6 years ago [25th July 2008]...

Can't believe my son has turned 6 MA ! He is turning out to be a great kid - who is observing and imitating our each and every dialogues/behaviors - gets freaky sometimes.
Some of the key characteristics that will give us some insight how is personality is shaping:

- Has some sort of identity confusion which is part and parcel of having parents on either side of LoC
- Speaks and understands Urdu which we are very proud of. [Will be joining French immersion school from September IA]
- Carnivore by hereditary.
- Loves Soccer, Cricket and Basketball. Not too fond of Water sports. Enrolled in Gymnastics, Soccer and Swimming classes.
- Goes to Quran classes every weekend [not by choice]
- Good ear for music - enjoys Pakistani songs more. With 'Aloo Anday' being the top in the list and 'Kola veri' last
- Loves playing and taking care of his baby sister Sheza
- Style sense - sometimes gets adamant of what he does and does not wants to wear. Prefers long sleeves.
- Superhero fan - Spider-Man and McQueen(if counted as a Super-Hero) being his favorites (5th and 4th Birthday cakes respectively)
- Sleeps in his room and not experienced any 'accidents' so far
- Nan/Paratha Lover. Loves when my mom makes 'Tikkiya' and 'Warqai Parathas' for him. He once said "Ammi makes the BEST rotis in the WORLD" (He calls my mom 'Ammi' and all the bread variations as 'Rotis')
- Loves to play with his cousins and wants to be part of 'League of Big Boyz'
- Loves making new friends and participating in activities
- Displays leadership qualities by giving instructions to his friends
- Traveled to UAE(Abu Dhabhi, Dubai, Sharjah,Al-Ain), Turkey(Istanbul), Italy(Florence,Rome,Venice), Saudi Arabia (Riyadh,Jeddah,Makkah/Madinah) and France(Paris) and counting (*hint: Europe again)
- Favorite destination - Disney World (Florida) - duh !
- Inclination for playing Guitar. [His mom suggests to make him learn Piano instead - still undecided but I have to agree]
- Loves watching belly-dancing without a blink
- Loves 'his' iPad. That is his companion wherever we go.

Parenting is no way easy, especially when it comes to the first one. By far we are not the perfect parents, have erred numerous times but to acknowledge your mistake and make sure it does not affect him negatively is the key. More than the worldly possessions, it is the values and high morals that we need to inculcate in him.
For a plant to blossom one needs to provide a conducive environment for optimized growth. Parenting is no way different: provide an atmosphere where one is nurtured, cared and loved.
I read a quote which was from a child to his father "The best gift you can give us is by being nice to our mother" . Couldn't agree more to it. In today's time - the quote should be modified by swapping the mother and father from the quote (To wife: "joke tha jee....tussey naraz mat hoo")
We strongly believe in providing highest education as that is the main reason why our parents migrated to Canada to begin with. Have a RESP account for him which I started when he was born. Alhamdulilah that has been growing well. I want him to be an Engineer and my wife wants him to be a Doctor - another part and parcel of having brown parents.

Some random stories from the past:
- I remember picking/dropping him off at DayCare. Got to hear tons of DayCare stories - some of them were hilarious. Initial Days were the most challenging part for all of us but Alhamdulilah overcame that albeit in 4 months or more.
- His hand 'fracture' on his 4th birthday. Had a Red color fiber-cast
- Spending father-son day with him on Friday when I used to work from home. We used to play, eat and pray
- He was shocked when got to know SRK is Indian. His voice almost became chokey. Later said "Does SRK hates Pakistan"
- Took him to the funeral of Majid Uncle (I picked him from DayCare after work and went straight to the funeral proceedings). Explained him why Majid Uncle's kids were crying and where did Majid Uncle go. [Later censured by wife]
P.S - I have tons of more - will create a separate blog entry :)

Hope to give him more love, care for him more, nurture him more! Parenting is a journey where we are constantly learning. Hope to learn and grow with him and have the best Father-Son relation with him IA!


