Humanity is dead, Constitution is alive

Imagine a time when there is no humanity is left and all that is left is a big fat book of constitution in all its glory. I really don't understand why so many people keep talking about constitution while the main issue of drug trafficking and prostitution is swept away. They talk about anarchy when the people have some genuine issues and someone is taking an initiative despite police remaining a mute spectator in the fateful midnight.
Several comments against the AAP, made in the newshour show on Timesnow channel seemed to be overly hyped.
Are the leaders interested in making the constitution a success rather than taking society's security and safety seriously? Why are we obsessed with following the rules? What happened to the same law and order and governance when the 2012 delhi gang rape was taken to great heights by the media?
"Anarchy" has been mentioned so many times that the debate itself looked like a competition of english words, with the participants, including the host Arnab Goswami reading out the definition of the term "Anarchy"! All the participants talking against the AAP's representative Ashutosh are doing so out of false concern for the constitution and the legal structure of the government. Since when did a peacefull protest become anarchy, illegal, lawlessness, etc?
There have been a sudden surge in the national pride just because the dharna will disrupt the preparations for the republic day parade. A nation's pride doesnt lie in display of exhibits during the republic day or independence day, but in showing the self respect towards our self. We need to show to the world that we are not a banana republic which is run only by the laws. Of course laws are important for a nation's stability, but out of the box thinking and bold steps are necessary and in fact mandatory during the present times of globalization.

Yesterday was the first time that the debate turned out to be a kind of one-sided affair where the host was hell bent on picking up the minute details of AAP and showing that through a damaged magnifying glass.
Hope today's debate is a well-balanced one!

With love.. Anil

My Review of 1 Nenokkadine:

My review of 1:
It is well known that no psychological-suspense-thriller has succeeded in Telugu, especially any film with a star hero. So below is my analysis of the movie without any spoilers:

1. The hero's introduction as the rock star with the song "who are you" was awesome and makes the crowd wanting for more. The starting credits are also novel and goes with the mysterious theme of the movie.
2. The scene in which Mahesh finds out the phone number based on photos is just too good and the audience has applauded for it.
3. The interval scene creates a new feeling and is certainly a huge asset to the film.
4. When Nazar says: Here comes my golden rice, the shot was amazing, but the next scenes couldn't keep up the tempo as much as it could have been.
5. The climax felt a little stretched because of the boring sequences and not because of the length. When we think over it after the movie gets over, the lengthy climax indeed seems to be required to bring to the point what the hero is exploring for and to show his emotions in the end.
6. The background score is a plus point that goes with the mood of the film. DSP has shown that he can adapt to the requirements of a unique film like this which needs a different treatment.

As seen above, some sequences and elements were completely novel, fresh and deserved a huge applaud for the way they have been planned and set up. But all of those scenes couldn't create the cumulative effect that films like Pokiri and Athadu have created. Both those movies had suspense and twists and had some great scenes which connected well with the remaining part of the film and aided in their huge successes.

The movie is certainly an experiment that might go haywire because of the genre and the lack of punch expected from Mahesh's movies.
Technicalities:
One thing that anyone who feels that Tollywood needs to go on par with Hollywood: Its not just the technical department that needs to excel, but more importantly the way a movie is told and the storytelling ability of the directors that needs to improve. Technical stuff and the graphics will come later and they just compliment the content of a film. For example, Krrish3 has done a marvelous business not because of the graphics, but the content that it had for the audience. Same is the case with Dhoom3 which had a good content in the form of the brother sentiment portrayed by Aamir so well, and some actions scenes
which were well planned. The graphics just added the icing on top the cake in both the movies.1 nenokkadine is much more than just stunts and graphics, so when someone watches 1 nenokkadine, it needs to be watched with an open mind and not just whether it has spectacular graphics like Hollywood.
Need honest promotion:
When a film is promoted, it needs to keep in mind what will be the effect on the people's expectations. If it is promoted heavily by focusing only on action, and if the movie turns out to be a psychological thriller, the public wont be able to digest it. Same has happened to 1. It has been promoted as a complete entertainer during the festive season, which it is not.

Final words: 1 may not be the regular masala film and it does not have the commercial elements to make it a success, but it is a path breaker movie that will be remembered in the future. I had the same feeling after watching Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises as well as Inception.

