An Amateur At Best

List of the Best Virtual Panoramas / Virtual Tours / 360 degrees Views

2012-01-25T17:58:00.000+05:30

List of the Best Panoramas / Virtual Tours / 360 degrees Views

Virtual panoramas are the perfect union of excellent locations, brilliant photography and cutting edge technology all of which come together to deliver a very high quality art experience. Panoramas transcend border and immigration lines, they offer a passage into our beautiful and varied world. The thing about panoramas is that they can not be viewed in still images of in books; virtual panoramas are a visual art form which can only be experienced on a computer screen or a television. Ultimately though despite all the technology these panoramas and tours can not replace the actual experience. They are meant to give a glimpse and to introduce, to help one decide to go to the actual site or to help one reminisce. The real experience is not just about that one building or site but about the journey to that place, they people and the culture and one's own but happy existence in that experience. But panoramas are beautiful nonetheless. And I love wasting hours and hours going over them.

Just click on the banner images below to go to the websites for these tours.

Suleymaniye Mosque Virtual Walking Tour Istanbul by Saudi Aramco. My first virtual panorama and also one of my favourties. The Suleymaniye panorama is actually a part of a virtual tour of the entire mosque complex. Having seen the Suleymaniye in real life I can tell you that this virtual tour is very good and does provide an excellent simulation experience. The Istanbul skyline is so real, I almost felt like being back there. My favourite scene is definately Scene 5: Minaret 1, for the stupendous Summer afternoon view of the Istanbul skyline all the way down to the Galat bridge and Ayasofya. And for the azaan, the call to prayer, mixed with the bazaar sounds in the background of the scene; so hypnotic for me that I often revisit this virtual walking just to hear that azaan on a never-ending loop. Make sure you check out all of the detailed interior scenes as well. Even while visiting the Suleymaniye I could not access most of the interior sections and certainly not the top of the minarets. I recommend viewing this virtual walking tour in full screen mode. There is a button to activate full screen at the bottom right hand side in every scene.

Some of the best photos of Suleymaniye Jami are to be found here

Two more virtual walking tours by Saudi Aramaco are:

The Alhambra complex in the city of Granada. A really fantastic tour again but since I have never been there I can not speak of it in the same way as I do of the Suleymaniye tour. It is said to be one of the best historical sites in the world and this walking tour helped me understand why. I must read up more on this.

Site of the maginificent Dome of the Rock Mosque in Jerusalem. Possibly my all time favourite mosque and the third holiest site for Islam. Haraam Ash Shareef is where the First and Second Temple were located, supposed site of the near-sacrifice of Ishmael by his father Abraham. Jerusalem has always been very close to my heart though I have never been there. The sweeping views of Jerusalem from atop the mount, the wise angle shots of the Dome of the Rock are fantastic. You can read about the Dome of the Rock and the Haram Ash Shareef here. A virtual panorama I will keep coming back to for the rest of my life.

SISTINE CHAPEL BY THE VATICAN

Oh my God!!! Literally and in the most pious manner possible. This is a great gift by the Vatican to the net citizens of the world. A fantastic high resolution virtual panorama of the Sistine Chapel. Some time back I saw a BBC documentary called Divine Michelangelo in which one gets to see the back(and neck breaking) efforts Michelangelo had to make in order to fulfill his commission of painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel given to him by Pope Julius II. My aching cervical tremours in reverence at the mere thought of the years upon years Michelangelo spent painting the ceiling tilt-necked. And so naturally I was greatly intrigued to discover a virtual panorama of this object of power, faith, art, beauty and ever-lasting adoration.

The panorama of the chapel is phenomenal to say the least. It is such a great joy to see all of the paintings from the life of Christ on the walls and the scenes from the Old Testament on the ceiling. For someone like me, who enjoys Renaissance Art, this is a great treat. The level of detail really wins the day. And, I did not know that the floor of the Sistine Chapel was so beautiful. I suppose the floor gets sidelined, crowded out by the magnificence of the paintings on the walls and the ceiling. But then this is what panoramas are about; they let one view and observe the entire scene in complete serenity and patience. Do give it a deko.

Paris 26 Gigapixels by the triumvirate of Kolor, Arnaud Frich and Martin Loyer. It's a bright sunny day in Paris and there are plenty of sights to see. There is the Seine, the Sacre-Coeur, Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe and a torrential rainstorm of painful memories of having repeated failed at le langue de francais. This is a very clean, purposeful and highly interactive panorma, though it is not a true-drum-barrel-back to where you started from kind of panorama as there are hard stops at either ends of the panorama and one has to make one's way back in the direction one came from rather than just keep moving in 360 degree circles. Nevertheless it is not a major flaw and does not distract from the delights of this grand French madame. The photographer responsible for the Paris 26 Gigapixels panorama has many of his own extremely beautiful panoramas here. Arnaud Frich actually discusses how to make photographic panoramas on his blog here

London 80 Gigapixels by Jeffrey Martin. Be sure to click on the show landmarks button at the bottom right to really enjoy the panorama.
Battersea power station, Tate Modern, Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, St. John's Park and Buckingham Palace, the Gerkin, St. Paul's, Shakespeare's Globe, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben (can't seem Cromwell's statue though,oh well), and Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square and the little eat on the corner where I had some fantastic sandwiches and coffee.Even Piccadilly Circus can be found with some effort and next to it can be seen the HMV store from where I bought my coy of the Jewel in The Crown.

Next to the show landmarks button is a take the tour button which seems like a good idea as well.

Can't see the Beehive, the mayor's office, HMS Belfast, the floating museum. No information has been given about what one is looking at unlike the much more interactive Paris 26 Gigapixel tour.
The weather is overcast, as it should be. Of course.

The natural beauty of the American continent is so appealing to me. From Alaska to Baja California Don Bain has captured it all and made good looking panoramas out of all of them.

Don Bain's focus is not on just presenting picture-prefect-postcard virtual panoramas but to communicate the impression of a whole region. Considering that Don has over 8000 fantastic virtual panoramas I'd say he's communicated the impressions of a lotta regions in their entirety. Hence the use of the term" Virtual Guidebook" by Don for his kind of coverage. It is overkill? Perhaps for some. Am I drooling over the prospect of exploring the Oregon Trail, the Wild West, the Pacific coast line littoral and the heartland of the American-Indian lore in Canada and the USA? You betcha bottom Dollar bill I am.

The man's effort has to be applauded. He has brought together his skill, experience and passion and made the best use of oppourtunity (the launch of Apple's Quick Time viewer for example) to serve a superbly delectable multi-course gourmet meal of the wondrous sights of the Western half of North America. Yummm. Don Bain has my unequivocal respect. Highly recommended.

UNESCO and J M Kaplan Fund have come together to prepare a database of major UNESCO identified sites across our planet. I visited just a few of the sites. Sana'a in Yemen is one of my favourites. I love the shades of Brown and White of Sana'a's ancient multistory houses. And of course that brings to mind the spice markets and the great Quran horde of Sana'a. It's a great endevour and I wish them the best.

Budapest 70 Gigapixels by 360 degrees is also a very good effort. Initially it gives a sense of too much hot air and no real action as most of the 360 degrees view is full of trees and foliage and the city of Budapest is just a few tiny buildings vomitted out somewhere on the horizon. The vantage point seems to be a hill in a forest nnear Budapest. However if one clicks on the photos of the landmarks given just below the panorama one immediately sees what the fuss is all about. The panorama zooms into those distant tiny buildings of Budapest and suddenly they don't look so tiny anymore. The photo resolution is really quite large and all the landmarks are clearly visible. Even atom sized churches built atop hills on the horizon become quite big once zoomed into. Budapest is really beautiful, the architecture is a love child of Ottoman and Austrian which has been brought up in an environment of classy aesthetics and art supreme. This panorama has succeeded at its purpose. I must visit Budapest.

The New 7 Wonders of the World by Panorama.dk

VR (Virtual Reality) Panorama tours of the New 7 Wonders of the World. My favourite ones are of the Great Wall of China, Petra, Colosseum and Christ Reeder Rio.

Panoramas.dk does have some really nice 360 degree panoramas including one of the Great Mosque at Cordoba, the Eiffel Tower, Mount Everest, Sydney Opera House and scores of others. One of my favourites is the series on 4 Danish and Swedish churches from the middle ages which can be seen here One can zoom in and see all the details of the murals, paintings, church ornaments, liturgical objects and of course of the interior architecture itself. It's as close as one can get to actually being inside these churches. Very well executed job.

Another fantastic one by panoramas.dk is the Grand Canyon panorama.

Check out their complete list of VR 360 degrees panoramas here http://www.panoramas.dk/archive.html

Library on Strahov Monastery Prague by 360 degrees.
This panorama holds the record for the largest indoor photo in the world.3000 individual photos, totaling up to a colossal 40,000 megapixels, were arranged and stitched together to achieve this feat. As a photographer I can appreciate how supremely difficult it must have been to manage to shot 3000 high quality shots in low light conditions. A great accomplishment.
Take a peek into a library going back hundreds of years, zoom in and read the titles of the books arranged in the shelves, marvel at the exquisitely executed art on the paneling and the ceiling and of course the fantastic wooden furniture. A bibliophile's delight.

Not one panorama but rather a series of 36 panoramas of the city of Bruges which provide an indept "visit Bruges" experience. The canals runnings through the city look really lovely and the lights reflecting in them with the dark Blue sky above make for some fantastic viewing.

Tallinn Virtual Panorama by 360 degrees. The port city of Tallinn is the largest city of Estonia in the Baltic littoral. This set of virtual panoramas is in the same vein as the previous one on Bruges. Excellent views from scores of vantages points all over the city and many of them aerial shots from atop towers and domes.

Alexander's own land: Macedonia. Again a series of very touristy virtual panoramas which showcase the best of the country. The site is rife with panoramas of ancient hilltops, idyllic islands, Orthodox churches, heroes from the Aegean (Alexander's the main man of course).

Sample this virtual panorama of a fantastic ancient Greek theatre here.

This appears to be a Russian site which encourages people to upload their own virtual panormas.Naturally most of the virtual panoramas listed are of places from within the erstwhile Soviet Union. My favourite one is called "In a cockpit at an abandoned airfield" which has the vantage point from within a decrepit MIG 21 (?) fighter jet 's cockpit. It's just so tragic. Reminded me of a story I once read in a Granada magazine on an abandonned Soviet-era "science city". The virtual panorama can viewed here.

