Technology Consulting in the Global Community

Monday, August 4, 2008

So, it’s finally come to an end. All the thoughts running through my head make it hard to write this blog. I am currently in Chennai for 2 more days before I fly to Qatar and then to Pittsburgh. The last day at work and the next day when I had to leave were hard. But now that I’ve had time to reflect, I can describe my thoughts down here.

The last week was pretty hectic with each one of us wrapping things up. Saurabh and I had to do a lot of documenting and writing during that last week. Yeah, I had an hour of sleep before our last day. It was tiring but it was a good feeling – a feeling of accomplishment. I was exhausted but it felt great. First thing in the morning, we stopped at MSRI and walked to the ATM to get some money to donate to Mathru. The weather was beautiful and I loved the walk. I reminisced on the good times. It had been raining heavily for a week but luckily, there was no rain on our last day.

At Mathru, Ms. M, the school chairman, was ready with breakfast. Saurabh thought he’d see if he could eat more puris that the school could make. So he urged Ms. M to keep bringing more. So she gladly brought him a lot of puris but here’s the problem – even I got caught up in the food fest. Every time Saurabh got puris, I would get some too. I had been tactfully escaping getting a lot of food on my plate, during my previous visits, due to my slow eating pace. But that day, Ms. M was relentless. “Kaleem! You’re NOT escaping! Not Today!” she declared. So I ended up stuffing myself like a turkey and Saurabh finished something like 20 puris – what a champ! But Ms. M had taught us a lesson: eating at Mathru is like drinking from a water hose. Do NOT underestimate the Ms. M meals. All jokes aside, that was our last breakfast and one of many that we will undoubtedly miss.

Our last day at Mathru was spent wrapping up our field tests, teaching Mathru how to use our Braille images, and taking a lot of pictures. We had our last lunch with Ms. M. She’s a lot of fun to be around as she’s got all these amusing/interesting things to talk about. After lunch, we went to each class to bid goodbye. Kids kept asking “when are you coming back sir?” and it was very touching when the 7^th standard class stood up and bid us a happy journey. I only got to know some of the 10^th standard and 7^th standard kids pretty well. But I’ve seen an amazing potential in the children here. After getting pictures taken, we had coffee/tea with the Mathru staff where Ms. M went around asking them how they liked us. The teachers had some nice things to tell us and it was a good bonding experience. Getting excellent grades at University – Dean’s List; Working at a company – $$$; Working at Mathru – smiles all around (priceless!). The whole Mathru staff came till our cab to bid us goodbye. It was really emotional and Ms. M shed a tear or two.

After getting refreshed at our guesthouse, I came back to MSRI as a farewell party was going to take place in our honor. The Malta interns decided to have a “Maltese Night” so that was really nice of them. We got to taste some great Maltese cuisine that night. There were about 30-40 people I think – most of them our close friends. I had a great time getting in all the pictures and interacting with everyone. Kentaro had some surprises lined up for us. He bought each one of us a book corresponding to our personality. So that was really nice and thoughtful of him. We then bid goodbye to everyone and that took a while because of all the hugs we had to give/get. Yeah, it was sad. But hopefully, I’ll get to see some of them people in the next year. I’m going to miss the learning experience here. Learning how to learn, bringing structure to abstract problems, going around your floor and learning about others’ projects, having interesting lunchtime discussions, all the networking, all the Halo parties, all the non-Halo parties, all the TEM and friends’ group outings, all the boxing lessons, a great boss, all the good times.

We just stayed up after returning home to see Aysha off. But somewhere in the middle I fell asleep (one hour of sleep the night before) and when I woke up she was gone. I then packed all my stuff and went out with Saurabh and Erin for my last lunch in Bangalore. Finally, I got onto the long train ride to Chennai where I am now.

The whole experience has been an amazing adventure. The last day of work was a fantastic climax as it summed it up for us. It was like a movie with a good ending – leaving you wanting for more. Experiences, like the time when one of the students was able to write the whole alphabet after we taught her using our Braille images, will remain etched in my mind forever. I’ve learned some great things that I shall apply in my daily life. There have been some challenges that I have learned to overcome. Each one of us had different interests and personalities and it was great to observe how we worked together to achieve a common goal.

Most importantly, I think I have learned how to smile. And that has a deeper meaning than just being able to flex the muscles on your face. I am greatly thankful for those who helped me along the way. I’m looking forward to the future and opportunities where I can exercise the things that I have learned. I will be flying to Qatar on the 7^th and to Pittsburgh on the 13^th. Before classes start, I hope to get some rest and meet up with friends and relatives. An awesome adventure has just come to an end but the seeds it has sown will grow forever.