Below is the Note I wrote on Facebook after 2 days when Shayaan was born {July 27th 2008]:

Assalam Guys!
Thanks a lot for the immense love and adulations showered upon us and to the newest member of our team! By the Grace of Allah, on 25th July Friday @ 12:06 am, Saba gave birth to a healthy baby boy. We have named him Shayaan Ali Farooqi. I am so proud to say that he resembles his mother a lot! Subhanallah!
The joy of holding your baby in your arms is extremely over-whelming. With perpetual stream of tears rolling from eyes and the humbleness towards the Giver, the Provider, the Greatest is beyond any words to do justice to the feeling.
I and Saba would like to thank each and everyone from bottom of our hearts. Please continue to make duas for us 3. We are indeed very touched with the incessant calls/text messages since Shayaan is born. Just a matter of few hours after Shayaan was born, my facebook posts jumped to 1891 (3.2% increase) from 1851 (I sound more as a Stock broker now lol). Visited by so many friends which were either coming during break or after work. We received so many bouquets/sweet boxes too! The whole point is that we are very very touched and would like to thank again and again for your gratitude.
I will post the pictures soon . And by the way, congrats to you guys as well for becoming cha-chas, mamus, khalas and phoppus. I am sure you guys must be feeling young now ;)
Love you guys!

Ali and Saba

Towing Data Analytics?

       

Data Analytics-driven Telematics holds a bright future for CAA

        Winter 2009, when the dispatching unit of CAA South Central Ontario (CAASCO) was getting bombarded with calls from members for car assistance. It was a brutal snowstorm paralyzing half the GTA. GTA had experienced the highest casualties related to automobile in that year[1]. It was also the most financial drain for the company as property and auto claims depleted our pool of reserves. By end of 2009, CAA SCO (South Central Ontario) was in a loss of $29 m. Tethering into bankruptcy and by 2013 in a surplus of $ 1.9 m. Miracle isn’t it? What magic wand did we acquire that turned our fortunes? Ironic how we look elsewhere for solution when the solution exists right in front us the whole time: data and people.

In corporate circles, executives vouch for data being akin to gold. I have a different tale to tell: Data has the potential to be gold. Data is worth stack of hard drives collecting dust in company Data Centers unless we churn data into gold!

“Leveraging customer Data and doing some simple eye-balling was the need for the hour ” Jay Woo - President and CEO CAA SCO

 A home owner claiming for sewerage repairs for three consecutive years without Premium go up a cent1. An auto insurance policy holder heaping demerit points for impaired driving and still manages to retain the same Premium by threatening to dessert us. Under pressure from increasing competition, we recognized that our viability and sustainability depended on taking a hard look at analytics at each of our pillars – customer, operations and finance.

Jay Woo, President and CEO of CAASCO said: “Leveraging customer data and doing some simply eye balling was the need for the hour.” We had reached our inflection point. We identified our ‘Analytically Challenged’ framework and processes and re-evaluated and aligned our strategy to being customer-focus and data-driven one.
     
Business Intelligence and Data Analytics was the key component in reaching our goal and thus keeping us afloat. We did cherry-picking in terms of whom to target for our home and auto insurance. We segmented the market and focused on the piece of a pie that we were most interested. The pilot project was named ‘Risk Segmentation’ which was put in place in 2010 to increase our market share.

Enterprise-wide KPIs were laid out by business which enabled us to exploit those areas in our ‘analytical sandbox’ or ‘Center of Excellence’ for analytics. Same methodology and processes were scaled to other product lines and business units within the organization. We were able to minimize our loss ratio and by 2013 we were leading insurer with the least loss ratio. This by no means was a flash in the pan, detailed and articulate analytics enabled us to see value hidden in the data and realize its true potential via analytics.

By transforming insights into actions, we are now able to prioritize our future investments. We are now aiming to being ‘Analytical Innovators’ from ‘Analytical Practitioners’. This will enable us to be achieve competitive differentiation as well as fine tune our market segmentation. Adopting analytics made us turn challenges such as customer-retention, anti-fraud practices and misaligned marketing campaigns into opportunities. True strength of our analytics will be tested when we start gathering even more data ‘gems’ from our telematics this year (We have recently launched our UBI-tool called Telematics last year). This will shift us from being in ‘What happened” and “Why it happened” mode to “What is happening now” mode. The amount of data we will collect and to realize the data’s value is the essence of data analytics. To exploit the ever-increasing data with degree of rationale in real time is where we will be focusing our attention to. Driven by analytics, we can provide BPO (Best Product Option and BPA (Best Product Action) to the customer.

Data Analytics is by far not the domain for growth seeking companies only. Established companies can leverage data analytics in seeking efficiency, seeking new markets or even fine tuning their strategy based on analytics. Data analytics should be ingrained in a company’s DNA, driving forward its strategy and implementing its goals. Over-time, companies will witness data-driven decision making branches out across companies cementing more value and trust in analytics 

 As I write this article, one should be cognizant that the data is being accumulated at an exponential power and the ability to churn data into gold is the bottleneck. To identify ‘strategic information’ from ‘noise’ that is being flooded from structured and unstructured sources and mold them into ‘single version of truth’   is only half the battle. To ‘predict’ with reasonably amount of accuracy , mitigating risk , providing timely customer engagements are some of the opportunities that will drive our company forward – after all we are in the business of ‘making bad days good  and good days better’ .