Arounder; now here's a website I love to love. Arounder.com is full of scores of really well made virtual panoramas of many major tourist attractions (including 2 space-tourism destinations: Mars and Moon, keeping a firm eye on the future aren't we). I think I would love to see each and every one of these virtual panoramas, not even one week panorama here; for not only are these really well done technically, the choice of destinations is also quite well thought out. In fact on Arounder.com the problem is one of plenty; it's not what to select out of the lot and see, but what to, sadly, leave unexplored in order to give attention to the greater "to see" group. Monaco, Ibiza, Tahiti here I come.

A nice community based website which acts a showcase platform for high quality virtual panoramas made by the members of the community. Though not all of these panoramas are not those of very famous landmarks but they do give an insight into the ordinary life and environment of others and as there is nothing ordinary about life or nature I find these panoramas very fascinating. I was especially curious about the Curious Cows of Bavaria.

Virtual Tours in Google Earth

360 Cities has teamed up with Google Earth to provide virtual panoramas and tours of hundreds of places all over our world. Google Earth is a software which lets one visit any coordinates on our planet. Though it is not browser based but it is a supremely powerful tool. And it is open to the user community for adding 3D models of buildings, photos of places, landmarks and virtual tours.

The 360 Cities virtual tours on Google Earth are sometimes made of photos and sometimes of CAD models. They start-off as these circular bubbles which one has to zoom in to. There are hundreds and hundreds of virtual tours on Google Earth which one can enter and walk-around in. They range from tours of cities such as London and Shiraz to tours of Tour De France and cycling venues in the alps to volcanoes in the Pacific to anything and everything. To more about Google Earth go here. Google Earth is one of my favourite softwares.

Go here to know more about 360 Cities tours in Google Earth.

There are many really great virtual panoramas on the web and I haven't listed them out here though they are in no way lesser than the ones already listed above. The ones I have mentioned are merely indicative of the fantastic world of virtual panoramas.

Make your own panoramas

http://www.panoguide.com/
http://www.panoramas.dk/panorama/index.html

http://www.panoramas.dk/panorama/software.html

Daastaan - e - Amir Hamza and Hamzanama

2012-01-19T16:59:00.001+05:30

A sketch I made quite a few years back, copied out from a miniature painting on Dasatan - e - Amir Hamza, an epic story of the trials and deeds of prophet Muhammad's uncle Hamza. All Islamic sources unanimously agree that the real Hamza idb Adb Al Muttalib, the Prophet's coeval uncle , died in the Battle of Uhud in 625 A.D. However Hamza's swashbuckling-hero-like qualities and the narratives of real journeys he may have made all over the Middle East, Iran, Turan and the Indian Sub-Continent have lived on in the tradition of Dasatan - e - Amir Hamza in Persian literature and other literatures which have a Persian influence.

This illustration shown above has been copied from one of the greatest illustrated books ever produced, the Hamzanama of Emperor Akbar. This book is a truly phenomenal piece of work. The 15 years long production of Akbar's Hamzanama is considered to be a seminal event in the history of Indian art as it initiated the radical propelling of the tradition of Mughal miniatures to the top echelons of world art. While on the Mughal subject, it is interesting to note that the different Hamza epics frequently refers to Amir Hamza as Sahib - i - Qiraani, which means Lord of the Fortuitous Conjunction. This title was also used by Mughal chroniclers for their founder Timur. I have written a post on the titles used by Timur here. This takeover of Hamza's title by Timur or assigning of a common title to both personalities for reasons of providing an association is something which has always intrigued me.

Stories from Dastan - e - Amir Hamza are regularly performed on the Indian Sub-Continent and in South-East Asia by dastangoi performers and are quite popular with various groups of audience. Be sure to check out a Dastangoi performance of Dastan - e - Amir Hamza whenever you get an oppourtunity, it's worth it.

I didn't want to write much about the Dastan - e - Amir Hamza as it really is quite popular; I just wanted to share my love for a wonderful fantasy story. The following websites give a lot of information about this great epic:

Wikipedia on Dastan - e - Amir Hamza

Smithsonian Institution - Highly recommended, very beautiful and visual website which uses images from the original Hamzanama of Akbar to introduce the story. The illustration above is also on the introduction page of the Smithsonian Institution's website.

Victoria & Albert Museum holds Akbar's Hamzanama. This website gives some details of the book and also provides a glimpse of the great book.

An academic discussion on the format, size and nature of Akbar's Hamzanama. Here (website) and (pdf)

Tilsim - e - Hoshruba - Nice website on a late 19th century Urdu recasting of Dastan - e - Amir Hamza by Indian writers who vastly expanded and changed the original premise of the Dastan. This work has been recently translated into English.

You can read more about the great Dastangoi art tradition here

It's official folks, we're a 7 billion strong family now

2011-10-22T10:12:00.000+05:30

Many population based maps are available at this forum.

World Map (country size based on population figure)

India Map (based on population figures), physical map given in faint outline.

Rajasthan, Gujarat, J&K, Uttranchal and most of the North East have shrunk drastically, whereas the metros have swelled up to hundreds of time of their physical size. Uttar Pradesh too has assumed a monstrous size.

A Yukaghir girl writes a love letter / Semasiographic and Glottographic writing systems

2011-10-09T15:24:00.002+05:30

A Yukaghir girl in love with a Yukaghir boy wrote him a letter. The Yukaghir are a North Eastern Siberian tribe who live by hunting and fishing. The letter is given below. This image constitutes the complete letter. Any guesses as to what it says?

A bit tough to understand, isn' t it? The first I came across this letter, I couldn't understand any of it; in fact I only saw it as a drawing. But it is a letter indeed and what follows below is the explanation. I have highlighted the parts using various colours and then broken down the sequence of events into 9 frames only to explain the chain of thought. The actual letter is just the one colourless image shown above.

1. The writer of the letter, the Yukaghir girl, is the tree shape in Blue. We know she is a girl because she has plaited hair.

2. The girl is in love with a Yukaghir boy, another tree shape, in Green. He is a boy as he doesn't have plaited hair. The letter is addressed to him.

3. The Yukaghir girl writes that she and the boy loved each other and this is depicted by the intermingling of their thoughts just above their tree point heads.

4. The girl further writes that now the boy has left her for another girl, a Russian girl and started living with this Russian girl. The Russian girl is shown to the left of the boy in Red and they are shown together living under one roof (a step pyramid/tent-like structure over their heads). The Russian are ethnically, socially and culturally completely different from the Yukaghir and the writer shows this by drawing panniers on the Russian girl's skirts (which are absent from her own Yukaghir skirt). The Russian girl of course also has plaited hair as she too, is a girl.

5. The Yukaghir girl tells the boy that the Russian girl has destroyed the relationship the Yukaghir boy and girl had earlier. This is depicted by the Russian girl's thoughts emanating from her head and cutting through the thoughts / love shared by the Yukaghir boy and girl earlier shown in figure 1.

6. However the girl knows that all is not well between the Yukaghir boy and his Russian girl friend. This tension is depicted by crosses between the heads of the Yukaghir boy and Russian girl, highlighted in Red.

7. The girl also informs the boy that she is alone in her house and she is sad. Her sad state of mind is shown by the crosses drawn behind her own head. But she tells him that she still often thinks about him and wants to be with him. Her thoughts (shown emanating from her head in Blue) are still.... sort of....drifting towards him.

8. However there has been a development. She tells the boy that now another Yukaghir boy has started making advances towards her. These are shown by a rather persistent and focused squiggly emanating out of this new boy's head towards the girl.

9. The girl finally lets her ex lover know that if he wants to get back with her he should move immediately, before she gives into the advances made by the new Yukaghir boy and before her ex lover has children with the Russian girl. Two children are shown on the extreme left moving into the house of the Russian girl and the Yukaghir boy.

And so this is the interpreation of this love letter written by a grieving Yukaghir girl to her ex lover.

Amazing isn't it. Suddenly the letter seems so clear after the explanation. This letter is an example of a semasiographic system of writing. Semasiographic writing is when the writing/drawing represents the idea itself rather than any spoken words ie speech. The spoken words which are used everyday by the reader and the writer to communicate are not recorded in the written communication. The idea is recorded.

Actually we all deal with semasiographic writing everyday. Here are some examples:

Yup, these and many more semasiographic writings live all over our glottographic world. It is said that written mathematics is a very pure form of semasiographic writing.

Semasiographs are not the same as pictures. They are very much language based communication and are fluid in the sense that they can depict tenses and are very precise in interpretation to those who know how to read them, unlike pictures which are frozen and hence perhaps timeless and are also open to subjective interpretation. But most importantly any person using a semasiographic system will have to represent the same idea in the same way. handwriting differences notwithstanding. Whereas in a picture, there are many different ways to drawing the same idea, eg. a woman sitting next to a tree. This can be drawn in many different highly divergent ways. But the Yukaghir people must write the letter above in the same way. Here in lies the greatest difference between semasiographs and pictures.

This is an example of a picture. Perhaps a grieving lover draws this picture and sends to the one she grieves for. Or perhaps not. She may just be sleeping next to a tree. It is a painting.

However this is clear written semasiographic communication. It's a letter, not a pciture. Those familiar with the Yukaghir language know how to read this letter. Every Yukaghir who wants to represent the idea of this letter in writing will have to write the same letter.

In both cases an idea is communicated. Both the painting and the semasiographic letter can be very precise if need be. But the two should not be confused.

Now the more prevalent writing system in today's world is not semasiographic but glottographic.This blog post is in English, which is an example of a glottographic system of writing. In a glottographic system the idea is not directly recorded in the communication. The spoken words which represent the idea are directly recorded. The idea to be communicated is not directly shown. Rather the written "speech" has to be read and then the idea becomes apparent. The Yukaghir people have actually now adopted the Cyrillic / Russian script for their languages after the Russification of North Eastern Siberia. Hence the Yukaghir languages have moved from a semasiographic system to a glottographic system of writing.

Obviously both semasiographic and glottographic systems have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Road signs, washing instructions, mathematics all if translated into glottographic writing would become extremely cumbersome and unwieldy. I think I would use neither exclusively if I had a choice. Both could be used in combination or different ones for different languages. That would be fun. And terribly confusing perhaps.In both the semasiographic system and the glottographic system, the writing, the language and the idea are being coded seamlessly and continuously but in different ways.

I came across this Yukaghir letter in a fantastic book on scripts called Writing Systems by Geoffery Sampson. It is a great book and I can re-read it many times. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in scripts and perhaps also in linguistics. Most of the ideas for this blog post have come to me directly from the 2nd chapter of this book. I think I love scripts even more than I love languages. I wished to write a much longer post but I am sure it too would have joined my list of long dead unfinished posts. Perhaps one day I will write on the symbiotic world of scripts and languages as well. God willing.

