Children and COVID times

During these pandemic times, I see children who are under 12 years are the most affected. When I see kids who are supposed to start their first steps into Montessori and further are doing online classes. Which in my view is inefficient and disgusting. These kids are losing social skills, disciplinary skills.

They do not know what is punctuality and discipline and obeying elders etc. Their fine motoring skills are going for a toss. No one is able to help them. We as parents are trying our best to induce some learning and writing habits in their brain but due to familiar faces they are not so keen on doing what we say. They need a commanding voice in the form of a teacher in front  of them. Only then they will start inclining towards academics. Other wise, we are here for a very dark phase of life in these kids lives. 

Kids below 12 years are addicted to cellphones increasingly and with no other choice left during the COVID times. We really cant ask them to not look at cellphone or play games in cellphones as going outside and playing is a dangerous option. Some kids who do want to get locked with a cellphone try to use all the indoor toys but for how long? So we are in a phase where the Kids are PUSHED BY LACK OF CHOICE TO WATCH/PLAY ON A CELLPHONE.

Just when we had hopes of schools opening up, we have Omicron hitting the streets and Governments thinking to lock the cities again. Its really sad to see such things happening in front of our eyes, which we had seen in sci-fi movies probably 10 years back.

I just hope kids from this phase of history are not classified as pandemic kids just because they were deprived of good education.

Off the topic: In Karnataka the government has introduced multiple choice questions for SSLC (10th Std) which I think doesn't make sense and makes it difficult to differentiate between kids who have good skills and who are merely ticking answers in randomness.

COVID and Work from Home

 The title is combination of events which is disaster to life. I was reading an article which gave suggestions or "principles" to follow for two types of working modes.

1. Work from home

2. Work from home during COVID. 

I just couldn't stop laughing at the status we are in today. My experience during these times when you are literally left with no choice but to work for and from home is a confused story to say the least. 

1. You really can't deny certain chores that are requested to do at home. At the same time you have to 
obey your boss at office.

2. You have to clean your kids poop while presenting the quarterly business review to your stakeholders.

3. You have to carry your laptop with "ALL" accessories from headphones to mouse to power adapter when you kids are playing outside where the local authorities have dug up the road for civil works.

4. You have to receive the guests and at the same time listen to the team call, just to ensure you do not miss any action item for yourself.

5. You have to do the casino job if mute/unmute when you are attending important call (in which you have to "TALK") and at the same time your kids are running around the house shouting and crying at the top of their voice.

6. You have take the call while you family is at restaurant or shopping mall sitting at a public sit-out.

7. You have to deal with domestic micro (or macro?)-aggressions while taking your appraisal meeting with your boss.

8. There is no element called "PRIVACY" when you are working. Its plain "BLACK" or "WHITE". Either you work for company or work for home.

9. You have lost your "SPACE"/

10. Never ever I wish this would repeat.

What is the significance of Modi in the next Loksabha polls?

 Narendra Modi is undoubtedly now the Political Leadership face in India. There is no other leader outside and inside BJP who can equal his charisma. But with the BJP's own rules of not having a leader continue at helm after a certain age limit, the chances of Narendra Modi returning as PM if BJP gets majority is slimmer. Having said that, with current global turmoil on so many fronts (COVID-19, Afghan war, Climate crisis) it may be wise to continue with a leader who has proven his mettle and understands the ground reality better than anyone else.

It may be tough for a new leader even within BJP as he/she needs to get up to speed (and time is of prime essence at this point). Every minute counts and we may miss the train in terms of taking critical decisions for the country and in global stage plus making important foreign policy changes may take longer from a new leader.

What about the economic reforms currently underway under Modi?

Yes, this is another important question. Although the new leader if from BJP itself will have similar plans to review economy, there may be slight change in approach. So as far as the economic reforms are concerned it should not be a pain topic if BJP itself comes to power again.

Does BJP's outlook as a party change if Modi is not at the helm?

To a certain extent yes. People have Modi imprinted in their brains, to get used to a new face and more importantly to have the conviction that "this new guy from BJP is a true warrior like Modi" will take time. Problem is India doesn't have time in global stage, we have to keep running at the same or even better pace year-over-year. If the growth engine slows down even at a very small percentage, we will lag behind other players like China.

Conclusion: Yes Modi is needed for now and it’s all going good. The reality is he has to retire very soon and on that day we may experience some slowness in the administration until the new leader picks up the pace to runs (hopefully) even faster than Modi for the country.

How to calculate growth (%) percentage: WoW,YoY,MoM,QoQ and others

 Any report or dashboard is not complete if you are not showing the difference. For that matter, anything life doesn't make sense if there is no difference over time. Or even if there is a difference if you are not showing or presenting them.

Now what is the difference? 

Its a comparison between the current state versus "something". The "something" may be future or past. In business terms the interest is in comparing current week versus previous week, month over month, quarterly, half-yearly, yearly growth in terms of percentages.

