Accepting the Lumia. How I once hated the Lumia and now like it... a lot

I don’t always stick to the ethics of downloading music legally. I try my best to avoid downloading new songs through pirated means, but at times, I do succumb to the temptation of downloading mp3s. During my MBA I mostly used to stream music through Youtube while I worked on my laptop. At my previous job (prior to MBA) I used to stream music on Windows Media Player’s internet radio on my Desktop at the office. Needless to say, I love listening to music. I confess that most days even when I go to bed, I put my earplugs in and set the vintage iPod on auto power-off after 30-45min. I strongly believe that if you aren’t able to sleep, then enjoy that endless tossing and turning on your iPod/mp3 player. A couple of years back when I didn’t have an iPod (or any mp3 player), I used to listen to music on my cell phone even when going to sleep. During my sleep once I accidently hit some buttons on the phone and dialed home, waking up my parents at 3:30AM. My parents who panicked after being woken up ended up calling a friend of mine to check up on me at around 4:00 AM since I was in too deep a sleep to notice their 15 missed calls between 3:30AM and 4:00AM. That was one night that made me think again about listening to music on my cell phone while going to sleep. I soon moved to using mp3 players after that incident.

Anyway, coming back to the point, because of my addiction, I always felt the need to download music. Recently when my dad got an iPhone, he handed me his one year old Nokia Lumia 710, since my 2.5 year old HTC Desire HD Android phone was nearing its demise(loads of issues). One of the features of this Lumia 710 phone is - getting streaming internet radio (a feature that I later found through an app in the HTC Android too). Internet Radio is something that I have been missing out on since my new office has highly restrictive IT policies. I am unable to use my laptop on the office net for streaming youtube/internet radio etc. The Lumia gives me loads of Internet Radio options for the latest streaming music. It also gives me the option to download music legally using the Free Downloadable Nokia Music App. And yes, I am talking about downloading free music legally. This is one of the best features of this phone. I have resorted to listening to music on my phone even when going to bed (I now make sure I lock the screen before I sleep). Just because of the free music download and radio features, I am willing to overlook the numerous other shortcomings of the Lumia. The Lumia isn’t the best when you need to share files between two devices over Bluetooth. Its volume control is really messed up. If I change the volume for the music that I am listening to, then that also changes the phone ringer volume. The default internet browser isn’t very comfortable to use and unfortunately I have not been able to install any other browser like chrome or Mozilla or Opera. Also, it does not allow memory expansion. I find the 8GB claimed (actually 6.5GB approx) memory quite insufficient. I have never used the iOS, but I do hope that iOS on iPhone 4 has atleast the option for streaming internet radio and allows for downloading music free.

Enough bashing of the Lumia, so let me close this by acknowledging that the Lumia has an amazing interface. Its UI is simply different from the usual iOS or Android – basically not just numerous icons scattered across. I happen to like the capacitive touch of the Lumia more than that of the HTC’s capacitive touch. I guess my initial dislike for Lumia has now turned into pleasant acceptability of the Windows based Finnish product.

PS: Android Supporters, I never needed Zillion+ apps, and I never needed to tweak the OS for my HTC, so I guess, I am ok with the factory made OS of any mobile phone, and the apps I need are available in both Windows Marketplace and Android Playstore.