Postscript:
Disco lights: For the first time in my life, I experienced special disco lights in a theater! Yes while the song "who are you" started in the movie, the theater turned on the disco lights in the ceiling to add to the excitement. Of course this may not be in all theaters but a good value addition nevertheless!

With love.. Anil

Who are you?

The experience of the song from Mahesh Babu starrer-Telugu film "1-Nenokkadine":
The track "Who are you" from the philips bass audio system pumped up my evening yesterday. By the way,
who am I? Will it not be more apt to ask myself who I am not?
I am not cash
I am not tears
I am not anger
I am not body
I am not thought
I am not fame
I am not work
Once I gave some thought to the question, it suddenly seemed to be philosophical. Who am I? No definite answers but there is a kind of realization that the
exploration for an answer to the question is called life. Ever since our birth, we keep exploring and thats when we really live. Continuous exploration of
ourselves is an inseperable part of life's nature which never ends. And when it ends, I feel humanity and life itself ends, because exploration is a part and
parcel of the nature itself. Change is inevitable and change is nothing but exploration of more options to expand life and become a part and finally keep
running a race to dominate the universe. Change is the only thing that is permanent in the universe. The earth keeps rotating as well as revolving across the
sun.
You may think that the sun is stable but even that keeps moving across the galaxy. And the galaxy itself is moving across the universe. And finally the
universe in itself is ever expanding.
If you argue with the earth or sun or galaxy and decide that you want to be at an absolutely fixed point in space. You may even get successful in your effort
and stay at one point but then you will be shattered to pieces due to the relative velocity and the energy that it generates.
So change and exploration is life and stagnation is death.

With love.. Anil

22 Yards, 24 Years

The mist of doubt couldn't block it.
The clouds of adversity didn't slow it.
The hills of injuries couldn't stop it.
The burning sun couldn't crack it.
The thundering lightnings couldn't burn it.
The winds of change couldn't erode it.
The pacy cricket balls couldn't soften it.

Its the determination to excel.
Its the inspiration to drive ahead.
Its the oxygen to live immortal cricket.
Its the endless desire to play.
Its the endless sky of love of the game.
Its the large emerald that never loses its sheen.
Its the living room of cricket's Kohinoor diamond.

Its the 22 yards, 24 years!

Dedicating the above poem to the maestro who ruled cricket for 24 years and his equally best partners in batting: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman.

Many say there is no one better than sachin. True, but lets not ignore the contribution of Rahul, Ganguly and Laxman in Sachin's long journey. I am sure that all of them played like a team and supported each other in times of adversity. In short, I believe Sachin would not have achieved so much and created so many records without the help of his team-mates.

With love.. Anil

The Path Together

The sky opens up to both sun and moon.it witnesses both day and light.so the same way life is also like a sky that shows both sides of the coin.and in that life, when two souls walk together, even though the tastes vary, they both have a similar sense of determination to go ahead by facing the challenges posed by life, circumstances,and society. No matter what happens, we shall overcome the tough times and withhold the respect of everyone. just like we two. Despite the usual differences, there is a deep sense of determination to not get bogged down. the below poem is dedicated to my soul mate on the occasion of our second wedding anniversary. I don't believe in God making match in heaven but there is something greater than it that keeps us bonded in a most unique manner and you have been and will be a crucial part in the life ahead without which there is absolutely nothing. As said by big b in bagban the movie, "tum ho toh hum hain.tum nahi toh kuch nahi.kuch bhi nahin"

There was a rose thats exotic
and a leaf under it thats least exotic.
The thorns between them seem to widen the gulf,
but the flower never leaves the glimpse of her leaf.
One day a priest arrived to pluck the rose,
and the leaf's worry arose.
As each rose branch gets pulled,
the priest's basket of flowers gets filled.
sharp remains the thorn between rose and leaf,
however far they may be.
As the rose gets pulled apart,
the leaf watches his flower depart.
The leaf sheds a tear of dew,
which can be seen only by a few.
"I'll join you" says leaf,
as he sheds it's greenery.
As the rose reaches the foot of the lord's light,
leaf falls to the earth and takes flight.
Wind takes the leaf into temple,
rose's hopes takes one more tremble.
The wind pushed them both like an airline fleet
and all join the service of lord's feet.

