Keku's Blog

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

2012-01-16T13:59:00.000Z

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

( ಮರಾಠಿ ಕವಿ ಬರೆದ " ದೂರ ದೇಶಿ ಗೇಲಾ ಬಾಬಾ" ದ ಕನ್ನಡ ಅವತರಣಿಕೆ - ನನ್ನ ತಮ್ಮ ಮಾಧವ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದು)

ದೂರ ದೇಶಕ್ಕ ಹೊಗ್ಯಾನ ಅಪ್ಪಾ

ನೌಕರಿಗೆ ಹೊಗ್ಯಾಳ ಅವ್ವಾ

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಕಣ್ಣೀರು ಕಪಾಳ ದಾಟಿ ತುಟಿಗೆ ಬಂದಾವ

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಗುಬ್ಬಿಯಂಥ ಜೀವಾ

ಒದ್ದ್ಯಾಡಿ ಹಾರಾಡಿ ಸುಸ್ತಾದರೂ

"ಸಾಕು , ಮಲಕೋ ಪುಟ್ಟಾ"

ಅಂತ ಹೇಳೋರೂ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಎದಕೋ ಏನೋ ಯಾರಿಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತು

ಕೊಡತಾರ ಯಾಕ ಸಾಲಿಗಿ ಸುಟ್ಟಿ

ಮಾತಾಡ್ಲಿಕ್ಕೂ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ನನಗ ನಾನ ಹೇಳೀನಿ ಕತಿ ಕಟ್ಟೀ

ಆಟಗಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಹಚ್ಚಿಟ್ಟೀನಿ

ಆಡವರೂ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಹೊರಗಿನ ಜಗಾ ಕಿಡಿಕ್ಯಾಗಿಂದ

ಕಾಣಸ್ತದ ಭಾಳ ಛಂದ

ಬಾಗಲಾ ತಗದು ಹೊರಹೋಗಬೇಕಂದ್ರ

ನನ್ನ ಮುಷ್ಟ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರದೂ ಬೆರಳಿಲ್ಲಾ

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಕಣ್ಣೀರು ಕಪಾಳ ದಾಟಿ ತುಟಿಗೆ ಬಂದಾವ

ಮನ್ಯಾಗ ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲಾ

ಕೊಲವೇರಿ ಸಾಂಗ್ - ಕನ್ನಡ - ಸ್ಕೂಲ್ ಬಾಯ್ಸ್ ವರ್ಷನ್

2011-12-28T12:33:00.000Z

ಕೊಲವೇರಿ ಹಾಡು ಎಷ್ಟು ಜನಪ್ರಿಯವಾಗಿದೆ ಎನ್ನುವುದನ್ನು ಹೇಳುವ ಅವಷ್ಯಕತೆ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ನನ್ನ ಮಗ, ಕೃಷ್ಣ, ಈ ಹಾಡನ್ನು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ (ಐ ಮೀನ್ ಕಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್) ನಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಡಿ ಕುಣಿದಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ನಾನದಕ್ಕೆ school boys version ಎಂದು ಹೆಸರಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ನೋಡಿ, ಆನಂದಿಸಿ. ಇಷ್ಟವಾದರೆ ಜಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಗೆಳೆಯರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ.

ನೀಲು ೪೭

2011-12-01T23:03:00.000Z

ಕೋರ್ಟು ಡೈವೋರ್ಸಿಗೆ ಒಪ್ಪಿದ ದಿನ

ಕೊನೆಯದಾಗಿ ಒಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಕಳೆದ

ಆ ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನ

ಮೊದಲ ಮಿಲನದ

ರೋಮಾಂಚನ

ನೀಲು ೪೬

2011-10-03T01:44:00.000+01:00

ಬದುಕಿನ ದುರಂತವಿರುವುದು
ಮೊದಲ ಸ್ಪರ್ಷದ
ಮಿಂಚು, ರೋಮಾಂಚನ
ಹರ್ಷ, ತೀವ್ರತೆ
ಹತ್ತು ವರುಷದ ಮೇಲೆ
ಮತ್ತೊಬ್ಬರ ಸ್ಪರ್ಷದಲ್ಲಿ
ಸಿಗಬಹುದೆನ್ನುವ
ಹುಡುಕಾಟದಲ್ಲಿ

iPhone 5?

2011-10-03T01:41:00.000+01:00

I don't know what Apple is going to announce this month, but the rumour is all about iPhone5.

I think, Apple is going to put bigger screen to iPhone 4 with a bit faster processor, a bit higher MP camera, add cloud computing with iOS5, and will show to the world as iPhone 5, and the world is going to gasp with a big 'O'. It will be sold in tens of millions even if it it cannot be used to speak to people.

iOS5 has heavily borrowed ideas from Android (notification bar, extended sharing) and its own most popular apps (and going to kill all of them). They might give 'free sat navigation' similar to Google's free navigation. Due to cloud computing, Apple users have to heavily rely on iTunes for everything, for which Apple might start charging heavy users.

My guess is, it might function like Android 2.3 (but not as fast as), and look like high end Android phones, but slimmer and elegant. It will be more expensive than the most expensive Android device, but still convince people to queue in front of the store to buy it.

If iPhone-5 will not come with the largest screen in the market, then they are going to tell the world 'this is the best size to fit the pocket. Any phones bigger than that are fit be called tablets. Any phones smaller than this are not fit to be called smart phones'.

Overall Android OS may be the winner. But iOS wins over Android OS in rendering Indian language fonts correctly in all their apps. Despite now in version 3.2, Android still fails to render Indian language fonts (what we see is ).

Design and flawless smooth running, iPhone possibly beats all other hardwares in the market.

In their recent announcement, Amazon has come out with something and proved most of the geeks wrong. I hope Apple too will bring something totally new so that the mobile technology progresses faster than the current pace.

ಕ್ಷಣಗಳು

2011-09-26T01:00:00.000+01:00

೨೪ ಅಗಸ್ಟಿನ ಗೂಗಲ್ ಡೂಡಲ್ ನೋಡಿದ್ದೀರಾ?

ಇದು ಹೂರೆ ಲೂಇಸ್ ಬೋರ್ಹೇಸ್ (ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವುದು Jorge Luis Borges ಎಂದು ಆದರೆ ಉಚ್ಛಾರ ಮಾತ್ರ ಬೇರೆ) ಎಂಬ ಅರ್ಜಂಟೈನಾದ ಸಾಹಿತಿಯ ೧೧೨ನೇ ಹುಟ್ಟುಹಬ್ಬದ ನೆನಪಿಗೆ ಗೂಗಲ್ಲಿನ ಡೂಡಲ್ಲು ಇದು. ಆತನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಒತ್ತಿ: ವಿಕಿಯಲ್ಲಿ Jorge_Luis_Borges

ಆತನ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ಕವನವನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷಿನಿಂದ ಅನುವಾದಿಸಿದ್ದೇನೆ:

ಕ್ಷಣಗಳು

ನಾ ಮತ್ತೆ ಬದುಕಬಲ್ಲೆನಾದರೆ

ನನ್ನ ಯತ್ನವೆಲ್ಲ ಆಗ

ಇನ್ನೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ತಪ್ಪು ಮಾಡುವುದು

ಈಗಿನಷ್ಟು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯವನಾಗದಿರುವುದು

ಇನ್ನೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಆರಾಮವಾಗಿರುವುದು

ಈಗಿನಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ತುಂಬಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವುದು

ನಿಜಾಂದ್ರೆ, ಕಡಿಮೆ ಗಂಭೀರನಾಗಿರುವುದು

ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಕೊಳಕಾಗಿರುವುದು

ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಓಡಾಡುವುದು

ಹೆಚ್ಚೆಚ್ಚು ಸಂಜೆಬಾನು ನೋಡುತ್ತ ಕೂರುವುದು

ಹೆಚ್ಚೆಚ್ಚು ಬೆಟ್ಟ ಗುಡ್ಡ ಹತ್ತುವುದು

ಇನ್ನೂ ಕಂಡರಿಯದ ಜಾಗಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗುವುದು

ತುಂಬ ಐಸ್‍ಕ್ರೀಮು ತಿನ್ನುವುದು

ಕಡಿಮೆ ಬೀನ್ಸು ತಿನ್ನುವುದು

ಅಸಲಿ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳನ್ನು ಜಾಸ್ತಿ, ಕಾಲ್ಪನಿಕವಾದವುಗಳನ್ನು ಕಡಿಮೆ

ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು

ನಾನೊಬ್ಬ ದೂರದೄಷ್ಟಿಯ ಜಾಗರೂಕ ನಾಗರಿಕ

ಬದುಕಿನ ಪ್ರತಿ ನಿಮಿಷದಲ್ಲೂ!

