Nice Video

This is a video made of over 3000 snaps, shot over 3 days around Boston. Interesting video...

3 Days - 3,038 Photos from Robbie on Vimeo.

N96 About to Start Distribution in India…

A few days ago, I registered on Nokia India site for prior booking of N96 – the hyped i-Phone killer in a country like India. Today, I received a call from Nokia dealer in city informing to book N96 by paying Rs. 4000. He said that N96 will be delivered to me within 8-10 days. With the handset, there is a free 2GB card (why it will be needed when N96 will have 16GB of internal flash memory?) plus an assured gift from Nokia. On asking about price, he said that it will be in Rs. 37000 – Rs. 40000 range.

This price range will be considerably higher in Indian market, also considering facts that N96 won’t have touch screen or a QWERTY keyboard…But anyway, N96 has enough as its tagline says - “How Much Power Can You Handle?’

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Beijing Olympics - A Look Back

India will remember the Beijing edition of Olympics for years to come. Firstly, she never had before so many individual medals in any single edition. Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra clinched a gold in rifle shooting, her wrestler Sushil Kumar bagged a bronze and now boxer Vijender Kumar has a chance to create history by winning in semifinals of 75 kg boxing. He has anyway secured a bronze in semis itself.

We could never have believed such a run in Olympics before the event kicked off in Beijing. Generally the headlines in Indian newspapers are enough demoralizing, e.g. in an Indian daily a headline can easily read ‘Won Olympics Gold. Now What?’ – sounding ‘Won Olympics Gold. So what?’ or when 20-something Saina Nehwal loses out after showing a promising run in Badminton, newspapers here still say that she ‘disappointed’ Indians.

Beijing games will also mean a lot to the world. Firstly, it assured China a deserved entry on world stage as a serious superpower contender. World watched the opening event extravaganza with awe. Security concerns, doubts about China’s ability to host such an event all melted away when the game set rolling.

These were also the first games in era of Social Web. The reach of events was enormous with people having choice of platform to watch the event. Although nothing like an Internet Meltdown happened due to games.

Most important thing that happened at Beijing was about sports. Usain Bolt & Michael Phelps happened to Olympics at Beijing. Usain’s super-human runs in 100 m and 200 m sprints, his world records in both events indicate that here is a true Olympic ambassador – after Carl Lewis retired, there was nobody really speaking. Jamaican sprinters are a new superpower on bloc and Jamaica is already past this edition setting eyes on 2012 London Olympics! Read this news in Jamaica Observer.

Michael Phelps also rocked the world with his record equaling haul of 8 golds. He is a sports hero who will inspire many a generations. [Interesting link - read this article in WSJ which talks about an interesting aspect of swimming championship – Touching the Wall.]

It will be interesting now to see now whether USA takes over China in medal tally – this is still a possibility with so many gold medals to win in Athletics - a US stronghold.

Big Rock Candy Mountains!

Some songs make a place for themselves in your heart forever. This song - ‘Big Rock Candy Mountains’ is one of such gem of a song. I heard it first in Coen Brothers’ ‘O Brother! Where Art Thou?’.

The song instantly captivated me. First was the music. I came to know that this particular music genre is called Bluegrass Music. According to Wikipedia,

“In bluegrass, as in jazz, each instrument takes a turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others revert to backing; this is in contrast to old-time music, in which all instruments play the melody together or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment."

The music seems so simple to ears and is also earthly.

Second reason is its lyrics…song is about an utopian place called ‘Big Rock Candy Mountains’ – I thought earlier that this place is an utopia for a thief! Read these lines -

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work

Aren’t these so funny! But as I read more, I came to know that this was actually a song which was used during Great Depression in USA to mobilise countryside folks for road-works! Many of these people were ones whose life did not follow the law always – so these lines.

Incidentally, after changing some parts of the songs, it was also made into a popular children song. E.g. ‘cigarette trees’ in original song became ‘peppermint trees’ for children.

When I read the version for children, I was shocked to see that one nursery rhyme in Marathi, written by a famous poet bears a striking resemblance with this children version of ‘Big Rock Candy Mountains’. In Marathi the song is about a ‘Chocolate Bunglow’ and every Marathi child knows this song.

Let's say that's a good inspiration to have.

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On Youtube.

Read more @ Bluegrass Music here.

Read @ ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’ on Wikipedia here.

Lyrics of the song here.

Lyrics of children version here.

Freaky Nokia Photo

This happened yesterday, in Mumbai, when at the same time, a person was called and also was being answered. Look carefully - if you are a regular Nokia user, you will instantly understand that this is not a call-hold situation. Incidently, the operator is Vodafone (who acquired Hutch, who acquired BPL).