Aysha, Erin and Saurabh – laa, cool beans and ymca.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

We successfully delivered our project presentation to the Technology for Emerging Markets (TEM) group yesterday. We had worked on it over the weekend and it felt great to complete the presentation on a successful note. Each one of us had a different role and had rehearsed it a few times giving feedback to each other. I think that played a major role in its execution. We also got to answer some interesting questions and receive useful feedback and ideas on our projects.

Erin started off by giving an overview of TechBridgeWorld and TCinGC, and Aysha and Saurabh followed it with a description of Mathru and the challenging areas that could be worked on. Erin then described her website project and Aysha talked about digitalizing the student records. Saurabh then followed that by discussing our work on the Braille Tutor and running a demo with a volunteer from the audience. Finally, I described our Braille image processing project and went through the various stages an image goes through in the process. The “Fantastic Four” were right on the money.

I believe the key in giving presentations is making clear eye contact with your audience. Just talking to each member of the audience like he were the only person in the room can do wonders to enhance your confidence. It also makes the person pay attention as he feels special/can’t doze off? This is something I’ve observed over time. A good presenter and a good DJ share a lot in common. Both of them usually know their audience well. Both of them share a passion for what they do. Both of them choose/organize the right slides/tracks to present/play. Both of them communicate effectively with the audience by constantly reading their mood and adapting accordingly. They understand when the audience is enjoying a particular part of their presentation/set and really know what they’re talking about/playing. And finally, both of them love it when they’re up there doing their thing.

Speaking of DJs, it will be interesting to see how I mix during the “Old Skool” night on our final day at work. Kentaro left town today and will only be back on our last day of work. We are planning to have a party on that day. It should be interesting playing disco and house music from back in the day. It’s also interesting how I interestingly use the interesting word “interesting” an interesting lot of interesting times. Everyone has their own word or phrase that they constantly use. Some people say “chill,” some people say “aww,” some people say “cool,” and some people say, well, “some people say…” People seem to use these words as a form of acknowledgement, when they can’t think of something to say, or simply because they just mean it and want to say it. People must LOVE talking to me because everything they think or do is “interesting.” I first thought about this last semester when I had to do this video interview for admissions. The camera crew sets up and the main guy tells me that we’re going to shoot in 5 minutes. I said “cool.” He goes “what’s so ‘cool’ about that?” Of course, he was just pulling my leg to loosen me up a bit. But it did make me wonder why people use certain words the way they do. It’s interesting how I randomly start talking about “interesting” things.

There’ve been a lot of power fluctuations in Bangalore this week. We’ve experienced regular power cuts at our guest house and even at MSRI (good thing they have reserve generators). This mainly affects the girls in our group as they travel to Mathru a lot and frequent power cuts mean frequent delays as the school computers do not have a reserve UPS power system. Last night, I was scared it blew up my hard disk when the power snapped. Luckily, it’s fine.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

My annoying telephone alarm rings in the morning like an ice cream truck on subwoofers. I put off the snooze and lie in a semi-sleep state. Saurabh wakes up and goes for his morning shower. I wait for him to come out and as soon as I hear the door lock open, I go “is the water hot?” To that, I get a range of answers – the most common one being “it’s getting there.” It mentally prepares me for the shower which, depending on our solar heater, can temporarily send me to the arctic. Yes, I do not enjoy cold showers. But what I do enjoy is asking if the water is hot first thing in the morning. It’s one of those many “little” things that has become part of my daily routine and makes it enjoyable. The daily Xbox dosage is another one.

I enjoy the MSRI work culture and cherishing the things I am learning here. We are currently in the process of field-testing the Braille tutor. We are also working on the Braille art imaging project. The other day, we found out that IIT Kharagpur had developed a similar tool. It was a little disappointing that our idea might not be completely novel. But they had not stated any results of field tests and limited the use of embossed images. So, we plan to explore these images further and see how different kinds of images might be useful in assisting education. This could greatly benefit Mathru and the wider visually-impaired community. As our research questions are different, we might unravel some interesting issues.

What’s happened with me over the last few weeks? Hmm, let’s see… quiz competition at Mathru, weekend trip to Chennai for my cousin’s wedding, TEM bowling night, getting to know the other interns, MSRI party at the Kosmo club, lots of powwows (project presentations), interesting conversations over lunch, ICT4D paper to bring Bill G up to speed with ICT, image processing, coding in C#, acquiring lots of information, fighting aliens in Halo, watching “Batman: The Dark Knight” at the theater, boxing classes with Kentaro, and the best one – bonding with the family (Aysha, Erin, and Saurabh). We’ve got our project presentation tomorrow so we’re busy working on that and rehearsing. It should be fun. An interesting surprise awaits the audience.

