Saturday, September 29, 2012

myPhone Not iPhone.

The hype over the iPhone5 is inescapable. I'm told Apple hasn't gone overboard with ads. They haven't had to. But people have simply been lining up to be the first to get a hold of it wherever in the world it is launched. It is like the Harrods sales of old where they used to sell fur coats (when it was still okay to wear fur) for £ 1 and people used to sleep overnight outside the store to grab it and other bargains. This time people are obviously not bargain hunting. It is more a status symbol. They would willingly part with the $1000 plus it costs in New Zealand.

While there are the fervent pro iPhoners and the pro Androiders with each enamoured of the merits of their particular choice, I was taken with just one point from the latter. It deserves a mention.

To start with, they concede that the current mobile phones, whether iPhone or Androids, are all state of the art. Both offer an amazing array of applications. BUT, say this group, the major difference lies in the operating systems. Just like Microsoft's Windows operating system, Apple uses a closed source operating system - the iOS. On the other hand the Android operating system is open source, based on Linux. (To know more about open source, here are two links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software and http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question435.htm)

This, according to the pro Androiders, is undeniably good for computing on the whole. Locked operating systems which no one but a handful of developers (and the code-breakers and virus injectors) have access to, hold back what is in their system code from everyone else. This is one reason, the pro Androiders claim, why computing hasn't progressed even more than it already has. Its benefits haven't been exploited and bettered by a great many good brains on earth. Even if the handful of brains who work for Apple have thought of everything you possibly would want in the iPhones and it all works infinitely faster and better, the source code remains in the hands of a few. If something doesn't work they are the only ones who have access to the code to change it, at a price to you.

Open source code is available to everyone all over the world. Useful, even currently unthought of applications and innovations (as needs are different in every corner of the earth) can be added by anyone and these are vetted, verified and improved upon by an army of others the world over. Can you imagine the capacity of such a system to advance technology? I'm sure the pro iPhoners would have their own take on this argument and if civilly put, I'd be glad to hear it.

As for me, I enjoy the GPS on my partner's Android phone. I don't have to look at maps with tiny print in poor light. What joy. And when the American or English auto-digital voice (he has both) tries to pronounce the names of roads in NZ like Ngaphui or Naenae (American voice - Knee-knee, English - Nay nay. Local NZ - Naai Naai), my day is made. 

Of course, being from the outdated desktop computers era, and with failing eyesight and clumsy fingers, the extent to which I use my mobile phone is hopelessly outdated. I use it as a phone. Occasionally, I've been known to text simple messages too. Tch tch, mental block eh, Androiders and iPhoners?.



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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

NZ Wide Earthquake Drill on 26th September.

Every child in NZ knows the mantra, "DROP, COVER, HOLD" It is what they are taught in school so they know what to do when an earthquake strikes.

When I first settled in NZ I didn't know it was earthquake prone. Nothing prepared me for the shock of feeling the ground under and around me shaking violently. I think my blood sugar must've plummeted as everything veered crazily and a sickening jolt went through the house. I picked up the kids - one a baby and the other an infant - and ran to my neighbour's not knowing what had hit us. Now I know it was the wrongest thing to do.

The best strategy is to drop down to your knees, either under a sturdy table (or other furniture) that won't break and fall all over you or if you are physically not that agile, stay close to an inner wall away from flying debris from windows etc, protect your face and neck and hold that position until the earth stops shaking. It is a well documented fact that flying debris is responsible for a great many deaths in an earthquake.

Since that first earthquake I've felt two more. All three have been "minor" - around 5 on the richter scale. You never get used to an earthquake. The shock makes the blood drain from your face every time. But what happens after that is that you feel nervous for a day or two and then limp back to being blase about it. You forget - until the next one hits you. 

After the Christchurch earthquake, the NZ government has decided on this massive effort - an earthquake drill on the 26th of September, 2012 at exactly 9:26 am so that New Zealanders are forced to think about, plan and strategise their movements before, during and after an earthquake.

There is much we can do.

We need, for example, an earthquake emergency kit to enable us to survive for at least three days without help. We need water stored in sturdy containers at home, at work and in the car in strategic locations. We need to chalk out escape routes, a meeting place for the family and much more.

Here are a couple of useful links if you'd like to find out more

Shakeout - NZ Earthquake Drill 
Emergency survival kit


Monday, September 17, 2012

"Women Only" Exhibition in NZ Causes Anger



I went for a photography exhibition. There were exhibits from a variety of photographers. But one was a video which was causing an angry reaction from a few NZ males. Why? Because only women were allowed to view it. This is something we, in India, would not make an outcry about. You don't want us to see your video? Okay. But in NZ it has caused many to speak out against and for.

Sophia Al-Maria from Qatar filmed some friends dressing up for a wedding. The idea was to show Muslim women as normal - totally ordinary - as fond of dressing up as the next person. They were shown without their hijabs and face veils and Sophia was bound by a condition. No male would be allowed to see the video as it went against Muslim tradition.