Know More:

Writing Systems by Geoffery Sampson
The Yukaghir
A study of writing by Ignace Gelb
Russification

Who is most fierce animal?

2011-10-05T11:38:00.000+05:30

"Qual è il più feroce degli animali?" chiese allora il Poeta. "L'uomo."
"Perché?"
"Domandalo a te stesso..."

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

82 prints of Los Desastres de la Guerra by Goya on an aimless Monday evening

2011-10-04T08:19:00.002+05:30

Ultimately it was the faces. Just one look at the faces and I knew Goya had touched me deeply. He had made me feel the pain. The physical and mental pain of war. And the sheer futility. A waste.

I knew nothing of Goya before seeing this exhibition. I had ofcourse seen his famous work, The Shootings of May 3rd 1808. But I knew nothing of him, his style, his world. I had read some bits on the Penensular War in War and Peace but that was it. Then one aimless Monday evening I chanced upon an exhibition on a series of war prints by Goya. Goya, a Spaniard, was asked by a Spainish general to witness, and preserve in art, the attrocities being commited by Napoleon's troops in the cities of Zaragoza and Madrid during the Penensular War of 1808-1814. Goya went to the battlfields and the seiges and diligently, often in grave danger or under the protective cover of darkness, sketched out the scenes of agony and human suffering being played out before him. The outcome: a series of 82 prints called Desastres de la Guerra (Disasters of War).
I think each of the 82 prints influenced me immensely. The time I spent amongst them wasn't enough at all. I could look at these engravings over and over again; sometimes looking at Goya's excellent shading technique and his use of dark and light to highlight and conceal, at other times his forceful framing and composition, and at other times just be lost in those scenes, feeling them, living them. Overwhelming.

The prints themselves are actually etchings/engravings called Aquatints.It think this is a great medium and coupled with Goya's mastery of technique makes for the perfect represtation of such a dark subject. Very effective.

If I was absolutely forced to pick 5 from the 82 prints which influenced me the most, these would be the prints I would select:

I have found a new favourite artist and also images which will always stay in my mind.

Know More:

The exhibition at the Instituo Cervantes - Click here
Goya and the Desastres de la Guerra
The entire series of Los Desastres de la Guerra, in the correct sepia tone
Penensular War: Spain Vs. Napoleon

MKG

2011-10-03T19:17:00.001+05:30

Still smiling :)

One of my favourites

Google Search Globe: some observations

2011-05-20T12:07:00.001+05:30

Google Search Globe is available here

Google Search Globe provides daily statistics on which parts of the globe search in which language and in how much volume. I choose to see Search Globe as a great interactive 3D globe which gives insights into which languages are dominant in which parts of the world for online searches. Quite fun moving the World around. Needs WebGL in your browser.

Some observations on Google Search Globe:

India searches only in English on google.com apparently.

Amongst the Indian cities Delhi uses google.com the most, followed by Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, Pune, Hyderabad and then Calcutta.

Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkotta do not exist

Bangkok (??), Jakarta (???) and Istanbul (?????) search more than any Indian city

Singapore searches in English and a bit in Chinese, Hong Kong in Chinese mostly.

All of South America uses Spanish except Brazil which uses Portuguese. Though West Indies uses Spanish, English and Portuguese.

Despite Spanish being the second most spoken language in the USA, all the google.com searches from the USA are in English.

A lot of people somewhere on the USA-Canada border near Montana do not use English (but which language do they use? can't be French, too far from France and Quebec)

Canada uses English though Quebec uses French (ugh!).

Egypt is all about the Nile

Most (net-connected google.com-using) Australians live on the East coast.

Polynesia searches :)

Atlantis still chooses to remain hidden from the rest of the world.

One or more of these: population, internet access, preference for google.com are so low in Central Asia and Iran that the region appears almost uninhabited.

Surprisingly UAE and Qatar perform a majority of their searches in English (expats perhaps), though predictably Saudi, Yemen, Kuwait and Egypt use Arabic.

Sadly, Modern European Languages have completely killed of all Western European regional languages (Basque, Piedmontese, Langue d'Oc etc) in terms of net usage at least.

Werewolves and vampires inhabit Transylvania (and Manhattan).

North Korea, Tibet, Siberia, Sahara, Congo don't care much for the internet.

Both Arctic and Antarctic Penguins happily agree to eschew all things net and Google.

Highest search volumes originate from USA, Europe, and South America

The filthy human race has spread to almost all parts of the planet Earth.

I have much to travel.

More info on Google Search Globe here

I really like WebGL, it is a beautiful way to interact with 3D content through one's browser, without the need to install any softwares other than a decent browser. One can explore the human anatomy, the World' geography, play 3D games, interpret 3D data and what not. Some more wonderful WebGL applications by Google are available here

Luck and Love

2011-05-05T08:56:00.001+05:30

The debutante smiled and said "Oh I just can't decide and do you really thing someone would want to get married to me. I hope I am lucky enough to find the love of my life."

The weary old magistrate instinctively reached for something in the inner pocket of his dinner jacket but stopped. He was silent and staring, at nothing. Then he smiled, took another slip of the wine and said "I hope you are lucky enough for the love of your life to know that he is the love of your life and lucky enough for him to love you back as much."

Map of Names of Recent Revolutions - Jasmine Revolution

2011-02-05T18:18:00.002+05:30

I am forever in love with maps. While doing a little research about why the revolution in the Arab world is called the "Jasmine Revolution" I realized that in recent years many revolutions have often been given non-political, non-personal names. So I decided to make a map out of this knowledge of names of recent revolutions.

Libya and Syria are now included in this map. As of today, the 9th of April 2011, the date of the revision of this map, Muammar Gaddafi and the revolutionaries are still fighting each other in Libya and no negotiations have been started. Last night I did listen to a senior ex-Gaddafi minister on Hard Talk who was confident that Gaddafi is not going to be able to hold out much longer and the revolution in Libya will be successful. The NATO-led coalition is still fighting against Gaddafi's mercenaries.

Meanwhile in Syria 20 protesters more were killed in Dera in their struggle to overthrow President Bashar Al Assad. No progress there either. Each promise for reform made by President Bashar Al Assad is followed by a fresh wave of violence against the protesters. It's almost as if a promise made is a clear hint towards fresh retribution. So Syria is still in a revolutionary limbo as of now. Though the situation could change.

The revolutions and their names shown in this map chronologically are:

1. Carnation Revolution, Portugal 1974

2. Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia and USSR 1989

3. Rose Revolution, Georgia 2003

4. Orange Revolution, Ukraine 2004

5. Tulip Revolution, Kyrgyzstan 2005

6. Jasmine Revolution, Arab World 2010-2011

The Jasmine Revolution is a term specifically for the Tunisian events and I don't think the protests and unrest taking place at various hot-spots in the Arab World have all been clubbed under the umbrella term Jasmine revolution as yet. However it was Mohamed Bouazizi's sacrifice which sparked the domino effect in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen and Egypt. The tremors are being felt all over the region and in certain Asian regimes as well.

I hope that the Arab people find themselves in a much better position once their struggle is successful. I also hope that peace comes to these people soon.

Click on the map to view a larger image.

I may have missed some other names of revolutions and I would like to know about these if this is the case.

Feel free to use this map for any purpose you like, just link back here / give credit. Email me for bigger file size or other file formats (pdf,gif,png etcetera)

Everything

2011-02-05T12:21:00.000+05:30

Everything I want to write has already been written
Every scene I want to scribe has already been put on the easel
Every hint of an emotion I want to feel has already been experienced
Everything I want to hold back has already been left unsaid

Some observations on Perso-Arabic word choice in Urdu and Punjabi news broadcasts on All India Radio Delhi

2010-09-22T19:34:00.003+05:30

14th July 2010 – AIR 666 MHz AM
Today in the morning I heard the news on the radio and discovered something interesting. The radio channel AIR FM channel 666 MHz broadcasts the news in all of the 4 official languages of Delhi: English, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. Usually I just listen to the Hindi broadcast which runs for 15 minutes, and then the English broadcast of the same stories in the same words as the Hindi one, again runs for 15 minutes.

However sometimes I listen to the Punjabi and the Urdu news broadcasts as well, again 15 minutes each. The same stories, in the same order, with the same news matter, the same words just different languages .

Now what I noticed in today’s news broadcasts was that although often the Punjabi and the Urdu broadcasts use the same Perso-Arabic words for the same meaning in the same stories, in some places they use different words as well for the same stories.

Urdu and Spoken Punjabi have both developed in medieval India and both have been influenced by a common set of factors such as the Perso-Arabic lexicon of the ruling class, the Sufi tradition, the use of Persian as a court language in Medieval India and major cultural and literary overlaps. Although Urdu has taken on many more Perso-Arabic words than has Punjabi, there are still thousands of identical words shared by the two languages. My personal opinion is that upwards of 50% of the Perso-Arabic words in Urdu are shared by many dialects of Punjabi as well. Coupled with the facts that the grammars of both Urdu and Punjabi are based on Prakarit, hence nearly identical, and that Hindustaani as a language is a common ground between both means that there is a high degree of mutual understanding between speakers of these languages.

Common Words
Both Punjabi and Urdu broadcasts used many common words and the list would be too long to mention here but I shall provide a few examples of special words to illustrate what I wrote above on the same stock of Perso-Arabic words being employed in these two languages:
Gawaahi (testimony), Hukoomat (governement), Tajweez (to suggest), Iqtasaadi (economic), Muhaiyya (make available), Intazaam (arrange), Qaanooni (legal), Dehshat Gard (terrorist) etcetera.
Here I have not mentioned any of the Perso-Arabic words used in regular parlance.

Different Words
On the day in question the choice of which Perso-Arabic to use in the same stories differed in the Punjabi and Urdu broadcast for the following words:

MEANING IN ENGLISH	WORD IN PUNJABI BROADCAST	WORD IN URDU BROADCAST
To Die A Martyr (verb)	شھید Shaheed	ھلاک Halaak
Counterpart (noun)	ھم عھدھ Hum Auhdah	ھم منصب Hum Mansab
Workers (noun)	ملازم Mulaazim	ارکان Arkaan

To be sure, all 6 of the words mentioned above are Perso-Arabic in origin as well as in their presently used forms. The respective news readers read out near identical sentences for the same stories; the only difference being the choice between which Perso-Arabic word to use from the two words given in the table above for a single meaning. The words from the Punjabi column are very close substitutes of the words from the Urdu column and vice-versa. The import remains the same regardless of which Perso-Arabic word has been used.
It is a case of so near and yet so far.

Let us look at these words in a bit more detail.

Same Words
1. The first word in the table, Shaheed is an Arabic word often used to denote an honourable death fighting for a cause, in other words it means to be martyred. It also stands for witness. Check out my earlier post on the relationship between the words Martyr and Witness.

