Please note that this is a collection of incoherent thoughts and may not make a lot of sense.
It was 11 and I was in Vashi (about 60 KMs from the South Mumbai) playing Counter-Strike when I first heard about terror strikes in Mumbai. A friend’s mom called up and said there was fire at CST and if we were ok. We did not take things seriously that time and went about our work. But when we started getting non-stop phone calls, we realized something was wrong. Left the game midway to rush to the nearest television screen (@McDonalds) and saw live footage from CST and Taj. We realized that it was as planned terrorist attack and there were lot of casualties (127 reported dead till last count) including the ATS chief, Hemant Karkare. The indiscriminate firing at CST and hostage situations at Taj and Oberoi came as a shock. I had never imagined that something like that could strike us.
First thoughts were “damn it, yet another attack on India”. First reactions were of indifference. First thing we did was called everyone in Mumbai and enquired about their safety. Once we realized things were ok with our kith and kin, we went back to our game. I did what a typical Indian would have done – ensured personal health and safety. I also did yet another typical Indian thing – I ignored it and decided that, like everything else, it will be ok soon. And like any other Indian, we had an opinion on things. We had no clue what the ground realities there were. We dint know what the situation asks for. But we had an opinion. An opinion that would not have helped. We commented on people and their follies. The very act of writing this piece of text is giving away an opinion.
Not for a minute I felt sympathy for people who have suffered. We celebrated a holiday. We made plans for going to Matheran or some place. We played Counter-Strike. Were we being irresponsible? Were we being selfish? Was everyone else in India feeling like that? Most probably no. But then again, you never no.
More I think about it, more disgusted I get. These terrorists are no different from what I and most of my friends are. 25 somethings, fond of good things, ambitious and optimistic about future. Where is it then, that these guys decided that they want to kill innocent civilians? What brainwashes these people that they suddenly are ready to die? And for what reason? What cause? And is killing innocent people part of the solution? I am strong believer in power of conversations. Why cant we sit and talk and resolve whatever these guys have in mind. If they say that they are doing it for love of god, someone needs to tell them God never preaches killing. Not of the innocent for sure. I would love to meet one someday and understand what makes them do such extreme things. What rush do they get out of it?
Investigation into the reasons would for sure prove futile. There were reports that terrorsits were singling out American, British and Israeli citizens at hotels. Was it thus an attack on foreigners in India? Unlikely. Was it done to attract attention of the world? Maybe. Was it to get closer to their god? HELL NO.
And whats with the Media in India? Apart from showing real news and analysis, every channel was in a race to declare news as “exclusive” and “you-saw-it-first-here”. They were competing with each other to come up with the most fancy headline for attacks. It was all about sensationalism and propaganda. The only other headline that they were concerned about was the cancellation of ongoing cricket series between England and India. I agree that life should go on normally and we should not bow down to these attacks and alter our routine, but is cricket that important that we ignore people who are fighting and dying on the streets?
Obvisouly the courage and solidarity shown by our politicians should be mentioned. People like Mr. Raj Thackery and Mr. Udhav Thackery were nowhere to be seen. On any given day, they could be seen paddling pride of Marathi Manoos and Shiv Vada Pav. Today when Mumbai was under a serious threat and needed reassurance, there was not a single word uttered from their camp. As a north-Indian, who has made Mumbai his home, does that give me confidence in Maharashtra? No it does not. In fact as a Maharashtrian, does it give me confidence that Shiv Sena And Maharashtra Navnirman Sena can stand for me? HELL NO. And what about all those “north Indian” security personnel who are fighting to save Mumbai? What about Mr. Modi? Mr. Advani? Can someone tell them that this is not the time to engage in political battles and getting mileage for things that may or may not have been done?
