The subtleties of UI and UX

 One of the biggest boons to humans is the power to communicate. And ever since the discovery of information technology and computers, humans have been striving to communicate with them in the simplest ways possible. As the first computers were meant to behave like bots, the interface of this behaviour was not easy to be laid down. This process of human-to-computer interaction is popularly known as User Interface (UI).

Rewind to the 1970s – humans delved into the fascinating world of computer programmes that were huge in size and made use of thousands of lines of code used to execute a single task. This mode of communication was termed as Character User Interface (CUI) and the only mode available till the 1980s when smaller, independent programmes were started to be built that gave the UI a graphical and more readable look. This was termed as Graphical User Interface (GUI). The CUI is still widely used in a lot of computer system operations to make programmes that are implemented in almost all spheres of work.

As time progressed, the importance of and stress on GUI has overcome those of CUI in that the former is easier to interpret, remember and utilise in further computer programming. Checkboxes, drop-down menus, buttons and icons are all part and parcel of GUI. The revolutionary shift from CUI to GUI meant a lot to humans as they were pre-programmed snippets of code or tiny programmes that saved time, effort and money to the people or firms hiring computer programmers.

So, is GUI the end of the road? Not quite. Fast forward to the 2000s and one can find the Operating Systems themselves made up of fantastic GUIs. Whether it’s the Windows or Mac OS, the GUI has become the heart of all computers. It’s also the measuring stick for the OS’s popularity – the better the GUI’s look and functionality, the more it used to sell. Diving deeper, what they found from the end-user or the consumer’s psychology is how they perceive a programme the first time they used it. This gave birth to a whole new digital world of user experience (UX). The UX itself forms a USP of any software manufacturer or designer and can make or break their unit sales.

While a lot of users get confused between UI and UX, it’s imperative to remember that UI is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to forming a positive user experience or UX. Hence, firms or software giants, especially digital marketing channels, focus a lot on hiring more talented UX designers than software programmers. At the end of the day, UX is the impression that one takes away after visiting a website or any entity on a digital platform. When it’s the marketing collateral, for instance, a blog, flyer, campaign letter, travel blog, product feature or simply a model car’s launch, the ‘feeling’ that gets associated with the viewers’ mind seals the deal. And that ‘feeling’ is proportional to how absorbing the UX is. They don’t go and see the website source to find whether Wordpress or Joomla is implemented to construct that design!

Someone coined them perception and response – two of the most important parameters that define UX. While perception is more to influence the purchasing decision of the customer, the response is more a yardstick used to calibrate the UX. A positive response is a corollary of the positive perception that is attributed to an enticing GUI. While the positive perception coherently builds the brand image, the UI and its various nuances are actually what act in the background to put the UX into shape. Think of a play and its colourful characters acting on the dais. While the ornaments on the actors, the lighting and the visual characteristics of the dais build a perception on the mind of the audience, the skills, experience and rehearsals of the actors are actually what give them the form they deserve. In our case, the former is the UX and the latter, UI.

Some of the technical aspects of building a great UI are the positions of placeholders, GUI components across the page and keywords with which a consumer is likely to search for the online content. It’s statistically proven that many readers see the online content in a “Z” fashion and draw their perception out of the content on those lines. So positioning the keywords or images in those directions can lead the viewer and entice them to click on that most coveted “purchase” button. Also, the compatibility of the content created matters a lot – if the UX designer doesn’t optimise the layout of the article or blog to be viewed on an Android-powered smartphone, then the user viewing it will choose their competitor within a split-second.

UX should ideally drive and form the target for the UI and UI should practically build the UX. At the end of the day, both UI and UX are essential components of the digital platform and need to be paid equal heed to make the digital content or campaign a success.

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A prime time gift to mobility- The Asus Zenfone 2

Where the wealth of wisdom flourishes, there starts human’s form of mettle, satisfaction and curiosity. Under the boon of Science for twentieth century, people around us have been breathing in technology in sacred incarnations of the Personal Computer, the Mobile and the Internet. What indeed, could have been better, radical and innovative in this Age of Evolution, to the human race!

One such boon here, for the psyche in the world of mobility is the new Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML). A premium gaming brand for motherboards and other PC-s, Asus had made its mark dating back to almost two decades of glory and fame down the path of competition in computer peripherals and PC-s. In recent past, Asus mobiles are slowly becoming their hallmark.