Crooking in the kitchen

I'm not a good cook. But I can manage with a few things.
My first main experience of cooking was right before I left for the US in 2010. Had to go to the states for close to 2 months and my mom helped me quickly learn a few things. But I usually stuck to preparing the select 4-5 thing I had known. Most of the times, I used to get the ready to eat things such as the ones from the MTR stable, or eat out with some colleagues. And at times I confess, I used to binge on ice-cream for dinner. God, the variety of ice-creams in Walmart!!!
So after returning from my US trip, having gained close to 7Kgs, I did not need to cook for quite a while since I was with my parent for a year and then moved to Mumbai for my MBA where we had dining arrangements on the campus premises. 
Recently, when I started working again after my MBA, I moved to a new city and thought of resuming my cooking, much to the disappointment of my mom. She always felt that I should hire a cook who can help prepare the meals since cooking was not really my skill-set. However, I had started off thinking that I will hire a cook soon after I get settled in. As the story goes, I started liking the process of cooking. I wanted to try newer things. I don't aspire to becoming a chef of a restaurant or remotely close to him, but wanted to atleast try and give myself more variety in terms of what lands on my plate.
The thing is, I was a bit sick of eating out and needed to get things as per my taste/preference. Additionally, I wanted to be a bit more careful about the calorie content I take. So cooking at home became something of a regular thing. Earlier I started off with simple things like Daal, Rice, simple vegetables, gradually moving on to making Rotis, Parathas, more vegetables, just short of making exquisite cuisines. I must confess, my work int he kitchen has not yet proved to be very successful, but I have been gradually improving. The thing is, I realized that I can judge how something will turn out to be before its done, so I can modify it mid-route. The whole process takes me over an hour easily, and this is when I am able to handle 2-3 things at a time. I'm able to multitask in the kitchen, and I never thought I could do that.
The bottom line is, I now enjoy cooking. I like chopping the vegetables into fine pieces. But, as it happens on Sunday, 24th June I got a cut on my thumb while pealing a papaya, and then after an hour I got a big cut on my index finger while chopping some tomatoes, and then later that evening, I got another cut on my palm trying to cut something else. All on my left hand, which by evening was covered in band-aids. Some days are meant not to be spent in the kitchen, despite your liking for the cooking.

From the eyes of a pedestrian

Before moving to Hyderabad, I had very high hopes of finding this city very comforting, convenient, and 'welcoming'. The reason for my high expectations were disappointment with Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore as potential cities where I would want to settle long term. I know its too early for me to look at a city from a long term settlement perspective, but I guess, I think long term for most things.
So when I moved in an apartment close to my Banjara Hills office, I was hoping that staying in a 'Posh' area automatically meant good quality of life, decent infrastructure around, all basic necessities are just a few minutes away. I never thought that one would need a car for traveling.

So, when I went for morning walks/jogs soon after moving in the apartment, I realized that a lot of roads don't have footpaths, despite those roads not being freeways. Most footpaths are lined with some or the other obstruction, so any pedestrian ends up spending 80% time of the journey on the road, sharing it with the motor vehicles. Unfortunately in India (unlike what I have seen in the USA), those on foot are considered inferior, and probably deserve to die in the eyes of motorists. so many times, have I seen cars over-speeding in narrow lanes, over-taking from the wrong side, jumping the red-lights, driving on the wrong side of the road. And mostly all this right in front of the traffic cops. So the other day when my friend Sharukh (From Mumbai) who bought a brand new car turned at a corner without giving a turn indicator, another collegue, Neha jokingly said, "Seems you have become a pakka Hyderabadi'.

So any new person moving to Hyderabad should know a few things about Hyderabad roads -
1) No one gives turn indicators. Its a question of honor. You use an indicator, you are a disgrace.
2) No one uses ORVM -Outside Rear View Mirrors, specially on motorbikes. The mirrors on Bikes are turned inside, making me wonder if the macho bike riders need it as their vanity mirror.
3) Drivers on the roads play real life Grand Theft Auto (GTA) in which running over pedestrians earns you points. (The reason is that many areas of Hyderabad have massive power cuts, so they need to utilize their adrenaline they saved up for playing PlayStation or XBox, and city roads are the only place they can use this adrenaline)
4) Honking needlessly is a necessity; else their weak bladder may give way to a wet floor in the car.
5) After mild rains, it is necessary to drive fast. Since there is no proper drainage system in Hyderabad for rain water, many roads get quite clogged with stagnant water. Ideal way to help pedestrians take a bath. Isn't it obvious that Hyderabad despite its lakes has massive water problems? Funny you readers need an explanation.
6) If you (as a pedestrian) are planning to share the road for walking with other motorists, be prepared to share a hospital bed with other pedestrians. The other day during my morning walk, I got hit by a biker who had all the road to himself with barely any traffic at 6:30AM. He simply wanted to drive with his closed eyes I guess. Probably to practice for the circus auditions to be held next week.
7) Bike riders for some reason don't switch on their headlights during late evenings and at night. One or two times, I noticed that while crossing a road in the dark, suddenly someone comes close enough and honks. Not sure if they are saving power or life of the bulb or just have night vision like Batman.
8) Even some pedestrians start crossing the road even with dense traffic on their way. The other day I saw a lady try to cross the road with heavy traffic heading her way and he frantically trying to wave and signal the on-coming cars to slow down. I guess a lack of subways/overhead bridges is also a major hindrance to the pedestrian movement.