If there is something needs a special mention, its social media. Twitter in particular (I am @s4ur4bh there). I was far from a TV screen and there was no way for me to update myself with what’s happening in the other part of the city. Only way I could do that was with Twitter. There were people on Twitter who were as concerned and constantly fed people like me with information and tips. Some who were close to the site, actually ventured out and clicked pictures (@vinu). However difference between Twitter usage in India and other countries is the community. Most of us in India were merely relaying news clippings from mainstream media. Social Media is most effective when people actually report original news and make available things that mainstream media cant. In our case, there were hardly any notable individuals who did original reporting. Vinu is one such person and he is been doing a commendable job since. In fact most of the channels are using this pictures for their telecasts. Apart from twitter, individuals were quick to setup webpages for helpline numbers, lists of affected people, contribution calls for donating blood etc.
I am too insignificant an entity to actually predict the long term impact and ramifications of the attack. Tourism, travel and hotel industry would obviously be impacted. The ruing Congress government might have a tough battle ahead in the forthcoming general elections (due in first half of 2009). Investments in the Indian economy might take hit. Global companies would definitely not want anything to do with India (Board of HUL was reportedly at Taj when this happened). Ah, how can I forget plight of Cricket. Poor little gentleman's game. Series' would be cancelled, players would have to undergo agony, channels would loose money and media would have another field day creating headlines and
Coming back to the track, by the time the thought of these attacks sunk in, it was late in the night. Sleep was distant. Anger wasn't. And there was that familiar feeling of helplessness. My country is at the mercy of just a few men and just the thought of it is sickening. They enter our parliaments when they want to, they can explode not one or two but 15 bombs in any city and they can open fire at passengers trying to go back home after a long day of work. And after all this they can get away. How long will we tolerate this? When would all this stop?
We might say we as a country are proud of our unity in diversity. But are we really united? We conveniently ignore things because they don’t matter to us. For someone in Delhi, a terror strike on Mumbai is just a piece of news. For Mumbaikar, a strike in the Parliament is yet another news. Until it directly affects our lives, we conveniently ignore things and move on. We are indifferent to things happening in other cities with other people in their homes. We choose to ignore them. And in the process, when all of us are holed up in our respective cocoons, we feed that ticking time-bomb.
I also want to talk about much hyped spirit of Mumbai and how mumbaikars are resilient and come to work in worst of rains, largest of floods and deadliest of terror strikes. This spirit is commendable but how long can we just talk about “spirit of Mumbai” and keep ignoring things? We have used it as a lame excuse for too long and I guess its about time we move to actions rather than just opinions and discussions.
I have this People Tree t-shirt that reads “Ek Zabardast Toofan Aaye Aur Humein Gehri Neend Sey Jagaye”. India needs an awakening. And now. More than all that I, personally need an awakening. Guess this incident is that “toofan” that I needed in my life. Guess its time I recollect my thoughts and ethos and bring about a radical change.
Dasvidaniya
I don't really post movie reviews on this blog but this movie is worth watching and I think everyone should make it a point to see this movie.
Spoiler Warning: This post discloses the plot of the movie.
DasVidaniya (Imdb) is a simple movie with a simple plot. A very organized and simple guy is told that he has only three months to live. So far, his life has been uninteresting and nothing actually to write about. His life is full of things stereotypical to Indian men – widowed mother, estranged relationship with brother, long lost friends, dreams, aspirations, devoid of any possibilities of sex, perils of a pesky boss, tantrums of lazy colleagues and a predictable routine of office, home and office again.
So, unlike a typical guy and crying about his terminal disease, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak) decides that before he dies he would do things that he always wanted to do but couldn’t for some reason or the other. From things as easy as buying a car to things as difficult as confessing love that he’s hidden since his boyhood. And this is where things get interesting.
The movie is hilarious at times. Especially when DasGupta (Saurabh Shukla) is bossing around Amar and when Vivek (Gaurav Gera) is directing what probably is the most copied scenes in the history of bollywood – Mere Pass Maa Hai.
The movie is touching at other times. When for example Amar finally confesses his love to Neha (Neha Dhupia). Or when Amar finally buys his car – the way he touches the car and he has that most content smile on his face. Or the scene where Vivek is crying when he realises that Amar is dying.
