What 27 hours taught me, that 365 days couldn't : Part 2

Behind the Brainstorm :-

I was able to describe the process of arriving at CafeBabe's idea at the Global Service Jam 2012 in the form of notes. The notes describe the steps taken to arrive at the final implementation of the idea.

Page 1 - Origin of Idea 

Page 2 - The Conclusion

The part 1 of this blog post is here:- http://www.vivekjuneja.in/2012/02/what-27-hours-taught-me-that-365-days.html

What 27 hours taught me, that 365 days couldn't

Shot 1:- More Curious than....
I was excited since the day I registered for Global Service Jam 2012 in Bangalore. But I think, I was more curious than excited. Curious to know about Service Design Thinking.

Shot 2:- Hyprocritically true
I have always been thinking about how India being a service oriented economy (a large amount of money being pumped in through services industry via the likes of big european and american consumers) is still so nascent in its understanding of service excellence. Its more hypocritical in a sense.
We do not value services. We want products that instantly gratifies our hunger for owning something. But it hurts when you have to shell out 12k for Apple CarePack :)

Shot 3:- Hand in Hand
Service Design Thinking was the panacea I was looking for. Its only when we care for service delivery and excellence, that we can provide the same to our customer.
Its evident, isn't it ?
Products without Services is one-dimensional. Products need to evolve. Service drives that evolution.

Shot 4:- What the mind says
A Global event in Bangalore targeted around Designing services with like-minded people in a close setting - a perfect cafenine shot for the weekend. Atleast that's what my mind said to me.

Shot 5:- Still curious... 
I was out of station, and travelling. So with whatever limited opportunities I had to discover the basics on the topic, I did. I looked over the topic of the 2011 event - Super Heroes. And the videos posted by the GSJ organizers really condensed the essence of the event and opportunities it could hold for me.
Yet I was curious and intrigued.

Shot 6:- Journey into the Unknown
Day of the Event - Friday evening. Being able to finish my work early is a good thing. Atleast it was good for me, travelling from a totally different part of the city to the venue.

Shoty 7:- One among the Unknowns
I walked in to the floor of the ThoughtWorks office, and first thing that made me smile - Pictures of participants and their profiles hung on a wall. Service excellence starts very early in the customer journey - even before the actual service starts. Eating your own dog food - well done GSJ Bangalore.
I tried searching for my picture, only to find Dushyant - my old friend since college. I was surprised, happy and felt more at home.

Shot 8:-  Somebody came in...
Me and Dushyant added ourselves to the team 8 of the event. Dushyant was worried that even after 10 minutes of putting our names on the team, nobody else onboarded. And suddenly, the first name dropped in. A lady by the name Archana.
Archana was the linchpin - as I told Dushyant. Other members started coming in as soon we turned 3. In the words of Malcolm Gladwell - The tipping point was reached. It turned out to be a team of 7 people to start with.

Shot 9:- Not much to care about
A fellow jammer asked me the programming language I used recently. I replied without a blink - Java. And this thought stayed in my head for some unknown reasons.
We realized we need to have a team name. And out came in my mind - CafeBabe. Inspired from the Java language. More on this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_class_file
CafeBabe got a good response from the female members of our team.  We made a point to keep it. Not that everybody was happy with the name, but people hardly cared if it would matter. Atleast for a while.

Shot 10:- Amused
Neeraj was amused. CafeBabe was not the usual names of team he had encountered before.

Shot 11:- The fight within
A team as diverse as our country. Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Designers, Managers, Students. A perfect mix. That's what GSJ was all about. It didn't take a while before we started bonding with each other. The topic that we started bonding upon was the obvious fight of the left brain with the right. We started pouring upon the difficulties of communicating ideas in a left-brain centric industry. I had my own such tricky times.


Shot 12:- The mystery makers ...
"Hidden Treasures" was announced. Yes, that was the topic of this year's Global Service Jam 2012 - Conceive and prototype a service on the idea of Hidden Treasures. And with us, were the 100's of others around the world. The team CafeBabe looked for an empty space to huddle around. We needed ways to find our own adjectives around Hidden Treasures. When you are in the vicinity of the smartest among us, it doesn't take too much time to induce the same in you. Ideas started pouring in. The adult supervision of the team came in the form of two awesome designers - Rana and Archana. Two right brain thinkers but with amazing diversity of thinking and personalities. Dushyant was the devil's advocate - always ready to bring perspectives and helped us each to stop loving our own ideas but the problem in focus. It's interesting how we humans tend to bring out so much in defense of our own ideas. Ideas that were not real a moment back. Awesome isn't it ?

