’Leap Day’ is February 29, which is an extra (intercalary) day added during a Leap Year, making the year 366 days long – and not 365 days, like a common (normal) year. Nearly every 4 years is a Leap Year in our modern Gregorian Calendar.
Ever since Leap Years were first introduced over 2000 years ago with the transition from the Roman Calendar to the Julian Calendar in 45 BCE (Before Common Era), Leap Day has been associated with age-old Leap Day traditions and folklore.
February 28, 2012
January 29, 2012
January 05, 2012
Fawwaz On Your First Day Of School
Off you went this morning, with hardly a glance backwards, to grow and learn and discover all on your own. “You’re going to have so much fun” I said, and I didnt mean just today, I meant in your life. Because its the first step. Everyday you change a little, grow a little and become a little more independent. And every day, my heart breaks a little but I am at the same time filled with pride and joy. We have had almost six years together and now it is time for you to begin to find your own way.i understand that you don’t like the school but i believe you will adopt with Mandarin language.Chealla Kutty you are Always Best!!!
I miss you sometimes. I miss the baby, the two year old, the preschooler. But each time one stage finishes, each time another you comes along who is a little different to the last and a lot different to the first, there is so little time to mourn the passing because it is overshadowed by excitement and wonder for what is to come next. I’m letting go. Little by little. Seeing you forever changing and growing, and trying to keep up with you. It happens so slowy I dont notice until I think back to something you used to do, something you used to say, or just how you used to be half an inch smaller. It is bitter sweet, and amazing.
Fathering you has taught me so much. Yes, didnt you know that? You’ve taught me things too. We will continue to hang out together and learn together. But now it is time for you to reach out ever so slowly but ever so certainly from infancy and innocence to begin to discover the world all by yourself. Tiny that you still seem to me.
Watching you grow and helping you to become all that you can be is the most wonderful thing I will ever do. I wasnt far out of school myself when you came along, and you taught me to grow up a lot. Now it is my turn to teach you. I won’t be there by your side so much anymore, but I’m right behind you all the way.
2012 begin of your full time school days,Be good, be kind, be brave. Be confident and patient, but most of all enjoy.....Atta and Mama always proud of u Chella Kutty !!
May this new year all your dreams turn into reality & All your efforts into great achievements. Wishing you a fabulous 2012 with full of great achievements and experiences.A meaningful chapter waiting to be written HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I miss you sometimes. I miss the baby, the two year old, the preschooler. But each time one stage finishes, each time another you comes along who is a little different to the last and a lot different to the first, there is so little time to mourn the passing because it is overshadowed by excitement and wonder for what is to come next. I’m letting go. Little by little. Seeing you forever changing and growing, and trying to keep up with you. It happens so slowy I dont notice until I think back to something you used to do, something you used to say, or just how you used to be half an inch smaller. It is bitter sweet, and amazing.
Fathering you has taught me so much. Yes, didnt you know that? You’ve taught me things too. We will continue to hang out together and learn together. But now it is time for you to reach out ever so slowly but ever so certainly from infancy and innocence to begin to discover the world all by yourself. Tiny that you still seem to me.
Watching you grow and helping you to become all that you can be is the most wonderful thing I will ever do. I wasnt far out of school myself when you came along, and you taught me to grow up a lot. Now it is my turn to teach you. I won’t be there by your side so much anymore, but I’m right behind you all the way.
2012 begin of your full time school days,Be good, be kind, be brave. Be confident and patient, but most of all enjoy.....Atta and Mama always proud of u Chella Kutty !!
May this new year all your dreams turn into reality & All your efforts into great achievements. Wishing you a fabulous 2012 with full of great achievements and experiences.A meaningful chapter waiting to be written HAPPY NEW YEAR!
December 05, 2011
September 08, 2011
Speech and Action
Each individual composes the music of his own life. If he injures another, he brings disharmony. When his sphere is disturbed, he is disturbed himself, and there is a discord in the melody of his life. If he can quicken the feeling of another to joy or to gratitude, by that much he adds to his own life; he becomes himself by that much more alive. Whether conscious of it or not, his thought is affected for the better by the joy or gratitude of another, and his power and vitality increase thereby, and the music of his life grows more in harmony.
One should say to the mind, 'Look here, you are my mind, you are my instrument. You are my slave and servant. You are here to help me, to work for me in this world. You have to listen to me. You will do whatever I wish. You will think whatever I wish. You will feel whatever I wish. You will not think or feel differently from my wishes, for you are my mind and you must prove in the end to be mine.' By doing this we begin to analyze our mind. We begin to see where it is wrong and where it is right. What is wrong in it and what is right in it; whether it is clouded, whether it is rusted, whether it has become too cool or whether it has become over-heated. We can train it ourselves, in accordance with its condition, and it is we who are the best trainers of our mind, better than anybody else in the world.