2. The second word, Halaak is a Arabic word which is used to indicate total annihilation and destruction. In the sense of the totality of destruction Halak is close to the word Fanaa فناء though in India the former has a negative connotation and the latter is a Sufi term used for a positive annihilation of the self into the Creator.

3. The third word in the table, Hum Mansab is a hybrid Perso-Arabic construction. It is made up of a Persian word, Hum (means together/us) and an Arabic word Mansab (means rank). Hum Mansab means counterpart, another of the same rank/position.

4. The fourth word, Hum Auhdah, is a parallel to Hum Mansab and again, it is a hybrid Perso-Arabic construction. Auhdah is an Arabic word which means position//rank/social standing. Hence Hum Auhdah means of an equivalent position or standing.

From a lexicographical point of view both of these hybrid Perso-Arabic words are exact substitutes of each other when one want to use them in the sense of position in a hierarchy. Both Mansab and Auhdah can and do mean rank/position. The choice of which one to use should be germane to most speakers. However the second words of these hybrids help provide an explanation for the differing choice. Most speakers of Urdu, with a minimalistic level of Urdu education, would feel equally at home with both Mansab and Audah. On the other hand, nowadays the word Mansab has almost completely disappeared from the vocabulary of Hindustaani (or bazaar Urdu or filmy Urdu or call it what you will). Most speakers of Hindustaani would be uncomfortable with the word Mansab and would ponder over the import of this word. Most of these speakers would prefer the word Auhdah. As observed earlier, Punjabi is closer to Hindustaani that to Urdu. Hence the use of this word in the Punjabi broadcast. Now this explains why the Punjabi broadcast chooses to use Hum Audah. But then if these words are almost exact substitutes, why does the Urdu broadcast choose to use Hum Mansab?

Well it turns out these words are not exact substitutes all the times. Perhaps the preference for Mansab over Auhdah lies in the historical use of the word Mansab. Throughout Islamic history, in the various Islamic armies, Mansab has been the preferred word for rank. It was always used in the Medieval and Pre-Modern royal courts in the Sub Continent for official and military rank . In fact, the East India Company whole heartedly adopted this word for rank in its muster rolls and even incorporated the Pre-Mughal and Mughal rank of Mansabdaar as a rank of substance in its official military hierarchy. Some, or perhaps many, Urdu speakers would associate Auhdah more with social hierarchy and Mansab specifically with official hierarchy. I have always heard the Urdu broadcast choose Mansab over Auhdah when talking of the rank of a government official . Hence somewhere the more appropriate construction, Hum Mansab, is preferred over the almost there but not quite, Hum-Auhdah, while talking about officials of equivalent rank.
As a side, I would like to mention that speakers of Urdu and Hindustaani use many such hybrid Perso-Arabic words in everyday speech. Some common examples are Bey Shak (=certainly, Bey - Persian, Shak – Arabic), Naa Mumkin (=impossible, Na – Persian, Mumkin – Arabic), Bad Zaat (=bad character, Bad – Persian, Zaat – Arabic), Dast-e-Khatt (=signature, Dast-e – Persian with ezaafe, Khatt - Arabic), Bad Tameez (=unmannered, Bad – Persian, Tameez – Arabic), Hum Safar (=co-traveller, Hum – Persian, Safar – Arabic) etcetera. This feature of Urdu/Hindustaani wherein hybrid Perso-Arabic words are employed, is one of the reasons why some people draw parallels between Urdu and Ottoman Turkish and Urdu and Chughtai Turkic.

5. The fifth word Mulaazim comes from the Arabic triliteral root LZM and means a lieutenant, an indispensable person, an employee. Many of us in India are unacquainted with this “indispensable” origin of Mulaazim and think of it to connote only a servant / an empolyee.

6. The sixth word is Arkaan. It is the plural form of the Arabic Rukun. Rukun means a pillar, basis, bolster, the foundation. It is a very close substitute of the original meaning of the previous word Mulaazim, used during the Urdu broadcast. For clarity on this I would like to thank Jamshed Saahab who guided me towards the right word, Arkaan.

It is still not very clear as to why there is a difference between the choice of word for the same meaning between the two broadcasts. The difference could be due to a form of diglossia. However this is not to suggest that one of these is a more classical or “higher” language than the other and this is why I shy away from associating the Urdu-Hindustaani phenomenon with diglossia. And of course, I am completely incompetent to speak on matters of linguistic and language theory anyway. Perhaps this has nothing to do with diglossia at all. However the choice of which Perso-Arabic words to use could be the result of perceived diglosia amongst the speakers of Urdu and Hindustaani in the sub-conscious of those who frame the sentences for the respective broadcasts. One need not be a linguistic to believe that different people use slightly different vocabulary sets for the same / similar languages.

The difference in choice of words could also be due to politics, due to dialectical differences, due to differences in the educational environment of those who frame the news broadcasts, due to the different books the news framers read, etcetera.

Nevertheless there is a difference, and this difference between choice of Perso-Arabic words for the Urdu and the Punjabi broadcast excites me. This difference points out the commonality, the unity. Vive le difference.

PS – There is another difference between the Punjabi and Urdu news broadcasts on AIR FM which comes to my mind. Just like the English and the Hindi news broadcasts, the Urdu news broadcast too has a short section at the end which gives a round up of the headlines in the day’s major newspapers in the concerned language. Hence in the last section of the day’s Urdu news broadcast, the news reader reads out the headlines from 4 or 5 of the major Urdu dailies published in Delhi on that morning.
However this headlines’ round up section is absent in the Punjabi news broadcast as although Punjabi is one of the four official languages of Delhi, there are not many Punjabi newspapers of note published in Delhi (perhaps there are none).

Martyr and Witness (and why a common root in Arabic?)

2010-09-06T13:02:00.000+05:30

It seems that the words Martyr and Witness are inextricably intertwined. At least in some cultures and languages they are. I first realised they are related when I noticed that words in Arabic (and Persian as well as in Urdu) are from the same root: Sh-H-D شهد

Witness : شاهِد (shaahid)

Martyr : شهِيد (shaheed)

Further research reveals that this is also the case in Greek, Church Latin and Syriac. It seems that in the Classical Mediterranean world the concepts of martyr and witness were not related to each other linguistically. However during the Age of the Apostles of Christ the first instances of the relationship between these two words came to light. From this time onwards till the issue of the Edict of Milan by Constantine in 313AD, with varying degrees of persecution, the Christian believers (starting with Stephen Martyr in 33AD) were tried by various Roman courts for apostasy and were found guilty of this crime, usually punishable by death.

Why for apostasy? Throughout the history of the Roman empire, the Romans had been highly tolerant of other religions and gods. The Roman emperors / senate went so far as to identify the new gods they came across amongst the theology of their newly acquired subjects with those of their own Roman pantheon, as long as these subjects sacrificed to the Roman gods as well. But this was not all, the Romans were even more accommodating. Jewish theology clearly forbade sacrifice to the Roman or any other pagan gods. The Romans accepted Judaism as an ancient and venerable religious tradition from remote antiquity and did not construe this prohibition against sacrifice as Jewish disrespect against Roman gods. Christian theology, nascent though it was during the Age of the Apostles, too forbade sacrifices to pagan gods. At the same time the Christians, the Hellenistic Christians at any rate, maintained that though they too followed the same God of the Scripture as the Jews, they were not a sect of Judaism and were not bound by the Hebrew Bible. They had the New Testament, the Gospel which replaced the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. Hence to the Romans these Christians were neither pagans nor Jews and as the Romans only knew of Jesus Christ as a minor mischief maker in a far-flung-edge-of-the-empire-garrison town and not the Son of God, the Christians could only be apostates. Apostasy was considered to be a heresy of the highest order by the Romans and was thought of as the primary reason for the Roman gods’ anger with the Roman people. Ergo the Roman zeal to eliminate apostasy in all forms from within the vast expanse of their empire. Zeal ;) :), nice word to describe the Zealots’ greatest enemy.

Now, back to the Christian martyrs in the Age of Apostles and thereafter. It seems that it was believed by the Early Christians that those amongst them who were being called to trial by the Romans on charges of apostasy were actually being called by God to bear witness to His truth. They were providing testimony of God, of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ; and they were ready to “seal” their testimony with their own blood by submitting to capital punishment for their belief. The Christians also believed that in doing this they were following the example of Jesus Christ, Martyr Kat’ Exochen, martyr par excellence, who bore witness to the truth of God before Pontus Pilate and then gave up his life on the cross for this testimony.

Some of the languages which share this association between the words Martyr and Witness are given below:

LANGUAGE	MARTYR	WITNESS
Greek (Church and Modern, not Ancient)	ιερομάρτυρας ieromartyras	μάρτυρας martyras
Syriac	ܣܗܕܐ shd’	ܣܗܕܐ shd’
Arabic (hence Persian, Turki, Urdu etc by extension)	شهِيد shaheed	شاهِد shaahid

There could be other languages as well which share common roots for Martyr and Witness but I have not been able to uncover the relationship.

It seems that relationship between Martyr and Witness is a fundamental Early Christian concept. Perhaps that is why this connection is not evident in Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Old Latin, Aramaic (unsure), Old Persian, Uzbek, Sanskrit, Welsh, Gaelic, High / Low German etcetera.

This learning has been fascinating for me but now it brings me to the threshold of a new question. Why do the words Martyr and Witness share the same root in Arabic?

It seems that a common root for Martyr – Witness is not a Semitic concept. Most Semitic languages do not share the root Sh-H-D for Martyr-Witness; they have different roots for these two words. Hebrew, Aramaic and Geez do not show any signs of a common ground between Martyr and Witness (perhaps they do but I am inept at a thorough analysis in these languages). Syriac, a Semitic language, is a variant of Aramaic and is an exception. Syriac developed into its classical form during the Age of Apostles and thereafter. Further it has always been used as a liturgical language of one of the oldest churches in the world. Hence a common root Martyr-Witness in Syriac is perfectly natural.

But why the same root for Martyr-Witness in Arabic? Why this second exception from amongst the group of Semitic languages?

It seems to me that Classical Arabic did not receive this Martyr-Witness concept from a linguistic Semitic sources but rather from a religious source, namely Christianity. The more I think about it the more Gunter Luling’s assertions of a Christian Pre-Islamic Mecca and a Christian Ur-Koran spin faster and faster around my head. Prof Luling’s work is extremely good and extremely erudite and I do not claim to understand most of it. Hence I will desist from writing about his work or about any other Higher Criticism.