[Disclaimer - The article above was written for a Management Course about Analytics practices in current workplace. The thoughts are of my personal and does not represent the company's (CAASCO) view points. Many details have been omitted from the blog.]

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[1] CAASCO Portal

Rebellion by Heart

        Heard that song "Batameez Dil"? That songs really reflects my attitude. I like to trod on the untrodden.
In part to be classified as 'cool' and in part to explore the other side of things. I end up being called 'Chuppa Rustum' for doing the unexpected. To defy the conventional custom or norm in culture has always given me satisfaction. Being raised with my twin, I was always touted as the 'mischievous twin'; lead all the pranks and menace while my twin  obediently followed my instructions. Going against the tide was restricted to cultural domain only ; wish could had been more courageous in different domains.
        I am reminded if this trait when I skip Taraweeh in Ramadan. Although my not praying Taraweeh stems from apathy and not from ignorance or rebelliousness. I am no scholar or hold authority to issue 'fatwa' nor I want people to get judgmental about it either. Discussion of "pray 20 or 8 Taraweeh" , "which taraweeh is the quick one" and packaged with fund-raising and Islamic talks disturbs me and what is more worrisome is when people consider skipping Taraweeh tantamount to skipping a fard (obligatory) namaz.
      For me praying Taraweeh in congregation is akin to mechanical drone following the lmam from one posture to another for an hour plus. It can be made self-entertaining when mind wanders and hatches thoughts or can be an ordeal affair if standing next to a burp gun.
      Devoting oneself to religious act for self-realization, self-improvement and inner-peace should be the ultimate goal of a religious act; with out it - you are simply wasting your time. Since Taraweeh is an optional prayer, it has the same reward when prayed in solitary - but that it is to laborious to recite 16 or 40 (depend on 8 or 20 taraweeh) different Surahs when you can simply stand behind the imam and boast about your religious commitment.
      Having said that, 10 days of Ramadan has passed, with time totally a constraint - hope to do whatever religious act or remembrance I can with pure intent and dedication. After all, it is having heart at the right place :)

 

TGIF

      After starting my MMA program at Queen's University, weekends are not the same any more and more worryingly Fridays are not the same any more. The joy of being end of the week , wearing casual clothes (it is business casual for rest of the week), waking up lil late and taking extended lunch break (includes Friday prayers) has all ebbed away. Putting things in perspective negates or reinforces emotions.
      Having able put 'things' into 'buckets' simplifies your life emotionally. It acts like a 'shocker' that absorbs the extreme emotions. The outward forces impacts or shapes your perspective and the resultant behavior.
'Friday' is not an outward force, it is just an event that is cyclic in nature and one can not react and re-adjust constantly for this.
      Everyone reaches an 'inflection point' in their life, where they see themselves thrust in different domain or pushed out of their peripheral zone into a new, uncharted, untrodden path. But what makes you realize that you have reached your 'inflection point'? Translated into simple terms, this can be considered of maturity process :). At this age , I shall comment "dair ayaa durust ayaa" (better late than never)
     

Popeyes recipe

          Nope it is not the KFC-rival fried chicken Recipe I am about to blog, I will leave that for the franchisee to sell that poison(I do like it I admit). This is about Palak Ghosht.
Spinach (Palak) has always been associated with Popeye the Sailor Man. Since my childhood Palak Ghost has been one of my favorite desi dishes partly because I was made to belief that my biceps and triceps will protrude instantly and I will go in to some sort of super hero transformation saving my 'Lilly' from Brut - kids imaginations are weird sometimes ; I finally realize it after my seeing my 6 year old son talk.
Ok so my wife and kids were coming back from Houston and I was suppose to pick them up from Buffalo on Saturday afternoon which means I had only few hours of window on Friday evening to restore the order of our place and prepare some food for dinner next day. I resisted catering from outside as they had it enough while there (It was my wife's cousin's wedding they went to attend) ; I also resisted my mom's food as I wanted to make something myself.
I did the grocery from a desi store after work and here how the events leading to Palak Gosht unfolded. I started at 11:30 pm on 13th June Friday - pretty daring to be in the kitchen cooking by myself on that day lol. Preparation time was almost an hour (I was making Karhai Chicken simultaneously as well). It was my first ever attempt and I used one helpline : calling my mom in the middle of the night for re-reinforcements.
- 1.5 lb of veal meat (washed ,cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces)
- Half Ginger - peeled, chopped and MB-ed*
- Few Garlic cloves - chopped and MB-ed*
- 2 onions - peeled, sliced
- Heat the oil in a Vessel ('Pateli' for Urdu and 'Bagona' for Hyderabadi) and put the above items and stir it
 - Generous pinch of Salt, light sprinkle of Turmeric Powder,  Coriandar Powder (1 teaspoon) and Red Chili Powder (1 teaspoon) and 2 cups of water and close the lid for 30 mins on medium-low heat
- Toss 2 diced tomatoes into the mix and keep stirring it
- Throw in frozen spinach pack in it and keep stirring it
- Dial down the ignition to low heat and keep stirring it
- Check if the meat is tender  (by sampling a random piece from the Vessel and try to dissect it)
- Add in a pinch of Garam masala and toss some whole green chillis and keep ...... (you know the drill)
- Keep the heat low and keep stirring, this painful and tedious step is called 'Bhoonna'
- Put it away from the oven and transfer it in a white dish with a green spoon (Yes , presentation is equally important as food preparation :) )
- Ready to devour. It tasted good and my wife and in-laws were amazed that I made it myself :)
Pretty sure made Popeye - the Sailor Man proud too (A)