Asus is known for the quality in the build and performance of its devices and the all-time positive feedback and the word-of-mouth promotions successively added the seed to its popularity. With a minimal market share of 7.4% in Q42014 [EQ], Asus mobiles had seen a soaring growth of 402% which never failed to tell. Now in 2015, one of its flagship mobiles have been the Zenfone and ZE551ML has proven all quality standards exceeding consumer expectations, including those of color accuracy and color Gamut chart, AnTuTu, Vellamo, Quadrant and CPUMark, NenaMark 2 and GFXBench.

With its powerfully sleek ergonomic body design, it has won a tremendous score over customer choice in the most economic or pocket-friendly mobile handset in the range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000. The Value-for-Money has a jaw-dropping ratio of 11.4% taking into account the project cost and shadow bid which surpassed every other budget smartphone in this price range, such as Xolo, Micromax, Oppo, RedMi, Karbonn and alike.

The first thing a typical mobile-buyer would feel in hand, is the iconic concentric-circle textural design which had put the engineering team of Asus to test. With the tough and theoritically scratch proof Corning Gorilla 3 screen protection, The ZE551ML boasts of a 5.5” IPS density screen along a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. The color density and reproduction which stretches to provide an enormous 403 ppi density, viewing angles and tough response ar beyond par excellence than any other competitor in its price range. The Zenfone in its uniquely modeled Zen UI provides for everything an Android user may ever crave for in customization and optimization of performance. To fuel it and yet keep it cool in the processors, Asus is using a 64-bit Quad Core (maxed to 2 by 2 cores) in Intel Atom Z3560 clocking the max at 1.8 Ghz. The processor temperature gets peaked to 45 degrees while playing graphically overdriven games like Modern Combat 4, C.O.D. Strike Team, Real Racing 3, Asphalt 8 etc. This temperature is normal as the Intel processor hyperthreads whenever multiple cores take the heave.

It is no mighty a beast in performance if its not strong at the lens and the pixel density in the offering. The Zenfone 2 stacks in potentially inculpable 13 megapixel rear auto-focus with 4128 x 3096 p.d. with dual-LED flash and F/2.0 aperture lens and 5 megapixel front-facing lenses which is capable of providing 4k videos in full High definition at 30 FPS with zero shutter lag. Though initial launch premiere reviews of the handset didn’t bring appraised feedback about the picture qualities on paper, but Nenamark 2 score of 60FPS just breaks the ice of all critics.

As far as the package goes which comes out-of-the-box, the Zenfone 2 features the latest Android 5.0 lollipop powered by a decent Lithium-polymer 3000 maH non-removable battery and a special add-on for “fast charging” which allows the device charge upto 60% in just first 40 minutes! The Zenfone 2 is even bio-friendly to keep in the pocket of your denim or your shirt and you would not be searching for earplugs in haste, if a call rings up- thanks to the SAR value as low as 0.35 W/Kg.

Now, the sacrament of this handset at this price is providing a 4 GB RAM which even some of the modern PC-s do not come boxed with. This piece here, is one of its kind in the world of mobility for the 21st Century and beats all other peers hands down when it comes to the build, design, quality, camera, performance, battery or the amazing special features it comes preloaded. ZenMotion, SnapView, Mini Movie are just a handful of some other gifts the buyer gets alongside of.

Needless to say, rolling out the next Android hallmark, post the Android One, Google may choose Asus to bless with the next flagship Google mobile considering the quality standards, hardware specifications, benchmarks and promise of service that Asus delivers to its overwhelmed customers. Rest assured, this gizmo in your pocket would keep you happy at the end of the day as it meet both your ends of budget and what Asus offers you in a steal!

::: an Experiment with Truth :::

It is a desire that is born out of pain, happiness, grief and joy. The life on earth is ever expanding, ideas ever reforming and Science ever evolving. Without emotions and a stately sense of principles, it is hard to bind them together for a human life in a life. What is today will be vale tomorrow; what is tomorrow will be extinct soon.

As I always follow and preach, the life is very short and limited; it is worth being alive to the fullest among the mirky and harshest truths. But humanity has still not wilted off around. Some of us still believe in the good works, in the will to achieve, in faith and poise. They do not revel in all the hurly-burly, marking out every single atrocity and tramping past all that pains. 

To synonimize life, I  choose happiness. I like to play a fool with my heart. I love to love. I yearn to give them, who have lost everything or got nothing. I have embraced life as it comes, as how it has rewarded or punished me, no regrets meted without a cause. 

"Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now, 
Thus much let me avow -  

You're not wrong, who deem my days have been a dream;

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream"

With an experience replete with the fiercest of funks and lasting optimism, I am listening to the chiming overture to life. There was a waif whom I met once I boarded off my bus on the way to my hostel. He used to devour the residual pulp of the waste shred coconut shells from the coconut stall at a bus stand. Over a week of certitude of visual disturbance, I decided to open myself to him. The next week for 5 days in a row, I offered him two coconuts full of water and pulp inside, whenever I boarded off the bus. That waif in grubby rugs didn't know which expression would fit his face for me. Every time he let out both his trembling sweaty hands in an impulse, grabbed the coconuts with watery eyes and a cold face. He sat there on his hunches in nothing flat, to slosh it down his throat. I felt those 200 currency value were my best investment for the month, as what I received was a heart full of wisdom and an ocean of happiness, that cannot be dealt with words. 

The other day I was returning home from the office and was late as I had to purchase a cheap Sports shoe for the next day's soccer match. It was 9 o'clock at night later which, there was no public vehicle plying to my place. I had waited 20 minutes at the bus stand for my bus during which, I watched a blind middle-aged woman waiting for hers. As the bystanders satirized her infirmity, I decided to take a step forward to humanity. I went upto her, asked for the bus she was waiting for, waited for another 35 minutes, stopped her bus, guided her to board it on. I got on a random bus later myself and hired an auto from somewhere close to my home. Her hands in mine with a disoriented face and a beautiful pomaded hair felt like an angel in disguise. I could almost feel her throbbing heart echoing in revered gratitude. Looking at her as her bus receded from the stand, the surmounting happiness I was in, indeed, is too much to describe by the letter of the law.

There are the needy wanderers galore, who settle in front of the temples and Churches. They run their families with the daily alms that they long all day long. I believe in destiny and that whatever good and bad are done come back tailing us. What if your destiny was not a white collar job in a Tier 1 consulting firm? What if you were not born with gifts of talents, a moneyed family base, priceless friendships, your partner's true love or having brought up a blessed son or daughter who fills all the gaps in your contented life? What if success didn't trespass your career? What if there was very little a pouch left with you to start a life, to feed a hope ahead? 

I put myself in their cleft shoes oftentimes, try to find that needle in the haystack to see a hope of education, a hope of a fulfilling mid-day meal and a mere hope to see a child smile. Once such soul exists at the very heart of Bangalore. Every day since I traveled there for work, I saw that blind man sitting near the 4th Block bus depot with its cuddled infant and begging for mercy. To the wonder of my eyes one day, I saw a shabby daily-wage laborer offering some coins to that blind man and joining hands to offer a pranam. I stool still to understand what force lies within a person of limited means to offer money to someone of nearly the same economical status. Cold breeze blew behind my ears in a midsummer afternoon. A bizarre urge took me over. I paced to a local Nandini parlor and offered him a small chilled tetra-pack of milk. As I placed the packet over his wrinkled hands, I couldn't help but held onto his palm for a second or two before I realized it was not me who was holding hands. It was his cold pair of foresaken hands which does not work for a blue-chip MNC, which does not play the piano, which cannot hold his child and teach her cycling. He was shivering with awe and deference as he tried to look up to me and see from his heart. The child nigh, stared at me with those innocent eyes I could hardly glance at, as I felt with a heavy heart I couldn't do anything more.

These moments of truth pass by our life every day around us. It is not an effort to feel for the better, to soothe a pain or to bake a bun for a canoer. It only gives you a moment's satisfaction that voids the next minute when your boss summons you and carps on your self-conceited position in the company. It embodies a structure of happiness, that touches and sinks deep into your soul, inspired and valued. I have been offering a meagre part of my responsibility of lending happiness as my pocket and wisdom permits me. Happiness to me is contagious; it travels through people's minds aided by memories and experiences. Some experiences are sown into viral marketing campaigns, some are left-behind ideas not funded! But the basic trench lies in what and how we want our fellow mates to fare in life. According to a recent research by the World Bank, India had borne a mean Death rate of 11.4% vis-à-vis births out of poverty in 2014. The scourge of poverty alone accounted for 240 million lives in the rural and 72 million in the urban with more than 43% of them not deserving a midday meal even at subsidized rates, leaving them BPL. 

I request you to barge in all the odds of your ego, attitude and a set conscience for status and try to join in turning our land into an even better place to breathe.