A further study of Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry should shed some more light on whether the same root for Martry-Witness was used during times of “Jahiliyya” (Ignác Goldziher rolls his eyes). Again there could surface some more words for either Martyr, Witness or for both. And finally in which sense have these words been used in Pre-Islamic poetry?

It could be that Arabic has a common root / word for Martry and Witness because of a natural linguistic evolution akin to the same phenomenon seen in Greek and Syriac but independent of these. Perhaps the reason is something else entirely but I would certainly like to know about it and am wiling to do more thorough research on this enigma. Anybody got Hazrat Sibawayhi’s email ID?

Microsoft Surface: finally a Microsoft technology that made me go "wow"

2010-08-18T12:37:00.000+05:30

After a decade long love-hate-hater-hatest relationship with Microsoft, finally Microsoft has made me go "wow".

Check out these links on Microsoft's innovative (not new) technology called Microsoft Surface: table top multi-touch

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface

If MS plays its cards right and if this technology is cheap then it could be the next big thing at MS for the next 5 years or so. Like all touch devices the potential of this technology is limitless.

Live art and television on walls, weather information and calendars on windows, texts and homework on school desks, security information and messages on doors, recipes and cooking videos on kitchen counters, interactive board games and magazines on table tops etcetera...there is no limit.

Of course I would like to wait for the opensource / android / chrome version but MS Surface is a great innovative application nevertheless.

Living with High Urban Population Density: Domestic Transformer - Create a fully equipped house out of 300 square feet

2010-05-15T13:22:00.001+05:30

An architect in Hong Kong has invented a system of house-space management called 'Domestic Transformer'. This system essentially allows for very efficient utilization of a very small space with the help of a series of hollow partition walls which slide in an out of each other over channels on the floor and on the roof to reveal, conceal, expand, reduce and "create" space. Bed rooms change in to sofas, libraries into kitchens, CD racks make way for bath tubs so on and so forth. Hence the term 'Transformer'.

Here is a video of the Hong Kong architect Gary Chang demonstrating the use of his concept 'Domestic Transformer'.

To be sure the Domestic Transformer house is not a dream house for most people and it could loose the "cool" appeal for many people after their having lived in it for some time. However it is a great idea for those who have to manage in very small and tight space due to reasons of affordability, legal restrictions, space scarcity, just lesser need for living space or any other reasons. Many people just don’t have a choice; they have to spend a majority part of their lives in tight-choc-a-block houses.

Although architect Gary Chang was inspired to come up with this space management concept as a result of his entire family (of 5 or more people) having to live in a crammed Hong Kong apartment, Domestic Transformer type houses could become a hit with bachelors and those who live alone as well. In the over-burgeoning, always-hard pressed for living space, metros such as Mumbai, Singapore, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, New York City , Mexico City, Hong Kong space management is top priority. It is for such urban areas that Domestic Transformer type of houses are a boon. Of course the economic viability and pricing of such projects would have to be looked into and in order to be successful the model would have to be customized according to the different environmental and cultural conditions and preferences for each metro. But the concept is inherently good and useful.

A cursory search for houses for sale in Hong Kong (keeping in mind the surface area and location) does seem to indicate that the Domestic Transformer house is not overly priced, but this is not an accurate or final judgement.

image courtesy http://www.designswan.com/archives/domestic-transformer-24-different-room-configurations-on-344-square-foot.html

I personally prefer a reduction in the population density in the metros as I am sure do many others, but this reduction is not going to happen within the next three or four decades. On the contrary the growth in urban population is increasing faster than ever.

Some of the reasons for the ever-increasing importance of better urban space management are:

What I refer to as actual human population density (ie total population / total landmass baring Antarctica) is already close to 50 people per square kilometre. If one was to use only "habitable land" in the denominator the figure of 50 could rise to well above 70 people per square kilometre.
On a global level more humans now live in urban areas than in rural areas. In Asia and in South America this figure is much above the 50% mark (higher than 705 for South America). This trend is still rising.
A third of all people living in cities live in slums or areas which can be classified as slums.
Beyond a point urban infrastructure is unable to provide

Ideas such as Domestic Transformer are much needed and even though they may not be perfect but they are a step in the right direction.

If you have some ideas and know of some similar concepts do mention them in the comments field below. I would love to explore this further.

Some related links

National Geographic’s website on populations. Make sure you check the “population trends” topics on the right hand side of the map on the opening page.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/population.html

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/quality-of-life.html

Wikipedia page on population density

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population

Book making binding Pictorial Webster

2009-12-31T12:53:00.001+05:30

Book spines, hard bound books, Linotype machines.

Here is a great video on:

1. One man's journey to re-create the Pictorial Webster
2. How books used to be made

By the end of the video I wanted to stand up and applaud.

Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.

Here are some other videos on book making

Basic book binding

Playlist of 22 videos on book making on youtube and some tips on how to make books here .

Really inspirational, I intend to make a book of my own in 2010, suggestions are welcome :)

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

2009-10-26T11:45:00.010+05:30

Inglourious Basterds

In some senses Inglourious Basterds is a typical Quentin Tarantino movie with "Chapter" - based narrative, cinematic nods of acknowledgement to past movies from the same genre and comic relief blended into seemingly ultra-violent settings: (Col Hans Landa's sherlock-holmes-on-hormones calabash pipe compared to the Frenchman monsieur La Padite's rustic little briar-aspirant pipe did break the tension for the entire audience in my hall during the opening scene of Jew search visit). Everything from the title itself to the minor details is inspired but Inglourious Basterdsis definitely worth a watch.

What I liked about Inglourious Basterds is that it gives enough screen time to all the major characters. Though Brad Pitt features most prominently on the posters, to me his character appeared as just one of the many key characters in the movie. Lt. Aldo Raine, the Jew-Red-Indian heritage leader of the Basterds played by Brad Pitt, provides a lot of comic relief and sense of purpose. His southern Tennessee drawl, never ending search for Nazi scalps and matter-of-fact engraving of the Swastika on the foreheads of captured Nazis all help make him the most loved of all the characters with the audience.

Sample this dialogue between Lt. Aldo Raines and Lt. Archie Hicox

Lt. Aldo Raine: You didn't say the goddamn rendezvous was in a fuckin' basement.
Lt. Archie Hicox: I didn't know.
Lt. Aldo Raine: You said it was in a tavern.
Lt. Archie Hicox: It is a tavern.
Lt. Aldo Raine: Yeah, in a basement. You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement!

However my personal favourites in Inglourious Basterds are Lt. Archie Hicox, the British German movie industry doctorate holder, played by Michael Fassbender, Bridget Von Hammersmark, the German movie diva played by Diane Kruger and Col Hans Landa, the "Jew Hunter" SS colonel, played by Christoph Waltz. I also liked the acting of the Frenchman Denis Menochet as the French dairy farmer Monsieur La Padite, hiding his Jewish neighbours in his cellar. In fact all the actors in Inglourious Basterds have done really well.

The English subtitles of the many German and French dialogues have been handled extremely well. There are many fast paced dialogues in German which have been executed superbly. Of course most of the cast involved in these is German anyway but it still needs an intelligent director to convert it into great reel time and Quentin Tarantino is more than up to the task here. My two favourite scenes from Inglourious Basterds are: the first opening scene where Col Hans Landa visits Monsieur La Padite and his three very beautiful daughters and the tavern scene involving the three basterds, Bridget Von Hammersmark and the SS Major Hellstrom. In both the scenes a lot about the characters is revealed, the tension slowly builds up, wooden tables are involved (ok that was stupid) and the outcome in each has great impact soon after. Both the scenes have German, French and English. The subtitles have been done well and more importantly the transition from German English and French English and back and forth is amazingly smooth.

As a film, Inglourious Basterds is acutely aware of its audience being far removed in terms of time from the events of World War 2. Take for instance when the narrator explains the highly combustible nature of the 35mm films of the era of World War 2 and he starts with the words "In those days...". Even the need for the narrator to provide an explanation on this says a lot.Another example of this self-awareness is the pointing out on screen the key Nazi officials using animated arrows. These are not necessarily bad things to do, in fact these help to cut through the chase so to speak and highlight the significance of events immediately. Quentin Tarantino certainly knows how to endear his movies to his audiences. In some sense I would do the same if I was to make such a movie for today's audience...okay now entering the realm of day dreaming.

Films on World War 2 will not go out of style any time soon, they started soon after the outbreak of the Nazi Blitzkrieg in 1939 and haven't run out of steam yet. Apart from Inglourious Basterds, there are at least two Hollywood films on this theme set to be released within the next year (a remake of the 1955 Dambusters and the other being Little Iron Men). Inglourious Basterds will never be in the top rung of great World War 2 films and perhaps if a poll of such great films was to be held a decade from now, Inglourious Basterdsmay not make it into the top 20 but the current popularity of this movie can not be denied.

Where this movie really scores is that it seems to appeal a lot to a newer generation of movie-goers who have never heard of Patton or Tora Tora or The Longest Day or Dirty Dozen or The Eagle Has Landed et al and who couldn't care less about last year's bomb Valkyrie but who can easily sit through a Quentin Tarantino style rendition of almost anything be it a movie on World War 2 or on how a bride extracts sword-blade revenge or on the nuances of selling salted butter in Namibia or whatever. And in this sense Inglourious Basterdsnot only keeps the tradition of World War 2 movies alive but it will perhaps help re-introduce at least some of the above mentioned movies to a newer generation of film buffs.

And then of course it has the legend of the Bear Jew.........."NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN"

Post Script: - The black and white Nazi propoganda movie of Joseph Goebbels called the "Nation's Pride", which plays in Shosanna's cinema, was directed by Eli Roth, the character who plays the baseball bat wielding Bear Jew.

Another anachronism I noticed was when Col Hans Landa talks of precluding any chances of being tried by a Jewish court. In 1944 there was no Jewish state and the real possibility of such a state was quite remote. Further the question of a German colonel ending up in a Jewish court would also seems quite remote or non-existent at the time. Hence Landa's comment is anachronistic. However after the formation of Israel some Nazis were tried in "Jewish" courts the most famous such case being the trial of SS Lt.Col. Adolf Eichmann in the 1960s.

Brigadier and Brigadier General + John Nicholson

2008-12-20T13:49:00.048+05:30

Brigadier General - Transient Throne

John Nicholson

and General Custer as a footnote

I have always been interested in the history of military and it was not entirely unnatural for me to ponder a bit on the sudden promotion of a Captain John Nicholson to the rank of Brigadier in 1857. This jump in ranks ultimately led me to understand a bit more of military ranks and of John Nicholson. Here's what happened.