The next part is available at http://www.vivekjuneja.in/2012/04/what-27-hours-taught-me-that-365-days.html

Summary of "Don't Just Present, Enchant"

Here is it. The summary of entire talk at BarCamp 11 held at Bangalore 2012.

Somebody asked me to share the presentation, and I replied - "You won't find it enjoyable unless its me who is delivering it".  So I compiled the slides into points that talk about the content covered in the presentation. Hope all of you will enjoy it. Go out and Enchant ! (BTW, Love the book - Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki)



Don't just present. Enchant! 
11th Feb 2012, BarCamp Bangalore

Summary of the session :-

0. The Real Problem of the world is NOT Global Warming, its Global Yawning. Millions of minutes are wasted each year in presentations that do not create any impact, thereby leading to Global Yawning problem. A solution to Global Yawning can solve all problems of the world.

1. Bad presentations are awful. They waste time, energy and create moments of despair. They kill people.. literally.
  a. Why do people suck at Presentations ? Some say
    - They don't have time to prepare
    - They do no have any idea about the topic to present
    - They need to cram as much of information in one slide
    - They feel they are color blind i.e. they do not know about     design and color.

2. Three BIG ideas to change your presentation - AWARE, STORY, PLAN: "Aware of the story and plan of your presentation."

3. The AWARE aspect of the becoming a presentation rockstar includes having a fair knowledge of the:

a) Audience
b) Content
c) Message
d) Body Language
e) Style
f) Story

4. Know Your Audience: Each presentation is different. Every audience is different. Knowledge of the type of audience is the most important key to creating great enchantments.

5. The power that any speaker has over any audience - The speaker should be in control of the NEXT. In other words, the speaker knows what comes next. (Inspired from the book Confessions of a Public Speaker - by Scott Berkun)

6. Audience wants to be entertained. They want to learn, and they want the speaker to do well.

7. The Density Theory - To increase the impact of the presentation, it is essential to increase the density of the seating arrangement of the audience. This creates a better setup to enhance the energy of the talk. For example, its essential to bring the audience closer to the speaker in a room where people are seated evenly and far apart.
Note: The speaker needs to always have the front row occupied - that's the moral booster.
In a room where people are seated far apart and are less in number, it makes sense to bring them together in a semi-circular arrangement.

8. There is absolutely no escape to having thorough knowledge of the content of a talk. Knowing the topic is in itself a confidence booster. In-depth knowledge allows the speaker to take risks and use creative ways to impart the idea.

9. What is the core of the message?
The core of the message is the very nucleus of the presenter. When weighed against the presenter's content, this weighs slightly more than the content in importance. Finding the core of the message is a difficult task. People may forget the content, but they will always remember the core message.

10. Key ways to find the core of the message :

a) Learn to let go - The core of the message is a singular concept. The way to reach to it requires filtering down the content. Content is noise as opposed to message which is peace- its tranquillity.

b) Focus on the important parts of the content: Interrogate yourself with this question- What is one thing and the only one thing you want the audience to remember if they don't get anything else?

c) Use the 'so what?' principle: Instead of asking what - focus on so what. The so what principle allows you to zero in on the point that the audience really would care about.

11. Read the book Made to stick - The book provides 6 simple ideas to find the core message. The core of the message should be simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and cushioned with a story.

12. Body language complements the 'AWARE' aspect-
a) Hands are an important vehicle to transport messages. Use them to your advantage.
b) Do not be a robot. People want to see the human side of the speaker - they make mistakes, they laugh, they have emotions.
c) Do not show your back to your audience. Face them!
d) Always use verbal emphasis.
e) Just Relax: Presentation is not the end of the world. Be your natural self - not a copy-cat. Do not be someone else. The world needs you to be the real you.

13. Find your style: Every speaker has a style. Develop your own style through practice.

14. Always think about the good and bad presentations that you may have attended. Learn from them. Keep a Journal that you can use to collect these ideas.

15. Story: Stories need to be emotional. They better be true (not always  :)). Stories come out of experience. Stories impact remembrance. It enforces ideas into our memory.