The movie also makes you think every time Amar pulls out his “things to do before I die” list. You suddenly want to reach for a notepad and make a list like that of your own. You suddenly start debating the futility of human life and the rat race that most of us are running. The same rat race that most of us would run for rest of our lives. The movie makes you appreciate all those small moments in life that we simply ignore trying to run that rat race.
Overall Das Vidaniyan is a very well made movie with commendable acting by Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Saurabh Shukla, Rajat Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Gaurav Gera. The Kailasa trio (Kailash, Nareh, Pranesh) has done a really good job with background score. Director should be applauded for some great shots and heart-warming scenes. Although, I am told that the storyline resembles yet another great movie - The Bucket List, I am ready to concede that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
The big idea – the idea of things to do before you die – is really very intriguing. If everyone knew his or her expiry date, everyone would be so much better. People would loose inhibitions and for a change do things. Suddenly you start appreciating life a wee bit more. If I were to choose few things that I want to do before I die, they would be
What would be few things that you would want to do before you say goodbye?
Spoiler Warning: This post discloses the plot of the movie.
DasVidaniya (Imdb) is a simple movie with a simple plot. A very organized and simple guy is told that he has only three months to live. So far, his life has been uninteresting and nothing actually to write about. His life is full of things stereotypical to Indian men – widowed mother, estranged relationship with brother, long lost friends, dreams, aspirations, devoid of any possibilities of sex, perils of a pesky boss, tantrums of lazy colleagues and a predictable routine of office, home and office again.
So, unlike a typical guy and crying about his terminal disease, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak) decides that before he dies he would do things that he always wanted to do but couldn’t for some reason or the other. From things as easy as buying a car to things as difficult as confessing love that he’s hidden since his boyhood. And this is where things get interesting.
The movie is hilarious at times. Especially when DasGupta (Saurabh Shukla) is bossing around Amar and when Vivek (Gaurav Gera) is directing what probably is the most copied scenes in the history of bollywood – Mere Pass Maa Hai.
The movie is touching at other times. When for example Amar finally confesses his love to Neha (Neha Dhupia). Or when Amar finally buys his car – the way he touches the car and he has that most content smile on his face. Or the scene where Vivek is crying when he realises that Amar is dying.
The movie also makes you think every time Amar pulls out his “things to do before I die” list. You suddenly want to reach for a notepad and make a list like that of your own. You suddenly start debating the futility of human life and the rat race that most of us are running. The same rat race that most of us would run for rest of our lives. The movie makes you appreciate all those small moments in life that we simply ignore trying to run that rat race.
Overall Das Vidaniyan is a very well made movie with commendable acting by Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Saurabh Shukla, Rajat Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Gaurav Gera. The Kailasa trio (Kailash, Nareh, Pranesh) has done a really good job with background score. Director should be applauded for some great shots and heart-warming scenes. Although, I am told that the storyline resembles yet another great movie - The Bucket List, I am ready to concede that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
The big idea – the idea of things to do before you die – is really very intriguing. If everyone knew his or her expiry date, everyone would be so much better. People would loose inhibitions and for a change do things. Suddenly you start appreciating life a wee bit more. If I were to choose few things that I want to do before I die, they would be
- Provide for my family and few chosen friends.
- Bike to Leh (I will do it most probably in June 2009)
- Bungee Jump
What would be few things that you would want to do before you say goodbye?
Twittrip Day 1
The post here is the verbatim from the original post written by aDeSe
The process started a good 15 days before the trip actually began.. and everything was planned online on a site called twitter. after that minute details were decided over e-mails and this is how the first ever TwiTrip was planned and implemented.
The plan initially was to head to a karaoke bar in Mumbai and sing "That Thing You Do".. i really wanted to do it.. i still want to.. but it ended up becoming an extended vacation to the virgin beaches of Murud and Kashid.. We decided to just book tickets to and from Mumbai and nothing beyond that, unplanned trips are lot more fun than planned trips..
