Random Thoughts..

Either. Or.

2011-09-12T10:04:00.001+05:30

Reading and writing Indic/Bengali is very important in my daily flow of work. And, devices which cannot render/display/print/input Indic are an extreme annoyance.

So, I figured out that I'll base the hardware purchase/refresh decision (coming up around the mid of next year) around this specific thing. If Android devices don't support Indic seamlessly out of the box, I'd rather figure out the obvious alternative for phones and tablets/slates rather than trying to read through piles of issues on the same topic around which there is no clear roadmap.

At Antibes.

2011-09-10T13:04:00.001+05:30

Small notes about Streamzoo.

2011-09-10T08:26:00.001+05:30

I have been using streamzoo for a small period of time now. I usually try out any Android photo sharing app that allows filters and all such effects to be applied to photos and thus at any point use a couple. Streamzoo seems to be the nicer of the lot. It has:

a nice clean dashboard
an ability to follow #streams (think of hash-tags) - the app does great work in this 'social' side of things. Streams can be followed and thus make for great sense.
a set of small and sensible photo editing options including some good filters
a small but sensible set of effects
allows posting to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr
interesting photos crop up when you check out what is popular

So, is it "Instagram for Android" ? Unlikely. But it is better enough than all the others to be a contender and even a must-have Android app on its own.

What I miss

an ability to upload only over WiFi as an option. I don't like to do uploads over 3G
an ability to work offline. For example, use the app to click the photo, edit it, put it to the upload queue all without needing to get connected

Oye Pape. Amanora Town Center. Avoidable.

2011-09-09T11:25:00.001+05:30

A couple of days back we assumed that the Costa Coffee outlet at Amanora Town Center was open for business. It wasn't. However, since we were there and hungry we ended up going to Oye Pape. The restaurant is done up in some semi-kitschy way that is neither here and nor there and, the off-the-wall lights weren't too helpful in highlighting anything. The menu, as is somewhat expected, promised all sorts of things - Punjabi, Chinese, Mexican and what not.

The order was placed for some buttermilk and lassi. Surprisingly enough, they ended up misunderstanding that and bringing out double the order for all the drinks. The lassi was thick, creamy and generally good. The main dishes were Paneer Lababdar with roti, Amritsar Choley Kulcha, Mutton Kolhapuri and a Cheese Tex Mex Sizzler. It takes a rare eating joint which ensures that the order of arrival of the dishes are completely messed up. An even strange aspect was the food - it was completely without taste. I've had badly cooked food, undercooked, overboiled and everything in-between. I've never had food that didn't have a taste. The Kulcha was a twin of aloo paratha with the same texture and stuffing and the Choley was more of gravy than choley. The Kolhapuri was without taste and by all reports so was the sizzler. This puzzles me. The food didn't cause any upset tummy - a plus there, but it didn't have taste. How does that happen ?

The staff are not comfortable in English but will not fall back to Hindi to make things easy. So, do take care when placing the order. Actually, I'd recommend giving this a miss.

That's football guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?

2011-09-06T14:10:00.001+05:30

I don't know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. Now I can't do it for ya, I'm too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I've pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, gentlemen, and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?

From Any Given Sunday.

That Girl in Yellow Boots.

2011-09-06T08:37:00.001+05:30

First things first. According to this, the movie doesn't have an intermission. I guess that the popcorn retailers lobby is stronger than the filmmaker's wishes.

There are movies which make the viewer think as opposed to just letting the director/scriptwriter/storyteller think and execute according to a plan. That Girl in Yellow Boots is one of those movies. On the surface it has a very simple story - Ruth (played by Kalki) is over-staying her stay as a tourist in India and is without proper papers. She is trying to find and reach out to Arjun/Benjamin Patel who is the father who walked out on her mother and sister. She works at a massage parlor - the kind which has small inserts across various newspapers offering 'services'. She is savvy, street-smart, knows how to bribe her way through various departments, can cuss in Hindi and, has a lot of characters flitting in and out of her daily life. The movie is a collage of these characters - some cameos and some a bit more than cameos. But at any point there isn't a need to learn the backstory of who they are, what they do or even, why they are the way they are. The movie is about that girl in yellow boots and, Ruth is the girl in those yellow boots. The first 40 minutes or so take some time to set up the narrative for that inevitable and brutal ending. Once that loose threads are weaved into a state of readiness for the last 10 minutes, the movie just picks up and hurls thought points at the viewer.

Kalki has a strange accent and her accent does slip through the movie at various places. However, she does a very good job of doing whatever Ruth was supposed to do. The camera work is a bit patchy throughout the movie. Wandering and searching through the first half and thereafter becoming very tight and close, it tries to bring the viewer into the scene but doesn't really do a good job. The problem with the movie is at a different level. It reminded me of the crowd that used to throng the film festival(s) at Calcutta all eager to check out the current 'hot' film. At 2330, the group of 15 who were at theatre were a throwback. Chuckling and guffawing needlessly at innuendo, whistling at totally oddball scenes, these are the kind of audience the movie, if it so wanted, should have released direct to DVD for. Some reviews have panned it as a bad film and others call it edge. I'd go with disturbing. Hindi/Indian movies could do with movies and themes like these and dig deeper. It is useful to do so. Especially for an urban audience that is lazy enough to stop exploring the darker sides of their psyche.

GDM. XFCE. Changing locales.

2011-08-30T11:00:00.001+05:30

The GDM on Fedora 15 doesn't seem to have a way to change the language/locale. I use the GDM when booting into XFCE. So, to change from English to Bengali (India) I had to:

use GDM to log in to GNOME3
use the Region settings to change the default English to Bengali (India)
log out of GNOME 3
log back in again using GDM but this time using XFCE

And, then spend a couple of minutes fixing/changing the preferred fonts because they don't look too good. That's a very annoying experience. Is there an easier way to accomplish this ?

All about a name.

2011-08-29T20:53:00.001+05:30

This is what makes me sad. Seriously, you reply using "@sankarshan" and thereafter butcher it to 'Sankar' ? Over the years I've had many variations of my name - Sankrasan, Sankarasan, Shankar and what not. Sometimes I used to wonder how difficult would it be to look it up here or, here. During my school days I had this gentleman to thank. A prolific presence on The Telegraph, I believe that he ensured that folks had a good name recall :)

In case of MyAkosha I think it is just laziness coupled with lack of awareness. Frustrating. But then my company's IT policy ensured that I'll, till the time I'm employed here, will have a corp ID that is completely different from what my name is. Frustration aplenty.

Customer Support Center Interactions. Can they improve ?

2011-08-29T10:05:00.001+05:30

A couple of days back I had this conversation. The question was very clear and, given that everyone has their own special and thereafter the common horror stories of interaction, I figured that I could think about the answer I had provided. So, here's a small list of what I think could be better.

Better documentation. Most companies/organizations do a very bad job with keeping the documentation updated or, even maintaining a FAQ at any place. For example, if you look at the ISPs, they generally end up receiving incoming calls which can probably fall under the buckets like - billing, network connections, services. And yet, they don't really keep any documentation available in public which can help self diagnose. The computer equipment manufacturers seem to have found out the benefit of this, the service providers haven't
The lack of documentation theory is further strengthened when you call in and get someone on the other side (after umpteen rounds of muzak and "your call is important to us") who will end up doing a stock template response. I've had, in recent times, complained to Airtel about 3G services not working while voice services are active and, in return have received a sales patter about how robust Airtel's network is.
Then of course there is the tendency to distrust the customer. Airtel DTH will practically tell you to your face that whatever your complaint is, it is not true. Airtel (cell phone) are a bit more subtle, they'll ask you to provide information that is odd viz. your billing cycle, when you complain about a VAS bit not working.
Inarticulate agents. Irrespective of whether I am calling in from Pune or, from Kolkata, I'll end up with someone who has trouble understanding very basic English and has a tendency to lapse into the vernacular. Even if I choose not to speak in the local language. This could be a result of outsourcing to the cheapest service provider but it does suck when you have to take more time than required and break up your problem just so that the person can lodge in the proper complaint.
If my call is important to you then ensure that I am not on hold for a long time. The IVRs have odd loops and, more often than not end up keeping you online (and, paying for the call) even though you'd wish that you can read up somewhere what could be wrong. I've timed my interactions with the vendors for a period of 6 months now. Here are the results as average (I've done more than 10 calls for each vendor around this time):
- Airtel DTH : 11 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 8 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
- Airtel (cell phone) : 9 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 15 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
- Tata Indicom Broadband : 10 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 15 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
- Tata Teleservices : 8 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 5 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
- ICICI Bank : 12 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 10 minutes when the time is beyond that range.

Then of course there are times when you get geniunely hilarious responses (this was in a customer support email addressed to me) like this :

Dear Vijay Kamble,

Ref: Email dated 23-08-2011, requesting for 3G settings on your airtel mobile number <edited out>.
Please ignore the previous mail.
Thank you for your email to airtel and the opportunity to assist you.
We regret to inform you that , we are unable to mail the settings that will enable 3G on your airtel mobile number <edited out>, so we request you to contact 12134 .
We hope that this response has addressed your query suitably.
Please do write in for any further assistance.

Yours Sincerely,

$USERNAME$
Customer Care
Bharti Airtel Limited

Md. Quamrul H

On reading books.

2011-08-28T15:45:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I was at Inorbit Mall at VimanNagar Pune. There's a sprawling, all glass Crossword store there. Inside there were a couple of folks leafing through glossy magazines and coffee table books which were on sale. And, I started thinking about how I select which books to pick up and read.

Every year I re-read a couple of books. Among these are Pather Pachali, Aparajito and Chaander Pahar. Then there's Padma Nadir Maajhi, Putul Naacher Itikatha, Love in the time of Cholera, Of Love and Other Demons, War and Remembrance, The LoTR. There's the fun of being able to discover more than I understood in the previous year - of layered meanings and sometimes forgotten episodes.
I've found Goodreads.com to be a good source of reading up on newer books and, their reviews. Interesting book reviews or, even books that have an interesting topic as their core can be picked up.
Twitter and Facebook are good, but I don't harvest recommendations as much as I can.
After the purchase of the Kindle and, the subsequent setting up of newsletter notifications, Amazon sends a steady stream of book recommendations by genre. All very nice, linked to reviews and all of that. That forms another source.
I usually keep a list of books (on the phone) I'd like to read if I see (and, mostly read through) anything that jumps out and says "read me" at the bookstores. In this aspect, Landmark at Pune does better than Crossword. I haven't yet visited CMYK. So, perhaps something would come up from there.
I get very few book recommendations from acquaintances and friends. The usual complaint that I hear is "I don't even know whether you'd like to read it !" So, I do a sneaky follow of what they are reading and sometimes ask pretty obvious questions - that gives me an idea about what is interesting to read.
The other thing I've noticed is that I end up doing "breadcrumb reading". That's something I just cooked up as a term. What it means that I might be reading a book and, the reviews of the book or, citations inside would open up a new vista of related books and reading material. So, breadcrumbs ... One thing leads to another and I end up reading through a good chunk of stuff.
Finally, the newsletters from the publishers (I subscribe to a wide variety of them), help me figure out what should be on the reading list.

I wonder how others make up their reading lists ? Do you make it up at the beginning of the year, or, is it seasonal ?

Done with Thunderbird. Finally !

2011-08-25T10:00:00.001+05:30

I had written earlier about my woes. A week filled with inexplicable crashes while "Building summary file for Inbox" and, generally spiking up the CPU during indexing later, I decided that it was time to end a functional relationship.

Thunderbird was replaced with a stack that comprises of mutt+offlineimap+imapfilter+postfix. The last one was more of a necessity as msmtp wasn't cut out to be receiving the emails and then sending them out later when I went online. With a number of dot-files available that helped bring this configuration up, the only evolving bits is the imapfilter config.lua. With the number of lists and stuff that I am on and the volume of automated notifications I receive, it is going to take some time before I finally get things working (I wish I could export the existing filters from Thunderbird into an imapfilter readable file). The mutt is built with a sidepane patch which means that I have excluded it from yum updates. But that's fair trade. With the Thunderbird datastore added as a directory, I have the old mails easily read.

That's about it. I am still tweaking mutt a bit every now and then for ease of use, but otherwise it has been a fairly good ride.

Airtel 3G. Pune.

2011-08-24T09:45:00.001+05:30

I have been using Airtel's 3G services in Pune for a couple of days now. Here are the first impressions.

availability/coverage is spotty. For example, it will work near Aurora Towers but not work near the GPO. Which is very odd
coupled with the spotty coverage is the fact that it mostly requires you to be near some window etc to get it working. As an example, if you are sitting near one of the Moledina Road facing windows at the Dorabjees Coffee Shop it will work, try it near the yoghurt section on the first floor and be prepared to be disappointed
most folks say that 3G causes battery drain, I haven't noticed anything unusual
however, it does take a longer time for network/data signal to align itself (bars on the phone). It could be that the network infrastructure itself is facing issues, but an example could be parking at the ground floor at Mariplex, losing cell signals, coming up till the KFC/Juice Bar and then waiting for close to half a minute before I get signals. Nothing of significance has changed in the phone in terms of firmwire or, application stack. So, it is a curious experience. You can repeat this if you park at Dorabjees and come up.
I am noticing more signal drops than before. Again, the network might be congested.
It takes some time, sometimes connecting and disconnecting twice to get on to the 3G network and actually send/receive data. Else you can see that data is being sent, but nothing is coming down the pipe.

Runa is still on the 2G plan. And, she doesn't seem to have the above issues. So, it makes it even more unusual.

On a side note, call drops on the network seems to have increased.

Aren't you using Milna yet ?

2011-08-21T17:04:00.001+05:30

I've been using the Milna application on my phone for a couple of days. This is a "social networking" application with a bit of a twist - it is location based and, requires that you post what you want to do. Users near you (the distance is configurable, but you'd want to keep it really near you) can join in and, together you'd have a blast. Good fun really ! You don't necessarily have to be on any specific network or, be "friends" with anyone. Just make a wish and perhaps you'd have folks joining in. They need to be using the app though. So, you should ideally keep pointing out the website to them.

And, as I was thinking, the app could be a good fit to organize a flash mob ;) or, a party or, a jamming session. Or, anything that can have you making new acquaintances and perhaps striking up a friendship. Runa pointed out the small concern that it might also be used for stalking, but I guess that is something the app developers have already thought about. The app (or, if there is a custom web service ever) can also be used as private instances. Think of a private Milna server/instance for your team and you could perhaps have a "Chatter" like thing going.

For me the current downside is the lack of users near me using the app. That needs to change.

How does one get to review books ?

2011-08-17T15:13:00.001+05:30

How does one get to review books ?

I realized yesterday when looking at my reading statistics for 2011 that I have done a great variety of reading. So, I was thinking if there was a way I can actually get books for review. I am not looking for any payments, just the books. And, a review (on Goodreads and on the blog) is assured.

Question is - where does one begin ?

Parents and retail malls.

2011-08-15T10:41:00.001+05:30

Over the weekend we were at the Star Bazaar at Phoenix City Mall, VimanNagar. They have lots of counters for receiving payments but on that day only 5 were functional. While we were standing in queue, a small kid, quite whiny I might add, was demanding ice-cream. The mother dipped into one of the ice cream visi-freezers which are in front of the cash counter and then quite nonchalantly bypassed the queue and demanded that she be served first as she had a single item. The retail shop didn't have any "express counter" (5 items or less open) and, so she would have had to stand in one of the queues anyway.

The fun was that when pointed out that she wasn't doing a good thing, she vehemently turned it into a "I am sure you have kids and you know kids get priority" line of argument. Which is kind of funny. This isn't the first time that I've seen or, heard this line. And, then again, I'm generally used to folks asking if they can get ahead. That thing, coupled with a self-initiated giving way to the elderly is the norm at Dorabjees (the elderly are so pleasantly polite that the "Thank you, dear" could make one's day). This annoyance aside, I was thinking about whether the mother would continue doing the same when the child grows up. Would she continue teaching her that jumping the queue with an excuse and without asking for permission is acceptable ? Parenting is tough, and sometimes parents need to make tough choices. I guess these days I see more and more kids getting away just because they are crying their lungs out or, streaming tears which create a puddle.

If love brings joy then why do we find it difficult to love ?

