Gupta Counsell

Dhoom3 Review: This year will surely end with a DHOOM

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 14:04:00 +0000

Rating: 4/5 Stars (Four Stars)

Star cast: Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra,Katrina Kaif, Jackie Shroff.

Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya

What’s Good: The raw high octane action sequences, the pitch perfect bike thrills and mostly a great writing which lacked in both the previous editions.

What’s Bad: Stretching at 3 Hours, the film is a little too long but at its advantage never boring. However, Aamir and Katrina’s amateurish love track could have been avoided.

Loo break: None

Watch or Not?: Dhoom 3 is a definite must watch. Breathtakingly shot with gorgeous cinematography, this edition notches higher than its preceding films in terms of thrills and mostly in terms of soul. You wouldn’t want to miss a defining moment in the history of commercial films of Bollywood. There is all the action and gadgets, seamlessly beaded together but with a story that crackles!

The story starts with the history of Great Indian Circus in Chicago which is mortgaged at the Western Chicago Bank. Its owner Iqbal (Jackie Shroff) has found the magic trick of wooing the bankers but loses the bait unfortunately.

On an eventful night of the circus, Iqbal kills himself due to his inability to save his circus. Years later, Chicago bank is being robbed relentlessly and the thief leaves a Joker’s mask each time. Iqbal’s son Sahir(Aamir Khan) manages to start up their circus again co-incidentally. The Bombay Police is summoned and obvious links are found between Iqbal’s son Sahir’s involvement in the burglary.

Will Jai (Abhishek Bachchan) and Ali(Uday Chopra) win against Sahir who is determined to seek revenge and destroy the bank for life?

Dhoom 3 Review: Script Analysis

It takes a while for the film’s plot to reveal completely. Luckily the writers pack in ample suspense to keep your interest latched to the film from the scene go. While Dhoom and Dhoom 2 both worked because of style and slickness, this one works for its grit. It essentially has all the fun and entertainment that comes as a package from the franchise but luckily this time the makers did not decide to give the story a miss. Aamir’s bikes and all the death defying stunts are extremely filmy to the core giving the audiences a taste of what essentially qualifies as Bollywood, but this time they infuse a highly emotional story.

Of course, one wouldn’t watch Dhoom for a story. It has always been about the ‘femme fatalles’ and ‘Fast and Furious’ stunts. But this one reveals itself as less of a wet dream than what you expect. I specifically like the realistic writing that was attempted in this one. Using one of Bollywood’s archaic props in a contemporary movie like this is astonishing and commendably used.

The reason why the writing is great in this film is not because of how the story is structured but on what it is based. Getting to India, the concept of international circus, recovering the Shakespearean idea of wittiness of a clown is praiseworthy.

The film in the second half resorts to unbelievable sloppiness and slackens a little in terms of looseness in the consistency of film’s writing but nevertheless, the use of a few extremely stellar ideas makes this film fantastic for me.

Dhoom 3 Review: Star Performances

It is best to reveal as little as possible about Aamir’s character. To say the least, Aamir Khan is sincere in whatever he does. He plays every shade of his role with smoothness, ease and perfection.

Katrina Kaif is beautiful in every frame. She is perfect with her acts and the dance. Sadly, her role isn’t written with more meat or emotion.

Abhishek Bachchan is as good as Jai Dixit as he has always been.

And no curt words for Uday Chopra. God bless him for all the comic relief he provides. Without him, Dhoomwould be a brooding and distastefully somber.

Dhoom 3 Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay

Vijay Krishna Acharya does his job quite well. Though comparisons with Gadhvi is unavoidable, let’s just say he is differently better. We have always watched Dhoom for car smashes, bike chases, but this time Dhoom for me was way more from the heart. And I for one, enjoyed way more.

I have always rooted for the Dhoom villains more so for Hrithik Roshan. His cucumber cool demeanor and composed style of stealing made me go woot for him. He was just so much cooler than the policemen. But this time my heart went out for the villains. Their emotional baggage was so believable that you’ll want them to win in each of their attempts.

The film’s editing could have been more taut. The dramatic sequences might seem overdrawn especially because the film borders at a runtime of nearly three hours. For its length, the film deters you a little but don’t let that come in the way of you having a blast at the cinemas.

Dhoom 3 Review: The Last Word

Dhoom 3 was spectacular and majestic. Keeping a strong hold on the emotional prowess of its plot, the film sews in the slick action so awe strikingly. Don’t go in expecting an Aamir Khan film because it isn’t without flaws. But it gets right everything that is a must for commercial films, especially its ability to grasp on to the interest of audiences. Even cool thieves are vulnerable people and to be able to get that correct is what makes Dhoom 3 a winner. One bang up job! I am going with 4 stars for the only hitch that good films don’t necessarily need to stretch this long.

Source: Koimoi

Hung Assembly in Delhi: Politics or Self-esteem??..Where does general public stand?

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 20:38:00 +0000

A day after the Assembly poll results, Delhi is witnessing a political deadlock with a question mark over who will form the government in India's only city state.
With a victory in 32 seats, the BJP fell four short of majority. The debutant Aam Aadmi which has put forth a spectacular show, too fell short of the half-way mark with 28 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly
AAP has stated that the party will sit in the opposition and vowed to be constructive in its role.

As none of the two parties have the numbers, the options available are that the BJP can form a minority government and seek a trust vote in the Assembly.
However unlikely it may be, the AAP has the option of tying up with the Congress to form the government.
There is also an option of defection available which does not seem viable as two-third of a legislature party needs to break away for the same. With half of the 8 Congress MLAs from the minority community, the possibility of adopting that option appears bleak.
If no party goes ahead to claim a majority the national capital will be left with the only option of having a President's Rule. Fresh elections can be held if there is no positive movement towards government formation.

The question that arises here is why is anyone not thinking about public?. Crores of rupees are spent on elections, they are not conducted for free and that money too comes from the pockets of general public; in that case if elections are held again, ultimately public has to bear that burden. If a political party is saying that we think in the interest of public and we want to work for public then why is BJP and AAP taking it is a matter of self-esteem and pride.
AAP does not want to come foreword because if they do so, public will cruse them by saying what is the difference between AAP and other parties if they collaborate with them.
In the same way BJP thinks that why would they take help from AAP which is only a one year old party.
The issue is, nobody is thinking about public. If they really in the well being of public, they must also think that public can not afford a second election in a matter of 3 months. They should keep aside their egos and come forward to form a healthy government and show people what is good politics.
My view is like this- No body is interested in thinking about common man. Whether it is BJP, congress or AAP, everybody is playing dirty politics to overpower each other by pointing out each other's faults.
Arvind kejriwal prepared a political ground for him by joining Anna's movement back in 2012 otherwise who the hell knew who is Arvind?. This was all done to come in limelight and take advantage of Anna.