Those from Hyderabad may complain that I have criticized the driving sense of the people of this city despite coming from other 'bad' cities like Delhi & Mumbai in terms of their road sense. Well, in my defense -

For Delhi -  (1) Enough Footpaths for pedestrians, (2) Decent Public transport - number of buses & THE METRO (beat this!!!), (3) Decent parks for morning joggers like me, (4) Enough & strict traffic policemen to regulate traffic - (FYI, I still have the challan copy from my fine that I had to pay for accidentally jumping a red light), (5) people have a basic sense of courtesy towards other drivers (well, except for the road rage, rampant use of guns).. I know this is a major point, but hopefully no one will pay much attention to this.

For Mumbai - (1) Most drivers have much higher driving sense than other places, (2) Good public transport - Good bus network, fairly decent local trains (though miserably crowded, the trains have rarely let us down), decent auto-walas, (3) courteous & helpful fellow travelers on the road or the train

While, criticizing the traffic conditions and movement of Hyderbad, a few other things I noticed that are common to Hyderabad with other cities like Delhi & Mumbai -
(1) Reckless bike riders - mostly the early to mid twenties riders who ride without helmets, trying to accelerate their bikes as if the bike is on Nitro Boosters. Not sure if they are trying to impress some girl or trying to play stuntmen for Hollywood directors on the lookout for the next Bond/Mission Impossible movie. I even noticed that bike riders in Hyderabad, Delhi are pretty desperate for attention. At both places I have seen them pass lewd comments at women. However, in Delhi often these comments get converted to rapes,.but who is worried about that? Seems everyone has accepted that its part and parcel of your life there. FYI, according to a recent report on Yahoo news, Hyderabad is 4th unsafe city. No points on guessing who leads the pack
(2) Drivers spitting on the roads - probably they think that the spit has some cleansing properties that will help clear the roads.
(3) Excessive honking - I know I have used this point to criticize Hyderabadis, but in all fairness, other cities also have their own bunch of #$#@$%^&* - # Censored due to inappropriate language.
(4) Scary bus drivers. These people handling the massive vehicles probably don't realize that one mild hand movement of theirs means the whole machine sways in either direction, close to knocking off someone right around it. Whenever such a thing happens, I for one try to either race ahead of the bus or fall back. Public transport buses jumping read-lights is also a common sight. Something one wouldn't expect the drivers to do considering that the government drivers are  probably not paid based on the distance/passenger count. (Correct me if I'm wrong). I recently had a near miss when I was trying to cross road (in Hyderabad) from a Zebra Crossing, and the only motor vehicle to simply ignore the red-light signal was a government operated bus. I shouted abuses at the driver, but he simply smirked. But I remembered, Delhi bus drivers are no different, so why just criticize Hyderabad.

I have seen my friend Sharukh manage driving here with some difficulty, until he stopped bothering about fellow travelers on the road. He mentioned, "In rome do as the Romans do, in Hyderabad, do as the Hyderabadis do"

Mere Dad ki Maruti 800

A few days back  my dad decided that the car he owned for 17  years (the second generation Maruti 800) needs to be sold off. It had lately been giving a little trouble, but the main reason was the lack of airconditioning. Delhi summers are unsparing to those who travel without an AC in day time. The car had been just like another family member. It was the car on which i learnt to drive, drove to friends, malls, my first job and late night drives. Needless to say, we were emotionally attached to the vintage four wheeler.
The last few days were spent on getting the minor issues fixed. So today while getting it thouroughly cleaned i felt a bit guilty of letting go of this car. I actaully noticed today how  beautiful this car is. Yes it is a little bit of trouble driving it in the heat, and compared to my own car, the Hyundai I10, it is highly under powered, but the 800 has been with us  far too long - when we needed to go for a family outing or to my exams  or to that friends place after school. My younger sister, who isn't even eligible to drive, commented, "can't I use it? I don't feel like letting it go. It feels so bad to see dad sell it"
But just like a father takes solace in the fact that his daughter is going to a good family, we also take comfort in the fact that our 800 is going to a decent family.

