I reviewed Passport Seva Kendra at Lucknow.

My review as appearing at their site is reproduced below:

The center is able to handle very large number of applicants efficiently and the processes are quite well defined. Though a person here and a person there may not be an epitome of courtesy, as a team they are able to perform efficiently. Some of my observations are listed below:

Appreciated:

•            Paid parking is available.

•            IT enabled processes are quite efficient.

•            The staff seems to be a mix from TCS and MEA. The service executives (from TCS?) are courteous and efficient.

•            The waiting hall is clean and has a tea and coffee kiosk and also a kiosk for photocopying.

•            Toilets provided are clean.

•            APO (Additional / Assistant Passport Officer) is very considerate and helpful in case you are required to approach him.

•            Queue management is efficient and displays are updated in real time.

Need Attention:

•            Placards should be placed directing first time visitors to the parking area for applicants. I entered the basement parking. That too was through the exit as no signage is posted on the two slopes for indicating which one is for Entry and which one for Exit. I was asked to leave as the basement parking is not for applicants.

•            An elderly lady at the entrance of the waiting hall was found to be rather rude to the visitors. This detracts from good work done by other staff.

•            The waiting halls, especially the one inside the processing area, are too small looking to the number of applicants handled by the center.

•            Exception handling in the system is not very graceful. You may read my blog post http://anil-upadhyaya.blogspot.in/2015/02/passport-for-psu-retirees.html.

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.

BARFI

Even if you have not seen the film, by now you must know that it is about a lovable kid who is called Barfi because his mother longed for a look alike of the boy featured in Murphy ads.  The mother promptly dies soon after giving birth to the boy: the film breaks the news in a pretty light vein.  Now the image of a boy in an ad is naturally deaf and dumb and for that matter devoid of all senses.  Barfi turns out to be merely deaf and dumb but quite lively otherwise.

The film is an attempt to take a leaf out of Raj Kapoor's book.  The film is even set in a period dating back several decades.  Barfi, born to a chauffeur, grows up to be a handsome boy who has little inhibitions in flirting with girls.  He manages to gatecrash into upper class parties as part of his chase.  Girls fall for him including an autistic one living away from her upper class family and spoilt parents.  She rediscovers Barfi on her way to her family residence as her grandfather lies on the deathbed.

The story continues to unfold in an enchanted fairyland where mothers still long for their lost love, and daughters don't bat an eyelid before walking out, empty handed, of a smooth well settled marriage for the sake of love.  This is a world where the hero has the guile to stage a kidnapping for the sake of money instead of simply asking for it.  And yet he doesn't have the faintest idea of exigencies and demands the exact amount of doctor's fee for ransom.  In this world a handicapped man with an empty pocket and an autistic girl without even so much as a change of dress elope together, ward off other derelicts who in this world limit themselves to just ogling, find employment and a roof in a metro while managing to retain their good looks and humor all the time.  Just to reassure the viewers that this world is part of the real one, there is a scene where the autistic girl demands assistance for doing "soo soo."

In this romantic world love alone triumphs.  Finally the hero gets old and haggard and gives up the ghost.  The autistic girl, though seemingly unaware of the death, lies down beside him and attains death (at will?)  A romantic dying together that will be remembered down the generations.

NB:  Once you have witnessed this strange world, our anxiety laden preparations for leisure travel and furious preparations for a relocation will look truly neurotic and insane. :)

Paan Singh Tomar

Just finished watching Paan Singh Tomar (PST).  I had not anticipated the film to be good and kept on postponing watching it.  It has turned out to be a real good film and I recommend it without reservations.  The film beautifully brings out the the depravity of our system.  I depicts the individual greed so strongly built into our psyches, and the apathy and exaggerated self importance of our self-serving government machinery.  It sympathetically highlights the fact that faced with these callous elements the only option before an upright and straightforward citizen is to opt out and oppose the system despite an almost assured gloomy outcome.

The film is set in the era of 1950s, the time when foundations were being laid for the newly born Republic of India. Our traits shown in the movie persist to date unchanged, more or less.  The central character, PST, is a born athlete and joins the Indian army.  In an interview with his officers he proclaims the government to be immoral and a thief while showing great respect for the uprightness of the defense forces.  After an early retirement PST returns to his village where he is confronted by his avaricious cousin and a corrupt and indifferent government machinery.

I was abroad when the film was released.  I do not know if the film was promoted the way some recent imbecilic films like Bol Bachhan have been.  But if its collections have not been good it could only be due to lack of promotion as its name does little to suggest the brilliance of the movie.

A must watch movie.

A passing thought: We have all witnessed how the surface tension between defense and government on account of their perceived different traits has ultimately and unfortunately resulted in drawing defense closer to the government and not the other way round.  This is brought out by the defense establishment figuring prominently in some of the recent scams.  Look at some of our neighboring countries where the army has no such moralistic pretensions but has succeeded in keeping the political system subservient to it and under its thumbs!!

Ferrari Ki Sawari

Saw Ferrari Ki Sawari (FKS) today.  This time we waited till we could spot the symptoms of the film starting to detach itself from multiplexes:  Perhaps it is the other way round, the multiplexes preparing to discard a film which has been milked to capacity.  The symptoms are decreasing number of shows and shifting of these fewer shows to non-prime slots.  The wait stood us in good stead.  The hall was not too crowded and there were fewer distractions.

The film centers around a middle class Parasi family in Mumbai with a very mild tempered and highly principled bread-winner, an embittered grandfather and a very talented grandson.  The talented grandson has justifiable ambitions but the family does not have the financial resources to match those ambitions.  It is surprising to find the principled father stooping to stealing to somehow raise the requisite money.  Though finally everything turns out to be well and provides relief to audiences on the tenterhooks.  And, yes, before I forget, Sachin doesn't make an appearance in the film.  His Ferrari does and is acknowledged in the credits.

Yet another interesting character is a loud and outspoken Punjabi lady who is in the business of event management and happens to gets some business from a local trigger-happy neta and his spoilt young son.  She also uses her charm to gather all the good guys to help out the good guy - the doting father.

The script also beautifully portrays a remorselessly ambitious guys subscribing to the hook-or-the-crook principle, who never develops a sense of remorse and never grants concessions to the trampled victims even when doing so may be neither necessary nor gainful.  It reinforces the theory that nobody ever deviates from his genetically coded character, except rarely and temporarily as the good Parasi fellow happened to do to fulfill his son's ambitions.

Not a bad film and definitely worth watching once.