Rosy

4 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under chennai, childhood, chittoor, stories
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Raghava Reddy’s Turtle

4 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under childhood, chittoor, stories

An exaggerated version of a true story, as told to me by a friend who chose to remain anonymous. Yeah. You’ll know why he did so after you have read this story.

He threw our clothes, splashed some kerosene on them, and set them on fire. We stood there, standing by the edge of the irrigation well, and watched. Once he was satisfied that our clothes were burnt to his satisfaction, Raghava Reddy, turned to us. The only thought that was running in my head was ‘if he hits me, I can’t raise my hands to defend myself: my hands were busy defending something far more important.

Raghava Reddy was an ancient man. Some said he was 60. Some said 80. But from when I knew him, I was 14, he had been the same: lanky, dark man with More...

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Wanted: UX Researcher for ESPN Digital Media

4 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under ux

We’re looking for a Contractor for 6 months (extendable). You get to work on various sports portals from the ESPN network of sites, including ESPNcricinfo.com, ESPNF1.com, and ESPNsoccernet.com. If you have a passion for sports and your profile matches the criteria below, write to sumank/gmail

Essential functions:

  • Play a role in developing the information architecture and interaction design of rich and complex interactive experiences on various platforms
  • Articulate UX concepts and solutions through wireframes and prototypes of varying fidelity.
  • Develop and document detailed user experience specifications for highly interactive designs.
  • Will report to the ESPN Digital Media – EMEA UX team

 Basic Qualifications:

  • 1-3 years in similar role
  • Experience on front end / consumer driven web sites.
  • Prepared to show documentation and portfolio of sites worked on.
  • Should possess a firm grasp of web technology trends

More...

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The Legend of Elikunji

6 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under chennai, childhood, chittoor, india, stories

Mothers spoke about him in hushed whispers. When they fed their babies. “If you don’t finish your lunch, Elikunji will take you away.” We debated “Does he exist? Or is it just a maternal conspiracy to make the babies eat?” But, somewhere in the dark corners of our minds, a nagging question kept us on tenterhooks: what if he is for real?

There were too many small stories, snippets, trivia that contributed to the larger-than-life outlaw called Elikunji. First, the name: Elikunji in Tamil meant ‘baby rat or rat’s penis’ depending on how you look at it. Conversations with old men on Pagadamanu street confirmed my doubts. Elikunji was vertically challenged. He is only 3 ft tall, said some old men. The deaf Iyer next door had a different take. “He is as elusive as a rat,” he said More...

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Dear Bala, Wake up!

7 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under movies, writing

You can’t question the absence of cohesion or symmetry in a work of art. I mean it’s art! If you considered movie making an art, then you can’t ask Bala, the director of Avan Ivan, the following questions: 1) Why some of the scenes/sub-plots in Avan Ivan are gratuitous 2) Why the humour is constipated and laborious and 3) And why oh why, Bala, you fall into the trappings of Kollywood: get Surya to do a cameo and in return you promote his NGO in the movie?

I am not going to review the movie here. I am sure there are many reviews out there, that’ll state the obvious and deliver a verdict. I am going to go deeper.

As an amateur writer, I have understood that in a movie… a story, time is of essence. But in Avan More...

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Notionink Adam User Survey: Or How NI Refuses to Learn

10 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under design, usability, user experience, ux

I saw on http://www.notioninkfan.com/ a link to a survey. Adam developers want feedback from Adam users and they created that survey.

I immediately thought ‘Why isn’t this featured on Notionink’s official website?’ People at NotionInk Hacks forums too expressed similar sentiments.

So I told myself “Come on! Don’t be a prick. Take the survey, help them make Adam better.” And I clicked on the survey link. I was glad that the NotionInk team was doing this: collecting user feedback. But my happiness lasted only until the survey questions appeared on my screen.

Either NI doesn’t care about this survey or there has been some colossal misunderstanding on what amounts to an effective survey.

Now for some gems (these are actual questions) from the survey:

  1. Prioritize your activities using a PC/Laptop (Range: very likely – very

More...

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Dabur Partha and the Tusker (part 2 of 2)

10 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under childhood, chittoor, cricket, stories

Continued from part 1

My feet refused to move. It was as if my legs had a mind of their own, and they hated me. A wave of dust blew right through me. I rubbed my eyes and opened them to the captain of the Srinagar colony team alighting from his car like a Telugu movie hero: he gave a nonchalant kick to the door to close it, adjusted his Royban shades, surveyed the surroundings, and finally stood in front of me and cleared his throat. As if I was blind and didn’t notice this colossal personality. My legs were shaking and I wanted him to not see my fear. It was important to let the opponent know that I wasn’t scared. I wanted to tell him “I had nothing to do with it. You may want to talk More...

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Notion Ink’s Adam: Dream or Nightmare?

11 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under usability, user experience, ux

Very rarely a product comes along, gathering tremendous support and anticipation even before it’s launched. A huge fan base is built even before anyone has seen the product. Product companies fail to get that sort of PR even after spending millions. Adam was one such product. It was touted as the Apple killer. The underdog that’ll for sure, kick butt.

I got my Adam yesterday after more than a 40 day delay. 40 days more than the promised ‘six to eight weeks’ delivery assurance. Adam probably is a brilliant product no doubt, but customer experience is much, much more than just a great UI or prodigious engineering. Here’s why:

  1. Taking the ‘personal’ ‘we are a small outfit’ charm too far: I understand that Notionink is a start-up but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to jump in and

More...

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Dabur Partha and the Tusker (part 1 of 2)

11 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under childhood, chittoor, cricket, stories

Someone stole Niall O’ Brien’s kit and that inspired me to recount this story

The match was, how do I put it… ah!, tantalisingly poised. It was a ‘bet’ match. We were playing for money. Not for a ball or bat. The money at stake was 110 INR. Each player contributed 10 bucks. 10 bucks was a lot of money then. I am talking 1986/87 here. The Greamspet team, our team, was chasing and the Srinagar colony boys were all over us. Two wickets to go, ten overs remaining, and some 90 odd to get. Parthasarathy, my first friend, neighbour, and captain of the team was a worried man. I was curious. ‘Machan only ten bucks da, relax.’ I said. ‘Yeah but my dad had only 15 Rupees, for the entire month. And we have two weeks to go. More...

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Did you do it?

11 months ago Posted by Suman Kumar Filed under childhood, chittoor, cricket, stories

Somewhere from across the hills abutting the Chittoor Arts college grounds, the Lapwing’s shrill call pierced the peace of our cricket match. “’Did-yoo-doo-it! Did-yoo-doo-it!” It questioned. I ambled to the bowling end. Scratched my calf with my toes and took my position as the umpire. L. Ramesh, self-proclaimed ‘pace’ bowler adjusted his spectacles and waited as Farooq took guard. He took his own time. He took a bail out and rammed it into the ground, to mark his leg stump. And then, took about half an hour to place the bail back on the stumps, thumped his hands on his sides, dusting them. He studied the field, multiple times. I was almost dozing off when Farooq’s “LEG STUMP EMPIRE!” woke me up. I never quite understood why some people called an umpire an ‘empire’. I shook off the grogginess More...

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