When will a day come when some one genuinely think about public?

Android now has 52.2% of the Smartphone market

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 07:34:00 +0000

As the calendar turned to December and we gazed upon a new month, we also anxiously awaited the latest information from comScore. On Thursday, the latest information was released and it showed that in the U.S., for the three months ended in October, Android owned a 52.2% market share. That was a small increase from the 51.8% that the platform averaged for the three months ended in July.

Apple's iOS gained .2% to 40.6% from the 40.4% it averaged during the previous quarter. The biggest loser among the platforms being monitored was BlackBerry. The Canadian OEM lost .7% in market share to 3.6%. Microsoft's share rose .2% to 3.2% while Symbian's slice of the U.S. smartphone pie slipped .1% to .2%.

Among manufacturers, Samsung picked up some ground on Apple. The Cupertino based tech giant closed out the three months ended October with an average 40.6% of the U.S. smartphone market, up .2% from the three months ended in July. But Samsung's market share soared 1.3% in the same period to 25.4%. The 1.3% that Sammy picked up was dropped by Taiwan's HTC over the same three months ended October. The latter now has 6.7% of the U.S.smartphone market which places it fourth after Apple, Samsung and Motorola. The latter gained .1% in market share to 7% while fifth place LG slumped .2% to 6.6%.

ComScore also revealed that Facebook's mobile apps had the widest reach amongst smartphone apps, reaching 75.7% of smartphone users in the states. Among other popular mobile apps, YouTube reached 48% of U.S. smartphone owners and Instagram was able to reach 25.5% of U.S. smartphone owner

Source: Phone Arena

Tarun Tejpal Case: The dirty face of cruel authority in Offices-FACTS cleared-The full Story

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 20:48:00 +0000

We have heard often that the person sitting at senior positions in offices usually take advantage of their power and molest or misbehave with girl employees according to their ease. It is also generally seen that girls do not complain either due to fear of defamation or fear of losing the job. But what happened on the night of 7th and 8th november in the lift of hotel hyatt in Goa , India shook the whole nation.
Though it came in to limelight after 1 days of the incident because in that time frame, another game with in the office was being played so that the matter does not come to media.
This is the incident happened at a famous News magazine office TEHELKA. The accussed is the chief and founder of tehelka Mr. Tarun tejpal and victim is a junior journalist working in his office.
Before you read furthur, let me tell you the accused has been arrested today on the orders of the honorable session court of GOA and is currently under judicial custody. When the news came out in media, Tejpal went underground and never came before police. He switched off his phone and was not found in his home when police raided his 2 houses in Delhi and gurgaon. All of sudden he is located at IGI airport when he got the summons from the court to appear at the GOA courts.

(Mr Tarun Tejpal-The accused)

I am writing here the exact version of what happened on 7/8th Nov in the words of the victim:-

On the night of 7th November 2013, the opening night of Tehelka's Think festival, I had discharged my duties for the day as the chaperone for Mr Robert De Niro. As it was Mr De Niro and his daughter's first night in Goa and at the festival, my editor in chief Mr Tarun Tejpal accompanied Mr De Niro, Drena De Niro (his daughter) and I to Mr De Niro's suite to wish him goodnight. (As his chaperone, my work was to be available all day to Mr De Niro and Drena, take them sightseeing, make sure they were well looked after in Goa and at the Hyatt - until they retired to their suite at night.)

As we left the suite, Mr Tejpal and I were in conversation - I have known him since I was a child, he had worked closely with my father who was also a journalist, and after my father's accident Mr Tejpal had always been a paternal figure to me. He was responsible for offering me my first job, and was always just a phone call away whenever I needed his advice on a story or life. His daughter, XXX Tejpal and I are very close friends as well.

As we made our way out of the elevator of Block 7 at the Grand Hyatt, Mr Tejpal held my arm and pulled me back into the lift. He said - "Let's go wake up Bob" (Mr De Niro) and I asked him why he wanted to do that. I then realized that Mr Tejpal was simply pressing buttons on the lift's panel to make the elevator stay in circuit, preventing it from stopping anywhere, and for the doors to open.

At this point, he began to kiss me - from the first moment of his doing so, I asked him to stop, citing several reasons, including my friendship to XXX, my closeness to his family, the fact that he had known me since I was a child, the fact that I worked for Tehelka and for Shoma Chaudhury - who is my managing editor and mentor. It was like talking to a deaf person. Mr Tejpal lifted my dress up, went down on his knees and pulled my underwear down. He attempted to perform oral sex on me as I continued to struggle and hysterically asked him to stop. At that moment he began to try and penetrate me with his fingers, I became scared and pushed him hard and asked him to stop the lift. He would not listen. The lift stopped on the ground floor as Mr Tejpal's hands were on me and could not press the button for yet another floor to keep it in circuit. As soon as the doors opened, I picked up my underwear and began walking out of the elevator rapidly - he was still following me, asking me what the matter was.

I said "It's all wrong. I work for you and Shoma." He said first "It's alright to be in love with more than one person," and then he said, "Well, this is the easiest way for you to keep your job." I was walking still faster, blinking back tears.

By this time, we had made our way from Block 7 to the main lawns of the Grand Hyatt, where I walked into the grassy dinner area full of people and Mr Tejpal walked off towards the performance area. Right as soon as he was out of sight, I took a taxi back to my hotel - the International Centre for Goa, where the Tehelka staff was staying, and went to the room where XXX and YYY were staying. I also called another friend and colleague - ZZZ to the room and told them what had occurred. While the four of us were talking in the balcony, Mr Tejpal sent me a text message from his personal phone number at 1.17 am, which said "The fingertips".

This was the extent he had managed to penetrate me before I pushed him and ran out of the lift. I told the people with me on the balcony about this. Some of us considered resigning as soon as Think was over. I called my boyfriend XXX in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from XXX's iPhone and told him what had happened.

