Canada Foreign Officers Strike

It seems Canadian Foreign Officers strike is at the peak of conflict and pressure is mounting on both government and PAFSO to resolve it quickly.

It has become a issue of who will blink first. As of today, things are worse than they were in the first week of June when it all started. Biggest losers of in all this are Canadian Public because of huge loss of revenue from tourism, lost work because of unavailability of temporary workers and impact on the choices Students make this time of the year.

From GDP perspective, as per few estimates, Canada is loosing $20 million/week only in tourism. Losses accounting from Students and Workers can't be quantified very easily. This is obviously a bad business equation if we see only from this perspective. To save approx. $4.5 M/ year by not giving increment to Foreign Service Officer, government is actually loosing almost 4 times of it in a single week.

But if we see from the administration perspective, it can't be an easy decision for government to accept all the demands of PAFSO members because it may end up in surge in the similar demands from other public service officers.

PAFSO has chosen a time when historically it gets highest number of Visa applications and which is not helping the Visa applicants either.

I hope both parties are able to come to the table and come up with a workable solution as soon as possible. I hope they would think about those students who have applied in Canadian Universities and might end up loosing an year in case they don't get Visa on time. I hope Agriculture world and corporate world is able to put some amount of pressure on both the parties to get this resolve quickly and not drag it further.

Hum, Tum Connected with "Connected Hum-Tum"

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 : Hum, Tum aur "Connected Hum-Tum" all came together to decipher the code behind the latter one. All the leading ladies of the series were revealed in-front of more than 100 IndiBloggers by the none other than the Director Paromita Vohra herself.

A Fun filled evening with few witty ice-breakers from IndiBloggers team and Zee Team were just perfact to ensure the involvement of all the IndiBloggers.

Six Participants of the Connected Hum-Tum with names Preeti Kochar, Pallavi Barman, Mahima Chaudhary, Sonal Giani, Madhavi Mauskar, and last but not the least Mumbai's very own Malishka Mendonca opened themselves in front of the bloggers.

A special preview of the series for us was a really good gesture from the Zee. I personally found many of us, regardless of sex or age, would be able to connect to all or at least some stories of the participants life. For ex. one line from the preview really explains the pain of a lady, portrayed by Preeti, when her husband goes for the work on Sunday, kid falls asleep and she remains on herself to ponder upon how her life is going. Similarly, the pain of a girl, portrayed by Sonal, when she says that she still hopes that the family of her boy-friend will accept her one day.

Although I had thought that this would be just another reality show shot with moving cameras, I found the stories in it more real (even though I accept that there would be few manipulations here & there after all it is for entertainment of the audience).

Let's see if audience at large gives it a "aaj kuch tufaani karte hein" :-)

More details @

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_HumTum
http://www.indiblogger.in/bloggermeet.php?id=206

PMP Preparation Guidelines

Many people have been requesting for the guidelines for PMP preparation. So posting this on the Knome to enable everybody's access to this. This was from my own and one of my PMP Circle Mates (Tanveer Shaikh's) preparation for PMP one year back.

During first 3 months of my preparations, my focus was more on learning concepts of various project management methodolologies, in last 15 days I gave many full length tests that helped me in gauging my preparation level over time.

Books Recommended : 

- PMBOK Official guide

- PMP Exam Prep - Rita Mulchy

Total Preparation Duration : 

3-4 months

You may use following few points as a guideline to prepare yourself.

1) If you start with PMBOK but you'll find it boring and difficult to understand.

2) If possible create a study circle of fellow PMP aspirants

3) Read PMP Rita Mulcahy.

4) Get a copy of RITA Process game (from the Rita Mulchy book) and practice with it every alternate day. It will ensure that you imbibed the PMBOK processes logically in yourself

5) Register for PMI Membership - it enables you to seek discount on PMP exam

6) Read PMBOK. Now, this book would not be that boring and would make much more sense

7) Register for PMP Exam - it takes couple of hours in gathering all the material that is required to fill the application form

8) Once Application form is approved, you may go and seek the exam appointment

9) Practice with following free online tests

- http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=350915&rl=1 (70 que) - Tough Nut ; Lengthy Questions

- http://www.preparepm.com/mock2.html (28 Qns)

- http://www.pmstudy.com/enroll.asp - (15 qns)