ಹಾಗಂತ ಬದುಕಲ್ಲಿ ನಲಿವಿನ ಕ್ಷಣಗಳ ಕಂಡಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂದೇನಿಲ್ಲ

ಮರಳಿ ಹೋಗುವೆನಾದರೆ ನನಗಿನ್ನೂ ಅಂಥ ಕ್ಷಣಗಳೇ ಬೇಕು

ನಿನಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೆ ಕೇಳು - ಬದುಕು ಎಂದರೆ ಅದೇ-

’ಈಗ’ನ್ನು ಕಳೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಡ

ನಾನೀಗ ಎಲ್ಲಿಗೆ ಹೋದರೂ

ಜ್ವರ ಮಾಪಕ ಬೇಕು

ಬಿಸಿನೀರು ಇರಬೇಕು

ಕೊಡೆ ಬೇಕು, ಗಾಳಿಕೊಡೆ ಕೂಡ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಜೀವಿಸಬಲ್ಲೆನಾದರೆ ನನ್ನದು ಬೆಳಕಿನ ಪಯಣ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಬದುಕಬಲ್ಲೆನಾದರೆ ನನ್ನದು ಬರಿಗಾಲ ದುಡಿತ

ವಸಂತನಿಂದ ಹೇಮಂತ ಬರುವವರೆಗೂ.

ಬಂಡಿ ಓಡಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ ತುಂಬ ಸಲ

ಮೂಡಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನೇಸರನಿಗಾಗಿ ಕಾಯುತ್ತೇನೆ ತುಂಬ ಸಲ

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮಕ್ಕಳೊಡನೆ ಆಡುತ್ತೇನೆ ತುಂಬ ಹೊತ್ತು

ಮತ್ತೆ ಬದುಕನ್ನು ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಸಲ ಬದುಕಬಲ್ಲೆನಾದರೆ...

ಆದರೆ... ನನಗೀಗ ವರ್ಷ ಎಂಬತ್ತೈದು

ಇನ್ನೆಷ್ಟು ದಿನ ನಾನು ಬದುಕಬಲ್ಲೆ?

(ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ಅವತರಣಿಕೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/instants/)

Where does Google + stand between twitter and facebook?

2011-09-23T16:59:00.001+01:00

Facebook has nearly killed Orkut. Google couldn't buy Twitter. Google Buzz, although still active, has not many takers (I am still very active on Google Buzz though). I have been using Google+ for a few months now.

Facebook has connected innumerable long lost friends and classmates, although various social networking sites tried to achieve the same in the past and all of them failed. Facebook succeeded, call it a hard work, vision or luck, it succeeded. People hate to use more than one service for the same purpose. If G+ is trying is pull people out of Facebook and join G+ in bulk, they are more likely to fail miserably. I am trying to guess that this is not the intention of the G+ team.

Twitter is all about catching the news around the world in one liners. Its also about time-pass chats (whats up twitter world? etc), gossiping (Shahrukh Khan and Juhi are not friends anymore, etc), pulling legs of each other, and joking at life.

G+ platform is interesting. It is trying to connect REAL people who may or may not know each other, but share common interests.

G+ is full of circles. Building your circle and posting in that circle makes more sense than posting everything in public.For example, as a radiologist, I do not want to post something related to radiology in 'public', but post it in 'radiology circle' to have a more meaningful closed communication.

But we need a large number of active people who carefully select what to talk where? What to share where?

Will G+ succeed? I hope so.

Please also read its related blog:
My Take on Twitter, Facebook...

How to write distraction free on PC or MAC?

2011-03-21T22:04:00.002Z

I have tried many clutter free writing softwares, but each one has some drawbacks. Now, I am stuck with Google Docs to do clutter free writing (I am currently typing in Google Docs).

The way to do it is very simple:

Open Google Docs with your account login.

Go to 'Format'. Click 'Document Settings'.

Set fonts to 'Georgia' (which is very close to many of the novels). Set font size to 18. Set line spacing to 'double spaced'. Set dcoument background colour to 'grey'. Make it default style.

Now, open a new document. press F11 to get rid of all internet clutter. Then press Ctrl+Shift+F to get rid of all Google clutter.

Now you are left with clutter free environment to type your mind. The document is saved automatically. You can open it other computers too.

The only drawback is, at the moment, there is no option to work when offline.

The reluctant fundamentalist

2011-03-07T23:40:00.001Z

I read Mohsin Hamid's, "The reluctant fundamentalist", primarily because of the title.

Courtsey: http://thathideousman.blogspot.com/

Changez loves America and Erica. Changez waits for America and Erica to love him, only to understand America's self-centeredness, and Erica's obsessive love for her dead lover. Chengez realizes both of them can never love him, because both of them are deeply mad and buried in their colonial past.

The story revolves around where the writer has lived in the past - Lahore, Princeton and New York. There is detailed description of how a corporate capitalistic world works, and how it tries to control the third world (Chengez was sent to Philippines and South America). There is no mention of democracy in the narration. Possibly, Hamid indirectly wants to say there is no difference between capitalism and democracy.

The best of the Christian boys were captured and forcefully trained by Ottoman empire to fight against their own people in 14th century. The best of the Muslim boys choose to study and live in America, where their mentality is converted indirectly to fight against their own religion in 21st century. Chengez, a hard-working, intelligent, American educated Muslim, although a deep lover of America, unwillingly decides to return to his country, Pakistan, to become a fundamentalist.

But what Hamid completely fails to explain is how this is affecting Islam, although there is glimpse of explanation how American capitalism is trying to kill the cultures across the world. But the narrator often mistakes his culture for religion, and religion for his culture.

Hamid completely fails to build the tension between India and Pakistan. From an Indian point of view (I was India at the time of the novel's period), the media or we, the people, never discussed about the possibility of a war between India and Pakistan after Kargil war. But the fear from Pakistan's point of view might be real, but again, Chengez's explanation sounds too artificial and unreal.

Changez talks about twin towers, Sep 11, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, but Hamid fails to make emotional link with Chengez's background or current status. Love and loss of Erica looks more real than his anger towards America's capitalism and foreign policy. The young man's change from capitalist to fundamentalist is too predictive, but extremely unconvincing.

Despite being superficial, the novel does provoke some thoughts about American capitalism and foreign policy, and also about the mindset of a Pakistani youth who tries to find fault in India and America for its current state.

The Japanese Wife

2011-03-07T23:26:00.000Z

One thing which I could not understand was
what Aparna Sen wanted to say with the movie, ‘Japanese Wife’.

Courtsey: IBNlive

The pace is slow and uniform, the photography is wonderful. But that is where the best part of the movie ends!

English is not Aparna Sen’s mother tongue. A Bengali makes a movie in English, based on a Bengali English writer Kunal basu. Everything about this movie is extremely artificial.

The hero of the movie, a primary/ secondary school teacher, is a Bengali too. His written English is as good as, or as bad as, a sixth grade student. His spoken English is as good as a third grade English student.

The heroine is a Japanese, whose written and spoken English is worse than our hero. The man cannot speak woman’s language, and the woman cannot speak man’s language.

Accidentally, they become pen-pals, while writing in English. They fall in love through their English letters. Here comes the most awkward part of their personalities! They even get married through letters!

They hardly speak to each other. Telephone calls are very expensive to make one from India. The hero does not have a land-line or mobile, and decides not to have one for 15 years! Most importantly, when they speak to each other in English, he cannot understand her, and she cannot understand him, because their accents are so different!

They struggle to express day-to-day happenings in English. Both characters behave as if there is IQ is less than 80. Both are introverts. Both speak less. Both don’t read any literature, watch any movies, write poetry. Their love is, hence, is not palpable on the screen. This is the most unromantic movie ever made!

They remain faithful to each other for good 15 years. It might be possible for the Japanese girl, because she is suffering from a cancer (which cancer?), but what about our hero? He belongs to one of the few respected professions of a Indian village - teacher; he is is handsome; he has his own house; he has got a mother who keep insisting to get him married. But still our hero decides to remain bachelor (i.e., married to her virtual wife).

Unfortunately, the film never gets deep. The kite festival takes a big portion of the movie, but it remains disconnected from the main content of the film. Apart from the hero masturbating in a lonely boat, and having enormous feeling towards the widow, the film never deals with digs into complexities of human life. The content and style of the letters never rises beyond 6th grade, even after 15 years! The same applied to the film too.

The film would have been a beautiful ode about the married people who live away from each other for years. The film would have been a complex portray of struggle of an introvert, who finds solace in his virtual life. But the film is just wasted in repeating telegraphic English.

There is one line of poetry: The film ends when two widows, attached to the same man, meet.