With love.. Anil

The Amazing Lunchbox!

Just watched The Lunchbox which was a unique experience. The first thing that strikes us while watching this movie is its simplicity. The script is so well written that we get lost in the worlds of the main characters so easily that we start believing we were also present next to them!
The next thing that strikes us is the natural performance of the actors in the movie! Never do we see the actors in the movie. We only see characters! Before watching the movie, I didn't know any of the actors' names except for Irfan Khan!
I even have a personal liking and admiration for Mumbai city in general, thanks to the 2 years of association I had with it, but this movie took me into the lonely lives of the main characters in this highly urban city.
Its true: In this age of google, fb and twitter, when two unknown people become close friends due to a simple misplacement of a lunchbox(thanks to the dabbawala!), the way they deal with the loneliness in their respective lives echoes the lives of so many people not just in Mumbai, but everywhere in the urban settlements across the nation.
I was expecting a small twist in the end and may be a better climax, but the movie was intended to be open-ended! No doubt it won several prizes in film festivals!.

With love.. Anil

Bollywood movie promotions.

There is a stark difference in the way movies are promoted in the Tollywood and bollywood.
Audio releases are one of the biggest means of promoting a movie.
I dont know why there isnt a single open air function for an audio release function in Bollywood with huge crowds, covered live by top hindi channels like star plus/star gold/sony/max/zee.

If one looks at the movie functions, there are so many of them in South India, especially in Telugu movie industry: Audio Launch, platinum disk, 50-days function, 100-days function, etc. And the range of movies that have such audio functions/promotional events is wide. It spans low-budget movies, medium and high budget movies.
If there is one such event that was telecast live in Bollywood, you are welcome to share it!

With love.. Anil

Chromecast: The beginning of an entertainment revolution?

Bringing TV closer to digital devices and interconnecting them is not an easy task.
Google seems to have solved this puzzle in a way that caught the attention of the gadget world!
No doubt there are many similar devices that do what Chromecast does, but the sheer price of this small device makes it worth.
There are so many ways that it can be used:
1. Watch online videos on Youtube, Netflix, etc. More apps coming soon to the party.
2. Share anything through phones/tablets/laptops/desktops. Through Chrome web app, we can display any Chrome tab on our TV.
3. Not just any tab, an experimental feature makes it possible to display the whole desktop on TV.
4. Play phone's local files on TV.

With love.. Anil

Compassion..

These days the relationships have gone virtual online and people believe that money is everything.
But there is a side to any relation, be it friends or family that cannot be complete without interacting with others in-person. Compassion cannot be gained by just donating money. Donating money to the poor and needy or orphans may only help bring some satisfaction to ourselves, but a true compassion will be experienced only when we contact the downtrodden in person and spread love and positive energy in them.

One such idea is celebrating special events with an orphanage. I came across an orphanage in Bangalore while browsing online and that is called Abhaya Ashram.
One can spend a lot by donating them online but as important to it is to build such a relationship with them where they dont feel alone and participate in such activities which can put a smile on children's faces.

It could be a simple sweets-distribution or books or essentials like blankets, dresses, etc and make a long-lasting friendship with them. Taking the young ones along-with you can be doubly good as your kids will ingle with all the children and get a compassionate approach towards children irrespective of religion, status, language, etc. Many times we hear small children quarreling based on their status in the society or people making fun of orphans. For this to stop, children should be sensitized right from the beginning by taking them to the downtrodden and making them mingle with other children.

With love.. Anil

Make Android even more amazing!(part-2)

Continuing the post about Android, and smart phones in general, I would like to see the following features in a smart phone and in a free open source OS like android. I am concentrating mostly on the hardware side:

1. Smart phones should actually work smart by having more sensors:
For eg., they can have temperature sensor and water/moisture sensor so that the phone can adjust itself and let the user know that it is warm/chilly/humid outside. As we know, humidity is when water content is high in the atmosphere and the smartphone should be able to detect this as tell us if it is going to rain soon or not. It can even tell us if we are sweating based on the humidity/water content around it! The latest Samsung S4 already has a temperature and pressure sensor, so it is very much possible to bring it in all phones, build a whole new level of API(software) around it and integrate it within android's next major version!

