House Construction : Make your Dream the best and a perfect one.

"Our Home". Our own house.. For many this is a dream. Was for me though :). This isn’t as easy as talked. We had to consider a lot of stuffs, must have patience, consult people, take permissions and most important, must consider financials.

In this blog article I am going to share my experience of constructing a house, which I finished in March, 2014. It took a year for the construction, which is nothing less than an adventurous trip. Definitely as I searched internet and consulted people for their experiences, someone would find my experience useful.

To begin with, I’ll start with the basic points to consider and all these in a chronological manner.

To start with or so called initiation itself need a lot of ground work. Before starting the actual construction, there are many things to be taken care.

1.       Budget/Financials

Why budget or finance came to the top of list is, because it drives almost all the below factors. Based on your budget you may change plan, and in case you want to stick to your plan, then you have to find sources to fund your plan. Definitely once the thought of construction strike your mind, you would have contacted some person who has got some idea about same. If not, then do it. Get a rough estimate.

Scenarios: First consider various sources of income where and how could you gather money for your construction. If you have all the amount to fulfill as per your rough estimate + 30% of your budget (might require by the end of construction), then you are good to go, else à

n  Consider loan from banks : If your construction site is a Govt approved one, like B.D.A or one with A Khaatha (considering Bangalore), then any bank would be happy to avail loan. However if your site is having B Khaatha or is a revenue site then you might have to take loan at a higher rate from private or co-operative banks. I needn’t mention the housing loan details etc, as there are already many sites doing same. For A Khaatha bank provides 80% loan on your budget, whereas others offer only 70% and obviously rest has to bear by owner.

n  Other sources: You can get loan from other places but at a higher interest rate (14%) compared to nationalised banks (10.25 – 12%). Gold loan from various brokers with different repayment schemes, but still at a higher rate of interest (20-23%). (Interest rates are per annum basis)

What I suggest : Unlike marriage or some other functions, one won’t need all the money before hand to start. At each stage of construction step-by-step you can plan for different sources.

If you consider bank loan, then bank provides loan stage wise. To start with, you have to finish off basement, and later on, bank releases amount at Ground floor Moulding, Initial Electrical, Plumbing, Plastering, Carpenter, Flooring and Paint works.

So plan all sources of income, consider any other person working in your family, consider any savings such as PF, Fixed deposits etc. Always have some option ready in worst case situation, so that the construction at any stage shouldn’t halt or get delayed.

Everyday construction rate increases. So the best time to start construction is today. Because by the time the construction is end you yourself will know that it was best in your decisions to start construction a year or a few months earlier.

My case : The cement rate which was Rs. 300 per bag at the beginning, was Rs.340 after 1 year(duration of construction). Also, Iron, wood etc everything had a major impact.

I had bought loan from a nationalized bank at an interest rate of 10.25% per annum. As ours was a site with A Khaatha, so we got 80% loan on our budget. We also pledged gold ornaments for a small amount of loan at one of the well known broker at 1.75% interest per month.

Learnings : Do a lot of ground work about the bank before availing loan. Few banks aren’t too much strict while releasing amount stage wise and also consider your statement to release amount, whereas few ask bill for every material you buy(which usually shops give a second thought to provide as they have to pay tax for billed transactions). So better consult a few people regarding the bank’s repayment rather than asking bank officials.

When pledging gold loan the interest rate is per month, which considering my scenario, I paid 1.75% per month which is in turn 23% per annum, which is way above 14% per annum for gold loan at nationalized bank and it is safe too.

2.       Construction Plan, Duration and Management

3.       Contractor and type of contract

4.       Permissions on Legals from Civic and Govt authorities

5.       Materials

6.       House warming J

MS from BITS Pilani : Info and my experience

Hi All,

Recently I completed Master of Science in Software Systems from BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan.

For all those who want to pursue higher education and are or aren't working, following are few tips from my side. 

In the busy IT sector life one can hardly make out time or rather invest time on themselves. But still there are few(rather many!!) who inspite of having a hectic schedule, pull out some quality time for their self growth. One of the reason is higher studies. There could be various reasons which would have stopped them from continuing to pursue their Master degree, but nowadays we have flexible options to do the same. For example, BITS Pilani offers WILP (Work Integrated Learning Programme), Manipal (Distance Studies), Symbiosis (Well known for Distance MBA).. etc.

I recently pursued Master of Science from BITS Pilani. Many people(colleagues, peers, sub-ordinates and students) asks me, that why I opted for BITS Pilani, over others. Following is a brief comparison that why I opted for BITS.

