Muskuraiye aap Lucknow me hai

"Smile you are in Lucknow" This is the tagline of the city of Nawabs, Lucknow. This city is the capital of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of the India. Come here to witness variety of places and people.
This is the city you should visit if you are in North India. This blog is not a travel story. This is more of a travel guide.

Transport

How to reach

You can come to this place either by train or Airport. The main railway station is named Lucknow (LKO) and the airport is named Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. However both of the commonly are referred mostly by their aliases:
Lucknow (LKO) ~> Charbagh

Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport ~> Amausi Airport

The railway station is in the centre of the city.
The airport is approximately 10 km far from Charbagh railway station. So no big deal.

Within Lucknow

Transport is available to tourist places from the railway station. Ola and Uber both are available in the city.

If you are travelling on budget and want to save some pennies. Take 8 seater autos commonly known as Vikram rather than 3 seater. They are widespread in the city.

Tip: You will have to walk around 1 km from the airport arrival section to reach the 8 seater auto stand. It will cost you 20 rupees per person to reach the Charbagh station.

Best Time to Visit

Lucknow’s weather and climate is somewhat same as Delhi/Gurgaon. If this is the case, finding a suitable time to visit is no rocket science. Refrain coming here in summer or winter. Because unlike Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore, Lucknow weather can go upto 40 degree Celsius in summer and 4 degree Celsius in winter. Hence, come here in spring(Feb-March) and autumn(October-November).

Tip: Avoid coming on Friday and Monday. Some tourist places are closed on these days.

Places to Visit

The list could have been quite long. But I will only involve places that you must visit for sure. Let’s assume you have only one day. Visit the places in the order as described here.

1. Bara Imambara - 2 hours
   

   

This place deserves to be at the first place; no doubt. This is a ticket for you to witness the 1780’s by your own eyes. As soon as you arrive here, you will understand that not only you travelled through space but also the time! The monuments from both the sides of the road will give you an impression that you are in Mughal period. This place gets opened at 8:00 am even when it is chilling cold. So not only due to its beauty but the timings also suggest that you should visit this place first. For the people who think they don’t need guides, please don’t apply the same here. To understand the architecture and the reason behind it, you would need a guide or study the history yourself beforehand. The monuments not only are pleasing to look at, but also gives strategic benefits, if under attack.

There are so much wonderful experience and knowledge about this place that I can write an exclusive blog focused on this place.  

Tip: I have been three times here. Your experience of the visit mostly depends upon the knowledge of your guide and his guidance. I would personally recommend Shabab Hussain

(Mob/Whatsapp no. 9807946040).

    2.   Indira Gandhi Planetarium (Optional if you have already visited one of these) 40 min

Even if science is not your thing, the planetarium will give you a memorable experience. At first you may feel it as a normal theatre show. But, it is not. The difference is listed below:

Normal Theatre (Cinema)	Indira Gandhi Planetarium
Duration: 2-3 hours	Duration: 30 minutes
Screen: rectangular and in front.	Screen: hemispherical and on the roof.
Seat: Can stretch for you to relax.	Seat: Can stretch for you to lay and see the roof.

So lay down and enjoy the stars in the night sky.

Tip: Do take pics with the Saturn.

3. Residency Park - 2 hours

The remains of the residential quarters of the Britishers will lure you to take some camera shots. Only the walls are upheld. Most of the roofs have fell down. It would be a nice place to play hide-n-seek with your friends. It also has a museum. However, I haven’t been in the museum. It also has lush green garden with lots of guava trees. You can enjoy eating those.

Tip: Try Potato puffs/ Patties available at the stall, near the ticket counter. You would love eating those.

4. Regional Science City - 3 hours

Come here if you have a big appetite for science. This place has lot to offer. Two-three hours also are not well enough to visit this place thoroughly. If you have a kid with you, this place is a must visit.

5. Lucknow Zoo - 2 hours

This zoo have some good collection of animals kept. The white tiger is a major attraction. They also have a variety of reptiles ( particularly snakes ). They have variety of fishes in their aquariums. This might not be as exciting. But, it has brought you closer to the next tourist place.

6. Hazratganj market

I assume the sun is setting down and you don’t know where to go. I guess just a kilometre far there is a place where you can spend your eve.