2. Proactive activities like warming up when it is chilly outside!
Imagine this: Your smartphone warms itself to keep you warm! This can be done by having a small heater inside. Even better, it would be fantastic if there is an air-blower that tries to either blow cool air or hot air depending on the surroundings and your preferences! So you have your personal weather control device in your hands! If it is too hot outside, it tries to keep you cool by becoming a portable air conditioner. If it is too chilly outside, it tries to warm you up by blowing warm air!

3. Make smartphones check your health!
A sensor that they can integrate is a health sensor that can accurately check your heartbeat and blood quality, which are two of the most important parameters for a person's health. We already have devices checking diabetes and it shouldn't be difficult to advance it to include many other parameters to do a complete blood test inside the device, and integrate it within a smartphone! If this happens, the retired Google Health service may come back!

4. UV scanner and 3D radar
Imagine there is complete darkness around you and your smartphone automatically sensing a soft, warm, organic object moving towards you! This can be done by having your phone see in the darkness using UV and 3D radar similar to those found in some jets for night vision. The technology is very much there, and it just needs to be put into a smaller form and fit inside a slim Nexus phone! the applications for this feature can be unlimited!

With love.. Anil

A touching poem...

Just read a tribute of love in today's Deccan Herald(15 Mar 2013). Just felt like sharing with everyone.

Those we love dont go away
they walk beside us every day
Unseen, unheard, but always near
Still loved, still missed and very dear

Always a smile
Thoughtful beyond measure
He left us a memory
We are so proud to treasure

He has gone across the river
To the shore of evergreen
And we long to see his dear face
But the river flows between
Someday, sometime we shall see
The face we loved so well
Someday we ll clasp his hand
And never say farewell


With love.. Anil

Make Android even more amazing!

First things first.. This isnt an article to praise android nor am I a hardcore fan of android, but a happy android user and a technically curious one at that! So I like android not just because of Google, or the universality of the OS, but because of the trust, reliability, simplicity and the customizability that it gives me.
So this article is about what I dream about in android, which may become a reality in near future!.
This is with an intention to make android even better!

1. So, first thing is a concept called "Customization Center" where you can completely customize your phone from the default version that you get. This has been rumored to be coming in 4.2, but alas, it didnt.
It should have one option to set the software of the phone to stock android version(Google Nexus) and another to set to the OEM's version(Sony's Timescape ui, Samsung's Touchwiz, HTC's Sense, etc) your own launcher.
Basically this is perfect if you want a stock android experience on your phone, that is fast and simple. A nexus like experience which gets the latest updates directly from Google! Of course this isnt just about the UI, its also about software the way Nexus devices handle. We know every manufacturer has their own drivers, so those drivers need to be optimized to be used with Nexus software.

2. Option to backup and sync complete settings and data of apps: This is perhaps a very interesting and usefull feature. Imagine that you are on android 4.0, playing the angry birds 15th level, and somehow you get an update to 4.1 or 4.2 and update to it. You will get back the game app due to the sync and thats fine. But will you play all the 14 levels to get back to where you were? The real complete restore will be to upgrade to 4.2 nd start Angry Birds on the level you were previously in! You can even play 14 levels on your Xperia J and play the 15th level on your Nexus 7 immediately! Thats the perfect sync and storing all the app data in the cloud!

3. New android update to older phones with lite versions of latest features.
Imagine a phone running Android Eclair(2.1) having the Google Now feature in a lite version thats light on phone resources! Why dont Google give a surprise to owners of older phones by giving such small goodies like Google Now Lite, Chrome Mini and bug fixes or security updates? I know it is wishfull thinking, but it makes older phone owners feel good and improve the brand image, showing that Google doesnt forget older phones.


With love.. Anil

Observation about Sony mobiles...

Sony need to resolve some crucial issues:
1. Latest OS/support updates
2. Near-future-proof hardware to match the future software updates, and
3. Consistent developer support to all its older phones.
When most phone makers have dual-core androids, they got stuck with single core(till xperia arc, by when galaxy s2,droid razr, etc were going great guns). In fact, the absence of a dual core processor on a top-end phone like this was one of the negative points of this beautiful and feature-rich phone(both xperia arc and xperia arc s)! But Sony need to anticipate the future android releases and estimate the hardware requirements for them, and implement those elements in their phones so that
they can update the version easily without any problem/undue delay.


