Loss of pride in our Hindu religion

The way English educated Indians reject Hindu religious practices is so disappointing to watch. Sure, English has brought about economic mobility to millions of lower and middle class Indians over the past 2-3 decades and that has directly led to the abandonment of dozens of typically Hindu practices. It is saddening to see that not only have they voluntarily given up these practices but they appear to be proud about it.

The single most damaging thing that we have given up is the Bindi. Maybe because it is the most visible identity of a Hindu woman, it is all the more conspicuous by its absence.

 

During the Mughal rule, we have heard of rabid kings forcibly making Hindus give up their practices and symbols. But here we are today, voluntarily giving them up. I really cannot understand it

 

Our Hindu brothers are getting massacred in Bangaladesh and there is no outrage in India! Temples are getting vandalized in an organized way and we are content watching the T20 world cup on TV!

The other day, I happened to watch a video by Swami Nityananda where he is accusing Hindus of criminal negligence. I felt he is spot on. If there is one religion where a majority of its 'followers' are invertebrates, that religion has got to be Hinduism. It is so maddening.

 

Politicians in Tamil Nadu regularly use derogatory language against Hindu practices and its customs. These are the ones that regularly get re-elected and have mass appeal. How can this be possible in a land with 80% Hindus ? Have we no shame ?

 

The further you go away from your roots, the weaker your moorings become. I have no respect for people who reject their own traditions, practices and rituals. We seem to compete with each other in the extent to which we embrace western culture. We see no value in teaching our children the importance of following and preserving our traditions. We encourage our children to speak in English at the expense of the mother tongue. I mean, who does this !!?

Can you visualize affluent parents in France talking to their children in Kannada because they feel the French language is inferior ? Isn't it crazy ? But that is exactly we do here in India. Most kids in Indian cities cannot frame complete sentences in their mother tongue. An even greater percentage of kids in cities cannot read and write in their mother tongue. Where are we headed ? Can you imagine the situation 25 years from now ?

 

If the foundation is weak, the building cannot be structurally strong. Is it any surprise that we are losing thousands to other religions ?

How I passed the AWS Data Analytics Specialty exam (DAS-CO1)

The AWS Specialty exam is a very hard exam to crack. Don't let anybody tell you different. The Associate level exams are a walk in the park, in comparison.   

Even if you have good hands-on experience in the areas that this exam tests you on, it is still necessary to spend significant time to ensure you pick up a sound understanding of the concepts and have solved at least 3 mock exams AND scored north of 80%. For me, it took close to 3-4 months of hard work. It involved going thru the study materials, doing the associated lab exercises, taking notes during the process and cross referencing them smartly for easy retrieval later. I feel that as much as understanding what each AWS service can do, it is just as important to remember what it cannot do. This is crucial since there are multiple AWS services which offer very similar functionalities; the exam can trick you into picking the wrong one, especially when you are under pressure. Just one wrong choice can make all the difference in the exam and that can be really frustrating after months of hard work. 

There are 5 sections that you should focus on for this exam: 

1)Collection 

2)Storage 

3)Analytics/Compute 

4)Visualization 

5)Security 

 Even many of us who have been working on AWS for some time typically wouldn't have focused much on Security and that can prove to be the weak link in the chain. When I was solving the mock exam, I realized that Security was my weak point. So, I went back to the drawing board and began to work harder on this section. Of course, it may be a different section for you. But the point I'm trying to make is that you have to identify your weak points early and work especially hard on those. I used the Udemy course (https://cognizant.udemy.com/course/aws-data-analytics/learn/lecture/18455264?start=1#overview) to begin with. This is a good course and the instructor does a good job explaining the concepts. However, in my opinion, once you have completed this course and have grasped all the concepts therein, you are only 40-50% prepped from an exam standpoint. The devil as they say, is in the details. You would need to double click on all the topics and invest time and effort in doing research on the service capabilities from other sources as well. You can start with the AWS FAQs. You also need to explore with your own hands-on.   

Some of the questions on the exam will be really long and the choices given will be equally long. In such scenarios, it becomes important to disqualify the ones that are obviously wrong by the process of elimination and work only with the rest. Else you are likely to keep wrestling with all the choices and that can adversely impact the time on hand for the rest of the questions. So watch out for that. I finished the exam with just under a minute to spare. So, time management becomes extremely important.   

You can use the following content to prep for your exams Cloud Academy. There is a mock exam associated with the course. Reach out to Cognizant Academy for your login 

Udemy. There is a mock exam associated with the course. This is free for all Cognizant associates 

Whizlabs. There are 3 mock exams that comes with this and it is reasonably priced. You can go for it

But I noticed that not too many similar questions came on the actual exam. :-( 

Once you complete the Udemy or CloudAcademy course and pass the mock exam, you can share the screenshots with Academy and that will qualify you to get a free voucher from the Cognizant Academy team. I think you should pick this route. Else you will need to spend $300 from your pocket. Obviously, you need to pass the exam to get that amount reimbursed 

 I wish you luck in your endeavour.