The Indian Pariah

The shadow the walks along side you. It slowly comes along and waits for a nibble. Affection, love, and pure bliss.

Innocence and playfulness.

Once you grow fond of them, its hard to let go.

I’ll tell you their story, and with it mine.

Paper Man

“Richard regarded his solitude as something sacred as a well earned badge of honor, a cloak to be worn to ward off life. As his safety. Solitude is who he was. This caused those in his life to view him with a barely veiled contempt. Richard was certain that he was not liked. Which is hard on a man. Maybe it was because he gave nothing that he received nothing in return. In any case, his situation had become intolerable. The closest things he had to friends were either imaginary or extinct. And Richard had reached a point of life where this was no longer enough. And then he met a girl… And she was warm. And she was sad. And she was maybe lonely in a way that reminded of him of himself. She’d lost things that a girl should never have lost. And she knew things. And she taught him. And Richard thought: “Maybe this is what friendship feels like. Maybe”. It was just a glimpse, they’d barely begin, really. But in those long, few winter days, she’d given him so much. Enough so that Richard can go on. And what had he given her? Just a few words on a page. Not much, perhaps. But for Abby, he hoped it was enough.”

— Quotes. Paper Man , 2009.

Faasos

For an old man, coming back from office the only respite these days is food. Simply put – online ordering of food because that is what the internet is mainly used these given the Indian government has decided to ban couple of sites in the recent turn of events. I wonder how long NetNeutrality will survive given the current trend.

Not to stray away from my point of online ordering – I did come across a barrage of apps and given the fact Faasos is what I used to have back in Pune, somehow the taste has lingered to Bangalore. But its not the same though.

And not to mention with all the trend these days, Faasos also decided to ditch the website option and go full throttle on the mobile app. Somehow they promised an offer that I couldn’t resist – Now I see how!

Offer that I can'r resist -LOL

             Offer that I can’t refuse!

If that is the case – perhaps it’s best to spend effort in perfecting the user experience, right? As I happen to be one of those fellas I do intensely believe in the present time it takes very little to irk an user – do make note, a hungry user!

So here are couple of design/workflow that I somehow find quite baffling and comes the list:

Please do note that I’m using this version of your app

Current Faasos app

Current Faasos app

One can add addresses but can’t edit or even delete those form one’s profile – a workflow that I simply cannot and will not ever find the reasoning for implementation.

Address Page

Address Page

Next comes wallet. Somehow the email address field is uneditable and guess what the Citrus cash sign in option demand – Email!

Faasos Wallet Page

Faasos Wallet Page

Citrus Cash Sign In Page

Citrus Cash Sign In Page

The only respite is the adding of food items to the cart menu. But hey what if the ATM is out of cash and I so choose to use the online payment or wallet option – seems like it this app will not let me.

I wonder who is the business analyst or consultant who drew up these workflows of this app.

I did tweet this problem on Twitter – and thought Faasos did try to reach out to me by calling me on my cell phone – but guess what a hungry user was furiously typing this out on the internet keeping a close eye on his PizzaHut delivery page.

I could have went on typing more about how the app crashes and not to mention “Oops! something went wrong” time and again – how about I leave you all for now while I tear open the oregano and dive into my extra cheese PizzaHut’s pizza – bon appetit

Conversation…

At times, when you are lying on your bed looking right up and lazily swinging your legs to the numbing ‘house‘ genre beats. It happens, a ping, a popup, the desire to see who is it that reached out to you.

I grabbed it with both my hands, it brings a smile on my face. So tonight is an excerpt of such a conversation. To get you all to speed it all happened due to the amazing google doodle on 22nd May, 2012. The synthesizer and what I would believe is my masterpiece ( DISCLAIMER: Your speakers and computer safety is at your discretion and if you wish to then please if you must: http://g.co/doodle/mghcfk)

I would let this amazingly written out reply, do the rest of the talking.

” I am sure you are very talented. And of course talent should be nurtured but talent is dependent on toerance,tolerance at various levels and tolerance in turn leads to acceptance which is the ultimate goal of talent.. so talent should always be honed, shaped, manipulated so tht it leads to acceptance..in your case.. there is abundance of talent however I can gauge that it just might be slightly difficult to tolerate..only becoz its new talent and diffrent from what we have observed so far. nothing personal..we all know any type of change is tough to tolerate and thereby accept,. ” — Debaparna.

