AirJaldi

For around six weeks, beginning in the second half of August and ending late in September, the AirJaldi Network Academy was invited to conduct on-site training at the Tibetan SOS Vocational Training Centre (VTC) at Selakui, a small town 17km. from Dehradun, in the state of Uttarakhand, India. The participants were 21 students from the institution who were close to graduation, a time when they are to venture onwards, putting their skills and abilities to practice in professional work environments.

For the particular needs of this group, graduating from two years of intensive courses on programming (in C, C++ and Java), databases, systems analysis and design, networks and much more, we prepared our adaptation of Cisco's IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software, to which we added two additional components.

The first, entitled Wired Networking, training participants in designing and deploying a small network, through gaining knowledge and hands-on experience in network topologies, addressing and protocols, and administration of an intranet server, to enable web, file server and secure shell capabilities.

In the second, entitled Wireless Networking, participants extend the wired network by adding a number of wirelessly-connected locations. This component includes learning the basics of radio physics and wireless technology, theory and planning of site surveys and topology planning, practical exercises in configuring and installing simple wireless nodes (router, antenna, cables and power supplies) and, as a final exercise, creating the network wireless extension itself.

Plans, being plans - even the best laid out ones - rarely pan out as planned.

Our arrival at VTC was delayed, when early on the morning on August 16, the driver of the Uttarakhand Tourism bus decided to take a shortcut 15km. before Dehradun. Our bus was soon stuck in the middle of a rain-swollen river! Apparently, neither the warning horns of similarly afflicted truckers nor the site of other stranded vehicles were enough to stay our bus driver's confidence. Half an hour of revving on sucked the bus deeper into the river bed's gravel and mud. Word soon went out that the water had begun rising - it was time to abandon ship!

Three hours later, a fire-brigade truck came, saved and went; a little later, a police squad ambled by, the inspectors muttering something into a walkie-talkie, and soon enough, ambled off. All through the day, locals from a nearby village gazed (in their hundreds) at our predicament and fortitude. The entire day went in extracting our belongings and ourselves from the soaking of a lifetime. The victims: my clothes, cell-phone, camera, and innumerable personal effects, and a bag full of equipment - non-working computer components all, thankfully. It's said that from the soil near Dehradun emerges some of the country's best Basmati rice. Well, that day of wading in and through India's finest, the experiences and lessons - it's all absolutely unforgettable.

But back to more exciting things... With initial preparations (the whiteboard, projector and an Ubuntu machine serving the course material locally) for the workshops taken care of, the first day was the usual fare: quick (but not formulaic!) introductions, and briefings about the workshops - their objectives, format, and methods of assessment. Despite the size of the group and brief awkwardness at the beginning, it was wonderful to be able to develop the initial acquaintance and familiarity rather fast. Additionally, from the second day onwards, there was an opportunity to work during mid-mornings and early afternoons with smaller groups. The greatest advantage of this amended schedule was the satisfaction of guiding and mentoring a handful of participants. In its early stages, this close interaction also allowed me to overcome barriers of accessibility much more easily and soon resulted in very high comfort levels.

To digress again, in the direction of how the best laid out plans don't often work out... In the same way that the amended itinerary opened up a chance to work more closely with a small group, another set of factors impacted congruence between the schedule desired/decided and the progress achieved. Notable amongst these were the Selakui Industrial Area (in whose vicinity VTC is) apparently not being in the good graces of either the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. However, the delays allowed extra time for detailed personal interaction, which was especially useful given the very large group, and the workshop's emphasis on intense participation, practical hands-on activities, and close guidance. These methods and their benefits greatly energized the participants, contributing to a very positive environment.

Ambitious we were in terms of our schedule, though. The in-depth coverage of the first two components left little time to deal with the Wireless Networking workshop, which is - after all - a component close to our hearts. Still, with the training sessions in August and September being a success, we intend to be back with more at VTC again soon, and are getting ready to deliver our new course components in Dharamshala and elsewhere.

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Aloha VTC!

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