With love.. Anil

Music of "Life is beautiful"- an oasis in a desert..

Shekhar Kammula's upcoming movie "Life is beautiful"'s music was...well no words to justify or match its brilliance, or should I say freshness, melody, heart touching tunes, lyrics, etc! In fact it has everything that makes an oscar/grammy-deserving original soundtrack(Of course I dont consider Oscar/grammy to be the only measuring scale of one's brilliance)! No offense to other music directors/directors, but this album looks like a cool oasis in a desert full of item songs and loud songs that seem to break your head apart!
I personally hate item songs which seem to be a cheap trick to lure public to the theatres. But the audience has always opted for a better story/script and this was proved many times. Songs like sheela, chikni chameli, kolaveri alone cannot bring success to the movie. Eega's "nene naanine" was my favorite melody. That was till now!
My analysis of my favorite tracks in this beautiful album. All are melodious, true to Shekhar's nature and style, but some of them left me stunned:
1. Amma Ani Kottagaa: This isnt just a song. Its an emotional trip down the memories most of us have with our mother! In this mechanical world where we toil to earn every rupee and are getting isolated from the mother's pure love, this song made my eyes go moist each time it came in my playlist. The depth of lyrics is amazing and I havent seen such soft, smooth, lovely tunes, voice and lyrics in a long time!
It reminds us of the song "yeh jo desh hai tera" from Ashutosh Gowarikar's "Swades" but it touches the heart more due to the lyrics and a background score that acts like a massage on our crap-stressed out ears! Its almost like a cool refreshment after a hard day's work under the sun!
This song has lots of scope in its picturisation and I cant wait to see Shekhar's treatment of this song. It can, for instance, capture the moments when a person reembers the playful times he had with his mother when he was a baby or when the mother protects him in some way or the other. It has a kind of desperate, apologetic, immersive mood which may mean that someone is guilty of hurting his/her mother or may have lost her forever when he says "amma...nuvvu kaavale ammaa. bangaaram nuvvammaa..". Lyrics are so simple, clear and brilliant that anyone can get them! No background noise to distract you! Nice and clean.
2. Beautiful Girl: This reminds us of "arere arere" of Shekhar's biggest blockbuster "happy days". And even the voice of Karthik sounded similar to the "arere" song! It even seems to match so perfectly with "arere" that it may well have been in the place of "arere" in Happy Days!
3. Its Your Love: The lyrics are the strength of this song that never cease to excite you and the chorus makes it even more enjoyable!
I got the original album yesterday evening, put it in my cute little Sony Xperia X10 mini, adjusted the custom equalizer, and I cant believe that I have already listened to the whole album 5 times(6 times by the time I publish this post), and many more to come!


With love.. Anil

The Power of Sympathy!

