A Tablet For $35? Give Me A Break!
Posted: July 23, 2010 Filed under: India, Internet 2 Comments »I’ve been really excited about Notion Ink’s Adam since the day it was announced and now there are rumours of the company being taken over by Reliance, but that’s not what really made the news yeterday. What’s been making news is Kapil Sibal’s announcement of a $35 tablet. A tablet with a 7-inch touch screen, built-in speakers, wi-fi antenna, 2GB RAM and decent memory for Rs1,750? If that was possible we would have had smartphones selling at that price.
Let’s be honest here, when it comes to production of hardware India is not cheaper than China (as of now) and the only way they can bring down the cost to that level would be by bringing down the quality of materials used. It’s also possible that the stated $35 price-tag is a discounted one. Since the device does not have an option for a sim card (at least no one’s mentioned it yet!) I don’t know what the folks handling PR for the product was smoking the night before!
Good luck with that, great idea, but not practical sorry!
Conditions Apply
Posted: March 15, 2010 Filed under: India, politics, Women | Tags: India, politics, women's reservation bill 4 Comments »Democracy in India: Indians follow representative democracy where elected individuals, who represent the people* rule the country. The representatives form an independent ruling body (for an election period) charged with the responsibility of acting in the people’s* interest
Right to equality in India: The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion*, race*, caste*, sex*, place of birth* or any of them
So what do I think about Women’s Reservation Bill? It’s just politics, they don’t give a shit, they’ll use the law to get more members of their family (mother, sister, sister-in-law, daughter) a seat in the parliament. Family politics rocks!
If you actually thought this bill would help uplift life of women in India, you’re just being a fool.*
*Conditions Apply
26/11 I Will Never Forget the Day
Posted: November 23, 2009 Filed under: India, Media, politics, Religion, Terrorism | Tags: 26/11, India, Kasab, Mumbai, Terrorism 1 Comment »For a small group of people they were ‘heroes’, for us they were terrorists. Their heroes killed our heroes.
Some heroes from the bigscreen became zeros overnight.
The same set of words, pictures and videos were used by media in as many combinations as they could have. But why?
The real criminal — a failed political, and intelligence system — went scot-free, after making a dozen promises.
Tears gave way to anger, to frustration, more frustration and to tears again.
The Earth has come a full cycle, so have we. But we will never forget will we? We shouldn’t, because nothing has changed.
If you're happy and gay, clap your hands
Posted: July 3, 2009 Filed under: India 5 Comments »
(pic credit: Nishant Ratnakar)
I don’t have much to say, just happy that Indian babus have started thinking a little broadmindedly and made it homosexuality legal. Hopefully, they will be a little broadminded with regards to ‘issues’ like religion, caste etc too. Just happy that the taboos are falling, one by one.
Zapak turns political
Posted: April 24, 2009 Filed under: India, politics Leave a comment »What does Zapak got to do with politics? Nothing, would be my answer on any other day but looks like they do help political leaders voice their opinion.
Medianama reports of a microsite for MNS in the Zapak site. The microsite brings in interactivity to their campaign which their site doesn’t offer.
Apart from the “Vote for us“ stuff on the site, it offers a flash game and that flash game is what caught my attention. Why? Because the protagonist of the game wasn’t Shivaji Maharaj, but Tipu Sultan. Hmm Something wrong there isn’t it? Why would a party who thrives on Maharashtrian pride have a game with Tipu Sultan, “Tiger of Mysore” on their page?
I think it is just a ploy to appeal to the Muslims in Maharashtra. the banner on top which showcases all their candidates makes it pretty obvious too.
“The youth and manase join forces for secularism & progress” it says. I have nothing against them being secular, but I do have an issue with desperately trying to be secular. Looks like they have abandoned secularism for the sake of a few votes. Great going. Silently I hope they have abandoned their Maharashtrian chauvinism for good and not just for a few votes!
All that said, the site also shows that our political parties (their web team rather) realise the power and influence interactive games can have on a person. If this game had been developed earlier we could have seen our good ol’ Ad-vani games popping up on zapak and games2win.
That said check out this list of games that can be made around politics, I wrote on my gaming blog.
Maid in Bangalore
Posted: September 25, 2008 Filed under: Bangalore, chupchap, India, People | Tags: Bangalore, indiranagar, koramangala, maid, ubiquity 14 Comments »Yesterday
He: My maid hasn’t come for like ten days now!
She: Mine too. I have a ton of clothes to wash
He: Oh I have a washing machine, so washing is taken care of. I just hate washing dishes and I have to do it these days. That sucks!
