Why I got my iPhone from Thailand

Got my iPhone 4 today.I am in India and my cousin bought it for me on his visit from Thailand.Paradoxically I am working and staying in US for the past few years.Still i preferred not to buy it in US.Reason being US mobile market is highly screwed by the operators.My reasons to not buy from US were

1)Iphone bought in US is locked and CAN NEVER EVER BE OFFICIALY UNLOCKED, even after contract is over.


2)You have to always , ALL ITS LIFE USE IT WITH A DATA PLAN, even after contract is over.


In US you get a iPhone only thru AT&T. You have to take a 2yr contract.You can pay full amount and go without contract, but you still have to sign up for dataplan to be able to use.Even after contract is over , you can not go without data plan.So basically , officially , as long as you use iPhone, u pay for data plan.

You never get the unlock code to be able to use it with other operators, even after contract is over.If you move outside US , ie for eg India , you still dont get unlock code.They ask you to take service from operator tied up with apple in india , ie Airtel in this case.So your phone , for which you paid full contract , still you cant unlock it officially.

Also Tethering in not enabled in iPhones sold in US.

You can jailbreak your iphone and unlock it , but then with that you dont get software upgrades released by Apple and you have to depend on the cydia guys to provide the upgrade and you run the risk of their upgrade may miss features.

All this restrictions are not from Apple. Its the mobile operators in US. Outside US , like in Thailand, you get Iphone without contract , and officially unlocked and tethering enabled.

So for all this reasons , i didnt get my apple from the land of Apple.
But wherever you get it from , Apple is still Apple and I am relishing it.

A Clarification on my Political loyalty

I wrote a comment on FB
"cost of cwg 70k crore, cost of waiving loans of all farmers in country before last election 50k crore .....if these are priorities of our nation, no wonder we have Maoists fighting for tribals, & farmers commiting suicides ...& the messiah of tribals, farmers , the youth icon prince Rahul gandhi has nothing to say , nor does the PM , nor sonia .... even though all the people associated with games are from congress" 

Clarification:
It was taken as a saffron man opposing congress.NO.Its not like that

Let me clear first what i wanted to highlight by that msg
1)Our nations priorities are wrong...here i want to critize all of us , the people
2)The image of PM,sonia , rahul have been maintained clean and no blame put on them...here i critize the media who are delibratly creating a clean image for them and not putting the blame on people who deserve it.Media should not be biased , even if it means bias towards good...they need to be neutral and let people decide
3)I critise Congress and its leaders.Leaders can not shy away from taking responsibility for wrong deeds done in their organisation.

Leaders must take responsibility:
But beyond above points , i want to say that i would have equally criticized saffron , left or anyone , if they had done this...I am equally opposed to the clean image of Vajpayee that was created and people were fooled with it.. So also i am equally opposed to any Thackeray being called hindu hrudaysamrat or marathihrudaysamrat. All the above leaders cannot be a leader of a organisation of dacoits and call themselves clean.If  Dr Rajendra prasad or Mahatma Gandhi had been in position of these leaders, they would have left the organisation on seeing such corrupt(dacoity) practices around them.Those are men of  high character standards , not the current leaders

My questions:
1)Why should a congress supporter  not oppose anything wrong thats done by its party and never appreciate anything good done by opposition
2)Why should a saffron supporter  never appriciate anything good done by congress and oppose anythingh wrong done by its party

Create Competition:
If we are "once a congress supporter , always a congress supporter" or "once a saffron supporter always a saffron supporter" , then we dont give reason to the parties to compete and improve.For eg since congress supporter never appreciates the excellent grassroots workers of rss and ss , congress never finds a reason to strengthen its own 'congress seva dal' wing.... and since saffron supporters dont criticize their parties for lack of developmental agenda , they never bother to develop one...

People need tell their parties/leaders that they cant take them for granted and every good deed will be appreciated and every bad deed  will be criticized , irrespective of which party/leader it comes from.

