Saturday, August 30, 2014

Gardening Without a Garden


I have been missing in action for quite some time! Was too much busy at office, and at home too :). After so many days, right now am sitting at my apartment balcony garden and enjoying a hot tea. Why don’t I write about my “Balcony Garden” itself today ?

If you have been using your balcony/terrace just as a place to dry clothes or only to relax on warm evenings, I may look an odd animal. Both me and my wife (so our kid too) have a quite common interest in gardening (that's the only thing though :P ). Living in an apartment doesn't limit our gardening interest to fade out. We have set-up a small garden at our balconies. These greens not only make my balconies beautiful, but they also feed our body and nourish our soul !.

I developed a liking for gardening ever since I was a child. We used to have a small garden in our house with rows of plants, vegetables, flowers and a few trees. Not just ours, almost all the houses in my village had their backyards as a garden. As kids, we used to spend most of our off-school hours at the gardens , whether I do little gardening or just play with friends, we stayed mostly at the garden areas.

But now I live in Bangalore. With peaking real estate rates, I can’t even think of buying a small patch of ground . So we decided to covert our balconies into little gardens., with a few vegetables, a good collection of herbs and leaves. Not every day , not every meal,.. but still they feed us the most healthy food on the earth.

I love planting and watching the new plants pushing up through the soil every day. It gives so much peace and insight into our lives: a fragile beginning, that with sincere love and patience blossoms into something strong and beautiful that eventually returns to the earth leaving behind seeds and memories that pave the way for even more splendors to follow….What do you say?

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Creative Ways to get Work done from Your Kids


If you have landed in this page by the super-serious topic of the post, am very sorry I don’t have anything useful to offer here.

When you go through consecutive management training, and in-turn loose all your common senses :P , you’ll intend to be a manager every second, and can’t digest the fact that one of your team member is simply running around happily, without any task and responsibility. Yes, am talking about your preschool son & daughter :-O. See, here are some of the funny (yet very productive!) ways, I get my work done through my 3 year old daughter.

When you need to shred some papers:  Just keep the papers nearby and tell her that they are very important papers. Believe me, they will be in million pieces before even you finish.

When you’re searching for a sketch pen/ marker: Wear a white shirt to her and wait for a few minutes. She’ll soon make the plain white shirt to a colorful dress. Yes, the sketch pens are found !!! . It gets great when I do the same trick for finding a permanent marker  X(

When you want to clean-up your wallet, just hand it over to her. It will be super clean in a minute , even the smallest piece of paper scrap will be out and empty. If you’re a mom, this would be very helpful, as your handbag is expected to have much more dump than men’s wallet :))

When you go to a grocery shop, but have forgotten to bring the shopping list:  Just ask her, “What do you want to eat for the dinner ?” . Sure, she will give a list of all the items that you don’t have in the house.

When you want to hang-up a boring phone call which is going for so long:  just go to the room where the kid is. Rest will be taken care of >:)

And these are just a few I could think at this moment.. am sure everyone of you will have a lot more experiences like these. Would you like to share ?

Monday, August 25, 2014

Ice Bucket Challenge in India - is nothing but Useless


Ice Bucket Challenge has been going viral across all social media networks. Our newspapers publishing the news of Indian celebrities taking up the challenge every minute, as if they don’t have any other headline in the country.

Ok, before I scream further let me summarize what this “Ice Bucket Challenge” is. (…for the benefit of illiterates , like me >:D<  . I had no idea about it till today morning!. )

It's a simple task of pouring a bucket of ice water on self or donate $100 to ALS Association. And while you are doing it, you need to create a video, post it on social network and tag a few friends (six to be accurate) challenging them to complete the same task. Those who fail to respond within 24 hours, have to donate $100 to the ALS association and declare it on the network.

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Scelorsis - a neuro degenerative disorder - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. This is a deadly disease that is fast claiming the lives of people with no known to cure.