She: Hmm I can understand, it’s okay as long as they inform before they disappear.
Today
He: Guess what, my maid turned up today!
She: Woah rilly? Mine too
He: Do all the maids in Bangalore plan and take leave together?
She: No idea, but I gave her a good hearing
He: Oh yeah, me too!
No one asked for their version – yet! But the mystery remains, where did the maids go for ten days? He stays near Indiranagar and she stays at Koramangala. Localities are not even close by. What are the odds of both the maids taking off for ten days and coming back the same day?
PS: I know it’s been a long time since I blogged, I owe it to my laziness and a dental problem I had (more on that later)
Now now… can we have some hybrids!
Posted: June 20, 2008 Filed under: India, Traffic | Tags: Automobile, cars, Electric Vehicles, Energy, Hybrid vehicle, India, Tax, Times of India 15 Comments »Imported cars are a rarity in India thanks to the more than 100 per cent tax that accompanies such products. They will continue to be a rarity if Indian Govt continues to impose such high taxes. But hey I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with Govt charging similar high tax on hybrid cars which have better mileage (by almost 40 per cent) compared to conventional petrol cars.
Honda Toyota launched hybrid version of Civic two days back and it was priced at Rs 21.5 lakh. If not for the taxes, the price would have been around Rs 11 lakh which makes it affordable for more number of people if not all. Isn’t it possible for Govt to reduce taxes for hybrids at least till the start producing such vehicles in India?
None of the automobile companies in India have started manufacturing hybrid vehicles as such; yet excise duty has been slashed to 14 per cent from 24 per cent. So isn’t it logical to allow imported hybrids at lower duty until production of hybrids domestically begins? Shouldn’t Indian Govt be offering incentives to people using hybrid cars? While world over Govts are taking serious steps towards energy conservation why is Indian Govt so lax about it? Why don’t they think about the amount of money they could save if more and more people start using such cars.
As of now the car is affordable only for the rich who, to be honest, won’t be as bothered by the hike as much as a normal Indian.
Its over.. finally!
Posted: June 1, 2008 Filed under: Bangalore, Cricket, India | Tags: 300, Bangalore, Cricket, India, IPL, Kapildev, Mallya, Rajasthan, Royals, Shane, T20, Warne 24 Comments »A Pakistani bowler playing for a team captain by an Australian pulls an Indian bowler from a team captained by the Indian T20 captain and DLF IPL league has its winners — finally.
What a ride it has been! This whole tournament it captured our imagination (so much that I stopped blogging.. hmm okay it wasn’t just because of IPL!)
Now getting back to my ‘actual’ blog
My bet (an actual bet for Rs 300) was on the Rajasthan Royals, underdogs for most part of the tournament except the finals may be. No particular reason but a ‘logic’ which all my friends refuse to call logic. It goes as follows. No one expected India to win the T20 world cup because we were a team of nobody. No big players, no expectations, for respect for the format, nothing! Next thing you know Indians are T20 champions. I found a similarity here. Rajasthan a team with hardly any ‘popular’ players save the charismatic Shane, the most underestimated team of he tournament. Laughing stock of all bloggers and most offline friends of mine and well they return to haunt other teams and laugh at all those who laughed at them. Warne must be enjoying it for sure!
On a lighter note, Bangalore was the only team that lived up to its expectations. They were criticized to be a test team and stuck to the name through out!
Deccan who seemed to be the strongest turned out to be the worst. Mumbai too had a similar story to say but they have the absence of Bhajji and Sachin during various stages to blame their defeat. Kolkatta started with a bang and finished with a kaboom (self-destruct one). Mohali hmm they tried and tried but never looked good enough. They were in news more because of a cry-baby Sreesanth and ‘huggable’ Preity. Chennai would been the champions if not for the Aussie exodus and yes Rajasthan who were expected to lose all matches won almost all. Not fair I say.
Everyones happy not even Dhoni looked sad. The only person crying at the end of the day (apart from Sreesanth that is) is Kapil Dev. Remember him? The guy who led India to their first world cup victory in ’83? The guy who played PR for ICL–what did you say? What’s ICL? Hmm let me think.. Indian Crisis League? Am not sure I don’t remember actually!
PS: In case you didn’t notice Bangalore did have a presence at the finals. The match referee was none other than Javagal Srinath. Saving the face of Bengaluru I guess!
PPS: I heard Mallya is watching only F1 these days to get over the highs lows of IPL. He is also thinking of changing his team’s name to something that doesn’t resemble any of his other brands. At least their brand value won’t be affected!