Where should the loyalty be:

Raja Shivaji had once arrested a fort sardar for forcibly keeping a village girl in the fort on orders of sambhaji.The sardar said, i just loyally followed orders of sambhaji, whats my fault.Shivaji told him

"Your loyalty should not be towards the king, but towards swaraj...kings will come and go , but swaraj must exist.If anyone goes against principles of swaraj , you should oppose him , even if its me."

In Mahabharat,after the war when bhisma asked krishna why did i suffer this fate? krishna said thats becuase you vowed your loyalty towards the King of Hastinapur and not towards the Nation of Hastinapur.Hence when even though the king was bad , you had to support him and so you suffered with him.

My Loyalty:

On the same lines , i am not loyal to any political party or leader.I am loyal to my nation.Hence i will appriciate/critize  anything/anybody thats good/bad for my country irrespective of whether its white , saffron , blue , green , left , right , center.

Govinda Aala Re Aala

After about 4 yrs I am in mumbai at the time of Govinda festival.Went around to enjoy the fun.First to chembur, saw the govinda at chembur naka.They had even organised lavani dance. Then there was one at chembur station.Came back to seawoods.There were lots of Dahi handi's everywhere.In every five minutes of dirve you could hear govinda music in front of some dahi-handi.Everywhere on the streets where seen trucks full of govinda's.In Nerul , participated in a small dahi handi.When the handi was broken and the curd water fell on me , felt blessed. Enjoyed the day very much.

Some observations

1)There are about 600 dahi handi mandals.Considering each mandal has about 40 people , it makes 24000 people. Thats a huge number of people who practice for months for this one day.

2) Lavni dance performance was seen everywhere.This could be Raj Thackeray effect, but i guess the credit goes more to movie Natarang and its fantastic lavni songs composed by Ajay-Atul.

3) English media seems to give very little coverage to such "Indian" festivals.I think they still think anything "Indian" is down-market and doesn't go well with their brand image. 

4) NCP, ShivSena , Manase and even RPI were seen organising the festival all over the city.BJP and Congress were not seen to be too enthusiastic about this.Same can be observed for ganesh festival , Navratri. I wonder what stops national parties from celebrating local festivals and event.

5) I was able to enjoy as i was on vacation and not working and hence had entire day to participate in the festival.I wonder why cant we have a holiday on all festivals. Agreed we have lot many festivals, but then i still dont think they are too many.The loss to economy would be there, but then whats the point of gains, when we cant enjoy those gains.We kindoff  have a mindset , if west have less holidays, we should also not have more. Also even this loss can be compensated by making sunday working on the weekend on which there is festival off.

We can find ways to enjoy festivals , make them much more bigger, inclusive and socially beneficial if we want to. I think we need to.Till then , Jara Matki Sambhal Brijbala :)

Finished Reading book: Sharad Pawar Aani Mee

Finished reading book , Sharad Pawar Aani Mee by Na Dho Mahanor.

The book review is here.

Actor Atul Kulkarni in one tv debate had said that if all politicians in India were that bad , India would have been a failed state long back , it would not have been on development path.

One Editor of english news channel , i guess it was Rajdeep sardesai, had done a report on baramati, Sharad Pawars contituency. Seeing the development there , he had said since independence if every minister had nurtured his continuency the way leaders of maharastra did, india would have have been a developed country by now.

Sharad Pawar is one such leader who does development along with corruption, and maintains a good balance.Maharashtra is what it is thanks to some great, learned and visionary leaders it got after freedom , starting from Yashwantrao chavan , Vasantdada patil , Vasantrao Naik to Sharad Pawar.Even his opponents have high regards for his work.

It is these stories of him which i heard since childhood , made me read this book.I always believe , before I criticize, I should know both sides of the story as the media just gives one side.Also to be a good citizen , i believe, its my duty to know the polity well. Read my review to know whats inside the book.

