Quick comments on Budget 2013

• FMs seem to have lost all interest in senior citizens after Mr Pranab Mukherjee reduced the cut-off age from 65 to 60. This group is hardest hit by persistent inflation and screams for reducing interest rates. They deserve a higher exemption limit at the least, if not respect and gratitude for their services to the nation.

• FM says there is a bit of Azim Premji in every taxpayer. I am sure that recipients of Premji's charities do have a sense of gratitude towards him. The government hardly seems to have any towards its taxpayers.

• The pirates infesting the route along which allocations travel to intended beneficiaries must be celebrating increased allocations in the budget with great enthusiasm.

It is good to be myopic.

It was quite early in my life when I was diagnosed as myopic.  It all started when I found that my classmates could easily read things on the blackboard that I could not.  It culminated in my permanently acquiring a bespectacled look.  The only consolation was that this bespectacled look was often equated with being very studious.  But then a studious look never failed to draw the much dreaded attention of the bullies in the school.  And when that attention led to a scuffle, I had to pay more attention to defending my glasses rather than myself.

My vegetarian family got much worried over this development.  They decided to substantially enhance my quota of dairy products.  The increase was almost on the same scale as that in our legislators' salaries and perks.  Yet it failed to make any impact on the central issue of nearsightedness.  Though it impacted the central parts of my anatomy in a profound and inflationary manner.  The inflation continues unabated rendering the hope of any rate, sorry, weight cut futile.

People looking at my myopia as a handicap did at times make me feel miserable.  However with the advent of smartphones, this handicap has turned into a tremendous advantage.  Here is how.

Computing, entertainment, and communication have been converging together so a single device can offer all of these.  Simultaneously there is a trend towards miniaturization.  So desktops have become laptops, laptops have becomes netbooks and finally you have tablets that you can hold in one hand and use with the other.  Some of these tablets are phablets.  That merely means that they have the functionality of a phone too.  Now if your device, apart from being a computer, audio and video player, a camera, a radio, a clock et al, also has to be a phone, especially a mobile one, the weight and size do become important.  Lot of experimentation is going on here with all kinds of screen sizes varying from 2.8" to 10" being tried out.  I have gone for a device that is a little short of 5" mark, fits into my pocket, and may appropriately be called a mobile device.

With today's content heavy applications (apps) and screen sizes at around 5", only two categories of users can make fullest use of these gadgets.  These categories are very young and very myopic, pinch & zoom notwithstanding.  Myopics often pride themselves on being able to read even the fine print at the bottom of wristwatch dials.  (It is a different matter that while focusing on the fine print they sometimes miss the bold print much to their chagrin.)  This ability to read the fine print enables them to use these modern gadgets as much as youngsters with fine near and far sight.

A normal middle-aged person would need heavy reading glasses for the purpose.  There is a considerable risk of the pair of glasses sliding off your nose as you peer down at your phone.  The myopic, on the other hand, would just remove his glasses and use the gadget with the eyes of a new born.

Time to raise a toast to myopia.  And do keep this in mind before considering a laser correction to your eyesight.

एक मशहूर कव्वाली नए अंदाज़ में.

हमें तो लूट लिया स्कैम व घोटालों ने,

भ्रष्ट इस व्यवस्था ने, व्यवस्था चलाने वालों ने.

      यहाँ तो हर रोज एक ताज़ा घुटाला होता है,

      एक हिस्सा खजाने का रोज खोता है.

      फिर वो बढ़ाते हैं दाम और टैक्स भी मजबूरी में,

      वो बेखबर हैं क्या मिलता है हमें मजूरी में.

खुदा करे कि एक घोटाला हो विदेशी बैंकों में,

गायब हो जाएँ सब नम्बरी खाते और वो चिल्लाएं,

हमें तो लूट लिया स्विट्ज़रलैंड वालों ने,

इनके भ्रष्ट बैंकों ने और बैंकों के घोटालों ने!

My new Droid

I recently purchased a new mid-range Android phone for myself.  It is LG Optimus L-9, also code named P-765.  It has ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system, 1 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB of RAM.  However don't be surprised if the Task Manager reports only 767 MB as the total of used and free RAM.  I checked with LG and they told that the balance is dedicated to GPU (Graphics Processing Unit.)  It has a decent 4.75 inch qHD screen and is available in black and white colors.  I went for the black one.  The internal storage is stated to be 4 GB of which 2.33 GB is available to the user for installing apps.  There is a slot for external memory card.  It can take up to 32GB.  The battery is a decent one with 2150 mAH rating.  It has a 5 MP camera and a VGA front camera.  The regular camera is capable of full HD video recording.  A FM radio is included.

The other phone that I had in mind was Samsung Galaxy Grand.  It has Jelly Bean OS, 8 MB of internal storage (4 available to user), and a 8 MP camera.  The screen is also a little bigger at 5".  However the battery has lower capacity and the display has a lower resolution.  Also it costs nearly Rs.4000/= more than L9.  But then you get a anti-glare screen and a flip case free with the phone.  These cost me an additional Rs.700/=.  An anti-glare screen is definitely recommended, especially for outdoor use.  I bought Scratchgard screen at an exorbitant price of Rs.350/=, but the results are good.  The Table-Talk flip cover that I purchased from e-Bay is okay.  The only problem is that it interferes with the proximity sensor.  The proximity sensor's job is to turn the display on when you move the phone away from your face (ears) and turn it off again if you take it close to your face.  Of course this happens during an active call only and you may take advantage of proximity sensor by folding back the flip cover instead of talking with the cover on.