Reason	BITS	Manipal
Weekend Classes	No (All Weekdays)	Yes
Classes conducted	Online	Place would be arranged, somewhere near Basavanagudi(As far as I know)(in Bangalore)
Teaching	Much better comparatively	-
Fees	Almost same in both	-
Lecture Videos	Downloadable. So no tension of missing any classes if you couldn’t attend any on weekday.	I don’t think this option is provided.
Renowned Institute	Well known and established long back.	Comparatively less.
AICTE Approval	No (BITS itself is deemed university and has good reputation of its own).	No
Degree certificate	Final certificate won’t have anything printed as distance education etc	I think this is clearly a distance education. But can’t confirm on whether it would be printed on the final certificate also.
Change of organization	Flexible	Flexible

     Now coming to the point that how to manage time and use of this master degree:

         Most of all, its upto you how well you can make use of this degree further(in corporate life and other places). 

2    Also, checkout how well can you manage time etc. Am not saying its impossible, because I have seen people bringing their kids(around 3-4 years) to examination premises. So if they can manage, then most of us can. 

    My personal experience: 

    Nothing is easy, as it seems to be initially. Every path has its own turns and twists and so did I experienced. 

    During the first semester it was hard to even write(because it was a long time writing some stuff after engineering days. Ya I know that might be hilarious to many :)). 

    Following are few of the problems I faced and also how I was able to manage them:

   1) Time : The biggest problem is how to manage time. Usually the working hours would be anytime between 9am to 5/6pm + 2 hours minimum of commuting so total of 11 working hours. Hardly you can make out time after coming to home. If you are commuting in Bus/Cab, then that's the best time which could be utilized. Also, morning time is the best time to study. Studying in bus may not be easy for all, especially if its a bumpy ride on city roads :). But this is how I managed, 2.5 hours of study in bus and 1 hour at home. And always, weekends you have extra time. Also, you might have to skip those family gatherings and functions, friend's get together, mini parties, movies, bowling etc etc, as the list goes on and on.

   2) Office chores: Yes, you got it right. Work load varies across people and that small time which you spend chatting or roaming etc, could be managed very effectively and efficiently. Few companies also provide you special infrastructural support for watching those lectures. And when you have the soft copies of the lectures, VOILA!!, what more you want!!... you can access them in your smartphones also. One can also watch the videos in their Tabs/ Smart phones. Still to make it simple.. Convert the video to audio, and listen as if its some music(I know, not as easy as I said .. ;)).

   3) Exam time: Huff!!. The D-Day.. As the exam nears, the heat increases. Many blow the extra dust covered on books on the previous week of exams and believe me, these last minute readers also perform very well and also scores good :)..  Coming to the main point, exams are usually conducted on weekends or on govt holidays. Yes, you got it right, it could be during Diwali/Eid/Christmas also :).. So you might not enjoy your festival, but still you need not apply  leaves(other than your study leaves that depends) for your exams. 

      There would be two exams per day(as per BITS). Initially this would seem hectic, but compared to other universities which plan for the whole month(one weekend each), this would just end in one week and not dragging the lion too much so tat it kills the poor students :)... 

      I used to apply leaves as per my preparation, sometimes one whole week prior to exam and sometimes 2-3days.

    4) Exam Pattern: In BITS, there would be one mid-sem exam(closed book), which is like a unit test for 30% of marks, then an objective online test for 10% and the final would be an open book exam (dont be happy, its not as easy as it seems to be) for 60% of the marks. Each would have a gap of minimum 2.5 to 3 weeks. About the open book exam, as I said, its not as easy as it seems to be. To put in short, its like going to a feast with a tape on your mouth. You can smell all the dishes and sometimes taste also(somehow), but cannot eat completely at any cost. Literally, the questions wouldn't be straight forward or Copy-Paste kinda questions, where you can find the answer from text-books.

      One of my colleague suggested me on this. The best way to tackle the open-book exam is to make less use of Book. Yes it sounds funny, but true. Using book, checking out the most suitable answers would just eat up your precious time in exam hall, rather 

      i)  Just try to recall what best you can write on the same as per your preparations.

      ii) Have plenty of bookmarks or create an index of your own.

      iii) Best place to find the related stuff in your book is to check the topic wise index at the end of   your book. Believe me, this helps a lot.

    5) Marking scheme: There are two types of marking/grading schemes : Absolute and Relative.

        http://www.iitk.ac.in/infocell/Archive/dirmay1/relativegrading.html would be helpful.

        BITS follows Relative marking scheme, where if the top score is 50/100 then 45-50 would be grade A and 35-45 would be grade B and so on(The period may vary). Since this is not in a student's control, so just do your best and leave the rest :)..

     All the above problems are just some junk text if you are determined well enough and know how to manage your time, because after all its your time and your decision and hence "you" yourself are the right person to do the best.

 Happy learning folks!!!. 

    You can reach me @ razz797@gmail.com

Disclaimer : Please note that, this is purely my opinion and hence this post is not responsible for any consequences of anybody's decisions based on the same. Also, by this post, I am not downgrading any particular institution.

