That late self realisation

As a child, I used to be very distracted. It was easy to remember things, but really hard to focus! 

Like, I would be listening to my teacher explain the chapter in class, but my fingers would be writing poetry at the back of the book instead of making notes as she wanted us to do. The teacher would stop in the middle and ask me a question about the lesson. I would give the right answer. The teacher would have a flicker of self-doubt on her face. but would go back to explaining the chapter. I could never write those notes as intended!!! This happened most in History, English, and Hindi - all my favorite subjects, making the guilt index soar even more. 

***** 

Many years later, in office, I would get bored in meetings and conferences. So, while other people nodded sagely at the speaker, I would pick up a pad and start designing dresses and furniture. The meeting/conference and its sounds would be in the background and my focus would be on the dress being drawn - its colours, materials, thickness of piping and type of lace. 

But at the end of the meeting, I would make the Minutes accurately and ask relevant questions. Folks who could see I was distracted would not know how to get back. It was true. I was distracted. All the time. 

 ****** 

Until, one day, I realised, that the distraction was not distraction. It was a memory technique! When I look at the doodle, I can remember every single word that was said in the meeting. What's more, I can remember what was being said by who as each line was being drawn. All I had to do was to go over the doodle in the order in which it was drawn. Each leaf, each border, each silhouette, and each shading pencil stroke brought alive the words being spoken in the background. 

And that was how I accepted my lifelong distraction. Instead of feeling guilty about "being somewhere else", I started feeling comfortable in my skin. From being the person who is always distracted, I accepted self as the person who is "differently attentive". 

Why am I writing this now? 

Many of us find young people who are distracted or in their own worlds. I was blessed with a kind world. Teachers who never scolded for incomplete notebooks, nor suspected me of cheating when the marks came ok. Colleagues who saw me draw on and managers who did not say anything. Even I did not realise that the doodling was helping remember until much, much later. So, I kept judging myself for being so distracted all the time.  

I would like the post to perhaps create a kinder world for someone out there. Even if they have not yet figured it out, maybe its something that helps? 

*********** 

On an unrelated note, this could be the reason, but I didn't realise it then, or for the next 30 years: 

One day, I started a self-paced course on speed reading. In those days, these courses were delivered via books. The book started with FAQs before delving into the techniques. One of the questions was - 

Will it affect my comprehension if I speed read? 

The answer: 

If you are not understanding, it is not speed reading. Reading implies comprehension. But, speed reading will not reduce your comprehension, it will increase it! The human brain is capable of much more action than our senses can give it. When you read at 250 words per minute, your brain has free capacity to be distracted and therefore you may not understand so well. When you are reading at 2000 words per minute, there is no capacity for distraction. Therefore, you will understand BETTER. 

That seemed contrarian, but I tried it anyway, and realised that it was right!! At 1500 wpm, I was understanding better, but was also exhausted at the end of the reading.

For the first time, i put my imposter syndrome aside and said Thank you

AND i finally did it!!! 

This month, I did two things for the first time in life. Please note - I am 47. 

For the first time in life, I: 

Asked someone staring at my chest to please look away. 

When someone complimented me on becoming an Amazon #1 Bestseller, I put my imposter syndrome aside and said, "Thank you! Yes, I am."  

Well done, me! 

 

The experience of learning Spoken Sanskrit

Many years ago, I got a call from a friend - "Some of us are starting a batch for our kids to learn spoken Sanskrit. Will your child join?" 

"Of course!" 

And that is how Gavish sir, with his unique teaching methodology, entered our lives. And what a difference that has made! 

Later, the batch didn't quite work out, so we converted the classes to individual classes for my son. 

 

Learning spoken Sanskrit is different from learning Sanskrit the way it is currently taught. ALL other languages, without exception, are taught literature and enrichment content first, and grammar last. Sanskrit is the ONLY language in the school in which we start by learning grammar. And everyone knows how interesting that is. It is as if the people doing the curriculum design wanted students to HATE the subject, and they succeeded so well. 

Gavish sir started the same way our kids learn English - with picture books, large format teaching aids, rhymes and very tiny stories. 

