Who would have dreamt that Contagion movie would become a real-life incident? Who would have thought that 2019 to 2021 would become a notorious year in the future history? Looks like goddess Ashwini has said Asthu when the Contagion movie was shot and it has become a true incident, unfortunately :( When the news initially started spreading in Feb-20, I really thought it is quite an exaggerated one and the media is spreading the news to seek attention. Thought, COVID is just like any other influenza. Oh God!, I am completely wrong. I take back all my irresponsible opinions. Pandemic started hitting badly, crisis came in all angles, all started looking very dramatic, virtual etc in the following months. We all started praying deeply for the protection of all lives and eradicate this demon COVID-19 and this is continuing well after a year.. Due to COVID-19, many of us have lost  a few dear ones. My uncle battled for a month with COVID complications but succumbed to death. I dare to re...

 I don't know much about Piers Morgan, never ever watched GMB and I don't think we'll see him ever again in GMB. I saw him first in The apprentice - Lord Sugar's programme as an interviewer for the final set of candidates. The way he scrutinizes the candidates with his detective mind, was a flabbergast moment for me and my jaw dropped several times. But then I did some research about him and it was mostly negative, depicting him as a controversial figure. I ended my opinion with the majority then. In December 2020, I was searching for the best books to read and here came - Wake Up by Piers Morgan at the top, bashing great stars. Without a second thought, I bought his book and started reading. I am not a voracious reader and take at least a month to finish a book when I am not travelling to work. So, whole of January I dedicated myself to reading this book. And my genuine opinion now is he is not as bad as I thought. The book talked a lot on wokies...

The story in Girls Burn Brighter is weaved between two girls - Poornima and Savitha who belong to poverty-stricken families. But values or bonds of friendship were rich in them. Definitely, a searing and electrifying novel, highly recommended. Story clearly elucidates the two families both facing critically-ill members and not having enough for anything. Two girls Poornima and Savitha had to bear the major responsibility of their family, future of their siblings etc. Savitha, who started working for Poornima's father, spent most of her time weaving with Poornima. Friendship grew between them which just became richer as the day passed. Poornima's father wanted her marriage to happen so he could wash away with his responsibilities. Poornima would feed Savitha with her version of scrumptious meal which is a mixture of rice, yogurt and banana. Savitha, working hard for her family, wants to give Poorinma a self-woven sari as her marriage gift. Unfortunately, Savitha had to face a ba...

  Road Trip - North Karnataka It was one of our to -dos to have a planned unplanned Road Trip around Karnataka and was thinking about it for the last 1 year. Finally, the time kicked-in in 2018 October. After relocating to India in 2016, we plan to do one trip a year a week long along with my parents. In 2017, we did a much awaited North India - Golden Triangle trip and in 2018, a road trip to North Karnataka. Nothing much we planned for this trip, except deciding that we will visit Hampi at any cost. Couple of weeks earlier, the road was planned as Joga - Chitradurga - Hampi - Aihole - Pattadakallu - Badami - Dandeli. Wanted to go for the trip without booking any accommodation but changed our mind a couple of days earlier thinking it may be risky with kids and parents. So, managed to book our accommodation a day earlier in a few places.. Day 1 - Oct 13th, 2018 Trip started at 7AM with the first destination being Joga. Reached Joga around 11:30AM with a breakfast stop at Threerthal...

It's been an year since we relocated to India but didn't travel much though that was one of our intentions. However, this year I made up my mind to take travelling quite seriously and have plans to visit at least one new place every month either far or near. As part of this, we made a sudden and short plan to visit Mysore as we all had Monday June 26th off on account of Ramzan, hence marking a long weekend. Why did we choose Mysore: It's because of Zoo, keeping our lovely boys in our mind. Thought they will be fascinated to see animals. Also, Mysore is one of the major tourist destination which makes everyone to visit at least once. Day 1:  We along with grand parents made a night journey on Friday, 23rd of June to reach on Saturday morning to utilize the full day. We had booked our 2 rooms for one day, Saturday, in Hotel Rio Meridian. As Hotels allow to checkin only after midmorning, we requested them to add half day extra charge and give us a room until we get our b...

Who and why should we take up this certification?   As soon as I saw this certification in Microsoft website, a question arose in corner of my mind – “Is this something to do with Unit, Integration or Load testing? Does it involve coding?” as I am not very well versed with coding. Started digging for the syllabus to confirm can I take up this test? Yes, syllabus does not include anything about coding, it’s just usual testing activity any tester will do on day to day activities in Microsoft Test Manager and not really Microsoft Visual Studio which may think of.  One may be using Microsoft Test Manager for a long time, however taking up this exam may unveil some of the stuffs we don’t really know as it happened to me. I was using this Microsoft Test Manager for nearly 8-10 months with simple approach, but I learnt more in a month when I was preparing for the exam. Also, having this certification will add into our profile which is quite important in consultancy service in...

Agile certification was one in my bucket list from some time. But couldn't find any well recognized board certifying this. When  ISTQB  announced this certification, I soon made a decision of taking up this. As usual, starting digging for syllabus and books. When I took up the exam back in March 2015 there wasn't much info on this. However bought  a book  from Amazon, which is suggested in the ISTQB website, started reading this.    Book contents/syllabi are fairly easy to understand and not much to read upon. So after reading the book once I decided to take up the exam. But, I must say that this was one of the most confusing testing exams I have ever given. Questions were simple but multiple choices were very confusing. I narrowly passed the exam. My advice is if any one willing to take this exam, attending a training course is not a bad idea.   Unfortunately, apart from the above book I do not have any other content to share.

Priority and S​everity are often the shaken debatable concepts and are almost​ interchangeably used between different people even within the test team. They both are attributes of a bug/defect and play important role in fixing the bug. ​Below I have put in some information which I have gained through experience and reading many blogs over many many years. Hoping this helps to clear confusions (atleast few) any individual may have: What is Severity?​ Severity is an attribute which denotes the implicatio​​n of a bug/defect on the system – how critical the defect is and what is the impact of the defect on the system?. Impact is defined in terms of financial loss, damage to an environment, company’s reputation and loss of life​ etc​​. Severity is an attribute which is set by the tester. Different Levels are: 1. Critical / Show Stopper (S1):  A defect that completely hampers or blocks testing of the product/ feature ...

Bonjour (Hello)! Some facts about France: 1. French, founded in 843, is one of the oldest states in Europe 2. French is the largest European country in terms of land after Russia and Ukraine 3. On an average there are about 3 cooking books get published in France everyday 4. French people are biggest consumers of medicine in Europe Day 1 (02nd April 2010) As this was our first Europe trip, we were very excited of our visit to France. We toured with Kishor and Swathi. Day started quite early as our EuroStar train from Kings Cross was at 7:27AM, Had to get up as early as 3:00AM to travel from Reading and London to be on time. I was very much looking forward to travel in EuroStar especially the journey via the tunnel but was quite disappointed as it didn't feel any better than our First Great Western train. Only I could say is travel via the tunnel gave us good long pitch dark moments with lot of discomforts to our ears. Anyways, reached Paris - 'Gore -Du Nord'...