Hindi letters flash cards

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CLICK here for Kannada.

Wrote this small program for my kiddo for his quick learning. He has already learnt all the numerals, vowels (swara), consonants (vyangana) and syllables (barahakadi). Now, to make him read the words faster, I thought of having some kind of flash cards for each syllables. And this is the result of that idea: a random letter generator!

I extended this with equivalent Kannada and English pronunciations, and sequence buttons (next and previous) based on the comments received. Hope this helps anyone who has just begun to learn Hindi.

Comments are welcome.

Kannada letters flash cards

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CLICK here for Hindi.

Wrote this small program for my kiddo for his quick learning. He has already learnt all the numerals, vowels (swara), consonants (vyangana) and syllables (gunitaksharagalu). Now, to make him read the words faster, I thought of having some kind of flash cards for each syllables. And this is the result of that idea: a random letter generator!

I extended this with equivalent Hindi and English pronunciations, and sequence buttons (next and previous) based on the comments received. Hope this helps anyone who has just begun to learn Kannada.

Comments are welcome.

Do I want to enroll my 8-year-old kid to a coding class?

 Just last week I got a call from an executive from a company asking whether I would be interested in enrolling my kid to a coding class. Before replying to his query, I questioned him how he got my contact details because he already knew I have a son who studies in 3^rd grade. That bothered me. He replied nonchalantly that his company’s app was installed in a phone which provided the phone number, perhaps by someone at home or kid himself. He in fact tried to justify saying it’s a Samsung brand phone on which it was installed. I seriously doubted all those things as I don’t have that brand phone at home and none at home have installed it. Anyways, without any argument on this I told him I’m NOT interested.

Let me first begin listing some of the common activities a 7-8 years old would be busy with:

• Academic learning involving:
• 2-3 languages, expanding vocabulary and grammar.
• Mathematics that might include addition, subtraction and basic multiplication may be.
• Other subjects about nature, environment and general knowledge.
• Games such as cricket, badminton, cards, LEGO, mobile/computer games etc.
• May be, learning some musical instruments, singing, dance or karate.
• Household interests like cooking, understanding ingredients etc.

And now let me try to explain what ‘coding’ means without going into details. Broadly speaking, coding is a process of writing some lines of code, which will subsequently go into some machines like computers or mobile phones, and finally make them do some intended tasks. These lines of code, also called programs, can be written in different computer languages which have their own ways (syntax - grammar and vocabulary).

To accomplish this, we need to:

• Understand how things work from those machine’s or system’s perspective
• Learn and understand a programming language and its syntax
• To write those lines, we need to understand the whole process involved; Understanding the task for which you are writing the code, constructing the logic and details required to get that done

So, as you can imagine, this coding would require a person to have a capability to grasp all the different aspects of the system, or a task for which the code is written, importantly the programming jargons and other logical and mathematical calculations; at least basics if not high level.

The company folks who are planning to provide coding classes to young ones MIGHT be doing following things:

• Exposing the kids and their parents to the world of coding.
• Making the whole coding experience for the audience an intuitive and interesting with small app development and real use cases.
• Providing some techniques or simulators that might make things easier.
• Not trying to explain in-depth and complex aspects etc.
• (Regardless of all the above, they need to target the right audience IMO)

But I believe:

• The onus is on the parents to decide what their kids need and try to understand the details first before putting their kids through things. There might be many people out there selling products, classes and things, but it's you who have to decide what's best for you and your kids.
• Coding is not a one-time activity that you do it once and done. It needs commitment and need to keep practicing it regularly just like any other activities like playing a musical instrument or learning non-native language.
• Nobody should go overboard in portraying coding a means of getting rich overnight. Nobody in the right minds will knock at your doors and try to buy any simple app for big bucks.
• No need to portray it as a big service to the nation too. (I mean, seriously?!)
• It’s not a mugging up activity where you just do what is told without much understanding. In fact, I hated it when the 2nd grade class syllabus asked kids to mug up different frame/copy/paste/save operations of a random Animation app as part of school computer subject.
• Age, capability & their interest must be considered. Kids should be able to understand the details otherwise they get will get stressed out and, in the process, they start disliking it. Why do you think many kids/grown-ups hate mathematics?! 😛
• Young kids are quick learners, but that doesn't mean you start teaching them rocket science. The building blocks should be in place. And in a way the education system is doing that job (Whether it needs an update or correction is altogether a different topic for some other time).
• Keep in mind, coding is one of the many skill sets out there. You cannot simply  expect an 8 year-old kid to understand how bank finances work, or internal organs of our body & their functionalities, or how a car engine  works, unless he/she is a super kid with a great IQ.

Considering all these aspects, I would NOT want my 8-year-old kid to go to any coding classes right now as I want him to enjoy what he is currently doing i.e. enjoy school classes, playing games, making friends, understanding feelings, etc. When its right time let him understand what coding is and if interested venture into it.

Comments are welcome.

