Web Log

Darn! it's been sometime,eh. With all the developments in my life I did not have enough time to post anything. And that my friends was an excuse of the basest sort. I mean how many of us use every minute of our day productively? I'd guess none.

So instead of making excuses let me do a good turn. I'm going to list my favorite websites- sites i visit almost daily. They are a queer collection, no doubt, but oh boy, are they inetersting or what!

Online music- www.last.fm

For design- www.thecoolhunter.net

For street fashion- www.the sartorialist.com

For mangas!- www.onemanga.com

For head phone reviews- www. head-fi.org

For Audio equipment reviews- www.stereophile.com

For online movies- www.watch-movies-links.net

For old classics- www.veoh.com

For photography- www.pdnonline.com/www.Japan-photo.info/www.photo.net

Just got the Idea Net Setter EDGE enabled wireless internet device. Besides Idea I checked out the TATA photon, Reliance and Airtel versions too, but settled on Idea.

Bad mistake.

It promises up to 236kbps of speed, but the actual speed I get at my place, which is EDGE enabled, is roughly around 30 kbps. My wired Airtel connection gives me 512 kbps of speed and so the Net setter is around 17 times slower. Predictably enough it makes for a very frustrating experience. Pages take around a minute to load if they have high quality graphics, while streaming sites (Youtube, myspace, last.fm...etc) are out of the question!

I paid 3000rs for the device which came with two months of unlimited usage- pretty good you might think. Well, think twice.
Sample this: at the download speed that I get, 15kbps, it takes around an hour to download a 25mb file!!! And mind you I'm at an EDGE enabled area which supposedly gives the highest speed. In other areas that work on gprs technology the speed is claimed to even climb down to 0.1 kbps! Even a web page requires more bandwidth to load successfully. What's more the device keeps disconnecting on it's own, and shows a strange error called 619 or something.

What makes me angry is that I was promised much more. Unparalleled coverage, good speed, constant connectivity... none of them held out. At around 750 per month it's about the same price as the 256kbps wired airtel unlimited broadband tariff. However, the actual speed is less than half of the Airtel version so it is entirely misleading. Anyway, the whole 'upto' business is in itself very shady. When a network promises you upto 512 kbps expect around 256 kbps or lower most times. My Airtel connection is comparatively better since the usual speed exceeds 400kbps.

Despite having a wired connection it is good to be mobile, especially since devices like netbooks are getting lighter and lighter. With all things considered however, right now the whole wireless thing is just a gimmick in India. Why I say this is because of two reasons.

1. Carriers like Idea who offer unlimited downloads have dismal speed and coverage. Hence, the most you can do is surf web pages and download small files ( <100mb).
2. Others like Reliance and Tata who offer better speeds ( promises 3 mbps but actually works down to 512 kbps in real time usages) do not have unlimited schemes. They apply a cap at 10gbs and charge an extra 2 rs for every extra mb of download. Very pricey when you consider that a typical avi movie has 600 mbs-that's 1200 rs for a movie!!! So what's the use of the better speed?

Thus, wireless internet in India is still either wholly undependable or stratospherically expensive.

I was having a conversation with a Korean friend on the topic of internet speeds and what he told me still has me fuming. The average Korean has access to internet connections with 70-100 mbps speed!!! It takes barely 5 minutes to download an Avi movie! And whats more, they just pay about 1,500 rs per month for unlimited usage! Crazy! Their wireless connections offer constant speeds of upto 10mbps ( real speed unlike the virtual speeds of Indian carriers). You might say so what. But look at it this way- they waste a whole lot lesser time waiting!

Ok, South Korea is the leader in internet connectivity( the US is way behind it), so a comparison between it and India is highly unfair. But the rates of tariff and the quality of services we are getting here in India is still infuriating. If we could just get uninterrupted coverage and around 5 mbps of wired, and 1mbps of wireless speed at reasonable rates, we humble Indian netziens would shut our traps and become wholly docile. But no, that's not about to happen anytime soon because the corporate walas are still minting money with their disgusting infrastructure.

This review of the Idea Netsetter very quickly turned into a tirade against the entire Internet service in India! LOL. Anyway, since life always boils down to choosing the lesser evil, I'd say in retrospect and from current 'OUCH!' experience to look elsewhere besides the Idea Netsetter. Even using your Airtel SIM card with your phone a smodem would be better.

HERE"S TO ME!

I have a crisis at hand.

A clash of interests, so to speak. My parents have always wanted me to become a staid bureaucrat, while I've always wanted to do something that has equal doses of the crazies and the creative. But as the ever dutiful son I tried to walk their way until it all came down a few weeks earlier.

I had been preparing for the UPSC, the biggest civil service exam in India. And truth be told I was not doing such a bad job at it either. However, the seriousness of the situation hit me like a sledge hammer to my guts- it was not just about one exams, or three for that matter, but an entire lifetime!

