Monday, December 28, 2009

AVATAR - A journey into reality

Having waited for more than a week to watch AVATAR, finally the d-day arrived on Dec 27, 10:30PM at IMAX 3D, Hyderabad.
Accompanied with family we took a journey into reality, a world created by James Cameron.
If you want to watch AVATAR, please do watch it on IMAX 3D screen, one has to experience the 3D aspect to believe it and enjoy the journey, I was amazed with the attention to detail that has been given in the movie, the insects, the six legged animails, the envornment, the NA'VI people, thier mannerisms, flying dragons..... the list goes on, the movie it the culmination of technology with story telling.
It is not just about the 3D aspect that the movie is worth watching for, it is about the values that we as humans tend to forget and accept by default that whatever we see is ours and that we should own it.
My son in between the movie asked me "'Appa idhu nijana' :=: 'Dad it this real'" and it was hard to convince him it isnt, he already has made plans for his next visit to Pandora :)
I promise that when you leave your chair and exit the movie hall, you would have fallen in love with Pandora and all that is part of Pandora.
The bonding between the Na'vi and the horse, how a dragon chooses its master and once it chooses it will never allow anyone else to ride it till it dies, the flying jellyfish like insects, the 'touch me not' plant, that closes itself the moment anyone touches it in a swirling fashion, the trees, the sleeping cocoon of the Na'vi, trust me you wont forget a single moment in the movie because you become part of it from the beginining.
Its a movie every one who is a film buff should watch, its the holygrail of the cinemas, I have never been amazed so much by a movie as I have with this movie, no doubt James Cameron took so many years after Titanic to make a movie that not only breaks barrier with the conventional thinking but sets a benchmark to everyone else to follow.
As we left the theatre, son told me " 'Appa naavu Pandora ge hogona' :=: 'Dad, we shall also go to Pandora'" and that is the feeling I am right now, when can I visit Pandora...

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Take a WALK

Take a walk... literally I took a walk today.
After leaving the car at the mechanic, I thought to kill the time (since it would take nearly 3 hours for the car to be ready) by going for a movie, then something struck me, I really dont know what, but I decided to walk from Minister road (this is hyderabad) till The central (Punjagutta), it was long long time since I had walked so much, (I used to do regularly when during my engineering days when there was just one bus during morning and if you miss, one had to walk for nearly 5 kms). All through the duration of walking I felt I was part of the city unlike when u are inside a car. I stopped almost at each and every nook and corner and found so many small shops that sell things which you need and wouldnt find otherwise. At punjagutta there are so many jewellery shop, I have seen earlier but this time counted, there are nearly 20 shops. During the walk I notice so many billboards, more than 60% were for Ads, the remaining was from political parties with Congress ruling the roost and found less sign boards to help the motorists.
I cant say that the walk was very comfortable or totally enjoyable, but it was something different and I liked it, it made me go back many years, feel much younger and felt that I could connect easily with the people (sounding philosophical... maybe).
I think it is a good idea for anyone to just leave the machines that carry us and take a walk, and feel the difference... it did to me and I believe it will for you also.
The walk was around 6 - 7 Km.

Friday, June 26, 2009

De-Traumatising the education system

We have done it again, tweaking the education system for the good.. I am not sure why there was not this much of tweaking or debate during my school days, I clearly remember that actually there was more complain that the syllabus was less tough and we are studying less.. so on and so forth....
I wish we had a Kapil Sibal during our time, who knows I could have had got into IIM without much tension and concentrating what is required at higher level rather than struggling at the 10th level.

I know there will be lot of debate whether this is actually good for our future or not, and I will be keenly reading all those, but personally for me this is a really good move to centralize the education system and ensure that a kid doesn't unnecessarily bother that there are students from other state who are having undue advantage because of the syllabus.

There are few issues like, in Karnataka most (95%) schools don't have 11th or 12th and this kind of rule is of no consequence for them, since they anyway have to take the 10th exam since the college wont accept them without exams... so in general it is benefiting only around 5% of the students.... I wish Mr Sibal fixes this also.

Thanks Mr Kapil Sibal, I hope your intentions is noble and you implement Yash Pal report in its entirety.