While reading an account of the Siege of Delhi of 1857 I often came across the name John Nicholson. This is no surprise since to most of the British present at the siege and thereafter Nicholson was the first among equals in the line of heroes of the siege. He was one of Henry Lawrence's Young Men, each of whom was in the words of Philip Mason "Moses and Napoleon" - tax collector, magistrate, army commander, political officer, division officer all rolled into one; usually the only white face for hundreds and hundreds miles around his jurisdiction in the Punjab province or the North East Frontier Province.

Upon the outbreak of the Mutiny, Nicholson was a captain serving under John Lawrence (younger brother of Henry Lawrence), the governor of the recently conquered Punjab province. The Delhi Field Force was assembled on the ridge overlooking Shahjahanabad in May - June 1857; the Moving Column from Punjab joined up with the force to lay siege to Delhi in mid August and Capt. John Nicholson came in with the column. He fought alongside the rest of the British officers against the Sepoys and Mughals of Delhi who fought back with just as much ferocity. The next month was spent in an internecine impasse and finally the majority of the British officers voted for frontal assault on the walls of Delhi on the 14th of September with none other than Brigadier General John Nicholson to lead them.

"Eh?" me sputters in surprise,
"Brigadier General? But he was a captain wasn't he?"
me scans the last few pages skipping words and lines searching for the name John Nicholson and, yes indeed, he had been a captain till now. "So? Then? What just happened is the space of the last two lines to pole-vault him from Captain to Brigadier General?"

Turns out it's not such a big deal after all. I mean it is and yet it isn't. Let me explain.After years of conducting PhD. quality research, back breaking investigations and talking to retired and surviving army officers I have come to discover the following.

There were at least four types of ranks in the British Army in India -
Substantive
Acting
Temporary and
Brevet.
A substantive rank is a permanent rank which governs the pay and allowances due to an officer. An acting rank is a rank awarded for a time which may or may not be converted into a permanent rank; holding an acting rank allows for the higher pay associated with the higher acting rank to be given to a holder of a lower substantive rank. Thus a substantive Captain, Acting Major would be paid as per the pay scale of a Major. A temporary rank is exactly what is says - temporary, more on this below. Each of these three is a commissioned rank which means that the ranks is conferred on the officer by the ruling monarch or by the Board of Representatives (of the East India Company) or a similar such authority. A brevet rank however is not a commissioned rank. Other than by the usual channel above, it can also be awarded by the commander of the army for exemplary bravery and is ceremonial (though years of service as a brevet rank holder do go towards the calculation of seniority); it is however permanent and one can not be 'demoted' from a brevet rank just as the in case of a permanent rank.

The rank of Brigadier or Brigadier General was almost always a temporary rank. Brigadier was a rank awarded for a specific purpose (or mission) such as taking command of all the forces in a battle ie commanding the full brigade, commanding a section of a wartime activity (like arranging for troop recruitments or logistics) or acting as the commanding officer of group formed for a special task such as the Army Of Retribution formed to avenge the massacre of the Kabul Residency in the 1870s. Brigadier or Birgadier General was usually an emergency rank awarded for a task to be accomplished in the near future. This temporary rank was always withdrawn as soon as the task was accomplished. Hence, for example, any Colonel promoted to the rank of a Brigadier for a battle was always 'demoted' back to the rank of a Colonel after the battle.

As a useful digression I present here the military ranks in ascending order of hierarchy for the British Army in India and for the Army of the East India Company at the time of the Mutiny of 1857:

Subaltern - Ensign in Infantry and Cornet in Cavalry - equivalent to a modern day Lieutenant

Captain

Major

Lt. Colonel

Colonel

Brigadier - Brigadier General

Major General

Lt. General

General

The difference between the terms Brigadier and Brigadier General was due to the source of the temporary appointment. If the appointment was made by the monarch or his or her representative (Governor General or Viceroy for example) then the term used was Brigadier General. If appointment was awarded in the field on the authority of a senior General then the term used was Brigadier. Ultimately though this made little difference as the term was often used inter-changeably.

There could be no brevet-Brigadier since a temporary rank could not be awarded for bravery shown in past actions. The temporary rank was always awarded for some future intended outcome and not as a reward. Also brevet ranks were permanent, temporary ranks were, well, temporary.

Brigadier and Brigadier Generals are ranks still retained by the British and most Commonwealth armies though now these ranks are mostly permanent and substantive (not temporary) and no demotions can be made from this rank under normal circumstances.

Till now this is not such a big deal.

The Brigadier was usually the senior most Colonel from among all the Colonels present during the emergency. As can be seen in the hierarchy given above this rank was always somewhere in between that of a full Colonel and a Major General. As a matter of fact the Brigadier was and is still referred to as Colonel-General is certain armies. And this is where John Nicholson's advance from Captain to Brigadier is so unique. The man jumped at least 3 ranks and close to 15 years of service to become a Brigadier overnight. Brigadier John Nicholson superseded scores of other higher ranking Majors, Lt. Colonels and Colonel to become the commander of the assault party. He was made the supreme authority for the charge on the walls of Delhi and all officers (senior and junior) in the attack gladly accepted to follow his lead. The overall Commander of the Delhi Field Force was still Brigadier Wilson, senior to Nicholson in age and years of experience by many a decades, who supervised the attach from atop the Ridge. Had Brigadier General Nicholson survived the assault he would had to go back to the rank of Captain after the completion of the assault. Incidentally the tombstone of John Nicholson gives the rank of the John Nicholson as Brigadier General (temporary) and not as Captain (substantiative). It is set in a cemetery named after him, located in an erstwhile Mughal garden situated just outside the Kashmiri Gate. It was this very bastion of the wall of Delhi which Nicholson attacked on the 14th of Sept 1857 and this is where he fell. Nicholson was fatally wounded at the beginning of the road which connects Kashmiri Gate with Mori Gate, running along the arch of the wall which is in between these two gates. This road was named Nicholson Road.

I do not wish to spin off this post as an essay on the life of John Nicholson or on reputation and respect John Nicholson enjoyed amongst his British brethren and the Sikhs as well (check out the fanatical Sikh sect 'Nikel Sanis' loyal only to John Nicholson). And nor do I wish to dwell too much on his cruelty in dispensing punishment on the rebellious Sepoys. I point the reader towards the rich encomiums showered in the thoroughly enjoyable memoirs of Lord Roberts of Kandhar and to other such memoirs written by the contemporaries of Brigadier General John Nicholson. It is also significant that the usually highly acerbic character of writer George MacDonald Fraser, Col Harry Flashman, who usually lashes away with his vitriolic tongue to decimate the reputation of all from Queen Victoria down to the lowest clerk in the far reaches of the Raj, doesn't sully the name of John Nicholson one bit when he recounts his encounter with the towering-heavily bearded frame of John Nicholson (in the Flashman series novel - The Great Game). Such is the stature of John Nicholson.

Another star on Nicholson's chest - a 150 years and one independence on, the cemetery is still called Nicholson Cemetery and the road is still called Nicholson Road.

Interested reader (hint for detractors and other such folk) should also however lookout for (quite irrelevant and how-does-it-matter) charges of homosexual relations between John Nicholson and, another of Henry Lawrence's young men, Herbert Edwardes.

Walking along Nicholson road at dusk, the sky rife with hues of orange and rust lethargically blotting into one another merged further by the muezzins evening call, the wall of Delhi (still) stoutly standing on one side and an unending row of hardware shops with bored-to-death-owners-who-spend-their-whole-lives-staring-at-the-wall,siting inside on the other side with only about 15 feet separating the two, I could only think of how these shop keepers and the Kashmiri Gate wall are inextricably intertwined with the rank of Brigadier in my mind.

Another (not very useful but highly interesting) digression.

The famous American military personality General Custer was a Lieutenant Cadet (Subaltern) at the start of the American Civil War in 1861 and was temporarily made a Brigadier General at the age of 23 years in 1863 just 3 days before Gettysburg. He also became a brevet Major General in the mid 1860s and his substantive rank at the time of the death in 1874 at Little Bighorn was Lt. Colonel. Now, finally these ranks make some sense, phew!

I suppose this also the right place to mention another place Brigadier General of the Indian Army (Imperial) - General Reginald Dyer of the Amritsar masacare of 1919. Brigadier GeneralDyer retired with the substantive rank of Colonel.

This post is very unstructured (can't help it; the rank of Brigadier and John Nicholson go hand in hand in my mind). Perhaps this post leaves no one in the world any wiser and nor does it do much to reverse global warming but it's just something I discovered and which led me further onto a never ending and superb journey into the world of the Raj and that is why I decided to commit it to paper, er, screen...yeah commit it to screen and to space of blogger's server.

To know more:

1. British Army in India and the rank of Brigadier General

Wikipedia on British Army

Wikipedia on British Army in India

Sahibs by Richard Holmes

Redcoat by Richard Holmes

A Matter of Honour by Philip Mason

2. John Nicholson

Wikipedia

Memoirs of Lord Roberts - download for free from gutenberg

Life of John Nicholson by J. Trotter

Encyclopedia Britannica on John Nicholson from 1911

Mumbai Attacks - 26/11 - Nov 2008

2008-12-02T15:31:00.015+05:30

A lot has been said about the Mumbai attacks. I agree with somethings and disagree with some other things. Here are some things I feel the need to say to those who wish to know:

1. Save the money which would be spent on the candle and / or flowers and / or text messages to each other asking to burn candles. Let's say Rs5 are saved per person.

2. Donate these saving to Army Wives Association http://awwa-india.org/ or other such organisations. Assure the armed forces that we as a nation will continue on our own to support their families withouth passing the buck onto the government or to the army. The families of those who sacrifice their lives for the nation should be the priority of the nation. When they did not pass on the buck onto the government after being called to take charge how can we pass on the buck now?

Simple maths:

If each person above the poverty line living in just Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras was to donate Rs5 then the corpus would excees millions of Rupees.

Donate to anybody you want to or help otherwise (PM's fund, local gurudrawara, orphanage, school take your pic); all such actions help. But remember do not make them one-off-I've-done-my-bit actions. Small but continuous steps are better.

It does not matter how and where we help but we must. Our armed forces have our respect and rightly so. Even if they do not give up their lives just their presence is important. I can enjoy my life, go to the movies, do what I want, eat, drink, sleep, shop do whatever because there is somebody donning a uniform in my stead. He or she is there on my behalf, not on the government's behalf. Armed forces people risk their own lives for their comrades around them and for us, not for the government, not for the notion of India but for the people who are with them in conflicts (their teams, their group, their subordinates and colleagues) and for the people back home.