16. How can you tell a story: The key to a successful story telling is to:
a. Find the Hero - element of the idea that needs to be sold
b. Find the obstacles for the Hero
c. What is at stake for the Hero ? Why is getting rid of obstacle so important ?
d. Create the big climax for thero

17. Don't enforce story telling techniques: The story must match the mood, message and the type of audience.

18. How can you be good at story telling: Here are some tips:
a. Think of how your grandma or anybody else who used to tell you stories did it
b. Listen to people
c. Read as much as possible
d. Travel to new places
e. Interact with local culture

19. Plan: Planning for a presentation includes:
a) Being analog
b) Planning the layout
c) How to involve/engage the audience
d) Use visual medium to impart ideas
e) Using the right tools
f) Designing your presentation

20. Always start analog: Avoid the need to use PowerPoint, OpenOffice or any machine in the first place. Use pen, paper, pencil, whiteboard, paper notebook. Collect ideas first.
Remember: Ideas come when we are analog. So, first be analog and then go digital.

21. How can you be analog?
a. Find some time alone : Take some time out of your schedule to reflect on the content and message that you want people to remember.
b. Scribble: Use analog tools first. Figure out the entire story and then start off with the computer. Remember: PowerPoint is not the presentation.

22. We are all fascinated by bullet points. Did you know? There are ways to avoid them. Bullet points if used incorrectly can make your presentation look like a document.

23. What are the alternatives to bullet points? Typography can be your answer: Use a mix of varied sizes of text and a proper lay out. Use icons, shapes and images. Look at good presentations on slideshare.net

24. How do you engage the audience? Involve the audience by asking questions, views and feedback.

25. Use visuals instead of text as much as possible. Visual imagery has a larger impact than text. They evoke emotions and guarantee a better learning experience.

26. You can use varied tools to accomplish a presentation:
a. For images: iStockPhoto, Flickr and sxc.hu etc.
b. Newer ways to create presentation: slideRocket and Prezi
c. Alternative to ppts: movies and animations
d. Look at Impress.JS - fascinating tools for developing presentations for geeks.

27. Design is universal: Everybody is a designer.

28. Things that you can best avoid (as much as possible, if not completely):
a) The tendency to fill every space on the screen
b) Usage of text animations: Try not to make the text fly, jump etc.
c) Usage of footers in your presentation: You do not need footers. Page numbers are a visual clutter. Avoid anything that is not required in the presentation. Read, re-read and edit your presentation.
d) Usage of brand Logos on each and every slide is a passe. Nobody uses it. Its a clutter and does not add any value to the presentation. Instead, it adds to the visual noise.

29. Everybody is a designer. Learn about design, i.e, fonts, colors and human psychology.

30. Lastly, CARE about the audience. Care about their time, patience, limited levels of concentration we all have. Care for them.

31. And again, PRACTISE. There is no shortcut to success. You got to practise like crazy. It really makes things for the presenter near to perfection (in not completely perfect)

30. Get more information at:
a) www.presentationzen.com
b) www.ted.com
c) http://headrush.typepad.com
d) www.scottberkun.com

31. Learn more from the following books :

a) Slide:ology
b) Presentation Zen
c) Made to Stick
d) Confessions of a public speaker
e) Zen of creativity
f) Resonance

32. Conclusion:-
Presentation is not about powerpoint. Its about you!
   Sometimes the best presentation is NO Presentation

Audience is the King : DroidCon India 2011

I wanted to share the success of my stint at speaking at the popular DroidCon conference in Bangalore last year. It was a fantastic conference with high rated speakers and amazing content. More than anything, there was immense energy among enthusiastic Android geeks to network and partner for their projects.

My session was on User Experience and patterns adopted by popular apps on Android market. The talk was titled : Humanize the Android. I was glad to hear positive feedback from the crowd, and how it helped them think about building experiences for a Mobile device.

Below is the feedback I received via twitter for my talk :-

Please note, I have removed the twitter handles to protect the privacy of the audience.

Thanks again to all of them and others who provided me with wonderful feedback. 