Only 2 weeks left!? As I was looking at the date on my cellphone, I noticed the hourglass wallpaper on my phone. But there was something different about this hourglass. It didn’t have sand in it and seemed to get this infinite supply of grains from somewhere. I looked a little closer and realized that these were grains of growth. As cheesy as it seemed, I couldn’t help but believe what I saw. Every now and then, a huge grain would get stuck in the neck of the hourglass and I’d have to give it a brisk shake to get it through. It seemed to have a strong resemblance to life. I think there’s no limit to how much you can grow as an intellectual, as a citizen, as a friend, as a human being. Invariably, a lump of grains gets stuck in the neck of the hourglass and you have to figure out how to break it. Sometimes, good friends help you out.

The remaining two weeks are going to be intense. Saurabh and I will have to write 3 papers, complete our field studies, and make necessary enhancements to the Braille tutor and image processing tool code. Although it makes me sad to realize that this wonderful adventure is going to end soon, I am looking forward to the future and completing our current projects on a successful note.

Saturday, June 7, 2008 – Monday, June 23, 2008

I haven’t been able to write the blog for the last week. It’s because I’ve been busy the whole time either working or having fun at MSRI. Saurabh and I have been adding useful features and interesting games to the Braille Tutor over the past week. This week, we will be starting work on a new project with MSRI aimed at Braille printers.

We visited Mysore over the first weekend and experienced the rich cultural heritage there. Mysore used to be the capital city of the state of Karnataka before Bangalore. We left our house early in the morning and visited a number of places in Mysore before returning to our house at night. We got to see some stunning palaces, temples, gardens, and even took a boat ride on a local lake. In the evening, we visited the Vrindawan gardens which are located close to a dam.

The past week at MSRI has been very eventful. We’ve been working on making enhancements to the Braille Tutor software and performing fixes that would help the children. On Thursday, we were taken to watch a Tamil movie in “Gold Class.” I know how to read and write Tamil but I can’t really speak or understand very well (interesting, I know). So I was able to get some of the humor in dialogue although you didn’t need to know Tamil to understand the movie.

On Friday, we had a farewell party for the interns who were leaving. We had a decent turnout although it was initially hard to get everyone to come. I DJed for the party and played a lot of funky / electro house. It was fun watching the people enjoy themselves. Erin knew that my birthday was a couple of days away and I had told her to keep it a secret. But she ended up turning the party into a surprise birthday thing for me. The party was fun and I would like to have an Old Skool 70s / 80s / 90s night where I can play some good old dance music.

The past weekend, we visited a school near Mathru. Every week, a group of students from Mathru is taken there to participate in recreational activities such as yoga and music classes, and sport training. Each student chooses a particular sport that he/she wants to play. I played cricket with the students and worked with the coach to teach them some of the basics. It was fun and the students shared a great enthusiasm for the sport.

a corner at the Mathru School

gate to the palace in Mysore

boating in Mysore

Thursday, May 29, 2008 – Friday, June 6, 2008

The past week, most of our time was spent at the Mathru School. We’ve been gathering information about the school, its faculty and students. Erin and Aysha have been looking at ways in which technology could be used to assist the school in its mission. Saurabh and I have been field-testing the second version of the Braille tutor and figuring out ways in which it can be improved. We have also been looking at opportunities for research projects that would impact the global visually-impaired community. We have also joined a nearby gym to stay active. The others have joined it to counteract all the food we’ve been eating; I’ve joined it in my continuing bid to gain some weight.

During my time here, I’ve noticed a lot of similarities between MSRI and CMU. The MSRI community is relatively small (55 permanent researchers and about 45 interns during peak-time) and closely knit. Research groups are based according to floors. They have some neat recreation facilities including a TV lounge with an Xbox, table tennis in the basement, a giant chess board, and an awesome terrace to conduct outdoor activities such as BBQ events. There is a lot of “free food” as well with MSRI providing breakfast, lunch and special snacks during the day. MSRI also provides a convenient 24-hour transport service for employees.

A weekly “Lab Sabha” takes place where researchers and guest speakers present their work. Also present are weekly meetings of the Technology for Emerging Markets (TEM) group (the one with which we work), where members present their ongoing work and obtain constructive criticism and feedback. People are self-motivated and friendly, and many interns continue work late into the night. You can walk around your floor and learn about all the amazing things the other interns and researchers are doing. People are open to new ideas and I had an interesting conversation with some of the researchers the other day about education and the development of women in Qatar. The exposure you get here is simply fantastic!

