Challenge 2 - 26-Oct-2013: Learn Gujarati

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It's been a while. For a while my Challenge was left to fend for itself like a little scared child that gets lost in the supermarket. But don't worry little kid, I got you.

The thing with Gujarati reading material is that us Gujarati's with your God fearing Gujarati mother's just keep religious books in the language. I didn't really want to read anything religious. I wanted to try the literary variety of the language.

So I went to the local club where I play Table Tennis everyday. It is called Kandivali Recreation Club. This club has a decent library of Gujarati books.

I asked my friend, Deepak Sanghvi (who, by the way, ALWAYS kicks my ass in table tennis, grrrrr) to recommend a book. He said, only if I become a member of his library for a nominal Rs. 200 (phrsht! These Gujarati's I tell you! wink wink). So I shelled out 2 blue Gandhi bapu's. He then gave me my very first Gujarati novel. Called 'Paralysis' by Chandrakant Bakshi. Ha Ha Ha. Talk about ironic. You know what is more ironic, a lot of the dialogues in the book are in english (written in gujarati of course). I mean, for God's sake. I'm reading something like "You are torturing me" in gujarati...literally! :-)

Anyways, I am consuming around 2 pages per day. I read aloud like a little child and after I have muscled through an entire sentence, I have to re read coz I was so busy forming the words from the letters, I didn't pay attention to the meaning. But patience is the key. I hope to get faster by the end.

I realize, a month is enough to at least kick start the literary campaign for Gujarati for me. But it is not enough if I want to become at least passable fluent in reading this language. So I am planning my next month's challenge along similar lines.

I will, obviously, talk about my new challenge next month. So stay tuned, or logged in, or connected, or whatever man. I gotta go read Gujarati like a 10 year old.

Front and Back cover of the book I am reading:

 

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Challenge 2 - 12-Oct-2013: Learn Gujarati

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So I was beyond the kiddy alphabet learning stage on the second day itself. After that I tried to write a couple of Gujarati paragraphs daily to get a feel. But after getting irritated by my horrible hand-writing (note to self: look up dyslexia), and after my wife's laughter had died down, I decided to simply practice reading everyday.

The reason for my fast progress is not because I am a fast learner like Mr. Data from Star Trek Next Generation. It is because I already know how to read and write Hindi, and I already know how to speak Gujarati. So this is literally about re-mapping the neural cells in my brain to map the new slightly different Gujarati text to the already familiar speech.

So everyday I take a gujarati magazine and read an article or two. Now, in english, I can devour a 1000 word article in a matter of minutes. In gujarati, it is another animal. I read slowly and painstakingly and if I do get all the alphabets right, I still get confused coz I don't understand the word. So I ask my dear wife. She shows a lot of patience for the first 48 times that I ask her. Then she quietly goes to the kitchen and makes as if working. :-\

But it is a lot of fun. My only complaint is the lack of good readable material in Gujarati. In English, there is so much variety in writing styles, from the amazingly witty Stephen King to the easily digestible Chetan Bhagat. I think in my early stages of reading, I have not come across much interesting stuff. This is, in a way, slowing down my learning progress.

So, for now, my challenge has morphed into finding good Gujarati reading material instead of learning to read Gujarati. If any of you can suggest something would be much appreciated and I would make every attempt to obtain it and read it.

Some interesting facts before I wrap up:

1. Per the 2001 census, 45.7 million people speak Gujarati. The population of New Jersey is 8.8 million, and New York is 8.3 million. We Gujarati's could easily invade New Jersey and New York....wait, we already have. Ha Ha Ha...OWNED!
2. The Gujarati script is based on the Abugida system rather than the Alphabetic system. In the Alphabetic System, each vowel has an equal standing with a consonant. Not so in the Abugida system. Here the poor vowel is demoted to being merely an attachment of the consonant to modify it's sound (Oh! The discrimination!).
3. The Gujarātī script is also known as the śarāphi (banker's), vāṇiāśāi (merchant's) or mahājani (trader's) script.  But then sometimes even Gujaratis are called bankers, merchants and traders (and NOT as a compliment).
4.  It is the language of Mahatma Gandhi (The Father of the Nation), and Mohammed Ali Jinnah (The Founder of Pakistan). This little fact invokes so many thoughts in my brain that I am rendered speechless! :-\

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Challenge 2 - 02-Oct-2013: Learn Gujarati

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It's October and it's time for a new challenge. This time, I will learn a new language. Well, it's not really a new language. In fact, it is Gujarati, my mother tongue. Blush Blush. And well, I already know how to speak Gujarati. So where's the challenge...you ask, with your eye brows raised and some of your patience evaporated?

Ok, here's the thing. I know how to speak Gujarati. But loath be to say, I cannot read or write it. I am an illiterate Gujarati. In my childhood, I was so busy learning English and Hindi (and a bit of Arabic too coz I studied in Dubai), I just neglected Gujarati. And here I am now, writing blogs and shit but can't read diddly squat in my own mother tongue.

So what better time to remedy this situation than now? And what better approach to take than a 30-day-challenge? :-)

This is what I'm-a-gonna do. I'm-a-gonna search for some good sites that will teach me the basics of the gujarati alphabet and I will practice reading and writing everyday till I get better. I believe I can do this in 30 days because the gujarati script is very similar to Hindi which I already know.

By the end of this challenge I wish to be able to fluently read Gujarati articles and books and also write passable sentences.