From there, we progressed to watching Vartavali - a Sanskrit program that is routinely aired on Doordarshan. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCQNFe7Crz8&list=PLxx0m3vtiqMZGmsUEVeTAuWIXqc9fTMHy

For rhymes and easy stories, we used many Youtube channels, but Vedika is my favorite: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfTbFiweqvA&list=PL-NnUsrhQb_aV8YvAwZXiImb2xkskdgk7

And then we also heard Sanskrit news on radio. 

How is learning spoken Sanskrit different from current pedagogy? 

First, of course, its wayyyy more interesting. 

Secondly, the ability to speak even simple sentences makes one feel rather accomplished. For instance, I will go becomes अहम् गमिष्यामि  - a full and complete sentence. 

Third, we start by making mistakes of grammar and vocabulary - a LOT. But as we keep listening or watching, they slowly iron out. 

Fourth, it does not become perfect. Which means that you might be able to understand the broad meaning of a shloka, you won't be able to create one. Just like English and Hindi, you are always correcting your grammatical and vocabulary mistakes. 

Fifth, it is way easier to understand Vartavali and Radio news. it is not always easy to read, let's say Vidur Niti or Arthashastra. 

Sixth, your exposure to Sanskrit is not just religious books. It is a lot more broad-based. You hear news in Sanskrit, rhymes, stories, and later, i started reading these general interest books. I still prefer to read them with a Hindi translation being readily available. Sukti Saurabham (a brilliant set of books by CBSE) was easy to understand. Vidur Niti, not so much (I have the edition by Chaukhamba). 

 

So, that has been my experience of learning Sanskrit in this way. 

Some great publishers who make awesome beginner story books in Sanskrit are: 

A. National Book Trust has an entire collection in Sanskrit children's books. 

B. Samskrit Bharati Publications has these books that have common phrases in Sanskrit. The books are incredibly low priced. 

C. For more advanced books, there are many publishers like Motilal Banarsidas etc. But I prefer the work of Chaukhamba Prakashan best. I find their translations very good. 

There is also a Sanskrit newspaper that is still in publication - Sudharma. 

I would like to end with a small observation - Sanskrit is not just for reading religious books. Sanskrit has a really rich collection of fiction and non-fiction books. The original Hitopadesha, Panchatantra, Rajatarangini, Kalidasa, Arthashartsa, Lilavati Beej Ganit - all these books are in Sanskrit. So, Sanskrit, like any other language, opens the doors to a rich collection of literature and knowledge, not just religious and spiritual content. 

Rishte Mildeyaan De

 #RishteMildeyaanDe 

Can three words change a person? 

Years ago, I was reading a book of Punjabi proverbs. A simple, 3-word proverb was: Rishte Mildeyaan De – A relationship needs to be nurtured through constant contact. 

Until that moment, I believed in “Picking up where we left off”. Of course the proverb was wrong! Or, for a different time. 

But somehow, I started thinking about all my relationships – the ones in which we stayed in touch (mostly because the other person made the effort) and ones where we “picked up where we left off”. And realised that there was a distinct difference in the quality of these two kinds. Where we met consistently, the relationships were deeper, easier. Even though we picked up where we left off, these friends, who were once my closest confidantes, did not know about the large events in life.  They weren’t there when it happened and then later, it made no sense to bring it up. 

The change was not overnight. But slowly, I became the person who calls up. The person who says, “It’s been a while. Let’s meet!”. The person who organises group parties, group meetups. The person who calls to wish Happy Birthday, instead of texting. 

As an introvert, I expected the change to be painful. Surprisingly, it was the exact opposite. Each of these friendships was dear to me. Therefore, every touch point (stroke), every meeting, was a source of happiness rather than stress. There was no ‘coming out of one’s comfort zone’. Intimate conversations with close friends WAS my comfort zone.  

When a friend does not make time to meet, I still give it three shots before respecting their decision. 

Without exaggeration, this one change has, I think, made the most difference to my happiness. When people talk about the loneliness epidemic, I feel very grateful to the person who compiled that book of Punjabi proverbs and put that simple proverb there. 