Please make some room for these people who need us along and by. Spare a moment to think on them, add up as minute a stint as you afford every time you come across someone who you think deserves your helping hand. Take my word for it- it makes you witness of a felicity which no other worldly pleasure can grant in terms of your life. You need not be a Carlos Slim or Warren Buffet to seed in a thought for them, but a living heart and mind. Let us make our fleeting life count for just some others.

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By the MAGIC || For the MAGIC || Of the MAGIC

They say, wherever there is a will, there is a way. And they also say, beauty lies in the eyes of a beholder. Believe me when I say I’ve been through a plethora of similar soft-skills based and motivational programs, but this brief week-long program with you people has indeed been ecstatic, emotional, enriching, overwhelming, nostalgic, and full of life and sentiments. I have earned twenty odd friends from these seven days, and each of you have been refreshing and stand out each along your own ways. Each of you contributed to our little family so far, being sporty, naughty and gritty all at the same time making it nobly memorable for weeks to come.

Life as I define has two purpose to be lived for - to be happy and satisfied in the long run and achieve success in personal and professional lives. To be happy in my eyes, is to either make others happy or pursue what you have always wanted to, be it a profession or a hobby. Success again in my eyes, is to be happy in lives in our own ways by accomplishing the finicky ephemeral actions and events that complete us into what we are. Thus I see it as a vicious circle of most important building blocks of a man’s life- happiness and success.

Mphasis ranks No. 7 in All India Top Players’ Rank from IT Industry (NASSCOM ‘12-‘13). To be frank, people around us scar us tagging as ‘BPO employees’ vis-à-vis other giants in core IT, and that call-center agents lack in wisdom and that rich experience and societal status which can be derived from working for a Tier1 IT company. M.A.G.I.C. has, by now, proved the reverse. It has categorically taught us the virtues to service humanity and values of the top-drawer which can be construed to be the torchbearers of a person’s selfless psyche.

M.A.G.I.C. paved a unique way to a glimpse over our past. It provided for a unique journey through our present. It sourced a unique prospect for a primed, dynamic and vibrant future of us ahead. M.A.G.I.C., in many ways, has tutored us in ‘keeping our friends close and enemies closer’, has enlightened us to ‘never, never, never give up’ and to be a human being who cannot be turned down in the face of gloom and turned away from the feast of happiness.

We imbibed some morals about emotions, the agents to cause them and the strategies to master them; to filter out all the fleeting negative tizzies and muster up all those which matter. We must each be educated enough to weed out anger and endear our cool in times of need. Some of the morals are lessoned with values much more than life itself. The biggest success and a live proof of you being humane is to let go and accept who you are for all you know and all you care.

One of the most versatile speakers I’ve listened to in days and years, stood in front of us as an elder brother and a prized friend all along these seven days, instructing us all the way in fun and triumph and as the short days passed by, we already began to miss him as a valuable asset of classroom experience. Mr. Pradeep is an icon for every college classroom teacher, coaching and tutorial classes. In his terms “I do not preach what I do not practice”, he stood by it with his charming explanations and beautiful expressions of how and what life brings to us and how and what we are to bring to life.

Yes he deserved every single bit of what homage and respect we paid him the last day of M.A.G.I.C. and that showed in how he embraced them all and responded with an equal magnitude of love and faith on us. It is now upto us, not in this company and not in this role of a follower to live up to his expectations, but as a matured complete human being for years and decades to arrive to feed the society with the best we have got- to be tested of our values and learnings encapsulated in this short and sweet week of M.A.G.I.C., made friends for life.

Sadly enough, most of the fun-filled moments have culminated, but on a positive note. It’s time to “pull up our socks and hold onto our horses” as we look up to glide along and challenge for whatever follows. I wish all of you the best of luck along your PST and on-floor endeavors. I hope what we have gathered so far is best put to effect and meaning. Believe in yourself no matter what come may. Faith, love and peace prevail.

As for me, Mr. Pradeep and M.A.G.I.C. will be cherished through the test of times as two priceless possessions carved for and beyond life. The values latched onto our brains will deliver the best of results wherever we thrive for to concede along the topsy-turvy successes and failures of life.

I'll leave you with this small food for thought -

“Life is a play that does not allow testing. So, sing, cry, dance, laugh and live intensely, before the curtain closes and the piece ends with no applause.” 

          - Charlie Chaplin

those who witnessed the MAGIC and who delivered...

22 months - memoirs down the silver lane...

