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Showing posts with label Reviews/Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews/Reports. Show all posts

Friday, 28 May 2021

People I listen to...

Over the years, many have asked me to suggest what to read, watch and listen to which will benefit them. For the books, I've started writing reviews about the ones which I like. 

Here, I've listed all the channels I've been listening to. The list is not complete and subject to updates. Also, names are not in any particular order.

— Shakeeb

Note: Obviously, I don't agree with everything a speaker promotes.


Philosophy, Psychology & Logic

Prof. Jordan Peterson

Steven Crowder

Vsauce

Adam Ruins Everything

Ben Shapiro

Ahmad Javaid


Entertainment

Jim Browning

Nigahiga

UFC

Mojahed Fudailat (UFC Animations)

Bad Lip Reading

Patriot Act (Hassan Minhaj)

Obayd Fox (Ar+En Vlogs)

Karan Singh Magic

Shaheer Khan

Dawood Savage

        DIY Perks


IT & Programming

Fireship.io

Two Minute Papers

Code Bullet

DevEd

WebdevSimplified

Ben Awad

The Net Ninja

Srinivas Tamada


Graphic Designing

Mohamed Achraf

Logos by Nick


Politics

Dhruv Rathi

Maulana Sajjad Noumani

ScoopWhoop Unscripted

Shahbaz Ansar (ThePrint)

The Deshbhakt


Dawah & Comparative Religion

Sheikh Ahmad Deedat

Dr. Zakir Naik

Mohammad Hijab (and group)

Mufti Yasir Nadeem Al Wajidi

Maulana Kaleem Siddiqi

The Muslim Skeptic


Islam, Quran & Jurisprudence

Peer Zulfiqar Naqshbandi

Nouman Ali Khan

Mufti Tariq Masood

Maulana Manzoor Mengal (Tafseer Classes)

Maulana Makki Al-Hijazi

Dr. Israr Ahmad

Youth Club

Hanafi Fiqh

Salahuddin Saifi Naqshbandi

Mufti Saeed Khan

Scholarly Subtitles (Arabic content translated)


Monday, 23 January 2017

Teachers I had...

This is what I feel about them...

Note: Names in the below list are given in alphabetical order. Please notice, this is NOT a “Top 10” list. I've listed only the teachers who have taught me and inspired me a lot. All views and opinions are personal.

From First Year

1. M.D.Mehre
2. R.R.Pais

From My Department [CSE]
3. Ashish Jaiswal
4. G.J.Tripathi
5. Nilesh Shelke
6. R.S.Khokale
7. Swati Dhabarde
8. Vaishnavi Ganesh

Others
9. Pallavi Chavhan
10. Aniruddha Pathak

1. M.D.Mehre:
He taught Physics to us in the first year, both in 1st and 2nd semesters. Besides teaching, he used to guide the students and make them aware of their future. Who can forget this line, “4 saal ki degree 4 saal meN nikaalo, naukri kaise nahiN milegi.”

I was fond of his “Bhaashans”. I had once recorded his inspirational words. I remember the preparation leave before 2nd sem exams. I could not focus my mind on studies. Sitting on the terrace of my house, I tried to read at least half a unit, but couldn't help myself. Then I searched for the audio I had had in my phone, I listened to it and unbelievably, got my focus back on study.

And that rare conversation which is still making me smile while writing these lines. He saw a girl smiling during his lecture and asked her....

“Why are you smiling miss <name>?”

“Nothing sir!” she replied.

Then with a smirk on his face, he said “Smiling without any reason is not a good symptom for your health.”

His teaching style was fixed and seemed like everything he is teaching is preplanned. He was my favorite in the first year definitely.

2. R.R.Pais:
She was our class teacher in first year and I thank God that she was. Motivation is in her blood. Very few people motivate and encourage like her. She used to constantly push the students to do something ( she called it “dhakka” ).

Coming to teaching, she teaches from heart. It was obvious. The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. No one will forget her “dhakkas” which she used to make to make students open themselves up, come forward and share their thoughts. It is fact that when you face something second time, you feel quite familiar and comfortable with it which helps reducing the anxiety. Knowing that fact, she used to force the students for the first time. She took lots of effort teaching us. “Communication Skills” was a practical subject. I've never seen any practical subject being taught with that much effort.

One of my classmates had some arguments with a teacher at the end of the semester (I’ll not name the names of both of them). It might have had some effect on internal marks of him. When Pais mam came to know this, she tried very hard that their personal matter should not affect his internals. So caring she is.
She is from Department of Humanities, and hence has deep knowledge of human psychology and knows how to make students work hard. She was the first person one would choose to approach to if he is having some problem.