How do we calculate the growth percentage. Its a simple formula, let me explain in generic terms.

The growth percentage between two period is calculated 

Current period divided by previous period minus 1

Remember this is as easy as it gets and there are no brackets involved here.

VBA Script: How to split data into different sheets based on a value in a column

Lets say you a 10000 row data dump which has atleast 30 types of unique values in a column. Now your task it to split this data into multiple sheets with these sheets being named based on the unique value.

Doing this task manually would take atleast 30 mins and is prone to human error.

So how do we do this using a macro. Here are the steps based on a hypothetical data.

Our data is below. For this exercise prepare something similar on your Excel. 

Now hit Alt+F11 and click on create new module as shown below.

Once you have created new module. On the right hand white space you would need to enter the below VBA code. I will explain you on each line so that you are not simply copy pasting but you know what you are doing.

VBA code:

Sub filter()

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Dim x As Range

Dim rng As Range

Dim last As Long

Dim sht As String

'specify sheet name in which the data is stored which needs to be split

sht = "Macro 2"

'choose the filter column in the following code

last = Sheets(sht).Cells(Rows.Count, "B").End(xlUp).Row

Set rng = Sheets(sht).Range("B1:I" & last)

'N1 is the column where the code temporarily stores unique values of  the "to-be-split" 'column from previous step, so specify a empty column 

Sheets(sht).Range("B1:B" & last).AdvancedFilter Action:=xlFilterCopy, CopyToRange:=Range("N1"), Unique:=True

For Each x In Range([N2], Cells(Rows.Count, "N").End(xlUp))

With rng

.AutoFilter

.AutoFilter Field:=1, Criteria1:=x.Value

.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible).Copy

Sheets.Add(After:=Sheets(Sheets.Count)).Name = x.Value

ActiveSheet.Paste

End With

Next x

' Turn off filter

Sheets(sht).AutoFilterMode = False

With Application

.CutCopyMode = False

.ScreenUpdating = True

End With

End Sub

Once you have entered the above code. You can have a button/object linked with this code so that evey time you click the data is split based on the specified column into multiple sheets and with name of the sheet as per the unique value used to split.

If you need a copy of the excel file readymade, please email me at askme.kkhelps@gmail.com

Hope this helps! 

How to achieve inner peace in chaos: Work from Home drama

Its chaotic, really chaotic when you are working from home and yes when you have a pandemic to add to the recipe its like adding salt on the wound. AND the last straw is if you have kids who are aged between 0 to 4 years old. 

I bet life is a CIRCUS with the above configuration in you life's circuit. Consider this:

1. You have a zoom meeting.
2. Your kid has done poop.
3. Your spouse is busy in the kitchen dealing with the critical phase of her cooking (which if disturbed will leave you hungry for the rest of the day).
4. Your parents are not in a position to help.
5. AND to add the icing on the cake there is a relative who is arriving in 30 mins.

Ok how do I deal with this now? There is no alternative and no respite.

F**K you just cant ignore any of the above situations. After cursing yourself for a moment. You will have to put off your video on Zoom, get to your messy kid first with your headphones ON like a astronaut. Carefully maneuver through the stuff when on mute in Zoom.

Once your kid is glittery clean and dressed up. Clean the shit, throw the shit, clean your hands and all through this hope you are not asked to present anything on the Zoom call.

As soon as you give a sign "Yes, I accomplished". There comes another task from your spouse to go to the nearest provision store and get few important items needed to prepare "extravagant feast" (which you will never get for life) for the in the incoming souls-from-hell aka. guests.

How do you find some "me-time" or rather some inner peace? A MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

Every moment you feel like what-if the offices re-open and my boss calls me to office RITE-THIS-MOMENT? but no that never happens.

Firstly, stop cursing yourself. sink in the experiences you just went through. To give deeper thoughts to what is happening at this moment. You may hate few people, you may feel like killing self. But no you are not supposed to do that. Instead, find opportunities of peace. While walking to the provision store you have me-time, utilize it!

Me-time need not be in hours. It comes in a very tiny bits since the pandemic hit us!! When I say tiny-bits its in minutes!!! Organize yourself in these tiny moments of bliss to enhance your mood. No point in taking out your frustration at family or colleagues. Use this frustration to fuel your vehicle to reach life goals, be it personal or professional.

Just by doing this simple routine in your mind for few instances. You have began the process of re-wiring you brain to be less unhappy and more organized.

Stay tuned! More to come in Work home Home mental health series

How to show a value in Millions in Excel

 In Excel, when are designing a dashboard with big figures like  number which runs into Millions. Its not a good idea to show all the digits in the cell as this might make the dashboard look very busy and doesn't make any sense to the executives who would review it.

In these cases you can use the "Custom" Format to mask the value into showing in millions. As shown above enter "#0.0,, "M" without quotes and the value will be shown in Millions. Observe the formula bar the value is not modified but the way it is represented is masked in the cell.