Dânesh Zaki

Madrasapattinam - Quick Review

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:34:36 +0530

Just finished watching Madrasapattinam - a love story set in British times. The movie is about a British lady who loves a “Madrasi” - a native. She is forced to leave him and go back to London due to opposition from her family and India getting independence at the same time - which forms a nicely interwoven backdrop. The lady then returns after 60 years to search for the native hero.

The filming style is like Rang De Basanti, which employs frequent flashbacks to move the story forward. One thing that I would have definitely liked is for more of period Madras/Chennai to be shown. Overall, I liked the movie though I thought it was a bit lengthy.

Pros

Good detail in shots of old Madras (which is why I set out to watch the movie in the first place)
Fast paced

Cons

Slightly lengthy
Less of period Madras shown

Ampa Skywalk Mall - First Visit

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:14:00 +0530

I visited the Ampa Skywalk mall this evening with family and heeding warnings of the poor parking facilities by Sushil and my father, I decided to take an Auto Rickshaw to reach the place.

The mall’s interiors are on par with most major malls in the country. It is spacious and the shops seem well spaced. The escalators are functional but I did not find any elevators. I found the food court large enough and there were about 20 options for food, which is good when compared to other malls in Chennai.

There is also a play area with video games and rides for small kids but it did not seem to be fully developed - lot of stuff was stashed around the corners. Both the food court and the kids play area mandate getting prepaid cards at the counters for use. While I understand the need for it at the play area - swipe and play games/rides, I do not quite accept it for the food. Not every dish is priced evenly and it is a hassle to get the card charged every time since the food is not cheap. In my opinion, the requirement for card use at food outlets should be done away with. I did not visit the theaters in the topmost floor as I am not a movie buff. I might visit them though if some interesting movie shows up.

Overall, my experience at the mall was good and I’d definitely visit again. With Landmark setting up shop soon and, KFC and McDonalds as options for food, not to mention the theaters playing movies, it would be hard to give this mall a miss.

Fear of Failure - Norman Vincent Peale Rescues Me Again!

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:33:14 +0530

I have recently taken a new role at work and have been worrying about not doing well on the job. In the past too, I have had different kinds of worrying and negative thoughts about various things. At that time, my father had given me Norman Vincent Peale’s book “The Power of Positive Thinking” to read. This book helped me a lot. So, this time too, in true Norman Vincent Peale style, I decided to confront the worrying thought and asked myself the question - What would happen I did not do well? These are the answers that came up.

The list of choices that emerged made things clear. Out of the five possible outcomes, only one outcome was to do with me being totally replaced, a 20% chance. All these negative thoughts for a one in a five chance? I decided to stop worrying and get on with the work!

Graph of Life

Wed, 05 May 2010 22:00:00 +0530

The graph above shows how I live my life and compares it with how others do. Clicking on the image will take you to the Flickr page for a larger version of the image. Ionz will build this graph based on your answers to their 9 questions. Around 45,000 people seem to have used this.

Book Review: 2 States - The Story of My Marriage

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:18:00 +0530

2 States: The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat is a love story inspired by his own. I had read Chetan Bhagat’s Three Mistakes of my Life and found it engrossing. Cricket and politics along with a bit of romance had me interested in the first book I read of Chetan Bhagat. After this book, I decided to read 2 States: The Story of My Marriage as it was generating a bit of a hype in the media. The hero in this love story is a Punjabi and the heroine is a Tamilian. They are IIM graduates and want to get married with their parents’ consent. How they get their parents to consent to their wedding forms the rest of the story. The story is engrossing in the middle but starts to wear down on the reader as it progresses. This is noticeable as Chetan tries to cut it short towards the end. The language is easy and has a generous mix of Desi words, which in this case includes Tamil ones as well. As is the case with Chetan’s books, the language includes swear words (including the F word) in English, Hindi and Tamil.

One gets the feeling that the author is a bit biased towards Punjabis and shows his racist tendencies towards Tamilians, often making the Punjabi characters comment on the Tamilians’ skin color. Also, from his interactions/perceptions, the author portrays Tamilians as cold-hearted people; things that I found unpalatable.