The Best Wish List Manager

2011-01-12T23:27:00.000Z

Beginning of every new year (some times a new month), I start reworking the way I organise my things. One of the important things is to organise 'wish list', aka 'shopping list'.

I have tried many apps in Android market, but the best one (at least to me) is 'OurGroceries'.

Why it is the best?

1. Automatically syncs online at www.ourgroceries.com.

2. One can share the shopping list to anyone instantaneously.

3. All entries are stored, hence no need to type the same thing again and again.

4. Easy to use Android app (I wish I could move it to SD card).

5. There is iPhone app too.

6. It is free.

7. One can generate as many wish/shopping lists.

8. Once the shopping is done, with one click, one can cross-off the item.

9. There is a separate recipe list as well.

10. Recipe list can be used as task manager.

Twitter cannot replace Google Reader

2011-01-11T20:49:00.001Z

RSS Reader

Someone on Twitter commented to my tweet, in a tone ‘RSS readers are outdated and twitter is the new RSS reader’.

As all might not agree, RSS reader is equal to Google Reader.I have tried most of the RSS readers in the market, but nothing comes close to Google Reader. I can access it from my phone or on desktop (or laptop or netbook).

Twitter cannot replace Google Reader for many reasons:
99% of time, I access twitter from my mobile. I rarely use Twitter on a PC. 3G speed is not great enough to open all the links given on twitter. Google reader is faster even in 3G network compared to links opening up from Twitter.

Twitter is like sitting on a time bomb. If you do not check twitter every hour or two, the tweets are outdated. Google reader grabs all my interesting websites and manages them like ‘solid reads’. Most of the feeds open completely within Google Reader, which will never happen with Twitter.

Twitter is like ‘open chat line’. Twitter is not just to read feeds from news channels. I use it for fun, to communicate with like-minded people, to make fun. Google Reader is serious business. All the topics that interest me can be arranged in folders and can be read very fast.

There are only 140 characters in Twitter. Google Reader gives a good glimpse of the article, even when the websites do not allow complete feed. One cannot search similar sites on twitter. Google reader does that job very efficiently.

Twitter is to share my mini-views, share interesting stories I read on web, share Google reader feeds, follow people whose thoughts I find interesting. I use Twitter to advertise my blogs, retweet interesting lines and web links.

No doubt, Twitter has provided various interesting websites and blogs. Now all those are sitting in my Google Reader.

Twitter is complementary to Google Reader, not a replacement.

Best Free Android Apps for Indians

2010-09-28T22:43:00.003+01:00

NEWS:

AG Indian Newspapers:

My top pick. My day begins with this app. I start with Times of India and Deccan Herald. Then read Kannada Prabha and Prajaavaani (yes, you can actually read Kannada in Android with this app), move on to India Today, Hindu and NDTV. There are still loads of newspapers available to read. You can also have newspapers from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. Many useful websites are also included in this app, such as cricinfo, MSN India and Yahoo.

News India:

This app is Indian news which looks like Google news app. It aggregates news from all major Indian news portals and arranges then into News, Biz, Sports, Tech, Movies and Locale. The major drawback of this app is tha annoyning phrase 'iPhone friendly' which pops up at every page...grrrrr.

NDTV News:

If you are a big fan of NDTV, this app is for you. Good one though!

Indian Railway Schedule:

Up to date update on Indian railways, which run on time all the time!

Indian Rail PNR status:

To check Indian Railway reservation

MUSIC/ AUDIO:

Tunein Radio:

This is one of the best radio apps for everyone. You can give Indian touch. There are a few Indian FM radios available (My fav is 91.1 Radiocity). Banglore FM radios are not yet available. BBC Asian network is handy for BritIndians. Sunaada Radio is for Indian claasical music lovers, although the quality is not good. Hamara Sangeet is one of the best Hindi film music radios too.

A Online Radio:

Loads of live channels. Plenty of Indian channels are avialble. The best part for Kannadigas is you can have Kannada Kasturi and Radio Girmit (there is a dedicated app for Kannada music called Kannada Radio). There is an interesting channel called Deccan Radio, where budding singers/ karaoke singers show their talents.

Bollywood Hindi Radio:
There is a lite app, which is free. There is paid app too. A Online Radio has all the channels, but this app is easy to use.

Tanpura Droid:

If you are into Indian classical music, this is pocket Tanpura. But it eats lots of space.

SPORTS = CRICKET:

Cricinfo:

The best website for Cricket on Android. It is official app from ESPN. Mobile web is actually faster then this app. I use mobile app more than this app.

COOKING AND EATING:

Flavors of India:

A good app, if you are into cook-book cooking. I had to uninstall this app as it still does not allow to store the app on SD card. More importantly, its ages since I cooked something!

Revathi Recipe:

A good app for Indian cooking. I have not used it much though.

MOVIES:

Gallata Cinema:

Good one for South Indian movie lovers. Gives smae feel like reading a glossy magazine, but very slow without pinchzoom option.

Bollywood Hangama:

The best one for Hindi movie lovers.

Bollywood Ji:

Another one for Hindi Movie lovers

OTHER GOOD ONES:

India Travel Guide

Fun/useless apps (may be good for kids):

Know India Quiz
Indian Celeb Tweets

Others:

There is India Wallpapers. There are plenty of apps for devitional people, like all kind of chalisas, stotras, but most of them are paid apps. Many free apps are available for all kind of quotes like Gandhi, Buddhs, Osho etc.

Enjoy. Maja maadi (Kannada).

14 Reasons why I love netbook (over iPad)

2010-08-24T22:43:00.001+01:00

1. Size matters:

Laptops are too big (people do still carry laptops to work and travel) to carry, smart phones are too small to write, to read and to browse internet for long hours. Netbooks fit between laptops and smartphones. Netbook screen is much bigger than iPad, although it weighs slightly more than iPad.

2. Apps matter:

iPhone Os might have thousands of applications. Windows have tens of thousands of softwares, which I would like to call them “apps” too. Can iOS match the number of free and useful apps available on windows OS? To give examples, Windows live writer, OpenOffice, Baraha.

3. Video:

I am not a huge fan of watching videos on internet. Watching movies is best done on blueray player with a large flat LED/LCD screen with 5.1 Dolby surround sound. I record all the programmes I need from TV (Sky+) and watch them at my own time. One can watch all videos from the internet and online TV without any hiccough on netbook. What you need decent WiFi or USB tethering if your mobile has 3G. I do watch BBC iPlayer, YouTube and various other videos on my netbook using Firefox or Chrome.

4. e-Reader:

Ctrl+Alt+right arrow, the screen tilted from landscape to portrait mode. My netbook is a fantastic eBook reader now. Lower the brightness to minimum, yes, you are ready to lie down and read a novel. I open ‘MobiPocket reader’, another lovely free app for Windows.

5. Brand power:

If brand matters the most, pour all your hard earned money to a big fat company so that shareholders can sit back and enjoy your money.

6. Newspapers:

I have stopped reading newspapers long ago. Sorry, I still do read newspapers, but all of them are online. Most of the newspaper sites are well formed for internet browsing, and they look good on windows. My every morning starts with reading “Vijaya Karnataka”, a Kannada daily. The browsing and reading experience is simply superb on netbook. Can I read Kannada fonts on iPad? Does PDF files open as smoothly as they open on windows (knowing the fact that Apple does not like Flash, I am raising this doubt).

7. Travel tool:

Netbooks are slightly heavier them iPad. You can carry spare battery if you want. You can have universal charger if you need. Any day, netbook is more productive while travelling. If you write regularly, QWERTY keyboard of netbook (at the moment, QWERTY keyboard is still better than virtual keyboards, but things will change soon!) comes handy.

8. Memory matters:

160 GB hard drive with 1GHz RAM has costed me just over £150. iPad would cost you fortune (the best iPad comes with only 32GB hard drive, which costs me £500 in the UK, more than a good Windows laptop) . If you want more space, connect 1TB external hard drive to your netbook. Can you do that to iPad?

9. Bluetooth:

It costs £1, yes, £1. Your netbooks is ready for blue tooth experience, if there is no inbuilt one.

10. Browsing Experience:

The best browsing experience comes from Firefox and Chrome. Netbook can have both. iPad still does not have both. If anyone wants a portable unit for purely browsing experience, netbooks make sense, not iPad.

11. Online Music:

You can’t beat netbooks. You can have Realplayer, windows media player, and many other free players, which play virtually every type of online music and radio stations. iPad just cannot match the sheer volume of it. I play Kannadaaudio.com, kannada kasturi, raaga.com, esnips.com, etc on my netbook while working on other things. Netbooks does not slow down a bit.

12. Games (Yawn):

I never played any games on computer, seriously! I don’t want to.