Salonee and Myself wanted to head to a beach place.. Goa was on our mind. But due to the lack of enough modes of travel to Goa from Ahmedabad we decided on Murud Kashid.. and I am happy we didn't go to Goa.. Dhempe was travelling all the way from Bangalore for this trip.
2nd October, Salonee and me parked our asses at Bandra Terminus quite early in the morning.. We took Lokshakti from Ahmedabad as the other trains were not available..
Bandra and then a local from there to Bombay Central, as the bus to Alibaug was from Bombay Central.. We met three other twitter pals there.. Dhempe, s4ur4bh and punkpolkadots joined us here...
Dhempe and s4ur4bh enquired at the State Bus stop, while the three girls had their first smoke after meeting. We figured that the bus takes around 4 - 5 hours to reach Alibaug and then another hour to reach Kashid, which would basically mean losing one entire day...
We decided to take the ferry then and pushed off to Gateway of India. The ferry incidentally takes only 1.5 hr and in another hour we'd be at Kashid.. And nothing like an early morning ferry ride in the Arabian Sea with all the wind and all the nice bright sun..
Reached Mandwa and from there we had a connection bus to Alibaug. At Alibaug, we inquired about the bus to Kashid figured that the bus leaves at 1 in the afternoon. We decided on taking a tuk tuk instead. And it was totally worth the ride, for 300 bucks..
The village is more like Goa, the construction etc is very Portuguese. I am not sure why but. The houses are like duplexes and for one family. I am sure the land is pretty cheap there and hence people can afford living in such spatial duplexes and houses. Each of them had a garden and quite a lot of open space around. The roads were nice, there was no proper mobile network though..
We enjoyed the tuk tuk trip over all.. twitter junkies that we are, lack of twitter made us sad time and again.
Reached Kashid at around 2 pm or so.. We saved around 3 hours of time by not taking a bus from Mumbai to Alibaug.
Dhempe had already booked Picnic Park in Kashid which he'd found through some research on the internet.. I think Mouthshut.com had rated this resort pretty high and the ratings were true.
5 mins walk thru the jungle to the beach and awesome food and hospitality. The rooms were nice and the staff was good too.. Dogs included :D
We went to the beach for a long evening walk. Salonee and s4ur4bh went missing and the three of us kept waiting all thru evening for them..
The beach was awesome.. totally virgin, not many people around and lovely breeze, sunset, food and chai. Not to forget sutta.. :)
Started talking about LyF, families, work, boyfriends/girlfriends, ghosts, spirits, auras.. and lot more things till the sun sunk into the sea.
Decided to pick up cold-drinks and wafers for the night.. it was Gandhiji's budday.. and we had to celebrate and get drunk.. :)
Walked back to the hotel.. Nokia 1100 turned out be a very handy, the torch light I mean.. the roads were pitch dark with traffic moving from both ends and at high speeds..
What followed was opening of bottles and the rest is history....
The process started a good 15 days before the trip actually began.. and everything was planned online on a site called twitter. after that minute details were decided over e-mails and this is how the first ever TwiTrip was planned and implemented.
The plan initially was to head to a karaoke bar in Mumbai and sing "That Thing You Do".. i really wanted to do it.. i still want to.. but it ended up becoming an extended vacation to the virgin beaches of Murud and Kashid.. We decided to just book tickets to and from Mumbai and nothing beyond that, unplanned trips are lot more fun than planned trips..
2nd October, Salonee and me parked our asses at Bandra Terminus quite early in the morning.. We took Lokshakti from Ahmedabad as the other trains were not available..
Bandra and then a local from there to Bombay Central, as the bus to Alibaug was from Bombay Central.. We met three other twitter pals there.. Dhempe, s4ur4bh and punkpolkadots joined us here...
Dhempe and s4ur4bh enquired at the State Bus stop, while the three girls had their first smoke after meeting. We figured that the bus takes around 4 - 5 hours to reach Alibaug and then another hour to reach Kashid, which would basically mean losing one entire day...