I agree that the ice bucket challenge is a "cool" thing and an innovative way to promote a good cause. Celebrities in the US and other western counties do because about 30,000 Americans are living with this killer disease. They do it to create awareness about the disease and in turn to build a corpus for the charity. But, does it have any relevance in Indian context?

Aren’t our Indian celebrities just copy the west without any thinking? Do you think that they really care about ALS? Instead they do it just for fun and for some cheap publicity :-( .When Modi asked help to setup toilets in every home in rural India., did any of them came front?

Instead of campaigning for a unreported (not even a  single case in India so far) disease, why can’t we make meaningful contribution to other killing diseases which are being reported in millions in India every year. More than 30% of the total tuberculosis patients of the world, are living in India L. Still hearing a lot of bitter incidents on Dengue, Cancer and Infant mortality !

If all these celebrities create awareness and donate money as much to the research into TB, Dengue, and Cancer which are immediate problems., just think of the difference we could make!!!. Why only celebrities, we all can join the cause…  think of all the 1.2 billion people of us.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Why Do I Write ?


After seeing my milestone post, one of my friends called me, congratulated ironically and asked “ why do you write?” , “What do you earn by blogging” and even argued that I am actually wasting my time, that 1 hour I spend for writing !

That’s true. I don’t "earn" much, except a few ¢ents/day that come from the sidebar adverts-  certainly not enough even for a single dinner (forget about family :P). Then "time" : yes, the 40-60 minutes I spend for my blog, is also really a big thing with my current workloads., that can be spent with family , friends, or for sleeping extra time at least :) . But still why do I write.

The answer is simple: I do it because I enjoy it. 

Reading and Writing has always been my favorite /passion or whatever you call it.

1. It makes me to think better : Writing starts from thinking. I read a lot and dig deep on the topic I write. It develops my overall thinking capability, be it a R&D engineering design, a business presentation or at least to make something creative for my wife &  kid  :P

2. I become a better writer : Writing is like every other habit/hobby- gets better and better with practice. Blogging does not force you to become a better writer, but it’ll just happen as we do it.

3. It serves as a digital diary on the cloud: Whenever I read my old posts such as My first flight experience , Niagara Trip, Chicago tour...they take me completely back to those days and make me to remember every minute fun of it. My blog is like a personal journal of my life that is recorded in the cloud , which will never be lost / destroyed.

4. I get connect with new people : Through Comments ,Shares , Likes… every day  I make new friends. The blogging community is definitely is very encouraging, friendly and genuinely appreciating my efforts.

Last but not the least,
5. It’s free :)  : Google, Wordpress, and many more people are there to create and maintain your blog without spending a single paisa. So if you get inspired by my words, you can start your blog right away, at $0 cost !!!

Friday, August 22, 2014

History behind “The Madras Day”


India’s first modern city – Chennai celebrating it’s 375th birth day today, August 22.

Chennai day used to be so much of fun, when I was in Chennai., it used to be a week long celebration everywhere, start from the local buses to colleges, and corporates.

What I wonder is, all these celebrations are hugely voluntary, No government or authority recommends or regulates it. Just that different people would do different things, but focused on the history, culture and traditions of the city, with full of fun and peace. I used to enjoy the entire week!

But today, when I go through the history behind the Madras day, I really don’t know whether to celebrate it or not. It’s the day when the British East India Company acquired a small piece of land in Chennai (the first in India) and laid foundation for their 100+ years of slavery ruling.

See here, am scribbling the history behind the Chennai day, as heard from multiple people and articles.  After reading the history , you decide whether you’ll celebrate the Chennai day or not !

Those days, most part of northern Tamilnadu was being ruled by the Vijayanagara Dynasty , by their chiefs known as “Nayaks”. That was the time, when the British had just arrived-in India to set up its trade and other commercial activitiesJ.

On 22 August, 1639, the British East India Company signed the deed with the then chief - Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka , to a three-mile long piece of land in the fishing village of Madrasapatnam.