13. Office:

I have open office, which is free software and has completely replaced my Microsoft Office. I write, edit and store on my netbook.

14. To show off:

Yes, there is iPad, iPod, iPhone…

del.icio.us Tags: mobiles,iPad,netbook

Khuda Ke Liye

2010-07-18T13:40:00.003+01:00

image from http://www.thelatestone.com/

Watched Shoaib Mansoor's "Khuda ke liye". This was the movie made in Hindi (or Urdu) by Pakistani independent film maker in collaboration with a Pakistani TV. This movie is supposed to be the best Pakistani movie made till date (the only Pakistani movie I have watched), and also it was one of the biggest box office hits too.

Without doubt, it is the best 9/11 movie I have seen from an Asian Muslim perspective. Compared to all Indian Hindi movies about 9/11 (My name is Khan, New york, Kurbaan etc), this movie stands very tall.

The movie should be translated into English as "In the name of Islam and Allah" (not "In the name of God" as originally subtitled in English). The movie is all about the intense debate and drama between the religious fundamentalists (who want Islam to remain unaltered in its philosophy, interpretation, culture, laws, rules and customs even after 1400 years, even after spreading to almost every nation in the world, even in the age of scientific and technological advances, and even in the age of democracy) and people who are modern (marry non-Muslims, live-in-together without the bond of marriage, drink alcohol, sing and worship music, live a rich life style etc), but yet consider themselves as Muslims.

The movie revolves around three Muslim youths, two Pakistanis and one Brit-Asian, two men and one woman, and runs in three countries, i.e, Pakistan, England and USA. All three choose different paths, but in the name of Islam and Allah their lives are completely ruined forever. The movie digs deep into the relevance of Islam in modern world.

One brother chooses to go backwards believing in every word of Islamic fundamentalist, and the other goes to the world's most liberated country in search of music. The Brit-Asian (her father is a Pakistani and mother Brit-white) girl is forced into Islam, because her father thinks this is the only way of repentance for all his misdeeds (marrying a non-Muslim, drinking alcohol etc).

At the end, all three fail to accomplish their goals and dreams. The one, who turns into fundamentalist, realizes the horror of being a fundamentalist, but it will be too late. The other, who is the USA, is tortured till he loses all his mental capacity, because democratic liberated world cannot believe one can be Muslim and be democratic at the same time. The woman, forced to live the life of medieval century, although gets legal justice, loses all her dreams she dreamt in the UK.

The whole movie subtly depicts how the young Muslim generation's life is ruined in the name of Islam and Allah, whether you chose to be a fundamentalist or want to live a progressive life; no, it does not matter. The movie ends with an optimistic note though, which I beleive is the artist's dream of building a new world for Muslims, starting from a scratch (symbolically shown as Mary starts sweeping the floor - the change in Islam has to start from woman, who can sweep all the past and start afresh).

The Islamic issues about music and women rights are discussed in a documentary way to portray that Islam (or at least the prophet) was never against music, always upheld the rights of women. The movie even tries to differentiates religion from culture, but at the same time shows their confusion between religion and nation (e.g., we ruled India for 1000 years, we ruled Spain for 800 years). The 10 minute Naseeruddin Shah's insight into Islam reminds me of Indian or Buddhist philosophy to summarise the essence of every religious pathway (not religious practice) is the same, "look inwards".

Naseeruddin Shah's words are philosophical, beyond any religion for that matter. When Mary taunts him that namaz is a mere exercise, he replies ‘meri ibaadat ko exercise kahne wali ya to bahut pahunchi hui hai ya bahut dukhi hai‘ (The one who describes my worship as exercise is either spiritually very elevated or is very sad). He tells in court ‘deen me dadhi hai, dadhi me deen nahi‘ (In religion there is beard, not religion is in beard).

There are plenty of short comings as in every good movie. The plot is manipulative (which is essential to convey what the director wants to say). The message, towards the end of the movie, is too simplistic for the complex issue, "I don't hate USA because few of them are bad. Don't label all Muslims as terrorists as few of them are..".I will not go into further details of short comings as they are best left to movie critics and juries.

Nevertheless, I would recommend it as a 'must watch'. It will stir you.

How to read effectively on internet?

2010-07-12T20:57:00.000+01:00

I keep trying different things to read more effectively and more efficiently on internet. My Google Reader is filled with 1000s of feeds everyday. I keep adding new subscriptions and delete few of them regularly.

Most of them are skippable after the headlines. Many of them run in few paragraphs. Few of them are as big as 10 pages.

I have found a way to read effectively on internet.

These are the steps:

1. Download Mozilla Firefox, if you still do not have one (The only use of internet explorer is to download Firefox and/or Chrome). www.mozilla.com/firefox

2. There are two bookmarkets which remove all the clutters from the web page you want to read. They are 'tidy read', and 'readability". Few of the webpages open better in 'tidyread', and a few in 'readability'.

Tidy read: www.tidyread.com
Readability: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

3. Now add the 3rd bookmarklet, called 'autoscroll'. http://marklets.com/Autoscroll.aspx

Thats it.

Open the page you want to read in Firefox. To remove all the clutter, click on 'tidy read' or 'readability' bookmarklet. When the web page opens with one of them, click on 'autoscroll'. Selelct your speed of reading (1 to 9). Sit back and enjoy!!

Android and iPhone (again)

2010-06-22T10:00:00.000+01:00

When Google announced its entry to mobile OS, iPhone was ruling the smart phone market. Windows mobile OS was looking like a bad version of its own Windows 95. Nokia, Sony and Motorola never got hold of the idea of mobile OS.

The mobile phone industry can be easily divided into pre and post iPhone. iPhone changed the way everyone looked at mobile phones. It was calculated growth from iPod to iPod touch to iPhone (although Steve tells iPhone was invented when they wanted to build Apple TV).

Microsoft kept promising that it would come with better mobile OS. HTC built the required hardware. But Windows was not ready to leave its cumbersome start-folders-sub folders idea.

I became interested in the idea of smart phones only when 3G became more widely available in the UK. The Nokias etc were also offering Internet, but the Internet experience was no where near to the desktop experience.

During same time, social networking websites started making big waves. Orkut, then Facebook. Twitter entered. Flickr grew. You tube became social networking video channel. The way we looked at Internet changed forever. The chats, forwarded messages, sending bulk photos to bulk of friends all stopped.

Most importantly, Google gave its next best service, GMail (the first best is still its search engine). GMail changed the way we all worked on e-mail. With one account name and password, we could manage our emails, calendar, photos (Picasa), tasks (Google tasks). Google reader became smarter and quicker.

The market was really looking for competition for closed brand iPhone. Google entered the market with Android OS. As they gave all other previous services free, they made Android open source.

When T-mobile announced first ever Android device, I jumped and grabbed it. It was far more cheaper than iPhone, far more better than Windows OS. It did every job iPhone did. For people who use Google for everything (GMail, calendar, contacts etc), all information was automatically stored in cloud. No need to worry about connecting to the desktop every evening to sync all the data. No need to have a media player to put all the songs on to mobile. It was pure copy-paste business. Very simple and straight forward.

But still it was not iPhone in terms of looks and speed. But it did multitasking, that is why it was slow. The Android market grew day by day. The android went from version 1.0 to 1.5, then to 1.6.

When my contract was about to end, I went for HTC Desire with Android 2.1. The hardware and Android OS have leaped at least 10 folds. I got this for £30/month contract of 24 months with no upfront charge for the phone. When I am writing this, we still have to pay for iPhone if I want such contract.

I never liked Adolf Hitler. Although I very much appreciate the leadership skills of Steve, I will probably never buy an Apple product. I will leave Apple to Americans, or so called brand conscious people.

My single line review about HTC Desire with Android 2.1 is, “Stop comparing Android with iPhone. Now start comparing iPhone with Android”. With version 2.2. on way, I am much more excited about Android.

(image courtsey: http://davidjacobchemla.wordpress.com/. I have not taken permission to put the picture. Thank you David. I hope David Jacob does not mind it. I you do mind, I will remove the image)

"My name is Khan" is told from epiglottis.

2010-02-24T01:36:00.002Z

Most of the story of "My name is Khan (MNIK)" is told from the "epiglottis" with lot of all sugar candy and spicy masala "heart", but with very little "brain".

MNIK: not a huge disappointment

Despite the above comment, "My Name Is Khan" was not a huge disappointment, as I did not expect any masterpiece from Karan Johar (KJo), and definitely not expecting to watch anything realistic from the maker of KKHH. But the theme is far too ambitious, far too realistic, far too adventurous, and far too off beat for a person, who is specialised in delivering fairly tale Hindi-filmy stories in American settings. KJo, as usual, wants to satisfy NRIs with this movie too, but with this movie, he wants to spread wider and broader.