We decided to take the ferry then and pushed off to Gateway of India. The ferry incidentally takes only 1.5 hr and in another hour we'd be at Kashid.. And nothing like an early morning ferry ride in the Arabian Sea with all the wind and all the nice bright sun..
Reached Mandwa and from there we had a connection bus to Alibaug. At Alibaug, we inquired about the bus to Kashid figured that the bus leaves at 1 in the afternoon. We decided on taking a tuk tuk instead. And it was totally worth the ride, for 300 bucks..
The village is more like Goa, the construction etc is very Portuguese. I am not sure why but. The houses are like duplexes and for one family. I am sure the land is pretty cheap there and hence people can afford living in such spatial duplexes and houses. Each of them had a garden and quite a lot of open space around. The roads were nice, there was no proper mobile network though..
We enjoyed the tuk tuk trip over all.. twitter junkies that we are, lack of twitter made us sad time and again.
Reached Kashid at around 2 pm or so.. We saved around 3 hours of time by not taking a bus from Mumbai to Alibaug.
Dhempe had already booked Picnic Park in Kashid which he'd found through some research on the internet.. I think Mouthshut.com had rated this resort pretty high and the ratings were true.
5 mins walk thru the jungle to the beach and awesome food and hospitality. The rooms were nice and the staff was good too.. Dogs included :D
We went to the beach for a long evening walk. Salonee and s4ur4bh went missing and the three of us kept waiting all thru evening for them..
The beach was awesome.. totally virgin, not many people around and lovely breeze, sunset, food and chai. Not to forget sutta.. :)
Started talking about LyF, families, work, boyfriends/girlfriends, ghosts, spirits, auras.. and lot more things till the sun sunk into the sea.
Decided to pick up cold-drinks and wafers for the night.. it was Gandhiji's budday.. and we had to celebrate and get drunk.. :)
Walked back to the hotel.. Nokia 1100 turned out be a very handy, the torch light I mean.. the roads were pitch dark with traffic moving from both ends and at high speeds..
What followed was opening of bottles and the rest is history....
I want to Run
I want to Run
Run away to obscurity
To a place where they dont know me
Where there are no presumptions and no baggage
A place that offers to more than just a house and a place to sleep
To a life where we stop playing the chase the fame game and stop living the dream
Run away to obscurity
To a place where they dont know me
Where there are no presumptions and no baggage
A place that offers to more than just a house and a place to sleep
To a life where we stop playing the chase the fame game and stop living the dream
Throw the Blackberry Away
Quote of the day comes from Andrew Lahde. He said
I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.
Sandesh Trivedi on Birthdays
Sandesh Trivedi is a very very talented young man. When congratulated on his birthday, he said
har saal aata hain n makes me loose my compettive advantage each yrHe is a value investor and I have high hopes on him. He blogs about his investment ideas here.
Stolen Necklace
Title: Stolen Necklace
Equipment: Canon A75
Date: 04 Oct 2008
Time: ?
Place: Marine Drive, Mumbai
Self Realization
While working, I realized
I am interested in way too many things. At the same time. Need to prioritize. Need to find what I want
Impromptu Shayar
Yesterday I was traveling from my office to some place and it was an hour's rick ride. I had my mobile phone and I thought, how about some improptu shayari from miyan on-the-fly shayar? I came up with two gems.
And the other one
Bhai saab bhai saab.
Dekh deen duniya deti dard dho dho
Khela kala kauva kahin kabhi kabhi kho kho
Raat rahe raat raat ro ro
Mainkya mu me lo mu me lo
And the other one
Kahin door mast gagan mainDedicated to Team MML.