The book is strictly one to pass time and not a great literary piece of work. The story is nothing novel and can be summarized as a rehash of the movies Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

A Quick Introduction to Indian TV Serials

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:36:42 +0530

I watch TV when there is Cricket on it or while having my dinner. During dinner, if folks at home watch any serial or program, I refrain from changing the channel. As a result, I get an opportunity to watch serials in bits and pieces. And I have been able to understand the story even if I’ve watched the serial for only a few minutes after missing several episodes, such is the story. I’ve noticed some strange (and interesting) things in TV serials that I wanted to share:

Thanks to Ekta Kapoor, most of the negative roles in serials are portrayed by middle-aged women with heavy makeup and jewelry. The heroines are usually dumb until some major incident happens to the hero and they realize how they had been snoring with their eyes open.

A young, innocent housewife suddenly gets a double who is wicked and wants to knock off people who stand in her way. And I thought serials were supposed to be closer to life. With this kind of a story, this serial has just landed itself into no man’s land. It is neither realistic nor make-believe.

A comedy serial which started well about common, everyday incidents in an average neighborhood seems to have run out of ideas and now thrives only on festivals ranging from Republic Day to Diwali. Even Valentine’s day is not spared. All the cast does is sings (lip syncs) and dances to movie tunes and one guy at the end gives a lecture on how people should enjoy the occasion. This lecture lasts about 10-15 minutes in a serial with a running time of 30 minutes!

A serial on an autistic girl started well with a cute child artiste but lost its charm as soon as the child was replaced with an older one. And more recently, the older child was replaced with a woman who continued to behave like a child wearing stupid clothes and talking trash. Even if this were closer to reality, I am not sure how many people would want to see a grown woman act like a foolish child everyday.

So, is this trash the only thing on TV?

Thankfully no. There seems to be a fairly decent Whodunit serial that is definitely more watchable. Not surprisingly, its ratings have been up too. There have been a few music competitions that bring forth new talent along with high quality musicians and then there are the sports events, movies and songs to watch. So, keep yourselves occupied with these and be careful not to venture into the family serials zone!

PS: All points are in reference to Hindi TV serials as those are the ones popular at home. The title could also have been why I love watching and bashing TV serials :)

Missed Call - Invented in India?

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:31:57 +0530

Missed Call to the uninitiated is a concept where a caller calls the receiver on his mobile phone but disconnects the call before the receiver answers it, resulting in a “Missed Call”. The details of the caller are displayed on the receiver’s phone. Why would one do that? There are several reasons. Though the primary reason for the missed call is to save on calling costs, there are various other reasons too:

On arrival at a place: For instance, “I will give you a missed call when I reach there”. This one is a good time-saver.
Signalling: I saw this when a friend was communicating with his “friend”. Two quick missed calls mean X, three means Y etc. Or a missed call around 8 AM means that you are leaving to the office, around 7 PM means you are back home etc. This worked well for my friend since he was giving missed calls across the globe and saving on ISD costs through his Morse Code like signalling. Other variants in signalling include letting the other party know when a task is complete/reached a state by giving a missed call. All signalling is agreed upon before hand.
Safety: This is similar to the first one, where one gives a missed call to the other party to notify that he/she has reached a place safely. Unlike the first one, this one may not require any follow up on the receiver.

These are some of the common uses of the missed calls that I’ve come across. And I’ve noticed that the missed call usage is more in India than in other countries making me think that this concept might have originated here. Have you come across any other use for a missed call? Is it prevalent in other countries? Please do share in the comments.

Freezelight Magic Forest - Amazing Lighting (via @karthiksetty -...

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:15:25 +0530

Freezelight Magic Forest - Amazing Lighting (via @karthiksetty - karthiksetty.com/tumble)

A Walk in Downtown SFO

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:38:04 +0530

I was in Brisbane, a suburb of SFO last month and took a walk on Powell Street on one of the weekends.

The green tram below reminded me of Kolkata’s trams because it is utilitarian - actually being used by people to move around. The yellow and red ones below seem to be only a tourist attraction, they don’t seem to be used for actual commuting.

Interesting structure of the Contemporary Jewish Museum

The Apple Store

JJ Valaya’s store in the Westfield Mall

Nice looking dome of the Westfield Mall

A boat standing in a Brisbane wharf, a few miles from the SFO airport - not SFO downtown but a nice picture :)

Munnar!