The first half:
From the first scene, we know the end. There is no suspense or mystery element in the climax. Khan is going to meet the president of USA to tell him that his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist. The story is as simple as that. What we are interested is knowing why an autistic Indian man wants to do that, and how his journey to meet the president shows us the different facets of human being who is divided by race and religion. As it is a main stream Hindi movie, we all know from the beginning it will be romantic fairly tale journey in somewhat realistic setting, and the first half keeps that promise intact.

The opening sequence can send chills through the spine. The childhood flashback is quite interesting. The episodes between Khan and Mandira are indeed romantic with a few funny moments (of course, Khan gives one of his finest performances till date). Sept 11 happens, and the lives of Muslims around the world change forever; and so is the life of Khan and his family. At intermission, the tone is set just right and makes us to wait eagerly to watch the second half to see how the director takes the Khan's journey to meet the president of America with same sincerity.

The second half:
Ah, the second half! exaggerated ambitions lose the plot completely. The intimate love story becomes too loud with unrealistic media (TV journalists) drama with overdose of Hindi-filmy-estyle melodramas and emotions. It is not only extremely unrealistic but also too manipulative.

The careful construction of the first half is recklessly destroyed in the second half literally and cinematically. The autistic khan becomes superman and saves hundreds of black US citizens in flood hit village of Georgia. Khan, his brother and TV crew arrive well before US flood relief team arrives! The way second half wants to make superhero out of Autistic Khan is beyond any reality; it even surpasses "Gaddar"!

The problem with making political movies:
When one is weaving a love story set in the USA about Indians with Islam as a core theme, and making a movie with keeping predominantly NRIs and non-Indians in mind, one has to be extremely careful not to make a movie like MNIK. Although KJo has taken every care not to use racial dialogues in the movie, he fails to come out of Hindi film cliches.

Khan's journey from the Hindu-Muslim riots in 1983 to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, from the Iraq war to the Afghanistan war, from Borivli to San Francisco, and the journey across the USA in pursuit to meet the president, would have made a wonderful script with all the complexities of politics and religion. But KJo reduces all this to "Duniya mein do tarah ki log hotein hai, ek good people, and the other bad people". It is neither a love story nor a political-religious drama.

KJo wants to preach the USA with this Hindi movie, and wants to educate non-Muslim NRIs and non-Indians about Islam and Muslims, when in India, we have organizations like Shiv Sena (who wants to disrupt MNIK and Shahrukh Khan), and we have terrorist attacks killing thousands of common men every now and then in the name of Islam.

Gulaabi talkies is far more important movie than MNIK:

Last year Girish Kasaravalli made a Kannada film called "Gulaabi talkies (GT)" which also deals with the same subject, the way Muslim common man is treated in today's world, because of the current political affairs in the country and the world. In this movie, the Muslim is an illiterate middle aged woman, whose husband is living with another woman. The movie is all about how her personal life is ruined just because she is a Muslim. Dear KJo and all the writers who praise MNIK, please do watch "Gulaabi talkies" to understand the art of movie making, and the complexity of the issue surrounding it.

The movies like GT, which truly deserve to show the world what kind of movies Indians make, are kept in dark, where as the movies like MNIK get all the attention of Indian reviewers and western media, only because MNIK is a main stream Hindi movies, produced and directed by a big banner, and distributed by an American multinational company.

Disappointing 2009 (as far as Hindi films are concerned)

2010-01-07T10:12:00.000Z

(Published in Passion for cinema website)

I love watching movies. Although given a chance, I would love to watch movies made by Girish Kasaravalli, Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan etc, I do love watching brainless Hindi and Kannada movies. I am living away from Kannada Naadu and it is difficult to get a chance to watch all brainless Kannada movies; but we are blessed to watch almost every Hindi movie in the UK!

Read rest of the article here

Novels and Movies

2010-01-02T02:35:00.000Z

I am shocked to read and watch the controversy surrounding the credits of "3 idiots" . Chetan Bhagat writes about the pain he is going through in his blog. The moview blog Naachgana even goes to the extent of providing the contarct between the producer and the writer.

Please read all the above three links to make your own views about the Hindi film industry.

Now look at this poster:

This is a poster of 80s Kannada film "Benkiya Bale". Just beneath the movie title, it is written "Based on Ta Raa Su's novel". The movie sticks to the plot of the novel, but takes enough commercial cinematic liberties

Look at this poster:

This is the poster of Girish Kasaravalli's "Dweepa". There is name of Naa.D'Souza in the main poster, although the director takes artistic liberties to even change plot of the story.

Look at this title:

The cerdit to the writer is given immediately next to the movie title.

Look at this 3 Idiots's poster now:

Its only the name of procuder and director. There is no way mention of "chetan Bhagat".

-------------------000000-----------------

Hindi film industry has a very weak history of making movies based on novels. Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Ram Gopal Verma, and all other major film producers and directors of Hindi film industry depend largely on their own stories (which are of course heavlily stolen from Hollywood moviews) or from their network of so-called writers. They simpy do not know how to acknowledge the novelist. At least they have copied this style from Hollywood (which they copy all the time) or from South Indian film history. In Kannada, if a movie is based ona novel, that will be a mojor part of publicity. Here what I am seeing is exactly opposite! Shame on you Hindi film industry!

Looking forward means looking backwards

2010-01-02T01:29:00.000Z

The mind is filled with new year resolutions during the last week of the year and the first week of the year. Most of the blogs (including this one), most of the websites, all radios, TV shows, newspapers and maganizes start with "happy new year", and "new year resolutions"!

2009 was over all a good year for me and my family, and looking forward for the best in 2010.

At personal level, my health chart looks good with no increase in weight, no increase in the blood pressure or blood sugar. I joined gym and swimming pool for 6 months where I was fairly regularly regular. I discontinued from the gym, and planning to have a small gym at home only in 2010 by summer. My wife joined back to work. I hope she gets into training post in 2010.

My son has settled down in preschool for full time and turned 4. He is extremely fluent in Kannada, and can communicate in English well. He is our main source of inspiration and happiness. Our life just revolves around him. He can now read all alphabets and numbers. He can count till 100 now. He can identify few words, and he can spell his name. He loves drawing and singing. Till recently, his favorite song was "ye jo des hai tera", from Swades. Now his everyday raga is "wake up Sid", he sings both normal and remix version completely (with his own music)! He will be starting school in Sep 2010!!

My parents had a good time. My both brothers' families are doing well. My in laws came here and had a good time. I want them to have a prosperous 2010.

I am a poor social animal. I hardly keep in touch with my school mates, college mates and colleagues. I lost touch with of my oldest buddies. One of my friends moved back to India, with whom I am hardly in contact too. I joined facebook, but I hardly update anything there, and I don't read others too. I started tweeting, and by the end of the year, I realised twitter is not for me. I can't really sit in front of twitter 14 hours a day. I am planning to get back to my old buddies, keep regular contact with previous colleagues and present friends. I want to rebulid relations with my relatives. I want to have a good social contact with internet blog friends too.

I could not listen to much of music, and could not start learning music this year too. I am hoping to listen to more music. My plan fo Android music failed miserably in 2009, and I am having a different plan for 2010 to listen to more music. I also want to learn music, and I will be starting by opening my keyboard basics again. I will also find out Indian music teachers around here.

I wrote a bit in my Kannada blog and started this English blog out of compulsion. I also started photblog. I have plans to regualry update both my Kannada and English blogs ans also the photoblog.

I read too much of blogs and technology this year. My RSS feed (google reader) will have at least 1000 updates everyday, and I read headlines of most of them everyday without fail, and read at least 100 of them completely. I read too little outside internet, and I am ashamed to write about it here. I wrote a few articles to Kendasampige. Abdul Rashid wanted it as a weekly column, but I wrote irregularly. Kendasampige is restarting again, and I hope I will be able to contribute once again, this time more regularly.

In Radiology, I started Daily Dose blog, which has a good response. I wrote a few blog articles in www.iradix.in, but I became too lazy for further updates. I wrote one review article to ENT maganize. I chaired a session at UKRC, Manchester. I went to USA for the first time, and attended San Francisco 18th Annual MSK radiology course conducted by one and only Stoller. I think, I am becoming a better radiologist. I want to write at least 2 artciles next year, and attend as many courses and conferences as possible.

Got a 42" LCD TV and a blue ray player, and am pleased with their performance. The firsr Blue Ray experience was with "Mamma Mia". FInally bought my first DSLR camera (Canon EOS 500D), and I am extermely pleased with its performance. I am yet to buy tele-lens. I am addicted to my Android phone. He is my personal assistant in every sense. He is my calander, my time keeper, my internet, my twitter, my facebook, my you tube, and what not. I am hoping to buy a good netbook in 2010. But I am torn between Windows XP and Windows 7. I also don't know the future of tablets, which might be THE future netbook.