Tez teekhi peeli dhoop main
Sard mausam ki masti main
Patjhad kay gire patton main
Bheegi baarish ke geele paani main
Bolo bolo kahan kahan loge
Mu main mu main mu main
The "New" India Post
Although I try to avoid comments on anything related to work, but this has caught my attention. Exchange4Media reports that India Post has unveiled a new campaign to try and resurrect the 154 year old organization. As a part of the campaign, O&M Delhi has come up with a new logo and a tagline - "Giving wings to your dreams", which in my humble opinions looks like a line created with Dilbert Mission Statement Generator
The agency says that the new logo "depicts yellow flourish on a red rectangle, symbolizing an envelope. Yellow represents a rising sun, while red, signifies the dawn of a new era." I mean all that is fine but it lacks the class and panache of the simple, classic and yet powerful logo. Who would remember the "dawn of a new era" few years from now? I did not even realize that the yellow pseudo-swoosh on the red background is supposed to resemble folds of an envelope.
What about all the people that India post touches? Think for a minute about people who live in semi-urban and rural India? For a lot of them, postmen and post-offices act as sources of information, news, money, access to reading and writing, gossip etc. Would these people be able to adapt to the new logo easily? Would that trust on the postal system stay concrete? Wouldnt there be a disconnect in their minds when all of a sudden they see changes in the colors and imagery?
Agreed that the 150 year old institution is reeling under the pressure from Telephony and Internet (emails substituting letters and postcards), private courier companies (for freight carriage and bulky deliveries) and so and so forth. Agreed that India Post is seen as yet another sarkaari company with bureaucracy, painfully slow work environment, lack of enthusiasm and motivation amongst employees but just a new logo and communication is not the way to go about it.
Project Arrow was an initiative in the right direction - to make post offices more than just delivery and access points for mails (there were talks of setting up Internet kiosks, selling insurance, data collection etc.). The idea was to modernize the postal system and revitalize it. They hired McKinsey to work on the turnaround strategy and with the work so far, I am not very impressed. So much for consults being top preference for management graduates.
Ideally along with a management consult, India Post should be hiring a HR consultant to put some sense in their employees to start with. And then the marketing and branding consultants to help out with communication part. Its always an incremental process and has to be like one baby step as a time.
I am very disappointed with the new logo. And since we live in a democracy, I can not really do anything to stop Mr. Scindhia Junior to actually not use it. And with due course of time we will get used to it. We saw the same with Godrej, Shoppers Stop, Canara Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India and their new logos. There is a huge hue and cry when the new logos are revealed. And with passage of time, people get busy with their lives and forget. The institution losses. The identity is lost. The classic era fades away. Only entity to win is the agency that has created the new logo and has charged pretty bucks for it.
Please note, the opinions herein are purely mine and mine only. Please also see my Discovery of India. The timing of the new logo and my discovery is purely coincidental!
The agency says that the new logo "depicts yellow flourish on a red rectangle, symbolizing an envelope. Yellow represents a rising sun, while red, signifies the dawn of a new era." I mean all that is fine but it lacks the class and panache of the simple, classic and yet powerful logo. Who would remember the "dawn of a new era" few years from now? I did not even realize that the yellow pseudo-swoosh on the red background is supposed to resemble folds of an envelope.
What about all the people that India post touches? Think for a minute about people who live in semi-urban and rural India? For a lot of them, postmen and post-offices act as sources of information, news, money, access to reading and writing, gossip etc. Would these people be able to adapt to the new logo easily? Would that trust on the postal system stay concrete? Wouldnt there be a disconnect in their minds when all of a sudden they see changes in the colors and imagery?
Agreed that the 150 year old institution is reeling under the pressure from Telephony and Internet (emails substituting letters and postcards), private courier companies (for freight carriage and bulky deliveries) and so and so forth. Agreed that India Post is seen as yet another sarkaari company with bureaucracy, painfully slow work environment, lack of enthusiasm and motivation amongst employees but just a new logo and communication is not the way to go about it.
Project Arrow was an initiative in the right direction - to make post offices more than just delivery and access points for mails (there were talks of setting up Internet kiosks, selling insurance, data collection etc.). The idea was to modernize the postal system and revitalize it. They hired McKinsey to work on the turnaround strategy and with the work so far, I am not very impressed. So much for consults being top preference for management graduates.