So, the point is this (gloating) – it requires a failure (no need for guessing which one!) to recognize, be amazed, with the true fact – the power of words one exercises and simply put – the mentioned author calls it horseshit, well are those not good fertilizers ?

*Please feel free to use this if you may.  If I can happen to find the author too has a blog, I would provide a link.

The Blog

For a change, I like the simplistic look on wordpress and sits pretty on the right bottom corner – “Just write”. Amazing. Simplicity. Coincidence? That’s a word I picked up after watching 500 days of summer on Star movies 4:30 AM show. I woke up, texted, why? I just felt like it. Explaining myself again. Happens when I’m trying to reason with myself.

Humour, seems to have died on this blog of mine! Ha! Can’t help it when I feel like shit.

So, the things that I have lined up for myself for this year.

1. Run the Bangalore marathon – preferably the 10km or 5.6 come 27th May

2. Drop a huge amount of body weight

3. Learn a new language

4. Learn to ride a bicyle/swim

5. Be less of a chicken shit when to express myself

6. Stop with the metaphors, speak less truth, live a little

7. Control myself as I seem to have loads of problem with others – seems evident these days

8. Accept things and stop trying to get to the root cause – it ain’t science all the time

9. Realize and accept what we have been taught in school stays in books – reality is altogether is different

10. Nothing is perfect, no fate, its only coincidence

11. Looks matters – mine never did – so it should not matter to me now. I already know how I look so why bother

And sound less dramatic and just move on.

BB – To survive or exist?

I always had this fascination to  know, the urge to discover, to reason, to fail, to fail again and not even remember what winning means.

I was looking for a bait, and now I’m hooked to the business page and its RIM (Research In Motion) not meeting the projected sales, loses amounting to millions. A CEO honest enough to recognize their technologically handicapped exaggeratedly priced handsets are getting their bottoms handed to them.

Why? Why you ask I have taken a keen interest to a company to whom I have no meaning. As a matter of fact I do. It stands at the corner of extinction. Perhaps a hard word to describe its fate, but not a distant future.

I have fallen numerous times, stubbed, shoved but I’m still alive. Barely walking, hardly standing but breathing. This engages me with the story that I have been following for quite sometime now. The fight to survive. The change that will bring back the meaning of existence, not survive but to exist.

If you are asking what’s RIM – its Blackberry. The QWERTY phones that revolutionized the corporate sector  with email at their fingertips. From hire to fire, they had it all. A status symbol slowly wiped away with the mighty swipe of Android and iPhone’s.

I have but recently jumped into the sinking Blackberry era. Termed and always thought as a boring phone, with age I have gained the wisdom all that glitters is not gold. Holds true for BB as well. I have loved it, hated it at the same time but never enjoyed so much picking up a phone to call anyone.

Today is not the day where I speak about my phone, but to focus on the strategy discussed for its survival. I had to voice out my opinions, I had no audience and hence I’m here. My keyboard is my voice, the internet my stage, my audience – you.

Low-End Segment: RIM is thinking about shifting the focus to the low end phones. The promising factor are the various plans BB has. Kidding me? I can get 1GB net for 99/-. Can I get to that using BB – NO!

In India, BB net charges is expensive, I end up paying 399/- for the same service I can avail for 99 or 199. If you are thinking about leveling there, think again.

8520 the popular BB phone is getting squished with competing phones from the Android segment, free BBM? Tell me something if the number of people running BB is getting low with whom am I supposed to use it  with?

Shutterbugs – you heard me, I end up buying a phone and it does not even capture decent quality photographs. Seriously?

High-End Segment: It will END soon if you don’t do what you do best. Get a battery that can survive the all so power hungry OS and H/W that makes up the phone.

BBX-10: Future of RIM. Tell me one thing that I see new there! In order to win the race you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

If I have read correctly between the lines, going forward the way to compete is to go after all touch phone, please spare a thought for the ones who still enjoys the click of keypads. The sensual keypad of BB, its shortcuts, the feel of pristine engineering, the optical track-pad and not to mention the feel of a phone.

I recently read this, “If you’re doing business and not advertising, its similar to winking at a girl in the dark. It’s only you who knows what you are doing and not the world”. Get my point RIM?

Marketing and especially  not the Vodafone’s approach to ‘We are the Blackberry Boys’. In comparison to Samsung, iPhone’s over the top adverts I see not one for BB. If you stare at things long enough you will get a hang of it. Bring on-board the talented professionals, and don’t try to make a fool of the touch phones as you have quite a few up your sleeves.