I’ve had a couple of interesting experiences at Mathru this week. The other day, a couple of partially-sighted students had a conversation with me. They talked about cricket and joked about how Sachin Tendulkar (a popular Indian cricketer) has become weak and does not play well now. Saurabh and I have been working closely with some of the teachers and students this week trying to figure out ways in which the Braille tutor and new technology could be developed to assist the visually-impaired. The teachers have expressed a lot of gratitude and have high expectations of us. Each one of them has been telling us the kind of things they’d like to see improved. Some of the students have asked us to help in making it easier to play chess on the computer as screen-reading software is no good for games.

All these expectations have given me a greater sense of responsibility. We’re in a position where we can make an influence on a community here and this is a new experience for me. My determination to work is now stronger but it will be challenging to tell the school that not all of their wishes can be achieved in the current time frame. We will work on what is most feasible and has the most impact. Working at the school, it can be really hard to not get attached to the children. I think my personality tries to keep me focused on work and prevents me from getting too attached to any given person. I do not know if that’s good or bad but that’s definitely the way I go. It will be interesting to see how the project unfolds. Every day, I read a page of the lives of the people here and write a book on the things I have learned (or have yet to learn).

The other day it got really cloudy and rained heavily for a while. Then, a rainbow appeared in the sky at the stroke of sunlight. I was fascinated by the vast array of colors painted across the sky. But by the time I got my camera to get some pictures, it started disappearing. I watched as it slowly deteriorated from one end to the other and eventually left the sky with a bunch of ordinary grey clouds. It reminded me of how we’ve got a limited amount of time and should make the most of it in order to benefit Mathru and lay foundations to assist the visually-impaired community in general. We’re 2 weeks down and got 8 weeks to make that difference.

Saturday, May 24, 2008 – Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Lots of people, lots of cars, lots of trees, and a nice cool breeze – that’s what I noticed when I got out of the brand new Bangalore airport at 6:30 in the morning. We had just completed a 12-hour journey with a transit in Bahrain. We were received by folks from Microsoft and taken to our guesthouse, where we met Erin and Saurabh. The guesthouse is a nice furnished 2-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a balcony. The only thing we’re lacking right now is an internet connection. The girls wanted our room as it had an attached bathroom, and a bunch of other benefits. Saurabh and I, being the gentlemen we are, let them have it – a mistake we shall not make again.

Over the weekend, we decided to be a little adventurous and explore the city a bit. As I know Hindi and Urdu, I’ve been doing all the talking whenever we go out. We traveled to the Commercial Street and Forum Shopping Mall using a cab service. We got lost on our way back from the Forum Mall the other day. We did not know that there were multiple “17^th Cross” roads and “10^th Main” streets here in Bangalore. We were supposed to go back to Malleshwaram but ended up getting dropped in Vijaynagar. We asked a shopkeeper about the address and he laughed at us, probably calling us “silly tourists” in his mind. We then had to get another auto rickshaw to get back to our apartment. We did get a little ripped off at the start as we did not know the local rates for most things but we will become bargaining pros by the end of the project.

During working days, Microsoft will provide shuttle transport between our apartment and MSRI. We had an orientation program on our first day at Microsoft during which we were introduced to the community here. We were also made to answer the question “what silly thing about the world do you want to change?” MSRI is awesome! They have a huge array of facilities available to the employees here. We’ve got our offices on the third floor along with some other interns. Our boss Kentaro is also on the same floor and he is really friendly and cool. He introduced us to the place and even took us out for dinner with a couple of other interns the other day.

Our first day at the Mathru School for the Blind was a completely different experience for me. The school is about 40 minutes away from our apartment. We were greeted by Ms. U (anonymous name for privacy), a student and a teacher at the school. We were shown around the school and got to observe how students and teachers use the previous version of the Braille Tutor. Ms. U had prepared breakfast and lunch for us and we had a lot of good healthy food on the day. The one thing I noticed here is that there is the presence of a whole lot of love – at a scale I have not seen before. The students are very smart and this project will definitely help me move closer to achieving my vision.

Aysha, Erin, Saurabh and I have been getting along very well. Each of us has a unique personality and varied interests. This makes our team a competitive and diverse one. There are some interesting challenges ahead of us. It will be interesting to see how we work together in conjunction with the Mathru School and MSRI, and the solutions that we develop by the end of this project. I am looking forward to it.