It’s believed that they started the construction of St.George Fort on the same day – which is why still you see a lot of celebration at St.George Fort on the Chennai day!

The deed signed by Venkatadri Nayaka was effective only till 1645, but soon the new king, Sri Rangarayulu, renewed the deed and empowered the Eastern India Company to expand its business with a lot more additional land, which is believed to be the present form of Chennai.

Unexpectedly in 1646, Golkonda Empires forces conquered the complete Madras area and bulgulared and massacred a huge population, including the British communities. Followed by plague and other deadly deceases, the madras town was almost destroyed.

In 1687, after the fall of Golkonda, the area came under the control of the Mughals, who again granted the rights to Eastern India Company to develop and expand the City, which made the British to take more control over the city.

The city was subsequently attacked by the French, Dutch and Hyder Ali. But the British was brilliant to let the French and Hyder Ali Sultan to fight and they regained the control of Madras.

In the 18 century, they constructed the Chennai harbour , which led the city to become an important center for the trade between India and Europe. Chennai City grown-up so fast and became popular all over the world; In-fact, Chennai was the only Indian City bombarded by the Germany during the World War – I.

We all know rest of the story in late 18th Century and till 1974.

Now tell me, will you celebrate the day, when we laid the first stone to loose our independence? Or do you feel that it’s because of the British only Chennai (Infrastructure) has developed this much, otherwise would have got collapsed by consecutive attacks ,diseases and natural disasters?

I am not biased, fair to hear from both the sides of response. Please share your thoughts.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

I like the "Like" button

Today, while I was scrolling down the Facebook page, some odd question popped in my mind..."why do I click the “like” button?". Here are some of the answers I got...

1.       I really like what I read.
2.       I do so that the post will appear on my timeline / News feed
3.       I just want to acknowledge that I read something.
4.       I do not want to comment anything on the post (& /) there’s no “dislike” button :P

Out of the above four, the reason#3 is why I mostly click the like button a lot nowadays; and I don’t hide the fact that reason#4 closely follows it :P.  Not only me, most of us do the same thing only, right?

Whether we really like it or not, just click a “Like” the button. (prob’ly you may have some more interesting reasons for clicking the Like” button). At times, even before reading the complete article I have clicked the like button (including one An obituary /death notice :-o   [then later I realized, regretted and did a unlike J ]. We have become such addictive to the ‘liking’ in Facebook.

Btw, Do you know that the ‘like’ button on Facebook was previously named ‘Awesome’? . For a more detailed history of the like button, check out this link. Anyway, I’m not sure if I would have liked the ‘Awesome’ button as much as the ‘like’ button if it had stayed.

Now, I hope you won’t start thinking about the reasons why you click “Like” for my posts ;) Please don’t put reason# 4 on the comment section :P

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

A Milestone


30,000+ Visitors
30+ Countries
230+ Posts
200+ Comments
7+ Years
..
And, never-ending love.

Thank you all so much, for supporting my writing.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Airtel's new Ad: Together at Home & Work - practically possible ?


Recent Airtel advertisement, a couple working in the same office has created serious buzz all over the working class , Is in it?. I personally like the ad very much, but the question is: Is it really practical in everyone’s life?

Yes, of course. Even in villages , where we claim gender inequality (not true though), I have seen many couple successfully run a small shop to medium scale business together, themselves. Then why can't a modern man & woman work in the same organization together?

On a mutual understanding, couple working in the same department is definitely possible. But not sure, if any company in the world, allows direct reporting between spouses in the office (Woman/Man as the Boss to their spouse), that part is li’l exaggerated !

It’s all depend on your mental Strength and your maturity to handle the situation. From my point of view, it’s not a so bad idea to work together, you just need some smartness to tackle the small-small situations and circumstances. If you are so, then it’s more enjoyable.