I thought, and thought and thought... God knows I thought! LOL. And finally I decided that I'd fling all thoughts of consequences to the wind and make a heart wrenching announcement. I was not going to write the exams because that was not what I really wanted.

Needless to say their response was understandable and expected. Alarm, followed by disbelief, followed by a horrible comprehension, and finally a sense of betrayal and utter abandonment. It hurt.

I had found what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a writer- photographer. That was like telling them that I'd decided not to become a respectable and powerful man; instead I'd become someone who does not have steady paychecks and is rather crazy. Ah, the sound of their hearts breaking made me feel like a blood drinking heathen.

That was just my parents. The bandwagon of relatives and friends had not even started yet with their endless pronouncements of doom foretold. But I believe that hearts should not be broken without causes. And once they are you should not go and act the fool by trying to mend them, because they are already broken. Just follow through and believe in your decision and yourself.

My parents are not talking to me properly, yet. And it will take more than a few months for them to even come to terms with my decision, let alone embrace it. But I know pretty well that i play the part of the villain here, and so I'll bear. I for my part am happy that I've finally found the guts to be honest with myself and my parents.

I'm not very good at either writing or photography. But I have very less doubts because I do not feel guilty or self condemning when I write or take pictures. Instead they make me feel contained and expansive all at once. So I have decided that I'll stick with them for good :-)

The reason why I write this personal entry is because I'd like to raise a toast to this new and strange turn that I've found myself at. Hopeful, scared, dreamy eyed and mouth agape. Someday I'll know whether I made the right choice, but no matter what I find, for me this will always be the most honest one that I made.

Cheers!

'ONG BAK II'- A LAME BUCK

This review is about the sequel to the Tony Jaa starring 'Ong Bak 1'. Before I get into the meat let me briefly encapsulate the first one in a few lines.

'Ong Bak 1' was, during its time, arguably the super martial art flick that gave a complex to the other pow fests. Path breaking in its superb stunt choreography it altogether bypassed the wire-fu that Hong Kong movies, a-la- 'crouching tiger...' had made virtually the mainstay of martial arts flicks. The action was superb and tony Jaa's skill beyond belief. Seriously, the pain threshold of the Thais seem to be almost Hashish induced! The plot was a little silly- a simple village man goes to the big bad city in search of a stolen religious artifact, and after much butt kicking and eye gouging he reclaims it.

Yet, despite the weak story link, the movie was an undeniable adrenaline roller coaster ride. To be fair to the cinematographer the scenes were also no Hollywood's poor country cousin quality. So quite deservedly the world sat up and took notice of Tony Jaa's butt kicking skills, and in between painful grimaces the audience quickly proclaimed the arrival of the new Bruce Lee. Way too soon, in my opinion...

THE SEQUEL:
The sequel strangely enough, instead of carrying on from the original, goes back in time! Confounds me but my opinions are hardly the issue here.

The plot is rather sketchy, but in short it's set in the pre-19th century Thailand. The protagonist is a prince whose parents were brutally killed by a rival war lord. After doing the rounds of a slave market he finally ends up in the esteemed company of some ancient day super warriors. The story takes off from there and the predicatble revenge motive soon takes center stage.

My views about the movie... Not even half as good as the first. I know that this will create a huge furor among the die hard dishum, dishum fans, but really way too much going on!

My complaints are three fold;
1. The plot becomes even more debatable than in the first. While I agree that plots have never been the strong point of action movies, there has to be a logical chain of events to allow people to follow it. Just stringing together a series of explosive scenes hardly makes a movie. This movie suffers from this symptom, and how!
2. Tony Jaa is admittedly a great fighter, but he is a through and through Muay Thai stylist. The acrobatic styles he uses in the first movie are from a distinctive branch of Muay Thai known as Muay Boran. He is excellent at it. But for some God forsaken reason in this movie he sets out to be the ancient world MMA fighter. Learn all skills while excelling at none. He tries Kung Fu, Kali, Escrima, Juijutsu, African wrestling... now com'on what the hell! I mean WHAT THE HELL!!!
I'm going to spend some time on this one since I'm passionate about the arts. The art of fighting is much like dance- there is a rhythm, a feel and a passion to it. Just because a person is good at cha cha he cannot expect to be suddenly good at the Fox trot. You need finesse and a fluidity to be convincing. Without it no matter how good you are at another dance you end up as nothing more than a rank amateur in another.

Tony jaa has committed the classic mistake- put too many stuffs into a pretty box, finally making it explode in embarrassing fashion. While he is a master at his art he fails miserably at portraying a convincing all-specialist and weapons master. He should have stuck to his game. But, I guess the man's trying to find his element... Really, some of the fight scenes are quite embarrassing.
3. Finally the directors of the movie ( Tony Jaa was also a co-director) have got it all wrong. They've tried to make the stunts carry the entire weight of the movie; kinda like the horse riding the man in my opinion. All stunts and no substance.