Bye Bye Wipro!!!

After 2.3 years of stint in Wipro, moving ahead to explore new career opportunities.

Accessing Request and Response from Stub using Axis

Hi All,

This is for people working on Web Services and SOA field.

Coming right away to the point, while invoking an operation of a Web-Service (SOAP based), if we need to get the Request and Response including Header and Body, that is, whole SOAP-Envelope we can follow the following approach:

String response= stub._getServiceClient().getLastOperationContext().getMessageContext("Out").getEnvelope().toString();

String request= stub._getServiceClient().getLastOperationContext().getMessageContext("In").getEnvelope().toString(); 

This means we can create a Stub at our Service Implementation level and after calling the Service(Note : If using the above before Service then the Message Context will be Null) we can use the above command to get the request and response.

This is useful for those who want to analyze the SOAP-Envelope. Here SOAP-Envelope includes <....>soap header apart from Custom Header if any.(soap body is obvious). Here <..>header contains UsernamePassword or generally some security related info.

We can also specifically get Body( .getBody()) and Header (.getHeader()).

Hope this will be useful for some needy.

Initiation : To Take or Not to Take

Recently due to some instances and experience a thought struck into my mind "Is it a good thing to take Initiation?".

Taking any initiative isn't a small or simple thing. It can be a small get-together of your old school or college mates or organizing some events with/for your closed ones(can be at workplace too). Initiating something don't require any so called Degree, Qualification or Certification. Its just the moment where something strikes you and you say, "Yeah!! This is a good idea, why can't I start this."

But on the contrary once you start working on that, then only you get to know the pain, dedication, time, planning etc, needed.

I myself have come across many situation where :

1. I took the initiative, but wasn't successful, due to the complexity, or poor planning, or may be due to the much involvement of the people required.
2. Many a times #1 led to discouragement.
3. Sometimes, in fact majority times "Money Matters!!!".

Its not like I never succeeded in any of my Initiatives. Many a times I have got accolades because of the same, and experience how to do better next time.

But the main reason for writing this post is to give my views to tackle the above problems to take Initiative:

1. Whenever you take any Initiative, make sure to track some of the previous developments on that field.
2. Think over, is it really necessary to take this Initiative and what will be the Impact after this.
3. "Who", "How much/many" and "In what way", people will be affected becasue of your Initiative.
4. Whether you really want this to be recognized. If yes, then why?. If No, then why Not???
5. Will it be safe or Okay if this could lead to a larger audience?
6. And most important "Consequences". Imagine the difference that your Initation did.

Following are some of the points that leads or results in someone to take Initiative :
1. Something wrong is happening in front of you, and you seriously wanna change it.
2. You see something can be done in a better way.
3. @ personal front : You just wanna do something for your satisfaction.

I feel before taking any Initiative, analyse the after affects, and what if you fail?.
I failed sometimes and also didn't get much soughted recognization as per my expectation, which discouraged me. Here latter discouraged more, as in this case, we would have succeeded in what we did, but still weren't awarded or our efforts got unnoticed.

If you think of mistakes before taking Inititative , then consider Einstein's words "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

Its upto individual whether to take Initiative or not, but whenever you feel that there's a need and you have the potential, go ahead and "Just Do It!!"...

Thanks.

Courtesy : Image used from careerealism.com

Openings for Freshers of 2011 Batch

Wipro's reputation as a pioneering and innovative company in the global technology landscape makes it a determined choice for the best of talented engineers.

Please refer Engineering Graduates of 2011 for an Off-campus Hiring event scheduled on 28th January 2011, across locations in India.

Eligibility:

·         B.E / B.Tech / MCA Candidates who graduated in the year 2011 only

·         Candidates from Computer Science or Information Science/Technology only

·         Candidates should have 50% in 10th, 12th & 60% aggregate in their graduation.

·         For MCA candidates, 60% aggregate in graduation and post-graduation

Important: Last date for referring online in WipLinks is 19th Jan 2012

Reaction & Response

Couple of mins. short story to narrate the difference between reaction
and response. Good one :)

Suddenly, a cockroach flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

I wondered if this was the cockroaches response to all the glory that
was spoken about it!

She started screaming out of fear. With panic stricken face and
trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately
trying to get rid of the cockroach.
Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group got cranky to
what was happening.
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach to another lady in the
group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the
drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.

In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.
The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of
the cockroach on his shirt.
When he was confident enough, he grabbed and threw it out with his
fingers.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind
picked up a few thoughts and started wondering!

Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?

If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to
perfection, without any chaos.
It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the
disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.

I realized even in my case then , it is not the shouting of my father
or my boss that disturbs me,
But it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their
shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my
inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that
disturbs me.

More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that hurts me.

The Take-Away : The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. We
should not react in life, we should always respond.

Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always
intellectual.


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