Had a few repairs with the house. The old cars are still running strong. My wife had a good Indian trip. I did not go to India for a whole year. My only trip was to San Franscisco for 5 days. Have plan to build a conservatory in 2010. Attic conversion is in mind, but is going to cost huge, and I will wait for next 2 years.

The last few days of the year, I was not feeling well. I had viral pharyngitis and cojunctivitis, which is settling down. In a few days, I am flying to India for my annual holidays, which I am eagerly looking forward. Away from the virtual world of internet to real world, real people, real soil!

Revolutionary road - Hopeless emptiness

2009-12-26T02:38:00.000Z

(Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary road", based on Richard Yates novel was set in 1950s in suburban town of Connecticut, USA.)

Random thoughts while watching the movie

We all want to see reflections of ourselves everywhere everytime. When we fall in love, we all think the feeling of love will remain for life. We marry, we produce children. The poetic romance vanishes in no time. Love becomes duty, love becomes compulsory. We want a secure life, we want to settle down in life. We love children more than the spouse.

In a way, may be, we deserve each other in every family. Dreams, ambitions, goals, tasks...whatever you call, we buried some of ours, carried the burden of others, left some half way, picked some on the way. Yes, call it a compromise, adjutment, affection or love, we deserve each other and what we have today.

I can no longer sit for hours together just looking at your eyes. I can no longer play with your hair and chat sweet non-sense for hours together. I can no longer make love twice a day. But that does not mean, I don't love you. Definitely, I do not hate you.

We make love once a while just for the sake of it. We do show love by buying expensive gifts to each other. We do fight more often than hugging each other over nothing, absolutely nothing.

Where are we running? Are we running to escape from somebody or from ourselves? Or are we running to catch the dream we dreamt? Or are we simply running without any reason? Or are we really running?

Getting up, sending kids to school, working Monday-to-Friday to live a so called secure life, cleaning the house on Saturday, visiting/inviting freinds on Sundays; week after week, month after month, year after year till the retirement. Soon after fighting the illnesses, and spending half the life in clinics and hospitals... Hopeless emptiness.

But it takes real guts to see the hopelessness and emptiness. Most of us cannot see it; the one who sees it, cannot live it. The earth under the feet breaks, the roof over the head blows away. But it is silly to put all the dreams and hopes in a promise that was never made. Dreams and hopes are illusions. House and children are reality.

(photo from: http://www.allmoviephoto.com/)

UK NRIs are really funny!

2009-12-04T01:42:00.000Z

We, the NRIs living in the UK are funny people.

Most of us stop talking to our own kids in our mother tongues, and feed them with English language and culture. But we maintain our Indian culture by watching Hindi films (pirated DVDs), wearing kurtas and saarees on Indian parties, and visiting temples once or twice a year.

We all are extremely secular, most of us keep christmas tree in the house and celebrate christmas. For us, Diwali (not deepaawali) is the only great Indian festival.

We watch all cartoon movies in theatre paying £7 each, and return the pirated Indian film DVD to the shop for exchange of other movies, if the print is not good, even though we have paid only £3 for a DVD of 3 movies.

We religiously watch BBC news and all the drama and competitions of BBC. We do afford Indian channels when our parents are coming from India to do babysitting for our newborn children.

Whenever we friends meet here on any occasion, one of the most commonly discussed topic is 'when are YOU going back (to India)?'. Most of us think, if we go back to India, India will be proud of us!

Most of us believe or want to believe that we will eventually go back to India. For example, a person who has come from Jamakhandi (a small town in North Karnataks) will tell that he is going to India in 2 years; what he meant was he wants to Bengaluru, not Jamakhandi. He wants to live in a Metro to serve people (being a doctor)! But the most important thing is he has been telling this thing for the past 10 years!

We believed and still believe India can be a better country, if Indian politicians and beurocrats are not corrupt; if India gives 3+3 motor ways (national highways); if India gives 24 hour electricity, gas and water; if India gives 5 working days a week with total of 6 weeks of annual leave; if India gives money to attend conferences and stay in star hotels; if healthcare system is streamlined as in the west. In short, India will be a better country, if India looks like west in every respect. Then, we do not mind returning to India.

(If any NRI reads this article by mistake or by chance, I am sure he/she thinks he/she is an excpetion to these observations)

Twitter, Facebook, Blog, E-mail etc...

2009-11-08T22:53:00.000Z

Facebook/Orkut, blog, Twitter, e-mail and chat-services are completely different. Many people, including geeks, think they are interchangeable. I don't like the idea of putting the same line in both facebook and twitter, although so many applications are around us for doing this. I will explain my reasoning/ understanding of these social media applications.

Twitter:

It is my "Internet Diary"; whatever that interest me on internet on that day will be tweeted. If I can hold my thoughts (including fun) in 140 characters, I would do that on twitter, and not on Facebook or blog. If I make some opinion on anything I read/heard, I would do that on twitter, not on a blog (If I read a book or watch a movie worth reviewing, I would do that on my blog) . If I come across any interesting webpage, youtube video, blog article or a picture, I would share the link on twitter, not on Facebook.

I definitely will not wish my friends on their birthdays or deathdays on twitter. I would do that on Facebook, if they have one. Otherwise, I will DM them if they are on Twitter. If they don't have both, I will e-mail them. If they are old enough not have to any e-accounts, then they usually do not bother about their birthdays or whatever days.

I will definitely not tweet with my wife, even if she will ever have a twiiter account (I have seen some couples doing that and spamming MY timeline. I had to delete both of them). If the conversation on any particular topic goes beyond 2-3 tweets with the same follower, I would rather DM the conversation than spamming everyone's timeline with one particular conversation.

I will use Twitter to advetise ME! I will give link to my every blog post, and I may do it twice or thrice.

I can't think of having more than one Twitter account. One account = one person. I don't like people tweeting in pseuonyms or xyzs.

Facebook/Orkut:

I get invitations from people whom I have never met to accept them on Facebook/Orkut. Favebook/Orkut is only for people whom I know, whom I have met, whom I have spoken. It is to find all the boys and girls from school days, and all friends from college days, and intresting colleagues from your workplace. It is to keep in touch with the people with whom I had some interaction in REAL life. Twitter followers, however nice they are, cannot become Facebook friends, unless I meet/ talk with them.

I will not fill my Facebook 10-20 times day; it is not twitter to write everything you saw, you heard, you read. Facebook is for my family, friends (present and past) and colleagues (present and past). I don't want to spam their Facebook timeline with my every interests.

I will make a wish of Diwali or Dasara on Facebook rather than sending bulk e-mail to all my e-mail address book. I would post my recent travel photos on Facebook (I will not spam them on twitter). I would post party pictures on Facebook, not on twitter. I would write about someone's birth, wedding or death on Facebook, not on twitter.

I will not use Facebook to link my blogs, unless the blog post is on personal note.

Blog:

Blog is not a personal diary. It is not a confession media. For me, it is where I would flow with my creativity (if there is any :)), opinions (longer than at least 2 paragraphs), debates, and discussions. I will definitely will not give one link, one photo or one joke in my blog post. I will not personal pictures in my blog.

I will not write any short stories on my blog. Even if I write, I will give it in PDF format too, so that the reader can take a printout to read it.

I will not write any serial (part 1, part 2 etc) on my blog as I know reader is not intrested in any parts.

I would prefer to have many blogs, so that each of my interest will get one platform. I don't like to bombard all of ME in one blog.

E-mail:

For everything else, there is e-mail.

Chat-services:

Waste of time. If it is urgent, make a phone call. If it is not, tweet me or e-mail me.

Four Incidents

2009-10-28T00:11:00.000Z

Today on NDTV, there was news that two kids were punished in a English-medium school in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh for speaking in Telugu. I have heard similar incidents in Mysore and Bangalore convent and English medium schools too.

Today, on Twiiter, one of the young men wrote that most of the time he speaks English and Hindi, and he can just manage in his mother tongue 'Telugu'. In reply, I tweeted he must be struggling to read and write Telugu. He replied he cannot read or write Telugu.

A few years ago, one of the Tamil guys (Bangaluru or Bangalore resident), while praising Salman Rashdie's novels, told that Indian English literature is THE literature. I asked him, " Have you read any of the Tamil or Kannada writers before making such loose comments?". His reply was blunt with a smile, 'I can hardly read Tamil or Kannada'.

During my under-graduation, one of our classmates was from Mysore; he was Kannadiga and used to speak Kannada with all of us. When his father came to visit him, both father and son started speaking in English. I asked him (after his father left) why they spoke in English to each other. He told, "It was my father's decision when I joined preschool. Since then we speak in English.".