Last exam, reliving the first day

Today being the last exam of my MBA, some of us chose to celebrate it exactly in the same way as we did our first day in college. We went for a movie. Some might ask what the big deal is. Well, on the first day, when we had to run around, get a ton of formalities done in the college, a small group of people who barely knew each other decided to go to a nearby movie hall and watch “X-Men: First Class” (read about our experience that day here). Technically, we should have been in the campus, but we all thought, “What the Heck, let’s go for a movie”.

It was a good experience and a good memory now.

Today, I and a few other friends had an exam - Our last exam in MBA. I hurried, and left the exam hall over an hour before the scheduled end – only because I had to catch a movie. I said to myself, “What the Heck, I’m going for a movie today”. It felt like reliving that day (though with a number of variations).

Unfortunately, the movie we went to was “Olympus has Fallen”. A movie that reminds me that Hollywood movie makers are also humans. They make mistakes!

It was a bad experience and a bad memory now. But while I write the blog, I say, “What the Heck, it was with friends(Charu & Nimit), so not a total waste of time & money”.

And with this, I sign off as the student writer in me. Will soon resume as a jobless person sitting bored at home, followed by as a person taking a break from my career once again.

No to Nokia

During a recent debate with some friends over the sorry state of affairs in India especially from the perspective of women safety, the conversation brought up the case of private companies taking actions to ensure women safety. One of the initiatives being generally followed is that a lady is not the last employee to be dropped off in the cab or that there is a security guard in the vehicle in case she has the last stop. Assumption being that the security guard has probably undergone an extensive background check.
I mentioned how Nokia is not doing any such thing despite requests from women employees. 

How do I know this- because my sister was an intern with Nokia and their cost cutting measures were quite evident from the frequent changes of transport contractors without any proper checks. What did this mean? The cabs they provide to employees (including interns such as my sister) were changing every second day, with new drivers, ones completely unknown. No courtesy of dropping off a lady passenger earlier or sending a guard in the car. On top of that, the cabs used to come at around 7AM for the pickup. Thankfully it was summer when she was doing her internship. Had it been winters, 7AM would have meant fog, darkness and a situation where one doesn’t really feel safe. Why didn’t my sister raise this matter with the HR or someone else in the company? She DID, and then got shot down. Besides this, Nokia India’s desperate attempts to cut costs have eaten into the pie called employee morale. I will leave commenting on their survival in India for another blog post.

On the other hand, I was doing my internship last year with Coca Cola. The company took pains to ensure safety and comfort to its employees, at least in my opinion.

Long story short- Avoid working for Nokia, at least until they prove that the work place is not as bad as I have imagined it to be. 

Joan of Arcadia, reminds one to think beyond just 'I'

For the last few days I have been watching a series online called "Joan of Arcadia".
I had come across this name somewhere online and the only reason I took some interest initially was because I have actually been to Arcadia (in California). Plus, from my early days of Age of Empires, I remembered 'Joan of Arc', who I had later found on Wiki was a French 'Folk Heroine'.

So my curiosity got the better of me and I went to Youtube to check out some clips of the show. went to IMDB and found that it had a mediocre rating. But I still ended up watching the first few episodes of the show. The show focused on a girl who talks to God and God asks her to do things that lead to something indirectly. In short, she becomes the 'Instrument of God'. The girl Joan gets to see how her actions can indirectly lead to someone being happy or someone relieved of his or her suffering. The show is different. Definitely different from my usual platter of TV shows that I watch.

The drama-fantasy show is actually quite nice. It gives a emotional touch beyond just the typical drama shows having numerous love connections, heart-breaks etc (eg The OC). This show revives your emotional quotient from a more altruistic perspective. It borders on being 'sentimental'. Most of us, and especially me, are so self absorbed in our lives that most of the time we (again, especially I), think of academics, career decisions, and to a degree social standing almost all day long (Metaphorically of course).
And all these things seem so trivial when I think about how the rest of the world survives, feels and handles issues. I am reminded of my friends who have faced many more challenges than what I have, financially, emotionally, even physically. Watching Joan of Arcadia, I feel guilty for not being a better human being. And even though I resolve to do better while writing this blog-post, I just know that tomorrow morning onward, I will again be the same self absorbed individual.

Oh, did i forget to mention that I'm an Agnostic.

Well, I guess I can conclude by saying: You should definitely watch this show.