Sympathy: The power full emotional factor that can change, create or destroy the fates of so many people!
Take for example the tale of Karn of Mahaabhaarath. He promised his mom that he would kill none of the Pandavas except Arjun. This is only due to the sympathy that the widow Kunti generated by revealing that she is Karn's mother and the sensitive heart that he had melted before her tactics. This has turned to be one of the most important moments in Mahaabhaarath. Fantastic.. isnt it??
Coming to today's world, the same logic applies, though now it is on a larger scale. Not one, two, three, but lakhs of people are being lured into this business of tears: Show them your tears, get their sympathy. And this sympathy often turns into votes that are invaluable to any political party!
One of the best depictions of this phenomenon has been shown in the Telugu movie "Rangam"('Ko' in tamil) where a newly formed youth party wins the elections due to the sympathy generated due to a bomb attack on them that killed so many of them.
In the real world, this effect is even more prominent whether it is at the state level or the national level. Of course at the national level, the effect is much more complex due to the innumerable local parties involved, but the effect is nonetheless very significant, even in non-political issues like women rights.
When a woman is shown as crying, people sympathize with her with no second thought. People fail to think about the other side of the story behind her tears and blindly consider her as a victim and the male as the culprit. Lets take the issue of women going to pubs. They surely have the right to go anywhere they want to go with whomever they want, but how can they be considered to be innocent just by some tears rolling down their cheeks? Don't we have the basic duty to treat the culprits as "accused" and not "guilty" till the judgement has arrived or till a proof has come out in public??
Freedom doesnt mean wearing whatever dress you want, do whatever you want to do or go wherever you want to go. If that is the definition of freedom, then birds and microorganisms have it more than any human.
Of course teens do have their right to education, style, financial freedom, etc, but when it comes to social responsibility that's always an important factor that comes with freedom, how many of them really realize that some of their actions can effect the society? If they have the freedom to wear a micro skirt or a short to a party, they also have the duty to self protect themselves from lusty eyes, no matter where they go.
Even if they go to a temple, there will be anti-social elements awaiting at the temple entrance to snatch away whatever they get: whether it is gold, money, or the girl herself. So if the modern girls really feel that they are more powerful and evolved into smart beings than previous generations, they should show it in their actions during crisis. Don't they know of the weaknesses of any attacker whether it is male or female?
The recent furore in the social world over some tweets of Kiran Bedi is the most unwanted stupidity ever seen where so many people started abusing and criticizing her by misunderstanding what she meant and purely going with some video on the internet that went viral due to the media regarding a girl being molested in public in Guwahati(Assam, India). Yes, the offenders need to be brought before the law, yes they need to be taken into custody and given punishment, but what happened to the senses of the so called celebrities? Dont they unserstand that pubs do have an atmosphere of hooliganism? Dont they know that pubs and high society people also commit crimes, whether it is inside pubs or outside them? Why are they supporting the pubs and trashing Kiran Bedi for saying that pubs are breeding grounds of hooliganism?("Pubs attract hooliganism and violence just as holy places attract peace and devotion! Its in the nature of environment!"; "Pubs breed lust, holy places reduce it (ofcourse exceptions exist!)")
Crucial points to be noted:
1. She never said "all the pubs" or "all the temples"
2. She has even mentioned that exceptions do exist.
3. She also has a valid point when she said: "Parents+Teachers+Employers?of Gauhati molestation case must be met with to find out what was wrong with these men/boys?"
There must be some reason why they attacked the girl in the first place. Of course taking law into their own hands is wrong, for which they deserve punishment, but without going to the root of the issue, how can we go ahead in the society?
For example, do we know the reason why Shah Rukh Khan behaved in an abusive manner during an IPL match recently? And what was the response when his team won the IPL and he just escaped with a much delayed apology? So many incidents of violence has been reported and even witnessed at rave parties, but still the people feel that pubs/alcoholic parties don't attract lust/hooliganism? Why? Because of the sympathy that they have towards "their stars", "their pubs" and the whole system that allows them to enjoy without any amount of guilt.

This is the extent to which humans can leave their senses and instead depend on the sympathy factor while judging things happening in the society.

.. Anil

One forgotten crazy poem..

After being in cold storage for more than 7 years in an old book stuffed into a rack,
for some reason I felt like putting this crazy poem out, written during 4mar2005-8mar2005:

The eyes yearn to see
but never a quark of light bother to spark a bit.
Looks like a breathing space,
but closer up proves to be
a dreaded asphyxiation
Intense thoughts flood the mind,
and leave deep gorges of despair behind.
As we try to recover,
bitter past rises up like a deadly phoenix.
At a distance I could sense
the sweetness of a beehive but
closer, its seldom melliferous.
Churning of a large melange
of ideas only result in fiery devils of failure.
The destiny seems to lie
in a cacophony of the infinite loop of utter confusion.
Hardly esoteric is the
thorny path of rescipisense from the runnel path,
Strewn with sharpest of spines,
strewn with deepest of ditches,
We can see the way ahead.
Then came the calefacient breeze
from the ecumenical spirit.
The first wave of ultimate grace gushed in,
encased with the non-ephemeral
power of a supernova in a silent serenity.
The lucent veracity of this lane pulled everything in,
and all the obstacles were a meldot
before the vast lucency of wisdom.
The real melieu is welcoming all,
about to sprint with zeal,
prepared to be embedded in eternity,
jumped into the all pervasive spirit,
indicating the beginning of true "we",
away from the miasma of the unreal,
away from the multitudinous mortals,
away from the ubits of temporary pleasure,
embellished with gems of brightest hope,
that was THE GENESIS of life!

The above lines could make an abstract idea for a movie I ve always dreamt about that deals with the fight of a person against all odds to come up trumps with great energy!

