Reading and writing Indic/Bengali is very important in my daily flow of work. And, devices which cannot render/display/print/input Indic are an extreme annoyance.

So, I figured out that I'll base the hardware purchase/refresh decision (coming up around the mid of next year) around this specific thing. If Android devices don't support Indic seamlessly out of the box, I'd rather figure out the obvious alternative for phones and tablets/slates rather than trying to read through piles of issues on the same topic around which there is no clear roadmap.

I have been using streamzoo for a small period of time now. I usually try out any Android photo sharing app that allows filters and all such effects to be applied to photos and thus at any point use a couple. Streamzoo seems to be the nicer of the lot. It has:

• a nice clean dashboard
• an ability to follow #streams (think of hash-tags) - the app does great work in this 'social' side of things. Streams can be followed and thus make for great sense.
• a set of small and sensible photo editing options including some good filters
• a small but sensible set of effects
• allows posting to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr
• interesting photos crop up when you check out what is popular

So, is it "Instagram for Android" ? Unlikely. But it is better enough than all the others to be a contender and even a must-have Android app on its own.

What I miss

• an ability to upload only over WiFi as an option. I don't like to do uploads over 3G
• an ability to work offline. For example, use the app to click the photo, edit it, put it to the upload queue all without needing to get connected

A couple of days back we assumed that the Costa Coffee outlet at Amanora Town Center was open for business. It wasn't. However, since we were there and hungry we ended up going to Oye Pape. The restaurant is done up in some semi-kitschy way that is neither here and nor there and, the off-the-wall lights weren't too helpful in highlighting anything. The menu, as is somewhat expected, promised all sorts of things - Punjabi, Chinese, Mexican and what not.

The order was placed for some buttermilk and lassi. Surprisingly enough, they ended up misunderstanding that and bringing out double the order for all the drinks. The lassi was thick, creamy and generally good. The main dishes were Paneer Lababdar with roti, Amritsar Choley Kulcha, Mutton Kolhapuri and a Cheese Tex Mex Sizzler. It takes a rare eating joint which ensures that the order of arrival of the dishes are completely messed up. An even strange aspect was the food - it was completely without taste. I've had badly cooked food, undercooked, overboiled and everything in-between. I've never had food that didn't have a taste. The Kulcha was a twin of aloo paratha with the same texture and stuffing and the Choley was more of gravy than choley. The Kolhapuri was without taste and by all reports so was the sizzler. This puzzles me. The food didn't cause any upset tummy - a plus there, but it didn't have taste. How does that happen ?

The staff are not comfortable in English but will not fall back to Hindi to make things easy. So, do take care when placing the order. Actually, I'd recommend giving this a miss.

I don't know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. Now I can't do it for ya, I'm too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I've pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, gentlemen, and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do? 

From Any Given Sunday.

First things first. According to this, the movie doesn't have an intermission. I guess that the popcorn retailers lobby is stronger than the filmmaker's wishes.

There are movies which make the viewer think as opposed to just letting the director/scriptwriter/storyteller think and execute according to a plan. That Girl in Yellow Boots is one of those movies. On the surface it has a very simple story - Ruth (played by Kalki) is over-staying her stay as a tourist in India and is without proper papers. She is trying to find and reach out to Arjun/Benjamin Patel who is the father who walked out on her mother and sister. She works at a massage parlor - the kind which has small inserts across various newspapers offering 'services'. She is savvy, street-smart, knows how to bribe her way through various departments, can cuss in Hindi and, has a lot of characters flitting in and out of her daily life. The movie is a collage of these characters - some cameos and some a bit more than cameos. But at any point there isn't a need to learn the backstory of who they are, what they do or even, why they are the way they are. The movie is about that girl in yellow boots and, Ruth is the girl in those yellow boots. The first 40 minutes or so take some time to set up the narrative for that inevitable and brutal ending. Once that loose threads are weaved into a state of readiness for the last 10 minutes, the movie just picks up and hurls thought points at the viewer.

Kalki has a strange accent and her accent does slip through the movie at various places. However, she does a very good job of doing whatever Ruth was supposed to do. The camera work is a bit patchy throughout the movie. Wandering and searching through the first half and thereafter becoming very tight and close, it tries to bring the viewer into the scene but doesn't really do a good job. The problem with the movie is at a different level. It reminded me of the crowd that used to throng the film festival(s) at Calcutta all eager to check out the current 'hot' film. At 2330, the group of 15 who were at theatre were a throwback. Chuckling and guffawing needlessly at innuendo, whistling at totally oddball scenes, these are the kind of audience the movie, if it so wanted, should have released direct to DVD for. Some reviews have panned it as a bad film and others call it edge. I'd go with disturbing. Hindi/Indian movies could do with movies and themes like these and dig deeper. It is useful to do so. Especially for an urban audience that is lazy enough to stop exploring the darker sides of their psyche.

The GDM on Fedora 15 doesn't seem to have a way to change the language/locale. I use the GDM when booting into XFCE. So, to change from English to Bengali (India) I had to:

• use GDM to log in to GNOME3
• use the Region settings to change the default English to Bengali (India)
• log out of GNOME 3
• log back in again using GDM but this time using XFCE

And, then spend a couple of minutes fixing/changing the preferred fonts because they don't look too good. That's a very annoying experience. Is there an easier way to accomplish this ?