Did one phrase or sentence, ever lead to a transformative change for you? Do Tell. 

On making a good roti

"If you want to make good rotis, you must knead your dough well." My mother intoned, as mothers usually do, while casually rolling a roti of her. 

There are many stages to making a roti. Three, however, are obvious - knead the dough, roll the roti, and cook it on the stove. I always thought that the last piece determined how well the roti was going to turn out - how well you cook it on the stove. My mother was turning that on its head. 

"What? How? Why?" 

Mom continued smiling. "See this roti on the stove? It has no powdered flour (atta) on it. Which means it won't dry up later as we store it. It also means that we can cook the roti completely, without the loose flour burning on the surface of the roti. 

For that to happen, you should be able to roll the roti without needing too much powdered flour. 

For that to happen, your dough should be well kneaded and fresh. You girls think a round roti is a cosmetic thing. It's not. The dough needs to roll just so - so the roti turns out thin at the edges and thicker near the center.  That's how we get the round shape. When the roti is thick at the center and thin at the edges, you don't end up with raw edges after cooking. 

But that thin at the edges and thick at the center will not happen if you take your rolling pin and use it to torture the dough. Your dough must dance under the pin." 

"And how will the dough do that?" 

"When you are kneading, don't stop after adding a little water and making a small clump of dough. Add a little water and knead it more. And then again, until your atta has absorbed the water and is happy with itself. When it is ready, it will leave the sides of the vessel in which you are kneading it. Then, the dough is ready. Don't store it. Roll it then. And you will find it dancing on the board. Once you knead the dough right, the rest will be effortless." 

She signed off with a smile. 

That was the day I learnt that if you want a good roti, you must knead your dough well, even when it appears as if it is done and doesnt need any more kneading. But once you do that foundational work, the rest is easy. 

 

What fake service websites look like

 

In this screenshot, you will notice that the two Os of Whirlpool are actually zeros. This means that a web crawling program that looks for mentions of the brand is likely to miss this one. 

This is very likely a fake service website. 

How GoDaddy made my life hell aka List of spammers you don't want to give business to

Some months ago, the Godaddy customer database of people who have bought domain names was sold. 

A direct consequence of that was that every day, I started getting 8-10 calls asking me if I wanted help in getting a website made. 

When I asked them how they got my number, they all mentioned that they got it from GoDaddy. 

I made the BIGGEST mistake of my life buying something from GoDaddy. 

These companies do not even do the basic due diligence of finding out if a number is DND before spamming a person at all hours, in the hospital, on weekends. My life has been made hell over the last many months because of GoDaddy. 

The callers knew my name, and knew that i have bought a domain name from GoDaddy. They all told me that they got the contact information from GoDaddy. - This means that this was not a leak. GoDaddy sold this database and the buyers had the confidence to call and tell me that you have bought a domain from GoDaddy, can we help you make a website. 

Thank you, GoDaddy, for sparing the hackers some work and leaking your own customer database to spammers. 

#GoDaddyIsPureHell #ExperienceSharing 

This is the list of companies that have spammed me by violating DND. 

Infocrate Technologies - He was also blatant enough to say please add me to the database of spammers. 

Magicware services noida sector 66 

Pagetraffic.com 

Gowave Idea Software Development Company; Khushboo; West Bengal Durgapur; 

Auysh Softar Ranchi 

Vistory IT Solutions Noida; CEO- Varun Kumar

How to get conned

This month, I got conned. 

The short version is that a wide, anti-slip laptop table ordered online was nothing like what was shown. 

So, I decided to do a deep dive into WHY the con worked. 

Two mistakes I made: 

1. Not reading online reviews about the site BEFORE ordering the product (they actually described the con). 

2. Ordering from an unknown site and not even researching the product on other known sites for a price comparison. This ad was repeated on my Insta feed and I just gave in. (When something appears too good to be true, it usually is. - Sidney Sheldon). 

But for someone as risk averse as me, this was totally unexpected behaviour. So, I thought about WHY I had been in such a hurry to order after seeing the ad on insta 3-4 times. 

And the simple reason was: 

I really wanted this product to be true. The existing laptop tables are not able to provide the space we need on them. It was just a big enough ask to take that risk. 