PPPS: Apparently players are requesting Shah Rukh to send one of these sweet messages he used to send to his team through out the tournament, on a daily basis. Apparently they feel they (the messages) will motivate them to win next year.
PPPPS: The previous two were cooked up by me. If you wanna sue me I will declare bankruptcy. The joke will be on you then! =P
PPPPPS: Yes I copied this funda of PS, PPS, PPPS, PPPPS, PPPPPS from a letter Gandalf writes in Lord of the Rings! Tolkien’s not alive so he can’t sue me! =D
PPPPPPS: Now that reminds me. Remember the Rs 300 I mentioned at the beginning of the post. What do you reckon I do with it? Suggestions pls! 
Pic credit: GULF NEWS and iclinfo.wordpress.com
India’s security compromised?
Posted: February 2, 2008 Filed under: India, Terrorism | Tags: BPO, India, Internet, internet outtage, Terrorism 26 Comments »This post is a continuation of the thought presented by Chacko on the post India’s Internet security at Mutiny.
Why do terrorist attack or at least make plans to attack Mumbai so often? May be because Mumbai is the financial capital of our country! The extremists are under the impression that a bomb can pause a city that never sleeps. They wish to halt the booming Indian economy and want to see our stock market crash more often than windows! None of this ever happened even though they ripped through the soul of the city multiple times in a decade.
The recent turn of events in West Asia aka Middle East, though has exposed a chink in India’s armour. The growth of the Indian economy has a direct relation to the booming BPO industry, which is over dependent on the new medium.
Also check this part from Emily Wax’s report on the incident at Washington Post
”Most of the larger companies know that you have to have multiple layers of the Internet to do business on the world stage. Indian companies have learned their lessons to have backups during past breakdowns,” said Raja Varadarajan, executive vice president of Quatrro, a company that provides technical support to computer users in the United States. “We are talking about millions of dollars and jobs. What we want is to have such a good setup that the only way we find out there was a slowdown is by reading it in the papers the next day.”
Now let me think like a terrorist… I want to hurt the Indian economy… What if I disconnect India from the rest of the world? What if I simply break all those cable passing through India? Wow, that will be fun. They will loose all business links and will loose out billions of dollars in form of losses! WOW that’s fun! Also its easier to carry bombs on open seas than to smuggle them or create them in India! Oh I don’t need bomb all I need is an ship which obviously has an anchor!
Now here is my point. Should we wait for such a terrorist attack or should we create a backup? An internet connectivity with the help of a satellite linking instead of physical optical fibre linking alone? An internet connection which cannot be compromised from forces outside our border?
India's security compromised?
Posted: February 2, 2008 Filed under: India, Terrorism | Tags: BPO, India, Internet, internet outtage, Terrorism 26 Comments »This post is a continuation of the thought presented by Chacko on the post India’s Internet security at Mutiny.
Why do terrorist attack or at least make plans to attack Mumbai so often? May be because Mumbai is the financial capital of our country! The extremists are under the impression that a bomb can pause a city that never sleeps. They wish to halt the booming Indian economy and want to see our stock market crash more often than windows! None of this ever happened even though they ripped through the soul of the city multiple times in a decade.
The recent turn of events in West Asia aka Middle East, though has exposed a chink in India’s armour. The growth of the Indian economy has a direct relation to the booming BPO industry, which is over dependent on the new medium.
Also check this part from Emily Wax’s report on the incident at Washington Post
”Most of the larger companies know that you have to have multiple layers of the Internet to do business on the world stage. Indian companies have learned their lessons to have backups during past breakdowns,” said Raja Varadarajan, executive vice president of Quatrro, a company that provides technical support to computer users in the United States. “We are talking about millions of dollars and jobs. What we want is to have such a good setup that the only way we find out there was a slowdown is by reading it in the papers the next day.”
Now let me think like a terrorist… I want to hurt the Indian economy… What if I disconnect India from the rest of the world? What if I simply break all those cable passing through India? Wow, that will be fun. They will loose all business links and will loose out billions of dollars in form of losses! WOW that’s fun! Also its easier to carry bombs on open seas than to smuggle them or create them in India! Oh I don’t need bomb all I need is an ship which obviously has an anchor!
Now here is my point. Should we wait for such a terrorist attack or should we create a backup? An internet connectivity with the help of a satellite linking instead of physical optical fibre linking alone? An internet connection which cannot be compromised from forces outside our border?