2011-08-12T06:22:00.001+05:30

I wonder if it is alright not to regret over a decision which involved firmly believing that consequences be damned there will be no regrets.

Given that it is unusual in any case, is it a normal reaction to feel a tinge of regret ? Or, in other words, can feelings and expressions of regret be completely negated specific to decisions and to individuals ? If indeed that is so, can they be expanded to become the underlying core of leading a life ?

Over a period of a week I've watched, read and talked with a not-really-a-friend (as in, I'd have never believed I was on the list which this person maintained to share thoughts with) going through a situation I went through a decade ago. And, taking the same stance, for similar reasons. But, regretting it so deeply that there is some element of personal failure and low self-esteem going around. As I write this I don't really have a handle on how this situation is going to turn around. I'm a bit not-optimistic about the eventual outcome.

If love brings joy then why do we find it difficult to love ? Purely selfish reasons should compel us to be loving and be eager to lead happy lives.

In which TastyKhana disappoints us.

2011-08-10T21:35:00.001+05:30

Yet again.

The first time we had tried the service was on 26May2011. The order (#56187) was placed and, during the call back they mentioned that:

the kitchen will open later and they have no information about it
the kitchen is out of gas and hence they have no idea about order fulfillment

We tried today (order #63133). The call back happened and, we were told:

the selected dishes are available only on weekends
the kitchen is out of gas and hence they can only open post 2000 hours and thus no idea about the order

This is disappointing at many levels. TastyKhana might just be responsible for delivery of the food/order, but since they are the interface via which the order is placed, it is their responsibility to provide information up-front. Such lackadaisical approach doesn't go well with the intended objective of getting orders raised and delivered.

I don't think we are going to try this again. Spoiling the scene both times is good enough reason to ditch a service.

Of postponement.

2011-08-03T19:14:00.001+05:30

It amuses me to recall that around a decade back I as toying with the idea of being able to "do as I please" meaning "be finally able to read all that I want and listen to all that music that I have stockpiled" after I reach 40. With the notion that I would figure out a way to eke out a career after a break at that age.

Two mortgages later, coupled with an economic engine that seems to be floundering into the Mariana Trench, I'm fairly sure that's not going to happen. At least not within that time-frame.

*sigh*

Airtel GPRS settings details

2011-08-02T04:56:00.001+05:30

My Airtel GPRS (2G) was down for a day or, so. And, the Customer Service folks sent over the following details:

Please go to Menu
Click Settings
Click Configuration
Click Personal configuration settings
Click Add - Select Web
Account name Mobile Office
Homepage http://www.google.com
Username blank
Password blank
Use preferred access point No
Select - Access point settings Proxy
Enable Proxy address 202.056.231.117
Proxy Port no 9201 or 8080
Data Bearer Select GPRS Select - Bearer settings
GPRS Access Point airtelgprs.com
Authentication Normal
Username blank
Password blank
Back to Personal account menu
Select Options - Activate
For any online technical assistance for GPRS, you may also contact customer care at 12118 (chargeable at 50 paisa for 3 minutes) from an alternate airtel number.

Just for reference.

And then, England met The Wall.

2011-07-31T10:43:00.001+05:30

In cricket mere mortals have legends spun around them. And, so it was when one man scored a century at one of the hallowed grounds and, the other came oh-so-close. The legend of "never the bride" commenced.

Before Nottingham/Trent Bridge, the only recent example which I used to quote about the prowess of a batsman in full control of his abilities was Sachin's hunkering down into a full session of Steyn's bowling. Over after over, ball after ball, Steyn, in the peak of his bowling form, unleashed balls that poked and probed for chinks and weaknesses. And, found them. However, in the end, Sachin probably just thought it was required to prove to himself that he possessed the skills to face up to that specific kind of venom. He fidgeted, he poked, jabbed and, lord forbid ! slashed at balls. He showed a side of himself that wasn't really something his fans wanted to see. He showed he was weak. And, he showed he was strong. Because, he prevailed. At the end of the session he was there while the batting line-up around him had no answers to Steyn. A classical full blooded pace bowler met someone who wasn't at his best and yet managed to never slip up. That was an example you'd want to quote. And, a match you'd want to see.

Not after yesterday.

At Nottingham/Trent Bridge, Rahul Dravid, the man who has earned himself the half-affectionate and half-derisive monicker of "The Wall", will upstage Sachin's innings. A batsman who isn't really playing at the peak of his powers, a batsman who has aged, a cricketer who is more or less universally acknowledged to be classically perfect and yet boring, came out to open the innings. From his non-striker's end he watched what could be an impulsive shot from an opener gift England their first kill. And, then joined hands with VVS Laxman. Laxman, is always known as "that cricketer who has a special place in the Australian hall of fame". Together they crafted a session that wasn't run-a-ball. It was more a kind where each cricketer takes time to commit no mistakes and, settle down to pick and choose balls to score off. All the while ensuring that they will be gnawing away at the confidence of the opposition.

As an aside, Sunil Chhetri, when describing why the great footballers and their clubs rule the world, took the example of Manchester United and said that ManU is great because they do less of the mistakes anyone is supposed to do on the football pitch. Dravid probably embodied all of that. All the right things done correctly, and, nearly zero of the mistakes that could get down the innings. At one point he took 114 balls to score 39. Think about this for a second. The sheer mental strength of the man to be around batting in conditions where the most pedestrian bowlers look to be menacing. And, in the middle of all of this he managed to inspire Yuvraj with enough calmness and confidence to take on the attack. And, also ensure that he was able to get to his 34th century.

The crowd did get their money's worth. The audience on TV saw an innings of great ability. And, one hopes that the young and upcoming cricketers see how Test cricket asks one to reach above and beyond oneself. In the midst of great adversity and, even when chips are down. How one can take the hits and still keep going. Dravid has probably never received as much fan affection as others in the Indian squad, past and present. They sometimes talk about his skills in the slips - "the safest pair of hands". What they don't really talk about is that he has managed to do everything that cricket and the team has demanded from him and do it with dignity and elan. And, a measure of quiet humility that cricketers and sportsmen across the world should learn from.

Kucch EpicFail Jaisa

2011-05-30T08:35:00.001+05:30

That's what sums up the movie Kucch Luv Jaisa. And, someone should point out to Shifali Shah that the spelling changes have taken her acting chops away from her. Rahul Bose perhaps laughed at the script that wanted him to speak in mono syllables and sometimes grunt. Neetu Chandra is actually a redundant presence and, the rest of the cast should use this as a lesson in their acting careers about what not to do.

The premise is simple. Madhu (Shah) realizes that her family (2 children and husband) have forgotten her birthday (on the 29th of February) and thereafter decides to spend the day doing her own thing ('a new beginning'). During her doing things she bumps into Raghav (Bose) whom she mistakes (needlessly I might add) for a detective (who, however, is actually on the run from the police, having being turned in by his girlfriend Chandra) and, who also shares a birthday with her (29th February again). They go around the city behind an imaginary 'client'/target (and, yet there are moments, the city doesn't become anything but a background) and finally things unravel etc.

The story had potential. However, the actors try too hard (including, horror of horrors, Makrand Deshpande) and, inane conversations (the dialogue segment between Madhu and her daughter at the end for example) that are simply to brain-dead to be in a movie ruin stuff. It is a very hurriedly done movie. As if the idea was going to float away if it wasn't captured on celluloid.

On The Simple Pleasures of Rereading

2011-05-26T09:26:00.001+05:30

The other day Nikhil posted a link to this article titled "The Guilty Pleasures of Rereading".

The blurb quote was interesting:

Come on now, it’s never about the new meanings you grasp each time revisit a book. It’s the comfort of the same old story and the same old characters and the same old ending, every single time

Upon rereading the piece it appears that Arunava may have actually penned this half in jest. Reading a text is as much as reading the words as it is trying to read what isn't in the exact words by underneath. And thus, the act of reading is an act of exploration of cognitive abilities. The text and the sub-text reveal layers based on the expansion of reasoning ability and assimilation of experiences of the reader. An author may not specifically be attempting to address this space when the narrative is being weaved but eventually, the likes/dislikes of the audiences center around this specific point - whether they are able to accept, adapt and assimilate the psyche and the experiences in the story.

I reread a lot. And, besides the need to find 'comfort' in the same old characters and the same old story, the primary need is to understand. A typical example could be Gitanjali.

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life

Or,

আমারে তুমি অশেষ করেছ, এমনি লীলা তব--
ফুরায়ে ফেলে আবার ভরেছ, জীবন নব নব ॥

In a Bengali household, the kid would be having access to Gitanjali at a fairly and, I say, ridiculously early stage in life. It takes a leap of perception and experiences to understand and appreciate the above lines.

The reason we reread isn't to experience the memories of where and when we first read that piece of text (hell ! for me it would be the unpleasant stench of adulterated diesel fumes at the 8B bus stand at Kolkata for most pieces of text !). We reread because we want to assimilate the experiences in the text with the abilities and understanding and more importantly, the acceptance we have of reality. We want to fit it into our mental map of the world as we see it at that point in time. Surprisingly for an author, and, a translator, Arunava decides to give this point a skip and wax eloquent about Flury's and all that is fluffy. Rereading books isn't exactly similar to having a pot of mishti doi. And, even in that stupendously shallow example, try feeding that doi to a 6 month old kid, a 6 year old, a 16 year old and a 60 year old at various times of the year - you'd bet that they will respond differently each time. Tactile experiences, including reading experiences are different. That an author doesn't want to write about it is astounding. That an author passes somewhat snide remarks is equally absurd. If all that a reread does is take you back to the first time, then as a reader you've failed. And the author needs other serious readers than you.

The lack of good reviews.

2011-05-23T09:55:00.001+05:30

I was looking through this review and noticed a strange thing - the original reviewer found his/her own review "helpful". Either burrp.com is slipping up or, they don't appear to give a rodent's posterior to user reviews. I tend to think that it is the latter. Else reviews like these along with some like these shouldn't actually get posted if they haven't gone through a bit of spelling, grammar and accuracy checks by the site editors. The abominable spelling bits is not limited to this site though. A quick glance through most of the ones on tripadvisor reveal the same trend. Which brings up the question as to why the text input area doesn't offer a default spell-check. Don't the sites care for the quality of the reviews ?

Speaking of quality of the reviews, burrp.com could perhaps start using a template. Personally, if I am going to look up an eating joint there are a few things I am curious about :

quality of food - was it 'memorable' ? As in, would you visit it again with friends ?
quantity of food - was it 'tiny piece of chicken on a huge plate' ? Or, would you say that it was good enough as expected ?
hygiene/cleanliness - cutlery, crockery, upholstery and the rest-rooms
ambience - how is the place ? noisy/relaxed/smoky etc
kind of food - is the menu treading on 'safe ground' ? Or, does it allow you to indulge in something out of the ordinary ?
service - is the service snappy or, snobbish ? Do they listen to what you were saying ?
time of the day - what time of the day did you visit ?
your meal - what did you order ? How was it presented ?

That's probably the basic list of stuff that should be there. Most of the time the reviews are either gushing with misdirected praise or, seething with inappropriate anger. Will these sites ever shape up and fix things ? I don't think so. Not unless they see an alternative site coming up with enough eyeball power to goad them into healing themselves.

Rex: A Mother, Her Autistic Child, and the Music that Transformed Their Lives

2011-05-19T10:24:00.001+05:30

I picked this book yesterday because I was reading a blog post (which I don't recall now) and it had a reference to the book.

To quote from the blurb of the book

How can an 11-year old boy hear a Mozart fantasy for the first time and play it back note-for-note perfectly-but struggle to navigate the familiar surroundings of his own home? Cathleen Lewis says her son Rex's laugh of total abandon is the single most joyous sound anyone could hear, but his tortured aversion to touch and sound breaks her heart and makes her wonder what God could have had in mind. In this book she shares the mystery of Rex and the highs, lows, hopes, dreams, joy, sorrows, and faith she has journeyed through with him.

That, in short, sums up what the book is about. The length made it absolutely perfect for reading within the day. The prose isn't the best possible one. At places it does tend to repeat itself. However, the path of discovery, faith and hopes that it weaves is difficult to miss. It is, as mostly they are, an inspirational and uplifting story. A story of triumph, strength, faith and belief. And, that's why it is a recommended read.

Random data points

2011-05-18T14:33:00.001+05:30

It appears that today marks 3 years, 3 months and 3 days that I've been on Twitter !
It also appears that from the beginning of 2011 and till today I've read 16163 pages (or, 55 books)
It is additionally calculated that starting from 2008 I've spent 382 USD (or, 17,208 INR) at The Pragmatic Bookshelf

Can Flipkart fix some of these ?

2011-05-18T12:29:00.001+05:30

Instead of the sporadic "@Flipkart I don't like this or, that" on twitter, I decided to write down what exactly I would like to see happening to the site over a period of time.

When I buy books I usually know which specific book I am looking for. If that is the case, then either the book is found through a search or, it is a recent book and hence it will be visible via the Recently Sold, New Release or, Pre-Orders sections.

Sometimes there are books that are in a series and, I want to buy either the set of books in the series or, a specific book in the series. Two examples come to mind - if I want to purchase the Kurt Wallander novels. I can either pick a specific book in the series or, desire to buy the entire series through a single click. The common data point in this example is the author and that it is a set in the Kurt Wallander series. Unfortunately, currently they don't make themselves available as the boxed deals etc.

Or, take another example - O'Reilly has a set of books with the title "Beautiful ..." these include Beautiful Testing, Beautiful Architecture, Beautiful Visualization etc. All these books have different author/author pairs. The commonality is that it is published by O'Reilly/SPD. In other words, I need to be able to use this piece of information as a data item and select the books. As of now, I don't think the site allows this to happen.

Another item is around the display of books/covers in either list or, grid form. The current upper limit is 20 items. When looking through books by Category (which, by the way, requires some bit of fixing), it is perhaps a better option to let more covers come up in either an infinte scroll or, something around 70 per page. That allows a quicker visual comprehension of the books and, less click-through to the next pages.

I have a request for the cart as well. I buy books for myself as well as send them as gifts to others. I am sure others do so as well. What is a little bit annoying is that the cart (and this isn't just a problem with Flipkart's cart only, but the usage pattern impacts it the most) doesn't allow me to save a transaction and open up a new transaction for someone else. I guess what I am asking for is the ability to save the state of a transaction while opening up and completing a new one. Currently I maintain two accounts to get this usage pattern going :)

That 'relevance of Tagore' meme

2011-05-14T02:09:00.001+05:30

The week leading up to 25th of Boishakh and, the week thereafter has a pattern - every newspaper and magazine worth their newsprint will have at least one article pondering over the relevance of Tagore in the current age. Long time ago, during an evening session on the 'rawk', during one of those innumerable power outages that plagued Calcutta, a senior in the group remarked that if you don't ponder about the relevance of drinking water in the current age, why waste space over Tagore. And although said in that semi-sarcastic and semi-jest tone it does hit home.

A person who is a Bengali encounters Tagore right at the start with his set of primers called Sahaj Path. That age is a bit too early to appreciate the artwork that dominates the primers but it does blend in so well with the text that they become one. And thereafter at various stages - be it at local functions or, private get togethers, there would be a mandatory reading/recitation/singing of his works. Sooner or later it would be obvious that Tagore's works, especially his verses not only span the current emotions but provide various facets and insights for the same emotions in words and forms that are unique and sometimes new. The songs that are merely songs for a young chap soon start taking the depth of meaning as one gets older. For a breadth of work that spans such depth and creativity, the need to even think about 'relevance' is a bit awkward. It is certain that the overpowering presence of Tagore on Bengali literature led to various 'alternative movements'. At each stage of such forks, the need to question his relevance wasn't felt - the need was to explore areas which he had failed to explore - in styles, forms, functions and composition.

The next year will bring another harvest of the relevance meme. Till then ... ;)

Untitled

2011-05-11T12:53:00.001+05:30

Poverty is more pleasant than majesty;

depravity, more pleasant than piety.

Majesty, has its headaches, and when

last I looked, beggary was more pleasant.

Since kings let no one approach them,

being indigent among the poor is more pleasant.

When pride gets into someone's head,

being pals with a dog from the streets

is more pleasant.

When the heart breaks with melancholy

over some beauty, that breaking is more pleasant

than any salve. Public love play with idols

is more pleasant than all this devout hypocrisy.