On Being a Fleximom

 This post is about being a flexi time/part time/ telecommuting worker, especially if you are a woman.

I have been helped by professional advice from other women, so today, am trying to pay it forward (yes, saw that movie today and cried buckets) .

1. Flexi time is not part time : This, imho, is the single most important lesson for professionals. just because someone is not monitoring your activities does not mean that they are not monitoring the quantum of work being delivered. In particular, sales and allied jobs - your job may or may not need you to enter time sheets and visit sheets, but people notice.

2. Keep it professional: If possible, have a separate corner in your house/room, no matter how young your child or how full your house. If you do flexi time or part time, make sure that those times are dedicated to work and work alone.

3. Excel at something: If you are going to work part-time/flexi time or telecommute, it is important to excel at at least one thing, or take ownership of at least one thing for which you are very important. it really helps.

4. Commitment is not part time or flexi time: Remember that. Your organisation will allow flexibility on the work, not on the work ethic.

5. Communicate and Stay in touch: Sure, you cannot network after office and you cannot go out with the others. But does that stop you from communicating in other ways? Share professional advice, help people in their work, send regular updates to your stakeholders, and make an effort to understand their end of the communication.

6. KRA please: Ask your employers what your KRA(Key Result Areas) are. Is it logging in 4/8 hours for sure? Is it completing the work, no matter how long it takes? is it being available on call at all times, even if u r not working all the time? Find out what this KRA is, and then, make sure that you deliver on it just like another employee without the perks of flexi time etc.

7. Do not accept unacceptable behavior: After you have delivered your end of the bargain, do not let anyone treat you unfairly. You have been fair - you have asked for certain concessions, and you have delivered - professionally and well, on your KRAs, so why should you be short changed on praise or promotion?

And last, but not the least, this talk by Sheryl Sandberg - Facebook COO, is one of the BEST things i have come across in a long long time, about being a woman professional. raise a toast then!

On Memory Loss and Recovery

 After long Covid, I developed serious memory loss. I would forget the morning by evening and the evening by morning. It was a happy place.

Last week, my son shared that this memory loss is affecting him. He worries about me.

Yesterday, I got into a casual chat that turned out to be a 90-minute discussion with some important decisions. Obviously, there was no notepad in the hand and no notes.

At midnight, i documented every single decision made in that meeting from memory. More than 20 decision points. This week, I also remembered most things from long term and short-term memory.

Within a week, the brain learnt to remember better. I am nowhere near my photographic memory of pre-Covid, but it's getting better at an amazing pace.

The human mind works in surprising ways.

Empower Journalists 4th batch Bias session

Sunday mornings are best spent doing something one loves. 

This Sunday, it was taking a session on bias for our young journalists. 

Usually, participants enter the bias session sleepy eyed (Sunday morning and all that) and leave rather wide-eyed. 

But on this particular Sunday, it was the kids who made my day. 

Our children, dear peers, have far less bias and stereotyping in their heads than we do. 

On the gender stereotyping questions, for the first time, the kids did NOT imagine that a nurse is necessarily female, nor that a person who has to leave office to pick up kids is necessarily a woman. 

But it gets even better. One of the games in class is Bias Bingo - in which we read out common biases among children - like favouring a tall person as the group leader, etc. There were 24 entries, and the children had to mark their Bingo ticket for each bias that they have demonstrated. The top score in class was 10/24, and the average score was 7/24! 

Let me explain the importance of this - these children have NOT felt that they would be friends with someone because they are a celebrity, or that they would think that a fat friend is lazy, or that a tall person should be the group leader, or is smarter than others, without any evidence to back that perception. 

These 24 biases are well established global perception biases. Our usual scores are about 18-20, and the kids end this game with sheepish grins, realising how much bias they demonstrate in their daily lives. 

This is the first time we have experienced such a low level of inherent bias. 

I think, in a very small way, I witnessed something big yesterday. 

My realisation of the day..

 

We think people are addicted to their mobile screens and see it as a singular issue. 

But, let's think about this - WHY are people addicted to their mobile screens?