Many NZ males were annoyed. They said their taxes paid for the Dowse museum where the exhibition was being held as much as anyone else’s; that the exhibits in the museum should therefore be open to everyone. They said they would have no objections to the exhibition being held privately. Many others rose to the Dowse’s defence. We should respect and be sensitive towards other cultures and traditions, they said, and the Dowse did the right thing by respecting the wishes of the photographer.

 
Delving a bit deeper and from the Indian perspective, I have a few questions. I know we would accept this decision of Sophia’s if the exhibition were held in India. But I can’t help wondering what exactly our reasons for doing so would be. Have we, who’ve lived with religious differences since centuries in India – 7 to 8 different religions? – decided we are not going to stir up any controversy about things because we are sensitive to other cultures? Or because we don’t really care? Or does it go deeper than that?

Do we believe that some of them are fanatical enough to threaten our lives if we do object on principle and that it isn't worth the effort? That if male eyes saw those faces, those poor women would be in mortal danger from some fanatical Muslim men? Is our attitude, let the Muslim women not show their faces if they don’t want to as long as we aren’t forced to do the same? Would we rather ignore the fact that in India the Muslim women were less concerned about showing their faces not too long ago when we were growing up in the sixties to the nineties? That many more Muslim women have started covering their faces since then? That they were freer and more relaxed in larger numbers then than now? That we don’t wish to get into any controversy and if they really want things to change the effort has to come from them and not us?

I would feel relaxed about it all except I often keep wondering if they have been coerced into changing from those days to the women they are today – with their freedom more curtailed than ever before or if they’ve changed of their own volition. And I keep wondering if the intolerant in their community would like to try and impose their values on women of other faiths in India.

Even as I was writing this another controversy overtook this issue. They showed a movie with the Muslim prophet, Mohammed, being mocked and shown in a poor light. The consequences were dire. Riots, anti American sentiment, even the killing of an American ambassador. I saw bits of that movie on Youtube. To my mind it was tasteless and offensive. I would give it a very poor review. I would even call it disgusting. I would stop watching it half way. But, I wouldn't blame the entire American world for it.

There are good Americans and stupid, insensitive ones just as there are people of all kinds all over the world.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

He Said, She Said

Today it won't be a rant against battered wives, child abuse, scams in government, overcrowded cities, a haze over our cities thanks to fumes from the jungle of transportation, industry trying not to follow environmental standards laid down by our government, overcrowded cities, potholes in our roads, slums in our cities, crime.

No, nothing that intense. It's things people say that make me slightly uncomfortable. For example, have you ever felt creepy listening to some politicians trying to appear glib, suave and bluff as they try and deftly deflect a question? That their ploy looks obvious to the rest of us while their sycophants bend over backwards to applaud their cleverness is another matter.

I love Barrack and I hope he wins. But when he or any American is shown on TV going, "America is the best" it sadly doesn't ring true anymore. Take the following, for example. It definitely gave me the heebee jeebees. It made the headlines in NZ. It is what the US State department said John Key, our NZ PM, said. I don't know if they expected NZ not to pick up on it but it made the headlines here - "Key gets a US rewrite of what he really said" It took my breath away and made me think it would pay to do a double check as a matter of course. Kudos to the NZ Herald for being vigilant and for showing the transcript so no one was left in any doubt as to their report's veracity. I believe the Americans are blaming it on wind.

Finally, the recent trend among one or two Indian reporters to sound terribly high pitched and abrasive is really puzzling. Wonder what it is. A bid to sound confident and smooth? I don't know. All I know is I can't hear the words for the sound. Hope this settles soon.


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Babhuti, Abhy and I

I enjoy writing and decided I wanted to enter the short story competition held jointly by Harper Collins and Indiblogger. Before submitting my story I wanted to go through the FAQs. That's where a topic of discussion started by a cartoonist caught my eye.

His name, he said, was Abhyudaya and he wanted to know how he could get published as a cartoonist. These were his exact words - I am a cartoonist and I doodle mostly on current affairs and sometimes on modern day relationships etc. My toon blog address is http://abhyudayatoons.blogspot.in/.I was wondering whether I could have some tips about getting published in India.

On further investigation I realised his cartoons were lovely. I'd always pictured cartoons exactly like his accompanying my reading of "Bhabuti Naaie, Bhabuti, the Barber". So I emailed him. Several emails later we were on to our joint project. This is the end result. The story is Rajasthani folklore - Babhuti discovers the king has only one ear.

That's not all. Here's what he wrote in one of his emails to me after the project was complete. Thank you so much Khoty, that is all the encouragement I needed. So happy and looking forward to the weekend. It's about that one push that makes you go running after your dreams. One approval that lets you shift gears. You'd be proud to know that I just received an email from a new Mumbai based magazine portal, "Mumbaimag" to work as a cartoonist for them. I had applied there only after drawing for you.

Well Abhy, like I said to you, all I did was recognise, appreciate and use your talent for my story. You already had your wonderful art. Still, I can't help feeling happy it all turned out the way it did. And congratulations on your new job.


 


   
The link again - BABHUTI NAAIE, BABHUTI, THE BARBER