      This is a shoppers stop. You like to shop from street market, this place is for you. If you like

       branded items, still this place is for you. You would see nice pavement and food stalls      everywhere. There is an alley filled with Chikankari apparel stores. You must have heard “chicken ka kurta”. Yes, that stuff is sold here. And not to miss, you can find nice restaurant and bars for enjoying your feast. Or if you prefer Pizza Hut, Mc Donalds, Dominos etc. there is Saharganj Mall 1 km far from the Hazratganj Chauraha.

That’s all what we planned for the day. I know that some well known places have not made to this list. The other places are also nice place to visit. But, I don’t find them quite intriguing/exciting. Ambedkar park is a park with statues made of marbles. Janeshwar Mishra Park is a big park with a lake. Lohiya park is simply a park. So, they did not make to the first day plan.

Volunteering For Teach For India

Hi

We all crib about the Education System of India. But what have we done about that? Can we really help? The answer is: 'Yes'. Why not start today ? Volunteer for some NGO. Help the people who are already doing the great work. Learn and get experience from them to support the cause. Teach For India (NGO) provides quality education in 56 (approx.) schools in Pune. TFI is operating in 7 cities throughout India - Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad. Their model consists of Fellows ( passionate people ) who teach in the schools for two years.

TFI's website gives detail about the crisis and the possible solution for the issue with Education System. I wanted to get involved and hoped my weekends will be more meaningful. I filled the form to volunteer in their website. For quite long, I did not get any reply from them. I was wondering what has happened .

But the time came, and they replied through the mail on July 4. They arranged a volunteer orientation session on the last Saturday. I shared the details among my network within the office. From only 1 person we became 5. We went to the Teach For India office located near Boat Club Road. We were welcomed in their office. There were around 15 people for attending the session. Pooja, a Fellow of TFI, drove the session. We watched a video of one of their Fellow teachings in a class. We were given a presentation which had following points:

• Crisis
• What the TFI model is?
• The umbrella organisation called Teach For All
• What is expected from a Volunteer
• What are the TFI terms and policies
• Question and Answer

The whole session was interactive. There were frequent questions asked by the people. We also got a printed copy of all the TFI terms and policies. They said they will ping us through mail depending upon what we can do and what their Fellows need. All the volunteers were asked to list the ways they can help TFI. Here are some of the ways that a volunteer can help TFI:

• help in the Assessment of students
• helps in teaching
• help in maintaining records and charts
• teach Arts, Dance, and other extra-circular activities

Well, it is not limited. It is up to you and the Fellow that how far you can go!  TFI also gives a Volunteer Letter for a minimum 72 hours work. This is just a small step from us. We are eagerly waiting to hear from them.

I hope that this will inspire you. Please comment your views below.

Habits That Are Non-Negotiable For Coding

Dear Readers,

Most of the college going student have an assumption that they will have to work alone. We even get a project work and are assigned to it as a team. Yet, in college, we fail to understand the importance of teamwork. Either we do most of the work or none of it. Due to this, we never understand what is coding. Is it the end result? Certainly not. It is the piece of art. An art which can express its motive. For me, a software never dies if you keep rectifying it. I worked on a game for 3-4 months. Yet, I always think how can I make it better. It's certain that one day I will get bored of it. But if my code is in a shape that anyone can understand and that also just by reading it, I will assume my assignment is complete.  

Most of the programming books have listed "Re-usability" as a key-value for a good code. For me, I don't think a code that can't be reused is qualified as the code itself. If you go with books on "Software Engineering" you will understand what I mean to say. Code that just works is useless if it can't be maintained or reused. I want to list two basic habit that makes your code more readable :


1 . Variable names/Function Names/Any Name

Look at the two codes given below
=====================================================
function f(n){                                                
      var f = 1;                                                            
      for(var i=1;i<=n;i++)                              
            f = f*i;
      return f;
}
=====================================================
function calculateFactorialOf(number){
       var factorial = 1;
       for(var counter = 1;counter <= number;counter++)
               factorial = factorial * counter;
       return factorial;
}
=====================================================

The first program looks like the test question we used to solve in the exam. The question was "what is the output of the program". But the code for software is not meant to test someone's IQ. It is meant to explain what the code does. You won't name your children as '100101001' just to complicate yours as well as other people's life. So why you want to complicate your code. Programming languages give you freedom to refer a memory location with a name so use it efficiently.

