Song I'm madly in love with

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Me Yun Hi Koi Apna Lagta Hai
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Woh Bichad Jaaye Toh Ek Sapna Lagta Hai
Aise Me Koi Kaise Apne Aansuon Ko Behnay Se Roke
Aur Kaise Koi Sochle Ki Everything'S Gonna Be Okay

Kabhi Kabhi Toh Lage Zindagi Me Rahi Na Khushi Aur Na Maza
Kabhi Kabhi Toh Lage Har Din Mushkil Aur Har Pal Ek Saza
Aise Me Koi Kaise Muskuraaye, Kaise Has De Khush Hoke
Aur Kaise Koi Sochle Ki Everything'S Gonna Be Okay

Soch Zara Jan-E-Jaan Tujh Ko Hum Kitna Chahte Hain
Rotay Hain Hum Bhi Agar Tere Aankhon Me Aansun Aate Hain
Gaana Toh Aata Nahi Hai Magar Phir Bhi Hum Gaate Hain
Hey Aditi Maan Kabhi--Kabhi Saare Jahan Me Andhera Hota Hai
Lekin Raat Ke Baad Hi Toh Savera Hota Hai

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Me Yun Hi Koi Apna Lagta Hai
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Woh Bichar Jaye Toh Ek Sapna Lagta Hai

Hey Aditi Has De Has De Has De Has De Has De Has De Tu Zara
Nahi Toh Bas Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Muskura

Tu Khush Hai Toh Lage Kay Jahan Main Chaiyi Hai Khushi
Sooraj Nikle Baadalon Se Aur Bantay Zindagi
Sun Toh Zara Madhosh Hawa--Tujhse Kehne Lagi
Ki Aditi Woh Jo Bichadte Hain Ik Na Ik Din Phir Mil Jate
Yeh Aditi Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Phool Phir Khil Jate Hain

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Me Yun Hi Koi Apna Lagta Hai
Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Who Bichad Jaye Toh Ek Sapna Lagta Hai
Hey Aditi Has De Has De Has De Has De Has De Has De Tu Zara
Nahi Toh Bas Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Thoda Muskura

This song is from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, composed by none other than A.R. Rahman and sung by his guitarist, Rashid Ali. Usually it takes a few listens to start liking a Rahman song. But this one I loved it the instant my wife played it to me. Ever since, its been playing in our car, our home stereo and my work laptop.

You gotta listen to it to see what I mean.

Oh yes, I'm a married man and how that went will follow in a separate post. But if you are interested in seeing the wedding pics, checkout our website (under Pictures->Wedding).

Movie Review: Taare Zameen Par

I wasn't really sure what to expect about Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan's directorial debut. I knew it was about kids and I liked it's songs, again an excellent job by the trio of Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy.

But the movie was really good. I mean, really, really good. He has taken on a topic that's taboo in India and that too head on - the topic of a child's education in India. I grew up in a family of teachers. My dad, my mom, aunts, uncles & even my cousins are teachers. So I know what parental and competitive pressure mean :).

Taare is about a kid named Ishaan (fantastically portrayed by Darsheel Safary) who's always distracted and never good at his academics. He gets bullied by his classmates and his playmates. He is both forgetful and absent minded. Excellent camera work shows how his mind wanders around while in class. I wasn't too sure why the 'dyslexia' angle was needed as I thought it could deflect the real issue of parental and peer competitive pressure that's so rampant in India. Anyways, the kid gets himself ejected from the 'regular' school and angers his dad who promptly puts him in a boarding school.

Oh yeah, the kid has got a brother who's like super-brilliant. I know that feeling, too. My younger sister was super-brilliant herself and she learnt (riding a bicycle, hindi, typewriting etc) extra curricular things before I did and every one around me used to tell me 'Your elder sister knows how to do X, how come you don't know?' I was furious because (a) she's my younger sister and (b) why do I have to learn things that she does?. But in this movie, the elder brother is shown to be caring and genuinely loving. But I thought they could have explored more on how Ishaan felt about his 'dada'.

