Gyan | MindChow | Food for Thought | Steps to Smiles

The below text are taken from the 'Steps to Smile.pdf' by CA R.S.Kalra'. (Get this pdf from http://voiceofca.in/siteadmin/document/R_S_Kalra_stepstosmiles.pdf || https://drive.google.com/file/d/11QtLsdNnetf9ObDwtHb2R-UAR7_fIiom/view?usp=sharing)

As long as we do not forgive people who have hurt us, they occupy a rent-free space in our mind.

Negative attitude is like a punctured tyre. You cannot reach anywhere until you change it.

In the company of wind, even dust achieves great heights. But, when mixed with water, it becomes mud. Choose the right company to enhance your value.

A bird sitting on a branch is not afraid of the branch breaking or falling, because it trusts not the branch but its own wings.

We need everything 'permanent' in a 'temporary' life.

A hard fact to remember do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong no one forgets.

It's not important to go to heaven after we leave, but it's important to create heaven in someone's heart, before we leave.

Maturity is not when we start speaking "Big Things" but actually it is when we start understanding "Small Things".

A man asked God I want happiness so God said first remove "I" that's ego, and then remove "Want" that's desire then see you are left with only "Happiness".

Never waste a minute of your precious life by squandering it thinking about people you don't like.

Four steps to live life:
1st - look back and thank God,
2nd - look forward and trust God,
3rd - look around and believe God,
4th - look within and find God

In order to have a comfortable journey of life, reduce the luggage of desires.

Containment Action, Corrective Action, Preventive Action, and PERT

This blog post uses the content from the https://www.8dreport.com/articles/difference-between-containment-corrective-and-preventive-actions-in-8d-report/ page and other informative websites.

In Problem Solving, after recognizing the problem, you are required to take the three actions: Containment Action, Corrective Action, and Preventive Action. (In some cases the Containment Action can overlap with the Corrective Action).

Many get confused between these three actions. Lets take a look at what these three actions are.

• Containment actions are the actions that try to limit a specific problem’s extent and establish normal operations.
• Corrective actions reveal and prevent the occurred problem from ever happening again by eliminating cause.
• Preventive actions are clear solutions to improve processes and products and prevent similar potential problems from ever happening.

Lets look at an example:

The Problem is of project running out of budget.
The very obvious Root Cause is determined: Incorrect Effort Estimation. (Why does this always happen ;)

In this case the three actions to be taken are:

Containment Action: The most immediate action that has to be taken is to discuss the budget estimation with the client and to get approval for Schedule or Cost Baseline Change (wherever required)

Corrective Action: The corrective measures to be taken would be to revise the schedule and the cost baseline by re-estimating the efforts required for remaining task completion by using 3-Point Effort Estimation Technique.

Preventive Action: The Preventive Action is/are the action(s) that will be taken from this time onward. In this case, the problem requires to use 3-Point Effort Estimation Technique for estimation of all future projects.

OK, so what is three point estimation technique. From Wikipedia, this is:

The three-point estimation technique is used in management and information systems applications for the construction of an approximate probability distribution representing the outcome of future events, based on very limited information.

PERT (Program Evaluation And Review Technique) is the most commonly used method in three point estimation technique. From Wikipedia:

The program (or project) evaluation and review technique (PERT) is a statistical tool used in project management, which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project.
First developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it is commonly used in conjunction with the critical path method (CPM).

The parameters in PERT:

• Most Likely Cost (Cm): This cost estimate considers everything goes as normal.
• Pessimistic Cost (Cp): This considers the worst case and it assumes that almost everything goes wrong. 
• Optimistic Cost (Co): This estimate considers the best case and assumes that everything goes better than planned.
• PERT Estimate formula is: Ce = (Co + 4Cm + Cp)/6 provide a more accurate estimate.
• Deviation: (Cp – Co)/6

Something is dangerously wrong with Microsoft products

Yesterday I was in need to have a Skype chat with a person and I am kind of new to the video chatting thing and also new to Skype.

So I went ahead and downloaded Skype on my mobile phone and tried to create an account. The options were to use an existing account, or use my mobile number, or create a new account.

I was previously thinking to create an Outlook.com account anyways to try out the new Microsoft backed email, so I decided to create a new Outlook.com account.

I created the new account, logged in using that account in Skype and successfully completed the Skype call. I must say that the Skype video call quality was quite good except for a little lag at the beginning.

After the Skype call, I decided to download the Microsoft Outlook app on my Android phone. I downloaded, logged in, but didn't have much time to test anything in it. I thought to leave it as it is and then come back to it today.

Today, the Outlook app automatically logged me out and asked me to sign in again. But, the account just won't let me in using my password. This was something that has happened to me for the very first time. No other service or product has just forgotten my password. So, I went to the app's "Forgot Password" option.