Once won, there's no pleasure in love.

Separation, for those who play this game,

is more pleasant.

Put your base love out of your mind,

Khusrau. Love for the sacred secret

is more pleasant.

From: In The Bazaar of Love ; The selected poetry of Amir Khusrau Translated by Paul Losensky and Sunil Sharma

আবার শক্তিশেল।

2011-05-02T22:53:00.001+05:30

লক্ষণের শক্তিশেল

প্রথম দৃশ্য । রামের শিবির

রাম: কাল রাত্তিরে আমি একটা চমৎকার স্বপ্ন দেখেছি । দেখলুম কি, রাবণ ব্যাটা একটা লম্বা তালগাছে চড়ছে। চড়তে চড়তে হঠাৎ পা পিছলে একেবারে - পপাত চ, মমার চ !

জাম্বুবান: তবে হয়ত রাবণ ব্যাটা সত্যি সত্যিই মরেছে - রাজস্বপ্ন মিথ্যা হয় না।

সকলে: হয় না, হবে না - হতে পারে না।

রাম: আমি হনুমানকে বললুম, "যা ব্যাটাকে সমুদ্রে ফেলে দিয়ে আয়।" হনুমান এসে বললে কি, "ফেলবারও দরকার হল না - সে এক্কেবারে মরে গেছে।"

সকলে: বা বা ! - একদম মরে গেছে - ব্যস। আর চাই কি, খুব ফূর্তি কর !

[বাইরে গোলমাল]

ঐ দেখ রাবণের রথ দেখা যাচ্ছে - দেখেছিস ? ঐটা রাবণ, ঐ যে লাঠি কাঁধে --

সকলে: সে কি ! রাবণ ব্যাটা তবু মরেনি - ব্যাটার জান্ তো খুব কড়াৎ !

জাম্বুবান: এই হনুমান ব্যাটাই তো মাটি কললে - তখন রাবণকে সমুদ্রে ফেলে দিলেই গোল চুকে যেত - না, ব্যাটা আবার বিদ্যে জাহির করতে গেছে - "এক্কেবারে মরে গেছে"

বিভীষণ: চোর পালালে বুদ্ধি বাড়ে -

Rice-n-Curry. And then some.

2011-05-02T14:17:00.001+05:30

The initial and somewhat evident problem with a Bengali going to eat at a Bengali restaurant is that the chances of being surprised are considerably less. Rice-n-Curry, Flavors of Bengal which is located opposite Ruby Hall, a bit ahead of Vohuman Cafe, is a Bengali food joint. It doesn't fall into the pretentious chic and put on suaveness of Oh ! Calcutta. More like the no nonsense, good food at a reasonable price kind of joint. There was a time when South Calcutta used to be dotted with these kind of no-frills eat-outs. No more though. Sadly. There are two kinds of Bengali restaurants - the fancy kind where you get all sorts of food that takes time and patience to cook. And, then there's the kind where you get food that you have, at some point, eaten at home because someone had cooked it. Rice-n-Curry is the second kind.

We visited the place on Saturday at around 1200 hours. We were practically the first folks in. And, the usual discussion of "if this is the scene at this time during the weekend, will this place work out" ensued. The place has a bit of fun - there's a single person who attends to the orders, gets them from the kitchen and also attends to the phone (the place seems to do a brisk business of taking orders over the phone - that's interesting !)

We started off with Fish Orly. Those who fancy the same thing from Bijoligrill would be disappointed. The batter was a bit too inconsistent. But heh ! I hadn't had a decent Orly in a while and this got some good marks. Standard fare of luchi and chholar dal followed. The dal was a bit too sweet for me but Runa says that my argument of the chholar dal to require a bit of kick is unwarranted and plain wrong. The luchi was good enough to go with the Goalanda Mutton Curry (which comes with a large slice of potato for those who love their curries that way). Runa had Doi Maach (with a good portion of fish) along with some plain/steamed rice. In between there was a Mochaa Paaturi (which was eventually shared by Ramakrishna too). We ordered for a portion of the Paayesh, which was pretty decently made. Top marks there too.

When we had placed the orders for the starters, we woke up Ramakrishna to tear him away from the serious duties of the InPyCon CfP and he joined in to have a 'set meal' - the Murgi Bhoj. That had eggplant fried in batter, a curry, a dal, rice, the chicken and, aloo bhaja (that thinly shredded one). The meal is rounded off by chutney. By all means it looked to be a well arranged one with portions reasonable for a single person.

The test that remains is to check how they do Koshaa Maangsho. That's where things are going to be in the finicky zone.

Eyes of the beholder.

2011-04-29T10:38:00.001+05:30

In an incredibly odd way I like looking at pictures my contacts mark as 'favorite'. And, I often look at my own favorite pictures. Which is why I find this a nice way to see what appeals to the eyes of the beholders who aren't me.

600 Hours of Edward.

2011-04-28T05:41:00.001+05:30

A significant characteristic of short stories or, short pieces of fiction is what is called শেষ হইয়াও হইল না শেষ or, in spite of the story reaching the end you'd not just close the book and move on with life. The refrain continues.

The kind of celebration of life's emotions which were present in The Summer Son are present in abundance in 600 Hours of Edward. The writing is deliberately and artfully contrived to be repressed and surging with emotional upheaval through the pages. You simply cannot rush through Edward Stanton's plans for himself and his 'management' of the plans. The book ends with the orbit but you remain hooked about Edward. What happens to him.

Recommended read. If you are interested in reading a review before reading it - here's one.

Job hunting should qualify as a sport for the lonely.

2011-04-21T18:41:00.001+05:30

It should start with the question that matters - why would anyone want to change. And while there could be many reasons that provide reasonable answers to it, most candidates don't distill it down to something that they can tell their interviewers or, the head-hunters who pose this question. I've sat through enough interview sessions where the candidate starts off hesitatingly with a reason and thereafter meanders into the safe territories of "trying to build my career", "looking for new opportunities" etc.

This is of course followed by the painful job of explaining to all and sundry, including the methods and systems you choose to locate a suitable job, about your expectations. This generally follows two trends - at your current set up it tends to veer towards a discussion of what could have been. At your probable future employers this leads to an up-sell of the brand, the processes and the workflows.

In the midst of all this, which is, by the way a very nervous time, you'll have a group of naysayers - friends, family and others, who would try and tell you how a bird in hand is worth than two in the bush. Never mind if the bird that you are apparently holding is way past its keep_alive date. And if all this was not enough you get the sadistic pleasure of looking back on your career, as if you wanted to do that in the first place, and then analyze in every possible detail what you gained out of each assignment and experience. You have to take time to figure all of this out because you'll be asked about it. And, you'll be asked to explain bits where sometimes you didn't have much control over the situation enough to undertake an informed call.

If you are doing all of this while being committed to the task at hand then it becomes double fun - you are always introspecting a moving target, refining and repolishing your own analysis and sometimes probably being unfair and unjust to yourself. All the time you are looking out and trying to figure if there's indeed something out there that catches your fancy and makes you wistfully long for it. Or, are you just going to do what you do now, and derive a lesser degree of joy from it.

Why is job hunting like this ? Why can't it be a better experience ?

Or why you should be wary of purchasing Imation USB HDDs

2011-04-18T15:38:00.001+05:30

Sometime at the end of March this year my USB HDD started throwing out mysterious errors which soon revealed themselves as disk blocks turning bad. I wasn't too surprised. This was a need-of-the-hour purchase from Supreme Computers opposite Chandni Chowk Metro Station (at the Air India building) at Kolkata around 3 years ago. A 160 GB HDD at around 3000 INR. It had served well and there was no reason to feel unhappy.

At about the same time I noticed that the Staples store at SGS Mall, Camp, Pune had an offer on Imation HDDs. 320 GB for around 2000 INR. Not really a bad deal. I got myself one and then mounted it. Most of these drives contain a bunch of Windows specific stuff and, surprisingly enough this also had a folder called 'Recycled' (link to a zip archive on dropbox) which contained images like these (link to a file on dropbox). This was surprising because it isn't something that is mine and it was on a HDD that was nicely shrink-wrapped.

So I sent in an email to Imation - they make it nicely difficult to find an email/tech support to write in to. That was on the 6th of April. On April 12, Imation Singapore Support (bumped via the US tech/sales support) suggests that I contact the India office. On April 18 they can only provide a telephone number of the board and no email or, tech support detail in order to figure out how a folder like this can be present inside a shrink wrapped box. Till now no one has actually stated that they have looked at the issue and figured out whom I should contact. All that has happened is geographical ping pong with the probable assumption that this is consumer goods and hence probably not to be bothered much about.

John Poelstra's blog post reminded me that I shouldn't really accept this stupidity.

Tiger parenting and all that.

2011-04-17T21:09:00.001+05:30

Amy Chua's Battle Hym of The Tiger Mother gets the following summary on Flipkart.

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what Chinese parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it…
Amy Chua's daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu) were polite, interesting and helpful, they had perfect school marks and exceptional musical abilities. The Chinese-parenting model certainly seemed to produce results. But what happens when you do not tolerate disobedience and are confronted by a screaming child who would sooner freeze outside in the cold than be forced to play the piano? Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old. Witty, entertaining and provocative, this is a unique and important book that will transform your perspective of parenting forever.

And Amazon has interesting reviews.

I have that curious position of reading a book, this book, which is obviously on 'parenting' rather than 'culture' and, observing other parents within the friend and family circle. A large part of the blogospheric comments that bordered on hysterical rejection and aggression had issues with the methods that Amy Chua talks about. Alternatively, I find that are expectations from her children are something that parents and would-be parents should think deeply about. Of late I've started to notice a kind of 'soft parenting' which, while shying away from hard expectations, also puts in place a feeling of 'being entitled'. Kids whose parents can afford it tend to get a bit more pampered, getting things and material comforts easily (there's sometimes a guilt trip "We never could afford this when we were young") and that sometimes has the side effect of taking away the sense of being responsible and of learning accountablity. Kids, however much the parents try, cannot be "made to be best" ie. manufacturing excellent kids is perhaps an impossible aim. Parents don't shy away from attempting that though :)

The problem with the book is that it would creatively pigeon-hole/stereotype the author as the dysfunctional Asian mother. And yet for me, the underlying area where parents set expectations in the areas of life that aren't usually neatly talked about as excelling in academics in sports/academics - those areas of being responsible, understanding responsiblity, need for self-discipline, a need to be morally upright - those are interesting aspects. I am not surprised at the polarity of the reactions that the book generated - the writing/content is aimed to be that. Just that it hasn't actually spurred the mommy/daddy/parent bloggers to start discussing how to help their kids be righteous - especially in these times when smaller acts of corruption happen in everyday life. Sometimes in front of the children themselves.

Of dreams. Of hopes.

2011-04-15T00:36:00.001+05:30

Everyone has at least a couple of dreams that verge on the sinful or, totter on the edge of being ridiculous. One of mine that can neatly fit into the latter category is the one where I think about an uninterrupted stretch of 20 days where I can read a few books which languish and demand that they be read again.

A rather pragmatic aspiration, strangely enough, also revolves around books - or, that of a bookshelf. For some time now I've been obsessed with the idea of a bookshelf that would be best designed to hold the books and yet be aesthetically fitting into a home. And, the more posts land up on this blog, the more I start to put a serious thought to this entire thing. Books on interior designs are filled with pictures of bookshelves and what not. Sadly, most shelves are a perfect fit in that room they were photographed in. And, I am yet to meet someone who is capable of sitting down with me to understand what I require and what it takes to come up with a design and make that shelf. Headboards make for nice niches to store books, but they aren't a permanent solution to anything.

I wonder why is it so difficult to get down to designing a shelf that lights up a room without overpowering it and yet is functionally top-notch.

Untitled

2011-04-13T11:28:00.001+05:30

"Money is an eternal problem but it has never bogged me down. What gets me down is the lack of human resources - the lack of people actually seeing the vision and people who are able to do the grungy work" - Sanjana Kapoor in an interview with Subroto Bagchi

Who made a leader ?

2011-04-11T05:09:00.001+05:30

When you say "Mera Neta chor hain" isn't it also the time you asked yourself how he became your leader ? Were you a participant ? The one reason among many that any movement seems to take a populist and cheesy turn is because there is a distinct lack of political training and understanding amongst most of the 'supporters'.

Untitled

2011-04-09T07:55:00.001+05:30

Today when you rejoice over how a fast brought a country together and hope for change, and then think how today would be a historical day twenty years down the line, think about two folks. Especially about why the former is on a political fast. And then ask yourself why you did not read each clause in detail and discuss.

A new summer. The same story.

2011-04-08T10:22:00.001+05:30

So we are at it again. It is the month of April and the PMC has started making those formal statements about water cuts. Each year they do it and, they also repeat the reasons as to why there is a water problem. Namely:

lack of a map/structure of the water pipe network
a significant percentage of the water pipes being broken down due to rust resulting in water loss
valves at important junctions cannot control/regulate the water pressure leading to water loss
unregulated water loss from the public outlets
most of the reservoirs are around 40% of their water capacity
rain water harvesting is not widely adopted across housing societies
"tanker mafia"

This drama will continue till around mid-May and thereafter folks-in-power will decide on a 60% cut till the rains put in enough water. And each year I will wonder what prevents them from putting some scheduled percentage cuts right at the beginning of the season - say, 20% right when it is mid-March ? When you are running short of cash, you don't usually splurge till your pockets are empty and then suck ice-cubes do you ?

Books to be read once again.

2011-04-06T17:11:00.001+05:30

Finally I got around to creating a shelf on the Goodreads profile for books that I'd like to keep and read again. There ought to be a lot of books in Bengali that should get listed. It would be interesting to see how or, what books stack up for others.

If you cannot see that shelf then please leave a comment and I'll see what can be done.

Random straw poll

2011-04-05T19:39:00.001+05:30

Have you ever managed to cook Maggi within the 2 minutes ?
Have you had a large transaction and a subsequent payment on your credit card and received a call from the company about your limit being increased by a whopping amount ?

What does one do with books ?

2011-04-04T12:49:00.001+05:30

This isn't a rhetorical question. If I have a bunch of fiction/non-fiction/potboilers that I intend to get rid of what is the best way ? Host an open house and let folks pick what they want ? ;)

And we snag another property

2011-04-04T12:46:00.001+05:30

Looking for a property/apartment leads to all sorts of questions. And, then there is the latent exasperation around why builders don't have a standard format when publishing specifications. For example, you look at electronic items - TV, toaster, microwave ovens, refrigerator and what not and you'd notice that there is this somewhat familiar way of explaining the power ratings, the power consumption ratings, the capacity and so forth. Not so when it comes to apartments. You'd have to grapple with notions of sale-able area, carpet area that includes/excludes terrace, flat area that implies an inclusion of the car parking area, absence of the percentage of the total land that forms the super-built up area, the somewhat ill formed write-up on the maintenance charges per square feet and the list goes on. Then of course there are the myriad 'certifications' and appraisals each project touts in order to demonstrate the 'state of the art' (I thought that this word went out of fashion post Rajiv Gandhi era). This doesn't even include the need to be clear about the municipal zones the property is under.

Having done this twice (yes, we just settled on something at Pune) the only somewhat easy route has been the financing institution (LICHFL this time as well). Ahh well ! Let's see how things go in the future in terms of possession of the property.

The Flipkart.com User Feedback Survey

2011-03-31T21:07:00.001+05:30

The Flipkart.com folks sent across a survey form to be filled up. The one pattern I noticed was that the questions asked for comparative analysis ie. "best amongst", "easiest amongst" and so forth. This has an amusing downside - if an user hasn't actually ended up using competitor sites they may be tempted to give it a shot. And, additionally, it somewhat dilutes the brand/unique-ness of Flipkart as a business site.

A random selection from the survey questions are as follows:

At Flipkart.com it is the easiest to search for products, compared to other online shopping sites
Flipkart.com offers the widest range of payment options, when compared to other online shopping sites.
Flipkart.com provides the best delivery AND after sales customer service, among all online shopping sites

with the options for responses ranging from "Disagree Strongly" to "Strongly Agree".