Then, Aamir comes in - not a forceful entry but a very fluent one. He's the "temporary" teacher who believes as the movie's tag line says 'every child is special'. He also happens to spot the dyslexic behavior in Ishaan right away as he himself had experienced it as a child growing up. Sometimes that's all it takes for a kid to have a bright future. That one teacher could make the difference between success and failure in life. I liked how they showed Ram Shankar Nikumbh took personal interest in Ishaan and pled his case with the principal and was able to treat him special. I've had a few such teachers myself in my student life who've been crucial in making who I'm.

The rest of the movie is about how Ram makes Ishaan realize his true potential and makes the parents realize the mistakes they have been making. Some of the dialogue exchanges between Ram and Ishaan's dad were powerful and touching. I hope parents in India watch this movie and realize that not every child can be first in their class and give them time to figure out what they're good at and let them pursue it. Although, in middle class indian families, it's going to be near impossible for that to happen. I know first hand, in a lot of families I know, parents want their son/daughter to become a doctor or a professional. Self development requires financial backing a lotta patience which are hard to find in middle class families.

Back to the movie, brilliant acting by the child actor Darsheel Safary, very effortless acting and non-intrusive directing by Aamir. Very efficient use of colors and location. And those kids - and there are a lot of them - are charmers.

An absolute must-see movie and probably the best movie I have seen in a while. I was able to relate to a lot of things that happened in the movie and reminisce. I'm sure you will too.

Vista: What I like and Suggestions for Windows 7

I have been pretty hard on Windows Vista and deservedly so. But I have been using for almost an year now and recently I updated to Windows Vista SP1 RC and it has solved some of the annoying issues. So I figured, it's only fair that I point out things that I like about Vista. Yes, it's true - there are things in Vista that are "better", "intuitive" and actually "work". Here they are:

1. I just love the Windows Mobility Center. It's a cute little applet that shows all the relevant information you need for your laptop in one place. It's a god send for laptop users like me.
2. Performance Monitoring and Error reporting has been improved a lot. Windows Experience Index is a neat idea that can be used to quickly measure a computer's performance. Resource Monitor is a Task Manager on steroids. If you are a developer who measures your application performance, this is a feature you'd adore.
3. Networking has gone through a major rehaul. It now "remembers" your network locations and your preferences for that location. Most of the time switching between networks dont require a restart, even though it may require a "repair" (and yes, the repair always works!). It automagically finds all the computers in your network irrespective of whether they are in a workgroup or a domain!
4. You could mute the volume for individually for each application! You can mute the sounds coming off of Yahoo Messenger, while listening to your music. You can set individual volume levels for each application as well.
5. Windows Update does a good job finding not just Windows Updates, but updates for Office and other important device drivers (that have gone through MS certification process).
6. That Windows Media Center UI is drop dead gorgeous. Much better than anything out there (yes, that includes Apple TV).
   

Ok, now on to my suggestions for Windows 7, or whatever its code name is Blackcomb? Vienna?:

1. Overhaul the Bluetooth stack and its integration with the rest of the OS. It just is very flaky and feels like it was just added on at the last moment. It should be like WiFi and how well that's to use in Vista. And please, make the A2DP support better. It's horrible and doesn't pair with the headphones most of the time.
2. Make "Windows Update" the one-stop-shop for any and all updates to a computer. That includes OS, device drivers, Microsoft Software, updates to any and all third-party software installed in the computer. Microsoft can pull this off by demanding each software vendor setup their own repository for providing updates and when you first install the software registers that repository with Windows Update as another repository to search for updates when looking for new updates.
3. Come up with a database-based file system. Any and all information should be available at "constant" seek time. All transactions with the "file system db" could be backed up and each item in the database can have infinite "fields".
4. Make Windows boot up time to zero - or near zero. I know its difficult but believe me - that's the biggest crib people have with Windows.
5. Kill Windows Mobile OS and Windows CE. One Windows to rule them all. If the mobile phone processors are as powerful as they claim, they can run the full fledged Windows with stripped down apps. That way any and all input methods (touch, pen and tablet) would be supported across all Windows. And seriously, just sell one Windows - no Basic, no Home Premium, no Utimate. One Windows - simply Windows 7 - which includes everything.
6. Rein in whitebox PC vendors and peripherals manufacturers to get their act together by making it incredibly difficult to install "unsigned" and "untested" drivers. I know it would mean a lot more testing and certification requests to MS but believe me - its worth it.
7. Stop copying whatever Apple's MacOS X does. Believe me, not everything Apple does is great. I know Apple ends up copying stuff from Windows but this has gotta stop and MS will be the first one to stop it.
   