Some changes do matter.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Elections Over:Clear mandate by people

Finally curtains have been drawn to the biggest election of all time. We can all proudly say that this has been a fairly conducted election and kudos to the Election commission for making this happen without any glitches.

My only worry before the results were due was that what if Congress and BJP both end up having almost same numbers say 150 - 155 and then it would have been difficult for anyone to have had a successful govt for the next 5 year since each would feel they have a chance, but good thing has been that the difference in seats between 1st and the 2nd largest party is 90 seats and the pre-poll alliance of UPA has been given clear mandate by the people to form the govt, this is really a very good development, if the same had happened with NDA also I would have been happy; finally all we need to see is a stable govt to run for 5 years without anyone pulling them to the left or right of them.

This election has put forward so many tough questions to the political parties, all most all candidates with criminal background have bitten the dust (even though they were staging proxy candidates), those who wanted to do good things in the fag end of the 5 year term have been sent home to cool their heels, those who involved in mud slinging at others have also been shown the door; all the parties should have a proper agenda and fight for them rather than trying to pull some other party/person only then shall we see India on the rapid growth path.

I always believe if there needs steady and proper growth, then a strong opposition party is very much needed, I wish that people continue to give a similar mandate they have given this elections ensuring that no single party will get absolute majority and thus needing support from regional and other small parties, so there is a check within the govt and not only the opposition party; Till BJP became a super power, there was no one to question Congress, hence there wasnt much progress for nearly 40 years of our independence, only after BJP making inroads and established itself as a major party that can and eventually displace Congress, which made it to wake up from its slumber and we saw economy revolution, infrastructure growth and moving away from the slogan roti, kapda aur makan to Bijli, Paani aur Sadak, I wonder where India would have been if we hadn't had a major party like BJP which can challenge Congress and take away the vote anytime; for the better of India I wish we continue to vote so that we not only have one party as the clear leader, we also have a second party which can become the leader anytime.

Nandan Nilekani delivered this talk on TED - Ideas for India's Future, a worth watching one which clearly defines the growth path for India and also mentions why India cannot be and should not be ignored.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Number portability - Consumer is the King, Airtel would be biggest loser

Just waiting for the number portability to come into effect and I would be the first one to move to BSNL from Airtel. Till around 2 years back Airtel service was better and for them customer was king, but now they care a damn!.
I have a 249 plan (I live in Hyderabd) wherein I get 600 units free and some 200 sms free and when I am at office, I usually dont make calls, so I usually make calls when at home, but in my house only Airtel network doesnt work, I have tried Vodafone and BSNL both work like charm, I registered complaint with Airtel in Jan this year and even after 5 months nothing seems to have happened, neither they call and let me know what is the status and when it would be fixed, but the moment I stopped paying my bill, I got 2 calls everyday religiously asking for the non payment, and a week back my connection was temporarily take out of service, I wish I could also take Airtel out of service for not working on my complaint for last 5 months. Today I checked the online portal and see that they have deleted the complaint I had registered 5 months back... I am really flabbergasted how a company like Airtel would do this....

Airtel you suck and BSNL is much better anyday, number portability am waiting for you.

IPL Saga continues

As IPL reaches its fag end of its season 2, more than the cricket it is the other things that have taken the centre stage, first and foremost whether one agrees or not, defnitely it is this blog - http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com/, which has made all the noise that is required for the marketing, there are many people who are watching just to see what the fakeplayer is mentioning in the blog, well to me it has certainly been a very entertaining affair.

I sincerely feel even now that the IPL could have been held in India by working out with the goverment, IPL boss thinks he and IPL and bigger and better than India and its democracy, well he is wrong and it would be proven. To ensure that spectators are present in the stadium there are so many stupid things IPL is doing, like choosing bollywood queen, sms game to predict the score in the over, giving money to schools (well I have nothing against it, my only grudge is what was done to schools here during last year season, nothing!!!!, this is purely a master marketing stroke by IPL to have more SA people come to ground for emotional reason)

I had written an year back during the last year about how IPL will change cricket and I see it happening, other thing that has struck me is the sheer lack of control on IPL by ICC, IPL is governed by its own law and whatever they may argue I believe that this is nothing but minting money and not cricket talent development. The owners have the right over the team, they can force anyone to play or drop and thus shackling a upcoming players confidence and BCCI cannot do anything, with less than 2 months for the t20 world cup, there is no effort done to keep our prime players fresh and they would be worn out (take Ishant Sharma for ex, he is playing for a lost cause, BCCI could do itself good to ensure that he gets the right break). 

