मनाची संतुष्टता
सुखाची पुर्तता
संकटाना सामोरे जाण्याची इच्छा
प्रेरणादायी वर्षाची आशा धरुन
नवीन वर्षाच्या शुभेच्छा

Do you remember the times when your grandma used to tell you stories? Your eyes and ears focus to grandma and nothing else. You’ll watch this movie in the same manner. This movie isn’t a narration but it’s still a Kahaani.

Vidya Bagchi is working for a software security company in London. Her husband Arnab Bagchi, working for NDC in Kolkatta, Suddenly stopped calling her. She comes to India to find out the reason for his disappearance. As the cops turn out to be unhelpful, she investigates on her own with a helping hand in form of a newly joined police officer, Rana. Things get complicated and the mystery around the disappearance of her husband darkens. She becomes target of unknown elements and her life comes into danger. Will Vidya survive through the unfolding mystery? Will she find her husband? Watch the movie to find out.

First of all, Hats off to Vidya Balan for playing the role of pregnant woman. She is flawless and effortless in this role. She is the life of the movie and carries the whole movie easily on her shoulders. She reminds me of Late Smita Patil. At the moment there is no actress who even comes close to her when it comes to acting. Since the whole movie is focused on Vidya Balan, the rest of the cast gets very little. Special mention for Paramrata Chatterjee for portraying Rana. He has a freshness on his face and throughout the movie you feel that this role is written for him. The rest of the cast, as I said earlier, has little scope but they support Vidya Balan throughout.

The story of this movie is very clever and different from the regular masala flicks. Starts with a moderate pace and slows down a little after interval. But the climax is just mind blowing. There is a scene where Milan Damji, Arnab’s look alike, kicks Vidya in her stomach. I was quite shocked by this move. But what happened next was jaw dropping.

The screenplay totally justifies the story. Humor has been sprinkled but not very often. There is a contract killer in this movie. You actually laugh when he murders someone. Dialogs are a mix of Bengali and Hindi. That doesn’t make this film Bengali. There are no catchy lines or something that will glue to your memory. Cameraman has done brilliant job. The crowded city of Kolkatta, the darkness of the city, Joy of Durga Pooja are treat to watch.

Brilliant and engaging story, Powerful performance of Vidya Balan, Over the top climax, Top notch direction. Kahaani shouldn’t be missed. My rating 9/10.

A little boy wanted to meet God. He packed his suitcase with two sets of his dress and some packets of cakes and he started his journey. He walked a long and felt tired. So he sat in a park on the way and opened a packet to eat a piece of cake. Then he noticed an old woman sitting sad with hunger nearby, so he offered her a piece of cake. She gratefully accepted it with a wide look and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy longed to see it again. After some time he offered her another piece of cake. Again, she accepted it and smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word. While it grew dark, the boy was frightened and he got up to leave but before he had gone more than a few steps, He ran back and gave her a hug and she kissed him with her prettiest smile.

The boy returned home. After a while, When the boy opened the door, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face.
She asked him, “What did you do today that made you look so happy?”
He replied, “I had lunch with God.”
Before his mother could respond, he added,”You know what? She’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen in my life!”

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and asked,”Mom, what did you do today that made you so happy?”
She replied, “I ate cakes in the park with God.”
Before her son responded, she added,”You know, he’s much younger than I expected.”

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, All of which have the potential to turn a life around. Remember, nobody know how God will look like. People come into our lives for a reason, for a season, or for a lifetime. Accept all of them equally.

Please share this story with everyone you love. If not this post, then copy-paste this. Or tell this during a conversation. Don’t forget to smile and…
Think Nonsense…

Now I wanted a blog. I wanted to blog. Why not? Everyone had a blog. There were blogs written by dogs and cats, supposedly. I already had the nonsense idea in my mind. The question was where to host? One of the perks of being a moderator or web hosting forum, you get free web-space. Thanks to the admin who set it up for me. I got everything I wanted to start a blog.

Four years ago, The very day I published my first post on the blog. I didn’t care about the language. Not about the content and not about who will read it. I just wanted to write. After a while, It got popular. I was overwhelmed by the appreciation. I even earned from blogging.

Over the years, The frequency of posts dried up. I didn’t even try to allocate time to blogging. And when I tried to write something, I was blank. That screen was punching me and I was taking blows standing.. Sorry. Sitting, Like a boxer out of practice. But today I decided to face it. This post is a result of that.

When I started this blog, I wanted one and I wanted to blog. Now I want to blog more. I want to write more. Lets see how much punching I can handle.

Till my next blog post.. duck a punch and
Think Nonsense..

May the joy, cheer,
Mirth and merriment
Of this divine festival
Surround you forever.
May the happiness,
That this season brings
Brighten your life
And, hope the year
Brings you luck and
Fulfills all your dearest dreams!
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous Diwali.

Package contents:

The package includes one tablet. You’ll have to charge it before you use. Don’t search for the battery. It’s already in the tablet. A two pin DC 5V charger. Three pin charger would have been nice. There is a stereo headset for music and calling purpose. One Micro-USB cable to transfer contents from and to PC. No need to install any software. One leather pouch which was white in color. And lastly, User manual and service center list.
I expected the tablet to come pre-charged. It will just vibrate when you try to switch it on. It takes around 2-2.5 hours to charge. Stereo headset were disappointing. If you are an audiophile then throw the headset into trash and get another one. Maybe the manufacturer’s intention was to provide this for calling purpose only. In that case, it’s fine. The leather pouch, Well.. Who provides a white leather pouch in a country like India? It’ll get dirty quite easy. Tablet fits quite comfortably in the pouch. Flip it and you can use the pouch to dock the tablet. Useful when typing or using maps. It has got magnetic lock to ensure safety of tablet. It’s designed well except one thing that you can’t use the secondary camera for video calling when it’s in pouch.