3. Ashish Jaiswal:

I’m sure if you will define him, “friendly nature” will surely come in the definition. Smiling most of the time, he hardly needs any time to get comfortable with anyone. I’ve never noticed him being angry except one or two occasions where it was really necessary to be so and take strict action. His “good-for-everyone” type of nature makes it very easy for him to have a hold on most of the situations.

He taught us in three semesters consecutively. Most important characteristic of his teaching is he explains the topic so extensively that one just has to revise it at the time of exams.

Interestingly, someone from our senior batch told me that Ashish Sir was not this polite when he joined. He used to scold too much and was aggressive. I don’t know why, but it seemed like a joke for me. I can’t imagine him being aggressive.

4. G.J.Tripathi:

She is well known for her elegant style. I personally like her English very much. She is definitely one of the teachers who I admire the most.

She has taught us for three semesters and it’s fourth time now in 8th Sem. That was the 5th semester when she taught us DBMS. She never [as far as I remember] dictates anything. Just use to enter in the classroom, put the book on the desk and starts teaching what she has prepared herself for. (Seriously, she never teaches without preparation.) I used to take notes during the lecture (in 5th sem specifically). And then I noticed something which I’d not noticed anywhere else… I came to know that she don’t speak a sentence from which you can’t extract something new.  Every sentence is unique, worth to be added in your Knowledge “Database”.

Oh, and one more. I am fond of her examples (which I used to quickly pen down.) I am actually planning to upload my handwritten notes of DBMS on my blog. I think them worth sharing.

5. Nilesh Shelke:


“Energetic” is enough to describe him in one word. He has got kind of “do-something-before-you-have-no-chance” nature. And being of the same nature, I never miss telling this to others. So is he. He hates sitting idle.
Let me tell you how I came to know this. He was our project guide in 6th sem. I’ll not forget that day when I first met him with my group to discuss the project ideas. I had just started working in C# in after-exam vacation of 5th sem as per my own interest and was a beginner in it. I had collected some of the project ideas to build a software program. One of the ideas was “an automatic C code generator”.

We met him and I started to explain the functioning of that “tool” I had built. He was just smiling all the time and later asked some of the bitterest questions I never knew he would ask. And those questions were not actually the questions; they were actually to mean “This doesn’t worth being a mini project.” (Yeah, I know a little bit of human psychology).

Why to lie… I hated him at that moment. I hated the way he disapproved the project. I wanted some appreciation for the work I did as a beginner. I was not meeting the gaze with him (that’s what I do when I’m angry with someone).
Then he started putting his ideas in front of us. And even in that angry mood, I liked one of the ideas very much and that’s what our project is. We started our work on it.

Sir didn’t know while disapproving my “C Code Generator tool” that I was a beginner in the language. He just got the “idea” behind it and found nothing appealing in it.

And in 6th sem external practicals, when we got the obvious complement from the external examiner about our project (which was chosen by sir), I realized that ‘my idea’ was really not appealing comparatively.  I realized that I was angry for the wrong reason. I wrote him an email explaining every detail of the external exam. But those were the “Words” of the email… One who can read “in between the lines” can easily comprehend what that email was for.
Well, this was quite an emotional part. Coming to his teaching style, he is frank with the students and therefore no one hesitates to say ‘no’ when he asks “Are you getting?” if they didn’t get it. : cough:

 Moreover, I love the grin he has while explaining something. And that lovely line…

“Samajh rahe ho kya maiN kya bataane ki koshish kar raha huN?”
[Are you getting what I’m trying to say?]

6. R.S.Khokale:

Khokle sir is our Head of the Department. Want to learn in simplest possible way? Want to have your concepts clear? Reach to him; he will do it for you. I wonder sometime if he has some inference engine in his mind which takes the complex language as input and generate “easiest” language as output. Notice the superlative degree. Every lesson seems like an introduction. Let me speak technically, while teaching, his “level of abstraction” for explaining the concept is always high.

Recently, we were discussing about the subject after his lecture while I took out the printed copy of syllabus which I always have with me. I was checking out how much syllabus has been covered yet. And there came an awe moment for all of us. We were amazed to see that we have finished our first unit, even every tiny detail of it. Then I came to know his strategy. He uses to teach like we are having a discussion on some general topic, while he cleverly covers the syllabus points with them. It’s may be because of the subjects he get to teach, but still I love that strategy.

And yes, I am impressed with the quick real life examples he give which perfectly matches the topic being covered and make it even more easy to grasp what is being explained.