What are they running away from? What are they holding on to? 

My hypothesis is that we are in a loneliness epidemic. 

People hold on to that mobile phone because as soon as they let it go, they will fall into that bottomless pit of loneliness. They don't know what to do with themselves. They don't have anyone to talk to. They have nothing binding them to the world. Very few hobbies, fewer friends, and those friends typically are halfway across the world. 

That mobile phone is their link to the world. Their ONLY link to the world. Think. About. That. 

Image generated by Dall E 2 on a written prompt. 

That moment when Zubaan matters..

 Me: Let me send you an email confirming this event.

The stakeholder: No need. It has never happened that you said you'd do something and then couldn't do it. I don't need an email from you. See you <day of event>.

- This was said casually as a part of a routine conversation, by someone with whom I have been working for almost a decade through Esha.

Dad used to talk about the importance of one's word being enough. He was right.
It really is something worth experiencing.

#Gratitude

What happened with my facebook id..

On November 8th. 2022, Lord Mark Zukerberg lost his Facebook account. It was disabled. 

https://www.ilounge.com/news/mark-zuckerbergs-facebook-profile-gets-disabled

Facebook restored the account a day later, but there was no explanation of what happened and how the account was restored. Also, there are no posts after 4th November, which is strange, given that the FB founder did make a very public apology about the layoffs on November 9th. Today, more than a fortnight later, there isn't a single post on the Zuck profile page.

There is no official statement and as far as I can make out, no unofficial buzz on the security channels either. 

Par for the course? 

As it turns out, this is not the first time this has happened at Facebook. 

In 2011, a namesake of Lord Zuckerberg found that his account had been arbitrarily suspended. 

https://www.webpronews.com/why-did-facebook-disable-mark-zuckerbergs-account/

In November 2019, some more accounts were disabled without any explanation or comment. They had to file a change petition because .. well, there is NO WAY in heaven that you can reach FFB support and get a real answer (more on that later) 

https://www.change.org/p/mark-zuckerberg-please-fix-our-disabled-facebook-profiles

In April 2022, the same thing happened again, to dozens of users. After the NY Times wrote about it, the accounts were apparently restored. 

In fact, it is so common that Google automatically suggests "disabled for no reason" when you type "My facebook account was di" 

There are Youtube videos to help!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydp-nRmxG4Q

What can you do? 

Well, you can prove your identity by uploading an official ID document. 

But here's the thing - after compromising your account, FB expects you to trust it with an official ID document? Like, in which metaverse is that logical? 

Also, an appeal is to an authority. FB is not an authority. its a service provider that takes our data and gives us its servers. Simple. But if our account has been compromised, it needs to tell us why. 

On November 12th, my account was disabled 

Which was shocking. 

But then, I googled a little bit. 

The first thing i tried to do was to download my information. 30 minutes later, it was still "Creating Download". 

However, thanks to FB wanting to spy on you all the time, what it does is, when you log out, it keeps your profile on the browser. Then, when you login using another id, it still allows you to see how many notifications that logged out account has, and in this case, I realised that over 50 profiles had been made on my name. 

Let's see this: 

This is a logged out account, but another user on this computer can still see how many notifications this account has. 

At this point, we remove that account and try to login using another id. 

Now, I login using another id. And this is what happens: 

This is how I knew that 50+ profiles were made within a few hours on the night of November 12, 2022, on my original account. Note taht it is showing me this information while that account is neither logged in nor saved on browser. In fact, has been expressly removed from the browser. 

When we click on that see all profiles thing, this popup appears: 

Et viola! Both accounts are back on the browser! 

Thank you, Facebook, for being so helpful! 

Rotary - Children's Post International Cultural Exchange

"I did not know that India is so much like Pakistan." 

"I did not know that Pakistan is so much like India." 

"This looks like cream in a bun, but it's a very important dish in Sweden." 

"This is a kurta. It's like a long T shirt that is worn with a pyjama or trousers." 

"In my country, the New Year Day, when everyone is happy and celebrating, is the biggest festival." 

"In my country, we greet each other by saying 'May good things happen to you.' " 

I am from Pakistan, and I am going to talk about food in Indonesia. 

