October 29, 2010

3G in my Life!

Hi Guys,

The most recent booming technology in our country is the third generation phones or 3G phones. These are phones that are way above their predecessors. The main features include mobile TV, internet and video calls. Though the introduction was very late in India, the huge amount of money that has been put into in the 3G auction has shown that India is a huge market for 3G phones. Despite the high price of 3G phones people are ready to go for it, just because of the technology and ads. Private operators are ready and 3G will be introduced by many service providers in a very short time.

In this post, I’m going to write about my thoughts of having a 3G phone.

Internet on the Go!

I was in my native place during the past one week and was never able to access internet. Just as I came yesterday and opened my mails and social networks, there were huge amount of updates in that. Imagining that I have a 3G phone, I will be able to use Internet on the go. Though we have GPRS now, the speed is very low and it never crosses 20-25 kbps. But, the speed in a 3G phone must be at least 200 kbps, which is nearly the speed of an Indian Broadband connection. So, having 3G phone will mean that there will be no missing mails and updates.

No more missing my favourite TV shows

Though, I’m not a TV freak I still watch certain reality shows continuously. For the past two weeks, I have not been able to watch the shows mainly because I was not in my home most of the time. So, if I had a 3G phone, I would have watched at least half the shows without missing. Not only this, I would be able to know about all the updates as it happens. There would be no remote clashes (though it doesn’t happen directly in my home, its obvious that one’s favourite will not be others). It would lead to a personalized enjoyable environment.

Video Calls

The above said things are just the starters. The main meal of a 3G phone will be the video calls. There are lot of situations when video calls will become handy.

Lot of my relative have been complaining that I never come to their home and they are constantly inviting me to visit their home. Let’s imagine both of us (me and one of my relative) have 3G phones. I can just call them and I can just say, ‘So, why don’t you take me around your house?’ I can see their whole house in the phone screen and this will reduce one promise I have made.

Next, it will be handy to identify a friend in a busy shopping crowd. Next week is Diwali and if you go to shopping now, the street will be full of people. If my friend is already in the street or inside a shop, I can just call him and see where he stands and I can easily identify him. Just imagine how many phone calls we make to identify friends these days.

A constant problem, I have been having with my friends is doubt clearing. They just call me and ask how to solve a problem or ask me to explain how things have been done. It is very difficult to clear doubts over voice. If I have a 3G phone and my friend also has one, I can just ask him to show, where he has the doubt and can easily clear the doubts. Rather than clearing doubts, this will avoid a few word fights between us for the misunderstandings.

Another permanent question by my friends, when they call me uses to be ‘Hey, so what are you doing?’ If I have a 3G phone I can just say ‘Hey Idiot, don’t you have eyes to see what I do now?’ (just for fun) One picture is better than 1000 words. So, video calls will definitely make life better.

All the above said things are just imaginations. These things may or may not happen. But it will definitely take some years for 3G to spread in India.

Happy Reading!!!

P.S: This post has been written for Indiblogger 3G Life Blogger Contest. http://www.indiblogger.in/topic.php?topic=30

October 15, 2010

Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

It’s really great out here with three days gap down the line. Thanks to the poojas and the political parties who have converted a local public meeting into a big word war and in the fear that problems may arise during their meeting on Monday, our college (or the local body) has declared us holiday.

I was thinking of what to write about in my blog. A lot of things came into my mind. I have decided to pen down a few things.

A fanatic of Sachin

On seeing the subtitle, you may wonder who that fanatic is. Well, it’s me. Right from the days I started watching cricket, I’m a big fan of him. I don’t know how I started to follow him, but I remember some of his innings. Actually still now, I don’t like someone the way I like Sachin. Maybe I’m a fan of some celebrities, but am not sort of fanatic. I have passionately followed him. I still remember some of his innings, his two centuries in Sharjah against Australia (I was so young then). Another innings was his double century against Australia in Sydney some 7 years ago. He didn’t hit well in the first three matches, although India managed to do well. But Hayden was still warning the Aussies about Sachin. He was saying Sachin would bounce back any time. In the fourth test, Sachin hit a scintillating knock. It was a double century.

Another innings, I remember is the quick fire 98 against Pakistan in 2003 World cup. Pakistan had hit 272 and my brother was saying India would never win. But Sachin tormented the Pakistan bowlers like anything and India won the match. The way he roared back after the tennis elbow injury was unforgettable. When everyone said, his time was over, he answered to the critics, as usual with his bat. This year, his performance has been fantastic. This season has many unforgettable innings including the 175 against Aussies in a losing ODI, when India hit 347 in reply to their 350. His 200* against SA is the first ever double century in ODI. He continues to impress in tests too. He has a continuous streak of centuries, including the last match winning innings.

I hope his dream of getting a World Cup comes true next year. I think I might have scribbled a lot of things above. I was quite excited and don’t even remember what I wrote (anyway I’m not going to check).