I can clearly understand why learning English has become a necessity for all Indians in this modern age. But the above four incidents are examples of growing neglect to our own languages. Why the parents, schools and youth of India have developed so much avulsion for our own languages?

(Picture from: NDTV.com)

Nobel Peace Prize or Filmfare/ Oscar Award ?

2009-10-09T20:52:00.001+01:00

Initially I did not believe my eyes, when I saw the news on twitter. Then I opened BBC, and yes, I believed, but not until I read it twice. American president has won the Nobel peace prize for the year 2009!

Look at the other Nobel awards given this year:

In Physics, Charles K. Kao had to wait 43 years to get Nobel prize for his discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics, and . In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith had to wait 40 years for inventing the first successful CCD.

In Medicine (or Physiology), Blackburn is geeting Nobel prize after 29 years of presenting her results at a conference in 1980, Jack Szostak after 27 years.

In Chemistry, the story is not different: Professor Yonath created the first ribosome crystals 1980s. Dr. Ramakrishnan and Steitz published their studies (seperately) in 2000.

Herta Müller, winner of Nobel prize for literature, published her first collection of short stories Niederungen in 1982, i.e., 27 years ago.

Look at this now:
Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He won Democratic primary election for the United States Senator from Illinois in 2004, which brought him to national attention. Since 2007, He was on run for the presidency and he won he won his party's nomination against Hillary Clinton. He took oath has the president of USA in January 2009. Just 8 months later, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was given to him for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"!

I pity the scientists who spend their whole lives discovering or inventing something, which may or may not be useful for the people. I pity writers who spend their whole life reading and writing the stuff to make people think laterally, and to fight against the system. I pity people who work in villages and forests for the upliftment of under previliged people for decades without any recognistion.

Is Nobel peace prize an award like populistic Oscar or Filmfare? Sure, Nobel peace prize never deserved Mahatma Gandhi.

Movie reviewers and movie goers, please, wake up!

2009-10-07T00:57:00.000+01:00

Its about a day and half since I watched 'Wake up Sid (WUS)', and it is still eating my head. Not because the movie is good or great, its because of the reviews I read/ watched about this movie by India's leading reviewers in leading news papers, channels and websites.

Take a little look at this: Anupama Chopra of NDTV cannot stop talking goody goody about the film while reviewing it, but also writes, "I’m going with a generous three stars and recommending Wake Up Sidwith reservations." Times of India, India's leading newspaper gives 4 stars!, and describes it as 'Neatly lensed, the movie looks at Bombay with love and affection.n the end, Wake Up Sid becomes a sort of template of how GenNow navigate their lives: deal with their own little rebellions, find meaning to their own definitions of independence and handle their own set of mistakes. It feels good when the two friends finally meet in driving rain under the grey skies by the sea. Refreshing and heart-warming, Wake Up Sid really puts you in the mood for love'. Rediff India gives 3 stars.

There are two Indian Movie based blogportals, Naachgaana and Passion for cinema (PFC), and the later has some movie directors who write their blogs regularly.

Here are the few lines from them (including comments):

'Most part the movie stays believable, realistic and likable.'

'Dialogues are quite natural and realistic.'

'Konkona Sen Sharma pulls off another wonderful performance. Ever the earthy and realistic next door girl...'

'Ranbir Kapur for once and for all proves that he can really act. He carries off his role with absolute ease.'

'While the story and screen play of the film avoids all the melodramas and Bollywood cliches, I loved the simplicity and realism',

'First scene between konkana and ranbir is just awsome.'

'By the end of the film she is in love with both, Sid as well as the city'

Most of the reviewers cna't stop comparing WUS with 'Dil chahta hai' (DCH), and keep writing as if DCH is one of the best Hindi movie ever directed. Through out the movie, I was trying to figure out what these reviewers are trying to tell the people. From scene 1 to scene end, I did not find a single scene realistic, imaginative, or new. Every frame, every scene, every dialogue, and every character is full of cliché. Just because it has come from Dharma productions, just because it has Kapoor, just because it is main stream Hindi cinema (read KJo and YRF), it cannot become a good film. It might do a business. But DCH or WUS cannot be called as new generation movie by any standards.

Indian new urban/ metro generation is not confused, rich, or spoilt, and they do not live a luxurious life on their father’s hard earned money. They are well educated, start earning big money because of their education, are not confused, but do lead a luxurious life from their own money. I think these main stream Hindi film producers and directors (read KJo, YRF and Farah Khan etc) can never understand the true nature of the Indian urban youth.

The films like DCH and WUS have been made million times in both Hindi and English. And the current generation of reviewers and cine goers are going to praise the movies like WUS, we are never going to have a good Indian urban movie in Hindi in near future.

A few Tamil movies in recent years are more close to the heart of urban India than WUS, but again, these tamil movies, just like main stream Hindi movies, again concentrate on only one aspect of youth, LOVE, and no other aspects of urban life.

One of the fellow twitters asked me, 'is Wake up Sid a remake of Kannada's yeddaelu Manjunaatha (YM) (which means wake up Manjunath)?'. Although I am yet to see the later movie, I can confidently say that Kannada movie will be far more mature and realistic than WUS. And more importantly, the main stream Hindi flm industry can never make movies like YM. YM is not a 'art movie', and did become a major successful movie this year.

Gandhi and Montblanc Pen

2009-10-02T10:05:00.000+01:00

On the account of 140th birthday of Gandhi, Germany's pen maker, Montblanc is selling 241 pens with a price tag of $15,500 only, to remember Gandhi's 241 mile of Dandi March! Montblanc chief executive Lutz Bethge donated a check for 100,000 euros ($145,000) to Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, for Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. The foundation will also get between $210 and $1,050 for each pen sold. I am sure Montblanc is not going to make any money on this, as they have generously donated the money to the charity. It may all appear chiche, but symbolically his ideology is killed not only by Montblanc, but also by the innumerable large advertisements in news papers, media people who wants to sell their TRPs, politicians who want to utilize his name to win elections, historians who want to sell their books by writing controversial issues.

Many of the recent journalists and historians are trying to rewrite Gandhi's history, trying to make him more of a political figure than a social reformer. They are trying to portray him in the same line of world's politicians, like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, and Adolf Hitler. The current twitter and facebook generation people have absolutely no idea about the man, who walked across the nation practicing ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha. Recently there was article in 'Outlook' about Gandhi's sexual life!

The government of India has completely ignored Gandhi's political ideology from the beginning. Nehru was inclined towards communist Russia, and borrowed heavily on USSR and UK for socialism. Economic reforms in India has opened gate to US idea of capitalism. The 'third alternate' was well within the country, 'graam swaraaj', which was completely overlooked by Nehru and afterward. I don't know whether 'graam swaraaj' would have made a successful social system as it was never tried even in one of the states of India.

We are seeing exponential growth of capitalsim, commersialization, populism, urbanization, centralization, nuclearization, westernization, and globalization in every aspect of life; but what we are not seeing is slow and steady death of socialization, simple living, regional culture, regional language, regional values, regional art, regional literature, and regional autonomy. Gandhi's 'graam swaraaj' would have found balance between the two.

Probably Gandhi would have insisted Montblanc to sell the pen for higher price, would have agreed to walk several thousand more miles to make thousands of pens, and would have personally sold and autographed each pen. But still he would have worked towards the autonomy of the villages, towns and regions.

What is dinner, supper, drink and tea?

2009-10-01T11:25:00.004+01:00

When I started learning English in school, I was taught, lunch is afternoon food, supper is night food, and dinner is also night food. For us 'tea' means 'drinking tea'. When we were in collage, 'drink' meant 'alcohol'.

I got confused, when I was new to England when these incidents happened.

At about 10 AM, my consultant asked me, 'do you want to have a drink?'. I was shocked, but told, 'no, thanks'. When he got up with his empty mug, I realized, he meant 'tea or coffee?'.

I was staying as a paying guest. It was about 5 PM when my landlady told me, 'Keshav, I will have my tea, will you join?'. I was having my tea with mug still in my hand; I thought this old lady was getting blind, so I told, 'no, thanks', and continued to sip my tea. She went to kitchen and came with a plate full of food. She was having her meal! I asked her, 'is it your dinner?'. She smiled and told, 'no, it is my tea, but you can call it supper'. It took time for me to undertsand these 'English' terms. 'Tea' is 'supper'; 'dinner' is a 'grand supper'.

I am still unlearning my Indian English, and learning 'English' English. ;)

China: amazing growth

2009-10-01T09:02:00.002+01:00

Although I do not believe statistics, these statistics on China are amazing, and someone might want to compare with that of India.

I did not know Mao founded People's republic of China after India was formed. India was formed in 1947 where as Mao's China in 1949 on Oct 1st.