With love.. Anil

A day with htc rhyme...

Any change from the routine will take some time to get used to. Same thing has happpened to me on tuesday when I spent a day without my xperia and had the chance to test and load the new htc rhyme with some apps.
At first look, the rhyme looks beautiful. The phone feels solid when holding and makes us feel good. Even the xperia x10 mini has a very good design for a phone of its size, and htc has done a good job of fitting all the features in a thin frame, but the user interface (of htc sense 3.5 skin over android 2.3.5) looks little confusing initially. The Xperia on the other hand felt very easy to use with shortcuts at the right places and despite its size, they have managed to create a fantastic and practical UI. No wonder they have won the european design prize when it was launched in 2010. HTC Rhyme on the other hand has a very different UI, which can be modified by using external launchers like Go Launcher.
Changing from a 2.55 inch screen to a 3.7 inch screen will not be so seamless. I miss the comfort of controlling the complete phone with just one hand and others wouldnt even know that I have a phone in my palms! It can easily be hidden from others! Anyway, having a large screen phone will have these adjustments to be made initially, but later on we get accustomed to it.
On the user interface front, I just hope HTC Sense is a bit clearer and straight forward. There was no lag because of the Sense UI, but accessing and creating some important shortcuts was not easy. On the xperia, it was so easy, all I had to do is add a widget to the home screen and just touch the icons. Forexample, its just one touch to change the phone to vibrating to silent mode, thanks to a very useful power control widget. But this is not so easy on the HTC Rhyme. Anyway, this can be changed by using GO Launcher or some other launchers.

And regarding the options before I finalized on HTC Rhyme, I had a look at the Sony Xperia U as a potential alternative, but it misses some key features that I need: no expandable memory. Talking about sony phones, I really dont understand why dont sony use its successfull brands like Walkman, playstation, cybershot all in one single device! It would be a fantastic phone if it can give the complete experience of sony's technologies within a reasonable and justified price. Another complaint is about the updates which were a case of too less and too late. My Xperia 10 mini is unfortunately stuck on 2.1 and I dont think 2.3 would be posible for a phone with 800MHz, and 128MB internal memory. Other phones like galaxy y which have similar features received 2.3 update long back and they do work well.
May be its got to do with the heavy skin of sony ericcson(Timescape UI, etc..).

With love.. Anil

Creative Kit: Enhancements at your tips!

Today, I have used the Creative Kit feature of Google Plus to great effect. Though I knew about this feature a few months back, its only today that the complete features of this online tool came to the fore!
Basically, using this tool, you can add really nice little edits, effects, decorations and text to your images!
The best part of it is that you don't need to download anything to do all this editing! So for those who feel that they don't have Photoshop to touch up the photos, they can check out this tool!
And the performance is also very smooth with not much waiting. This brings to the fore the complete strengths of HTML5 and javascript. Amazing!

With love.. Anil

Drenched...(memories of 2007 rains!)

Recently two days back there was a gentle rain in Bangalore and I was travelling at that time. In the fresh scent of earth, it brought back the memories of the rain in Mumbai in 2007 and the poem I wrote then! Here is that poem:

Drenched...

A billion drops of a dream in each,
Countless thunders of roaring desires,
Infinite energy of gushing streams,
Titillating music of splashing water drops,
Drenched I was in all the above.

In the genesis of invigorating scent of earth,
of melliferous feel of nature's spa,
of swinging in a spell of scenic beauty,
of getting lost in a flood of eternal serenity,
Drenched, I was...

Chilling winds that can even soften a martinet,
Lightening that mocks a photoshoot by rain God,
A melange of elements so pure and spontaneous...
I was drenched in all the above...

Streamed live from heaven's height,
The show did take a temporary break,
But the extravaganza still continues to haunt.
Yes, got drenched, got inspired!!!

Anil Reddy

A Narnian Morning!

This morning, after a walk, I watched Narnia(part1), that never stops amusing me! It takes us to another dream world that everyone can enjoy! For me, nothing can match watching a Narnia or a Lord of Rings or a Spiderman or an Avatar on a projector with 5000:1 contrast ratio with sony or a bose home theater system! That has been and remains one of the things I desire for!
Another movie that made my day was "superman returns" whose action scenes are incredible even after watching several times!

With love.. Anil