This is what makes me sad. Seriously, you reply using "@sankarshan" and thereafter butcher it to 'Sankar' ? Over the years I've had many variations of my name - Sankrasan, Sankarasan, Shankar and what not. Sometimes I used to wonder how difficult would it be to look it up here or, here. During my school days I had this gentleman to thank. A prolific presence on The Telegraph, I believe that he ensured that folks had a good name recall :)

In case of MyAkosha I think it is just laziness coupled with lack of awareness. Frustrating. But then my company's IT policy ensured that I'll, till the time I'm employed here, will have a corp ID that is completely different from what my name is. Frustration aplenty.

A couple of days back I had this conversation. The question was very clear and, given that everyone has their own special and thereafter the common horror stories of interaction, I figured that I could think about the answer I had provided. So, here's a small list of what I think could be better.

• Better documentation. Most companies/organizations do a very bad job with keeping the documentation updated or, even maintaining a FAQ at any place. For example, if you look at the ISPs, they generally end up receiving incoming calls which can probably fall under the buckets like - billing, network connections, services. And yet, they don't really keep any documentation available in public which can help self diagnose. The computer equipment manufacturers seem to have found out the benefit of this, the service providers haven't
• The lack of documentation theory is further strengthened when you call in and get someone on the other side (after umpteen rounds of muzak and "your call is important to us") who will end up doing a stock template response. I've had, in recent times, complained to Airtel about 3G services not working while voice services are active and, in return have received a sales patter about how robust Airtel's network is.
• Then of course there is the tendency to distrust the customer. Airtel DTH will practically tell you to your face that whatever your complaint is, it is not true. Airtel (cell phone) are a bit more subtle, they'll ask you to provide information that is odd viz. your billing cycle, when you complain about a VAS bit not working.
• Inarticulate agents. Irrespective of whether I am calling in from Pune or, from Kolkata, I'll end up with someone who has trouble understanding very basic English and has a tendency to lapse into the vernacular. Even if I choose not to speak in the local language. This could be a result of outsourcing to the cheapest service provider but it does suck when you have to take more time than required and break up your problem just so that the person can lodge in the proper complaint.
• If my call is important to you then ensure that I am not on hold for a long time. The IVRs have odd loops and, more often than not end up keeping you online (and, paying for the call) even though you'd wish that you can read up somewhere what could be wrong. I've timed my interactions with the vendors for a period of 6 months now. Here are the results as average (I've done more than 10 calls for each vendor around this time):
  • Airtel DTH : 11 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 8 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
  • Airtel (cell phone) : 9 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 15 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
  • Tata Indicom Broadband : 10 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 15 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
  • Tata Teleservices : 8 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 5 minutes when the time is beyond that range.
  • ICICI Bank : 12 minutes before I get a human (calling between 0900 and 2000). 10 minutes when the time is beyond that range.

Then of course there are times when you get geniunely hilarious responses (this was in a customer support email addressed to me) like this :

Dear Vijay  Kamble,

Ref: Email dated 23-08-2011, requesting for 3G settings  on your airtel mobile number <edited out>.
Please ignore the previous mail.
Thank you for your email to airtel and the opportunity to assist you.
We regret to inform you that , we are unable to mail the settings that will enable 3G on your airtel mobile number <edited out>, so we request you to contact 12134 .
We hope that this response has addressed your query  suitably.  
Please do write in for any further  assistance.

Yours Sincerely, 

$USERNAME$ 
Customer Care 
Bharti Airtel Limited

Md. Quamrul H

Yesterday I was at Inorbit Mall at VimanNagar Pune. There's a sprawling, all glass Crossword store there. Inside there were a couple of folks leafing through glossy magazines and coffee table books which were on sale. And, I started thinking about how I select which books to pick up and read.

• Every year I re-read a couple of books. Among these are Pather Pachali, Aparajito and Chaander Pahar. Then there's Padma Nadir Maajhi, Putul Naacher Itikatha, Love in the time of Cholera, Of Love and Other Demons, War and Remembrance, The LoTR. There's the fun of being able to discover more than I understood in the previous year - of layered meanings and sometimes forgotten episodes.
• I've found Goodreads.com to be a good source of reading up on newer books and, their reviews. Interesting book reviews or, even books that have an interesting topic as their core can be picked up.
• Twitter and Facebook are good, but I don't harvest recommendations as much as I can.
• After the purchase of the Kindle and, the subsequent setting up of newsletter notifications, Amazon sends a steady stream of book recommendations by genre. All very nice, linked to reviews and all of that. That forms another source.
• I usually keep a list of books (on the phone) I'd like to read if I see (and, mostly read through) anything that jumps out and says "read me" at the bookstores. In this aspect, Landmark at Pune does better than Crossword. I haven't yet visited CMYK. So, perhaps something would come up from there.
• I get very few book recommendations from acquaintances and friends. The usual complaint that I hear is "I don't even know whether you'd like to read it !" So, I do a sneaky follow of what they are reading and sometimes ask pretty obvious questions - that gives me an idea about what is interesting to read.
• The other thing I've noticed is that I end up doing "breadcrumb reading". That's something I just cooked up as a term. What it means that I might be reading a book and, the reviews of the book or, citations inside would open up a new vista of related books and reading material. So, breadcrumbs ... One thing leads to another and I end up reading through a good chunk of stuff.
• Finally, the newsletters from the publishers (I subscribe to a wide variety of them), help me figure out what should be on the reading list.

I wonder how others make up their reading lists ? Do you make it up at the beginning of the year, or, is it seasonal ?