School reunion - My surprise

It was so nice to surprise my friends with my sudden presence at the reunion..they were planning the reunion after i came to india..they had no idea I was in india...i too kept it under the wraps , instead told them that i will send a surprise at the reunion ..my friend elvis knew i was in india..so he too built up saying he will send a representative ...no one guessed the relation in both of us planning a surprise..ony deva guessed that elvis might be knowing what surprise i was sending...till the reunion had to make sure i post on facebook only in US hours , my late night US calls helped me keep awake for that.But couldnt post all the pics i had taken since i came , couldnt inform anyone i am here , couldnt update this blog about my india experience..but all this was worth  to pleasantly surprise my friends ...more post on the reunion later (its too late... have to sleep now...)..and now i can roll out my post/pics on my india visit..expect more.

Life in a indian Village - Wax Musuem

Got this pics in a mail from friend Anand.Its a wax museum in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India.It shows various aspects of a typical Indian village life.Check my comments on each pic.This is typically useful for non-Indians who are on visit to India.Once when i was on sightseeing in kerala, at the airport i met a german couple.On talking got to know that they had driven on bike all the way from Mumbai to Kerala and had followed a route from kokan region.Now that is a daring act considering the risk for a foreigner to roam in Indian countryside. I wondered what they liked about India.They said "the village life is so  ancient.People still use bullocks and the farming is still done the way it was done thousands of years ago .We don't see this things in Europe". Indeed our bullock based farming, Navari saree , dhoti and overall village life is much same as the way it was in the days of Mohenjo daro harrapa times.Its only after the industrial revolution that modern era has set in and change is triggered to sell products.Before that life was much more constant and very little changed.Change is not always , all the time constant..sometimes its very slow ..sometimes its very fast.Let me know how you find the pics in comments.
PS:link to museum http://www.siddhagirimuseum.org/

Use cases on why iPad is much better in its category

Today ipad crossed 1 Million sales target in 28days.Even the revolutionary iphone took 74 days to reach it.
Incidently I happened to be in apple store on a day prior and took this pic.Most of that crowd u see in it was on iPad counters.

I was gazing at people around and saw that from oldies to teanagers to kids , all had a a sparkle in their eye when they say ipad and were engrossed in using it.It surely is magical.But Cynics say its initial buzz and will die out.Google's Nexus one had similar buzz here in US.Google infact put its entire web advertising might to create the buzz.But the 74 days results comparison by flurry shows the reality

1 Million pieces dont get sold on buzz.Even after all this lot of people still have cynicism about Ipad.I had same cynicism about iPhone when it was launched 3 yrs back.It took 3 yrs for me to know the value in iphone.Now i can say,its not whether ipad is good or bad , its whether you are good for the ipad.This quote puts it in better way "Palm's CEO says he's never used an iPhone. That's like a 4-year-old saying he's never driven a car. He's just not ready for it " Apples products are at times so revolutionary , many people sometimes take time to grasp its depth.People couldnt just see the use cases and so the cynicism follows.I hence thought of putting some use cases .These cases i got thru just some 30 mins of thought, but the possibilities have no bounds.

1)Hospital: A CA hospital ordered 100 ipads. The use being a doctor can go to every patient with ipad in hand , pull up patients records , punch in prescriptions for nurse , see Xrays on the 10inch touch screen with pinch to zoom .With its small form factor its easy to carry , with battery of 10hrs it can last for entire day withour charging. A laptop can serve the same purpose , but its so inconvinent to carry to every patient.A iphone can be used , but its so incovinient to see X ray records on iphone.Ipad fits in this category perfectly.As Steve puts ,it does somethings far better than the iPhone or the laptop.