The same survey could perhaps be re-designed to ask the users the following questions with a numerical rating (1 to 5) or, even the existing rating

You find it easy to use the search engine on the site to receive accurate and relevant product results
You find it easy to Order and Checkout using the options provided for payment
You will recommend the site to others based on delivery and after sales customer service performance

Was my hack the most optimal ? Surely not. But it does avoid the comparative behavior while trying to self promote.

Will it happen ? I don't know. I sure wish it does.

2011-03-31T14:53:00.001+05:30

I thought over this a bit. I think that the only thing I'd like to see in the Cricket World Cup 2011 finals (or, make that two things) is Virendar Sehwag going after the bowling in a way that only he can define,refine and execute (I believe that they call him the Nawab and sometimes the Butcher of Najafgarh) and Sachin Tendulkar piling on the runs with grace at the other end. I think it will remind me of that innings Sachin and Sourav shared on the way to what was (or, is it still ?) the highest run partnership at that batting position.

Will it happen ? I don't know. I sure wish it does.

Am I being selfish in distilling a game of 22+ players into a spectacle for two ? I guess not. Cricket has assumed the grandiose nature of a battle of gladiators. These two are the best in the game.

Thank you for calling Airtel. Your call is very important to us.

2011-03-27T06:28:00.001+05:30

Sometimes I wonder if the companies and brands really understand what it means when they don't seem to listen and just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. A recent example could be my interaction with these folks. Someone is surely not reading the content and just responding for politeness's sake.

An even recent example would be the conversation with the Airtel Digital TV folks I had yesterday. All I needed was to check up why it was taking more than 4 days to add a channel to my package inspite of using approved text messages and, while I was at it, I needed to add two more channels. It took me a sum total of 25 minutes with 15 of them "on hold" listening to either "your call is very important to us" or, the funky hold music. The problem that I see is that if you are telling for 10 minutes that "your call is very important to us" and yet not putting a human on the other end, then you have an issue with how important the call is. And, repeating that mantra time and time again without actually demonstrating to the customer (remember this is a phone - the customer has no way of knowing whether you've just put him/her on hold and decided to trim your moustache/file your nails) that there are events happening is a bad way of handling calls.

Providing the customer with an option to disconnect the call with an option for a charged call back might actually be something that is preferable than being on hold watching paint dry.

MyBookDroid app

2011-03-27T06:19:00.001+05:30

Just a note to say that the app does seem to work. Both for scanning ISBNs and creating a ToRead as well as adding books to the Read shelf on Goodreads.com

The Apu Trilogy

2011-03-26T06:57:00.001+05:30

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay is one of those authors whose works will stand the test of time. And that is not only for Bengali literature, but for world literature as a whole. There is this elfin and charming quaintness to his writing - an ability to observe and yet not criticize - an eye for detail where the daily routine bustles past, that makes his works so appealing. Ever so often I end up reading Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Chaander Pahar.

I was reading Andrew Robinson's The Apu Trilogy : Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic since yesterday. If you have read Ray's own jottings about the movie or, Robinson's earlier works on it you'd find nothing truly new in the book. The insights and the stories have been written a lot of times, the anecdotes are more or less now in the domain of cinematic lore. However, that wasn't what was tugging me to read through the book. I think it was Bibhutibhushan who was the force.

I read Pather Panchali when I was way too young to even understand the layered sensitivity and human emotions. And then followed it up with Aparajito. I still recall sitting in some stunned daze one evening when during an adda (if you are from erstwhile Calcutta you'd be familiar with the sort where a mixed group of folks sit together and chatter away about everything, this isn't the famous 'adda' that draws the intellectuals, but more a group whiling time at a local club) someone said that Aparajito was also known as 'The Unvanquished'. All at once there was, for me, an interesting revelation about the drama in the book. And way later when I watched the trilogy, the one thing that I recall very clearly was Apu's toothy grin when he sets out with Kajal on his shoulders. For years and years Soumitra Chatterjee redeemed himself in every quirky movie of his that I watched because he was Apu. An Apu who indeed plumbed the depths of rootlessness and emerged unvanquished in every way to seek out a newer, better future with his son.

Ray's interpretation of the novels have its flaws. Some have celebrated the flaws as 'his interpretation' of the text and sometimes provided rationale about the choices made. Irrespective of all of that, the thing that works the best for me is perhaps that Apu (whosoever plays the character) never loses his innate curiosity and goodness.

Done with librarywala.com

2011-03-18T15:47:00.001+05:30

I've been using librarywala.com for a while now. They been good. Easy to search and add books, received and picked up on time (nearly always) etc. However, I am kind of done with them. And, I just asked them to cancel my existing membership and figure out if a pro-rated refund on the renewal is possible.

My account was due for renewal sometime around 19Jan2011. I used their online payment gateway to renew it a week before it expired. Sometime in the middle of February I received a call from them urging me to renew my membership. Upon being forwarded the email with the renewal details a somewhat lame, if acceptable excuse came forward ("the system wasn't showing this transaction" - ever wonder why it is always 'the system' ?). But what takes the cake is that yesterday I had a fairly belligerent chap call me up claiming to be an agent of the site and demanding that I either show him a proper receipt of payment of renewal charges or, pay cash. He wasn't interested in the print out of the email which had the renewal charge processing notification. Well, since I wasn't keen on doing that, I told him to check up with the site itself and then revert. I receive another call today urging me to pay cash.

In my book this is ridiculous way of treating customers. I'm done with these folks.

Using a Nexus S.

2011-03-16T19:09:00.001+05:30

I've been using a Nexus S since end January 2011. In no particular order here are some observations.

Contrary to expectations the battery life is around 2-3 days for my usage pattern (infrequent WiFi, nearly no bluetooth and no GPS etc)
The screen is a smudge magnet that is beyond description. The tiniest bit of smudge material creates a layer of unsightly swipes
The screen area is good for the Kindle App. With the black background white text setting I can actually read books pretty nicely and that is a high usage pattern.
The display is good and pretty rich if a color rich wallpaper is used.
The only video I have is Eben Moglen's FOSDEM 2011 keynote and it plays pretty well (I had converted it anyway, read more here)
Angry Birds, Paper Toss and Alchemy work well :) (as much I installed them for illicit entertainment)
Touchdown works. Yay !
The YouTube player is sometimes iffy on high resolution videos
The TED app makes it easy to listen to a well curated talk list
The actual physical phone hardware lends itself to a good grip once you can get over the lightness of it all
The hot spot thing works nicely too. Didn't have more than two devices to try it out with though.The phone tends to heat up slightly.
The stock browser is a bit of a bore and so I ended up installing and using Opera Mini (although I also installed Opera Mobile)
The stock Android 2.3 UI is a bit of a vanilla one. In fact I quite liked the tweaks in the UI provided by LG (albeit on 2.2) with the pull down bar allowing one to quickly connect to a GPRS or, move into a Silent mode etc. In fact I am looking for suggestions on alternative launchers.
The phone doesn't have too many external buttons (there's a power on/off and the volume switch) and that is a bit of a gotcha. When it comes to having to unlock each time to do stuff.
I haven't had the call drop issue yet.
Haven't used the phone to record a video and the rear camera works pretty decently (haven't used the flash on it). The front camera, as expected is heavily grainy

Where's the app ?

2011-03-15T18:40:00.001+05:30

When you go out with friends to a restaurant and then want to split the bill a mayhem ensues. Generally there's always a majority who don't have the exact or, near-exact denomination in notes. And so the "you remember to pay me later" etc followed up by generally fussiness about how much is owed by whom etc happens.

So, where's the app that allows me to add the 'handles' of the friend along with the final amount and then everyone gets notified to transfer the money electronically to a specified bank account. In other words, I pay the bill, add the folks who intend to split it up (and thus ensuring even-steven split) and each of them get a notification to "pay me". That is connected to a fund receipt system and hence this inglorious cash exchange at the end of the meal is taken care of.

Where's the app ?

Transactional grief.

2011-03-09T17:26:00.001+05:30

Around 13 days back I chanced upon the Blue Frog music store and decided to purchase some albums. While attempting to check-out and pay by a Visa card the payment gateway (CC Avenue) threw an odd error of Error Code: 94 Error Description: Amount Invalid. Just for the heck of it I changed browsers (Chromium -> Google Chrome -> Firefox -> Opera on a stock Fedora 14 installation) and saw the same result.

I wrote in to the contact address, which is the sales@ address/alias.

I was advised to try a Mastercard as "Mastercard sometimes works better than Visa cards" (exact quote). Tried that. Same result. Tried, just for kicks, the same browser hoop - same result. And thereafter informed the contact about being unable to complete the transaction. All this continued for around a week or so by the time I had more or less decided to give up.

The point of this post is that how often do online retailers/shops lose customers because their payment gateways end up causing transaction grief ? And, how prepared are they to be able to provide alternative means of payment ? In this case I was offered the option of an electronic transfer to enable the transaction completion. However, an electronic transfer wouldn't provide me with a system generated receipt. Which is the natural end result of a check-out during a purchase.

So, how do the retailers deal with these situations ?

On greed of a different sort

2011-03-09T11:36:00.001+05:30

The problem with greed is that it is inevitably linked to downfall. Greed or, the sin of excess is one of the seven deadly sins. And it is probably the easiest to fall for.

Self control is an exhaustible resource. And, there are times during my training walk+runs that this is completely evident. The urge to just give up and return home is such a sweetly dangling temptation that one can actually probably feel the neurons acting in concert asking the muscles to work that way. So, the only way to counter the temptation is to invoke greed - a sinful need to do better. Over a small period of time my walk+runs have notched up from 1.5 km to 5 km. I consider a tremendous improvement especially because I can actually feel the difference. The problem is that I become greedy. In spite of a pretty much decently chalked out schedule, I decided that I'll push for half a kilometer more at the same pace. This morning.

Guess what ?

My legs are such a sheer mass of pain today that I'd rather go home, tuck in and let them be. Gordon Gekko was right - greed clarifies.

Customer experience.Customer acquisition.

2011-03-01T14:15:00.001+05:30

Among the various things that get me fuming and fretting is the casual manner in which books are arranged in bookstores and libraries. You know what I'm talking about - those oh-so-innocent mistakes in categorization, the inability to check up inventory and, the general feeling of being ill-at-ease when using these services. Yes, that's the same feeling that returned with a vengeance when looking at BigBooks.

Cut to random anecdote.

During my student days when we were doing lab-work, we had a teacher whose daily drill was "a student is known by how clean he/she keeps her workspace". This, to me, was a small variation of the one my dad has - "the cleanliness habits of a family is known by how clean and organized the kitchen table is".

Cut to present day rant.

Why are the above to ditties relevant ? When you visit a bookstore, all you want to do is search for the books you want and hope that they will be under the appropriate categories. Once you've built up your stash you queue up in front of the cash counter, plonk down the cash and waltz out of the door (err... if you are at the Kolkata Book Fair, you'd either have to lug your sorry behind through a gate that is open just enough for anyone wearing skinny jeans to slip through or, you get pushed by the "maashimaas" into the wide open space in front of the stall). When you go to a library you figure out the way books are organized and then look them up. In both these cases the single most important aspect is the ability to look up what you want and, then obtain it. This is precisely where BigBooks fails completely miserably. Let me put it in some context - I used Flipkart when their search results were unpredictable and, the resultset displayed after the query was abominable. However, it didn't take them long to start fixing large parts of it (they got an important thing right though - they kept the site very sparse and simple in those initial days) . I didn't have to listen to "yeah we know that the search is a bit broken, why don't you send a list of books and we'd add it to your queue".

In my world of consuming online services that's fail. I hope that BigBooks revisits this part. If searching and building up a queue is difficult then using the service is difficult. A service that is difficult to use would have some uphill climb in customer acquisition even if it is backed up by a superb telephone-based networking and support.

Brilliant,Crazy,Cocky.

2011-02-27T08:09:00.001+05:30

Sarah Lacy's new book is an interesting read. Coming out at the end of a 40 week road pound talking with entrepreneurs in different 'emerging' countries, "the book began as a study in one thing: greed-based entrepreneurship in places emerging out of chaos and giving rise to enormous greenfield opportunities the Western world no longer has."

That's an interesting premise to base it upon given that US markets would be more inclined to read about how the US economy would re-invent itself as the centre point of business and, the focal point of innovation. Innovation forms a large context, a permanent backdrop to the book. However, innovation, and more importantly, the drive to innovate, finds resonance and acceptance in the somewhat less talked about and (sometimes) less glamorous places - Israel, China, Brazil, Rwanda and India. And yet it unabashedly states that there "are even more countries rising up that this book didn’t explore—like Russia, Mexico, Turkey, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. As more of these economies achieve stability and seek to follow in China and India’s footsteps, they’re increasingly turning to other emerging markets for help, not the West."

The book provides its own summary later towards the end - "We used to assume that sophisticated Silicon Valley venture capitalists would be the dominant investors as high-growth entrepreneurship spread to the world, but just a decade or so in, that’s not the case, even in our own country. In a world where technology has made talent and money this fungible, the incumbent advantage is almost gone." And, the recurring theme amongst the entrepreneurs in this chaotic world order seems to be that "The more disenfranchised a person is, the more incentive he or she has to upend the established order. The American dream is the very idea that having nothing allows you to take enough risk that you can achieve anything."

"“Entrepreneur” is a fashionable mantle nearly everyone wraps themselves in these days, but this is what a conversation with a great entrepreneur is like. It’s not about technology or features or acronyms—it’s a way of thinking and problem solving, coupled with the internal compass to believe in the idea and the confidence and determination to carry it out."

Sarah makes it a point to hammer home some known truths like "Indeed, the more big, publicly traded tech companies have talked about innovation, the more they’ve just bought it rather than invented it." and, "While companies talk about buying innovation, they have a shoddy track record of incorporating and investing in what they buy."

Amongst the observations of the economies I found the one on India to be veering a bit towards predictable lines. However, the quote “Great companies often fail when they take their success for granted. And so, too, can great societies.” fits in so shockingly that it might actually be something that needs to be absorbed and understood in all its ghastly explanation. Add to it the fact that “Indian entrepreneurship at its core is creative but not disciplined.” and you have a situation that is perhaps to aptly described by Edward Luce - “India finds itself higher up the ladder than one would expect it to be. It is just that most of its people are still sitting at the bottom,”

"Just as a hot meal, clean water, or a U.S. dollar can take on a meaning the rich can’t understand in a poor neighborhood, so too can basic technologies that connect people to one another." - that and the fact that entrepreneurship, irrespective of the fact that it is indeed driven by greed, is fuelled by the need to change what is provides a different way of looking at the businesses (eg. redbus.in etc) that emerges in order to provide a different experience. The subtext of the book is about "How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos". That's precisely what it is. A fairly rapid if not a free fall insight into various businesses. Written in the form of an easy-observation-narrative pieces the book is quick read but has enough points to ensure that there is a need to revisit and re-read.

What's Tanu Weds Manu ?

2011-02-26T18:22:00.001+05:30

If you are planning to watch Tanu Weds Manu out of an anticipation of it being a time-pass if not an entertainer, let me clarify this - you are wrong.

Rediff reviews it as "charming". Whatever the reviewer was inhaling/ingesting during the movie watch, it should be banned from the multiplexes. Charming is a quaintly sweet adjective for a movie. This movie isn't charming. It is a colossal waste of celluloid, a lesson in how continuity breaks through scenes (Kangna's shoes change in between as does Deepak's wristwatch position for example) and that actors, when they try to painstakingly prove how 'inside their character' they are by attempting to act in-your-face. Kangna Ranaut plays a character that is not neurotic/psychotic/dysfunctional. And fails majestically. A small reason for that is that the set design around her doesn't even add to her character. For example, her room provides a pivotal context and yet there's just shoulder-level camera shots that rely on fuzzy focus and some bric-a-brac shot to build up what ostensibly is a rebel-without-a-cause persona. R Madhavan is equally incredible - as a physician practising in London (with some pharma company building pacemakers) with a well-entrenched sense of 'sanskar' - his lack of display of emotions are more perhaps a result of being unable to emote than deep-seated angst and a sense of all-will-sort-out-at-the-final-reel sense of conviction.

