Android killed my Laptop

My roomie won’t be too happy reading this post as he’s an Apple fan bigtime, who worships Steve Jobs. And he is sitting beside me when I’m writing this, probably thinking about coding some rival application. But that’s how the world is today. It’s no longer Mac vs. Windows or Linux. It’s the cell phones that have taken the world by storm now. I could hardly remember the day when I started becoming so heavily dependent on cell phones. Was it when I got my hands on N-series or iPhone?

Back in 2005 when in school, it started using Linux mostly openSUSE and the Ubuntu. And with my geeky friends who all are now engineers used to argue Mac or Linux, yeah Windows was never in discussion. Fast forward to 2011, I landed in Bangalore sharing a room with another geek working for an IT company and for the past one week all we have been discussing has been Android, MeeGo, Symbian or iOS. And as I love arguing, the debate is still on.

But it’s not that PC OS are out of our debates. It’s out from daily chores as well, starting from checking my email, Facebook, Twitter and many other things. I actually prefer using my Cell phone to complete these tasks, and of course for music, although that is shared by my iPod also. And beyond these usual suspects, I read News, play Solitaire (love the game), of course Angry birds and so many more things. Those who know me know what those so many things mean.

So one would ask the obvious question why Android, all these things were even accomplished by cell phones that came before it. Well I say the same reason, they (Nokia...coughs) are not selling and Droids are. But as my Boss says “Nothing is obvious in life”, so let’s dig a little more.

I bought my current droid (x10i) last year and now I’m planning to buy Galaxy SII (Let those bucks once). The reason I would say it was Android and not even Apple, is because even my friend from school who once asked how to unmute his laptop (yes he did) is posting updates on Facebook underneath which is written via Facebook for Android. It came to masses and with a UI that was simple with apps which were too many and free.

With features such as the Swype keyboard and some real fancy pyrotechnics (No I am not wrong I used that word intentionally) they give it gives me a rich and a way better experience than my Crap (Windows) loaded laptop. That’s the reason I would say “Android killed my laptop”

I do use my laptop sometimes and although I agree it will never cease to exist, but nowadays it’s more like Sourav Ganguly in there, can deliver a lot and useful sometimes but who requires it all the time.

P.S- I posted this from my phone. And special thanks to my friend @kachuaChap from twitter who tweeted the title I used.

Will the same brand of justice ever be served in India?

I just couldn’t ignore the coincidence. In US, Rajaratnam was held guilty on all 14 counts of insider trading and back here in India we got the free for all access to Amar Prem Katha. And for the icing on top, I read a lot more about Niira Radia too. So as Rajaratnam is staring at 20 years in a federal prison, my question is will the same kind of justice ever be served in India?

Rajaratnam was no ordinary person, no. 236 on Forbes list of wealthiest people in US, richest Sri Lankan alive he rubbed shoulders with who’s who of Wall Street. He hired a team of one of the most expensive attorneys but contrary to what his peers in the hedge fund industry thought, he couldn’t escape conviction.

Back to India, how many big Corporates have we indicted? How many seen the inside of a jail and remained there? None expect for Raju (R another strange coincidence, Holy crap my name also begins with R) as far as I can remember. But what about other big shots who have been known to committing corporate crimes like Anil Ambani, Praful Patel etc.

The Niira Radia and Amar Singh tapes clearly reveals the nexus that is going on between corporate, politicians and even media now. These low life people are destroying and killing the Indian Dream when it is still in its infancy. All I have been seeing throughout the day has been mockery and cheap humour of both these tapes. But I am yet to see any action. I know many more like me think we can rise up the others and get noticed, but with tapes like this coming out don’t be ashamed of the route these people might take.

The last ray of hope we had was a unbiased media and a honest judiciary which has been literally stripped and is laughing back at us make me feel like a fool, a donkey. We dream of catching up with the West and all I can say is we are living in a fool’s paradise. We are bound to stay behind and will always be looked upon as the underprivileged, downtrodden ones unless we stand up, take notice, leave IPL for a moment and do something. I don’t know what that something can be or will be, but we will have to or let’s kill our dreams right now. I just ask one thing.

Will there ever be same justice irrespective of Caste, Creed, Domicile, Wealth or Political connections?

Sadness

Hadn’t it been for the sadness in the world, we wouldn’t have had some beautiful poetry. We wouldn’t have Shakespeare’s tragedies, Homer’s Iliad, Vikram Seth’s A Doctor's Journal Entry. Hadn’t it been for the sadness in the world, we wouldn’t have Happiness...................

That one again

When I was alone,

I feared it.

When you were gone,

I felt it.

But it came with such a pain,

That all went in vain.

I tried to cry,

But with these dry eyes,

How could I cry.

But I went on with the thought,

What upon me had I brought.

I had no answer,

And also none to seek one.

For I once again,

Became that one again.

Osama, Obama and Why a Terrorist?

Last week while going through my timeline on twitter, my brain crashed, went abruptly into a reboot and booting was only possible in safe mode. That meant going offline, disconnecting myself from all sources of media. But was that possible, yeah you all predicted right, it wasn’t. I was soon back online. Going through my timeline, flickering through web pages, looking at some, where it said Obama killed Osama and sometimes in pursuit of being fast, the other way around.

But it was a treat for the media and the twitter world. Both sections went abuzz. For media it was something they dream every day, a spectacle to be given proper coverage. So totally senseless articles such as TOI’s fictitious description of the Navy SEAL also made their way in, once again displaying new lows our Journalism has achieved. But apart from these a bigger question loomed.

I have always been confused, thinking about why people choose the path of becoming a terrorist. Everywhere one sees, it is said that a terrorist has no religion one country etc. But although the former one is very controversial, the latter one seems to have been found. Of late Pakistan has been seen as a country which not only shelters terrorism, but also is now the hub.

But all these things aside, again the same question rises how one can take the dramatic step, how can one be so brutal. Have we ever thought who is a terrorist and who is not or we choose what our media tells us to? I decided to take some help from a professor of ours. Professor Google. As I expected there is no internationally agreed definition. We all think a guy who spread terror is a Terrorist. Well if that is the case I have faced a lot of terrorists in my time at school and college. So as it is goes, it is up to a nation’s discretion or the big daddy controlled UN’s.

They say everyone part of the Al-Qaeda pledged allegiance to Osama himself. A guy who they thought lived in caves, away from the riches that he would have inherited. A guy who was a veteran of a war that saw the Soviets bite the dust. A guy who people thought has only one mission, to see the west go down. But was it that people chose to be a terrorist just because of that one guy. If it was so, then I guess we’ll soon witness the end of Al-Qaeda at least.

I decided to go some years back, some 30 years, when Punjab was under militancy. Another person having credentials of the same magnitude emerged there also. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was seen as a charismatic man, a man who revived a movement of extremism in Punjab. Whose only motive in the later part of his life was to have a separate Sikh state known as Khalistan, exactly on the lines of our beloved neighbour Pakistan. But then many horrifying incidents happened including Operation Blue Star, fake encounters killing many innocents and finally normalcy returned. Punjab was peaceful, En route to being prosperous again. What happened later, the politics is a different story although.

So I decided to do some thinking and came up with an answer. The reason a person chooses to be a Terrorist is the same why a person chooses to be a Cricketer or an Actor. They all get influenced by someone in that field. But then as I have a habit of contradicting myself, I couldn’t refrain from saying isn’t it those role models come after one has picked up a trade or is it really the other way around? Well this has one again left me scratching my head. If anyone of you readers have some theory please feel free to comment. For the moment let me scratch my head a bit more, I think I have some itching problem #$@)*%