Features and Performance:

Note: When you boot for first time it will ask you for your gmail ID and password. This account will be attached with the device and cannot be removed unless you reset the device. I suggest creating a new gmail ID just for the device.

This tablet is packed with features. The best part of this tablet is the 7″ Capacitive screen. It’s difficult to find a tablet at this price with capacitive screen. Screen is highly responsive and works smooth. Resolution of screen is 800*480 which is pretty decent. It has got 155MB internal memory with 32GB expandable memory via MicroSD card slot. When checked on Spice Tablet site it says 2GB RAM+ 4GB ROM. This is misleading. One of the things was this 2GB memory which tempted me to buy this tablet. After using 3-4 system information tools, I found that it has 161MB memory. Frankly speaking, I had no problem using apps, Playing games(Mostly Angry Birds), Watching movies.
When it comes to connectivity, This tablet has got everything. 2G, 3G, usb, Wifi, Bluetooth, AGPS what more do you want? You can share the mobile data connection with other devices via usb and WiFi. In other words it can act like WiFi hotspot. I tested this with BSNL 3G and got good speed. I was able to download 6MB file in just a minutes time. I suggest using headset for calling as the speakers are loud. Speakers are good and you can enjoy a movie with that sound. You can watch video (DVD quality) for more than 3 hours. It can play non-stop music for 6 hours via headphones. Battery lasted for about 32 hours while I used it for calling, downloading apps and files, tweeting, Facebook and music.
Next comes Camera. Tablet comes with dual camera so that you can video call or video chat. Front camera is 0.3MP and Back camera is 2MP. Back camera is pretty good at capturing images in daylight but fails indoors and night time due to absence of LED flash. One thing I miss here is the dedicated key for camera. Your finger goes to the power button which is where the camera key should have been. Check the quality of image below. Also check some screenshots of the tablet.

Applications:

Now this is where I was disappointed the most. 12k is not so cheap. There should have been some licensed apps. All the apps bundled with tablet are crapware. Yes that’s the word. Crapware. Whats more.. you can’t uninstall them. There is no PDF reader and twitter app. You’ll have to download them from market(Adobe reader and Seesmic). The default browser doesn’t have tabbed browsing. Download Opera. Default video player doesn’t play movies smoothly. Download BSplayer. No app pre-installed for blogging. Download WordPress or Blogger. The default keyboard is no good and doesn’t come with Indian languages. Download Anysoftkeyboard + Devnagari plugin. For those who have not used android, let me tell you one thing. All the apps from market are FREE. But almost all of them display ads. That sucks. Options you are left with, Find app which is ad free or buy the app. One thing I did was to turn off data connection so that my apps are ad free. Here is the list of Crapware bundled with the tablet.

• Default browser
• Default movie player
• Free SMS
• Free Video
• Economic Times
• Hindustan Times
• ibibo
• ibibo Farms
• ibibo browser
• mGurujee
• mig33
• Naukri
• Reuters
• SMS Directory
• Spice gang
• Sulekha
• Teenpatti
• Times of India

Not everyone needs those. They should be optional. Spice should have done some research to bundle the apps. After all, Apps are what makes the hardware useful and productive.

Summary:

Pros:

• Affordable at Rs 11990/-
• Capacitive touch screen
• Awesome connectivity
• Expandable memory
• Video calling enabled
• Good battery life

Cons:

• Poor bundled apps – Crapwares
• No LED flash for camera
• Poor quality headset

Verdict:

Buy it as soon as you find one. This Spice Mi 720 tablet is complete value for money. I’ll give it 8/10

Life: Are you afraid of me??
Me: No.. Why should I??
Life: Then I am leaving you.. (*Turns back and starts leaving*)
Me: As you wish. You are always welcomed to return.
Life: *Turns around and gives me a hug*

The first, ENG Vs NED match. This was a very close match. I thought this will be the first upset of this worldcup. Somehow, ENG managed to save their “BACK”(You know the word). NED, tagged as one of the minnows, played brilliantly. They deserved a win. Better luck next time.

The next match, PAK Vs SRI. PAK is our BELOVED neighbor. So I was supporting PAK as any GOOD neighbor will. This was way closer than what I thought. I expected SRI to win as they had the home ground advantage. They even managed to restrict PAK to a chase-able total. But this game, is full of surprises. Captains bowling and The lost nerves of SRI players helped PAK to win the match. SRI didn’t play to their potential. Just as one is happy of his neighbor’s progress, I was also happy that PAK won. In fact, very happy.

The third match finished just a couple of hours back. IND Vs ENG. I had a hunch that IND will loose this match no matter what. That was because of their poor performance against BAN. If BAN can score 283 easily then ENG can easily score 350 against IND. Guess what?? I was almost right. It was sheer luck that ended the game in tie. When IND finished batting and scored 338, everyone thought this match will go to IND. I was quite disappointed by the way they gifted their wickets at the end of inning. IND should have crossed 350 mark with ease. ENG began chase in right direction. The thrill started in the last 10 overs of the match. Game switching sides with every ball delivered, every ball played. No one expected a draw here. But one need to expect unexpectation in this game.

Was this just because the worldcup has only started? Or the pitches are flat and made for batsmen? Is it just coincidence that both ENG matches were thriller?

Whatever…

Someone…

Someone put a life into this worldcup.

Walk with aims,
Run with Confidence,
Fly with your achievements,
Have a lovely year ahead,

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year