What does redeem the movie is the wonderful set of characters/cameos - K K Raina, Rajendra Gupta, Deepak Dobriyal (with that name like Pappi, who wouldn't expect the character to be the one threading the narrative together ?), Swara Bhaskar and Eijaz Khan. Jimmy Shergill should perhaps look back at the recent string of bloopers that he has selected and mope over the waste of his potential - the role ill suits him and that swagger is so affected that it would do well as a caricature (wait till the last scene for what might be the most laughter inducing dialogue from him !). The story travels to and fro between Delhi, Kanpur and Kapurthala and it is only at the latter location does the tempo attempt to pick up a bit. A disastrous post-intermission script lets it down so thoroughly that by the time it is near the end you desperately want Manu to wed Tanu and be done with it so that you can leave the theater in peace and with some of your sanity intact.

The Fighter. Good movie.

2011-02-26T09:15:00.001+05:30

Some casting decisions are such perfect fit that when the story is about a real-life persona it becomes a dazzling narrative. The Fighter is one such film (note, Brad Pitt isn't playing Dicky even though the link says he is). By the end of the movie it isn't just a story about Micky or, his aspirations and hopes - it is a story about Dicky and, a story about Charlene. Mark Wahlberg's had similar role as a straight cut, honest to the boots hero in a hopefully stacked deck against him situation was in Invincible. And, Mark Wahlberg generally does a good job of playing these characters. Blessed not with prodigious acting talent but an ability to bring warmth to somewhat heroic roles, his casting as Micky Ward is just too good.

Will the movie make it in all the categories it has been nominated for ? I'm not so sure but it would be a good toe-to-toe between the two actors - Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. The latter has the tougher role and the former just belts out an extremely natural performance in a role that is way outside of what she's been doing (especially the series of ditzy roles). That generally takes a lot of self-belief and, a lot of faith in the treatment of the narrative in the hands of the director. Christian Bale, playing the "pride of Lowell", probably ends up doing a better job than either Matt Damon or, Brad Pitt would have done (and, I am fairly certain that he did better than what Brad Pitt would have done, not so sure about Matt Damon from a purely selfish perspective). Putting out the 'heart' in the characters to show on screen, being committed towards shooting pretty grisly and realistic match scenes - it is a nicely put together package. The only nagging feeling is that it is too neatly put together for awards by tugging at just the right emotions and turning the correct knobs.

Irrespective of all of that it is a highly recommended movie to watch. And, perhaps should help you get motivated to watch some of the other great boxing movies. I wonder if the HBO Documentary is available somewhere for a watch.

Grace.

2011-02-23T17:52:00.001+05:30

Today Indranil posted a somewhat strange message on Facebook.

Social Networking as a HR PsyOps tool. Disgruntled / ex-employees (now with rival co) and FB - i was told about this by a colleague at work (at who's company this was happening)
Methodology - Change companies and move into rival ones, then start adding ex-colleagues to your friend list. Freak the ex-company's HR out with possible hint of personnel / project poaching through tweets, status updates and comments.

To me nothing could be more stupid. And, I've seen shades,degrees and variants of stupid that defy categorization. There's this tendency specific to employees of companies in India to make their separation as full of ill wind as possible. I find it suitably ridiculous because unless you are changing your field of expertise/employment completely, you'll end up encountering characters from your previous places of employment or, have to place yourself in situations where you transact with them. Pissing off people or, just being a notorious nasty isn't appreciated by companies any more. Even if you are 'rock-star' material.

It doesn't take too much to be graceful. Even under pressure. Sadly, grace is something that most employees tend to leave at their homes when playing out their notice period. Among the various things that make employees "unemployable", this lack of grace and more importantly, this lack of common-sense to understand real life considerations comes near about the top of the list.

That and the blurring of lines between social networks and professional networks.

'Indian Android Developer Contest' etc.

2011-02-16T14:59:00.001+05:30

The Indian Android Developer Contest folks have put up the criteria for judging an app. I gave it a quick read and ended up wondering whether the following would have been a better alternative.

Usability - whether the app does what it claims to do
Security - whether the app is inherently insecure
Fault Tolerance - whether the app fails gracefully or, just decides to rampantly go awry
Service Tolerance - whether the app, if backed with a custom service, can handle high transactional loads
Geolocation awareness - whether the app, if required, can handle geo-location gracefully
Content Freshness - whether the app does collect and collate relevant content that is local (depends on the point above)
Platform Consumption - whether the app makes best and optimal use of the API provided by the underlying platform
Hardware Tolerance - whether the app factors in difference in hardware specifications across handsets with compatible OS
Feature Completeness - whether the app has differentiating features from other apps in same category
Consumer building - whether the app devels take time to build a community of users/consumers using social media and market feedback means

I'd also have fancied the names of the judges to be made available.

Finding makers !

2011-02-08T17:43:00.001+05:30

This is partly in response to Abhaya's blog post and, partly because I wanted, for a while, an excuse to push out this thing which was rotting in the drafts.

At the outset, I am less worried about the TWITCH (TechMahindra-Satyam,Wipro,Infosys,TCS,Coginzant,HCL) saying that a large number of engineers are "unemployable", than I am with reading about start-ups saying a similar thing. The business focus between the two groups is radically different to be worried about an apparently similar statements being aired.

I had earlier written about a similar theme. And, I believe that the Computer Science and Engineering curricula (or, the Information Technology one) does an adequate job doing what they are supposed to do - teaching first principles. The revisionist zeal driven by the somewhat astro-turfing nature of large stock-market bellweathers will do more harm than good when it comes to teaching students. The striking characteristic of being unemployable isn't a factor of the curricula. The fundamental issue that I have with the "education system" is that it is geared towards a single goal - to enable students to 'pass'. When you have that as a single point agenda, you'd pretty much dump everything by the wayside if it doesn't contribute explicitly to your agenda.

Unfortunately, I disagree with the notion that the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a "geek magnet". In what can be considered the strangest perversion of a programming community project, the GSoC in India is basically prepared for just like any other examination. If you don't believe me subscribe to the mailing lists of various colleges or, start talking with GSoC-er from India about this. In short, it isn't too different from a GATE and, the old agenda pops up - one needs to "pass". Which is why I also rule out ACM/IEEE and similar organizations doing 'camps' and so forth.

What is needed however is (and this is off a discussion between Susmit and Sayamindu), a way to create an opportunity that has low floor, high ceiling and wide walls. And, a need to be associated/embedded within a community of like minded folks. In order to hire employable scientists one has to also get down in the mud and get work done. How that happens is something which I've not managed to think through yet, but I am fairly certain that that's what is required.

Around an experiment with giving.

2011-02-08T05:31:00.001+05:30

In 2010 I did a small experiment. After putting money away to pay mortgages, rent and so forth I'm left with what I call the "disposable income". And, since I deliberately didn't spend as much as I end up doing on books (remember that I had the Kindle this year and, my purchases have been more sporadic - I generally prefer the books on the Kindle unless completely pushed towards getting a physical copy) I decided that I should figure out how much I can give and where. The list of recipients were short - FOSS projects I liked/used and, organizations which I think are doing some good work in the field they have selected. And, I used the interactions and conversations to gauge whether I'd be contributing again.

The end result of the year-long experiment is that I've finally narrowed down the list of agencies with whom I'm comfortable dealing and, who'd receive my contributions. A list, which I freely admit, is based on whether there was a "Thank You" note at the end of the first contribution. Such a note, properly structured, makes one happy and those warm fuzzies are a good incentive to try and contribute again. It feels awkward to see that not all organizations which request contributions/donations work on ensuring that everything is taken care of.

2010 helped 2011 get focus. That's the upside from the year.

Ruhaniyat, Pune, 2011

2011-02-06T23:35:00.001+05:30

Just returned from sitting through the Pune edition of Ruhaniyat. Last year, it was during a Ruhaniyat that the German Bakery blast happened. Runa was inside watching the performance while I ended up being outside waiting in the car and anticipating that the Pune Police would start shutting down roads and various gatherings. Anyway, that's not the story. A year just whizzed by.

Barring the artists from Egypt, who obviously weren't able to make it, it was a tightly conducted event with not much loose ends. The only thing, that I can say right now is that I've always held Abida's Jahan-e-Khusrau rendition of Chhap Tilak (that's the quickest link I found, need to work this out later) as the best from any living exponent I've heard. Sarfaraz Chisti did manage to convey in a very elaborate manner that Khusrau's verses can be seductive as well as vocally powerful when rendered by a group that's just too well put together.

The number of folks who deliberately, wilfully and constantly flout the no audio/video recording rule at a concert is high and very annoyingly disturbing
Free seating brings out the worst parts of manipulative nature of folks. Sweet-talking and cajoling people into shifting, dumping water bottles, fruit juice tetrapacks and what not to "reserve" seats
Sound systems for open-air concerts require a different set of skills (one speaker bank was partly down for a while)
Perhaps the organizers could take time to print out the selected compositions and, their meanings as opposed to having them read out. That should cut down on the mistakes in speaking out unfamiliar words.

On the film as a mathematical object.

2011-02-06T15:26:00.001+05:30

To understand Yeh Saali Zindagi, one has to first do a quick read of Moebius Strip. Especially the part that this mathematical 'object' is non-orientable.

Without planning to argue for or, against the "romantic thriller" tag of the movie, the folks who, after the first 10 minutes think that this is going to start off where Is Raat Ki Subaah Nahin left off, you'd be in for a disappointment. Sure, it has the same (contrived ?) sense of compressed urgency, of characters who are dealing with machinations somewhat unpredictable and beyond their immediate scope of control, of families and, bonds of emotion, of somewhat rustic conversations. And, in a similar way, actors who play their parts, because they have played similar roles effectively and sometimes wonderfully in other movies and other stories. So, the story goes back and forth, tries to set the context and sometimes the content and mostly the reasons the characters are the way they are. And, yet, it actually fails to involve you in any form. It is as if you are on the sidelines, watching a competently directed drama unfold and all you have to do is laugh or, smirk at the appropriate times.

Irrfan Khan does his laid back, somewhat irrational character as only he can - fairly methodically and well. Saurabh Shukla has done these character roles so often that he could probably do it in his sleep and the audience won't figure out that he's doing it badly or, by rote. Arunoday Singh, in whatever screen time he gets, tries his best to insert an element of tension in his character and does it reasonably well - he probably needs roles written for him keeping his screen presence in mind. Aditi Rao Hydari is good. As are Sushant Singh and, Yashpal Sharma. Chitrangada Singh, I feel, is the muse of the director who hasn't yet been brave to admit that she isn't worth that amount of attention. An actor, who when doing a scene where she's supposed to have dozed off, has stiff finger and hand muscles instead of being slack, is an actor who is let a lot of rope by the director (watch for the scene where Irrfan Khan leaves her a note about taking care while he's off for a month). And, then watch her reactions, when she bashes the head of one of Kuldeep's gang (ie. Arunoday Singh's gang) and then realizes the aftermath. The camera does its best to hide what's bad in the scene.

The problem with movies of these genre (and, there have been plenty similar in Hollywood too) is that due to the day-in-the-life situation, it requires backstories and profiles. And, the movie makers do not take the trouble to release such notes and narratives via the media to the audience who are genuinely interested in them, For example, what was the backstory of Saurabh Shukla's character - how does he get connected to that level of power so that he literally has to run underground when Irrfan Khan's zany plans wreck havoc on his investment business.

It is a good movie. For a 0900 morning show at INOX, which does seem prepared to handle early morning shows. Especially since this time around the audience wasn't enough in numbers to be a bother.

Thought of the day

2011-02-04T16:01:00.001+05:30

Those who rewrite histories with delusions of grandeur and intentions of malice are doomed to be rewritten out in subsequent revisions.

When the timeline becomes a fire-hose

2011-02-04T14:43:00.001+05:30

The events at Egypt have turned my social media timelines into a fire-hose. In earlier days, no, make that into when-we-were-young days, we'd have to wait for a while to get analysis of similar events. These days it has become much easier to access but much harder to parse because of the overload.

Which brings me to this thought of being able to manipulate the timeline to read what I want. The basic principle is to apply a set of pre-determined ranking or, scoring to each tweet from a contact about a specific topic/trend/keyword. Thereafter, set a floor in order to display tweets only above that score. And, 'mute' the rest.

It could, perhaps, be linked with the Klout.com score and hence the basic criteria could be "display tweeters with a Klout score above xx tweeting about #trend".

The other option of course is to just get off twitter ;)

That common mix-up between descriptors and status

2011-01-30T07:28:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I had a tweet about this article (or, post). The fun bit was the phrase "ex-RBI employee for 7 years" which now seems to be replaced by "who has been an ex-RBI employee who has worked with them for 7 years". This is even more confusing.

This is a somewhat common mistake around status and a descriptor. An employee is a status and, an ex-employee is a descriptor. So, you cannot be an ex-employee for 7 years :) You can, however, be an "employed with <insert organization> 7 years ago".

Take another example - you cannot be an ex-student for 4 years. You are either a student or, an ex-student. Or, were a student at the said institute 4 years ago.

Niceness ehh ?

Singularly motivating or, just the wrong incentive ?

2011-01-27T21:42:00.001+05:30

Goodreads.com announced the Reading Challenge for 2011. It is an interesting concept and, has the requisite bells and whistles around allowing widgets that display how much of the challenge is being achieved. Since every individual member gets to choose a number ie. the challenge, it is good fun. I see a couple of folks on my friends list putting up their challenges.

I toyed with the idea of putting up a number. And, enough dilly-dallying later I think this isn't something that suits my way of doing things. There are a couple of reasons and, I'll try to put them out in some unordered fashion.

I don't read books with a net number of books per year to be read in mind. Which is why my book reading pattern,trends and habits are unusual. An example could be the fascination with one specific author and, the need to end up reading a large part of his/her works.
The statistics don't lend themselves to any sort of challenge. In this specific month, I've ended up reading 16 books (new) with a bunch of re-reads thrown in here and there. This isn't going to be the number every month. And, even if I say that I do around 8 books for the remaining 11 months, I'd have gone through a 104 new books. Umm... I don't think that's going to happen. Last year, as per the stats, I read 41 new books. So clearly, there is a wide variation - the difference between projected and actual being more than double the actual.
On the Goodreads bookshelf I tend to put in everything I read. So, that actually is a bit of a 'cheating'. For example, books by Sherry Turkle. Technically, that's neither fiction, nor non-fiction and, it shouldn't be sitting there on the bookshelf. But I do end up slipping these in because the shelves are then a real representation of what I've read.

So, that's more or less the list of things that's putting me off taking up a challenge.

The plan to create a digital library of 100 copyright free titles from Indian languages

2011-01-26T06:46:00.001+05:30

I read about the plan via a tweet. And, good ol' me is excited. There has been far too much talk about this and that, too many departments within the governments and, too large chunks of grants disbursed to make this happen. Nothing much has happened. If, a collective of interested people willing to invest some of their time get together then this is amazingly simple to achieve.

In perspective, look at what a single person who had interest and passion could do. Or, what a group of folks are continuing to do.

The problem that a 'crowd-sourcing' effort can overcome is the heavy requirement on OCR. The last time I checked, IndicOCR pieces that are available return an accuracy of just 80%. It sounds nice but in reality it is awkward.

Consider this - a 100 page book would have just around 80 pages correctly optically scanned. Most of the target books would be around the 180-200 page mark. That's a whopping 40 pages of incorrect data and, that requires increased focus on proof-reading. The alternative to the effort is based on the 'labor is cheap' concept. In other words, employ enough folks to actually key in the book. Input has become reasonably easy in recent times - there are keyboard layouts for Indian langauges both on the distribution and, there are web-based applications too. It may not 'scale' but it could work. Long time back, this was attempted in collaboration with an NGO who were keen on using this opportunity to teach less-privileged folks to learn how to work with computers and, Linux ! It was painstaking but it was worth it.

Either way, I am game for this. I think I can put my name forward to proof-read at least half a dozen books for Bengali this year. And, I know just the person to suggest titles (besides the fact that archive.org does have some surprising out-of-copyright books scanned and stored)

Those interested need to follow these twitter handles. And, please also pass this idea around so that interested folks start gathering.

On the city in a movie

2011-01-23T19:09:00.001+05:30

This could also have been called "Why multiplexes aren't really the places you should go to watch and enjoy movies" but we'll keep that for later. Meanwhile, here's fresh from Dhobi Ghaat (Mumbai Diaries).