3. Ignore the glamour-affected-latest-hero-worship-fish-market-hollier-than-thou media houses which want to tell us how we should show solidarity with the armed forces of India and which news to focus on. Media houses (TV Channels esp) have a huge amounts of costs to recover; they are in an industry where the competition is extremely stiff.They have to make every second of air time count. Working the way they work is the only business model they know of and the only one that helps them to make money. They have to show returns on investments. It is foolish for the citizens of India to expect news TV channels to improve the quality of news reporting and analysis. Let the media be. We all get angry at them but they are to be pitied. They have no credibility and nor do they enjoy the respect of most of us. And of course this applies not just to the news channels but to the highly visible faces of these news channels, the so called news heads and to the content editors as well.

4. Do not forgive the politicians and the bureaucrats. Do whatever it takes to shake the fetid political foliage of our nation. Our politicians play with our lives our parents' lives our children's lives, destroy our youth, get the most courageous from amongst us killed for no reason (often facing terrorists without adequate equipment), dilly dally with reforms, cause the deaths of lakhs of Indian every year due to avarice, negligence and plain apathy and then the corruption...

One way is to invoke Sec 49-O of the Conduct of Election Rules Act 1961. Possibly the only weapon we the citizens have againt the politicians. It is our constitutional right as well as our duty.

Sec 49-O, under the Indian Constitution, essentially empowers each citizen of India to vote for "nobody". A voter can choose not to vote for anybody.

As of now this power can not be used by voters as the electronic voting machines do not have a nobody option but the Hon. Supreme Court of India is reviewing cases to get this option included. The Election Commission of India has also made similar recommendations. Although the Returning Officer at each booth can be informed of a "I vote for nobody" decision this would constitute a violation of the law which states that the decision of a voter can not be disclosed to anybody else.

With some changes this can become a possibility and in that case if the number of people in a constituency who exercise this option were to exceed the victory margin of the winner from that constituency then the election results would stand canceled. Re-election would have to be called for and none of the contenders from the initial election would be allowed to contest again.

Text of Sec 49-O

"49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his

electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters

in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as

required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his

vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in

Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb

impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark."

Source - Law Ministry Website

http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm

To know more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49-O

There are other ways also, Checking the affidavits filed by the contenders in your area for criminal cases, and assets declaration among other things , using RTI Act for example.

5. Be good to each other as much as we can be. You love me I love you, to hell with the government, cause it just loves its own self (and even that can be disputed). The government is not the cure for all evil in our country, I have come across many in the government who are hard and honest workers and administrators. It becomes unjust to blame the entire government for everything.

All of us are busy, all of have problems and we can go on doing whatever we do, we can live our lives happily, we just need to make small efforts and do good.

There is some good news. I am happy to know that the Centre has decided to immediately setup new NSG bases in all the metros of India to reduce the reaction time in Mumbai-like situations (as of now the NSG is based out of Manesar near Delhi and it took them more than 3 hours to get to Mumbai).

Further,the states are also being advised to establish their own state-level NSG units which will be the first ones to reach the location of the crisis and act in concert with the Centre-Level NSG units (based out to Delhi and soon out of the other metros as well). The state-level NSG units will be of the same calibre as the Centre-level NSG units. Karnataka has already requested the Centre to help it establish and train a Karnataka NSG. I hope this plan works.

Just remember that more than 4/5th (40 odd) of the Mumbai Attack terrorists have escaped. They are now inside India and waiting for the right time. Better for all of us to be prepared and do our small bits.

http://azhdaha.blogspot.com/2008/12/symbolic-gesticulation-belongs-to-age.html

http://indianmilitarybenefits.blogspot.com/2008/12/rule-49-o-right-to-negative-vote-not.html

http://indianmilitarybenefits.blogspot.com/2008/11/heartfelt-condolences-irrespective-of.html

sometimes

2008-11-14T01:00:00.001+05:30

Sometimes…
I say cheese when I want to say salt,
Or ask you to run when I want you to halt,
I wave goodbye when I want you to talk,
Or push you away when I want you a lot

To forget I write

2008-11-05T20:58:00.000+05:30

To forget I write,
The more I write the more images become sharp,
The more images become sharp the more they cut through my heart,
The more my heart bleeds the more alive I be,
The more alive I feel the more I want thee,
The more I want thee the more it pains to not have you near me,
The more it pains the more I want to forget,
To forget I write

and maybe one day

2008-11-05T17:25:00.003+05:30

and maybe one day

you will just talk
and i will just watch

you will tell me of life
and i will live what you describe

you will use your words to help me rest to massage me
and i will roll in them to remove my burden from me

you will speak with happiness gesturing from your eyes sitting on the bed
and i will sleep listening to you with your lap under my head

you will touch my cheek and run your fingers through my hair
and i will slip deeper into slumber knowing you are there

you will unflurl your memories and take me to your childhood
and i will lie in them and dream of enjoying all that you could

you will ask if i am to go to be somewhere else to do something
and i will reply that just lying with you when you speak is the only thing

and maybe one day

you will just talk
and i will just watch

Umrao Jaan - 1981 - Yeh Kya Jageh Hai Doston - Urdu + English LYRICS

2008-11-03T12:44:00.018+05:30

Umrao Jaan - Yeh Kya Jageh Hai Doston Lyrics

Lyrics - Akhlaq Muhammad Khan "Shahryar"

Music - Muhammad Zahur Hashmi "Khayyam"
Singer - Asha Bhonsle

امراو جان ادا - یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

یہ کون سا دیار ہے ، یہ کون سا دیار ہے

حدّ نگاہ تک جہاں،

حدَّ نگاہ تک جہاں، غبار ہی غبار ہے

غبار ہی غبار ہے

یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

یہ کس مقام پر حیاّت

یہ کس مقام پر حیاّت ،

مجھ کو لے کے آ گیٔ

نا بس خوشی پے ہے جہاں

نا بس خوشی پے ہے جہاں ،

نا غم پے اختیار ہے

یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

یہ کون سا دیار ہے ، یہ کون سا دیار ہے

تمام عمر کا حساب

تمام عمر کا حساب،

مانگتی ہے زندگی

یہ میرا دل کہے تو کیا

یہ میرا دل کہے تو کیا،

کہ خد سے شرمسار ہے

یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

یہ کون سا دیار ہے ،

یہ کون سا دیار ہے

بلا رہا ہے کون

بلا رہا ہے کون مجھ کو چلمنو کے اس طرف

میرے لۓ بھی کیا کیٔ

میرے لۓ بھی کیا کی اداس بقرار ہے

اداس بےقرار ہے

یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

یہ کون سا دیار ہے

حدَّ نگاہ تک جہاں، غبار ہی غبار ہے

غبار ہی غبار ہے

یہ کیا جگہ ہے دوستوں

Transliteration and Translation of Lyrics of Umrao Jaan - Yeh Kya Jageh Hai Doston in English

Yeh kya jageh hai doston - What place is this my friends?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai - Which realm is this?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai -

Hadd-e-nigaah tak jahan - For as far as the eyes can see

Hadd-e-nigaah tak jahan -

Ghubaar hi ghubaar hai - there are only dust storms for me

Ghubaar hi ghubaar hai -

Yeh kya jageh hai doston - What place is this my friends?

Yeh kis maqaam par hayaat - Which is this stage?

Yeh kis maqaam par hayaat -

Mujh ko le ke aagayee - where has life brought me?

Mujh ko le ke aagayee -

Naa bas khushee pe hai jahan - Where I have no control over my happiness

Naa bas khushee pe hai jahan -

Naa gham pe ikhtiyaar hai - and nor can I command my despair

Naa gham pe ikhtiyaar hai -

Yeh kya jageh hai doston - What place is this my friends?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai - Which realm is this?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai -

Tamaam umar ka hisaab - An account of each step

Tamaam umar ka hisaab -

Mangati hai zindagee - is demanded by life

Mangati hai zindagee -

Yeh mera dil kahe to kya - How can my poor heart explain my deeds?

Yeh mera dil kahe to kya -

Ke khud se sharmsaar hai - it is engulfed in its own shame

Ke khud se sharmsaar hai -

Yeh kya jageh hai doston - What place is this my friends?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai - Which realm is this?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai -

Bulaa rahaa hai kaun - Who is calling out to me?

Bulaa rahaa hai kaun mujh ko -

chilmano ke us taraf - from behind the curtains?

Mere liye bhi kya koi - Is there one assigned to me?

Mere liye bhi kya koi -

Udaas bey qaraar hai - to miss me, to impatiently await me?

Udaas bey qaraar hai -

Yeh kya jageh hai doston - What place is this my friends?

Yeh kaun sa dyaar hai - Which realm is this?

Hadd-e-nigaah tak jahan - For as far as the eyes can see

Ghubaar hi ghubaar hai - there are only dust storms for me

Ghubaar hi ghubaar hai -

Yeh kya jageh hai doston - What place is this my friends?

This song is just so perfect.

Inspiration Behind Google Chrome's Logo

2008-09-17T14:43:00.006+05:30

This is not my original material. I found it in an email forwarded it to me. The owner of this material (not me) holds the copyright to it.

Thanks Saurabh.

To read my review of Google Chrome click here
Let me know what you think about these sources of inspiration.

The Inspiration Behind The Logo Design of Google Chrome

This may be just another coincidence but there are some elements that seem to be common between the logo designs of Google Chrome and that of ThinkFree.
It's not the official Thinkfree logo but is part of the installer that ships with the desktop version of Thinkfree Office 3.

Philipp Lenssen and Flickr members have come up with these illustrations to hint that the inspiration for Google Chrome logo may have come from Simon and Pokemon.

Earlier, Harry McCracken wrote about some similarities he found between the logo design of Google Chrome and that of Windows Vista - "No, the Chrome and Windows Vista logos are not true twins, but they're both round and shiny, with the same color scheme–red, green, yellow, and blue."

Am sure these all are mere coincidences but the Thinkfree designers probably aren't too happy about this and have made a 'parody' video on how the Google Chrome logo was designed.

Google Chrome 0.2 - Google's New Browser

2008-09-03T15:26:00.060+05:30

A Layman's Review of Google Chrome 0.2

Or confessions of a decade old Opera user
Or here comes the "IE Killer"

Google has just released the beta version of its new browser called "Chrome". Although this release is not related to history per se or historical in nature I thought I'd jot down a few of my observations on Google Chrome because I've take to it like a fish to water, like Stalin to propaganda, like a gamer to Warcraft, like paparazzi to celebrities,like James Bond to Martini, like governments to corruption,like...

Google Chrome has been built from scratch as a browser meant to be safe, secure, stable, intuitive, fast, and fresh.

What's so different?
(and how do the differences work for me?)