The Ad is brilliantly scripted and directed, but somehow, the guy’s face reaction at the last shot makes me to think that he's planning to leave either his wife or his job on the next day :P  .
Do you also feel the same :)

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Yaamirukka Bayamey - A Hilarious Horror


Happened to watch this movie over the weekend. Yaamirukka Bayamey is a Tamil horror comedy film, written and directed by debutant Deekay, casting Kreshna, Rupa Manjari, Karuna, and Oviya. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and dialogues.

The movie started-off so draggy and  boring, but soon picked the pace and put me completely in surprise. It’s is a well-executed horror comedy that revolves around just 4-5 characters and their hilarious attempts to run a guesthouse at a haunted building. The Hero – a fraudster (Krishna) escapes from a local don in Chennai and comes to this haunted house in Kolliyur with his girlfriend.

As per his manager (Karuna) advise, they decide to renovate the building and make it as a guest house. But interestingly, all the guests who come to stay there start dying. What's the mystery behind the whole thing?

Nothing is taken seriously or allowed to get too serious. Any normal horror movie with such story/script could have very well ended up as a flop. But somehow Yaamirukka Bayamey manages to keep us amused. Whenever we expect a supernatural reason behind the haunting events, the movie gives-out a sneaky and funny explanation. There are plenty of exciting twists that keep us glued.

All the lead actors have performed remarkably. A large part of the credit should go to Karuna, and Mayilsamy's cameo role towards the end of the film. I am not good in analyzing the technicals of a horror movie, so leaving it unwritten.

A clever script with good all round performances make Yaamirukka Bayamey definitely worth a watch.

Btw, am wondering why should all the horror movies revolve around a Haunted House? Can’t our directors find any other better plots? Have seen enough of haunted house in Tamil cinemas :D

Friday, August 15, 2014

Happy Independence Day India


Let's touch our hearts and say: Have we ever bothered to see Independence Day speeches? Even if we have, have we ever seen fully? Neither me . But just happened to watch/hear the speech of our PM today.

I never heard a such a speech so clear and direct from the heart, from any of the previous Prime ministers, in my life time at least. No hatred against Pakistan or China, which will bring nothing but misery to the people and the country.

What a confidence. I admire his confidence on his security, as well on the people of India, seeing a PM addressing the public gathering without any special bullet proof enclosure, for the first time.

Aspiration for a Great Nation reflects in the speech; and in fact, spread seeds in everyone’s heart. Longing to see the government in action.

Happy Independence day to all my fellow Indians on its 68th year celebration. I wish a new vibrant and progressive India to emerge without any religion or region based hatred.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Lets' Debate!: Moto-G or Xiaomi Mi-3


One of my colleagues was lucky enough to survive the goof-off made by flipkart and has got his Mi-3 on hand today. Man, he’s become a Hero in a single day !

I can’t tolerate,....not just because all the girls are around him :D (for his phone), but also to the fact that Flipkart has reduced the price of Moto-G sharply. Moto-G is selling at 12K, which I bought at 14K not so long, just a few months before.

Got his Mi3 and experienced it to see how better it’s than my Moto-G. The look, the feel, impressive specs and of course the attractive pricing, certainly puts Xiaomi a step above Moto G. I accept Xiaomi-Mi3 easily wins Moto-G.

but a few reasons why I still like the Moto-G:
1. Unconventional UI: Mi-3 comes with their unique build of  MiUi5 , which looks good- but a way different from what I see in Moto G. Moto G’s Android version is almost a stock Android interface with a very few things added by Motorola. But Xiaomi has added/modified a lot to make it unique. Not sure, how good the Chinese software build is :)

2. Software Update: Being a Google company, Motorola will be fast enough to give you updates. It comes with Android KitKat out-of-the-box, nowadays. It is a possibility that it will get the Android L update as soon as Google launches it. Don’t think Xiaomi will put efforts to keep updating. That’s not the way Chinese market works – they keep moving to a newer product, rather than an update of existing product.