Ideally along with a management consult, India Post should be hiring a HR consultant to put some sense in their employees to start with. And then the marketing and branding consultants to help out with communication part. Its always an incremental process and has to be like one baby step as a time.
I am very disappointed with the new logo. And since we live in a democracy, I can not really do anything to stop Mr. Scindhia Junior to actually not use it. And with due course of time we will get used to it. We saw the same with Godrej, Shoppers Stop, Canara Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India and their new logos. There is a huge hue and cry when the new logos are revealed. And with passage of time, people get busy with their lives and forget. The institution losses. The identity is lost. The classic era fades away. Only entity to win is the agency that has created the new logo and has charged pretty bucks for it.
Please note, the opinions herein are purely mine and mine only. Please also see my Discovery of India. The timing of the new logo and my discovery is purely coincidental!
Why Travel?
The thrill of exploring the unknown,
The adventure of going down a road that you dont know,
The mystery behind the tun that you are about to take,
The feeling when you meet new people and you try to come across as interesting,
The realization that you get once you know that you are yet another human being,
are simply too rewarding and too tempting to make you seek travel.
Nokia E66 Review
Nokia WOMWorld sent me a Nokia E66 to review (read other reviews on E66 here) and after a lot of hick-ups and delays, here is the review. And with the advantage of hindsight, the review is all the more pertinent now since E66 been launched in India recently and lots of users would be looking for reviews on this handset.
Nokia E66 is yet one of those sliders from the E series family. The E-series is known for its ease of use and intuitive interface. E66 offers full multimedia and Internet experience with its wide display and high-resolution screen. It is a true office use phone with support for popular file formats like pdf, doc and xls etc.
Coming down to positives and negatives,
Positives
Negatives
Price
Ending Notes
In the end I would give this phone 3 on 5. Although it has lots of features and is probably the best slider available in India right now, the phone lacks a decent camera and is probably priced on the bit higher side. I would recommend it to someone who wants a powerful business phone and does not need a camera.
P.S.: Cant do a technical analysis. If someone wants to write about it, lemme know. Will update the post.
Nokia E66 is yet one of those sliders from the E series family. The E-series is known for its ease of use and intuitive interface. E66 offers full multimedia and Internet experience with its wide display and high-resolution screen. It is a true office use phone with support for popular file formats like pdf, doc and xls etc.
Coming down to positives and negatives,
Positives
- Looks. It looks really impressive. In any meeting, people noticed the device and were actually curious about it. The display is brilliant. The metallic finish is awesome. Further, I loved the grip on the handset. It fitted perfectly in my palm and I dint have to clasp it too hard or too loose. It felt like an extension of my hand. Very comfortable to hold.
- Office Applications. Has all the applications one might need for productivity preloaded on the phone. Obviously you could download more from the Internet and use one of the many connectivity options (Bluetooth, wifi, 3G, infrared).
- Integration and Memory Usage. Love the way applications install with one click. It is easy to update them, remove them and then again reinstall them. In fact if you run more than 5 applications at the same time, the phone still works fine. This is in contrast with other phones that I have used in past.
- Long battery life. It easily had more than 24 hours of standby time and about 10 hours of talk time. I did not measure it with a stopwatch but I don’t charge my phone very often and in the entire month I used it, I never ran out of battery.
Negatives
- Bad camera. Although the phone boasts of a 3 MP camera, the image quality is surprisingly bad. I expected the camera to be better.
- Keypad. Although ergonomics dont permit a QWERTY keypad, the regular keypad becomes a hindrance for an office phone. There are times when I wanted to write emails but could not because its too cumbersome and time consuming to write emails on a regular keypad.
- Accelerometer is buggy. There are quite a few times when you rotate the phone and the display freezes. It takes good 3-4 seconds to come back to normal and by that time you are almost frustrated.