Well not much and quite a lot. To look at Google Chrome is quite similar to some of the new versions of Firefox, Opera, and even IE 8.0. It uses tabs just as they do and it's layout and icons are a little reminiscent of IE 7.

However here are the differences:
1. Google Chrome places the tabs right at the top of the window, where they are easy to reach, and easy to use. It does away with the menu at the top thereby freeing up more space to display the tabs and the web page below the tab.

2. I know I just said it's not too dissimilar to the existing browsers, but yes, Google Chrome's looks are very fresh, clean, uncluttered, and purposeful.

3. Google Chrome uses a multi-process technique to run the show and this is where the greatest difference lies between Google Chrome and other browsers. Other browsers use a single thread - single process system which basically means that the browser can only run one process (in simple terms computation) at a time hence opening a page such as Facebook or Yahoo takes a long time because all the elements on the web page (such as photos, text, clickable boxes, Javascript based items, games, widgets, applications, wall, superwall etc...) are run using that one single process. This also mean that an error / crash / security breach in that process decimates the entire web page and sometimes even the user's system.

However Google Chrome changes all this by assigning each element its own process, thereby making all the elements in a web page load and run faster and also making the whole browser extremely stable and very very secure. Each text item, photo, Javascript aplication etcetera directly interacts with the CPU using its own process and hence a crash / error of one element only affects that particular process (or element) thereby insulating the rest of the web page elements (and their respective processes) and the any other web pages which maybe open from such a crash or error. Similarly any breach / compromise of security in one element does not affect the security of any of the other elements in that web page or any other web pages thereby enhancing the safety levels of the browser and the operating system. Hence fewer or almost no errors and crashes. This blog itself has many widgets and applications and Google Chrome is the only browser which manages to load everything perfectly. Refer to the comic book to understand this in greater detail. More about the comic book at the end of this review. This is not a joke.

4. Google Chrome uses superior memory management for temporary storage of web pages which allows it to avoid memory fragmentation caused by "too much web surfing" thereby enabling a lot more tabs to be used simultaneously and also reduce the "rotting away" of memory which can often make one's browser very slow after some time of heavy duty web usage. Hence the system does not slow down.

5. Google Chrome is built upon something called Gears which is essentially an an open source software. Google hopes that soon all or most of the web will be based on Gears or at least be Gears compliant as this will result in plug-ins becoming safer to use and web pages becomes more efficient at everything. You Tube, Firefox, IE 6, Google Docs, Google Reader, Picasa amongst others are already either based on Gears of Gears compliant. Opera's new version is also Gears compliant. This means the web will become a little more safe and more customised at the same time due to the open source nature of Gears.

Google Chrome's Cool Features

Some of these features are already available in Firefox, Opera, and IE. Google openly admits to being inspired by other existing browsers while determining the features for Google Chrome

Things to look out for in Google Chrome
1. Incognito Window - Google Chrome has a special window in which any link or URL can be opened which would be untraceable once closed. The user's computer and browser will have no cookies or history for the web page opened in the Incognito Window. It is the ultimate form of browser usage privacy.

2. Tab Play and Drag and Drop - Any tab can be pulled out to be opened as a separate window. Any link / image / element on a web page can be dragged onto the tab bar to be opened as a separate tab. Fast and cool, eliminates the need to right click and open in a new tab, almost Mac-like.

3. Task Manager for Browser - Google Chrome includes a task manager for browser which provides memory and CPU usage details for each web page open and for each plug-in being used. This is extemely helpful in tracking down and closing the more memory intense web pages. The End Process button works just like in the Windows's Task Manager. The task manager also provides details for other browsers which may be open at the time and further it provides ever more numbers aptly titled "Stats for Nerds". Very handy, I like it.

4. Domain Name Highlighted - The domain name part in the address bar is highlighted. May not be uselful for many but I do appreciate it.

5. Omnibox - Google Chrome calls the address bar as Omnibox. Typing any word here shows some interesting options in the drop down list; such as search results for the word, previously typed websites names featuring that word, auto complete options for that word etcetera. Make the act of browsing faster. Ripped off from Opera.

6. New Tab Window Features - In Google Chrome a new tab opened will display thumbnails of the 9 most frequently visited websites also with a list of recently closed tabs and a search function right there to search the browser's history (naturally no results will be displayed for sites browsed using the Incognito Window). Makes the browser more intuitive to the user's needs. Ripped off from Opera's Speed Dial feature.

7. Inspect Element - Most Google Chrome user would never use this feature but I'll describe it nevertheless because I do like it. Right click on any element (link, text, image, Javascript applet, button...anything) and click on inspect element. The HTML source code of the page will open and you'll be taken to the relevant code line for that element. The metrics, properties and style for the element are also displayed. This is helpful for me as I know basic HTML and often wonder about which tag has been used to create a particular element. It'll go a long in improving my knowledge of HTML and web pages. This feature is highly recommended for developers. Please note the regular view source feature is also available.

8. Web Page Shortcut - Google Chrome has an application shortcut feature which allows any web page / URL to be created as a shortcut on the computer's desktop, quick launch bar, and start menu. It's a nice feature which allows for a simple double click on the desktop to take you to the web page for which the shortcut has been created.

9. Download Manager - Google Chrome features a regular download manager, the only differences being that downloads initiated from a tab are shown in that particular tab and not in the central download window unlike in Opera and Firefox. However the central download window can be accessed using a shortuct (Ctrl+H). Closing the tab does not interrupt the download though and this is a good feature.

10. Pop Up Management - Pop ups are confined to the tabs of their origin. Clicking and dragging them out of the tab results in their being opened in a new tab. Neat.

11. Sandboxing - Google Chrome uses a process called Sandboxing to determine trust levels and permissions to various elements in web pages. Each tab gets its own sandbox. This segregation into different levels of trust allows for a more secure web experience.

12. Anti-Phishing and Malware - Google Chrome constantly updates it's list of phishing sites and uses this list to conduct verification check of all the URLs typed and opened within the browser.

13. Auto Spell Check - A simple spell check performs spell check on all text typed by the user within Google Chrome. For a natural spellings assassination pro like me this is nothing short of maana from heaven.

14. Open Source - Google Chrome is open source and hence not only can other developers learn from it and use its code for their ideas they can create customised versions of Google Chrome. This feature is Google Chrome's most exciting feature and will take this product from Google's stable far and wide. Google is banking upon the open source nature of Google Chrome and Gears to make the internet more efficient and dynamic.

15. Extensive Testing - Google Chrome has been tested for millions of web pages from a very diverse range thanks to Google's gargantuan data base of the internet. Hence Google Chrome has probably undergone the most extensive and best testing amongst all the browsers recently released.

16. Speed - Google Chrome is much faster than IE or Firefox though Opera might still beat it.

So why don't I name Google Chrome the greatest human invention, what's stopping me?

Well. Google Chrome is a great broswer but there are some shortfalls:

1. No Mouse Gestures - I've been using Opera for close to a decade now and mouse gestures have become a part of my net experience. I love using the left and right mouse button to navigate pages and links without having to push around the mouse. Google admits that in order to ensure safety mouse gestures will never be a part of Google Chrome. Sad. Sniff.

2. Lame Keyboard Shortcuts - Keyboard shortcuts are standard (Ctrl+H for history, Ctrl+T for new tab ...) but nothing close to the superior navigation experience using keyboard keys offered by Opera.

3. High CPU Usage - Because Google Chrome uses multi processes each element on each web page makes a demand individually on the CPU and these multiple origins of CPU usage put a strain on the CPU. Google Chrome will run on a 1.7GHz machine with 256 MB RAM but try running Ms Word, or Paint or along with Google Chrome and you'll see the CPU usage stats immediately shoot up. Google admits that high CPU usage is a characteristic of Google Chrome but it points out to enhanced speed, safety, stability, and security with are obtained in return. For someone like me who runs multiple applications while using the net (MS Excel with Opera with Google Earth with Corel Draw with Google Talk) this is the most major drawback of Google Chrome. I haven't yet tried to run Google Chrome and Google Earth (that other giant guzzler of CPU resource) together but I can anticipate a slow and highly constipated performance from my computer.

4. Spell Check - Well the spell check is great but then the beta version of Google Chrome doesn't allow new words to be added to the dictionary and further the dictionary is not up to date in terms of terminology and technical and corporate brand names. This results in absurdities like the very word Google showing up as a spelling error (recommended changes include goggle, googly, and go ogle :D ). I can't add Google as a word and hence till Google actually updates its dictionary the word "Google" will continue to show up as "go ogle" misspelt.

5. Plug-in errors and Misc drawbacks - Some plug-ins for Facebook, Google Analytics and other sites won't work immediately. Sometimes it does become slightly unstable under certain circumstances. :(
I have also found out that Google Chrome is not as customizable a browser as either Opera or Firefox. For eg - Google Chrome has no option to check / uncheck exit confirmation. Skins...Google Chrome does not offer any skins.

Final Word - Google Chrome a.k.a. IE Killer

Google Chrome will certainly take away most of Internet Explorer's market and hence I have no hesitation in calling it the "IE Killer". I would certainly prefer the beta version of Google Chrome over any version of IE including the recently launched IE 8.0.

If however you are a Firefox or Opera user then weaning you away from Firefox or Opera won't be too easy for Google Chrome. Subsequent versions of Google Chrome will have to come up with better navigation and tweak some other issues before Google Chrome can become your browser of choice. I know that the next version of Google Chrome might replace the special place I have accorded Opera in my heart. However having said that let me still recommend Google Chrome to you as you will find it to be more safe, more stable, and cleaner / neater than either Firefox or Opera.

I would rather use Google Chrome for online financial transactions than any other browser, no second thoughts on that, plus the Incognito Window is a clear winner. I am also very excited about the endless possibilities offered by Google Chrome's open source nature. Google Chrome handles Blogger, Flickr, You Tube etcetera way better than either of IE, Firefox, or Opera. Many pages which were opened by these browsers with errors are loaded flawlessly by Google Chrome.

If you use the net to watch movies, play games, check out live finance data, read PDF files, social network, or anything involving Javascript then surely Google Chrome is your weapon of choice.

Despite its drawbacks Google Chrome is a high quality product but some people expected a lot more from a Google product and wanted to see a "revolution" (as opposed to an "evolution") in the world of browsers. However as far as I am concerned Google has taken some very bold steps with Google Chrome and these should not only leave behind an indelible mark on the browser industry but even change the way we think about browsers themselves.

Now about the comic book. Google has prepared a great comic book to explain everything about Google Chrome and I recommend those interested to take a look at it here. The comic itself is quite enjoyable and an lesson is instructional design.

You can download Google Chrome from here.

Please do let me know about your user experience of Google Chrome.