3. Gorilla Glass: The rugged display was/is the first thing that attracted me towards Moto-G. My Moto-G is dust, water & scratch resistant. Have fully tested and proven by my daughter a 100+ times :)

4. Dual SIM: Whether you use or not, still the dual-sim has become an norm for India’s mobile market. , And I have seen many people using 2 SIMs very effectively too. Xiaomi has single SIM, that too old bigger normal SIM.

5. Cheap Sensors: I could feel a noticeable lag when changing the screen's orientation. In conservative power mode, there is also a delay when launching some apps. Moto-G is so smooth, incomparable in this counter.

Resemblance with iPhone 5S: Yes, Mi-3 looks a lot like iPhone 5s, front side in particular. Xiaomi must move away from any similarities with Apple. Samsung had [can’t write as “has” :) ]a very, very fat wallet and could withstand most of the Apple's lawsuit attacks. Xiaomi is not a company with such a big pocket, and if Apple decides to take them down, they will definitely be in soup.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Tasty "Jigarthanda" - A new genre of movie !


The first thing that anyone can say after watching Jigarthanda is that it’s a new genre of movie (in Tamil industry at least).

It’s a story of an aspiring director who attempts making an action movie on a don's life, decides to follow such a living ganster in Madurai and in the attempt, he gets caught by the don’s group. Till this point the movie is paced with complete action, seriousness and leaves the audience in suspense for the interval. The first half makes really a fast paced action movie.

After the interval, the movie has an surprising twist ,where in the gangster (Assault Sethu) himself gets interested in the movie on his life and gives all the details that the director wanted. But what happens after that is completely what I never expected., was a super twist with loads of humor. The second half is a bit lengthy and also drags a bit ; but the brilliant screen play and the performance of actors compensates for those negatives.

Siddarth (as Karthick - an inspiring director) does his part well ; but it’s Bobby Simha (as Assault Sethu) overshadowed everyone else whenever he is on screen. Assault Sethu’s character is scripted so powerful, that even after seeing bobby as a comedian in quite a few movies earlier, I never felt it anywhere in the first half. Karunakaran (as Siddarth’s friend) is another remarkable casting. I always believe that a good film maker is one who gives definition to each character in his movie. And Karthik Subburaj has done it splendidly.

It is completely a new treatment of a gangster based story. From the date of its first teaser, I always had a feel that Jigirthanda would be a radical gangster genre movie like Pudhupettai. But, it broke my illusion and makes out a path breaking genre. I would say, the director has justified the “Jigarthanda” title – meaning a Hot & Cool dish (Hot 1st half and a Super Cool 2nd Half). And his Jigarthanda tastes good too :)

Monday, August 11, 2014

Will "Bharat Ratna" add anything to Netaji's stature?


There’s a speculative news that Former PM Vajpayee, hockey legend Dhyanchand, freedom fighters Subhash Chandra Bose and Madan Mohan Malviya are likely to be recognized with India’s highest civilian award “Bharat Ratna”. Soon after the news start spreading, Subhas Chandra Bose' Family said they would "not accept" it and demands the government to demystify the death of Bose, first.

What Netaji's family said is absolutely correct. Will the Bharat Ratna add anything to Netaji's stature? I say a “BIG NO”. Giving this award to one of the greatest personalities of Freedom Struggle after decades (that too after many actors, sports persons – influenced by politicians to fix-up their image) , has absolutely add nothing to the great pride of Bose.

It is a shame to even think, personalities like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at par with other politicians , sports persons, and media/cinema icons. Leaders like Netaji are immortal and beyond the descriptions of these awards. Let us not use our limited knowledge to judge them and let us stop humiliating these great leaders by giving a medal.