7. Swati Dhabarde:

Who can forget those OOP concepts? Ask anyone of my classmates, “What is Polymorphism?” I guarantee the answer will be same…rarely mismatching any word. Here it is…

“Poly means many… Morphism means forms… So the ability of a function to take more than one form is called polymorphism.”

You must have gone through a word “Abstraction” above. How do I remember that? That word was introduced to us by her and it’s in our minds now and will probably never go away. I can still see that word written in my notebook, the simple-language meaning I had written there in Urdu. I can still hear her voice echoing in my ear, like I’m in the classroom of 5th semester.

She always used to say, “We are going to study <topic name>, and it is really very simple.” We laughed on it sometimes. But seriously, it became simple even if it really was not. That’s how human psychology is.

And obviously noticeable, her listening skill is really good. She is really a good conversationalist.

8. Vaishnavi Ganesh:

She reminds me of Ghatole mam from first year. Difference is, Vaishnavi mam speaks even more clearly… rolling and chewing the words in her mouth. Her dictation tone and speaking tone has no difference. You can’t spot any difference between her dictation tone and speaking tone.
That day, probably it was the first week of the college in 8th semester. She was dictating. After finishing a sentence…

“The book you have to refer in this semester is…” she said writing the names of authors on the blackboard. The whole class burst into laughing as they just realized that it is not the part of dictation. Mam too giggled.

She teaches Operating Systems primarily. If simple technique to teach is not working, she turns the teaching into an imaginary conversation between a “Processor and Resource” or a “Server and Client”. It seemed funny, but telling honestly, those imaginary conversations helps a lot to understand the concept. Believe it or not, while writing these lines, I’m having lots of concepts running in my mind she taught us in previous semesters.

9. Pallavi Chavhan:


It was the seminar of her subject. She had distributed the topics of a unit between us and every group of five had to give the seminar on assigned topic. Her listening skill is remarkable. She was on the very first system while all other students were behind her sitting scattered all around the room. She never moved from there and her gaze never missed the speaker, no matter who he is and how his English is. I even noticed the time when none of the students were listening to the speaker but she still was… interest in her eyes, nodding her head slightly and appreciating him. I was impressed. Rather I should say, “dhak se impresss hona” would be more proper here (that’s how one of my classmate say it.)

She taught us Mobile Computing. And we all loved the smoothness and clarity of her voice. Her pronunciation was very pleasant. She used to give real life examples often to make the subject all interesting and understandable.

10. Aniruddha Pathak:

He is not from our teaching staff but I'll not forget him. Actually we had attended a two day workshop by him. He is quite enthusiastic. I really loved his energy and was impressed by his public speaking skills so much that I wrote a report/review about the workshop taken by him. You can check it here.


_______________________

About Author: Shakeeb Ahmad is a blogger, poet, enthusiast programmer, student of comparative religion and psychology, public speaker, singer and Vedic Maths expert. He loves playing with the numbers and invented a method to square the numbers at the age of 16. In sports, football is root to his happiness. He lives it.

Friday, 9 December 2016

One of The Greatest Workshops I've Ever Attended

Mr. Aniruddha Pathak [Photo taken from Facebook]

REPORT- TWO DAY WORKSHOP ON SOFTSKILLS

By: Shakeeb Ahmad

Background


“Yes sir!” I turned towards Prof. Abhijit as he called my name.

“Do you know about tomorrow’s workshop?” He asked.

“No” I said.

“We have arranged a workshop tomorrow at 10:30 am in the seminar hall…you know…at first floor. It’s related to T&P.” He informed.

“Ohh Okey sir.” I replied.

And that’s it. I had no idea about the workshop that how it would be. I was thinking it as any normal workshop or seminar we had attended so far. But now I admit…it was not normal. It was one of the most perfect one I’ve ever attended.

***

During the Session


‘Mr. Aniruddha Pathak’ was what he has introduced himself along with a long list of qualifications, certifications and courses. It would be perfectly normal if he had the tone which most of the people having the similar qualifications have. But he had very friendly, smooth and pleasant tone that I still remember his voice; echoing in my ear, full of encouragement and energy.

The very first thing he did was encouragement and motivation. About 15 to 20 minutes, he continued and filled all of the students with hope, enthusiasm and the belief of you-can-do-it.

He introduced all the steps an organization takes to recruit freshers. From resume to interview, he explained them in a nutshell. Then the journey started from self introduction. He explained all necessary points to be included in an ideal self intro along with Dos and Don’ts. Questions were constantly being asked from students, showing their high level of interest in the session.

The difference between resume, CV and bio data was then explained and the topic shifted to how an ideal resume should be. The format of resume was discussed so deeply that no other topic except GD (Group Discussion) and PI (Personal Interview) was discussed in that much depth. He said that projects are very important in your resume as a fresher.