2) Portable media player:
   i)Car: It serves well to replace the overhead dvd players in car 

This players need u to carry dvd's , cant have streaming channels, have limited games.iPad far outperforms them.iPad can be strapped to back seat and kids can be kept busy with some cartoons streamed from live tv .Even Adults can watch thier live tv , videos , matches , play games on long trips.Someone even fitted Ipad in the dashboard, so it serves as  good gps device.Yes iphone can do the same thingh , but i doubt you can give it to kids sitting in back seat to remain engaged watching cartoons. Ipad does it much better.

  ii)Kitchen:It also replaces the protable kitchen tv/clock/timer With the right accessories , it can be used as kitchen tv , timer app, receipe demo apps etc.It would far better than any such device in this category as its form factor makes it possible to tug it on fridge or any wall or flat surface on kitchen , rather than a permanent fixture and the apps ecosystem increases its functionality in kitchen domain manyfolds.A iPhone or laptop can also be used, but for this category of use the Ipad is much better

3)Kids Education:

   i)Hand skills: Ipad definately serves a big purpose here.As of now kids use Microsoft's  MS Paint on pc's , play games on it.But with a ipad , they dont have to use mouse and keyboard to paint.They paint with their hands and fingures.They can not do this on PC.iPhone  is more clumsy.iPad is just better at it.Imagine kids drawing on ipad with their own hands,learning musical instruments by touch and 2 kids collaberating.Thats much better.

  ii)Science: Imagine kids check sites like howstuffworks.com .On it they see some machine .They can actually touch and feel the machine , change designs, rotate it to see it inside out.Learnign physics by actually applying touch to change pressure , force , speed and see the difference.Lots of educational games will be designed to make learning  more fun.Of course this can be done on PC,but  doing it  by touching it makes it more intuitive , efficient and engaging for learning.Its more better.

  

  iii)Textbooks:With ipad students dont have to carry textbooks to school.Ipad is a great reading device.They can take with them digital copies of textbooks to school.No weight load on thier backs.They may still take notebooks to take notes , if the entire school is not yet on ipad.But no one stops them from carrying digital textbooks than hard copies.Plus this textbooks , if designed as a app will be more interactive.They will have illustrations in the form of videos, animations,games etc.Ipad will truly bring a revolution in education sector , i believe

4)Book reading:Well kindle definately serves the purpose here.But Ipad is just better.Kindle can just read books.Ipad does much more.Even book reading , Ipad does better.You can download images from books, copy paste any passage to mail , or any application.Kindle books are portable to ipad as well.Iphone can be used but its screen is too small for book reading.For a air flying exec to my many leads and managers in india who have chauffer driven cars and who's travel time up-down office is about 3-4 hrs a day , it definately makes sense.Here again laptop can be used , but imagine pulling out laptop in car backseat or flight to read a book for a hour or two., then shutting it putting it back in is a pain, but on  Ipad its more  better.

5)Digital photo viewer:Ipad can very well serve as digital photo frame.Its elegant look makes it far better than any other in the market.And it has 10hr long battery.Most digital photo frames need a dedicated wired connection.Ipad can be put as photo frame when you are not using it.Its like u keep it in your drawing room.

Come from office , use it to check mail and stuff and put it back as photo frame.When guests are there &  u r attending them and not using Ipad,that time it can serve to be a nice photo frame in drawing room.Its more better than other digital photo frames

6)India Vaction : Also when i have to go to India on a vacation , i have to carry lot of digital photos and want to show to my relatives and friends.Some in villages , and some who are old and not technology savvy and  dont have dvd players with usb port and photo viewers.If i have to show my pics to them , i have to show them on my ipod touch which is clumsy if at a time 4-5 people have to see.I cant carry my laptop to all these places.I can carry a Ipad which is size of a book and has 10hr battery life and bigger screen .Its more better.Also when i move from one place to other place , in all the travelling i can play games , enjoy videos etc.