This would be a kind of de-recognizing or “fixing a price' for their great sacrifice to the country. And the people of the country (not just Bose’ family) has a right to know what forced Netaji to resign as Congress President and had to leave India in a mystical manner. Let the government (both BJP and Congress has the responsibility) reveal the hidden secrets first.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

How to use Emoticons on Blogger Posts

If you read through some of my recent posts, you will notice that I use emoticons quite frequently. These emoticons definitely help your blog posts more interactive and interesting. To add emoticons to a blogger post, follow the following steps:

1. Sign in to your blogger blog, and go to Layout > Edit HTML
2. Add the following line of code to the head section of of your template. The best place to insert this code is right before
tag.

<script src='https://sites.google.com/site/snowconescripts/emoticons.js' type='text/javascript'/>

The above script will enable you to use Yahoo! Messenger Emoticons and Onion Head Emoticons in your blog. See some example:

Most Yahoo emoticons will work with this, click here for more.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Are Men Unskilled at House Work & Child Care?


It’s Saturday, but am still breaking my head in office. At least had a relaxed lunch with my colleagues, and this was the topic of the day.


"According to a recent survey within Indian Corporate, married moms who work full-time spend an average of 83% of their time caring for their kids, whereas fathers working full-time spend just 52 minutes on their kids per day, that too  only 55% of those fathers spent that amount of time on a regular basis."


OK, all men in our group agreed the above statement seems quite obvious, revealing what most mothers are suspecting for a very long time that fathers are lazy. However, some other interesting arguments came-up.

One girl (sorry, mother:), disagreed that it’s not only the laziness, it’s also about the skill / ability to handle the kid and household works. She argued that most of the moms have a fear to leave their child with dads, since they are not capable of handling them.

Some guys bounced back that it’s not about ability and infact, dads can take care of the kids very well and keep them more happier than mom. And in household work too, men are superior start from the Garden to Kitchen. It’s just the women who want to maintain hard image on "managing home”, intentionally keeping the responsibility always with them :)

Of course, we won the argument since guys outnumbered the girls over there. But how many of us are really good in managing household work and kids? How well we know about the kids’ food and routines? If the woman goes out for a day or two and let dad run things at home, how well we can handle? Don’t we still bother her with hundred+ calls, asking stuffs like ‘Where do you keep this?’, “how to do this” “When to do”…. etc.

Ok, am half way to admit it , not fully though:)  I will leave you to be the judge for yourself.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Vijayakanth – The Real “Super Hero”

 

This post is an effect of watching Vijaykanth’s "Narashimha", preceded by "Sudeshi" in KTV today. That too when I am back in my bachelorhood, wife and kid are not in town. I truly enjoyed the movies :)

If you are really bored to the core and want a funny movie to watch, download any of the “Action” movies by ‘Vijayakanth”. All his recent action movies are super comedies to watch, except” Ramana”.

This guy has given some awesome movies in the past, but of late due to his interest towards politics, he acts only in roles as the rescuer/liberator of India.  No wonder, we all from Tamil Nadu call him as “Gapton”( This is how you should pronounce, but it "Captain" actually)

I just completed Sudeshi and a half in Narasimha”. Guys if you are in depression, here’s my prescriptions, two movies that will cure all your worries and make you like a child, laughing out loud :)  , You sure going to have a stomach ache due to laughter….

1.Narasimha
2.Vaanchinathan

I still can't decide which one is the better entertainer among the above two. Both are equally great :)

Come-on Gapton, leave the politics and come back to full-time cinema. But, please continue to choose the same kind of scripts that we like ; you’ll surely rise up more to the greater standard. We are waiting :)

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Do Dreams have Meaning ?


Nobody knows why we dream. Physiologists, Religions, Ancestors , ...everyone gives out varied reasons for dreaming. And some people keep it as simple as some nonsense that is created by our brain while "disk fragmenting" of images and scenes that stored in our mind :)

But it’s the fact that most of us believe in dreams, and believe that dreams are some symbolic memos of events that might happened/happen/will happen in our real life .Usually we don’t remember the dreams precisely; if we do and dig deeper - relating them with the incidents from our lives, we could get some interpretation for those dreams!