B'day decoration activity

While this lockdown/work-from-home situation has forced people to stay indoors, it has surely given a unique opportunity for many to attend to their inner talent or rekindling with their forgotten passion. The various singing, dancing, painting or cooking posts of your friends and relatives in Whatsapp status or Facebook timeline will only confirm this.

For sure I am one of those guys who is quite okay, in fact more than okay, about this WFH situation. The benefits quite outweigh the downsides for me.

Anyways, I’m not here today to talk about this situation but would like to talk about the unique opportunity this lockdown has offered me this year.

Well, yesterday was my son’s 8^th birthday, and as we couldn't have a usual party with friends and family during this self-imposed lockdown, my wife and I decided to give him a surprise by decorating the house in secret. The planning started 3-4 days before the birthday with an action item to get a birthday banner, few of his favorite cartoon characters ready along with usual balloons around.

I decided to have the banner in a form of letters joined together; simple yet effective. I picked up paper sheets cut them up in the shapes required and finalized on the font to use for the letters. I created templates of those letters so it becomes easier and faster with repetitive ones.

 

My wife and I painted the letters in one stretch at night, in his absence of course. So it had to be post-midnight. It’s impossible to get it done during daytime with the kid around and especially with no school.

 

Then came the interesting part of getting the cartoon characters ready. This year, he’s been busy watching 2 cartoons Oggy and the Cockroaches & Bandbukh Aur Budbak, so decided to pick those 3 characters i.e. Oggy, Budh & Badri.

Very lucky that the sketches and the paintings turned out quite good. It surely was a very satisfying activity I had related to drawing and paintings since ages.

 

When the final setting was up on display and when the kiddo saw that on his birthday morning, he was surprised and importantly happy to see all the decoration. A special note of appreciation for his fav cartoon characters from him. He enjoyed it and we enjoyed more doing all this for him.

80 days!

80 days. Yes, that is how long it was since my last visit to office. As we all know, this pandemic has forced everyone to face the lock-downs and stay-home restrictions. Apart from the necessary outings to near-by grocery supermarket I ventured out of house only once over a weekend to get my son back from his grandparents' house. Suddenly everything has changed and yet we need to continue with our routine.

While this situation brought a lot of restrictions, it also got us a little spare time because of no office commute. And in a way it's a gift in disguise. I would like to jot down those aspects which were beneficial for me personally due to this excess time in hand.

• Time with family

Needless to say we all found ourselves around family all the time. This being new, we had to realize and adjust accordingly. Because it certainly felt like an extended weekend or something. Importantly, it brought so much more time for discussions, meals together & etc. With no services from maids, we all had to step up and rise to the occasion and distribute the chores (or face the wrath 😛). This week even the online classes started for my 7 years old and this gave a great opportunity for me to witness his participation & learning during the classes. I used to take up his studies and closely track his learning but this scene of seeing him respond to teachers' explanation and learn is new which otherwise would take place in confinement of school classes. And furthermore, I'm totally enjoying the NERF battles with my kiddo. He has totally gone crazy with his new set of NERF guns. I tell you, NERF and LEGO are boon to humans!

• Extra hours at work

Yes, I got this opportunity to spend continuous hours on the tasks I am handling and I am absolutely satisfied with improved productivity. Not that it wasn't up to to the mark previously but an increase in this matter can of course be a reason for delight.

• Extra time for friends

Well, we cannot meet up like before in person but the situation has brought in this new trend of video conferencing. Apps like Zoom, Whatsapp Videochat and Google Duo are now felt necessity and people are using them like never before. I too enjoyed these instances of group videochat with friends and family. We even had some nice task games over Whatsapp and online forums.

 

 

Along with these above benefits there are however some downsides as well:

• Trek cancellation

I had booked for a 10 days Har-Ki-Doon trek and was supposed to report to base camp near Dehradun on May 2, which of course got cancelled. I even had plans for river rafting and bungee jump at Rishikesh. All this had to be called off. The 4 years trek streak was broken unfortunately. Anyways, there's always next time.

• No running

I've not run a single KM in this last 80 days. It's not that I will be stopped from running on roads or in my community, but it's the impression what one gives by following everything like before will somehow give others a sense of leniency in the society and that's kinda dangerous in this ongoing crisis.

We have to follow stay-home stay-safe mantra and need to step out only for really important work.

I see this situation is surely gonna stay for few more months. Hoping for some miracle, some vaccine to come out soon which will take us out from this nasty situation. Also hoping that everyone learns something from this unfortunate situation. We need to mend our ways and find a better way in living peacefully in this beautiful world.

#CoronaVirus

We are currently witnessing something so unfortunate & serious, which none of us would have even remotely imagined happening. The whole world is on its knee fighting the deadly virus. The virus is certainly testing every country's ability to handle such an epidemic. Not just that, it is also testing the ability of people and the society overall on how they are gonna respond to such a unprecedented issue in hand.