So have I given up on Tony Jaa? Not at all. He is after all just starring in his second major release, and we all know how experience teaches. I mean if you watch some of Jackie Chan's earlier movies, you'd all but die due to disbelief and pure indignation! I say give him another movie to express the sum of all his experiences. And if he's learned anything form his failures we're in for a helluva time:-)

If he has not learned anything, he deserves to be buried among the forgotten one hit wonders, that are far more common than bankable superstars.

LITTLE BALLERINA

Tiny bundle of white clad sadness
swaying to Tchaikovsky in the mirrored hall,
curl those frail arms around yourself
your scars show under the tutu, but never mind,
for this once you're an angel in the skies
just this once become the star of the Russian ballet,
curve you body into the shape of irony
stain the room with your unbridled sorrow- agony,
forget the man who waits at home to hit you
forget the marks on your back from the cruel belt,
My little ballerina in white stretch your arms towards heaven
I can't catch your fall but I'll try to feel them all,
with the music coming to its doomed finale, with the last piano note
she bows her fragile neck and stretches her hand to cradle her legs,
in that unreal pose she stops breathing and wishes it would all end
but she finally stands up and smiles from under her tears,
the world has not stopped moving, she's just a girl with scars
who must go home to the man who waits with cruel smirks, and crueler hands.




A Poem dedicated to all the children who suffer abuse at home. My tears will never reach you but I hope my prayers do. God bless you.

Huthuka Chishi

Picture credit-scenesfromthewild.blogspot

MUSICA DIVINA!

I was thinking to myself a couple of days ago and remarked how music is in such an exciting state currently. I am a product of the 90's( late 90's to be very accurate) and though the music of those times have very nostalgic qualities to them, they were also undeniably in a state of suspension; 'Backstreet Boys' and 'N Sync' ruled the charts for Chrissakes! Without taking away anything from their entertainment value, those were hardly of the same stature as the terrific Art Blackeys and Ella Fitzgeralds of the preceding decades-not by any stretch!

What makes music monumental and what makes it decidedly popcorn entertainment is, I personally think, its originality and genuineness. Music like any other form of expression has a soul and the only way to communicate with the soul is through genuineness. This is the quality that music aficionados clamor for, when modern music is being taken into perspective.

My excitement owes itself to the spying of the same qualities of the great eras in some of the music today. I am going to list out a few of the artists, and mind you keep your prejudiced opinions somewhere else...

1. Lil Wayne- Ha,ha,ha, I can literally hear some of you cuss out loud at that! But seriously I mean it to be no joke because that man is hugely talented! Rap after Biggie and Tu Pac had utterly become a bad joke, but that man in his laughable baggy jeans and with that inimitable smirk is bringing so much freshness into the genre. I know that I may sound audacious but I rank him up there with Tu PAc and Biggie. Can't wait to see what he does in the next few years!

2. Jamie Cullum- Ok, Michael Buble has been doing a very good job of bringing Jazz into the mainstream ( the purists would scream for my blood at the usage of that sacred J word to describe what he does). But he cannot be called original in any sense because he deals with the art of reinvetion. Jamie Cullum on the other hand is amazing for what he is doing- taking the genre associated with old men and tobacco pipes, and imbuing so much coolness that the young can identify with. He will go very far if the world still has its head on the right way:-)

3. Jazmine sullivan- This young girl has a lot going for her. An amazing vocal, great song writing skills and Grammy nominations- and to top it all that enviable quality called 'SOUL'. When I listen to her I can't help but remember the great old ladies like Ella Fitzgeral, Arethra Franklin, Count Bassie. And furthermore, given the fact that she has been in the business just a few years one can only expect her to hone her skills to higher levels.

4. Amy Winehouse- I have had my eyes, and ears, on this one before she became the star, and junkie, she is now. That voice! Ah, pure ecstasy is the only way I can describe it. There are many people with amazing voices but few with the rawness and irreverence that she possesses. I just wish she would get a grip on herself and get back to making music because that's obviously what she excels at.

5. Jason Mraz- He is one cool cat:-) There is not much you can say about his music by way of analysis. The only word I can use to describe his music is 'Honest'. Refreshing and utterly uncaring is what this guy has come to represent in my book of music. It does not hurt that he is a good looking dude too I suppose ( His MYSPACE page has many devoted fans begging to have his children:-)

I would love to write a whole lot more but since this is just a blog page... Anyway to just name a few more- James Morrisson, John West, Adele, Jack White...

In any case the deal's only going to get better, unless music also goes into recession:-( If you have time check these artists out and be glad you have me to introduce you to this luminary company:-) Ciao!