Nowadays, almost every day some dream wakes me up in the early morning.  And I don’t even able to recollect much about those dreams, except that hollow and empty feeling it leaves with in. After waking up to these ruthless dreams, it doesn’t even feel like I was sleeping the whole night.

I love to dream… dream about anything, but not something that makes me feel so unfilled. It's usually said that dreams have meanings and can be encrypted. So these of mine have any meaningless meaning… ? 

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

CWG 2014 - Fantastic Performance Team India !!!


Happy that India finished-off at a creditable fifth position,  with 15 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze for a total list of 64 medals. This is the 3rd highest medal achievement after 2010 Delhi CWG (101 medals) and 2002 Manchester CWG (69 medals)

India could have easily added a few more medals if archery ,tennis and a few more shooting events had not been dropped-off from the CWG-2014 version . Archery and tennis brought us 12 medals in New Delhi. In shooting, I guess 2 major potential wins have been dropped, that means 14 medals which India won in 2010 are gone straightaway.

Congrats to Team India for a fantastic performance !

One thing that irks me is, why the people who celebrate this 64 medal haul, don't really acknowledge the 101 medals and the second position India acclaimed in New Delhi-2010. Everyone mourns as is because of the homeland advantage. That's not true. See how Scotland performed at home to finish fourth for whom Glasgow is the home. They are still behind Australia , Canada and England. Let’s accept, that India definitely has the talent to showcase wherever they go, irrespective of the ground.

Again, I don’t understand why our media is blowing up the arrest of two Indian CWG officials by the Scotland Police, on charges of alleged assault and drunk driving. It’s unfortunate, we can’t change a few ignorant government officials :(  .

When we have so many things to be happy (a big list of achievements including a few exceptional record -breaks),  let’s cheer-up man !!!. Don’t always be in a criticizing mood, for the sake of media publicity. Pls stop screaming about the unfortunates’.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Xiaomi Mi3 & Flipkart website Crash – is just a Marketing Gimmick


“Xiaomi Mi3 sold out in a few seconds; Flipkart website crashes”is the headline in all the technology magazines today. Don’t you think, it just a cheap marketing strategy from Xiomi and Flipkart ?
I agree, undoubtedly Xiaomi Mi3 is the “super-hot” among tech-savvies, start from the date of announcement. Mi3 is powered by 2.3 GHz Quad core processor (Snapdragon) and 2 GB RAM, tagged as the fastest phone in the segment, backed with very rich set of features a 5.0-inch full HD display, Android 4.4.2 KitKat, Gorilla Glass 3 shield, aluminum-magnesium alloy frame and many more.

Flipkart opened-up the 3rd round of sale with just 15,000 phone today, against 1,50,000 registrations for the device. The Flipkart website crashed seconds after Xiaomi's Mi 3 went on sale 2 PM, today. A few minutes later it showed an out-of stock message on the page promoting the device.

Flipkart say, they didn’t expect such a great demand for Xiaomi. How come they say that they are not aware of 1.5L subscriptions on their portal. Wouldn’t they inform the subscription numbers to Xiaomi already? Still came up with just 15K units for sale, fooling around the time of remaining 1,35,000 people.

It is Flipkart just creating a fake buzz of Xiaomi Mi3. Does Xiaomi Mi3 with such a superb spec really an artificial hype like this?

Monday, August 4, 2014

Sathuranga Vettai - An Indianised Con Movie


Sathuranga Vettai is a Tamil black comedy / Con film scripted and directed by debutant H. Vinoth, produced by Manobala . Renowned Camera man Natarajan Subramaniam played the lead role and the music is scored by Sean Roldan.