I was confused, hurt and really, really scared. At that point I did not want to lose my job. And so the next morning, I went about my work determined not to give Mr Tejpal or Tehelka a reason to fire me, as I was sure they would do once this story got out. At a few points of the day, I discussed the events of the previous night with XXX, YYY and ZZZ, who were concerned about me after the state they had seen me in the previous night. In the afternoon, I accompanied Mr De Niro, his daughter, Sir VS Naipaul, Lady Naipaul and Mr Tejpal's wife to the Governor's bungalow for lunch.

Given the company we were in, I did not make any mention of what had occurred to Ms XXX, Mr Tejpal's wife. Once I had escorted Mr De Niro back to his room post lunch, he expressed a desire to attend one of the sessions at the Main Hall. I brought him down to the Green Room, where Mr Tejpal found us, and asked me to bring Mr De Niro back down for Mr Amitabh Bachchan's session as he wanted the two to meet. I took Mr De Niro and his daughter shopping to Panjim, and brought them back in time for Mr Bachchan's session as instructed. Once the session was done, Mr Tejpal, Mr De Niro, Mr Bachchan and a few other members of the film industry, lawyers, politicians etc were supposed to meet at the Block 7 Grand Club for drinks.

I escorted Mr De Niro and Drena to this bar, told them I would return to my hotel, change, and be right back. While I was getting dressed at my hotel, Mr Tejpal called me from XXX's phone (XXX is the caretaker and manager of Tehelka's Bombay office premises) and asked me where I was. I informed him I was just about to leave for the Grand Hyatt. In the taxi I noticed he had already sent me two text messages on my phone which said "Where r u?" at 8:29and then "??" at 8:42. from his personal number.

I replied with the following messages: "On my way to the lounge" 8.42 pm, "Had to sort out a lost package for Drena and get a bit presentable. See you in 10" at 8.44 pm and "Call XXX she needs you" at 8.47 pm as XXX had messaged me asking to help her find Tarun. At this point I was trying to be as normal and professional as possible and somehow get through my duties.

Five minutes later, as I was walking into the Grand Club at Block 7, Mr Tejpal was coming out of the lounge. He pointed at me asking me to stop. I was already worried that I was late and that Mr De Niro had asked for me. Mr Tejpal came to me and said "Come up with me, we have to get something from Bob's room". I was frightened that this would lead to a repeat of the previous night and so I said, "What does he need? I'll go get it." I was scared of getting into the lift with him again, and more terrified that he was going to try and take me into a room this time. By this time he was holding me by the wrist and had taken me into the lift (which is barely a few steps away from the lobby of block 7 where he had asked me to wait).

When the doors closed, he started to try and kiss me again. I said "Tarun, please, no, just stop," he pulled away, smiled, patted my cheek and said "Why? Ok. I'll stop." I said again "This just isn't right. XXX is my best friend. I had lunch with XXXX today."

He smiled again and just for a moment I thought I had appealed to his better sense. I turned away from him, desperately waiting for the door to open (there are only three floors in Block 7 (G, 1 and 2), we were between floors). Within seconds of my turning around, he started to lift up my dress. He lifted it all the way up and said "You're unbelievable". The door opened on the second floor, on Mr De Niro's floor - and he said again - "The universe is telling us something" to which I said "I'm taking the stairs" and started to walk out. He pulled me back in, sensing that I was on the verge of hysteria - by this point, he was totally comfortable physically manhandling me, but sensing my sheer panic, he did not touch me until the lift reached the ground floor. Right as the doors were about to open, he patted my behind once more.

I walked out of the lift, went to the Grand Club and immediately informed XXX that Mr Tejpal had tried to molest me again. XXX said "Again? What the f*** is wrong with him?" He was completely disgusted and said once more that we should just resign immediately. As I was to accompany Mr De Niro to the dining area, I somehow composed myself. Mr De Niro was mobbed by fans - and I had to take him away from the main garden to the Capiz Bar. I was sitting at the Capiz Bar with Mr De Niro and his daughter when XXX Tejpal came there to join us.

This was the first time the two of us had really met since the incident of the previous night. Since I had moved to Mumbai about a year and a half ago, XXX had grown to become one of my closest friends. She lives across the road from my house in Mumbai and barely a day had passed when the two of us did not meet or talk to each other constantly. She was sitting beside me, and Mr De Niro was absorbed in conversation with his daughter. I could not keep something of this magnitude from her. I told her she would hate me for what I was telling her - but that Mr Tejpal had tried to molest me on these two separate occasions. I said "He tried to shove his tongue down my throat and then took my panties off", when XXX replied saying "I saw him do this to a woman when I was thirteen, so it doesn't surprise me anymore," but she was clearly disgusted.

XXX left the Capiz Bar right after this. In half an hour, Mr De Niro and Drena asked to be dropped back to their room. They were extremely upset at the day's events because Mr De Niro had all but been assaulted by fans at the dinner table, and they asked me to convey this to Mr Tejpal. When I came down from Block 7, I found Mr Tejpal sitting at a table with several people and called him away from the table, but still in full view of everyone, so I could relay Mr De Niro's message privately.

I said "Bob is really upset about tonight, he got mobbed really badly.." to which Mr Tejpal replied "I don't give a f*** about Bob. How could you tell XXX what happened?" I said "Tarun, I told you XXX and I are close and what you did wasn't okay, I had to tell her," to which he said "She's my daughter. Do you even understand what the word means? Just get away from me, I'm so f*** ing pissed off with you right now."

I left from the spot crying, found XXX outside her room in the main performance area and asked her what she had said to her father. She said "There was no other way. As soon as you told me I wished you hadn't, but you can't tell me what to say to him - I told him to keep it in his pants." I said "I'm probably going to lose my job over this", she agreed, but also said "It'll be a bad phase but it'll pass." On this night as well, I left the Grand Hyatt and went to my hotel, found XXX, XXX and XXX and told them what had happened. I also called my boyfriend and told him that Mr Tejpal was aware of the fact that I wasn't staying quiet, and that he was extremely angry that I had told his daughter. The next morning, I called my mother and told her everything that had happened.

Everyone was most worried for my safety and advised me to leave Think as soon as possible - however since my day's work involved me staying away from the Grand Hyatt and staying at a completely different part of Goa for the day with Mr De Niro and his daughter, I felt temporarily safe. At this time Mr Tejpal sent me the following texts from his personal number.

1. "I hope you told XXX that it was just drunken banter, and nothing else"

To which I replied - "I told her we were both drunk" - because it was true that everyone had had a few drinks on the first night. But not the second, when he assaulted me minutes after I had reached the Grand Hyatt. However, this was the first time Mr Tejpal had said anything to me after lashing out at me the previous night, and I was still very afraid of him.