It's almost 2 months since the day we started seeing the news from China about this new virus and how badly it is spreading, infecting thousands and killing so many. I got a very bad feeling about it immediately then. I was told I'm taking it too seriously, that I'm reading a lot into it & that I'm pressing the panic button a little too early. But, seeing the way this virus has spread across the whole world affecting so many lives in so many different ways in last few weeks, the same folks came back just to tell me that I wasn't entirely wrong in my evaluation.

I'm 37 years old and these are few things which I've never seen in my life before:

• A disease spreading so fast & affecting so many lives covering almost whole world
• Whole lot restrictions on international travels, visa cancellations
• Quarantine procedures on this large scale
• Government/Health department taking so many precautions & awareness activities:
• Shutting down businesses, offices, shopping malls
• Closing schools. Imagine schools having last month of academic year yet to complete asked to close immediately & cancel the exams
• Asking mobile operators to have caller tunes with information about the virus and how to act
• And many more.

We had seen to some extend other viruses and their affects in case of EBOLA, NIPAH etc. But this Covid-19 certainly went to the next level.

As of today, there are about ~110 positive cases in India with 2 deaths and 4 have recovered. Good thing China is showing signs of decline. Italy, Iran, South Korea and many other countries going through some tough peaks. Hope every country will start showing the declines soon. But that to happen, it's not just Governments or State Departments' responsibility, it's in fact every individual's responsibility to do their bit and make sure it doesn't spread.

We all need to follow:

• Social distancing is what is required
• Social networking apps/sites are one different beast to fight. We all know, these social media facilitates an easy way of sharing information but at the same time, fake/false information and unverified details gets shared along. That line of distinction is getting murkier day by day
• Follow the medical procedures strictly provided by the health department in case of direct contact or being infected
• Co-operate and support in any other ways necessary

These are the times when each one of us need to show that maturity and prove we have that sense of responsibility towards our loved ones and also towards fellow human beings. After all, we are the evolved species!

My first bungee jump

This week Google Photos app pleasantly reminded me of some wonderful trips I had 10 years back in South Korea. During this visit to South Korea I made some good friends and had quite a few good trips near and around Suwon city. And now when I sit back reminiscing all the good moments from this trip I realized I haven't written any posts unfortunately in this blog about these trips. I can only reason out to my hectic workload during weekdays and busy wandering during weekends.

Today the app brought up a photo of my 1st bungee jump. Boy!, that was one helluva experience. Even today I distinctly remember the whole series of events that unfolded on that day. So I decided to pen it down now.

Winters are real cold in Suwon, South Korea with good amount of snow and -ve temperatures, but that didn't deter me and my friends from visiting places of attraction. Back then it wasn't so easy getting information about places of attraction or about commutation details; we didn't have present day websites/apps/services and English translated data was rarely found. However, we got necessary information about a place called Nami Island from our Korean colleagues and decided to visit one fine weekend. I remember the journey included a bus journey for few hours and a taxi ride, not forgetting the funny interactions & help taken from local Koreans who helped us with directions & all despite not knowing English.

I along with my 3 friends reached this place on that cold afternoon. We had to take a ferry to reach the main island. It was a beautiful place full of trees, water all around, perhaps a great place for a summer getaway.
We spent couple of hours roaming around and then started back. On our way back, I saw a huge board advertising "Korea's highest bungee jump". I instantly decided to go for it despite the fact we were getting late for our return journey. One couple in the group said 'No' downright and the other girl, though willing, couldn't gather enough courage to join me.

I remember, there was a group of 4-5 Korean boys along with me at the top of the tower, which was ~55 meters high, waiting for the organizers to set up things for the jumps. In fact, I also recollect the boys discussing with me about Mahatma Gandhi & other Indian aspects once they came to know I'm an Indian. They, as a matter of fact, pushed me to the front of the queue. Couldn't know whether it was a sign of respect for a foreigner or yanking my chain😛

There was I, standing at the edge of the deck looking down at the water, wondering "What the hell am I doing?!". I was confident when I took the stairs to the top, while talking to those folks and when I'm about to jump I'm shit scared. I could hear my heart pounding. It was cold and dark already. I hear those boys having a good laugh about my situation. And to make things worse, I see this guy who was tightening my rope & harness innocently asking, 'Do I have to push you?' seeing me little tensed. I politely declined his offer and decided to gather all my courage and take that one awesome jump 😃
It was so exhilarating that I started howling when I jumped. It was one heck of an experience which is so very difficult to forget.

I'm happy to share this video where I'm being taken off to safety after the jump in a boat.

[I can feel my heart beating faster right now while I am writing this 😁. Just imagine, it's been a decade since I did this crazy stuff and I still *FEEL* it]

My other friend was so envious seeing me so happy & excited about the whole experience, and later regretted not joining me. I simply couldn't take that smile off my face the whole journey back home. There was a sense of accomplishment and pride in it. I cherish it even today.