The heart must be tuned to the stage and the pitch where one feels at-one-ment with persons, objects, and conditions. For instance, when one cannot bear the climate, it only means that one is not in harmony with the climate; when one cannot get on with persons, that one is not in harmony with them; when one cannot get on with certain affairs, that one is not in harmony with those affairs. If conditions seem hard, it shows that one is not in harmony with the conditions.
The most important subject to study in this whole life is ourselves. What we generally do is to criticize others, speak ill of them, or dislike them; but we always excuse ourselves. The right idea is to watch our own attitude, our own thought and speech and action, and to examine ourselves to see how we react upon all things in our favor and in our disfavor, to see whether we show wisdom and control in our reactions or whether we are without control and thought. Then we should also study our body, for by this we should learn that the body is not only a means of experiencing life by eating and drinking and making ourselves comfortable, but that it is the sacred temple of God.
One should say to the mind, 'Look here, you are my mind, you are my instrument. You are my slave and servant. You are here to help me, to work for me in this world. You have to listen to me. You will do whatever I wish. You will think whatever I wish. You will feel whatever I wish. You will not think or feel differently from my wishes, for you are my mind and you must prove in the end to be mine.' By doing this we begin to analyze our mind. We begin to see where it is wrong and where it is right. What is wrong in it and what is right in it; whether it is clouded, whether it is rusted, whether it has become too cool or whether it has become over-heated. We can train it ourselves, in accordance with its condition, and it is we who are the best trainers of our mind, better than anybody else in the world.
The heart must be tuned to the stage and the pitch where one feels at-one-ment with persons, objects, and conditions. For instance, when one cannot bear the climate, it only means that one is not in harmony with the climate; when one cannot get on with persons, that one is not in harmony with them; when one cannot get on with certain affairs, that one is not in harmony with those affairs. If conditions seem hard, it shows that one is not in harmony with the conditions.
The most important subject to study in this whole life is ourselves. What we generally do is to criticize others, speak ill of them, or dislike them; but we always excuse ourselves. The right idea is to watch our own attitude, our own thought and speech and action, and to examine ourselves to see how we react upon all things in our favor and in our disfavor, to see whether we show wisdom and control in our reactions or whether we are without control and thought. Then we should also study our body, for by this we should learn that the body is not only a means of experiencing life by eating and drinking and making ourselves comfortable, but that it is the sacred temple of God.
September 07, 2011
Happy productive life
Ultimately, I reckon when you think about your life, to live a happy productive on a minimum basis and whether we deem a need for them or not ......
We need to be listened to and to listen… we need to be inspired and to inspire… we need to be encouraged and to encourage… be empowered and to empower… be enabled by action and to enable action … we need to be cared for and to care.
All of us here have experience of those basic actions and their relevance in our own lives
Our communities need a plan to create a better society, something that is better that what we left during our grandparents days. We need to take responsibility for part of this plan.
We need realistic steps to achieve that. All too often we hear about a general vision for Indian Muslim community life but ultimately we need engines..drivers to move it forward.
Many years as have many others have worked at the heart of the community of this important corner of the world for many years so that will not become stale and disillusioned. This have pursued this through massive transformation in the area -new houses, new generations, new shopping centres. Once again, a call has gone out that it is important that we build not only that we build for example a sustainable shopping centre but also a sustainable community with a strong caring attitude, people that will comment on or voice their concerns about what the community also needed.
We need to be listened to and to listen… we need to be inspired and to inspire… we need to be encouraged and to encourage… be empowered and to empower… be enabled by action and to enable action … we need to be cared for and to care.
All of us here have experience of those basic actions and their relevance in our own lives
Our communities need a plan to create a better society, something that is better that what we left during our grandparents days. We need to take responsibility for part of this plan.
We need realistic steps to achieve that. All too often we hear about a general vision for Indian Muslim community life but ultimately we need engines..drivers to move it forward.
Many years as have many others have worked at the heart of the community of this important corner of the world for many years so that will not become stale and disillusioned. This have pursued this through massive transformation in the area -new houses, new generations, new shopping centres. Once again, a call has gone out that it is important that we build not only that we build for example a sustainable shopping centre but also a sustainable community with a strong caring attitude, people that will comment on or voice their concerns about what the community also needed.
June 16, 2011
Simplicity in life
“ Simplicity is an attractive quality. Those who remain simple and clear in how they think, interact and live their lives attract others to be the same. Greatness is revealed through being simple."