The preview video for my talk at DroidCon India 2011 held between 18-19 November in Bangalore

My talk @ DroidCon India 2011

Humanize the android

ADDENDUM : -The apps mentioned in the above presentation is as following :-

1. Endomondo (Slide no.32, 41)
2. Quit Now (Slide no. 55, 56)
3. Foursquare (Slide no. 25, 40)
4. Lookout (Slide no. 48, 49)
5. Remember the Milk (Slide no. 47)

Conference is about Conversations

A beautiful Friday evening marked the end of the annual BT (Business Technology) Summit held on 11th and 12th November 2010 at NIMHANS Convention Center in Bangalore. BT Summit capitalized on the popularity of current hot picks in technology - Cloud and SOA. SOA being in news since some time, had a extra bit of makeover thanks to Cloud. This attracted not only developers, but decision makers, senior managers of IT companies, startups and the conference regulars.

The event divided over 2 days, the first about Cloud and related technologies, and second for the SOA.
The first day really saw the entire main auditorium full with attendees waiting to grab the next available IP address off the Wireless Internet Access point. Needless to say, once you loose the signal, you are put in a waiting queue for the next burst of Wireless access.
Among the day's highlight was the introductory talk by Dr. Soley of OMG on why standards and quality are important. A cliched topic, but explained in his humorous and straight-to-business style.
I had already gone through the numerous Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services introductory talks, so the next talks were not really an appeal. I especially had different expectations from Enterprise Cloud Computing talk, waiting to hear about use cases and implementation scenarios for Public cloud in enterprises of all sizes, but with no success. The talks were good, but repetitive if you have already been through the similar sessions.
The talk by Mr. Udayan of NIIT Technologies about designing apps in cloud was full of new learnings and excellent material. I regard that talk as one of the best in the list of talks I attended on both days. Full of real, practical advice, without been spoon-fed. Great work.
The next half of the day, saw me attending talks ranging from implementing private clouds for enterprise, to Windows Azure.
I liked Janakiram's no-nonsense-straight-to-point style of presentation, completely "paisa vasool" or "worth-the-penny".
My colleagues also poured in inputs from a talk about Multi-Tenancy on Cloud by Mr. Vikas and rated it as one that provided them with good practical knowledge. Along with the talks, the twitter hash "btsummit" was on fire, thanks to flurry of tweets flowing from all corners of the venue. It brought the summit in prominence on twitter hotspots in Bangalore.
I had my chance to participate in a Chalk talk as a result of a cancellation of a Q&A session, where along with me, two other attendees got a chance at microphone for 10 minutes. The topics included "Implementing Mix-breed Private cloud", "Amazon Web Services Case study" and "Using Cloud in enterprises". I had a good day with my luck, and bagged a elegant golf-set as an award for my chalk talk, rated top on public poll.
As the curtains came down to the first day, I had a mixed feeling as a take-away. The topics I had high expectations with, didn't really had punch, and under-rated ones surprised me.
The second day's highlight was the mix-bag of demos shown by Mr. Rohit of Kronos Inc. He talked about Semantic web and HTML 5, and amazed the audience with his bagfull of jazzy demos from all around the web.
I have a soft corner for panel discussions and see those as a perfect platform for brainstorming and value creation opportunities. The panel discussion on the second day about SOA in the age of Cloud and Integration did not disappoint me. It was the sheer aura of Dr. Soley as the moderator that kept me in the session. He got the best and the funny out of all, not just the panelists. It was a fantastic display of how a serious topic can be discussed in the light of intentional humour. Good Job.
The end of second day, made me to compare and contrast my expectations with real outcome of the conference. There were highs and lows, as with any other conference. But the whole point of coming together of a community, conversations over lunch and in middle of talks, networking, and finding new twitter friends is an amazing proposition alltogether. I made a set of friends thanks to twitter, and lucky to meet two of them in person - uma_kanth and _bharath (I better know you both from your twitter handles than your real names :)). All in all, a good experience and a learning opportunity.

A couple of points popped in my head as I browsed through the array of talks in my head:-

a) The presentations (not just powerpoints anymore) are still the old-school-style. Not all, but some notable ones still prefer to have the too-much-text syndrome. No pointers from me in this post to solve this, just read from Guy Kawasaki, Steve Jobs, Presentation Zen blog etc. - you will get the signal.

b) Beat around the bush and cliched-terms-to-save-point - I sometime found that talks, especially the process of talking involved abstraction and lacked a real sense of done-it-seen-it feel. We can make out when you see people talking like that, don't we ?

c) Ramp up the skills of presenting a talk - I found some talks to be little bland and less engaging, leading to a one-sided affair. I believe a talk or presentation is all about conversations and engagement. And this doesn't disarm the talent and skill of any speaker of a conference. The conference is a learning experience for the speaker too as its for the audience.
I sincerely hope to get feedback questionairres for each talk I attend, so to provide a consistent and focussed review, that not helps me, but also the speaker. Saltmarch, please do so from next time.

