Katraj to Sinhagad - a moonlight trek

One of the common passions shared by all the directors of Acuminate is trekking. All those who come in contact directly or indirectly with Acuminate get infected by it. A couple of weeks ago we all Acuminators went to Kenjalgad. And at the end of that trek, we fixed the next trek – Katraj to Sinhagad moonlight trek.

But somehow only three of us – Amar, Tejas and I – found ourselves on the list. The rest of the members withdrew for various reasons. Nevertheless, we persisted.

Now I had never been to any outdoor night event – be it campfire, overnight trek or any such thing – even once in my life. So I started wondering about the safety factor. Well, not from wild animals, but from the animals called human!

The trek was supposed to be made up of almost 14 hills, which we needed to climb and get down to reach Sinhagad. And all of these were away from the road. So there was no easy escape. We had to complete the trek or walk all the way back. I kept on thinking about what can go wrong … What if the torches did not work? What if we step on snakes unknowingly? What if we feel sleepy? Is it safe to sleep in tent? Endless questions….

But Amar answered all of them in positively, so I was ready to go… We passed the tunnel in the old Katraj ghat. I felt as if I was traveling through a pipe… Immediately after that we started climbing. It was 10.50 PM. I was soon out of breath…more than the climbing, probably because of fear. That being a weekend and an almost full moon night, some two busloads of people had started the trek. So we had lots of trekkers along with us. But there was no nuisance, no noise or a picnic kind of mood because the target was not easy… everyone was busy in walking. Our plan was to exit one hill before reaching Sinhagad and go to Kondanpur. The path was winding, so the tower on the fort used be on our right hand for some time and on our left for some time.

After climbing two hills I realized we were not at all using the torches, the moon light was more than sufficient to see the path. We walked over the top of both (old & new) Katraj tunnels. And the view of the lit Pune city was magnificent…and a good breeze used to take all the tiredness of climbing.

One after the other we were climbing and getting down… climbing was easy compared to getting down …as the way was steep and slippery. Some time it felt as if it was the end of the road… we couldn’t see anything further… but once you reach there, you get cold breeze and another slide and a hill next to that. We decided to rest for a while on the plateau. We were flat on our backs, looking at the moon, which was playing hide and seek with the clouds. It was indicating a possibly rainy night, but luckily it didn’t rain.

Though it was series of hills lined up, the experience was different from one hill to another. While looking back we could only see the line of torches following us at distance. Till the dawn we could see lots of people (torches) marching towards Sinhagad. Slowly, the toes started aching and body was refusing to walk further, but there was no escape…

Post 4 AM, moon started  getting yellowish orange and the light was not as bright as before. Then we had to switch on the torches. By five it was completely dark….and within half an hour or so, sunlight started spreading all over. We started heading towards the plane road to catch 6.15 am bus from Kondanput  to Katraj. We had to speed up to catch the bus … and at the bus stop the trek was over… from 10:50 PM to 6:15 AM we were walking… of course with 45 minutes rest and few stops here and there… What a exotic trek it was! Unfortunately we didn’t click a single photo….
- Sonali Rane

Life in Acuminate - for me...

Hi, since last one year I have been working at Acuminate. Though it is difficult to define my exact role, I am enjoying all the aspects of it. I began as a counselor, talking to students (fresh graduates) and finding out why they approached us, how did they find us, and what were their expectations?

95 % of the students used to tell me that they wanted a job; ‘I’m jobless, make me an earning member of the family’ was a common statement. Before this I had never even thought about how frustrating it would be to have an Engineering degree and not getting a job at the right time. But for this, I would rather blame the students than any one else . Before talking to them further, we needed to find out the reasons why they were jobless. The common factors were not only the academic record, but also the aptitude score, limited technology knowledge and lack of communication skills. And these barriers could have been overcome with the proper training.

In Acuminate, we have a selection procedure before accepting a participant for training. The selection test at the beginning used to be the deciding factor. If we selected one particular student and not the other, then it used to be a challenging task to convince the one who was left out. Students being students, the common arguments were like ‘we are studying together from 10th standard, so allow him also to join this batch’ etc… But I had to be firm and tell the students that the screening test had a purpose, and if they wanted to join the training program, then they would have to prove their caliber first.

