Value of ZERO

Internet banking is one of features provided by many of the banks all over the world. IT professionals are bound to use this feature as they are always binded with the desktop.

We husband and wife are both IT professionals are using this feature since we started receiving our first salary. Last month we had to pay off our monthly rental for the house we stay. It is normally transacted via internet banking.

My husband had 14300 as his account balance and our house rent is 1300. After the transaction is over the transaction history is normally printed with the amount transfered and available balance.

My husband was shocked to see the transaction history showing his 13000, for the 1300 amount being transacted. He rushed me from the kitchen to check out what was wrong with the transaction. At the first instant it seemed to be a transaction of 13000 instead of 1300 but when gone through in detail it was mentioned that the available balance is 13000 & Amount transacted is 1300.

ZERO HAS no value when it precedes any digit, but when it is following some other digit it finds its own place value.

Techie Pinky travel

Singapore transportation system is a modern, air-conditioned passenger train service with stations all over the island. There are three main lines – the North-South line from Marina Bay to Jurong East, the East-West line from Changi Airport/Pasir Ris to Boon Lay, and the North-East line(NEL) from Harbour Front to Punggol.

The North East line is the longest driverless underground transportation spanning for 20.7kms with 16 stations Harbour Front (south) to Punggol (North east) of Singapore.

I had been for a purchase at Mustafa and on return I took up the NEL from Farrer Park to HF. When I got down in HF, one of the two doors of my train car did not open due to some problem. But to my surprise, The platform screen doors of that particular car also was closed in correspondence with the train door.

I was perplexed and asked the authorities about the system. He briefed me about the NEL and its Signalling System. Following is a short note on the same.

Singapore MRT designed for a fully automated driverless train operation The Platform Screen Doors (PSD) are aesthetically esigned to blend in with the stations’ design. It minimises energy consumption by preventing air-conditioned cool air from escaping into the tunnel, and acts as a safety barrier for assengers standing between the platform and tracks.

The Platform Screen Door are operated by an electrical drive system upon receipt of vital PSD operation controls from the signalling system in the nominal driverless mode. The PSD controller provides status indication on individual PSD to the station management system.

The Singapore MRT are operated in set of six with positive door lock mechanism lea cars. The individual local door control unit is designedving no room for ambiguity in door status. There is a close interaction with signalling from the automatic train control unit to the station management systems which provides crucial platform door opening synchronization with train door operation and coordination with other station operations.

Whenever I travel in the pink lane, I am dumbfounded by the growth of technology.

Be careful when you book tickets

Ticket booking is always a painful task. There were days when people had to walk to the reservation counter to book tickets. Even I have experienced the queueing activity. When I was schooling, my father used to book the tickets - be it a cinema theatre or a park ticket or a travel ticket. He always plans the trip well in advance.

If it is going to be an outing like theatre or park, it would be advance booking before 2 weeks. He planned it to avoid the queueing inconvenience eating up his time in idle. If it was the travel plan, then the tickets are booked 3 months advance. He booked it 3 months advance because the reservation system allows him to do only 3 months advance. To my knowledge until my college studies, he never stood up in a queue for reservation. TIll then we made outing once a year to visit our relations during the Summer vacation. So dates and plan was almost fixed and doesnt get affected.

When I worked in Bangalore, I travel to my hometown every alternate weekend and I started making the travel plans. As an ideal daughter for my father, I followed him by writing the reservation form and booked tickets well in advance rather a month before. I would have practiced it no later than for my first two travels. Then I was influenced by the world of computers.

I started booking my tickets online and utmost tried to avoid the reservation queue.Lazyness brewed in me and I advised my father to learn online booking. I stopped planning my travel instead travel when the tickets are available as and when I search them online.

I was pretty confident with my bookings be it a planned travel or an unplanned travel, I make up it up for the booked date. But one day the confidence turned over confidence. I had made online booking for a movie for sunday evening. Online ticketing is very simple, either u get a reference number or take a printout of the tkt and get it.

I booked the ticket for the movie and pulled in everyone at home and walked into the theatre with the printout. The gate keeping boy allowed us to inside and we got our seats comfortably and got settled with the popcorns munching. The manager of the theatre walked to us and asked for the tickets. He asked us to come out and checked our tickets. I wasnt sure y we were pulled out of the theatre. He informed us that the ticket printout which we had was dated for the saturday evening show and we turned up on sunday.