He then sent me a second message:

2. "And just banter, nothing else" - to which I did not reply, because there was no way what he had done to me could have been described as "banter".

Sensing that I had clammed up at his attempt to sugar-coat what really happened, he sent me a third message:

3. "Why?? What's happened??"

I did not reply to this message. Within minutes, he sent me a fourth message, one that convinced me he saw absolutely nothing wrong with what he had done, and was in fact now trying to shame me for talking to XXX:

4. "I can't believe u went and mentioned even the smallest thing to her. What an absence of any understanding of a parent child relationship."

After this message, I made sure to stay away from Mr Tejpal except when we were in extremely public situations only - such as the Speakers Green Room at the Hyatt, or the lobby of the hotel. That evening as well, I steered completely clear of him. He made no mention of anything that had occurred the next day, and the only thought on my mind was to get Mr De Niro on his plane and leave Think. I had to speak to Mr Tejpal several times on Sunday the 9th of November to coordinate Mr De Niro's travel plans, but in these calls he made no mention of anything that had occurred. Once I dropped Mr De Niro to the Goa Airport at 4.30 pm, I had no further contact with Mr Tejpal.

However, on 16.11.2013, Mr Tejpal messaged me a number of times

1. "Have you spoken to XXX? Is she Ok?"

To which I replied: "Why would she be ok about the fact that you sexually assaulted her best friend, that is me?"

2. "What's with saying this awful stuff??"

To which I replied: Do not send me any messages. You are lying and you know that.

3. "Oh is that so? I cherished you like one of my best kids always, all these years; and because of one drunken banter you so easily say these awful things.

To which I replied: It was twice Tarun, not once and it was no banter. You did the most horrible things to me and I certainly was not drunk. I asked you to stop repeatedly.

4. "Oh so that's what you told XXX. No wonder she's so madly upset. It's ok. Am not going to contest anything with her. Will let time and my love heal what it can."

5. "Don't think I've been more saddened in the longest time"

I have no doubt that Mr Tejpal was trying to establish his innocence in a devious manner. If he needed to get in touch with his daughter, he could have done so anytime he desired, through his wife or daughter or nephew or anyone from his family without messaging me about her, or falsely claiming that all that happened was 'a drunken banter'. This was no banter, it was most clearly sexual assault.

As a reporter for Tehelka who writes on violence against women, I suddenly find myself in the horrific situation of discovering what it is like to be on the receiving end of this violence from a powerful man I once deeply admired and respected. I truly hope that the idea of Tehelka is still intact - and that you will conduct an inquiry into this matter at the earliest.

Excerpts from the informal email Tejpal purportedly sent the woman on November 19, 2013 a day after she formally complained to Shoma Chaudhury of the sexual assault

The context that ill-fated evening, of our conversation, as you will recall, was heavily loaded. We were playfully and flirtatiously talking about desire, sex; you were telling me the Bob Geldof story in graphic detail, and about XXX (her male friend), and the near-impossibility of fidelity...

(You were telling me) of the aftermath of meeting me one stormy evening in my office when I was sitting watching the thunderclouds.

I also want to clarify that yes, you did say at one point that I was your boss, and I did reply "that makes it simpler" but in the very same breath and sentence I said to you "I withdraw that straight away - no relationship of mine has anything at all, ever, to do with that". It was in this frivolous, laughing mood that the encounter took place.

I had no idea that you were upset, or felt I had been even remotely non-consensual, until XXX (his daughter) came and spoke to me the next night. I was shocked and devastated at the time. Both because you felt I had imposed on you (which had neither been my reading or intention), and because I felt I had been totally irresponsible and foolish to have anything furtive to do with my daughter's intimate friend. At that very moment I was filled with shame, and still am.

You have made it clear that I read it all wrong, and I will not dispute it, nor underplay your anger and hurt. This is easily the worst moment of my life - something ostensibly playful gone so horribly wrong, damaging of all that I hold dear in life, from people to principles. I ask you to forgive and forget it. I will meet your mom and apologise to her too - and (the male friend) if you so wish.

The rebuttal from the woman

The conversation from that night was not "heavily loaded" or "flirtatious" - you were talking about "sex' or "desire" because that is what you usually choose to speak to me about, unfortunately, never my work, which if you had had occasion to read, you might not have attempted to sexually molest me, and certainly would have known that there was no way that I would stay silent about it and just vanish.

There was no "aftermath" of that evening with the "thunderclouds" - this is exactly what happened: I wanted to discuss the first story I had written about a rape survivor with you. xxxx called me to your office, I walked in and you were lying on the couch with the lights off. I asked you if you wanted me to turn the lights on, and you refused. You continued to lie on the couch. I sat on a chair across from you in the same room and told you the survivor's story. I wish again, that you remembered the professional reason I had met you that evening, instead of the storm and the thunderclouds.

You never, even once uttered the following words: "I withdraw that straight away - no relationship of mine has anything at all, ever, to do with that'. If your attempt at sexual molestation were really as consensual as you seem to imply that it was Tarun, why would you have suddenly switched to speaking in legal terms in a "frivolous, laughing" moment?

This is what non-consent constitutes: the moment you laid a hand on me, I started begging you to stop. I invoked every single person and principle that was important to us - (Tejpal's daughter, wife, Chaudhury) - the fact that you were my employer, to make you stop. You refused to listen. In fact, you went ahead and decided to molest me again on the following night. We have often spoken of "what turns men into beasts" at Tehelka edit meetings, you yourself have commissioned several stories on this. It is this - not being able to take no for an answer.

Not only did you lash out at me verbally for telling (Tejpal's daughter), you also sent me a text message the next morning saying "I can't believe you went and told her even the smallest thing. What a complete absence of understanding of a parent-child relationship".

Tarun, I can't believe you think molesting an employee your daughter's age, who is also your daughter's friend, is something you'd describe as "the smallest thing". What an absence of understanding of what Tehelka stands for.

Unfortunately, your desire to apologise to (the male friend) only reeks of your own patriarchal notion that men own and possess female bodies.... The only people you owe an apology to are your employees at Tehelka, for desecrating their and my faith in you. Please do not attempt any further personal correspondence with me - you lost that privilege when you violated my trust and body.

Tejpal's 'unconditional apology' to the victim

Dear.....

This is the hardest thing I will ever do in my life. You are a young woman I have been very proud of, as a colleague's daughter, and then as a colleague in my own office. I have watched you grow and mature professionally into a journalist of great integrity and promise.