I stayed up till midnight to check if I had been selected. I was so keen on getting into this program. 

The proverb in my land says, "The sun, the moon, and the truth, cannot be concealed for long." 

- These were some of the things we heard as the International Cultural Exchange came to an end. 

And one of the jury members said, 

"I did not get a chance to do this during my childhood. But you have. Cherish these friends from all over the world. If possible, visit them one day. You will love it."

Over 50 children - from Philippines to Argentina, from Nigeria to Sweden, came together to understand each other's cultures through interaction. They shared details about their food, clothes, festivals, proverbs, and other small things that define culture. 

The presentations over the last eight weeks were phenomenal, to say the least. But if they'd set a high bar, today's creative presentations raised it even further. 

One team took a food item - bread, and presented it as a starter, main course, and dessert in their own cultures. They all made that food item today! Another team dressed up in their traditional finery and after a greeting in their language, they spoke about their traditional dresses, and shared a proverb from their language. A third team made games about fun facts, monuments, food, and festivals of all their countries. The winning team had team members talk about each other's food. 

All through this, their mentors - who were masters students themselves, nudged, guided, pushed, and then beamed with pride as team after team completed its stupendous performance. 

One cannot describe what happens in a room like that. One can only see the sparkle in those eyes and know that these lives have been touched. That we have created a few citizens of the world. Drop in the ocean, but a ripple that might spread, no? 

Only an organisation like Rotary could have pulled off something like this. The way Rotarians from all over the world came together to participate, take the message to children in their countries, become SPOCs for these participants, and ensure that the participants overcome issues like access to computers, school clashes, etc. to participate. Nine Weeks of frenzied activity, and as we picked up the phone one last time to congratulate each other, we were, I think, left with a sense of deep void. 

The image I have picked is of a Pakistani girl in her traditional attire. Why did I pick this one? 

The motifs on the dress and the jewelry worn by her are both Indian and Pakistani. 

Culture, like water, seeps through the cracks of our prejudices. 

What games teach us

A year or two ago, we created a game in the family, to participate in a Board game making contest. The game did not win anything, but in doing test play and refining the game, we all loved it so much that it became a regular in the family. 

Its a trading game based in the SIVC. There are traders and producers, about 7 types of commodities, regulated markets that display the buying and selling rates of the commodities being traded on that day in the market, and of course, free price negotiation among players, ability to add warehouses and factories, get a trading license or a factory license, some protectionist laws that protect domestic producers against price hedging by traders in the home port, and some regulation around how many ports a player might visit in each game play, so that monopolistic players do not develop and every trader, big or small, gets the same trading opportunity in every turn. 

Over the last few years, I observed that while 4 of us play the game, everyone has a very different playing style and strategy. But what was amazing is how closely this mirrors our real life business and investment decisions. 

My brother focuses on commodities that are high margin, but low value, so absolute wealth generated is lower, but they are regularly traded at all ports, so they are high frequency trades. In real life also, he tends to enter businesses that are high margin, high volume, and he has patience, just like in the game. He uses his cash wisely. 

My son bets on a single commodity - it has high value and high margins, but low liquidity. In real life also, he only picks up blue chip stocks and sticks with them. 

I, on the other hand, keep cash rolling. So, i make moderate profits on each trade but don't have the patience for the big kill. I also always keep a diversified portfolio of commodities on my boats. My real life investments are also low risk, high liquidity, and low margin. 

Interesting, isn't it? 

Have you ever learnt something about yourself or another person from a game? 

Afternoon Thoughts

 

Infosec is to Fintech what HSE is to Oil and Gas.

#AfternoonThoughts 

 

Just like OIl and Gas depends on security to keep its engines running, Fintech depends on Info security. One incident, and everything comes tumbling down and grinds to a halt. Coverup is a short term solution and perhaps the instinctive reaction, but as the oil and gas industry will tell you, its a poor strategy, and what's worse, doesn't work. 