Even though educated, working and personally booked online, experienced with online ticket booking, a small mistake in the selection of date in computer. The system date was set from Monday to Sunday showing S for saturday and S for sunday leading up to the confusion. It was left unnoticed until We had watched the first 2 scenes of the movie and were sent back home.
One another scene which recently happened was while booking flight ticket for my father. After several discussions at home we finalised the date for his travel to be friday night flight. The flight was at 1.15am and the booking was made for friday 1.15am flight. Keeping the discussions in mind he prepared for his travel on friday night and at the airport his travel was denied saying his flight has already left and his travel status was NO SHOW as the 1.15am flight means it is saturday early morning flight but keeping in mind that it was a friday night flight the whole mess happened.

So BE AWARE or BE AWAKE when you book your tickets online. Dont go by word or say. Dont get mislead by the dates & timings. LOOK properly for the date and time of the booking made.

Pregnancy & Delivery

In every woman's life, getting pregnant is the gift given by god. First pregnancy is the most excited period. I would consider it as a golden period in my life. The thought of carrying a soul within oneself gives the utmost pleasure in life.

I had adopted the early pregnancy tests to discover the new life in me. The confirmation was given when consulted with the doctor. I started calculating the due date for the arrival of the new member. People showered me with lot of blessings and advices. I followed the week by week schedule and started dreaming about the new little one.

Science have been much advanced, which brought the stage by stage fetal development to me. My husband and me were every time excited to visit the hospital to watch the fetal growth. I had experienced the most nausea and vomiting in the first trimester, which is commonly called the morning sickness.

One of the first things to think about is how to safely get to and from work. I felt dizzty and nausea while commuting through public transport, which had heavy impact on work. Worst thing is to control the nausea till a safe spot is found. During travel I get down at the nearby bus-stop to vomit. But then I always carried a couple of plastic grocery bags (without holes!) tucked with me.

The second trimester is the smooth period, with celebrations. The morning sickness drained off. The feeling of air bubble rolling in my womb excited me. We roamed around the city with the heights of enthusiasm of the forthcoming parenting experience. I tasted much of variety foods in this period than the first trimester.

Work went on well and my sixth month collided with Ramzan. Being the first ramadhan after marriage, I wanted to go for the whole month fasting but with due consideration on my health, still fasted for half a month. It was really the wonderful month of Ramadhan wading off quickly and I was into my last trimester.

The third trimester each and every minute that I spent was in the thought about the arrival of the new one. Being the first labour, I started reading articles about vaginal birth and C-Section. Many motherhood forums threaded messages on this topic. Vaginal birth videos were available on internet. Initially felt a kinda of fear and had less confidence on how to cross the stage.

Elderly people suggested me to do regular exercise and walking daily. The whole of my third trimester I practiced walked morning and evening. Doctors advised to do all house hold work mainly sweeping. Every night I used to have a warm shower and especially in the back down the navel for the muscles to relax and get positioned to face the labour. Even though after a lot of study there was a kind of fear in me as the due date came closer.

It was 2 days for Bakrid and all preparations for the festival was in progress. I had spotted blood and went for the checkup to the hospital. All preparation were canceled. The doctor advised to get admitted in the hospital for further checkup. She wanted to wait till next morning for the labour pain.

The whole night that I spent in the hospital gave me lot of confidence and courage. I was afraid to face labour but that night was unforgettable. I was awake the whole night and got to see the different stages of labour experience by other fellow ladies. The scream and shout delivery from one, while a silent delivery by another, lady not withstanding the pain requesting the doctor for C-section, most informative night was that. That was more informative that the articles that I read.

The result of the doctor's checkup the next day morning was to give me external medicine to induce pain and get the baby out. After 5 hours, I had delivered a cute little baby girl by vaginal delivery. The 10 minutes which I spent in pushing out the little one to this world is the most memorable one.

For all woman wanting to have a vaginal birth, I would advise to practice regular walking during the third trimester as it would relax the muscles and help in natural birth. Natural birth is always advisable by everyone and most healthy way of giving birth also.