“What else is there in a fresher’s resume except his project” he said. Without a break, he continued sharing his experiences, stories and tips to guide students make their resume better. He insisted students to include their extra curricular achievements, language proficiency and computer proficiency in resume.

Adding a tip, he said “Including your passport number in resume shows your readiness to move across the globe.”

Next topic was grooming. He explored each and every detail from hairs to shoes, for both- boys and girls. After grooming, he switched to Body Language where he discussed topics like hand shaking, eye contact, gestures and postures, even the details of how to stand, walk and sit along with Dos and Don’ts of all. He continued adding flavor in all details by sharing various real life experiences and made all session full of laughs and hence interesting.

The session was then handed over to Ms. Mamta who guided the students on “Email Writing” and “Paragraph Writing”. She explained the use and difference of BCC and CC, concluding as “Try to avoid using BCC”. Then she discussed the format of both email writing and paragraph writing. She explained the limits of time and words in paragraph writing. Giving different tips to the students, she said “You are not a student of fifth standard, so make sure your words in paragraph writing or email writing should match your age.”

Day two was more exciting for students than day 1. Pathak sir started the session with the topic KYC (Know Your Company) or 3C (CCC- Company, Customer, Competition). He frequently gave important questions which might be asked in HR round during his quick session. Students were noting down the questions and their sample answers.

Session was then handed over to ___ sir whose topic was “Public Speaking”. He shared various experiences and motivated students. Explaining how important speaking is, he said “Humans are the only one who can speak. No animal is given the words or the ability to speak like us. This shows we are made to speak… Its makes no sense being shy to speak.” He made one girl stand and ask her some questions, and then made it clear to all students that he is going to remember this girls, only because she had spoken to him. He also shared some tips to fight stage fright.

A small session was taken by Rozeena mam. She asked different HR questions to students, motivated them and given chocolates to appreciate and encourage the students.

The final session was on Group Discussion and Personal Interview, again by Pathak sir. After explaining difference between discussion and debate, he discussed types of GD and normal time duration given for GD. He said topics have no bound in GD and you have to be well prepared. Sharing the biggest Don’t of Group Discussion, he said “Never ever take name of any religion, caste or community in group discussion.”

Finally, he explained the types of interview. And then a detailed analysis of what and why people do mistakes in interview. He discussed what to do before, during and after the interview. Once again, the explanation was full of interests and his own interesting experiences, which filled the room all with smiles and laughs.

After the session, students were divided into groups to take their GD, and even when it was already end of the official college day (at 5:30) all students waited and participated in the activity with full interest. This was enough to know how successful workshop was.

***

I feel…


Can you guess the students remembering very small details of what was explained to them? Such were the students who attended the workshop. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that big quantity of students who were well aware of their abilities and qualities. A confident smile was on their faces, and bright eyes saying yes to any situation they might face in their near future. The only reason behind all this was Mr. Aniruddha Pathak.

I have read a considerable number of books on psychology, soft skills, personality development, leadership, confidence building, verbal and nonverbal communication including gestures and postures etc. Therefore, it’s in my nature that I analyze everyone. And I can say definitely, Pathak sir was one of the most successful public speaker I’ve ever seen. During his introduction, he had also mentioned psychology, and his all sessions are witness to his mind reading ability. He was just perfect with student’s psychology and hence all of the students were listening to him without getting bored. He knew the ways to make his speech attractive. The way he appreciated, motivated and encouraged students to do something special in their life was the first impression he left on student’s hearts and students started loving him. He said that we have to pen down our story by our own. And those who don’t write their story start giving excuses.

I liked one point the most, written that in bold at very top of my notebook, “Don’t run for selection in interviews, aim for not to get rejected. That’s it!”

And a wow statement “If you got selected, then balle balle, if not, then say with proud, ‘it’s your loss boss, you’ve lost the candidate like ME.”

He was explaining sometimes like a father explains his son. I liked the tips given to girls very much, which seemed like a very caring father giving some greatly loving tips to his daughter. Very hearth touching.

Needless to say, the jokes and the stories were the best parts from all the sessions he took. They never allowed students to get bored. This style was very much similar to Dale Carnegie, who frequently shares his own experiences in his books, which forces the reader to finish the book in one sitting only. The workshop was very useful, interesting, informative and motivating. We are more confident and more serious about our career objective than before. I am very thankful to all trainers, to our whole staff, T&P incharge Mr. Abhijit and especially to our principal Mr. K. V. Shirsagar for this useful workshop.

SHAKEEB AHMAD
FINAL YEAR, CSE