About the students who cleared the test and were eligible for the training program, I had to give them an orientation and explain the difference between ‘career’ and ‘job’. To change their attitude from that of a typical ‘student’ to that of a ‘professional’ was a big challenge.

It was very nice to see a transformation from a happy go lucky college student to a professional. The journey was of course not an easy one; I had to shout at them if they were late or absent, I had to follow up their performance through the course and warn them if they were found lagging behind.

A moment of great pleasure was to give the successful candidates the course completion certificates and, more importantly, the job appointment letters. Then an almost endless supply of sweets used to start…

A year down the line, now it feels very nice to take their calls or respond to their Skype messages. I feel that I have extended my family some tenfold in the last one year!
- Sonali

Projects, Learning and Life...

Skill can be honed only by working ‘hands on’. Novel ideas evolve into reality when unadulterated fresh minds are made to confront with a challenge. With this view, recruiters sponsor projects to undergraduates every year.  However, tracking the progress becomes an unmanageable affair. If the projects are not tracked properly, deadlines slip and the quality of deliverables degrades.

At Acuminate, we launched a program ACT Now, wherein such projects were given on behalf of IT companies to select final year MCA/MCM students. Their progress was tracked and shared with the companies from time to time. These companies were the prospective recruiters.

Projects were offered in technologies / frameworks such as Android, Struts, Hibernate and Liferay. Recruiting firms have an ever increasing demand for resources skilled in these areas.

As these are the technologies in demand, students’ enthusiasm was great! They were hungry for more challenges. The opportunity to gain knowledge about software development processes was welcomed by one and all.

Experienced professors and directors of colleges found this idea brilliant. They not only encouraged the effort but also guided the students from time to time during its execution.
This was a win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved –
* Recruiters were to get projects as well as skilled freshers
* Students were to get professional exposure and placement opportunities

Typically, two or three students were grouped in teams responsible for a single project. They were made to perform every task as one would do in an IT firm. It included understanding requirements and writing SRS, checking technical feasibility, technical R & D and suchlike activities. The students were made to present their understanding and analysis to their college guides.

College guides appreciated this effort and the role of ‘external guide’ in completion of the projects. A couple of college guides raised questions about scope or authenticity of the projects. Their queries were satisfactorily answered with supporting data.

UML diagrams and normalization are essential parts of the project report. Students were trained over and again to appreciate relevance of these diagrams & processes in software development. They were introduced to the usage of use case modeling in effort estimation and costing. Importance of sequence & class diagrams and normalization was stressed upon. All the myths about these diagrams were clarified. Fear for final viva was eradicated from their minds.

Project report is the only deliverable for most of the students. However students were set a goal of completing all the project deliverables including tested source code and relevant documentation such as design and test plans. This re-enforced the sense of achievement among project participants. Students are well on their path to complete the projects and appear for recruitment.
- Amar

Importance of soft skills in sculpting a career

How to carve a meaningful career? This question has been troubling the greenhorns for generations, and will continue to do so eternally. Is there any “right” and “wrong” way of starting a career?

Rather than pontificating and generalizing, let’s look in details at what you have to offer.

What do you have to offer? Don’t look at your (copied from somewhere) Résumé (not CV anymore). That is what the world will see. You need to peep look inwards. And with a magnifying glass.

To put it simply, look at yourself as a sword. The broad base, using which you use hold the sword, is made of “Knowledge”. Without this, you cannot’t hold your ‘sword’. This base varies from degree to degree, specialization to specialization. Knowledge is what you acquire in a formal manner, and which is measured through examinations.

The pointed tip is your “Attitude”, which makes you special. It’s going to do do the job of piercing the target and helping you emerge victorious. You acquire your ‘attitude’ throughout your life, not in a short span. Attitude is what makes you “you”, not just a name or roll number. Shaping this tip is one of the toughest challenges.

Finally, the part that connects the pointed tip to the broad base is “Skills” —– something that you acquire along with your knowledge, but at your own pace and in your own chosen direction. So, two persons with the same degree and the same range of marks can have two entirely different skill sets. This part is going to perform the job of cutting, after the tip has pierced the target and you have a strong hold on the base.

Soft skills shape and sharpen your “Attitude”. They give you an objective point of view to look at yourself rationally and chart out a realistic path.
- Uday