7)Never miss a match: U never have to miss a sports match.Its 8pm in office and theres a match going on.You can sneak with your collegues for dinner at canteen , watch the match on table and come back to work.Or you are late to reach home in time for match ,watch it in car.Iphone can do this , but Ipad just does it better.Imagine keeping ipad on dinner table in canteen and 4-5 guys watching the match.Or on a important

match day you have to travel somewhere, you can still catch the match on Ipad.Watching match on 10inch screen is better than on iphone.Iphone and laptop can be used , but using Ipad is much better

8)Retail outlets: Ipad has a accesory to read credit cards It can be used by retail outlets to better engage customers.

    i)Starbucks: In one of the survey Starbucks found that their customers wanted it to reduce waiting time in queue..Imagine walking into startbucks and instead of waiting in queue , there is ipad kept where customers can browse and customize order , pay for it and sit at their seat waiting to be called when the coffee is ready.That Ipad at the outlet can also take surveys, flash discounts , or similar engaging stuff

   ii)Barber shop:Imagine barber shop has kept 2 Ipads for customers.During waiting time , they can browse thru a app for hairstyles, select and customise styles or else if nothingh play games to  spend time.Thats a wonderful way to engage with customers.

Now in above two cases sure ipod touch or a laptop can be used.But ipod touch is too small and touch computer is too space consuming , too limited in experience.Ipad does it much better

9)Handbag computer:I had a friend who's mother is a socialite.She told me she wanted to buy a laptop for

her mother which she can carry with her in her handback.She choosed netbook.That was last year.Ipad is product for her.Stylish , elegant  personal computer which fits in handbag.Many people who are not techies , who travel  and use laptop only for videos, games , net browsing , online shopping ,  online social networking etc.For them Ipad is best choice.They dont want to bother about ways of managing applications on laptops and all little techie know-how of nitty grittys. Ipads way of doing it is simple and elegant .U need no computer knowledge.Its that intuitive.Its much better.

10)Creativity at the spur of the moment:Apple has one the best software for creative people who create music, play instruments , create paintings or drawings , create videos, create blogs.Mac is hence more popular among these people.Such people when they need to express their creativity at-the-spur-of-the moment, iPad serves the purpose best

  i)News Reporters/bloggers: When a reporter while outdoors suddenly stumbles on some interesting news event.He can capture it with his phone , take pictures.But to prepare the complete news item he has to go back to his laptop.He cant do it  his phone and he can not be carrying laptop everywhere.But he can do that on a ipad and post it instantly.For eg my first post on this blog was written entirely on iPod touch when i was sitting at Starbucks.But before i could post it , i have to come to my laptop to check the layout and other stuff.I couldn't do it will on iPod touch.Carrying Ipad as a personal diary with you anywhere , can help create blogs , news items online anytime , from anywhere at-the-spur-of-the-moment. iPhone , laptop can be used , but Ipad is much better

 ii)Drawing,musicians , instrument players:They get their inspirations anytime anywhere.With Ipad handy with apps like iLife , Garageband, iMovie, etc they can start improvising on their inspiration at that very moment.Imagine a piano artists gets inspiration for some note , while is outdoors.He can pull out his Ipad, which he is carrying like a personal diary, and start improvising using the piano app .Of course he can do that on iPhone .But using paino app on Ipad is much better.

What cynic say of Ipad, is  same as what they said about when apple introduced iphone , is same as what they said when apple first introduced laptop to the world.But it took time for them to understand its true potential, as Apple was always ahead of time. 

Above i have highlighted Ipad is much better so many times just to stress what Steve Jobs said about Ipad ie "It does not replace iPhone or laptop, but it does certain things far better than iPhone or laptop.Ipad fits in that 3rd category of device." Ipad is for customers who want that 3rd category and are ready to pay $500 for that much better experience and today in just 28 days there are 1 million people have approved of that 3rd category device.I am not in that category yet, but that doesn't mean i hate it..I am just not ready.

Why somethings click ?

Saw Kalyug(2005)  today.Liked the movie.Very few movies are such that i watch it without fast forward or without switching browser to check something. Somehow , dont know why,I kind of end up liking Imraan hashmi movies.I had no idea of this movie.No one told me about it.I was playing this video in car for many times

Liked the video , the song ,  the girl and the intensity .Went ahead to see the movie.And liked the movie.Earlier similarly had seen Zeher songs , liked it , went ahead to see the movie and liked it.