So wish me luck, and as usual I will post all the necessary reference links and my feedback on the sites in case anybody else would like to try them out. I will also keep posting interesting tid bits about the Gujarati language and it's history so that you guys don't get bored with my A for Apple, B for Ball routine this month.

By the way, it is 2nd October today. Gandhi Jayenti (Mahatma Gandhi's birthday). What a way to spend his birthday...by learning his language.


Here's a little something to play with until we meet next time:

Consonants:

Vowels: 

Numerals:

 
Sad joke: What language do carrots (gajar) speak? Gajarati! :-)

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Challenge 1 - 22-Sep-2013: Get OCA Certified

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YAY! I have passed both the exams. I am now an 'Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate'. Or OCA in short. I am still awaiting the exact score for both, the SQL as well as PL/SQL exams that I gave yesterday.

So last week I had to take 2 days off (Thu and Fri) because the syllabus seemed way out of hand and I had failed miserably in my mock test. I studied my butt off to the moon on those two days and felt a little better.

On Saturday morning I gave my first exam at 10 am and (to everyone's surprise) I also gave my second exam on the same day at 1 pm. Giving 2 exams on the same day did make me nervous but in the end all was well because most of the questions were very similar to the mock test that I had given and this helped me to score immensely!

It feels great to complete my very first 30 day challenge and to obtain my very first industry certification too.

*** Update ***
Just got my scores from CertView in Oracle. I scored 98% for SQL and 96% for PL/SQL. Am I proud of myself or what! Below are the logos that I can now legitimately use and the certificates for my exams:

Do comment and let me know what you think and whether you have any ideas for my next 30 day challenge?


Reference Links:

• Oracle
• OCA Certification

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Challenge 1 - 14-Sep-2013: Get OCA Certified

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Ok, here's the situation after a week. I gave a mini mock test and I failed (I scored 52 when I should actually have scored above 60). I talked to a couple of folks about the exam and they all showed their surprise that I decided to take both the SQL and PLSQL tests on the same day, thus doubling my study effort and also my chances of failure.

Since then I have been in a fog of panic all week wondering what the heck am I going to do to get thru this situation that I, so ungracefully, put myself in.

After getting over my bouts of hyperventilation I came to a decision. I have applied for leave from work on next Thursday and Friday before the exam (the exam is on Saturday, 21st September).

I will need to spend this entire weekend studying and also the Thursday and Friday and, hopefully, that should be sufficient to get me past this challenge that I posed to myself in a phase of mental state that could be stated as, well, 'challenged'.

Reference Links:

• Oracle
• OCA Certification

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Challenge 1 - 07-Sep-2013: Get OCA Certified

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Ok so this is quite a boring way to start. I mean I could have started off by learning the guitar or preparing for a marathon right? And, here I am challenging myself to compete an obscure OCA Certification. Hold on to your rotten tomatoes for just a little while longer while I attempt to foster an explanation.

I believe in starting any project off slow and small rather than large and loud. I've noticed that large and loud starts usually fizzle out very fast. Slow and small has a bigger chance of surviving the test of time and, more importantly, potential attention deficiency from the audience.

So what the hell is OCA anyways? It is Oracle Certified Associate. It is a certification that will prove to the world that I, Nainesh A Jadwani, can read and write Oracle's SQL and PL/SQL languages.

So where's the bloody challenge Nainesh? You ask. The challenge is that at my work place I have absolutely nothing to do with Oracle products coz I work on the mainframe platform. Nor am I expecting any future projects where I might get to work on Oracle products. The challenge is for me to learn something new that is unrelated to my current work.

Well, I have paid the fees for the examination which is on 21st September and I have started preparation. Yesterday, I was patting myself on the back with pride coz I felt like freakin' Columbus out to conquer new and unknown territory. The syllabus has quickly turned my optimistic smile up side down into a panic-stricken frown. I have to study 18 chapters of SQL and 21 chapters of PL/SQL in the next 10 days, and I have to practice for the exam for the next 5 days after that if I am to survive the exam on 21st Sept.

Publishing my situation on a blog will turn out to be a double-edged sword. The pressure of publicity will make me study that much harder. But if I fail on 21st then...gulp.

Ok then. Wish me luck. I have to go back and continue with my studies over the weekend (goodbye Sunday...sob sob).

Reference Links:

• Oracle
• OCA Certification

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Introduction

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When I first saw the TED video of Matt Cutts about 30 day challenges, I thought wow. And then I watched it again and I thought, I'm doing this!

So I just blatantly stole the light bulb (or rather I have attempted to clone it) and have started my own blog where I will record the progress of the various 30 day challenges that I am going to attempt. Some of them will be serious (like my attempts at completing certain IT certifications that I have been procrastinating since almost 8 years). Others will be just fun (like learning to play the harmonica or making a movie).

Below are some of the challenges I plan to try out in the next few months:

1. Get the OCA (Oracle Certified Associate) and IBM DB2 certifications
2. Write 4 (or more?) short-stories in 30 days. Or just write 1 20,000 word novel. 
3. Make a short film.
4. Learn to play a musical instrument like a guitar or harmonica.

Some of these challenges are something that I have been meaning to do since a long long time (like learning to play the guitar). Others are just downright ambitious (like making a short film).

I'd love it if you guys would accompany me with the various challenges over the months, and keep me inspired and motivated (and honest!) with your comments and feedback. :-)

In case anyone is interested in the original stuff that inspired me, below are the links:

The TED Video

The blog of Matt Cutts  -->  click here

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