All in all, a great effort and wonderful opportunity to meet the fellow technologists from all walks of life.

Can Doing Good be Easy ?

I was talking to a friend today who shared the concern of Bangalore getting dirtier each day. Some areas are in such pathetic state, that we wonder where the filth was coming from. Talking about ways to combat the menace, I happened to get a brain wave while discussing this topic with the same friend. The menace of Filth on Bangalore roads is obviously thanks to citizens of Bangalore, me, you and all. Some of us are concerned enough to put it at their designated locations. But the interesting nature of filth is that it somehow finds it way on roadside. BBMP is doing its best to solve the issue. But the root of the problem lies elsewhere.

Why doing the Right thing is so difficult, and doing the Wrong thing is always easy. Disposing the filth at their designated location is difficult, while throwing the same on roadside is easy. Why is that ?

I believe the answer is the lack of dustbins. I am staying in Bangalore for last 7 years, and I have to fight to find out a dustbin to dispose filth. And this exercise is futile most of the times. Having a good spread of dustbins across a locality will lead to a cleaner locality. It is obvious, isn't it ?

A common citizen has to go through so much of trouble just to get rid of filth, and tired of the options, he has to resort to throwing it to any location accessible. So, who is to blame here, and who is responsible for fixing it.

Would installing dustbins all around Bangalore solve this issue ? I believe yes and no. Yes because of obvious reasons, and No if only these dustbins are NOT maintained by the community or BBMP, i.e daily disposal of the filth in dustbins so to make it ready for the next day.

Also, we need to work out the way the Dustbins have to be installed, as there have been plenty of cases when even dustbins were stolen. Not to mention the Dustbins should not allow insects and flies to gather around it, thereby inviting diseases.

Above all, the basic idea that leads to the above solution is : We have to make the process of doing good and right things an easier option compared to the bad/wrong things. If this process is easier, then all of us will be motivated to do the Right thing. As doing Right is the easiest.

Let me know your comments

I am @ THBS Annual Company Day

Yours truly at Torry Harris Company Day

Do it for the Country - Chetan Bhagat

21st November - Chetan Bhagat addressed an audience filled with eager young people, and equally young at heart, the senior citizens of Bangalore. The venue was the Odyssey Bookstore

on 100 feet road, Indiranagar. The place was jam packed with people eager to get a glimpse of Chetan, who came with his wife and 2 kids. Also accompanying him were his in-laws

who play a great deal of fictional role in his new novel "2 States". The event was organised by Odyssey to mark the launch of the same book, and the excitement was evident from the participation of the audience. I reached late with my friend, but thankfully the event had just started. It was like a mini Press conference, where people from all corners of Bangalore

had something to express. Many shared how their own life and the story of "2 States" were similar in so many sorts :- the disconnection of North and South, the confusion, the chaos and chatter that goes on in the head of the people in love. And for once, they all found

a hero who they can look up to.

There were really interesting conversations, and Chetan's take on people opinions and their own real life drama. Not just the young folks, but even the senior citizens were intrigued by

the the style of Bhagat. All in all a great session for readers from Bangalore.

More photos of the session in the below slide share.

Chetan Bhagat Session

Is that God really wants ?

It seems we Indians have a special place for the so-called God Men. And these God men attract not just faith loving senior citizens, but an impatient lot of Indian youth, ready to compromise and looking for easy shortcuts to success, ofcourse in a religious way.

I met with some of my friends (all in mid 20s), independent and aware of right and wrong, who got into the hands of these God Men by mistake or sheer bad luck. Based on the conversations I had with some of these people, I realised how gullible we all become in the hands of a God Men. Of course, these God Men have tools of their own trade required to so create the charm on their "victims". Some of the experiences of these friends of mine have been through embarrassing situations not just for their themselves but their families too. These encounters usually start with the a chance acquantanice connecting the to-be-victim's family to this God Men who supposedly holds the mysteries of what lies ahead and can diagnose or even cure bad lucks, missteps and failures in life. The family / individual strong in the faith of God gets convinced to check this God Men and hopes to fulfill the desires. What starts is a lengthy dialogue, where the God Men uses the context of an Evil Spirit influencing the life of the Victim. He then plays around with the faith of the individual and bends him/her to his / her demands. All in the God's name. Shocked relatives, and family members remain witness to this "Godly" act, disturbed but still hopeful of the "miracolous power of the God Men".