Once a couple of friends which also included me did a marathon session of movie watching at a Cinema Club. Being a late hour and, taxis being conspicuously absent from the streets we started walking. Which also resulted in a lot of snarky and sometimes interesting comments. One of them was that it wouldn't be a decade from that day when the volume of "hatkey" movies would be such that the category of these movies would cease to exist. Watching Dhobi Ghaat brought that comment right into the foreground. Five years ago, there wouldn't be financing to produce this movie. And, ten years ago, the audience wouldn't have been around to accept this at a movie theatre.

The movie is languid, refreshing and, as many have remarked - inconclusive. Among other things that's one of the nicest things about it. Happys the endings isn't what movie making is about. The preparation around the movie begins when there's the reasonably tight shot of a working taking a beedi-break against the backdrop of Mumbai - with the skyscrapers and the groundscrapers visible together. And, the slight yellow tinge of the sun tinting the clouds just that much. The wonderful and studied effort that goes into making a movie around this concept is on display throughout the frames and more or less in every frame - the smaller details about production pieces, the language and, the light. Of course, the fact that Bombay/Mumbai forms an integral 'character' in the movie itself is something that takes getting used to. The other part of course is that the characters and their motivations do not require lengthy build-ups and explanations - they 'happen'. For example, Monica Dogra's character roams around Mumbai with Prateik's character Munna snapping pictures (oh ! how I wish that the DVD comes with the prints of them !) and thereafter gets into a luxury sedan to return to her surroundings. No explanation needed. That happens. Letting the audience ask themselves questions and, try to answer them is a good thing. As also putting them right inside the continuing lives of the characters - no cut-to-past or, no lengthy dream-about-future time wasters in this movie. The story behaves like the camera just sneaked into their lives and recorded. Even in the segments that include the video-letters.

There are subtle moments that are interesting. Aamir Khan's slightly nervous neck muscle stiffness or, Kriti Malhotra's upbeat voice being suddenly downcast and restricted hand-movements (the constant sound of her bangles stop). The crescendos of the music (and, the street noise increasing during the last scene) or, the slight sound effect of the rushing wind when the train goes past Prateik's shanty or, even Tennyson's Brook. It isn't a single watch movie. The various aspects of the craft do come together (and, thus it generally means that hours have gone in making that happen) and this requires a DVD to re-watch. Aamir Khan is Aamir Khan - studied and nearly perfect. Monica Dogra is charming. Prateik Babbar is good because he picks up and runs with a role far removed from his mileau and does a pitch perfect job of it. Kriti Malhotra is probably going to be talked about because she lets her eyes talk a lot more than herself. That's an excellent job.

I don't really agree that the problem with the film is the lack of a story. I think the problem with the film is that it tries too hard to be excellent. And, that kills it in not letting have loose ends. The other part of course is the English/Hindi nature of the movie. I ended up, unfortunately enough, watching a Hindi only version. Whosoever wrote the Hindi dialogues (which are originally in English) for Monica Dogra's character never really probably got the actor mouthing them before going to dubbing. Stitled and absurdly ill-placed with an accent that doesn't stay at one place at all.

And now, we return to our regular multiplex rant.

I've often said that the multiplexes unleash the boors in us. Disposable income meets plush interiors and what you get is a group of folks who not only jar their own cinema experience (or, perhaps they enjoy that) but mess it up for others. Today it was a group who were absolutely interested in intimate scenes between Aamir and Monica. And, the lack of them on-screen as well as the subsequent (admittedly stilted conversation) led to quite absurdly trashy comments being passed around. Which continued each time their characters interacted or, even Prateik's character interacted with Monica's. And of course, the coarse and somewhat vulgar laughter that punctuated the nervous reaction of Aamir's character when the full realization of the video-messages hit him. All this at a 1415 show at E-Square Kharadi which was around 40% full for a Aamir Khan movie does tell something.

On the search for an MFD

2011-01-22T09:48:00.001+05:30

Dear Lazyweb,

I am looking for a Multi Function Device - those Print-Scan-Copy things for home usage and specifically for a 'desktop'/workspace usage. I want it to have the following qualities:

should be network-ready
the scanner preferably should not be requiring a binary blob
the printer should be a laser printer

Does anyone have a set of suggested devices I should be looking at ?

Yours,

etc.

Too much schadenfreude ?

2011-01-21T20:09:00.001+05:30

I was reading the tweet-stream of MTV India. Looks like they are holding a preview of the upcoming Roadies 8 at a tweet-up. Curiously 'social' I'd say. The previous seasons of Roadies didn't really have as much social heaving that this one seems to have.

However, the hashtag also led me to ponder about what gets us into mass schadenfreude ? Why do the baser parts of human actions seem to titillate and entice us into extracting some illicit enjoyment ? In current times we are less prone to appreciate a good turn than we are to snicker at someone's goofing up or, making a reasonably pathetic act of themselves. We are lesser and lesser getting used to the idea of saying "Thank You" and being gracious for the smaller things and more prone to boorish behavior in civil society and public places. The very fact that they try needs to be applauded but most of the shows ratchet up their viewers by highlighting the most embarrasing parts and in a subtle way exhorting the in-studio audience to mock it.

I wonder what it does for the psyche of the participants and, the audience !

Looking at logs of Kindle3

2011-01-18T05:50:00.001+05:30

(from a discussion at the office and, pasted here for further help)

BTW to look at the logs: 1. Open the Search box by selecting that option from the Home screen menu. 2. Type ";dma" (without quotation marks) into the search field. You can find the semi colon by pressing the SYM key. 3. Press the Return key, which is one to the right of the SYM key. 4. Connect your Kindle to your computer using the USB cable and open the “Documents” folder on your Kindle. 5. Two log files in the Kindle Documents folder; these files start with:  * All_logs_as_of * Wpa_supplicant

A quick get-away

2011-01-17T19:55:00.001+05:30

Over the weekend we went to a place called Karpe's Wadi at Nagoan (near Alibaug). The pictures are on Facebook as well as here. It was a reasonably nice drive barring some sections of the State Highway where the 'road' part of the description was missing in full tilt. I'd be happy to announce that the LX130 from MapMyIndia also performed fairly nicely with proper prompts (barring the segments where the lady and Runa were in complete disagreement and it wasn't a good thing to see).

Karpe's Wadi is a nice get-away place. They put emphasis on 'organic' stuff and, it is probably well taken. A welcome drink of tender coconut and we went to settle into one of the rooms/cottages. The entire place has cottages/rooms in an outer concentric circle with the inner area being a garden and a common dining space. The waves were breaking and, the sound was tempting enough to freshen up and check out the place. The rear gate opens out on to the beach and, by all accounts it is a bit far from the beach where all the crowds come. Nice. Food was vegetarian thali meals with self-service with the option of ordering a few variety of fish (surmai, paplet and prawns) and chicken. The number of hammocks made it a good reason to chill out before a walk by the shore during evening.

And, although we had plans to go see the Alibaug Fort, those we ditched in order to make ourselves comfortable on the hammocks, read and basically relax a lot. Good fun. I'd recommend the place for a day or two place to get away from it all. But, it appears that there is a need to book in advance. It isn't a 'resort' or, a fancy 'star' joint. The plumbing is basic and adequate while the beds are well maintained.

The drive back was a bit of a nuisance with constant tailgating and rash driving by various vehicles from the Mahindra(s) each sporting a sticker or, a registration plate design of a political party.

Going local using Taazza

2011-01-12T16:53:00.001+05:30

The folks at Taazza suggested that I might like to use their app. Unfortunately, that specific version seemed to have some issues with the phones and moving the app to the SD card. So, once I did provide that feedback they were nice to email a couple of us with a preview release which is also scheduled to hit the Android Market. Since the premise is to provide specifically local content, the only way to give it a spin was to get local at a couple of places (Hadapsar, Magarpatta, KalyaniNagar, Koregaon Park, MG Road, Moledina Road were my places) and see how it goes.

I like the app and, I'd recommend it as a fun one to have around.

It is light and fast, has a clean interface that allows some interesting things like providing news about deals with when they expire (that's fun to keep track of), weather information and, some reasonably detailed listing about Places (restaurants, movies/theatres and so forth). I specifically like the way it handles the City News via aggregation. For me that's a nice way to read news around and about Pune. And it does a seriously good job with that which can be tested by changing the location. The deals/information can be shared using email/Facebook/Twitter and, orders can be placed via Web or, a print-ready coupon. The means to select additional cities to read news items about is also a plus.

Having said all of that there's a couple of things I'd like the app to improve in the coming versions:

handle the slight stutter when changing between tabs or, scrolling quickly. The app visibly stalls and stutters for a slight moment before reloading the content
in the landscape orientation the scrolling requires some work - it just is a bit slow
in the landscape orientation (why would an app like this require a landscape ? :)), the content reflow is a bit awkward
geolocation - this is currently what I'd like to get fixed. The app seems to save a location and each time one has to re-locate oneself to get local (or, hyper local) information. I'd have wanted an automatic re-location and hence a refresh of the content. So, basically I would want to activate the app, or, navigate to the app and I'd like it to use an existing and active data connection to geo-locate me and figure out the content to fetch and display.
content -> activity. In other words, I know that I can get the contact numbers of a movie theatre with the app. But, how do I make bookings ? For a restaurant, a contact number might be enough to call up and make a reservation, I guess that doesn't work out nicely for theatres and movies/plexes etc
more content is required and that is probably going to be cyclically linked to more usage

In short, good job but there's more to be done. And, the page probably requires some means to put in feature requests and rankings :)

Hope and then despair at book listing

2011-01-11T13:55:00.001+05:30

Flipkart is finally listing Bengali books. However, going through the listings I was forced to be disgusted. It looks shoddily done and, without a proper care of reviewing the entries. There are:

Titles which are wrongly typed. Even phonetically they don't come close
Author names which show wide variation
Wrong listings too

In short it means that unless I chance upon that book it would be impossible to search by either Title or, Author Name. And, for an online bookstore that just takes away the interest in clicking through a number of books/pages to arrive at the book. Which is where another thing bothers me. In this day and age, why can I not set a preference about how many books I want listed once I login ? Or, for example, choose to see an infinite scroll ? There ought to be a way to handle that.

I am happy that I can (if I try hard enough) actually buy Bengali books off Flipkart. I am disappointed at the fact that they did not put as much care as they did for their English language books.

That man,those deeds.

2011-01-10T15:04:00.001+05:30

I followed the IPL Player auctions first on Set Max, then via Cricinfo and finally resorted to a combination of Cricinfo and CNN-IBN (in fact Gaurav Kalra's comment about Gayatri Reddy being the 'diva' and how he has no qualms admitting that he looks at the screen when she's on was a squirmer !). And, while everyone jaw-dropped and registered some choreographed umbrage at the non-bids ('unsold') of Sourav Ganguly, Gayle, Jayasurya and Lara (especially Ganguly), I think Harsha Bhogle got it summed up best as "everyone has a sell-by date and Sourav probably thought that his wasn't near yet". I suspect that Anil Kumble was sounded out to a similar possibility, not to mention the contradiction in terms about being part of a State Cricket Association among other things while playing at the IPL and hence his "mentor" role at the RCB. Rahul Dravid on the other hand probably ended up getting the venomous end of the dirty stick that the Mallyas wave around and hence this extremely pejorative statement from the owner.

Here's how the teams stack up.

Coming back to the Sourav Ganguly issue. I feel that the effigy burning drama and the sad theatre of hate that is going to unfold at Kolkata doesn't befit him. His fans should realize that not being bid for by any of the 10 franchisees does in no way diminish the stature and greatness of the man. As does the lack of faith exposed by Mallya not demean the fierceness of The Wall. On any given day, you are what you are by your deeds, not by your memories. For a cricketer and probably for every sports personality, that translates into the happy memories they injected into the national psyche. An auction for a private sporting club (pretending to be the national cricket representing body) for an event that is exposing equally odd biases isn't the measure of worth for anyone. I'll admit that I'll be watching the IPL matches (irrespective of the fact that the CNN-IBN panel has now made me suspect Sanjay Manjrekar's cricketing brain) and while I may not be really overjoyed with the team selections, I am not going to drown in misery and curse/cuss at the Kolkata Knight Riders. The greatest joy that I've had with Sourav wasn't that they said about him being second to God on the off-side, or, that he took off his t-shirt at the Lord's, or, that at Taunton, while being miserable about his slow start I was jumping up and down on the sofa with his hammer-n-tongs attack on the bowling. The joy was in realizing that he took his time in building up the character of a team that didn't take things lying down or, didn't decide to throw in the towel. And, that he wasn't the quintessential dandy Bengali who'd be foppish and squeamish when things went tough.

You don't want to measure that kind of a man and, those men with their presence or, absence in IPL auctions. You'd want to wish that the new crop realizes that and brings forth an unbridled aggression that would do the teams a power of good.

2 reasons why social media centric customer service teams make me unhappy

2011-01-10T10:15:00.001+05:30

This should be easy because there are just two things to write about. Customer Complaint Servicing over Twitter makes me uneasy because:

I think it allows companies/brands to be lazy and delay the putting up and adhering to a complaint/trouble ticket tracking system. Since being able to handle queries/complaints/praise over Twitter and other 'social media' seems to be very 'in', it is easier to go with the crowd pleasing part than actually get down to the nuts and bolts and ensure that all complaints are tracked with the intent to improve delivery and performance. I've seen this approach far often. A ticketing system isn't stone age. It is a fairly decent way to keep documentation and audit trail of performance of various organization units. Not to mention that it is a great document trail should something end up in litigation (I am yet to read about a Twitter timeline being used in consumer courts). And, although sometimes brands/companies do end up doing a great job on the social media touch-points, more often than not there's a ham-handed, by-the-template response (a favorite example of mine being the Airtel handle on twitter @Airtel_Presence !)
The other aspect is something that follows from the point above. I get the feeling that this exaggerated emphasis on social media driven and social media centric customer handling is discriminatory. Surely not all the customers of any brand would be interested in raising issues over such medium ! Most of them expect a standard set of ways (phone, email etc) to raise their issues. If social media driven cribs/complaints get quicker resolutions (and, I suspect that they often do since the pressure to appear responsive and responsible is enough to incite action) then the company/brand is doing a bit of disservice to a large segment of its population.

Social media tools are great storefronts for deals and offers and even discounts. Dragging an engagement model like customer service into social media is a bit of a different game altogether. And, for me, an annoying me-too game.

Post The Tossed Salad Book Club meeting

2011-01-09T17:34:00.001+05:30

I was at The Tossed Salad Book Club meeting today. The first one. If you aren't already following/on the group, here's the link. I posted a couple of photographs from the event. I am still learning about the innards of the camera on the phone hence please, no comments about the images.

It was a much better turn-out than I anticipated ;) I had figured around 8 folks turning up excluding the organizers and, we had at least a bit over 30 and a few folks standing throughout the event. That's a promising start. For the fact that this was the first time the book club was meeting (barring the times the organizers have informally met !) the selection of the book and the availability of the author was a great combination. A quick introduction about the book club, some rules, and, an introduction about the book and the author started the show.

Amish is an engaging personality and, Poonam was an efficient moderator. The discussion was a bit one-sided though with a larger share of the conversation being steered by Amish including his nice side-stepping of that query about whether the fact that the trilogy is in English and not widely available in local languages is a factor of him not getting brick-bats from the usual suspects. The book lends itself to layered interpretations and sometimes re-thinking about our oral traditions of myths and estabilished folklore-history-mythology. This was also probably a reflection in the questions and, the contextual side-jumps in the conversation. Amish took a quick trip into his motivations and process (or, lack thereof !) during writing of the book along with fielding questions on the date of the next book on the trilogy (I wonder why no one asked him about the third book at all :D). It would probably be nice to have him around the time of publication of the next book and open it up to a much larger audience.

In short it was a good two hours well spent (and, I didn't purchase a book even though I was at a bookstore !). The next book up for discussion and critical appreciation is A Confederacy of Dunces. And, I hope that more folks come to the group meeting reading the book or, at least reading up notes etc around the book. Sahil mentioned something along the lines of sharing reading material links etc. Hope that's going to work out nicely.

As always it was good to meet a few twitter handles ;)

3 wishes.