The "Forgot Password" link first asked me to input a different email address to get a security code. Which I did and got the security code. Then, the app tells to open a link in a browser to reset the password. The link opens a page that asks for a variety of things, like name, birth date, Skype details, etc. I inputted all details that I positively knew.

"Your information is not sufficient" -- This was the horrid message spewed back by Microsoft. Microsoft has made a point to not allow me to get back into my account. So now, I do not know what will happen with my Outlook account or my Skype account. Will the account be kept in cold storage? Will my account be used by fraudulent people or bots?

I have just one advice to all: Please STAY AWAY from Microsoft products.

TRAI is laying the path for JIO to enter cable/Internet TV market

The latest mandatory rent/service charge imposed upon cable TV consumers is a ploy to surge cable prices and for the industry as a whole to feel a big void.

TRAI wants cable operators to mandatory charge NCF (Network Capacity Fee) for 100 free to air channels. Really, the consumers now have to pay for "Free To Air" channels. The minimum mandatory NCF is INR 130 + 18% GST = INR 153.4.

And then on top of this NCF, we have slots of 25 channels for which the consumers have to pay INR 20 NCF extra. For example, if you want to subscribe to another 50 "Free To Air" channel, then you would have to pay 130 + 20 + 20 = 170 + 18% GST = INR 200.6 just for viewing 150 "Free To Air" channels. Don't we get super cheap TV Antennas / DD FreeDish to watch these "free" channels at no cost or just a one time cost?

As you have guessed, on top of the mandatory NCF, you have to pay for the paid channel subscriptions. So, what previously used to be a INR 300 per month cable subscription would balloon to >INR 500 per month (my opinion).

OK, so we come to the WHY. Why is this being done? The answer is simple, to pave the way for JIO's internet TV operations. By making the cost of cable TV this high, people will of course choose only specific channels to view. This will create a lot of problems to the TV channels who will look to a savior.

And, in this chaos, who will be messiah that saves cable TV, you guessed it, it will be JIO. Now, JIO needs the cable charges to go up north of INR 500 for that's the amount which is floating around for the all you can eat JIO Internet TV subscriptions.

With the all you can eat buffet of JIO TV, people will gladly give the same amount that they are now used to giving to traditional cable operators. This would be a big win for JIO.

The only way traditional cable operators can win is to convince all TV channels to become Free To Air, and share the NCF profits with them. I do not see that happening.

Google Play belongs to Google Apps - And everybody must know

When someone gives himself/herself the full marks / best prize / number one when correcting his/her own answer paper what should we say about this sort of person? Or what about of his/her friends? Hmm, some very favorable few are hogging the limelight at the "Best of 2018" list in Google Play.

The "User's Choice" App of 2018" is "Goole Pay (Tez)". No other winning app is in this category.

The "Most Entertaining" Apps of 2018 include "SonyLIV" and "Wynk Music (by Airtel" -- Hmm, no Jio, Amazon Prime, Netflix.

The "Best Hidden Gems" Apps of 2018 include "Files by Google"

Is Google blowing its own horn?

Pair Mein Chakkar

A few months back, the Indian government made available the Language Demographics of India (as per the Census carried out in the year 2011)

I referenced the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Census_of_India#Language_demographics to know a little more about the numbers.

This blog post title "Pair Mein Chakkar" is a common way to describe, in India, for someone who does not stay at one place. In English, this may be translated to "Wanderer", or "Nomad", or "Vagabond".

Why such a title? First you have to know that in India there are, currently 29 States and 7 Union Territories. And, all these States were formed to house a certain Language Demographic. For example, the State of TamilNadu comprises of people who speak the Tamil language while the state of Gujarat comprises of people who speak the Gujarati language, and so on.
Of course there is no restriction on the movement of people from one State to another, but generally you will find there are overwhelming native speakers than other language speakers in a State.

So, I was just wondering, which Language Demographic are the most scattered across India. A simple way is to see the difference in the total population in a State and the number of corresponding language speakers in India. While this is not an ideal way, but then I am no number cruncher or a scientist.

So, lets begin. First I will list down the States, their native Language, and their Population:

State	Official Language(s)	Population
Andhra Pradesh	Telugu	84,580,777
Arunachal Pradesh	English	1,383,727
Assam	Assamese	31,205,576
Bihar	Hindi	104,099,452
Chhattisgarh	Hindi	25,545,198
Goa	Konkani	1,458,545
Gujarat	Gujarati	60,439,692
Haryana	Hindi	25,351,462
Himachal Pradesh	Hindi	6,864,602
Jammu and Kashmir	Urdu	12,541,302
Jharkhand	Hindi	32,988,134
Karnataka	Kannada	61,095,297
Kerala	Malayalam	33,406,061
Madhya Pradesh	Hindi	72,626,809
Maharashtra	Marathi	112,374,333
Manipur	Meitei	2,721,756
Meghalaya	English	2,966,889
Mizoram	English, Hindi, Mizo	1,097,206
Nagaland	English	1,978,502
Odisha	Odia	41,974,218
Punjab	Punjabi	27,743,338
Rajasthan	Hindi	68,548,437
Sikkim	English	610,577
Tamil Nadu	Tamil	72,147,030
Tripura	Bengali, Kokborok, English	3,673,917
Uttar Pradesh	Hindi	199,812,341
Uttarakhand	Hindi	10,086,292
West Bengal	Bengali, Nepali	91,276,115