The only good thing to do is to approach infosec like the Oil and Gas Industry approaches HSE - have transparent standards, invest in a clear security policy and ensure that every member of team is educated and compliant. Report transparently and periodically. Most importantly, learn from EVERY mistake. Each one of those recovered mistakes is going to save you from a larger disaster, and make no mistake, there will be larger incidents. Oh, and don't forget the Incident Management System. 

 

Secrets of Pixabay

As most readers might know, pixabay.com, pexels.com, unsplash.com etc are websites where photographers share their work. This work is available for free commercial reuse without attribution. 

I am a regular contributor to pixabay.com. While all my images are selected for publication, I was rather sad to note that they had 0 views and 0 downloads. I put that down to the poor quality of my photography. 

2 weeks ago, I was looking for a free image of mehndi or henna. There was NOTHING available on all 3 free websites. So, had to use a Wikimedia image. 

However, last night, on a lark, i decided to search for all images related to a label that is not very frequent and applies to a few of my submitted images. Then, scrolled to the end, and realised, much to my surprise, that though my images were tagged with those keywords, they did not come up in the search results for those keywords, even till the end. 

This means that Pixabay keeps some published images away from users even if they are approved and published. 

Pixabay calls this the differentiation between featured (in search results) and just published. There is no count of the number of images that are published but not featured, but as a user, it appears strange that a published image should not be searchable. What's the point, then? 

How does one deal with this? 

I found that if you follow an individual contributor, that might help. Look for images and when you see an interesting one, follow that contributor. That way, you can see their images in your network. 

Us Samay ka karoonga kya? - One of the most important stories of my life

एक समय की बात है। मिस्र में एक अंग्रेज काहिरा की ओर जा रहा था। रास्ते में उसे एक अकेला बूढ़ा आदमी  चलता हुआ मिला। अंग्रेज को दया आ गई। उसने अपनी गाड़ी रोक कर उस बूढ़े आदमी से पूछा, "आप कहाँ जा रहे हैं?" 

"काहिरा जा रहा हूँ।" वृद्ध ने उत्तर दिया। 

पता नहीं वृद्ध के व्यक्तित्व में क्या आकर्षण था, अंग्रेज़ ने न्योता दिया, "आइए, मेरी गाड़ी में बैठ जाइए। मैं आपको ले चलता हूँ। आपके पूरे पाँच दिन बच जाएंगे।" 

वृद्ध पहले हतप्रभ हुआ, फिर धीरे से मुस्कुरा कर ना की मुद्रा में सर हिलाते हुए कहा - "पर पाँच दिन बचा कर मैं उस समय का करूंगा क्या?" - ऐसा कह कर, वृद्ध ने अंग्रेज़ से विदा ली और चलने लगा। 

ये मेरे जीवन की सबसे महत्वपूर्ण कथाओं में से है। समय और पैसा, किसी गेम करन्सी जैसे हैं। जब हम कोई गेम खेलते हैं, तो उसका पैसा उसी गेम में कमाते हैं, और वहीं खर्च करते हैं। उस पैसे को गेम के बाहर न तो लाया जा सकता है, न ही उसका गेम के बाहर कोई मोल है। 

हमारे जीवन में भी, पैसा और समय, ऐसे ही हैं। इस जीवन के बाहर, न तो उनका कोई मोल है, न उन्हें ले जाया जा सकता है। समय बचाना तो अच्छी बात है। पर उस समय का करोगे क्या, यह और भी महत्वपूर्ण है। 

पैसा कमाना और संजोना, दोनों अच्छी बातें हैं, पर उस पैसे का प्रयोजन क्या है, उसका उपयोग क्या है, यह और भी महत्वपूर्ण है। 

पाँच दिन बचाकर, हम करेंगे क्या? 

अमूमन गेम में हम उस XP और पैसे को खर्च कर के, कुछ सीख लेते हैं। जीवन का भी ऐसा ही है। उस पैसे और समय (XP) को तो गेम से बाहर नहीं ले जाया जा सकता, पर गेम खेलते खेलते हम जो सीखते हैं, उसे साथ ले जाया जा सकता है।   

Why we chose Judgify.me as our Contest Management Platform

We wanted to do a start-up contest for students. That meant that we needed a contest management software. 