It wrenches me beyond describing, therefore, to accept that I have violated that long-standing relationship of trust and respect between us and I apologise unconditionally for the shameful lapse of judgement that led me to attempt a sexual liaison with you on two occasions on 7 November and 8 November 2013, despite your clear reluctance that you did not want such attention from me.

I understand the extreme distress you have been feeling and if regret could turn time back, the force of mine would surely place us all back in a space and time before this terrible lapse.

I know you feel I used my position as Editor, Tehelka to force my attention on you, and I acknowledge that I did at one point say to your contention that I was your boss, "That makes it simpler," but I do want to put on record that the moment those words escaped my lips, I retracted them saying "I withdraw that straight away - no relationship of mine has anything at all, ever, to do with that". I want to reiterate that again today: despite my colossal lapse, working and succeeding in Tehelka will never be predicated on anyone acquiescing to anything untoward. It never has and never will.

Having said that though, I acknowledge that there is an inherent disbalance of power in my position as editor-in-chief and you as an employee of Tehelka and there is absolutely no ground or circumstance in which I should have violated the propriety and trust embedded in that relationship.

Tehelka has a proud legacy and body of work, to which you yourself and legions of other journalists have contributed. As the founder and editor-in-chief, I have helmed and nurtured this proud institution, and I cannot imagine what insanity drove me to compromise these long, proud years of trust and public work.

There are many, many reasons, therefore, why I am smothered with regret. But I want you to know that foremost among them is the fact that I have hurt you and broken your trust in me, and that of many others around me.

I have often spoken for the absolute rights and freedoms of women, and it shames me beyond words, to find myself located in this awful context. I would say it was a moment of insanity, except that would mean evading responsibility for it, and that I will not do. I hold myself, first and last, accountable.

I know Shoma has urged you not to leave Tehelka, and even as I acknowledge that I have lost the right to say this to you, I would urge you not to leave either. At the very least, I would like to assure you that the space to do your work proudly and freely, without worrying about fear or favour, will always be available to you here.

For long years, you have known a different man, a man and editor you trusted and were proud to know. In extreme contrition, I would like you to know that but for this unconscionable lapse, that man still exists and holds you in highest regard.

If an apology can heal, please consider this an unconditional.

Tarun

(Shoma chaudhry-Managing Editor)

Full text of the email written by Shoma Chaudhary to employees soon after Tejpal decided to"recuse" himself from editorship for six months. It was carried by media organisations on November 21

Dear All,

This may come as a rude surprise to many of you. There is a letter from Tarun appended to this mail. There has been an untoward incident, and though he has extended an unconditional apology to the colleague involved, Tarun will be recusing himself as the editor of Tehelka for the next six months.

Tehelka is an institution he has built, and which many journalists both current and former, have contributed to in the most profound ways. Throughout our 13-year career, we have proudly articulated and tried to live by the highest standards. We have also believed that when there is a mistake or lapse of any kind, one can only respond with right thought and action.

In keeping with this stated principle, and the collective values we live by, Tarun will be stepping down for the period mentioned. This is a hard time for all of us, and I hope all of you will stand by the institution.

Best, shoma

Full text of the email written by Tejpal to Shoma Chaudhary

My dear Shoma,

The last few days have been most testing, and I squarely take the blame for this. A bad lapse of judgment, an awful misreading of the situation, have led to an unfortunate incident that rails against all we believe in and fight for. I have already unconditionally apologised for my misconduct to the concerned journalist, but I feel impelled to atone further. Tehelka has been born and built, day on day, with my blood, toil, tears and sweat, and that of many others, against near-insurmountable odds.

It has lived for and fought the big battles of our time, always on the side of the oppressed and the wronged, always on the side of equity and justice. Its voice has travelled the world and changed policy and perceptions. It has been a beacon for those who would do the right thing. Through bad, and worse, times I have protected Tehelka and its journalists from the inevitable demands of power and corporations. I have always allowed every journalist's sense of the right to flower and express itself. No one has ever been asked to do what they don't believe in.

I have always held that Tehelka the institution, and its work, have always been infinitely more important than any of us individuals. It is tragic, therefore, that in a lapse of judgment I have hurt our own high principles.

Because it involves Tehelka, and a sterling shared legacy, I feel atonement cannot be just words.

I must do the penance that lacerates me. I am therefore offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for the next six months. You have always been stellar, Shoma, and even as I apologise to you and all my other colleagues, for this unfortunate incident, I leave Tehelka in your more than capable and safe hands.

In apology,

Tarun

On November 21 the woman wrote to Shoma Chaudhury contesting Tejpal's version of what happened at the ThinkFest

The use of the words "sexual liaison" is a clear misrepresentation of facts, and an attempt to obfuscate the truth - that he sexually molested me, on two separate occasions and that he violated my bodily integrity and trust.

He did not even once, utter the words "I withdraw that straight away - no relationship of mine has anything at all, ever, to do with that". I have written this in my response to his 'private' email to me as well, which is cc'd to you and my colleagues who have known about him sexually molesting me from the 7th of November.

In conversations with my colleagues you have said that you do not contest the facts of my testimony, which is why you do not see it necessary to constitute an anti sexual harassment cell as per the Vishakha guidelines in this case.

However, given that his apology presents an entirely different version from my testimony, i.e. attempts to establish that a "sexual liaison" took place as opposed to him sexually molesting me, I insist once again in the spirit of justice, to constitute an anti sexual harassment cell in accordance with the Vishakha guidelines to investigate this matter.

Publicly withdraw your statement that I or other Tehelka journalists are "satisfied", since my colleagues do not know the full extent of what was done to me, and I am deeply hurt that as my mentor, you could suggest in any way that this blatant misrepresentation of facts would be satisfactory to me.

On November 21, Shoma Chaudhury put out this statement announcing that Tehelka has now constituted a formal complaints committee

In furtherance to Tehelka's acceptance of Tarun Tejpal's recusal from editorship of Tehelka on November 20th, which followed the official unconditional apology he had mailed to the journalist concerned on November 19th, Tehelka has now constituted a formal complaints committee, in accordance to Vishaka guidelines, to be presided over by Urvashi Butalia, eminent feminist and publisher, to investigate the matter. The other members of the committee will be announced shortly.