The GDP per capital today os $3200 compared to $50 in 1949. Life expentancy is 73, and then it was 36. The meat consumption has increased from 10kg per person per annum to 53 kg.

Despite the phenominal growth of China in recent years, we hardly hear about the first man of China, where as USA's first man's name is bombarded every minute on news channels.

To be frank, I did not know the his full name is Hu Jintao.

(Who is the president of China? Answer: hu)

Manna Dey - classical voice of Hindi film industry

2009-09-30T11:17:00.006+01:00

As a child I used to like fast songs from Kannada and Hindi film music. During childhood days, the songs are remembered by the singer, not by the composer (hold true for few songs and singers even today). But there were plenty of old Hindi movie cassettes, brought by our neighbour Rashid. Soon, I become a huge fan of Rafi, and Yahoo became one of my favorites.

I think, I was 12 yrs old when I first listened to 'jhanak jhanak tore baaje paayaliya..', and I was mesmerized by the song. That was the age, I started liking Hindustani classical music too. I thought it was sung by Rafi for next 2 to 3 years, when we got a cassette of Manna Dey hits.

Although Manna Dey has sung songs of several genre (aye bhai, jazra dekh ke chalo from mera naam joker), I will remember him for singing wonderful classical music. Incidentally, yesterday I was listening to 'laaga chanri mein daag chupaaoon kaisil in repeat mode while driving. Everytime I listen to 'pucho na kaise mujhe raina bitaaye', I get goosebumps.'aadhaa hai chandramaa, raat aadhi' in raag Maalkauns is one of my favorite duets.

I don't know why Manna Dey was disappeared from play back singing. Was it new wave musicians or altered taste of Film music? Phalke award is honoured today by Manna Dey. Phalke award deserves Manna Dey.

I am going to listen to him again this whole week.

(Manna Day has sung in Kannada too, 'Jayate jayate jayate satyamaeya jayate'.)

Tips and Tricks: Cheapest childcare in western world for Indian parents

2009-09-26T11:18:00.003+01:00

Indians who migrate to western world have to save a lot of money. Because they don't know when they are going to go back to India (although 99% of them will never go back even after retirement, that is a different story altogether); and when they go back they want to have good saving so that they can lead NRI quality of life style!

That gives a great motivation for the mother to join back to work soon after her matenity leave. But, alas, child care in western world can sometimes be as much as one's salary! What is the use of mother's earning when all the earning goes towards childminder?

As you know most of the NRIs are more intelligent than native Indians, all NRIs know how to save this massive expenses on childcare.

As you might know most of Indian Bahus (daughter in law) do not like their saans (mother in law), and they want to have a nuclear family with their chota parivaar so that they can be sukhi parivar (small family is happy family). But the thing which you do not know is NRI bahus love their Mother-in-laws (MIL) as much as they love their mothers. Not only that, NRI guys also love their in-laws as much as their wives love their parents.

Here is the trick they adapt:

Bahu's mother (+/- father) will come just before delivery and stay with her daughter for 6 months. Just before her departure, MIL (+/- FIL) will land from India, and stay for 6 months. This cycle repeats till their kid or kids are old enough to take care of themselves. This would have saved whooping 5 lakh rupees (at least) per year per child (excluding ticket charges and health insurance)!

As soon as the mission is accomplished, they start telling the parents that they are now too old to fly, and too old to tolerate the winter. They also start telling about the health expenses for the elderly people, higher premiums, and massive health related expenses in extremely expensive western world.

Mission accomplished.

Bicycle thieves: Words cannot describe what you feel.

2009-09-25T06:11:00.005+01:00

I watched this Italian movie, made in 1949 with English subtitles recently. I wanted to watch this movie because (if I am not wrong) this is THE movie which made Satyajit Ray. Ray had a habit of watching almost every movie when he was in London, but it was this movie which changed his vision about movies.

I had read innumerable occounts about this movie, and how it has inspired thousands of film makers across the world.

After watching the movie, I can see 'bicycle thieves' in Bimal roy's movies, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's movies and also in Rajkapoor's movies.

For me, the story is on 'Kannada navodaya' time scale. The story is simple, personal, non-melodramatic, and without any symbolism. Every shot, every character, every scene is done with dedication and devotion. The movie is non-political without any isms. As a critic, one can call this working class film stuck in poverty, but that is not what the film is about.

The film is about human dignity, and fate of losing it. The film is about a small family who is making every effort to make a decent living in a honest way. The film is about a bicycle which is very much essential for making such a life to happen.

The shot where the close-up of son's hand holding his father's hand is, I think, one of the ultimate original shots in film history. This shot makes us cry and smile at the same time; cry for the helpless fallen face of the really good father, and smile for the unconditional love given by the son.

It might sound cliche; but undoubtedly, this movie will be one of my favorites.

Regional art is global, and global art is business

2009-09-23T08:55:00.005+01:00

I loved everybit of Gulabi talkies (Kannada movie) directed by one and only Girish Kasaravalli (GK), although I could see a few short comings. I loved everybit of Umashree's acting, although I could see a few short comings in others. I loved everybit of use of local Kannada dialect, although I could not understand a few times.

Compare this movie with so called very artistic Oscar winning Hollywood movie (e.g.: million dollar baby), or so called very artistic Hindi movie (e.g.: Paheli), then one will understand the importance of so called regional movies. In that sense, these so called regional movies are more global than so called global movies. Unless the art is regional, it can't be global.

The same applies to literature too. Gopalakrishna Adiga appeals more than Aravind Adiga. Shyam Bengal's Mandi is more real than Slumdog millionaire.

I know most of exclusively English reading and Hollywood watching Indian intellectuals will not agree with me. It is not their fault. They don't know non-capitalistic side of the world and art.

Similar views are expressed here:
http://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/trivandrum-bombay-madras-or-how-can-the-local-be-preserved/

Making Indian Tea

2009-09-22T09:42:00.004+01:00

If you are living in western world, it is very difficult to find Indian tea at work place. All we get is tea bags which are dipped in hot water for 10 to 30 seconds. Many Indians in the UK are used to drinking tea without sugar. They pour few mils of skimmed milk and drink.

I want Indian tea, because the taste lingers in the mouth for hours, and it gives good calaries, antioxidants and the taste to relish.

The way I do this tea is simple: half hot water, half milk, 2 spoons of sugar and 2 tea bags. Then I heat it in microwave for 60 to 90 seconds. Then, I squeeze the tea bags and stir.

Wah! Nothing can beat Indian tea. I am sipping it and typing this blog :)

I hate Bollywood

2009-09-21T12:30:00.003+01:00

I hate the term 'bollywood' and to a lesser extent 'Hindi film industry'.

I hate the word 'Bollywood' which reflects it is copy of 'hollywood'. I don't know who has coined the word 'bollywood', but I hate it. It suggests Bollywood is a mere shadow of hollywood, annd is not original. Of late, media has started called tollywood, sandlewood etc.

I hate the term 'bollywood', because people, especially the media, that too western media, generalise this term for 'Indian cinema' as a whole. But in reality, Telugu film industry produces more movies than Hindi. Southe Indian film industry is far more busy than Hindi film industry.

I hate Hindi film industry for the amount of time it takes on so called national channels, including DD as if other film industries are non-existant. From India Today to Indian express, the reviews of Hindi films are published, where as south Indian films occasionally find mention.

Apple and Android

2009-09-19T07:38:00.002+01:00

I resisted the temptation of buying iPhone. The reasons were several.

When iPhone was introduced to the UK market, almost all mobiles were free if one was willing to pay between £10 and £30 per month on 12 to 18 month contract. But iPhone came with monthly contract as well as money to pay for the hand set. I thought it is too much and left it that way.

In no time I realized iPhone is carried as status symbol. People usually carry their mobiles in their pockets. What I started noticing was iPhone users carry their iPhones in hands and keep it on table during meetings so that iPhone is shown to the people around all the time. This put me off, and I firmly decided not to buy it.

Then Google came with Android - OS for mobile phones. I was never happy with Windows PDA and hence Windows mobile was striaght no-no to me. T-mobile came with first Google phone, called G1 with flat £30 per month 18 month contract with no money for the handset.

I jumped for it, and till today I am very happy with my decision.

Starting Engish blog

2009-09-18T12:43:00.002+01:00

There are millions of blogs in English, and I did not want to start my blog in English. I am starting English blog out of compulsion, because none of the smart phones offer typing in Kannada, my mother tongue. I am crippled. If I do not write I will die.

The whole idea of this blog is to write very short blogs, may be a paragraph or two, and definitely more than 140 characters! The topics range from medical profession to IT profession, India to UK, Kannada to English, kids to grannies, ancient to ultramodern; in short, virtually anything and everything, which strikes a chord in me.

Hoping to post everyday from my mobile.