The Cold Haven

October 4, 2010: This is the date I posted my last entry in My Blog ‘Verbosity’. Verbosity was suppressed with some other dominant happenings in my life I guess (No Guys, I dint get married; but I do agree that is one event that is ultimate murderer of a Man’s Verbosity or more basic sense called speech). As I had shared with you guys I am an IT professional, so like any IT guy who does ‘Tapasya’ to get the Nirvana called H1B. Now Before you guys confuse it with H1N1 flu virus, let me clarify it is the work visa for USA, but most of you might be knowing it as it gather quiet a lot of news space in India.

Now as usual I have gone on a Tangent, so in short I got a H1B visa and I flew some 16 hours to the so called land of opportunities USA in November and got tangled in the coveted Client – Service Provider relationship taking most of my time. But After my birthday on May 15^th realized that why did I give up one thing I loved (Blogging) due to the work pressures of sheer laziness, here I am again trying to dust myself from the ground, opening the beautiful creation MS Word and trying to pen down my feelings.

The last six months have been different to say the least, I am in one of the most Cold states (It’s a understatement for sure with-40 Deg temperatures) of US called Minnesota, saw snow first time in my life and after a point of time it was like I only saw snow in my life. God it is only Indians I guess who can survive in extreme weather, I still remember how the foreigners go red and dehydrated in Indian heat. But I see around and I see ample Indian crowd moving around and living lives as if they were always accustomed to snow for good 7-8 months a year.

I really like the comfort and the calmness in life here, how well it is supported by well laid Infrastructure and basic amenities. I just dream it would become the same in India some day. I am not getting anything more in mind right now to write, but this post was more a promise to myself that I would start blogging again and hope you people’s support will make that happen. Adios.

I bought my current phone from my first salary in 2008, It was the latest slick model at that time and made a style statement. I have it for two years now and due to the rapidly changing and evolving Cell Phone market, it has become obsolete now. And as I carry my phone around, I always feel my phone (and hence me) would be feeling so pithy and old style among all the new uber cool models. I imagine following will be the Conversation that my phone will have with the current generation:

PS: Please generously donate to help me buy a new phone, I am no more stylish and chic, you know.

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We live in a World of uncertainties; you never know what will happen in the next few moments. People tend to take all kind of precautions to be able to counter or more realistically, face these uncertainties. Natural Calamities, Accidents, Crimes are some examples of these uncertainties and they have direct imminent danger on human lives (and maybe our near and dear ones).

Keeping the above context in mind and considering the kind of progress technology has made in the Cellular technology, one thing comes to my mind, how to use this technology to decrease or at least be more prepared for these uncertainties. As we all know that the Cellular Network is maintained through a network of antennas and Cellular phones communicate through these antennas.

(In Layman’s terms, Base Switching Centre- BSC controls a set of base stations (antennas) and Mobile Switching centre controls the BSCs. The Cell Phone connects to the base stations and is routed to the desired destination phone through a complex switching mechanism using BSC and MSC.)

More Info: http://www.cellular.co.za/howagsm.htm

At any point of time, the approximate location of a cell phone can be determined depending on which Cell Tower it is receiving signal from. So it might be possible for Cellular companies to find out the approximate location of a sim (phone). I have read several instances of phone companies helping Police in their investigations through Cell Phone tracking. When such a technology is there, why don’t provide it to commoners.

Based on the above bit of Info, I thought of an Application that will enable tracking of a phone based on the base station the phone is receiving signal from. Of course there will be some rules around which this application will be built. The Tracking will only be allowed given a written permission obtained from the tracked phone owner, you can’t just track any xyz number. This will enable tracking the location of any individual provided he/she is carrying the phone (and it is on and catching network).

This application will be of great help to parents who want to keep an eye on their children and track their whereabouts. Also it will be helpful for managing small scale Sales teams and the sales manager will be able to track the team on the field and of course catch any lies (if any). Needless to say it might also be used by people to track their spouses for safety reason (tell this reason only, else you are screwed ). What I am trying to say is the uses of this application can be numerous and since it requires permission from a subscriber to be tracked, it doesn’t hinder anyone’s privacy as well.

As all applications, it has some loopholes as well. This application has no use if the phone is switched off, is out of signal area, or is left at a certain place. But barring these situations it can prove to be an excellent application for people to be in touch with each other and know their whereabouts all the time.

It shows an excellent avenue for Phone Companies as well to earn extra revenue (as they will be providing the service). All in all, it’s a win all situation.

Disclaimer: I haven’t done any research regarding this topic, so pardon me if any such application is already available. This idea came to me from Nokia’s tagline ‘Connecting People’ and if such an application isn’t available and any company (especially Docomo) is willing to give this application a try, do give me my royalties

There are actors and there are Heroes, and today’s Multiplex era has shifted the Bollywood equilibrium towards the former one. When a moviegoer enters the multiplex, he is looking for value for his money as he pays 200 bucks for his ticket, another 200 for snacks and 30 for parking. He wants full return on the investment and he punishes hard, movies which are haphazard packages of formulaic recipes. That’s why we see movies like Kites, which was portrayed having International appeal failed miserably at box office, you can’t sell shitty material in glorified packaging, the inside matter should be as good or better than the packaging.

The above phenomenon has altered the scenario of the film industry. There was an era when tickets were sold just by the name of Heroes, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bacchan – these names were guarantee enough for House Full boards outside theatres. Storyline, Plot, believability were not terms with which people were accustomed to. But as the Industry grew bigger and Bollywood started churning 700 odd movies a year, the audience had to become selective and choosy; accompanied by emerging influence of media and internet which started having a say in audience’s mindset about a movie or star.

All the factors led to the fall of the phenomenon called STAR, actors started doing movies which would not let a whistle out of you or standing in the chair and clapping and shouting furiously (anyways if in a multiplex you do that, people stare at you as if you are wearing animal skin with a stone club in your hand). The point is the stratum between the grading of movies has widened comprehensively, at one end there is so called meaningful cinema like Peepli Live, Udaan and other end are movies like “Emran Hashmi smooch fest” flicks. There are some movies which lie in middle like 3 idiots, Ghajini etc which are not entirely multiplexy , but still tilt towards that end of balance.

At this juncture, I would like to mention a rare phenomenon called as Salman Khan, the guy who is the only left Star among the bunch of actors ( we all know his acting skills ) with two movies Wanted and Dabanng, he has proved once and for all, he is a Star, due to the following reasons:

• You don’t need story or plot for a star to make a movie work
• You don’t need acting skills, just out and out style is enough
• You can put the neighborhood auntyji as the heroine and it won’t change anything; the heroine doesn’t matter.
• Ham the action and comedy scenes as much as possible, it suits the Star. He is the superhero.

I was so thrilled and amazed to see and enjoy immensely; Dabanng, more so because we have a star that can make us leave our brains behind and still give us paisa vasool shameless entertainment. Rather than expecting the twists in the plot, we are thinking at which point in the movie, he will remove his shirt. In the end, whatever people say about the guy’s personal life, He is a true Superstar of Bollywood. He can carry a movie singlehandedly on his shoulders to a hit, with a limited set of things to offer. That’s the definition of a Superstar. (I still want to know how he has the hottest chick in the industry as his GF all the time, for straight 20 something years:-O )