In addition to this, Tehelka will ensure setting up a formal complaints committee, according to section 4 of the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013), an institutional mechanism that was sorely missing in

Shoma Chaudhury,
Managing Editor,
Tehelka

Following is Tejpal's full statement on the case on November 22, 2013

There have been serious allegations cast on me in this last week, and unfortunately as sometimes happens in life, the complete truth and the need to do the honorable thing can come into conflict. In this case this anguish was accentuated by the fact that very many intimate people, professional and personal, were involved.

For four days, as demanded by Shoma Chaudhury, the managing editor, and the recipient of the complaint, I have tried to do what was honorably demanded of me. On Tuesday I issued an apology for the alleged misconduct, as desired by the journalist through Shoma Chaudhury. On Wednesday I stepped down from the editorship of Tehelka and removed myself from the office premises. On Thursday I learnt of the formation of the complaints committee.

I offer my fullest cooperation to the police and all other authorities, and look to presenting all the facts of this incident to it. I also urge the committee and the police to obtain, examine and release the CCTV footage so that the accurate version of events stands clearly revealed.

This is an excerpt from a statement Tejpal purportedly sent to his friends, on Novemver 22

All my actions so far were out of an attempt to preserve the girl's dignity and on Shoma's adamantine feminist-principle insistence that I keep correct form by apologising. The truth is it was a fleeting, totally consensual encounter of less than a minute in a lift (of a two-storey building!) Now that a committee has been announced the truth will come out. As will the CCTV footage. My life and work have been trashed on a total lie.

Tejpal's account of what happened to Ritu Sarin of The Indian Express

"It is a totally mendacious account of what happened, in its details, in its tonalities, in its very suggestion of non-consensus," Tejpal said. "In cold light of day, much of it will sound unsavoury, but now the inquiry will reveal it all," he told The Indian Express. The Express quoted Tejpal as saying that the allegation by the journalist that he told her the best way to keep her job was by not resisting his advances, was a "half-truth". "This is one of the half-truths she's voiced. Nothing of this, as she states, was said or intended," he said. "My lawyers know I am being framed, and are also aware of the political forces driving much of it now," he added.

Full text of the letter of resignation letter by the journalist to Shoma Chaudhury:

Ms Chaudhury,

I am resigning from my position as ____ at Tehelka magazine, with immediate effect, because Tehelka's Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal sexually molested me on two occasions in November this year.

I am deeply traumatized by the lack of support offered by the organization. In such circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue to work for this organization.

At this moment, I would like to present the following facts to support my claim:

1. I was sexually molested by Tarun Tejpal on two occasions, the 7th and 8th of November 2013 at the annual Think festival in Goa this year. In the emails of apology that followed my complaint to you about Mr Tejpal's grievous sexual misconduct, he admitted to the fact, and apologized unconditionally.

2. I requested, at the very least, for Mr Tejpal to acknowledge this apology publicly to the staff and bureau of Tehelka. While I did not want this acknowledgement to have graphic details, I asked that the words "sexual misconduct" be included. In a phone conversation with me, you asked that he be recused from doing so because he had already admitted to sexual molestation in his emails, and because we needed to "protect the institution". In this conversation, I said, "I trust you to do the right thing".

3. In the public acknowledgement sent to the bureau, Mr Tejpal and you referred to his act of sexual violation as "an untoward incident" - this was not an attempt to "protect the institution" but in fact, an attempt to cover up what had really occurred-the act of sexual molestation, an admission of the facts that Mr Tejpal had "attempted sexual liaison" with me (to quote his email) on two occasions despite my "reluctance to receive such attention". Further, in conversations with my colleagues, you admitted to them that you did not see the need to set up an anti-sexual harassment cell as per the Vishaka guidelines, because you did not contest my version of what had occurred on the nights of 7th and 8th of November.

4. In your appearances on national news channels, you first attempted to establish that I was "satisfied" with Tehelka's actions, when only one of my immediate demands from the organization had been met-namely, that Mr Tejpal had unconditionally apologized for sexually molesting me in private emails to you and I. His public acknowledgement of the apology did not include any reference to his grievous sexual misconduct, and you had still failed to set up an anti-sexual harassment cell as per Vishaka guidelines. This could, in no way, have left me "satisfied". Further, I had responded to both of Mr Tejpal's emails (cc'd to you and the three colleagues I had confided everything to since the 7th of November) clarifying:

A. that his behaviour could not be described as "sexual liaison", and that was in fact an act of sexual molestation and a violation of bodily integrity and trust, since it occurred (by his own admission) despite my refusal.

B. A sexual act carried out without consent cannot be justified on any basis.

C. That after Mr Tejpal (by his own admission) had referred to his position of power over me in the organization, he did not withdraw this statement as his emails allege.

You continued to ignore my rebuttals to these emails, while insisting, in public, that I was satisfied.

5. You are now attempting to establish that Mr Tejpal has "another version" of events (as surely, any sexual predator does), and that the "encounter" may have been consensual or non-consensual. Meanwhile, on the night of the 22nd of November, an immediate member of Mr Tejpal's family went to my mother's house to ask her the details of my legal counsel, and what I "wanted" as a result of my complaint about being sexually molested by Mr Tejpal. In emails and text messages sent to his friends, read out on national news channels, Mr Tejpal is now claiming that what occurred was a "fleeting, consensual encounter"; and that he wrote his apologies to me because of your "adamantine feminist principles".

Over the past years, we have collectively defended the rights of women, written about custodial rape, sexual molestation at the workplace, spoken out harshly against the culture of victim blame and the tactical emotional intimidation and character assassination of those who dare to speak out against sexual violence.

At a time when I find myself victim to such a crime, I am shattered to find the Editor in Chief of Tehelka, and you- in your capacity as Managing Editor- resorting to precisely these tactics of intimidation, character assassination and slander.

Given the sequence of events since the 7th of November, it is not just Mr Tejpal who has failed me as an employer-but Tehelka that has failed women, employees, journalists and feminists collectively.

Please consider my resignation effective immediately.

Full text of the letter Shoma Chaudhury wrote to the woman journalist in response to her resignation

Dear....

It is unfortunate that your resignation from Tehelka comes under these circumstances. As you have said, we have stood together for women's rights, and today for me to be seen in opposition to you is a real travesty by any account. In the absence of an existing official grievance redressal mechanism in office, along Vishaka guidelines, when this crisis hit, I acted on instant outrage and solidarity for you as a woman and a colleague.