I don’t want the platform to die. I don’t want what Nokia did to Maemo/Meego. I want RIM to succeed, why because its getting mauled by the eye candy and it will be a story worth reading.

Kahaani

One story.  Ek Kahaani.

Alert: Contain spoilers!

Bollywood is revolutionizing. Age old notion of movies muscularly built is mellowing by the feminine touch. Dangling locks, mesmerising eyes are giving pumped up muscles a run for their money.

Kahaani  is dominantly scripted with captivating stratagem, tongue-in-cheek humour with several thought provoking moments commanding interest.

A massacre had hit Kolkatta metro railways. The story does not stop there to investigate. It moves 2 years ahead.

A pregnant woman takes center stage. Vidya Bachi (Vidya Balan) arrives in Kolkata from London.  Stormed at the airport by the hoards of taxi walla’s with their broken Hindi she is flustered, agitated but to the amusement is not driven to popular destination as a hotel or residence rather it’s a police station at  Kalighat.

The trueness of Bengali culture of inquisitiveness is impeccably projected.  This sets the tone for the movie. Sujoy (Director) acts as a master story teller. The vibrancy, peculiar hustle and bustle engulfed in a claustrophobic yet liberating world of intrigue and deception. A sense of anxiety and stress succeeds in keeping me glued to the story from the first scene.

She starts with a journey but not to motherhood, one of the sacred journeys of a woman. But she begins her search for her missing husband. Her husband is only a projection of her fading memory. The quest is no longer a cake-walk as the harsh reality of humanity is exposed. All the clues she has learnt meets dead ends as time and again people she reaches out to be trying to convince otherwise. She finally realizes nothing is what it seems. They try to break her with harshness but the hunt is spirited with every fall. She is not here to hear NO for an answer.

For a moment I’m made to believe the Kolkata police are kapurush (incompetent) which serves correct to my memory as I hail from the city. But I’ll stick to the movie for now.

Rana  (nick name/daak nam) superbly supports Mrs. Bagchi in pursuit of her cause. At times the chemistry didn’t seem to work. Spiritedly that is what enticed me. A part he played with great élan. He is even drawn to her beauty; it would be odd had he not been. From helping hand to acting as integral part in using Vidya to track down the suspected Milan.  Speaking of which I have nothing but accolades for Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) with his typical northern style. His very existence added spark to the laid back Kolkata police.

Khan and Vidya’s exchange for the very first time, in which she triumphs adds weight to the adage, reap what you sow!

Not to mention the two child actors, running hot water (go see the movie to unravel its humour) and the tea-boy who acted nothing but natural. Must I say they were splendid!

The direction, the narrow alleys which is an integral part of Kolkatta has been projected to perfection.

At times it feels like it leaves you out in cold, but that is the time when the strong scripts pulls you in with its casual nature.

The suspense unfolds amidst the silence of masses. A twist that left me spellbound for a moment. Though I did see a bit of bollywoodishness but I can surely let this one slip. I won’t spill the beans. I want this article to entice you to see the movie – I hope I succeed.

Goddess Durga wipes away the pain, the analogy echoed with Amitabh’s voiced echoing the screen.

Vidya keeps the movie alive. It touched me emotionally as it has been said time and again; there is no limit to a woman’s wrath. Emotions, compassion, powerless, commonness, being an Indian; Is this not what we are subjected to in reality? It fills you with pride as you see the protagonist not tether with the possibly but laughing at the face of dilemma.

Her love for her husband is all the incentive she needs for her pursuit of truth. Love is all you need. Ideologies, adages blended with flavorsome sequences that kept me eager for more.  She is in pain, her hurt acts as her strength  in fighting the demons (mahishashur) the corrupted Indians.

It’s a fight against  corrupted officials which a common man/woman can triumph if they to believe its possible.

Time well spent watching Kahaani, it filed with me hope for modern bollywood movies with its modern take on scripts, narration, editing, portraying the uniqueness and most importantly the complete collaboration of a team to present the audience with uniqueness.

Aami sotti bolchi! (I’m telling the truth).

A movie worth watching, I don’t like to go the movies alone but I had no choice. But you do, go with someone, enjoy the movie and the music which in a way tells a story of the real India.

Here is a lyric that got stuck in my head –“Kolkata dekho to baaki sab duniya bekaar hain….bilkul naya hain phir bhi bête kal be giraftaar hain”