8. Last but not the least, license Google's Desktop Search and make it part of Windows 7. Built-in windows vista search while much better than XP is light years behind Google's Desktop Search.

India has the Fourth Fastest Super Computer in the world

In the recently published list of Top 10 Super Computers in the world, which I stumbled upon by accident, India has entered the Top 5 for the first time ever with a system developed by Tata's Computational Research Laboratories (CRL).

I have never heard of this venture CRL before this and I was curious to find out what they do. It was founded and led by Dr. Narendra Karmarkar who's known for his Karmarkar's Algorithm. But apparently Dr. Karmarkar had a falling out with the Tatas and has since dropped out of this venture. From the article, it looks like while the Professor wanted to apply the High Performance Computing (HPC) based Super Computers to solve real world issues in India, Tatas were purely interested in it as a profit making venture. Doesn't surprise me one bit. Tatas are and will always be profit-minded and have no place for "technology for people".

While it's gratifying to know that India has the potential and smarts to develop a Super Computer that can compete the best of the world, it also shows the problems inventors and technology entrepreneurs face and will face -- lack of investment.

It'd be interesting to see where Dr. Karmarkar eventually ends up or if he even starts his own company. I, for one, am hoping that he finds a new and a better Venture Capitalist who'd help him start his company in India.

I want one of these

BMW, Check.
Powerful engine, Check.
Car-like handling, Check.
SUV-like comfort, Check.
Beautfiul styling, Check.
Decent fuel economy, Check.
Hybrid, Check.

Hmm... sounds like a good choice for my next car ;)

Finally, Google Reader gets Search

Google Reader, which is my Feed reader application of choice just got way better today. One of my long time issues with it was that there was no way for me to search the feeds - yes, a Google application did not have search. Now, today that got fixed:

That makes it almost a perfect feed reader application. If you have not tried it, I'd suggest you give it a try.

Waiting for Products

David Pogue of The New York Times has become my favorite tech columnist of choice for his straight talking, no-nonsense commentary and blog posts. Case in point about his recent post on Pogue's Posts:

The pocket SLR. As much as I love that little Canon, its photos only sometimes attain the spectacular visual quality of an S.L.R. (one of those big black semi-pro cameras that cost over $500 and can’t record movies). Apparently it’s really, really difficult to get that kind of quality in a small camera, thanks to the obnoxious intrusion of something called physics. [...]

The great cellphone carrier. When the iPhone came out, everybody grumbled and moaned about how Apple had chosen AT&T as its exclusive carrier. I grumbled along with them—and then it hit me: Whom wouldn’t people have grumbled about? [...]

The universal adapter. I’m very good about returning all the equipment I review. I’ll confess, though, that I have a drawer full of orphaned black power adapters that, in the course of re-packing 500 products over 7 years, I somehow left out of the return shipping boxes. And because they’re never labeled with the product or company’s name (and because the companies never bother asking for them later), I now don’t know where they go. [...]

The non-tape camcorder with tape quality. OK, OK, I get it: Americans don’t want tape camcorders anymore. Sales and development of MiniDV camcorders are sinking. Sales and development of mini-DVD camcorders, hard drive camcorders and memory-card camcorders are on the rise. [...]

The long-life battery. In the last ten years, cameras have gone from 1 megapixel to 12. Processors have gone from 300 megahertz to 3 gigahertz. Music players have gone from holding 20 songs to 20,000. [...]

Couldn't have said it better - When are these products going to come?

P.S: I'm on my last week of cast. It comes off (hopefully) next week. After that, a couple of weeks of rehab, and then I should be back to blogging at normal pace.

My Next Phone

No 'stinkin' Buttons. WiFi. Bluetooth. GSM Quadband. iPod. Mac OS X. Visual Voicemail. Thin, really thin. Mobile Web done right. iPhoto.

Dreams do come true. Meet my next phone, Apple iPhone. This is going to be the most talked about and most sought-for product of the year. Apple's gonna be rich.