My responses may not have reflected the correct formal procedures but the intent cannot be doubted. To feel a sense closure, you had asked for a written apology from Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal; an acknowledgement of this apology to be sent to office; and the setting up of an anti-sexual harassment cell in Tehelka. Within one day of your complaint, you had the written apology. Tarun stepped down the next day. After this, the process of setting up the anti-sexual harassment committee was begun. I asked you to suggest names as well. You are yet to give names of your nominees. There were only two days to act on your complaint before the story broke in the press. I believe the taken actions strongly count as my standing by you.

Post this, things have been misconstrued and have snowballed exponentially in the media, based on half-facts and selective leaks. In your initial conversations with me, you had wanted redressal from within the institution in a way that would acknowledge the gravity of your complaint, yet protect your privacy. I proceeded with this in mind. You, above all others, in the clamour surrounding us today, know the truth of my actions in support of you.

You have accused me of many things in your resignation letter. This is not the time to enter into a detailed point-counter point exercise with you. There are, however, a few things that must be set straight, particularly given that I am being publicly accused of a 'cover-up.' Firstly, the written apology was forwarded to your three journalist confidantes. This cannot be read as an attempt to hush-up things. On 19 November, I called you to check whether you an acknowledgement of Tarun's apology should now be sent to the Tehelka staff. I also strongly urged you to continue working in Tehelka, if you wanted to.

You said you needed a week to think it through and asked me to hold-off the acknowledgment till then. This is the only reason an acknowledgement of the apology was not sent to the staff and bureau immediately. Regarding your assertion in your resignation letter that I am only "now" attempting to establish that Tarun has "another version": this is factually untrue. It was recorded in my first email that he said he had 'misread the situation'. This 'other version' is also on record on 19 November in the personal email from Tarun to you, which you copied to the three journalists and me in your reply.

Subsequently, this version was also discussed on the phone between you and me. Questions have been asked about why I did not go to the police. In our conversation, you had mentioned that you had considered this option but did not want to go that route. I thought I should respect that and had no reason to disbelieve this, as you had already spoken to journalists about your sexual assault, and both they, and you, could have gone to the police in the ten days that transpired before you brought your complaint to me. Once the enquiry committee took the matter into its hands, its recommendations would have been followed and the course of law would have taken over. In so far as the issues you have raised over Tarun's recusal letter, and my use of the words "untoward incident" or "satisfied", I have already been on national television both accepting and explaining how and why the vocabulary of this was inadequate. You also have emails from me, copied to the three journalists, on Thursday, 20 November, explaining this.

I accept that you may have found expressions I used, verbal or written, inappropriate. I am sorry about this, and only say that notwithstanding the mildness perceived in my language, I took strong steps to ensure that there could be no possible silencing of the issue. Regarding your objections to the wording of Tarun's written apology, you received this email on Tuesday afternoon, 19 November.

You mailed wanting phrases changed on 21 November, after the press storm triggered by the leak.

By then, events were too fast-paced, to address your concerns. After Wednesday night, 20 November, we haven't spoken or communicated in any way, other than through emails. The suggestion that I am involved in any attempt to intimidate you or your family is absolutely untrue and uncalled for. The same goes for your claims that I have indulged in character assassination or slander against you. From the moment I received your complaint, my actions, were driven by outrage on your behalf, urgent concern for you, and a desire to assuage your sense of injury.

In this, contrary to assertions in the media, I was, in fact, demonstrably driven to honour your word above any other. To this extent, I, rightly or wrongly, did not even cross-check your account with the other journalists you had confided in, until you had been given the official apology you sought. At the end, you have accused not just Mr. Tejpal, but Tehelka of failing "women, employees, journalists and feminists collectively". This accusation unduly extrapolates the events of the last week with an institution whose journalists, staff and body of work have nothing to do with it. Today, despite my immediate and assertive actions in support of you, I stand wrongly defaced and accused of having abandoned the public values I uphold in my work.

This leaves me inexpressibly dismayed. I wish you well in the future.

Shoma

Shoma Chaudhury's letter of resignationon November 29, 2013

Dear all,

This has been a damaging time for all associated with Tehelka. Since the devastating allegation was first brought to my notice on 18th November, I have taken a series of actions in response to this complaint. To my mind, I acted on instant outrage and solidarity for our colleague as a woman and co-worker.

After the first steps to immediately address her expressed needs, the process of setting up the anti-sexual harassment committee was begun. There were only two days to act on the complaint before the story broke in the press. Post this, things have been misconstrued and have snowballed exponentially in the media, based on half-facts and selective leaks. In the next stage, once the committee was formed, the law would have taken its course according to the findings and recommendations.

Over the past week, I have been accused of an attempt to "cover-up" and for not standing by my feminist positions. While I accept that I could have done many things differently and in a more measured way, I reject the allegations of a cover-up because in no way could the first actions that were taken be deemed suppression of any kind. As for my feminist positions, I believe I acted in consonance with them by giving my colleague's account precedence over everything else.

However, despite this, as a result of what's transpired over the past few days my integrity has repeatedly been questioned by people from our fraternity and, in fact, by the public at large. I would like to take cognizance of this.I have worked hard for Tehelka for many years and what we have stood for is very dear to me and I hold it in high esteem. I do not want questions raised about my integrity to tarnish the image of Tehelka, which it has done in the past week. Therefore, I resign as Managing Editor with immediate effect.

There are many readers and colleagues who have believed in me and expressed their faith through this very difficult time. I am deeply grateful to them. I will come in to office to close the issue and do the necessary handovers. I cannot express how painful this is for me. It has never been a part of me to give up midway through a challenge. I would have liked to continue at Tehelka to see us through this dark time, but I am no longer sure whether my presence is harming or helping Tehelka. I deeply regret any inadequacies or lack of clarity I may have displayed in my leadership.