All said and done, the point I want to make is why our society so gullible to take in any God Men so serious. Why we leave the chance, the destiny in the hands of other individuals rather than taking steps ourselves. What is going on here, that we allow such God Men to make merry on our beliefs and faiths, and allow them to have their own agenda. The Agenda of Power, the agenda of Control - thats what the God Men really wants.

But is that God really wants ?

Somebody caught me questioning ?

Me at Bangalore Cloud Users Group

Bangalore Cloud Users Group Meet - 2nd Nov 2009

I had been to Bangalore Cloud Users Group Meet held at

HSR layout on Monday, 2nd Nov 2009. The Agenda was

the Introduction to Cloud Computing with AWS by

Jinesh Varia, Evangelist from Amazon.

I was accompanied by my colleagues Karthik, Ankush

and Siva.

The session was kickstarted by the founders of

Bangalore Cloud Users Group, and instated the spirit

of a Users group and their vision. Then the stage

was taken over by Jinesh who presented a crisp

session, partly hijacked by the flurry of questions

from the audience (some highly relevant).

Nevertheless the event turned out to be a success,

with Pizzas and Cola treating the hungry souls.

I really appreciate the effort of Mr. Prem and

Mr. Vinod from the Bangalore Cloud Users Group

to have arrange this thoughtful session, and looking

forward for many more of the same.

Any new technology or a paradigm requires the

effort of their proponents to spread the word

and encourage the adoption. Bangalore Cloud

Users Group surely has long way to go, but has

definitely started in a style.

Takeaways from the Jinesh's talk :-

1. Interesting Case studies of AWS uses

2. Some really interesting questions from the audience

3. Security issue still a great hurdle for Cloud Computing

adoption

4. Software licensing on Cloud - utility model - a topic that

requires more discussion.

I hope to see myself to speak at any of the future sessions

of Bangalore Cloud Users Group and hope to find the

readers there too.

Note:-

Only concern was the travel time to and fro for the

Event. Hope the event is held at City Centre rather

than one corner of Bangalore.

Till then Good Night

Finding the Professional

A few months back, I had the opportunity to visit a one-of-its kind Outdoor learning programme called Pegasus around 3 hrs ride from Bangalore in the middle of nowhere. That opportunity landed me among a batch of bright engineers and managers, all anxious and excited to

explore the possibilities of the programme. The motive for this team (me

one of them) was three-fold. First, we were expected to participate and learn from the outcomes of the programme so to apply them in our daily work. Second, To evaluate the programme and bring in new ideas so to adapt the activities for our organisation's work culture and customer

centric practice. And third, to relax, enjoy and have a great time.

I am not here to describe what all happened there, which is supposedly to be kept secret, but to

reflect the outcomes of the same. The 2 days gave us a chance to go beyond our cliché , our invisible bindings and forces that keep us stuck to what we know. The variety of activities that we all participated brought the best and worst of all us in open, thereby giving us a chance to rediscover the "Professional" in each one of us.

Today, while reading Subroto Bagchi's new book "The Professional", I was not surprised when he mentioned an interesting incident with the Pegasus camp, and how he found true leaders among the team of individuals who had been to this camp.

A great read. If you guys haven't got a chance to read the book, grab a copy now. Its an excellent read. Or you can grab the last issue of Forbes magazine and read the review for the same.

'Bengal'uru Part 2 (Arko performing at Jayamahal - II)

'Bengal'uru Part 2 (Arko performing at Jayamahal)

'Bengal'uru

A tiny Kolkata in the heart of Jayamahal in Bangalore

celebrating Durga Puja.

Durga Puja has begun. I really enjoy the exuberance, energy

and positivity of the festival. It has more to do with how people

of Bengal celebrate it. A smorgasbord of emotions, cheerfulness and love.

I happened to be at Jayamahal Durga Puja festivity on 25th Sept 2009, below

are some of the pictures I took with captions.

Devotees with the 'Devi'

Different view of the venue of the Durga Puja in Jayamahal, Bangalore

'Durga' goddess in all her glory

Different view of the Idols at the Venue

The music and the Devotion

Hard metal Bengali band 'Arko' playing

View of the venue (@ 11:30 PM)