Additionally you need to invest in a micro SD card.  I went for a 16 GB card instead of the maximum of 32 GB.  The cards are available in several classes - 4, 6 and 10.  The data transfer speed increases with the number of the class. A 10 GB card, I believe will provide good jitter-free HD videos.

I was baffled to note that all the apps download and install only on the internal memory.  As stated earlier you have 2.33 GB of internal memory.  LG told me that ICS and JB versions have this behavior and the external SD card cannot be used for installing applications.  Some Googling shows that it can be done but only after rooting the phone.  I don't want to do that; not during the warranty period.  But then luckily the camera application uses the card for storing photos and videos.  The card can also be used for storing your music and e-books.  A good app for reading e-books is "Cool Reader."  And of course don't forget to load the Adobe Reader for a large number of books are in PDF format.

For even more storage you can, of course, use Google Drive, Skydrive, Box etc.  The native file manager also allows you to add these as additional directories.  Google Drive offers the advantage of editing your files too if they are in the Google native formats.  It is like having full-fledged Office equivalent on your mobile.

The phone responds well to your touch commands.  It was on account of long response time that I had to upgrade to this phone.

One nice feature of ICS & JB is live wallpapers.  So you can have an aquarium or a plasma globe for a wallpaper to amuse you.  Task manager and battery optimizer come built in and there is no need for adding an app.  Google books, like Spotify and Netflix, is unfortunately not available in India.  Google music works fine on ICS, and then there are Saavn and Dhingana.

The camera is good in daylight but only average indoors.  The earphones are good for enjoying music.

Thus far it seems to be a good phone and I have configured it with my usual choice of apps from Google Play as well as LG Smartworld.

I am happy to note that LG has announced a JB upgrade for this phone during the first half of the current year.  Let us hope it comes about.

After having benefited from various reviews on the net, I thought I was morally obliged to share my own experience with the phone.  Hence this blog.

Vishwaroopam

I am thrilled by the movie.  It is probably the best Bollywood thriller thus far: Superbly directed and produced.  The war scenes at Afghanistan look real.  Though I must hasten to confess that I haven't witnessed any real war in my life.  Kamal Haasan and Rahul Bose have put in great performances.  And I thoroughly enjoyed the opening scene too where Vishwaroopam is teaching dancing to a group of girl students.

Recommended without any reservations.

A Mobile Population and Need for Internet Constituencies

All our governance systems are based on the idea of people being rooted to a place.  So address is an integral part of all documents issued by the government and bulk of government services have to be availed only at the place of domicile.  The most fundamental right of voting is also restricted to choosing from candidates from the constituency where your residence is located and can only be exercised at a designated polling booth near your residence.

This concept of rooted people may have been a workable idea in the yesteryears when most people were employed in agriculture or small businesses at their native place.  Today a large section of society has become mobile.  They relocate frequently in search of better prospects and it is a marathon task to obtain new documents from a government machinery that doesn't think in terms of customer service but only in terms of dispensing favors.

This mobility got a kind of formal recognition from the government when TRAI talked of MNP across circles.  So your mobile number remains unchanged even if you move to another state within the country.  RBI also acknowledged this when it mooted the idea of account number portability across banks and branches.

This increased mobility coupled with the difficulty of getting oneself registered with various government agencies at the new place, including those maintaining the electoral rolls, is a great impediment to democracy.  Many in the working class are not able to cast their vote precisely for this reason.  And then instead of blaming our systems we put the blame squarely on the working class.  The suits the political parties too because they can then afford to ignore the aspiration of this class.

Technology provides an easy solution to this.  Let there be Pan-India Internet Constituencies somewhat like the graduate constituency.  The number of such constituencies may be decided on the basis of number of people willing to register for it and vote through internet.  These people may identify themselves biometrically using their Aadhaar registration and cast their vote online.  An alternate way could be to vote through their registered e-mail id.  The e-mails may be processed by a software program which ensures secrecy.

If this suggestion is implemented a large number of working people who are currently not able to cast their vote will be able to and happy to do so.  This will make the democracy a true and inclusive democracy.

A Letter to Fellow Indians

My Dear Fellow Indians,

Our hearts must swell with pride and eyes with tears of gratitude and joy as we watch the ever growing numbers of those whose prime objective is to become the prime minister of the country, purportedly for  serving us better.  They come in great variety - big leaders with small parties, small leaders with big parties, small leaders with small parties, big leaders with big parties that are afraid of them, et al.  Oh dear leaders, you have such big ambitions!  Well to serve the country better with!

We, the working people, know well enough what happens when you get a job that you are not equal to. Your health suffers, your family suffers, and you take to the job portals vehemently looking for a change. Most of our beloved leaders know well enough, or we so hope, that the job is much too demanding and not exactly a bed of roses. Of course, all this holds only if you intend to perform. They do know pretty well that they will be stepping into shoes so big that their eyes may be below lace level and their nose close to that stench left behind by the previous wearers / occupiers.  And yet, all this knowledge only seems to add fuel to their determination.

There is another variety who are so much afraid of this stench that they would forever keep away from this race and only look for someone else who can better put up with it and clean it up rather than add to the grime.  Dear old chap, if you wish to clean it, you have to step into it, with a broom like the one that Gandhi wielded when cleaning the community toilets.  Keep it up, dear angry young man, AAP sahi raaste par hain.

At times, I too feel tempted to jump into the fray.  After all, what would the nation, or at least my grandsons, say when they find out that I kept watching from the sidelines when the country needed me most!  

What say you?

Yours etc.

A.K. Upadhyaya

(Mee too)