*MB-ed - process involves making a paste by using Magic Bullet

Using Magic Bullet to make garlic paste

Chopped Ginger ready to feed Magic Bullet next

making the Onion 'golden brown'

The end result

Rejection before Approval

 
History is littered with examples of great personalities that were ridiculed, rejected, outclassed, ostracized or whatever adjective you can use to describe how they were treated not-one-of-them to one-of-them! Sheer belief and unyielding resoluteness in their struggle led them to taste success !
These obstacles arises to test us how bad we really want something, it by no means an end of the road.
Einstein said: "Genius is 1 percent talent and 99 percent is perspiration". The wisdom behind struggle before success , pain before gain and ....well...you get the point...is simply interleaved with simple philosphy : you expand your emotional, intellectual, and all other faculties to better equip for the bigger and better things out there. To make yourself more worthy and deserving, stumbling before will make you cherish your victory even more.
Had a fruitful discussion with a friend today and he said that failures are groundwork for our success later. Couldn't have summarized any better. We aka Hans Sapiens with limited range of senses with myopic views are totally unaware of the grand scheme of things that we fall under. We should just "Stay calm and work hard" and not fret to much about the fate of the end result. We can only be called 'Experienced' when we go through obstacles and pitfalls. It is okay to get knocked down, important is to get up !
Whenever you fail , remember success is around the corner. The taste of failure will only make the taste of success sweet and worth the wait. Never give up, keep trying till you 'click' at the end.
To end on a lighter note, I was rejected by dozen of girls before one said yes and I quickly married her before she ponders on her decision :)

Start of new chapter

After nearly 8 years of academic drought, I have finally enrolled in a Master’s program! Yes, I didn't believe in that at first. I came across the ad on LinkedIn about this brand new program and it was just an instinct yes. Masters that would complement my current skills yet take me to new levels still within my area of (desired) expertise. The program name is Masters of Management Analytics (MMA) – sounds much ‘cooler’ than the dull and ubiquitous MBA. After all the grinding rituals (Application, Resume, Transcripts, References, Skype interview) I got accepted end of last year! [My GMAT was waived – yes suckers !!! ]

I will be endeavoring this part time for one year program starting in June. Our 2-day workshop just concluded last weekend. Now I realize what I have put myself into! Morning till late in the afternoon – stats workshops! Although Math is my strong area (I am a Brown after all) but stats was my weakest (and lowest) link.

I am looking for many take-a-ways from the program besides the three letters next to my name. The habit of getting out of my comfort zone and explore new terrain is definitely I will be focusing on. Negotiations, Collaboration, resolving conflicts, solving problem, presentation and much more!

I will look up to various people for motivation, beside the students, my mom – she did her 2^nd degree in ECE after coming to Canada while working and taking care of the house. My uncle – who studied for his USMLE while working and supporting family with 2 teenagers. My friends (Hisham , Hasham (not related lol) ,Asif and Nauman Abbasi ) who pursued their MBAs part-time while working and supporting their respected families.My other motivation will be my kids; to hold them in my arms while posing for a picture at my graduation ceremony IA.  (you can laugh I get it lol)

This of course comes with a price; balancing academics with work and young-and-growing family and having more energy and planning time effectively will be the biggest challenges! With parent’s prayers and wishes I can overcome the anxiety. Oh almost forgot, not to mention my wife’s unfaltering support (I will chew my words later for this lol).