- Snooze time is 5 mins. I hated this bit. I am used to snooze time of 10 mins and getting up is a long process. But with this device, I missed quite a few meetings because I would simply turn the alarm off (rather than get pissed off at a 5 min snooze).
- Too expensive for Indian market?
Price
- I don’t know about the MRP on this phone but most of the retail outlets are selling this phone for about 20K in India. I find this price point for a Nokia E66 really steep. For 20 grand you can actually go for a Nokia E71. E71 has a CandyBar form factor and has a full QWERTY keypad with almost identical features. And personally I love CandyBars more than Sliders or ClamShells.
Ending Notes
In the end I would give this phone 3 on 5. Although it has lots of features and is probably the best slider available in India right now, the phone lacks a decent camera and is probably priced on the bit higher side. I would recommend it to someone who wants a powerful business phone and does not need a camera.
P.S.: Cant do a technical analysis. If someone wants to write about it, lemme know. Will update the post.
Prof. Sanjay Bakshi and BFBV
Every year at around this time, I start fancying a new profession. Value Investing and Teaching. Culprit being Prof. Sanjay Bakshi. Who apart from managing Tactica Capital teaches a very popular course (titled BFBV - Behavioral Finance and Business Valuation) to second year PGPM participants at MDI.
In his own words, "BFBV is an excuse to teach worldly wisdom through multidisciplinary thinking...". Personally I have benefited immensely from my interactions with him. If I was to write my biography, I will describe a Saurabh Garg before he met Prof. Bakshi and another Saurabh Garg after he took BFBV. The course teaches you concepts and make you aware of ideas from vast variety of disciplines - Economics, Finance, Biology, History, Philosophy, Architecture, Religion, Mathematics etc. The course takes lessons from Illuminati like Benjamin Franklin, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet (to name just a few)
He recently started the 2009 session of his value investing, behavioral finance and decision making course (course outline here). Please subscribe to Prof. Bakshi's blog here to get an update on his teaching material. Personally and professionally I will recommend it to anyone who wants to reinvent himself and believes that learning is a life long journey rather than an one time initiative. After taking a course you start looking at life in a different view all together.
I cant say that course made me wiser and more mature but I can say one thing for sure. It is an awesome experience and even if you are not looking at any long term rewards, the time you spent on that course is one of the most satisfying periods of your life. Do try it.
P.S.: Sandeep and I started PseudoSocial sometime back in 2006 to share whatever little we know and hoping to learn more and connect with more investors. The blog was a very rewarding experience till the time we were updating it. Time and work commitment does not permit us to update is very frequently. If someone wants to resurrect it, please let me know.
In his own words, "BFBV is an excuse to teach worldly wisdom through multidisciplinary thinking...". Personally I have benefited immensely from my interactions with him. If I was to write my biography, I will describe a Saurabh Garg before he met Prof. Bakshi and another Saurabh Garg after he took BFBV. The course teaches you concepts and make you aware of ideas from vast variety of disciplines - Economics, Finance, Biology, History, Philosophy, Architecture, Religion, Mathematics etc. The course takes lessons from Illuminati like Benjamin Franklin, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet (to name just a few)
He recently started the 2009 session of his value investing, behavioral finance and decision making course (course outline here). Please subscribe to Prof. Bakshi's blog here to get an update on his teaching material. Personally and professionally I will recommend it to anyone who wants to reinvent himself and believes that learning is a life long journey rather than an one time initiative. After taking a course you start looking at life in a different view all together.
I cant say that course made me wiser and more mature but I can say one thing for sure. It is an awesome experience and even if you are not looking at any long term rewards, the time you spent on that course is one of the most satisfying periods of your life. Do try it.
P.S.: Sandeep and I started PseudoSocial sometime back in 2006 to share whatever little we know and hoping to learn more and connect with more investors. The blog was a very rewarding experience till the time we were updating it. Time and work commitment does not permit us to update is very frequently. If someone wants to resurrect it, please let me know.
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