2011-01-07T17:48:00.001+05:30

Given the god awful mess that goes by the name of Education Sector this is just wishful thinking. But then parenting isn't messed up. Yet. And, hence there may be some hope in thinking about these. I wish that the schools, colleges, universities and the parents put some thought towards ensuring that they encourage and influence the following aspects of personality:

a fearlessness in asking questions. Being curious hasn't killed kittens or cats yet. And, the inability to will oneself to be curious about anything and everything, to be fearless in asking questions and seeking answers is going to extract a heavy social price when we look in retrospective and wonder about what could have been. The schizophrenic quandry of emerging-vs-emerged economy aside, to be able to progress as a society one requires curious minds - and, an encouragement to adopt that attitude begins very early.
a work ethic that is based around honest, diligent and pure old fashioned 'hard work'. I've seen far too many young ones bend at the slightest hindrance or, whisper of an obstacle without applying the proverbial blood-n-brawn to the issue. A work ethic that is cultivated and nurtured from a young age and includes appreciation of hard work would go a long way in ensuring a generation of wonderful citizens
a self discipline that motivates oneself to work hard. And by hard I mean gruellingly hard in a never-stop-till-goal-is-reached kind of hard way. Nothing less should be acceptable and, that should come from within.

The environment that encourages these aspects is probably the only primary way we can build up a framework that unleashes the potential. Here's a quote/paragraph that perhaps puts into perspective very clearly what I am talking about.

“We had four million people here in 1790,” he tells Vanity Fair. “We’re not more intelligent than people in China, which then had 290 million people, or Europe, which had 50 million. We didn’t work harder, we didn’t have a better climate, and we didn’t have better resources. But we definitely had a system that unleashes potential. This system works. Since then, we’ve been through at least 15 recessions, a civil war, a Great Depression…. All of these things happen. But this country has optimized human potential, and it’s not over yet. It’s like what’s written on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren: If you seek his monument, look around you.”

Is this an accepted practice at service centers ?

2011-01-07T11:31:00.001+05:30

My workhorse 'smartphone' - the Nokia e71 decided to act up during the recent trip to Kolkata. A trip to a care center stunned me. The projected bill was around 7000 INR with 5000 INR being the Bill of Materials. The surprising part of course was that when the cost was put across, the itemized list which constitutes the Bill of Materials wasn't.

Is this an accepted practice ?

7 books from 2010 that are up for a re-read

2011-01-06T15:50:00.001+05:30

Couple of books I read in 2010 that I'd probably end up reading again pretty soon. In no particular order they are as:

For reasons arising out of pure laziness all the books are hyperlinked to Amazon.com :) And, my bookshelf is at the usual place.

This and that

2011-01-04T14:18:00.001+05:30

I noticed today that Suchitra Mitra was a trending topic on twitter. And that is fairly interesting for me. In earlier days, the passing away of an exponent in the classical arts would have been accompanied with the obligatory quotes in newspapers (for fun, read the order of the quotes here - in other times the CM would have had priority in the article) along with a sudden serious tone of the voice which would be used to read that piece of news on television (especially Doordarshan). Now it is much more easy and convenient to indulge in conversational ice-breakers on social mediums and, see/read others talking along similar or even dissimilar lines. It was a fascinating experience reading the timeline about folks pulling out her albums and listening to her voice. Surreal wasn't the ideal term for that. For a moment it felt as if one was inside an auditorium with a couple of jukeboxes and folks were selecting their favorites and playing them. A very interesting social experience.

She wasn't one of my favorite singers though. As in, I wouldn't usually pick out one of her vinyls or, cassettes or, CDs to listen to when in the mood (barring her singing this - I had heard it earlier at a function and was hooked on to her rendition from that day on). And, even though Rabitirtha would need to pull off a feat of strength to come out of the stereotypical rendition of Rabindrasangeet, it would be of course pointless to deny the fact that Suchitra Mitra, along with her peers defined for a whole generation the strong and robust serenity of certain of Tagore's poems/songs.

A greater percentage of the recent generation of singers who also sing Rabindrasangeet are a bit uninspiring for me. Perhaps the diverse nature of their area of music and, the freewheeling experimentation that they undertake (at a different age, Viswa Bharati had a fiat on how the songs could be sung and, the accompanying instruments). Or perhaps, the ability to read and appreciate Tagore is somewhat diminishing because he isn't being read or, discussed as frequently as before. It isn't going to happen that his permanence would be impacted. His relevance has surely been.

If only there was this application

2011-01-03T16:13:00.001+05:30

While making a feeble attempt to unclutter my Twitter timeline I realized that there's a need for an application (client or, web etc) that provides a scrolling list (on the left side say) of all the handles one follows and, the remaining columns would be the various lists that one has created. Thereafter just drag and drop the accounts/handles into the respective lists and, voila !

Sadly, there isn't an app yet.

A promising start ?

2011-01-02T06:54:00.001+05:30

In an incredible display of maturity the usual suspect news channels did not pick up on the 1.1.11 story ie. the numerical and numerological aspects and it does look like a promising start :)

And, I need to get used to writing 2011 as the year - the muscle memory seems stuck in 2010 !

And, Kolkata yet again

2010-12-31T05:12:00.001+05:30

From the last two days at Kolkata. This has actually turned out to be one of the better trips to the city. Got both the scheduled tasks done and, managed to sneak in some unscheduled work too (the home loan part pre-payment). And, all this in spite of the protests and rallies at the Metro Channel and what not.

Here are some notes in random order. Yet again.

Used cash to pay for all transactions but one. And, ended up with a clearer picture of spending patterns when in the city. Of course, being a single traveler does help since the need to carry around large sums of cash diminishes. I should try this again as much as possible.
I am still recovering from the shock of getting a phone line installed, phone instrument delivered and, a phone number generated all within a span of 7 days. And, the promise of a 2 day turn around in data link connection. And, a 1 day turn around for a 3G SIM.
Taxis have this annoying habit of standing around 10 metres ahead or, behind a designated taxi stand. The designated taxi stand has a forlon looking taxi queue coordinator either chewing tobacco or, listlessly smoking a bidi.
I've taken cab rides in cabs with the most funky upholstery. Including one that had a lady in a huge cocktail glass. Seriously. No pictures though. The cabbie was upset when I took one and had to mollify him by showing that I indeed deleted it.
The approach to the EM Bypass / Kalikapur via the Jadavpur PS can also double up as an obstacle course for cars during rush hours. Car sized cracks in the road on both sides of the approach.
The number of government and quasi government vehicles which ferry folks for a fare around the EM Bypass is staggering. I wonder why nothing is ever done about this thing.
The sight of a bus load of shawl clad folks getting off opposite the DLF building and then scurrying across the road in the smog to go to their workplaces is a sight by itself.
The globe on the Technopolis building needs some patch-up. It looks like it is going to fall off the perch in no time.
45+ lac for a 3BHK at New Town seems to be the flavor of the month billboard. A Hiland Project of some sort.
Lots of buildings on the Rajarhat-NewTown connector use 'Nook' (as in Foo Nook) in the name of the complex or, building.
NSCBI (aka Dum Dum) hopefully would be more spruced up once the construction is complete. For now it is the most ill managed, chaotic, un-organized airport.
I don't know why folks become such boors at airports when they have an e-ticket. Got queue jumped by 3 Blackberry wielding folks (all in suits and totally unapologetic when their behavior was pointed out. One of them seemed to be some sort of a fat cat at a Tata Group company) and, a family of 10 (actually a single person jumped the queue and fished out a ticket and that caravan of trolleys) with possibly 50 pieces of luggage all of which they wanted to carry on board.
Same queue jumping when the flight was called. And, guess what ? The same Tata chap did it again. Shameless !
Indigo did not have the fruit cake. I am planning to lodge a complaint now.
The flight was a bit choppy and I have a nice little headache which may flame up into something of a serious one. I hope it doesn't.

On a city that will need to die

2010-12-28T08:24:00.001+05:30

I had to visit Esplanade yesterday. This has been a week of rallies. One after another. And while the Police and general public have been berating the constant use of the "Metro channel" (the area in and around the Metro cinema etc) as the chosen spot for rallies, the organizers have been obtaining permission (from the police) and, arranging for the mass 'protest' and demonstrations.

When we were relatively young and, used to visit the Brigade Grounds and the Maidan for the casual playing of cricket and football, the elders accompanying us used to be averse towards visiting these spots till a week after the big rallies. The reason was practical - rally organization logistics demanded that participants needed to be brought to the city in buses and other vehicles. The basic amenities arranged for included open pit latrines across the various patches of green. The ugly remains of a "successful" rally was there for everyone to see and the very unfortunate to step upon/into. Years have passed by, the scene hasn't changed. And, yesterday, the pavements and lanes of all the connecting pathways between J L Nehru Road and, Red Road were filled up with folks in tents, camped there to await the rally for the next day. And, the unmistakable scene of open-air defecation. Along with the stench. Either the wind wasn't blowing across the river and across the Eden Gardens or, the stench was horrendous.

What will happen to a city that revels in the most stupid way in such display ? Near the CESC office there was an agitation of the contingent workers. Led and organized by CITU. The usual cursory "Zindabad, Zindabad" litany was on when I turned towards the Ayakar Bhaban. When I came out, the crowd was dispersing in various four and three wheelers. And, the ground was red with chewing tobacco spit. That segment of road, hardly 20 feet is actually very well maintained and cleaned. That piece was full of spit - red and god-awful to look at. The wall of the Metro station right near the Peerless Inn is another gallery of chewing tobacco art.

I'm not generally the one who'd berate his city of birth. But, there is a limit till which one can turn a blind eye and keep telling fondly "but oh ! that is so Kolkata". That doesn't work not any more. Simple civic sense seems to have floated out of the brains of the citizenry. I've had a well dressed, well spoken gentleman walk into a shop smoking a cigarette and then arguing that the shop was a public place because it was open to the public ! On a side note, the ladies I've noticed smoking tend to be more careful about not blowing smoke into your face and up your nostrils. Try the stretch between Asiatic Society and, The Park, especially right opposite the ICICI Chowringhee Branch. You'd be hard pressed to see anything other than swirling curls of cigarette smoke and be assaulted on your nose by the astringent smell. It is the same you'd see in auto rickshaws, buses and, taxis.

It amuses me to sometimes hear side conversations about the impending political change. As if things will be wiped out and a happy life would begin. Two things jump out - that the population is frustrated with the incumbent government and desperately hope that a change would be good and, in their eagerness to self-delude themselves about a change being good, they forget that the political actors haven't changed, the equations haven't changed and, that they all originated from the same cesspool of Bengal politics.

Living with a LG P500

2010-12-28T07:26:00.001+05:30

I've been using a LG P500 for a while now. The phone is a couple of firsts for me - a first time shift from being a longtime user of Symbian phones, a first time user of a touch phone and, a first time user of an Android device (this comes with Android 2.2)

The phone specifications can be read at this page and it would be obvious at a first glance that it isn't beefy. I would agree. Games aren't the strong point of the phone. I'm not too particularly fond of games but I gave them a shot just to check how the hardware behaves. There are a few other bits too - the tiny power/screen lock button on the top, the lack of a flash, the latency of the camera between clicking to shoot and actually storing the picture and, the slightly cluttered up application screen. However, these are more than made up for by the balance of the phone. How an instrument feels on the hand is very important to me - this one is snug and evenly balanced and, even though I shifted from the all metal feel of an e71, this one doesn't feel tackily plasticky. I like the interface and, although it took me a while to figure out how to prevent applications running in the background from slurping up data on a GPRS data connection, I blame the sparse manual for that rather than the phone UI. Having heard horror stories about the Android battery life, I was prepared to be disappointed. However, so far, squeezing out 20+ hours on a single charge and full day usage hasn't been too tough. Either I am a lucky sort or, the battery is performing better in the initial stages.

Which brings us to the thing that bothers the hell out of me. I've always maintained that the Ovi Store was a misery. Well, the Android marketplace seems to be a misery of a different sort - too many applications and not enough information about the ratings and what they mean. And, the AppAdvisor provided by LG is equally flawed when suggesting any applications. For the record, the current lot of extra applications I've downloaded and used frequently include the Status.Net application, Amazon Kindle Application (which is much nicer than what I expected and allows me to get ahead with me reading by handling reflows nicely), Evernote, Google Finance, Google Translate, Skype, Opera Mini, Foursquare, TED Mobile (clunky but functional), A Good Reader (I'm not too overjoyed with this but it serves the purpose) and, Mundu IM (a shout-out to the Mundu IM team here - they helped me re-use the same license I had for the Symbian phone). Oh yeah ! I used the Barcode Scanner application for a bit. It is a fun app - doesn't work for everything but works nicely when it does. Google Goggles was fun too (for a day or, so). Coming back, it needs some explanation as how the ratings work and, what it means for the functionality of the application. A quick example could be that SMS Backup works nicely but SMS Backup+ failed to get going. And, the latter is fairly highly rated on the marketplace.

The synchronization with the Google Account(s) is both a plus and a downside. While it allows authentication to be quickly used, the fact that the phone call-in system cannot re-use the Google Contacts to display incoming caller identification and details is a bit of a bore. This has meant that I've had to do away with my workflow of not picking up the call of anyone whose number isn't on my call log and, thereafter keep adding the details in. Either there is some setting I'm missing or, it is supposed to act in this quirky and annoying fashion. The manual doesn't help too.

In two of my recent device purchases I've been tickled funny with the main set of keys - the slider switch in the Kindle (which I still think is the single weakest point of the design) and, the Home/Back keys on the LG-P500. Set on a single sliver of metal, the key has this feeling of running the risk of coming unstuck.

All I need now is the availability of the RSA Soft Token for Android and together with Touchdown I might be able to get more use out of the phone. Bottom-line, it is a decent phone with no big surprises or, achievements. The UI looks more like the stock Android and, it might actually be a good value for money purchase. On a side note, I quite like the keyboard functionality especially when used with XT9 enabled. It learns pretty quickly and suggests fairly accurately. No Indic rendering on the stock browser. Which is a bit of a let-down.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-25T09:21:00.001+05:30

Season's Greetings to all those who swing by the blog and spend time reading whatever I write now and then. It always amazes me that you do find it worth your time. And, I deeply appreciate that act. In that moment when you do read and perhaps comment, you enrich my outlook towards life. And, such a selfish gain obtained by mere peddling of words is too much to let go.

And, to all the authors whose blogs I read daily or, as soon as they publish, I am grateful that you make my day such interesting times. Write on. Please.

Here's wishing that you have a new year full of happiness, self-content, self-belief and satisfaction in knowing that you brought about change.

Some more Kolkata anecdotes

2010-12-24T18:53:00.001+05:30

I am doing a little bit of Park Street sprinkled with a bit of here and there. And hence the vignettes and anecdotes.

The Barista(s) have taken the festive season to increase prices of stuff by Rs 10 and sometimes more. Inflation strikes.
The Barista at Park Street should win some sort of award for pretentious baristas who don't 'listen' at all.
School children who behave boorishly at coffee shops while wearing their uniforms should have their photographs published in some hall of shame kind of board. It is ridiculous that they behave this way and more so because they are indulged by their parents or, guardians accompanying them
The Barista on Hindustan Road is quiet and nice. However, the staff bitch a bit too openly about the management of the outlet :)
The queue of hopefuls outside Flury's today all waiting for a table was worth a photograph. I didn't want to appear the Grinch while doing so. Hence no photographs
The floor staff at Music World called me 'uncle'. All perhaps originating from the fact that I was checking out the turntables (expensive hardware these are though). I've been called an uncle often, but this is probably the first time at a retail store at Kolkata. Very noteworthy.
Oxford Bookstore proves yet again that while the in-store face-lift has worked wonders, the attention to the inventory is getting shoddier by the day.
Folks do not heed the traffic warden near Music World on Park Street and cross nonchalantly into onrushing traffic. A pair of young boys and girls (ie. a pair of couples) did that today and nearly caused a concertina crash. They blithely ignored the stopped cars and crossed over.
The digital meters in the cabs need to be callibrated to show the actual fare. The cab drivers pull out all sorts of awkward charts and tables and only relent when they realize that the passenger is a local.
Which brings me to the funny part that at Kolkata I get responses in English and Hindi and rarely Bengali. I guess I must grow that ponytail :)
Re-tying the hair while waiting to board an auto gets jaw-dropping reactions from middle aged Bengali ladies and, fairly amusing whispered conversations. Amusing because it is hard to stifle a laugh at rampant imagination.
Having a camera is handy. Especially when one takes it out now and then and takes a picture. Shopkeepers seem interested for no good reason.
The buildings I always knew between Rashbehari Avenue Crossing (Kalighat Metro Station) and Basanti Devi College have changed or, are in dire need of facelift.
The street side vendors haven't changed in ages.
The Post Office opposite Priya is as crowded as ever.
Tirthapati Institution seems to have changed the font on the Bengali typeface. It now looks a bit nicer than before.
Starmarks is an awfully confused store. Especially the one at South City. And especially when filled with Bengali ladies who speak with some god-awful accented Bengali. Reminds me of the newsreaders of Star Ananda, whose accents are so different from that on DD that it is sometimes jarring.
Gur/jaggery is available in ingot sized pieces. Amazing scent.
The weather is nice and bearable if one can somehow beat the dust that is stirred up by the sudden gusts.