DISILLUSIONED by life in the fast lane, thousands are now choosing to simplify their lives. They feel materialism has got them nowhere and prefer to take a back seat and live a life free from stress.
In spite of the advancement of science and technology, are we any more peaceful and happy than we were some years ago? These days, there is a lot of fear and uncertainty. That is why it is important to live a simple and honest life.
Simplifying our lifestyle is a return to spirituality. There is a need in us for simple truths, simple insights, simply expressed and simply understood.
In simplicity, there is inner beauty, purity and clarity. Truth is always simple and profound. The words and actions of a person who treasures simplicity are straight-forward and transparent and such a person becomes a model for others to emulate. He is unswayed by shallow desires and, hence, free from greed.
Complications seem to be inevitable by-products of modern living. Simplicity gives birth to inspirations.
By maintaining a balance of living simply yet comfortably, and only using what I really need of the earth’s resources, I will always have an abundance in my life.
DISILLUSIONED by life in the fast lane, thousands are now choosing to simplify their lives. They feel materialism has got them nowhere and prefer to take a back seat and live a life free from stress.
In spite of the advancement of science and technology, are we any more peaceful and happy than we were some years ago? These days, there is a lot of fear and uncertainty. That is why it is important to live a simple and honest life.
Simplifying our lifestyle is a return to spirituality. There is a need in us for simple truths, simple insights, simply expressed and simply understood.
In simplicity, there is inner beauty, purity and clarity. Truth is always simple and profound. The words and actions of a person who treasures simplicity are straight-forward and transparent and such a person becomes a model for others to emulate. He is unswayed by shallow desires and, hence, free from greed.
Complications seem to be inevitable by-products of modern living. Simplicity gives birth to inspirations.
By maintaining a balance of living simply yet comfortably, and only using what I really need of the earth’s resources, I will always have an abundance in my life.
May 25, 2011
Leaders
Most leaders say the resource they lack most is time. But if you really observe managers for a day, you will see them rushing to meetings, constantly checking their Blackberry, dodging fires, believing they are attending to important matters.For 10 years, Bruch and Ghoshal observed behaviours of busy managers, and their conclusions: 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective actions and activities. A mere 10% of managers spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner. These 10% are usually classified as great leaders.Worst still, psychiatrist John Diamond found that 90% of people “hate their work.” They come to work to punch their time clock and can’t wait to go home. The difference between leaders who love their jobs and those that don’t – they take time daily to re-energise themselves and focus through reflection.
successful leaders, we find success driven by the quality of loving relationships within an organisation. These loving relationships are seen through behaviours like compassion, commitment, care, kindness, reflection, intuition, inclusiveness and forgiveness.
Prominent leader John Hope Bryant believes there are four laws of love-based leadership for business:
Fear fails Leading through fear is antiquated and crippling. Love is the antidote to fear.
Love makes money Long-term loving relationships with customers and employees make everyone wealthy.
Vulnerability is power When you open up, people open to you.
Giving is getting Giving inspires loyalty and confers true wealth. John D. Rockefeller, regarded as the richest man ever, was governed by love and believed it was greater to give than receive. People rallied to him because he gave. He later used his wealth to build universities and fund great causes.
successful leaders, we find success driven by the quality of loving relationships within an organisation. These loving relationships are seen through behaviours like compassion, commitment, care, kindness, reflection, intuition, inclusiveness and forgiveness.
Prominent leader John Hope Bryant believes there are four laws of love-based leadership for business:
Fear fails Leading through fear is antiquated and crippling. Love is the antidote to fear.
Love makes money Long-term loving relationships with customers and employees make everyone wealthy.
Vulnerability is power When you open up, people open to you.
Giving is getting Giving inspires loyalty and confers true wealth. John D. Rockefeller, regarded as the richest man ever, was governed by love and believed it was greater to give than receive. People rallied to him because he gave. He later used his wealth to build universities and fund great causes.
May 08, 2011
Happy Mother day and Happy Birthday Amma.....
Of course mothers should be worshipped every day but since this is not always possible there is this special day to remind your mother of your love and worship for her
"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."
special wish to my mum ..Halimah bt Mohd Mydin
Happy Mother day and Happy Birthday Amma.....
"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."
special wish to my mum ..Halimah bt Mohd Mydin
Happy Mother day and Happy Birthday Amma.....