The city of our land I resided for the last 22 months does not have many subcontinental wonders like those to which travellers crave to visit, but has an idiosyncratic pizazz of its own. This 'city of virtue' has brought me my first job, longest stay in any part of India with the best climate I have ever come across, many new good friends, a completely different culture and a Marathi tradition rich, old and sophisticated.

In this magnificent world, with nature's extravagant continuance we have witnessed very few of the world's wondrous locations. Apart from being the world's most populous democracy, our subcontinent also holds the first rank in having the most diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of all. One one hand, we have 'God's own country', one wonder of the world etc., to boast of... and on the other we have assets like Ajanta-Ellora, Jantar Mantar, Bodh Gaya, Mahabalipuram, the Sunderbands, Kaziranga, Red Fort, Khajuraho etc. which reminds us of our rich cultural heritage which can make any immigrant or diplomat or visitor fall in love with our own motherland... its called the first impression vis-à-vis love in first sight!

The bakeries, the foggy water splashes over algae-clad spruits at Lonavala... the dry heated roads of Hinjewadi or Swargate or along the Paud Road... ice-cream at Jacarendra's, the burger n vadapao stall at the Deccan crossing, the ceiling-zero misty roads to Lavasa... the capering magic shows beside Station road, Camp, the furnished bliss at the Ashram of Osho... Inorbit, Cinemax, E-Square University Road etc. ...all hankering to take me back away to the small yet ever-fizzling city...it has indeed made me, a lightweight observer of her nature and her manifold pristine surreal bedroom-eyes... !

Now when I feel my hair rustling in the dry sweet evening breeze under the sequoia waiting for the bus  to arrive, I see through those memories blowing in, slowly seeing out my trails of her chants. Unlike metros in India like Chennai, Mumbai or Bangalore, if you place your ears along the cold nights of urban clamor, you'll not be able to hear much clatter of the trucks, the midnight bashes of the 'shaadi'-s of well-off families- not because Pune accounts for 0.27% of India's population, for the solaced gushes of winds streamlining over your ears or pushing and punching your cornea across the nights of tranquility here; provided your house is not situated along any NH.

Nonetheless, its also a great place to learn from- specially when you have one of the oldest hubs for bookworms to turn up in masses; "ABC", the colloquialism for Appa-Balwant Chowk is a well-accessible location for such sanctity. All in all, you will bubble with business all the day's hours if you are located for a job at Pune or higher studies from prestigious colleges like Symbiosis or IIM or IIS or Welingkar etc., and yet there will be no blemish on your fun of retro life as well. This city is the whole ball of wax if you're looking up for a constant momentum rolling up your life..

Staying couple a Kms from the Kharadi village, I was able to see the city holding emotions in good and bad- playing pranks and getting caught, an all different work culture, carom at Zensar and last but sloppily not the least, the sleepless nights of bewitching Counter-Strike...

A Year At Hand - A Restrospected 'You'

A year in your life is going to be added. How many of you ponder of the most insignificant new things that you achieved this year and the most insignificant things inbred that you could cast out off your life..?

Some of you so far, have been really focused on your MBA career and some of you are, as its said, relished the "vacation". Some of you have grown into a better human being, yet some of you have grown newer habits which you war to get rid of. Many of you couch potatoes have just been cocooned out of your comfort zones travelling all the way to the South, yet some of you savoring your home advantages. Some of you may well have developed new relations; amongst all the busiest schedules which you may have scrambled, a girlfriend or a boyfriend may have been just be perfect breakthrough for your NEW life.

How about taking a look back at the same tagged milestone exactly a year back. The ways you are planning or have pre-planned this new year bash must be plumb different from how you had it in 2011. Its not the 'time' that passed by, which changed this attitude in you, it's the place and its people. You came in here, pitched in We-School with a vision, that manifested otherwise in your thoughts.

All the piles of last-night assignment works, all the hoards of last-week exam preparations and all the tensions for next year placements subsided at this occasion of grandeur and revels. But you how do accompany this extra new year of your life?? Do you throw a littered can outside your room, at the trench at the side of the road while you gobble a scrap for your PDQ breakfast? Or do you put all of the three lights on while you leave for the morning bus in haste?

The next day onwards these and all questions akin demand their answer from you. All atrocities than you inflicted on nature demands to be rectified by you in another year of your life bestowed by mother nature herself to you.

On the flipside, do never forget to holler and spin around.. Live your fleeting life with all the passion and verve; rinse every single drop of your energy to live to that one single fire at your heart- the fire of survival with it's flame of success..