Books added to the shelf this year

2010-12-24T18:36:00.001+05:30

I was planning to do a top ten books read (by category) and perhaps I'll eventually end up doing it. However, for the moment, here's my bookshelf with sorted by the Date Added (I generally add the books after I've read them, so, that should also indicated Date Read)

The laziest trip to Kolkata

2010-12-23T07:25:00.001+05:30

This would probably qualify as the laziest visit to Kolkata ever. I have simply not done anything much.

Umm... that statement isn't really true. I did fill up an application form for a BSNL Landline on 20-Dec-2010 and by all accounts it seems like that the installation would happen today. As someone who has seen his father run between various telephone offices to get a telephone line and then finally get one under the Own-Your-Telephone scheme and that too with the hefty fees involved with that scheme, this development, if it does happen, should be an unique experience. I also visited the LIC Housing Finance Ltd office on the 21-Dec-2010 to make a part pre-payment of the housing loan for the flat. And, surprisingly enough, that went well too. Not much by way of hassles or, tantrums. Nice and polite interactions along with quick completion of the transaction. So, in all, it appears like two of the big ticket tasks are done. That is the good news.

That I have been lazy enough to not go around tripping is partly a factor of the city being besieged by protest rallies. And not having anyone to go around with. The traffic situation is terrible compared to what I remember. Couple it with the rallies and I already had a taste of having to do a circle around Strand Road to get into Esplanade - that puts anyone off. The only thing which I'd fancy doing is probably going to Tero Parbon and dig into some meal. Eating outside has been totally restricted on this trip - just two trips to Mocambo (I had the most amazing spicy Crab Cheese Balls - recommended) and even those, being a single diner, meant limited food :) Not much by way of eating the "street food" too ! I guess not having friends who have the free time to indulge in my trips are influencing the home bound habits.

Add to that the cultural shock of seeing an avowed and staunch Bengali sweet shop selling pakodas, bhajjis and other oil-fried snacks I associate with the northern part of the country. My quick trip to get some singara was thrown askew at this mindbender. Imagine this. And, imagine this at a staid Sakherbazar ! The Chandi Mela seems to be on in full swing and doing the needful to throw traffic out of whack. The WB Police Personnel are helpless bystanders at the Sakherbazar intersection of Diamond Harbor Road. And, is it me or, have the number of auto-rickshaws plying between Behala Tram Depot/Taratolla and areas beyond Thakurpukur have exponentially multiplied ? I chanced to look at the Behala Chowrasta - Sarsuna etc stand and it does seem that an incredibly large number of new auto rickshaws ply that route.

There's an odd thing that has been happening since the time I've been here. Every day, during late evening, there are innumerable cars passing by with the lusty yet heart-rending cries of the journey of the dead. The intersection is on a route to two crematoriums and as such it makes it a place which these cars pass by. Every evening, there are at least a dozen or so that pass. And, it is somewhat startling. In the midst of life at a traffic intersection - the car carrying the dead wait their turn to pass through and complete the task they have been hired to do.

Winter,cricket and the Maidan

2010-12-22T09:08:00.001+05:30

It is winter at Kolkata. With evening temperatures touching single digits, the colorful and trendy knits are out. The streetside hawkers are in full swing. And, so is cricket on the Maidan.

The other day I was riding a Behala Chowrasta - BBD Bag route minibus and was scheduled to get off near the GPO. A somewhat unforeseen traffic snarl near the Mayo Road crossing allowed me to look outside and there it was - a cricket match was being played. Full formal gear, two umpires, a scorer and even a small drinks cart. Just the way I remembered it. I got off the bus and sneaked to the sidelines. And, since I was probably one of the handful of folks who weren't known to both the teams, barring the peanut seller and the lemonade chap, it was fun watching the bantering and snide remarks that passed back and forth about fielding ability, the inability to judge the rise of a ball on the matting or, general bowling talent. The quality of play wasn't of excellent standard and, it wasn't one of the better middle division teams being fielded. But, with a wind breezing through the huge gaps in the Eden Garden super structure and, the stadium looming in the background, it made for some nice half an hour plus of diversion. The sun was light and that was probably one of the reasons to see a lot of 'keep the scoreboard ticking' shots being played. A new thing I did notice was 'the huddle'. Earlier, the celebration was more sporadic and uncoordinated. It seems that the local teams have made the huddle a part of the ritual of celebrating the wicket. Then there was the gear - the quality of the gear has improved. I don't know how much money flows in through these games but the gear was certainly branded and, kept in decent shape. Or, perhaps it is due to the early stages of the season.

All around the Maidan, there will be various matches that will be played this season. Fortunes and careers will be made and unmade, teams will be reshaped and, the league will keep moving. What is reasonably tragic is that throughout the time I've seen this happen, the matches are generally bereft of an audience. Save for those who peer out into the field from moving vehicles or, those who are stuck at a traffic signal and are jolted by the sweet sound of a cricket ball being smacked by a willow. That "thwack" is good enough to carry across the field and that is possibly what gets the hanger-ons to the sidelines.

Cricket in winter, football in summer - the Maidan provides ample means of sports. And, it goes on irrespective of the political sloganeering happeining half a kilometer away near the Metro Cinema or, the rallies forming around the Strand Road approach. No pictures this time though. I was bit mesmerized with throwback memories to try and get a few pictures. And, come to think about it, what good is a 18-55mm lens when there's is this wide expanse of straw-gold, brown with wisps of green where sportsmen are running around trying to do best what they are good at. I don't really have enough talent to make a narrative out of that kind of a landscape. Probably I'll drop by this weekend and, try to take a few pictures. I guess I should hitch a ride on a tram too.

The upside of it all

2010-12-21T09:00:00.001+05:30

I had a relatively pleasant taxi ride back home on Sunday. By relatively pleasant I mean the lack of traffic, the general end-of-season -ness in the air and, the slightly distracting cool wind that drafted in and out through the windows which allows one to think thoughts in solitude and peace.

And, I thought about the project that we've been undertaking for the past couple of years.

When we did begin to draw up the scope or, vision about what we wanted to achieve it was mostly at the stage of "this should be done because it needs to be done". That is an ideal scratchpad to start with. And, it provided the impetus to go through repeated stages of iterations and prototypes each time enabling us to demonstrate potential if not capabilities. Along the way we played around with software development processes, workflows and the ability to measure our own success against our own remorseless benchmarks. When you don't specifically have anything to measure yourself against, the best possible way is to set a brutal and punishing schedule and hope to hell that you end up doing a stellar job. The trick is that while you are hoping to hell, you work diligently towards building up the nuts and bolts capabilities to indeed end up over-performing. Along side a few catastrophic and comical failures by the side, it did allow us to luxury of getting things done. And, it allowed us a tremendous joy - identifying and hiring what we can probably now say is a good team working in cadence towards getting things pushed out of the door in a remarkably well rounded way.

However, this wasn't what I was thinking about. I was thinking about how we've adopted and evolved the various software development processes to ensure that our work was more visible and much more 'smart'. In the early days it was along the lines of ensuring that we have smaller improvements to show. Now, when things have become a bit more mature and, there is actual consumption of services and tools - it has become imperative to adapt newer ways of achieving the same results - high quality of work with resultant high visibility.

Visibility is a double edged game. It can make you feel like a deer in headlights or, it can make you feel like the one under the spotlight turning in a virtuoso performance. Which is why at each stage there has been debate about the upsides and more importantly how it affects the rhythm within the team. It hasn't been one of the happier moments when cadence was lost or, productivity took a hit. But I'd rather reflect on the wonderful times when things clicked together and came to produce results that were desired and above expectations.

Anyways, the sum total of the rambling so far was to elaborate on the fact that attempting to avoid ruminating excessively on the downsides of an equation and instead focusing on the positives/upsides does lead to a good result.

Which is a good online store for music ?

2010-12-20T09:02:00.001+05:30

Two conditions : it has to be an Indian store and, it cannot be flipkart.com The latter because their inventory is limited and, limited mostly to the modern and movie/filmy stocks. The former because I want to pay in INR at reasonable rates and not a USD -> INR rates.

It seems ridiculously baffling that there isn't a store with a decent catalogue and search mechanism where I can order music. The only reasonably decent store is saregama but whoever designed their store needs to tied down to the chair and made to use it to purchase music in bulk. Additionally, why cannot they think of allowing their APIs to be used (if they have any that is) by nicely designed applications that enable purchase of music ?

The question still remains - where to go online to buy music ?

Kerfuffle at Westside

2010-12-20T05:29:00.001+05:30

Last afternoon/evening was spent in the company of Indranil and Stephanie at the Barista on Park Street. There's nothing much to be said about the outlet except that they should have a method to control the stuffiness of the place if they don't want to switch on the air-conditioning. The excuse that all the ceiling fans are linked to a single switch and hence would cause discomfort just doesn't translate to a good design. The music was loud but at least it allowed a semblance of polite conversation. That was good enough.

What I did find alienating was the behavior of the floor staff of Westside at 22 Camac Street. An elderly gentleman was looking at the rack of jackets. You know the ones with the patch at the elbows. And, turns out that the ones they had on display had some issues with a proper fit or, fall. The on floor staff, when asked to check up the stock for a different size were impudent enough to say that they would actually do so if he was planning to purchase. I don't know the entire history of the interaction between the staff and this gentleman. But sure as hell this isn't a way to treat a customer. Not only do you end up pissing off the immediate customer, you end up creating a bad impression with the customers around and within an ear-shot of this incident. Simply unacceptable and ridiculous.

This inability to read a customer is something I've noticed at the Barista outlet too. The staff was ready to hustle me out of the shop till the time I had to mention that I was expecting company and, they better have some sense to expect more custom. Compare that with the all mushy couple on the other wall (I don't have anything much against them save the heavy PDA within a glass fronted showroom during afternoon) sharing a smoothie for half an hour. Either they regularly share a smoothie and are as permanent as furniture or, the staff were enjoying the show.

There ought to be a better way to train the floor personnel.

Sometimes just taking a journey to chat can make one feel better

2010-12-18T08:04:00.001+05:30

I took a bus ride yesterday. It was that simple. I had somehow forgotten that there was a holiday and had scheduled some works with the government departments. It was a mistake. And, in the end I decided to take a bus ride to meet a friend. I've never used the bus during my earlier visits. The metro-train combination for Madhyamgram was convenient, easy and quick.

This time I took a bus. As is the habit with me I asked the conductor to call out when Madhyamgram Chowmatha (the four-lane intersection) came up. While he happily and with some mirth said that it was 90 minutes away, the co-passenger said that since he would be getting off a stop before it shouldn't be a problem. The WBITDC/JNNURM bus was pretty comfortable. It may have been carrying a lighter load than usual (and, the detour via EM Bypass due to Moulali-Sealdah being closed down for processions) could have contributed. By the looks of it the passengers were a familiar bunch. Perhaps they all travel together like they do in trains. Small talk, banter and snatches of words and phrases not usually heard in the city buses abounded. The day was nice, the journey long and, the window seat was mine. That was probably required to ward off the feelings of being let down by the snag in the scheduling of work - when one has a hard timeline to adhere to, any complications can either be taken in the stride (swalpa adjust maadi) or, just cribbed over. I had ended up doing the latter but half an hour in the bus did away with all the feelings of general unhappiness.

The bus was on time. More importantly, the short journey allowed me to see a bit of suburbia that I haven't had the chance to see in the intervening 6 years. Lot has changed. But then again a whole lot hasn't - read infrastructure (sanitation-sewage), street lights and so forth. And, the walk to dipankar-da's house was made with light trippy steps (as much as my girth would allow). We meet only when I am in town and conversations generally end up being more unstructured than what we have over email. Yesterday was no exception. And, with a wonderful mutton curry and some lovely mellow Earl Grey tea it was time well spent. And, probably because I was a happy camper did the return journey have all the links clicking together like clock-work (managed to snag an earlier train which led to obtaining tickets for the metro right on time and thereafter getting a seat for the entire stretch and, getting comfortably to an auto).

Sometimes just taking a journey to chat can make one feel better.

That not so delicious feeling

2010-12-17T07:22:00.001+05:30

It is one of those things. You know that the good times won't last. You know that things are bubbling but when they do happen you feel bad. The impending going away of delicious takes away a nifty tool. The value was less in one's own bookmarks and perhaps more in the leverage of the network created within delicious and, the ability to search for interesting articles and bookmarks on similar topics. And, the ability to access bookmarks irrespective of the device one is using was just too awesome.

While I export my current bookmarks into an HTML file, I am faced with choices that don't really match up to delicious. Oh what a sadness ! Bloglines, delicious - what's next ?

And, I wonder about Flickr. I really do wonder because it has become integral to my photography workflow. The other choices like SmugMug aren't just there when it comes to (that same thing) - network and learning from the network.

There's always a first time for everything

2010-12-16T20:50:00.001+05:30

But since when did you see a long line up of "firsts" crammed into one single day ? :)

Started off with not being able to recognize the early morning alarm for the flight. Would have probably slept through it had not Runa started mumbling about the alarm.
The Wings Cab was a bit later than usual.
Bumped my head fairly heavily when getting in. I am generally very careful while sliding my massive bulk into a cab. This time around I guess the rush and the queer interior light had me flummoxed. I have a sweet little lump just above my forehead and I guess that is part of the reason of #7
Waltzed through the security check-in etc formalities at the Pune airport. This is a new experience since it is generally a case of "open bags to demonstrate multiple cables, show off the lenses etc"
Saw a group of students (from some institute at Pune) doing a random and chaotic distribution of sweat-shirts. Turns out that the shirts had a funny message.
Figured that the students were on some field trip / excursion to Port Blair. The group sitting behind me had no idea where Port Blair was on the map (there we some murmurs about it near Lakshadweep) or, why they were going there. That was good fun to learn since for all the limited field trips we took part in as a school kid, we did cram up reading about the location.
I slept through most of the flight. That's a first. I never manage to sleep through and through. In fact I missed the food trolley in the first hop.
The flight did not have the "slice of fruit cake" which I like a lot
The "leading lady" (chief cabin attendant) was flustered beyond belief and stuttered through all the announcements. The other cabin crew gamely helped her along. That was wonderful to see
The pre-paid taxi cab line had 85 folks when I joined them.
I decided to book a Kolkata Radio Cab and it was a decent ride if one can waive of the expected price/fare differential. The cab was clean, the driver decent and drove safely
I slept more when I reached home
Kolkata is strangely cold

Quick summary of the Wikipedia-Indic Language Technologies meetup

2010-12-15T08:31:00.001+05:30

First things first. Photographs are here.

Praveen did an awesome job of coordinating logistics and arranging everything for the meetup. I guess that by now he keeps a checklist in his mind and ticks off items with incredible speed.

The downside of having a meet in the office is that one is tempted to sneak in and out and that is precisely what I ended up doing. The only session that I did sit through extensively was the one of Santhosh and Hiran. Discussing the gaps in user experience when accessing Wikipedia and other websites in local languages and even from non standard browsers, they did a nice analysis of the three foundations - display, input and rendering/printing. Additionally, discussing about the status of work that is being done under the umbrella of the Silpa Project it was probably the most interesting conversations that I've sat through in a while. And that was reflected in the conversations initiated by Erik immediately post to this presentation touching upon the need to build a collective that produces useful tools, widgets and APIs that are of immediate consumption to all and, also work across platforms.

The group photograph is here.