The first step was to search for a WP plugin that offered an end to end contest management. We did find a few but they needed integrations, or were missing some key functionality. 

Next, we evaluated YouNoodle. 

Younoodle was already the platform being used by another startup contest where I was on the jury. The UX was so bad that we put it in the negative list almost immediately. 

After this, we came to the final step - yes, SaaS: An external platform that offers end to end contest management functionality. 

Our key asks were: 

A. Good UX, because this was for young students. We didn't want a data heavy, clunky UX. 

B. Flexibility. 

C. Ease of use 

D. Privacy 

E. Functionality - Assignment of Judges, Judges should be able to view and score online. 

F. Admin should be able to assign judges, see when they have scored, who needs nudging, and download scores, etc. 

G. User experience should be intuitive and easy. 

In the end, it was between 2 platforms : 

A. Dare2Compete 

B. Judgify 

Dare2Compete is a full fledged, feature-rich platform that caters to end to end contest management. The other thing that worked in favour of dare2compete was that it takes 3% processing fee for fees collected and also gives us access to its own native set of users. All events are manually checked by a review team before being approved, so that quality of contests available is also quite good. 

Judgify.me, on the other hand, appears to be a more recent platform. 

Eventually, we chose Judgify.me over Dare2compete. For those of you looking for a SaaS platform for contest management, this experience might be useful. 

• Friendly URL

Our URL was simply judgify.me/empower. This is easy to remember. It was customisable. A friendly url makes a world of difference to user experience for participants. 

• The creation process

The contest creation process at Dare2compete is very thorough. It is also long and does not allow us to save as draft. One event creation takes 30 minutes. It took 3 efforts to create a single event. 

• The event review process 

This, I thought, was a plus with Dare2compete.com. It builds the credibility of the platform. The review takes under 24 hours, and ensures that the quality of contests (and by extension, the quality of participants) we get is likely to be good. Judgify.me had no review process. Since we did not depend on the audience at judify.me, it did not impact our experience of the platform in any way. If we had wanted to borrow audience, we might have given Dare2compete more weightage. We did list the event there though, and got 6 registrations, none of which paid the registration fee. So the audience premium did not really translate for us. 

• The UX - Contest Participant 

Clearly, this was the clincher. The UX of Judgify.me for a contest participant is very easy, intuitive, and flexible. It allows the user to: 

   A. Partially enter their data. 

   B. Save entry as draft. 

   C. Make changes after submission. 

 

We found that the screen flow was very intuitive, did not involve a lot of learning for the user, and was neither clunky nor field heavy. There weren't so many fields that a person gets intimidated, nor so few that we can't get the information we need. 

• The UX - Jury 

When I tested the Jury interface, it was so perfect! When we register on Dare2Compete, we find that the jury member gets an email saying "password reset required." The jury member would and should not click on such an email. One does not password reset on a platform where they have never registered. We asked support if we could change the content of the email OR suppress it entirely. They said that both are not possible. That was a deal-breaker. That was not the experience that we wanted our jury members to have. In this day of security consciousness, password reset is absolutely the most unacceptable subject line to have. 

• Admin UX 

The Admin UX is adequate in both. There is some learning curve and some manual work that needs to be done. In Judgify.me, some jury members did not receive the emails and asked us to change the email id. So, I had to create them as a new entry. But overall, the Admin UX is fairly intuitive and we found it to be better than in Dare2Compete. 

• Support Responsiveness 

Another super important area for any event organiser. On this front, Judgify.me wins hands down. 

Disclaimer: In spite of being an Agile PM for over a decade, i am never in a hurry. When we raise a support ticket, we always have at least a 10 hour window for its solution. So, if responsiveness means 5 minutes or less, or if you are the kind of organiser for whom everything is L1, this rating may not be useful. 

Dare2Compete was only available on email, with an average response time of 24 hours. Further, there was no continuity in the messages. 

Judgify.me had a much shorter response time. But what was better was that even though it was only emails, one knew that one was talking to a real person (Joseph, in my case) and there was continuity. 

Expect an average response time of 2-5 hours. 

So, that is the story of how we chose our contest management platform.