friendly manner.
4. Never stop learning. It is a continuous process.
5. Read at least one page to relax your mind before you go to bed.

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