Managing Tacit Knowledge in Projects
In software projects, when we talk about knowledge management it is usually about managing explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is disseminated with the help of knowledge assets like documents, standard operating procedures, etc. Tacit knowledge cannot be passed on easily and deals mostly with implicit or unstated knowledge. The individuals who possess this knowledge either don't know that they posses some unique knowledge that can be shared with others, or they think that it is routine and do not know the value of the knowledge they posses. This is where the need for managing tacit knowledge arises, and most often, teams realize the importance of tacit knowledge in crisis situations.To understand better, let us start with a real life scenario. Suresh was the project manager of a maintenance project, which was running successfully for 1 year with 100% Service Level Agreement adherence. The project started with a team size of 20 out of which 13 were fresh people.The system was developed in a legacy technology, so he had a combination of problems to tackle:
Train the team in the technology
Ensure that the transition happens without any glitches
Due to the effort of the senior engineers in his project they moved into the steady state and wrote success stories for 1 year. This was also due to the knowledge management practices that they adopted. The team developed Books of Knowledge on technology and the system they were maintaining. After 1.5 years Suresh had to release 5 of his senior engineers for other opportunities. The release was planned 2 months in advance and Suresh ensured that a proper transition took place. After all the planned activities were completed, the release happened. The next two days saw a flurry of cases from customer as it was the quarter end. There were some major issues and suddenly the team was panicking. The frantic and clueless team approached Suresh for the contact numbers of the engineers who left the project.Now what could have gone wrong here, after such careful planning and meticulous knowledge management ?why was the team not able to cope up with the flurry of cases? The answer is simple; Suresh missed a few tricks of tacit knowledge management in his project.Some of the tacit knowledge management practices, which can be adopted in projects, are:
No knowledge is too less to share and too trivial not to disclose: Ensure that the team understands the importance of the routine jobs they might be doing, and ensure that such routine jobs are identified and recorded properly.
Rotation of tasks: Ensure that people are rotated across modules in the same project and that proper training takes place during such rotation. The team should record special cases that were not handled in the transition, and which they came to know of only after working on the system. This can be identified easily when a particular task is taking a longer time to complete with a new set of people.
Working with gurus: In every project, we come across gurus. This is because they have grasped the technology/system better than others in the team, or they have found a way to work smarter. Allow people to work with gurus on a rotation basis and tell them to record any steps that the whole team is unaware of.
Eureka mails: Encourage the team to send eureka mails, when they struggle with a task, and eventually find a solution
10 min knowledge sessions: Schedule daily recap sessions of the issues encountered. A scribe should be allocated to take down the major issues. The scribe should record such issues in a daily tips repository and send out emails, whenever a major issue is solved.
From the above mentioned points it is quite clear that interaction between team members is the key to managing tacit knowledge. The team is the strength of any project. Therefore, as a project manager, managing tacit knowledge equates to being a facilitator to interactions within the team and innovating new ideas to make these interactions more productive and interesting.
Train the team in the technology
Ensure that the transition happens without any glitches
Due to the effort of the senior engineers in his project they moved into the steady state and wrote success stories for 1 year. This was also due to the knowledge management practices that they adopted. The team developed Books of Knowledge on technology and the system they were maintaining. After 1.5 years Suresh had to release 5 of his senior engineers for other opportunities. The release was planned 2 months in advance and Suresh ensured that a proper transition took place. After all the planned activities were completed, the release happened. The next two days saw a flurry of cases from customer as it was the quarter end. There were some major issues and suddenly the team was panicking. The frantic and clueless team approached Suresh for the contact numbers of the engineers who left the project.Now what could have gone wrong here, after such careful planning and meticulous knowledge management ?why was the team not able to cope up with the flurry of cases? The answer is simple; Suresh missed a few tricks of tacit knowledge management in his project.Some of the tacit knowledge management practices, which can be adopted in projects, are:
No knowledge is too less to share and too trivial not to disclose: Ensure that the team understands the importance of the routine jobs they might be doing, and ensure that such routine jobs are identified and recorded properly.
Rotation of tasks: Ensure that people are rotated across modules in the same project and that proper training takes place during such rotation. The team should record special cases that were not handled in the transition, and which they came to know of only after working on the system. This can be identified easily when a particular task is taking a longer time to complete with a new set of people.
Working with gurus: In every project, we come across gurus. This is because they have grasped the technology/system better than others in the team, or they have found a way to work smarter. Allow people to work with gurus on a rotation basis and tell them to record any steps that the whole team is unaware of.
Eureka mails: Encourage the team to send eureka mails, when they struggle with a task, and eventually find a solution
10 min knowledge sessions: Schedule daily recap sessions of the issues encountered. A scribe should be allocated to take down the major issues. The scribe should record such issues in a daily tips repository and send out emails, whenever a major issue is solved.
From the above mentioned points it is quite clear that interaction between team members is the key to managing tacit knowledge. The team is the strength of any project. Therefore, as a project manager, managing tacit knowledge equates to being a facilitator to interactions within the team and innovating new ideas to make these interactions more productive and interesting.
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