The below table shows the "First language by number of speakers in India (2011 Census)":

Language	First language speakers
Hindi	528,347,193
Bengali	97,237,669
Marathi	83,026,680
Telugu	81,127,740
Tamil	69,026,881
Gujarati	55,492,554
Urdu	50,772,631
Kannada	43,706,512
Odia	37,521,324
Malayalam	34,838,819
Punjabi	33,124,726
Assamese	15,311,351
Maithili	13,583,464
Santali	7,368,192
Kashmiri	6,797,587
Nepali	2,926,168
Sindhi	2,772,264
Dogri	2,596,767
Konkani	2,256,502
Manipuri	1,761,079
Bodo	1,482,929
Sanskrit	24,821

Ok, so, there are some problems in the Language Demographic information. Like the language "Kashmiri" is nowhere stated in any State and is not even stated as the Official Language of "Jammu and Kashmir" State. Like this, there are other languages that have no mention in any State (even as an additional language) like Manipuri, Sindhi, Dogri, Maithili, and maybe others. And, there is a reverse problem too, like the stated Official or Other Language not even finding its way in the Language Speakers section, like Mizo, Kokborok, Santali, Khasi, and more.

Now, lets do some comparisons. I will add up the population of the native language States and compare the numbers with the language speakers. For example, Hindi is the native language of 9 States, the total population of these 9 States is 545,922,727 and the total Hindi speakers are 528,347,193. In this case, the 9 States can accommodate the total Hindi speakers. What does this say, does it say that there are no Hindi speakers in other States, absolutely not, but they do not stand out as "Pair Mein Chakkar" people to me.

Please bear in mind the problems I stated above. So, I will show a subset of the languages:

Language	Sum of State Population	Number of Native Speaker
Hindi	545,922,727	528,347,193
Bengali	94,950,032	97,237,669
Marathi	112,374,333	83,026,680
Telugu	84,580,777	81,127,740
Tamil	72,147,030	69,026,881
Gujarati	60,439,692	55,492,554
Kannada	61,095,297	43,706,512
Odia	41,974,218	37,521,324
Malayalam	33,406,061	34,838,819
Punjabi	27,743,338	33,124,726
Assamese	31,205,576	15,311,351

From the above table, we can see that 3 language speakers are more than the population of their native language States:

• Bengali (2,287,637)
• Malayalam (1,432,758)
• Punjabi (5,381,388)

From my above information, Punjabi speaking people are the most scattered across India and definitely have "Pair Mein Chakkar"

Unity vs Humanity

Just some thoughts on the differences and general meaning of the words Unity and Humanity.

What is Humanity. For me, Humanity is when a person helps another person that is in need. This feeling is very personal and is limited to one on one contact. The regular Indian will call this "Bhai-chara" (loosely this means brotherhood/amity)

What is Unity. For me, Unity is a feeling that binds multiple persons/groups/communities. Unity is seen when multiple persons/groups/communities help other multiple persons/groups/communities that are in need. The regular Indian will call this "Ekta" (this means Unity)

Putting this into mathematical form Humanity is 1 -> 1 while Unity is n -> n.

In present India, where we are taught from a very young age the slogan of 'Unity in Diversity', I personally see very little shred of Unity. I see Humanity in my daily life but I rarely see any Unity.

People say, look at this group, they have Unity within themselves. Well, if you call them a group, they are already a single unit, so how does Unity even come here. Within a group, there can be Humanity, and not Unity. If a group requires Unity, then this is just not a group but a combination of multiple groups. So, in reality there is just Humanity between the persons even within a group and no Unity.

In India, Unity has been relegated to only religious festivals. Festivals are the only time where you will see Unity in Diversity in India. We just love to feed each other and dance together.

What about before and after Festivals? Back to norm. Every person for themselves. Where does Unity go? I do not know, but as a consolation there is definitely Humanity left.

Look at the recent show of "Unity" by the Farmers. What can you see? Only a specific state's farmers going on hunger strikes, beating themselves up and what not. Do you see the whole of India's farmers supporting their farmer brethren from other states. Nope. Unity brings about revolutions, but we do not have Unity? I do not see it.

What you could see are some people coming out of their homes to give food and water to the striking farmers. This is Humanity, not Unity.

Humanity is required for sustenance. Unity brings about revolutions.