Dance of Democracy is back!

Its back! The dance of democracy in the largest democratic nation in the world!

Let me put some 'real' facts here ... On the 15th of August, 1947, the main challenges facing a new born India were poverty, illiteracy, social equity, poor infrastructure, national security, etc. Today, in the year 2009, 26% of people live below the poverty line, 33% are illiterate, there are huge biases in gender, caste and religion that plague our society, we all know basic infrastructure like roads, electricity, water, healthcare, etc are woefully inadequate for the majority of our population, and the safety of citizens is more under threat than ever, not just from the usual criminal elements, but now from terrorists as well. So it looks like pretty much the same challenges we were facing in 1947, right?

So in all these 60 years, what has India achieved? You have the answer? If yes, please let me know. At this very moment of time, when am writing this blog, some one must be starving for food and some one must be dying cause of ill health due to malnutrition! Shame ... this is what we have achieved in the last 60 years of Independence.

Were we sleeping all these years? Where were we when this was happening to our mother ... Mother India? Well the answer is pretty simple, we are so busy with our own selves that we forget our duty towards the nation. To be an Indian who cares for every other Indian. To be an Indian, who can make a difference to the country by contributing to the well being of our nation in so many ways.

I will be writing small things which can change India in the coming few weeks. Of course am one mad Indian who dreams of a better India!

And if you are as mad as me, do post your comments here. Every oceans starts with a drop and let us be the small drops that can form an ocean. An ocean of believes, an ocean of thoughts and an ocean of good Indian citizens.

Baba

22 things IT project managers need to know!

Here are some project management tips, which draw on years of investigative reporting. Read out the 22 things any IT Project Manager should know.

1. Projects with realistic budgets and timetables don't get approved

2. Activity in the early stages should be dedicated to finding the correct questions

3. The more desperate the situation the more optimistic the progress report

4. A user is somebody who rejects the system because it's what he asked for

5. The difference between project success and failure is a good PR company

6. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it

7. Every failing, overly ambitious project, has at its heart a series of successful small ones trying to escape

8. A freeze on change melts when heat is applied

9. There's never enough time to do it right first time

10. You understood what I said, not what I meant

11. If you don't know where you're going, just talk about specifics

12. If at first you don't succeed, rename the project

13. Everyone wants a strong project manager - until they get him

14. Only idiots own up to what they really know (thank you to President Nixon)

15. The worst project managers sleep at night

16. A failing project has benefits which are always spoken of in the future tense

17. Projects don't fail in the end they fail at conception

18. Visions are usually treatable

19. Overly ambitious projects can never fail if they have a beginning, middle and no end

20. In government we never punish error, only its disclosure

21. The most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest

22. A realist is one who's presciently disappointed in the future

Some of the aphorisms are Computer Weekly's. Others are variations of sayings that have been known to project managers for years.

Baba