Where are the questions?

This past friday, 20th April 2012, I appeared for an interview. Oh no! Not a job interview but a U.S Visa interview. Don't forget there are interviews for marriages too. (stories for later)
My organisation arranged everything for me ranging from tickets to guest house accommodation. I had a very smooth trip. Employees at Bangalore need to travel to Chennai for the interview. Well, my application was for B1 and going by the rejection rates, there was nothing much to worry about but one may never know the surprising outcomes. I remember, me reading every possible article, questions related to the same, very seriously.
I was handed all the required documents. Finally arrived 19th April and I started my journey to Chennai in Shatabdi Express. I was astonished to see that passengers were treated like guests with boys serving snacks/ meals in every five minutes.
Guest house was cool if not awesome but a very reasonable place to stay for one night. And then arrived the dawn of 20th April. I remember, I woke up at 6:00 in the morning and thought of going for a morning walk but then I realized that I had not brought appropriate clothing for a walk. I had taken one formals for the interview and a night wear. Moreover, the climate was so different and actually horrendous for me that I decided to stay  either in my A.C room ( at least I could feel it ) or leave for the interview.
Interview was scheduled for 12:30 hours. I had rehearsed well and also checked my documents a lot more times than required.
Questions like; where are you going, how long, why are you going etc. were rehearsed to an extent that I'd not forget the answers for the next few months. I have a genuine and true reason for travel, very much in the list of works that can be done with a B1 Visa. Finally, at 12:00 I was inside the U.S Consulate office and everything that I was said would happen inside the office came to reality, though it was a very speedy process for me to realize it there. I was asked to get a photo without spectacles. God, with the humidity at its best and me sweating badly with a sticky climate, I had an absolutely pathetic photo. I asked for a tissue to wipe my face and I was given a toilet tissue paper, very much acceptable for a face which had lost its original look.
I went to the second building where there were counters and people waiting for their turn of interview. My number flashed on one of the screens and I immediately went to the respective counter. As instructed in the articles I had read, I gave a smile and wished the interviewer. I am sure, my natural greetings to people are far better than the one I did there. I stood there and as expected first Q was: where are you going?
How long? Why? And then there was a pause. The guy was busy typing something. Standing there, my mind started bombarding the next Q interviewer would ask? All I could hear was..hmmmm...all right......and typing sound. Oh, at times mind gets very active when it's actually not very much needed.
In the meanwhile, interviewer from another counter came to my inteviewer and he said, 'I am actually not so sure about the person' and saw the other guy taking a pink slip, meaning more information required for Visa approval. Ouch! My eyes were fixed on the interviewer though, all these times. Hey, ask me Q's , I am prepared for many more!
Suddenly, he threw a Q on me and probably it did not match any of my existing Q's in mind and hence I missed what he asked. I replied 'Pardon'. This is considered negative in the interview process but could not do much there. However, reply I got was 'Doesn't matter'. I really want to understand that why do people say 'Doesn't matter' when asked to repeat or clarify the question. This has happened to me previously as well!
Finally, I was asked - How long? and even though I could perceive the question well, reply came out was a date and not a duration as I had prepared myself for dates and not duration. LOL!!!
The interviewer might have understood and then leaned towards the glass window separating both of us and said 'No mam, how long is the duration of the project'? Cool, I answered it correctly this time and he was relieved.
Finally, he bundled my passport and said 'Ok, all right, Visa approved, you will get passport back in five days! Woohooo!!!
I said 'Thank you' as per the norms and then another 'Thank you' from my original self.

Well, my objective was not to get rejected in an interview, for whatever purpose it might be. If I look back at my thought process, I was worried of being rejected in an interview more than anything else and that too when I had a very valid reason for applying a Visa. That made me rehearse and prepare myself too well.
Hope things move well in future too and no more rehearsals now, please!

Email or Broadcast?

It all started when I started reading blogs on SCN about HANA. I was HANA-fantasized. I did summon up enough courage to participate in Online HANA Innojam without knowing an iota of HANA practically, and then chased anyone possible to form a team. I was lucky enough to get directed to the most passionate set of team members, which I realized gradually. Working with a different team is as good as joining a new Organisation.
How to start? I must say, the senior most member of the team was very dynamic and aggressive. I like people with these attributes. Things moved on. We had some meetings to discuss the business case and make everyone understand it.
I had once asked, what'd I do on getting access to HANA, I do not know anything? Two of the other members had relatively better knowledge of HANA basics. I was said, we will learn together. Fantastic answer! And one fine day, we got access to Cloudshare and had to accept the link within 30 days. I remember, I even did not accept it thinking I would do once I know what'd I do after logging in! :)  I accepted it the second day, and then things moved on amazingly.
I had read just few days before that SAP Streamwork can be accessed via SCN and no sooner did I know this than I created an account there. I raised the question as to how are the team members planning to collaborate as we were seated very differently. I had suggested Streamworks and then had to pull people to join me there which gradually happened.
From then on, any meetings that we had, I used to update in Streamworks under 'Decision' section. It's actually good as it has options that after everyone in the team accepts it, we move further. It also can be reopened. It has the facility to assign action items against each member and to one own self too. I did that many times. It can be a good tool to schedule the action items for the day.
Amazing aspect was, I did not send e-mails to anyone. Interested participants, based on their availability from regular work, were active and on receiving email notifications from Streamworks did respond to me. It has the facility of online chatting too. Good tool. I did update any issues that the team faced while doing anything new. Likewise when the issue was resolved the same was updated on Streamworks and people got notified.
Gradually, the participation on Streamworks increased and we started sharing useful links to tackle new issues. Like-minded people attract each other. I could see members actively getting engaged there and learning HANA along with me. I remember how badly we were stuck while uploading data and when it got resolved, no sooner did I update streamworks than I received a call from another team-member congratulating our efforts.
Streamworks can be a good collaboration tool. It has webex facitlites as well. Documents/ files can be very well uploaded. But then, I had a question as to whether I can suggest this to my clients. We already have lot of collaboration tools e.g. Communicators - Lync etc. and all of these have been enhanced with facilities like video calls, instant pinging etc. So why would they prefer Streamworks over existing mediums? Hmmm..I am not sure of this answer and hence have not suggested it yet.
However, I learnt few terms if not the tools while working on HANA. Business Objects being one of the most prominent one. I have realized that there are many reporting tools available, yet everyone wants EXCEL as a tool too. It's still one of the most prominent used tools.