2. Indentation

Let us again look at two codes to compare :
=====================================================
function calculateFactorialOf(number){
var factorial = 1;
for(var counter = 1;counter <= number;counter++)
factorial = factorial * counter;
return factorial;
}
=====================================================
function calculateFactorialOf(number){

       var factorial = 1;
       for(var counter = 1;counter <= number;counter++)
               factorial = factorial * counter;
       return factorial;
}
=====================================================

It is simple to see what is the effect of indentation in the code. We get a better view of what piece code is contained in for loop and where a function starts and ends. The second code just with the indentation is much more easier to read and understand. 

I understand these are very basic steps. But nobody talked about it when I was in college. Nobody spent a second about it. But now when I developed these habits, it takes out the pain of explaining my code to a new person. Let me talk about my real life incident. I was on leave from my office. I went to my friends. One of the guy from CS branch asked me to show what I learnt. It was amazing for me that he was able to understand each line of my code as soon as I coded. I didn't need to explain him verbally any of the lines. It was a great experience for me. I hope this will motivate you to develop these habits.

Thank you.

Are you old enough to get Aadhaar??

Dear Readers,

Do you know what is the minimum age for getting enrolled for AADHAAR? This is the mail I sent to Aadhaar Sampark Kendra and got the reply. The snapshot discloses all you want to know.

So, as said above, it is better to get enrolled after 15. What you think about that? Post your comments below.

Thank you.

Get Grammarly Correct

Dear readers,

We all come into a situation where we have to write emails, blogs, reports, assignments. One of the biggest fear that bites us is - "Is the grammar correct?".
Now with 'Grammarly' you don't need to be scared. All you need is to go to the website and register yourself. It is free. It is easy. And it is useful. You must have also encountered its ad on youtube. You just have to register yourself and it gets integrated with your browser. You can also upload your document to see grammar errors. I too have it on my chrome. It checks errors while I am writing my blogs, e-mails, comments and much more. If you find my grammar so correct in this blog, thanks to 'Grammarly'.

website: www.grammarly.com

Thank you.

Rangde Coloured Me

Hello readers,

This time you can help people by giving them micro-credits. You can invest money in their business and get a nominal interest. You can also donate some money as charity. But the interesting part is that your money can actually help to remove poverty from our country. You can choose the borrower from the list in whose business you want to invest. When the borrower pays the money back, you get the principal amount with nominal interest.  Minimum amount you can invest is INR 100 and maximum is up to your wish. You can opt for various payment methods:

• Credit Card
• Debit Card + ATM PIN
• Debit Card
• Net Banking
• Cheque Drop
• NEFT
• Free Cheque Pickup

Even you can choose NEFT and get their bank account details. So what are you waiting for hit this URL:

http://www.rangde.org

Thank you for Reading.

ONILNE PASSPORT SEVA, BUT POLICE STILL EATING "MEVA"

Dear Readers,
                 
                    We all know that government upgraded the passport services. It gives online applications and online payment facility. This step was taken to minimise corruption and unfair practices. Alas! It is not as effective as it was thought. You don't have to give any bribe for the applying but you can't escape from the policemen. After your documents are verified at the Passport Seva Kendra, it is required that Police verifies about you and send a report to the Passport Authority of India. The policemen from your nearest police station enquires about you and send the report. The police verification plays a crucial role in getting a passport. Police department take advantage of that. They ask for bribe. Otherwise they would manipulate your report. Thus, you are not granted your passport. Common people are forced to give the bribe.

                                    Someone too applied for passport recently. Due to online payment and easy verification process at Passport Seva Kendra, he thought its not so difficult to get a passport. But after 12 days a policeman came to his home for verification. He asked for Rs 700 as a bribe. After 7-8 days a LIU (Local Investigation Unit) officer came to his home for further enquiry and he also took Rs 1000 as a bribe. I am very much ashamed that police in our state are not only inefficient but also cause trouble to common people.