- http://www.techfaq360.com/pmp_4thedition.jsp (200 Qns) - Easy; Wrong Scoring; NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.passpm.com (50 qns) - NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.pmsuccess.biz/Free_Simulated_Test.asp (100 qns)    -    Seems precise to PMP

- http://www.pmzilla.com/pmzilla-free-pmp-tests - (25 qns)

- http://certchamp.com/pmp-sample-questions.jsp (200 Qns) - In the spreadsheet - Repeat of many questions done already - NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.preparepm.com/mock1.html (70 Qns) - few good questions

- http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm - Few very detailed numericals

- http://edwelprograms.com/  - Few very tricky questions, few answers are wrong

- PMP Prep - PMP Exam   -Many questions were already done as part of RITA

- PMP Prep - SuperPMP Exam- questions were lengthy, scenario based. Few questions were repeat from other RITA tests

- http://www.ajithn.com/login.php (200 Qns) - Many wrong answers given on test.  - NOT SUGGESTED

- http://www.pmstudy.com/practicetestsindex.asp (200 qsn) - Seems Very close to PMP, found few answers arguably incorrect.

10) Revised through Rita Mulchy. - 3-4 days before actual exam

11) Revised through PMBOK - 2nd time. - 2 days before actual exam

Note : 

Currently PMP is based on PMBOK 4th edition. PMI is going to change the base of PMP exam to PMBOK 5th Edition from Aug 1, 2013. So ensure that you are following correct course material as per your target exam date.

Hope this information helps. Should any of you need more information, I am just a click away.

Run Mumbai Run.........

Did you ever feel like a Hero? I did. I did once again while running half marathon in Mumbai Marathon – 2013. People were cheering throughout the 21 kms path of the run, slogans of “Run Mumbai Run” were being enchanted from everywhere and runners were putting their best foot forward. Enthusiastic runners ranging from amateur athletes to professionals, from celebrities to common men/women, and from 17 years old to 60 years old, all were filled with the excitement of being part of one of the greatest races on the earth (others were Nairobi, Singapore and Hongkong Marathons).

Reached the Holding Area at 4:40 AM, we started the half marathon at 5:40 AM. First 72 minutes and 11 kms were relatively easy for me but after that things started going tough. I started having pain in my lower abdomen & calves and my throat started crying for liquid. With a little walking for 2-3 minutes I started again and took my first sip of liquid at 15 Km mark. My mind was split in two parts; one was asking me to take a little rest while another was not allowing me to stop. Playing among these two, I was moving towards the finish line.

As I completed 20 Kms, 130 mins had already passed. Every muscle and bone of my body was crying out loud for me to stop but a passion and desire to touch the finish line was not allowing me to do that. Reaching 100 m (remaining) mark, I just opened my arms and wanted to fly to the finishing line. Breath was going, calves were crying, and I was just sprinting like never before.

I touched the finish line; clock was showing 2:18 when I saw it before going beyond finish point. Once again I finished the race. Although, I couldn’t better my last year’s finish time of 2:14 hrs, I was happy with my performance.

Today I am committed more than ever before to break the 2 hr mark in next half marathon wherever I run.
Amen !!!

My first Public performance…......

Today was a wonderful day when I found myself overcoming a fear of performing in front of 100 people. It was "Annual General Meeting of PMI (Project Management Institute) Mumbai" and I was sought to nominate myself for the Guitar Performance after the regular stuff of the AGM. After lot of deliberation I confirmed my nomination just a day before and it was accepted.

Although I was not very sure whether I should play Hotel California (My favorite English Song) OR Dooba-Dooba (Hindi number by Silk Route), I followed the basics of entertainment and decided to go with Hindi number as audience (mostly middle aged Indian Managers) could relate to it better.

I practiced song couple of times to ensure, my fingers were moving fine, my voice was playing along the fingers and most importantly I remember the lyrics of the song that I was going to play.

It all went great, I dedicated the song to my fiancee and audience’s response was awesome. People were humming the romantic number with me and my guitar was sounding better than ever before.

Later during the dinner, I was well received by the fellow members when they praised the performance very much. It was a great platform to get known among people who are 10-20 years senior to me in the Industry and I am glad that I grabbed the opportunity.

I just loved all the attention. And yes, it was also a rehearsal for the performance I’ll have on my wedding-eve for my guests and most importantly for love of life.