The director keeps us hooked with a list of well-known scams. From selling an ordinary snake for 5Lakhs to a greedy man who believes that the snake could turn in to Rs 15 crore worth, over the night ; how a company MLM (indirectly pointing Amway) sells bathtub tap water as a herbal water that can cure cancer; Emu farms ; a gold scam ; to the extreme of Rice Pulling :) - each episode is better than the previous one, backed by equally funny and powerful dialogues that’s a big plus point of the movie.

The movie is brilliant , but do not have a consistency, particularly in the 2nd half. There are moments that are exceptionally superb as well as a few dumb. May be the director has been compelled to take the track of commercial cinema., to match with their promo of “ An Indianised Con Movie” :(

Amidst some negatives, it still makes a good movie. I enjoyed it. would suggest it as a must watch -  to see how weak we are, and how easily be exploited by clever cheaters preying on our greed.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Friends & Friendship


Yes, a friend is someone with whom we are our true self. With whom we let down all our guards. With whom we never have to worry how we look, how we dress, whether it’s great or insane…., we just have to be our self. 

He does not push you to be better or bad. He just needs you to be truly you.  He’s the person to whom you can speak anything and everything,  doesn’t matter how bad, how obscene or how insane, you don’t need to filter/fine tune your thoughts and words; He'll still love you, because he knows you. 

You can hurt him, scream at him, fight, irritate him but still he’s always there for you. He will also do everything to ruin your patience, but will never ever let you down to anyone else. 

There’s no other relationship is like friendship. A true friend is always a blessing !

Saturday, August 2, 2014

The Social Media Life

It’s true that we live in the world where most of us just love to talk to the unknown friends over facebook, twitter, and Whatapp, that too only in micro/nanoseconds :) .We are impatient and want everything to be fast and hassle free.

If you aren’t in FB/ Twitter, you are considered just as old and as an alien.  It’s reality that the social media has penetrated into our life that much and we love it too.Anyway, saw an awesome advertisement on Twitter;thought of sharing... Creativity at it's best !!!


Friday, August 1, 2014

Banking and Social Media

In all the recent technology forums, I keep hearing a same topic “ IOT” (Internet of Things”, in which means everything around you are connected through cloud. The IOT Industry leader’s primary focus is on Home appliances, Banking and medical, which are inseparable from our day-to-day life.

Recently, heard about such a disruptive initiative by Kotak-JIFI in Banking Space.


For me, the traditional banking has been seriously unpleasant and unfriendly forever. Once the account is opened (savings / deposit / loan), that’s it, then you don’t even visit the bank, they also don’t care about you anymore, other than bothering with the monthly statements. t’s never been so interactive. Making a query to the customer care involves so many things;  not just the phone call, but the rnage of pins, number, secret-codes… etc  makes it annoying. Nowadays, I prefer not to call until its very urgent.

To all my above complaints, Kotak says " JIFI is here " . Yes, that's Jifi, a new concept implemented by Kotak Mahindra Bank . It's first of it's kind in India, their promo looks very impressive, sounds like it can make the banking experience interactive and enjoyable.

Kotak-JiFi’s features:
  • No minimum balance, non interest bearing current account
  • Auto Term deposit creation once the average balance crosses Rs. 25,000/-
  • Tweet to bank - Account updates, cheque book request and many more account activities just a tweet away
  • Refer friends to Jifi and get rewarded
  • Loyalty Club - Social or Transaction get rewarded for both
  • Free Jifi Platinum Chip Debit Card for first year
  • Keep track of your expenses with a Kotak MoneyWatch platinum subscription for one year
  • Access to our Mobile Banking & Offers app, to bank on the go
  • Free NEFT through Net Banking

In my vision, This is definitely a game-changer. And other banks will also sure to get into this idea and social network very soon. At the same time, I also have some queries raised in my mind.
  • Is it only me, or others too feel that the banking current banking system is boring and non-interactive ?
  • How many of us will be excited to use FB/Twitter over a phone call to customer care to solve an issue?
  • Are we willing to share our financials / updates through the bank’s face book and twitter pages?