I wish ICC has more control on IPL and rather leave it to just BCCI, else cricket wont be cricket.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Tribute to bruno (my german shepherd)


Bruno (my german shepard dog), my ferocious yet gentle friend is no more. He valiantly fought the tumour in his stomach for last six months but finally he gave up yesterday.
I brought him when he was a month old and he has been the baby of the house, he was everything to my dad, one of the reason my decision to move to hyderabad without fear was that he was there taking care of my home and parents.
I remember the days when he used to wait for the gate to be opened so that he can go out and roam freely in the road and still recollect the many complaints we used to get from the people who got scare, but till date he has never bitten anyone.
The days when I used to give him bath, somehow he used to figure out and used to run and hide in the terrace and I had to literally pull him down and give him bath, he was so heavy, it used to take dad and myself atleast 30 mins to give him a proper bath, then he used to love when I used to groom his hair and rub his body, he was always ready to play
My son when he was born used to play a lot with him, he used to hit it, pull the tail and put hands in its mouth, Bruno always knew how to handle kids, he was like a son to my parents and brother to me.
I truly miss him and pray that he has the best in the place where he is travelling now.
He was 9 years old.
Love you Bruno

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Chatting on iGoogle

The iGoogle page has been increasingly becoming poplular by offfering all the google services on one page, the gmail app on iGoogle is better in terms one can not only check the mails, they can move/delete/compose etc being only on the iGoogle page, the one thing that was missing was the ability to chat and now Google has added that to iGoogle.

Official Google Blog: Chatting away on iGoogle...

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Wonder Boy - he can speak many foriegn language (He is not educated though)

I got this videos forwarded from a friend, this world has still things to amaze me :).
This boy wonder, Ravi is a seller of hand fan made of peacock feather and lives in slum.
While selling he has picked up so many languages from the tourists that he can converse in thier own language (german, japanese, arabic, italian, french and many more).
In the first video which was shot many years ago shows the young Ravi selling, the second video was shot when he is in his teens and he is still on the street selling the peacock fans.

This kind of somehow explains how the kids in SD Millionaire could talk to the tourists in english even though they are illiterate, Money and hunger ensures that we learn anything and do to survive in this nasty little world.
Even though I can speak Kannada/Telugu/Tamil/Hindi/English/Malayalam (little), this one is way  beyond.

In his younger years

In his teenage years


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Google Apps status dashboard

Google has responded to the recent gmail outage which has been famously called as gfail by bringing out a dashboard which will let people know of all the Google application status.
So at any given point in time people can know what is happening with any of the Google apps they use.



For more information, check Google's blog

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Paid Search Just Got Visual: SearchMe Launches AdView Beta (Free Ads For First 500 Signups)

The interface on search me is really cool, aka itunes interface.
each of the search results are shown as a preview window of the result (check the url to see it http://www.searchme.com/)

Paid Search Just Got Visual: SearchMe Launches AdView Beta (Free Ads For First 500 Signups)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Offline Gmail !!!!

Google's VP of engineering, Vic Gundotra, in his keynote at mobile world congress, demoed the offline gmail for iPhone/Android phones.
This is all made possible with the HTML5 standards. This opens up more offline-enabled web apps from many companies.
Read the article at Endgadget

Watch the video of the demo


Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Google Power Project

This is one of Google's project which has silently started and I think will definitely be a revolution. Its really Google's benchmark to do things which are different and will help the majority of the population in a great way, like Google earth, Google document etc.

With this power project thier idea is to have every household to install smart meters which track the electricity usage and provide detailed usage information through the day, for makign this happen they are developing a webapp to check the usage online, this way it will help the common man decide which are gluttons and how they should use it.

Read more at http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/10/googles-powermeter-project-for-when-the-webs-data-is-not-enough/