Jab WE Met !

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

 -- John F. Kennedy

A chirpy Saturday morning...coupled with a mint mind, dozy eyes and lots of quirky curiosity set off with several volunteers from Woodstock Ambience on college bus with chocolates and toffees. The event was called RYLA and it involved teaching school children of classes nine and ten, in an interactive ambiance where fun factor was contrived to fill all our spirits with. These children were hardly versed in English as they belonged to government schools and there medium of instructions was predominantly Kannad. 

There were modules about the teaching program we were about to take up the next day. They were lessoned to us on the night prior to date and we somehow managed to remember some of them while hoping to put up more innovative strategies and methods for interactions. Some of them included common English phrases translated to Kannad for ease of communication and yet some were events and games we planned to play with the kids. The chocolates and toffees were the prizes we planned to gift the winners of these games. But still I wavered unsure how the program would go about as this was my first visit to a government secondary school and interactions with students having subsidized school education. I've always loved singular interactions with kids; had done it before on multiple occasions, and they all seemed to be at copacetics with me. But this time its me on the dias with my colleagues as teacher-friends in front of a coterie of chuckling and hollering kids with butterflies in stomachs. 

Our bus reached post 10 o'clock and just when we were approaching the school's location "Huskur", we crossed a long stretch of rocky fields on red soil and the place was serenely disconnected from the city. Students in white were already having classes when we seventeen stepped into the school and inhaled the bracing and invigorating air gulfing us. For a moment I thought I had definitely not put the time to inapt use. Our minds turned inquisitive as well as thrilled with the very thought of dealing with bunches of fickle, frolicsome and frenzied kids. 

We divided ourselves into groups of four. The ambiance was that of a rural fenced compound or an ashram. We walked across the sun-dappled scape of land towards the four classrooms full of bright and berserk kids. Much to our surprise they greeted us Good Morning Sir and Madam in unison loaded with smiles. I was in class '9A' and there were a total of 17 boys and 20 girls all in white uniform. Girls' and boys' columns were separate- one of the boys hunched at the last bench; another girl stooped at the second last. We introduced ourselves recoursed by Nishanth's expertise in the dialect and they did their part hence. In no time, we could befriend all of them. The charm in the 37 golden faces with stripes of pleated innocence was sprayed across their countenances. A certain chant of love and togetherness shaped between all of us. We placed our schemed events to them, and they were part of them with enthusiasm abound. Each of our activities deemed piquant to both us and all of them; needless to say they were elated at each and every toffee offered to them, for these tiniest gifts seemed lifetime achievement awards to them and they all flocked at to participate in order to win "chocolates"... Such inflows of energy were last experienced by me in my own salad days some eight years ago and memories gushed into like gravitational pull off Niagara Falls!

Our activities included "Tail the elephant", "The sinking ship", "passing the buck" and many more and all of them had the crack of the whip...never knew RYLA would be such a sport for me till yesterday. It was a rounded two and a half hours of rollercoaster spree of energy-flow and exchange of care and affection between them and us. As mentioned before they weren't well-versed with English; but our body language and their cooperation paid off all throughout the program in interacting as facilely as normal. Boys piddled about busily at their pranks and girls retracted in shyness, as expected. Some boys danced as a part of punishments and girls sang. 

Their valuable takeaways from various activities include listening skills, team work and other important aspects of group communication and confidence building. Towards the end, all of them were made to put up their chosen professions. In other classes which included students of class ten also, they really surprised us with some aspiring to be software engineers, some claiming to be Windows geeks alike. Some of the kids in our class wanted to be lawyers and bankers too! We were inevitably left agape and astounded pondering of how and what 'we' dreamt of, back eight to ten years syne. They really proved the pace at which ages are evolving and belonging from a government school, they really astonished us with the genre of ambitions they deem in. 

The session ended in a whirlpool of events with toffee distribution and there were tinges of  composed receding happiness across every kid's visage. We felt content as we accomplished the motto we went there with, the motto of RYLA. 

Our class of 37 demanded a photoshoot with the four volunteers including me and we took clips and snaps all over the premises. I distributed the leftover toffees to the shyest kids I could find, and that brought about a poised chortle at the corner of their lips and filled my heart with a sublime gratification unruffled and peaceful..

I hope the cause of RYLA upholds near and far across nations where underprivileged are too handicapped to voice their concerns and their social and moral education remains perennially amiss and incomplete...

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Weblink to RYLA