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:10:29 +0530

I visited Munnar, a beautiful hill resort in Kerala, India with family this week. I try to relive the trip in this post.

We started from Chennai by the Alappuzha express around 9 PM and reached Erankulam Junction at 10 AM. The train was an hour late but the pleasant weather and the scenery on the way made sure that we were not too bothered by the delay.

A view from the train

Another view from the train

From Ernakulam station, we took a cab to Munnar - a distance of 160 KM.The drive on the hill is very scenic - some of the shots are right out of a postcard.

Scenic view of a tea estate enroute to the top

There are several tea estates in Munnar; most of them belong to Tata Tea. You will find Kanan Devan mentioned in many places - it is brand owned by Tata Tea.

Many such amazing views greet the traveler

We were able to see three waterfalls on the way up. The water in them seemed clean, thanks to people not bathing in it.

This is my favourite shot of one of the three waterfalls

We visited the “Spice Garden”, an area with a guided tour of the trees and plants that grow in that region.

A bright red flower in the “Spice Garden”

The drive from Ernakulam Junction to Munnar town takes about 4.5 hours. If you spend more time around the waterfalls or clicking snaps, this can go up by over an hour. We stayed in Siena Village, a further 20 km away from Munnar town. The food was good but the service was not so. The USP of this resort in my opinion, is the amazing view that you get from the room.

Clouds can cover the region fast

We also visited the Mattupetty dam - rainwater dam and Echo Point - an area near a lake where if you shout loud enough you might hear an echo (pics not worth posting). We also went on an exciting elephant ride where the elephants trek up a slope!

Fencing at the waterfall to prevent people getting in and dirtying the area

Thanks to our driver I was able to get a long shot of the waterfall

A beautiful shot to round off this post

We returned back to Chennai by the same train, boarding at Ernakulam Junction at 5.20 PM and arriving at 6.20 AM in Chennai. I was not impressed by the Ernakulam junction station as it neither had a good public announcement system nor a clear indication of coach positions from engine. This led us to a minor chaos while boarding the train. But the train stops for over 10 minutes giving people sufficient time to board (we were traveling with a 2 year old infant).

For people planning trips to Munnar, I recommend setting aside 2-3 additional days for the house boat in Alappuzha and visting Thekkady. These are definitely on our agenda for our forthcoming trips.

For now though, we will be revisiting Munnar in our dreams!

Eid Mubarak!

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:55:30 +0530

After 30 days of abstaining from food and carnal desires, it is the hope and prayer of every fasting person that their souls have been cleansed to a certain extent. Eid Ul-Fitr is an occassion that is “earned” by self-conditioning unlike other occassions such as weddings and public holidays that come to happen regardless. For this reason, it gives the Muslims a sense of great satisfaction and joy.

Typical activities during the day of Eid start with visiting the mosque for the early morning prayer, then again for the special prayer and then followed by meeting and embracing of relatives and friends. In India and probably throughout the sub-continent, “Eidi” (money) is given to children by elders, gifts are also exchanged. Friends (both Muslims and non-Muslims) are invited for lunch/dinner and eagerly look forward to the Biryani!

After this, many people choose to spend the evening out or continue visiting relatives and friends. For me though, in the past few Eids that have gone by, a relaxing nap in the afternoon has been the norm.

Here is wishing everyone a happy Eid and God willing, we will have an opportunity next Ramadan again for more introspection and soul cleansing.

Photos courtesy:
Mosque: Flickr stream of Radiant Guy
Biryani: Flickr stream of Pengrin

Tweet Relevancy: The Next Killer Feature For Twitter Clients

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:23:45 +0530

As the number of followers increase, so does the volume of tweets that one sees on his/her Twitter stream. Do all of the tweets matter? How do we know which are the ones that interest us without sifting through the deluge of tweets? I have tried to put together a set of criteria based on which tweets could be presented to the user. The tweets following this criteria may not necessarily be ordered chronologically . The critieria that I have chosen to distinguish tweets are:

Who
What
When
How
Where

Most Relevant Criteria
The most relevant ones among the list above are the Who, What and When. As listed, there can be at least four categories of people with whom a person interacts with (Others can be expanded to office colleagues, relatives, experts etc). Tweets from people in these groups will have a precedence in that order. But it may not be a straight forward decision as the What comes into picture. Tweets could be text statuses or links. And of course spam, though one would not expect known folks to spam, but you never know. So, now it becomes a question of setting the rules: is a tweet with a link from a Close Friend of higher relevance than a text tweet from an acquaintance? These are the rules that one would have leave the user to decide. The client software should provide an option to customize these rules as per the user’s preferences. When a tweet was tweeted is also an important criteria as people are not interested in reading stale news. This should also be part of the rules interface.

What is not Relevant?
I am not looking to much at how or from where the tweet was created. If and when Twitter provides GPS capabilities tightly coupled with tweets, the Where part might get interesting.

Other Criteria
The things that are missing from the list are Hash Tags. Hash tags are a category of their own just like tags in a blog post. These should provide an alternative to the above list of criteria for selecting tweets to read. Also, in general, the criteria should be customizable, as what one user looks for may not be what another does.

As you may have noticed, this post does not cover replies and direct messages. When these are addressed to the user reading the tweets, he/she may put these at a a higher priority than the criteria listed. When replies are addressed to other users whom the current user is following, the tweet will fall under the text-real stuff criteria.

Conclusion
To conclude, we need smarter clients (web/desktop/mobile/other) that provide the ability to set/customize rules in order to make sense of the deluge of tweets that come one’s way. I hope the big ones such as Tweet Deck, Twitterific and maybe the interface for premium Twitter accounts (?) think about this and implement it in their future releases. Till then, keep sifting!

Video

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:35:31 +0530

TrueRoots Ad - Very true!

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:15:34 +0530

TrueRoots Ad - Very true!

Amazing Evian ad!

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:34:10 +0530

Amazing Evian ad!

The Making of Nokia N97

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:01:26 +0530

The Making of Nokia N97

"I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each..."

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:56:31 +0530

““I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!””

- German General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord in Truppenführung, 1933

The Swine Flu Scare

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:15:58 +0530

I always look forward to my journey back home as it usually brings me thoughts about good food, relaxed life and of course family! This time however, I started from Vernon Hills less enthusiastically, with a fear of Swine flu - the disease with symptoms as common as the common flu yet deadly enough to cause death (or so the media would have us believe).

I tried buying a mask to wear on my journey back home but could not get one so stuffed myself with several paper tissues (its a different thing that I never got to use them as much). Two long flights and 24 hours later, I reached home dead tired due to lack of sleep and harassed by the airline over missing baggage. I was checked at the airport for fever and was let go as I did not have any temperature. But after a day, I had mild fever which came and went a couple of times. According to the pamphlets given to me on swine flu, I could develop symptoms within 7 days of arrival, so I decided to do a medical checkup. I called up the Center of Communicable Diseases Hospital to check on where the test needed to be done. The lady attendant answering the phone just asked me when and where I had returned from, what symptoms I had and immediately thought that I had swine flu. She said that I would have to get myself tested at King Institute in Guindy and get admitted in a special ward in the General Hospital. What?! I was not even tested yet and I was already a patient?

I grudgingly started for King Institute mentally picturizing myself in the GH ward along with other patients. On my way, I received a call from my office stating that they had a tie-up with Ranbaxy labs where I could do the test. I felt much better and headed there. My medical test was done and the doctor did a general medical check and advised me not to get carried away with the media hype on swine flu. He said that in most cases with good precautions and nutrition, the patients recovered fairly quickly. By evening, the results of my blood test were out and I was greatly relieved to find out that everything was normal and said out aloud “Poda panni! Jaare Suvvar!” (Tamil & Urdu phrases meaning “Get lost pig!”).

Cool ad by Intel on the “geek rock stars”. Ajay...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:58:56 +0530

Cool ad by Intel on the “geek rock stars”. Ajay Bhatt shown in the ad is not the real guy. The real one is here

Toyota Qualis by DC Chabria

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:04:00 +0530

Never thought that a Toyota Qualis could look this good. DC Chabria does wonders.