The Three Mistakes of my Life
Recently I read the book ‘The Three Mistakes of my Life’ written by Chetan Bhagat. It’s yet another fantastic novel, portraying the story of a young man named Govind Patel. The novel deals with friendship, cricket, religion, business and love. Just can’t believe how things can change the way a person live. The novel deals with how their lives are changed by the Gujarat Earthquake, the famous Kolkata test in which India won despite the follow on, the twin tower crash and finally the Godhra incident. I don’t really like life stories to the extent I like fiction and thrillers, but this man has been writing superbly. I liked 3 of his 4 novels including this one.

Commonwealth Games

Before starting of Commonwealth games nothing was looking good, but after the games everything is looking good. The way the games were conducted was good. India winning 101 medals and getting second place was even great. Saw a few matches now and then in TV. Particularly, saw the women’s 4*400 relay team. Indians had never achieved greatly in athletics, but they ran the race as if it meant life to them and we had gold. It was one of the best running I have ever seen. Many other stars also performed well. One disappointment was Vijendar Singh missing gold. I expected him to win the gold, but he missed it. Gagan Narang continued from where he left in Melbourne CWG. India losing to Australia 8-0 in Hockey was embarrassing, but it is the first medal of our Hockey team in CWG and it’s great. It’s good to see our Government giving some prize money to the medal winners. It was a fantastic 10 days from October 3 to 14. IT has completely made India proud.

Sad Demise

Last week, one of my college mates passed away, due to bike accident. I don’t know the exact story. It seems that he and his friend were riding to our college in the morning and when he overtook a minibus, another city bus has come in the opposite path they were crushed in the middle. They didn’t suffer severe body injuries, but it was their head which was injured. The rider was uninjured and he took his friend to the hospital and was waiting outside. Suddenly he fainted down and was announced dead. His inside of the head was injured and he has died due to blood clotting. The other boy is still in critical condition and a operation needs to be done in his spinal cord.

Another point is that the demised boy used to be a very safe and sensible rider. He never took risks and still then he died, because of other’s mistakes. If he had put a helmet, he would have escaped. We only realise value of small things, only after we are hit!

Be careful and ride safely!

That’s it for now. See you soon.

Happy Reading!!!

October 8, 2010

My attraction towards Hollywood Movies!

Hi guys,

It has been long since, I wrote last. My UPS crashed out and hence I was not able to use my computer for a long time. I was long thinking of what to write and thought it would be nice to write about my association with Hollywood Movies.

If I remember well, the first time I watched a Hollywood movie was during my 7th standard. It was one fine Saturday afternoon and I returned from school just then. My brother said he was going to an English movie and asked me if I wished to come with him. I happily agreed as I thought it would be nice. The movie was Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report starring Tom Cruise. The narratives were dubbed in Tamil and I was not able to understand the movie until my brother narrated to me in home. Before even I heard the story from him, I had become a fan of Tom Cruise and am still his fan.

After that I watched some 2 or 3 dubbed movies and I’m not sure of the first movie I watched in the original language itself. It was either Independence Day or I, Robot, both starring Will Smith. It was during my 8th standard and by then, I was not able to understand the accent of the English. So my brother would be the translator. After watching a scene, he would pass the movie and explain me the things. Thinking about it now, I think my brother was grateful then, for he used to watch Bollywood movies telecasted every Friday and Saturday night in Doordarshan. Though I never knew Hindi, I would lay right next to him and will be annoying him with explanations of the scenes. Except for a very few times, he would be patient enough to convey me the things.

After this there were a few times when we watched movies together until he finished his college and went to work. I was in my 10th standard then. Then three years went by without much of movies and I after my schooling, we bought a DVD player and my brother used to bring DVDs of many English movies, whenever he comes home.

Initially I used to watch the movies along with the sub titles. During my first year at college, we bought a computer in my home and then I used headset to hear the dialects. It was perfect. Soon I understood their accent without help of sub titles and today I watch movies normally, even without help of headset. Initially I enjoyed only the action movies with lot of special effects in them. Thought those were the only type of Hollywood movies.

But as time went I started to watch Drama movies and came to know about real life experiences. These days I watch a combination of all the genres, but I enjoy Sci-Fi Thrillers the most. Of late I have started to dig the older movies and even started to watch the movies of 60s and 70s. Last week I watched three movies of which I will be writing soon. They are One flew upon the Cuckoo’s nest (1975), Psycho (1960) and Rear Window (1954). Of these the last two are Alfred Hitchcock’s movies.

Of all the movies I have seen, I would consider Extra Terrestrial (E.T.) as the best. It was released in 1982 and is a Steven Spielberg’s film. It’s a touching movie which portrays the relationship between an Alien and a Human Child. I had to wait for a long time to see this movie. At last saw this movie during my first year at college in Television.

Happy Reading!!!