Now this movies are not great movies. I mean , they are not wow ..what a movie kind-of  movies. And i normally dont like most of bollywood movies.But somehow i like movies in which there is Imraan hashmi.They have some intensity.His acting is  not the greatest , but somehow , something clicks with me.I remember , many years back when we were onsite in china , there initial months we had no access to bollywood stuff .In fact no access to anything Indian.No Indian channel in hotel , no internet web movies , not  indian food, even indian people couldnt be seen around anywhere.In those days we had one cd of Imraan hashmi music videos .And i used to see it repeatedly .And i remember , my friend Kevin used to argue what are you seeing again and again , he knows no expressions , no acting etc and for debate sake i would argue with him that he is the next angry young man :) .. But somehow something clicked with me about his videos.Dont know what , the song , music,acting , heroine , song picturisation ..something .

Today before going for some shopping , i was looking into my closet to check what kind of clothes i have and what i need to buy.I noticed 80% of it was from Dockers.They were also the once which were also my favorites.I was surprised as i never cautiously followed that brand.In fact i have no loyalty towards any brand.I went and decided to buy some other brands today. But somehow only dockers could get my fitting , style right.I ended up buying more Dockers.From Sunglasses to sandals everything is Dockers on me :).Its not that i like the brand so i bought it.Its like i happen to like Dockers.They somehow click to my taste.

There are somethings , which just click .Some frequencies just match , some people just click, some brands
just stick to you , and some actors just touch you .Imraan is like that for me.This post is dedicated to Imraan (and to tease Kevin :) ). Kevin you heard it again from me ..after a long time :) ... i cant help it :)  he is the next angry young man :)

God, a smart developer

This post is about thoughts of 2 teenage girls , 2 elder women ,  and how god smartly kept us imperfect.
hope you enjoy :) :


Today at starbucks , in front of me where sitting 2 teenager girls.One black and other Mexican.The black girl was talking about someone who was being racist to her.She was explaining how some actions meant he was being racist , this means this, this is how it should be, this is wrong, why all this has to be like this. I put on ear buds and started to listen to my iPod. Didn't want the negative wibes to spoil my evening. Afterall I had cut short my gym to be there to enjoy the beautiful evening. Having put on my music, I was not able to hear them but could not ignore reading their faces. They were being so typical teenagers. Trying to understand the world, relationships of love and frindships, trying to figure out how it should be , how it should not be , trying to figure out events,personalities ,getting angry, frustrated,emotional and all .

On a other table were sitting two ladies. Age looked like something around 35.They were talking something slowly in low voice. They looked like having a casual talk.As compared to the teenagers they looked so uncurious about world.The maturity had bought understanding of life, a understanding that there will be all sorts of people , all sorts of events , life won't be perfect , everything cannot be right, that we have to accept life the way it is, accept people the way they are , accept things the way they are and try to make your way out of it rather than questioning it and wanting to change it.

These two thoughts on two tables across me. The difference was only because of lack of knowledge . Knowledge which comes over years of expierience.Being a IT guy , i look at it in terms of its data.If the teenagers had same set of data as the elder women on other table, they would have been there seating peacefully enjoying the evening over coffe and I would not have had to put on my iPod and type this blog. Thought if i could do some engineering here.If I could extract the data about acceptability of life  from the elder womens mind and then FTP(transfer) that data into the brains of the teenagers.But then a trade secret among software developers is not to develop the perfect software, as only then there will be need for engineers to fix bugs , maintainces patches , support calls .If they develop perfect software then  the very developer will be out of buisness soon :) . God,the developer of human being,made us imperfect so that when trouble comes we call him for support,fixing issues etc. If we were perfect , we would not need god and  he would have been out of buisness soon.God u r a smart developer, just like me :)