Belle Fille

I designed the attire for this pretty girl and since then she is caught my eye! 

(The image is not able to exhibit the ruffled look of the gown but that's the best I could capture.)  

Canoeing

Melbourne's Yarra river offers great opportunities for hitting the water and venturing out in the snaking river to enjoy a scenic water sport on nice and sunny days! There are rowing ramps at frequent intervals where you could start/end the water adventure. We often come across this sight where batches of kayaking professionals are instructed by their trainer who generally leads them in a motor boat. It feels wonderful to even be a distant spectator to experience the coordination in their hand movements and see the kayak make its way quietly through the calm waters! 

The odd in the lot

For today's badminton session we found a unusual shuttle lying on one of the courts!

It was the first time for us to see this black color shuttlecock. We did our warm-up with this one and later left it aside.
After digging deeper to know why this one was different, I found an interesting fact that all badminton shuttlecocks are made by overlapping Black Goose/Duck feathers. They are whitened by some special methods for better appearance. Some players use the black ones so that they stand out quickly over lighter backgrounds.
This know-how made me realise that this was the usual one in the lot...the rest(white ones) were the unusual's!!!   

Quality time

My parents keep reminding me almost everyday that the free time I have now, is the best anyone could desire and that I should make the most of it. I know it is true, but still not as convincing as to have a job!! Even though my unconscious mind is lost in the thoughts of when I would land up on a job, I try to follow their advice and utilize the quality time effectively. Here's one of the outcomes of my 100% effort and a daylong hard-work.

A much awaited visit

Since long we had heard that hotel Saravana Bhavan (a very popular veg restaurant chain) is coming up in Melbourne and were eagerly waiting for its inauguration. The wait was over today with we paying a visit late evening. The brand is popularly known for the dishes: 14 mini idlies, dry fruit rava dosa, poori and rava kesari. All the preparations are made in pure ghee and it was clearly evident with the sattvic aroma lingering in the air as we entered! We too ordered a dry fruit rava dosa which was delicious and colorful!

As the restaurant was recently operational the service was slow and still settling down. But that didn't make a slightest difference on the response that they received. People were pouring in till the last minute! Finally its the 'BRAND' that matters!   

Psychological Test

For the past two days I was busy recording a one way video for a pre-recruitment test. There were generic questions that were to be answered in one minute. It was my first attempt for this kind of a test and it really checked how proficient I am on thinking and presenting a given topic/situation!

Each question was a scenario where they wanted to know our way of resolution to the problem.
E.g: "If you were to empty Airbus 480 filled with jelly beans, how would you do it?"
The scenario was easily understandable but nothing struck spontaneously as a well-structured and well-thought answer! I obviously had in mind that they were keen to see how: I make assumptions, think of re-usability, use right technology, frame my answer, etc.

Upon completing the test me and Praveen were discussing why we find such testing approaches difficult to appear and it clearly reflected the study pattern that we were bought up in! Never till we graduated were we given case studies to solve. Every question had to be addressed exactly the same way by each student which never nurtured the ability to think logically to solve something. If there was a different approach to the written answer it would either not comply with the taught theory or was made fun of among friends (saying that its too silly!!). Lack of importance to the methodology and confidence that your say can be right, was the main reason I found this test slightly absurd to respond quickly!

I genuinely feel its high time to restructure the approach of judging and marking students in India at graduate level. 

Shiny Apples

The 'Red Delicious' variety of apples have a gleaming blood red tender peel and are equally delicious as they look!

It was the first time that we added them to our shopping cart and it was indeed a good call to do so. Their bright and glossy red color is seeking our attention now and then reminding us to bite into them!