Credits: IBN Live and The Indian Express

The Perfect murder: The imperfect Justice and investigation- India's biggest and perfect Murder -Aarushi Talwar case

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 07:43:00 +0000

15 May 2008,

Aarushi ,14, the daughter of Dr. Rajesh and Nupur Talwar and their servant Hemraj were killed at night in a mysterious way. Aarushi used to study in Delhi Public School and her residence was at Sec-25, Jalvayu Vihar, Noida(UP). Her parents were both doctors and were heading the dental department in fortis hospital

10 pm - 11 pm	According to the Talwars, after the dinner, they went to Aarushi's room, and gifted her a Sony DSC-W130 digital camera. The camera had arrived earlier that day via courier, and had been received by Hemraj. Rajesh had originally planned to gift it to Aarushi on her birthday (24 May), but Nupur persuaded Rajesh to give it to Aarushi that day as an early birthday surprise. Aarushi clicked several photographs of herself and her parents, the last one at 10:10 pm. Subsequently, Aarushi's parents retired to their room, while Aarushi remained in her room.
11 pm-12 am	According to the parents, around 11 pm, Rajesh asked Nupur to switch on the internet router, which was located in Aarushi's room. When Nupur came to Aarushi's room, the teenager was reading Chetan Bhagat's The 3 Mistakes of My Life. Nupur switched on the router and returned to her own room. Around this time, Rajesh answered a call from the US on the landline phone (kept in the couple's room). This indicates that the ringer was not silent. Rajesh then surfed some stock market and dentistry websites, and also sent an e-mail. He visited an e-mail site at 11:41:53 pm: this is time when the desktop and the laptop show the last internet usage.
After 12:00 am (16 May)	Around midnight, Aarushi's friend tried calling her on her mobile as well as the Talwar residence's landline. However, the calls were not answered. Around 12:30 am, he sent her an SMS message: this SMS was not received by Aarushi's phone. The Internet router was used for the last time at 12:08 am. Based on this, CBI infers that Rajesh was online until 12:08 am. The exact sequence of events between the midnight and 6:00 am could not be determined by the investigators with certainty. According to their post-mortem reports, both Aarushi and Hemraj were killed somewhere between 12:00 am and 1:00 am

(Rajesh and Nupur Talwar-Parents of Aarushi)

There are a lot of confusions over the murder and how it happened?

According to Police version of the story, Parents saw Aarushi and Hemraj in a objectionable position, so in a sudden provocation they hit aarushi and hemraj with a golf stick that hit arrushi on left eye and hemraj on the back of his head. After hitting with the golf stick, the suspect cut their throats with a surgical blade in a very professional fashion which can not be done by a person who does not have any medical knowledge.

Both the suspects then dragged the body of servant upstairs towards terrace and threw the body on terrace behind the water tank and cooler. While they were dragging the body, blood fell on the stairs and this concretes the fact that body was dragged upstairs.

Aarushi's body lay on her bed, covered with a white flannel blanket. Her face was covered with her schoolbag.

There was blood on the bed, the walls and the floor. There was also blood on the pillow and the front side of the bedroom door, but none on the toys kept on the bed. The blood on the pillow showed two blood patterns: the drainage from the slit throat and a splashing of droplets. Aarushi's schoolbag and a pink pillow kept on the back of the bed were within the range of the splashed blood area, but did not have any bloodstains, indicating that these were placed on the bed after the murder. Aarushi's body lay undisturbed on the bed, and the bed sheet was laid out smoothly. This could possibly mean that she was killed out of the bed or that someone had dressed up the crime scene. According to the CBI, no bloodstains were found on the book The 3 Mistakes of My Life, which Aarushi was supposedly reading before her murder.

Police also found a white discharge in the vaginal area of Aarushi which when examined ruled out the possibility of semen . However Police stated that the sample has been tampered with and also her private parts have been cleaned to rule out the possibility of rape.

Now coming to what the confusions are in this case:----

Aarushi's room had a self locking godrej lock which could only be opened in 2 ways. Either aarushi herself opens from inside or her parents open it from outside which they normally kept the key below their pillow. If Hemraj killed Aarushi, how did he open the door from outside with out having the key? Also , if parents would have killed their daughter(according to police version), they saw hemraj and aarushi in objectionable position and then they did the crime. My question again is the same, how did hemraj managed to go inside Aarushi's room and if hemraj can not go inside the room, how can the parents see them together?? Let us think for a moment that hemraj stole the key from her parents room (which is almost impossible to do as they were not completely slept) and he went in aarushi's room , what was need of dragging hemraj's body to terrace because they were living in a flat not house, so any body could see them while dragging the body upstairs.

Also, according to Aarushi's close friends, her parents used to lover her a lot, why would they killed their own daughter, but then another question arises, If hemraj can not go inside aarushi's room, parents did not kill aarushi, then who killed aarushi??? Because the possibility of entering in to aarushi's room with out a key is practically impossible for an outsider because it was not a ordinary lock, it was self locking door embedded hard lock.

But if parents have not killed then the following questions arise on their innocence:-

The distance between the beds of Aarushi and her parents was around 7–8 feet. Yet, the parents claimed that they didn't hear any noise and slept through the murders.

There was no sign of forced entry into Aarushi's room, which would usually be locked at night. Someone outside the room could open it only with a key usually kept beside Nupur's bedside. The parents could not explain how the murderers gained access to this key, which was found in the living room after the murder.

On the morning of 16 May, Rajesh asked the police to stop wasting time in his house and pursue Hemraj instead. He even offered to cover the cost of police's visit to Hemraj's native village in Nepal. This was seen as a diversionary tactic.

Rajesh ignored the police's request for the key to the terrace door. An attempt had been made to hide Hemraj's body, as evident by the fact that it had been covered with a cooler panel and that the iron grill separating the adjacent terrace had been covered with a bed sheet. The police suspected that the Talwars planned to blame Aarushi's murder on Hemraj, and hid his body on the terrace for disposing it off later. However, the media glare and a constant stream of visitors made it impossible for them to get rid of the body.

When Hemraj's body was discovered, Rajesh told the police that he could not identify it.

The crime scene had been dressed-up. Aarushi's bed sheet remained undisturbed, and her body had been covered with a white flannel blanket. There was no blood on the toys, the schoolbag and a pink pillow, indicating that these items had been kept at the crime scene after the murder.

The family allegedly showed "undue" haste in cremating Aarushi's body and cleaning the crime scene on 16 May.

According to some of the visitors, the parents did not display shock or grief. SP Mahesh Kumar Mishra claimed that the Talwars looked "very nervous" when he questioned them on 16 May.

During 16-17 May, a series of telephonic conversations happened between KK Gautam, Dr. Sushil Chaudhury and Rajesh's brother Dinesh Talwar. Gautam later alleged that Sushil, a friend of Dinesh, had asked him to get any reference to a sexual assault removed from the post-mortem-report.

Hemraj had spoken of a threat to his life before his death. The police suspected that he knew about Rajesh's alleged extra-marital affair, and had been threatened by him not to talk about it.

Parents's defence

The fingerprints of the parents were not found on the Scotch whisky bottle or the blood-stained clothes of the victims.
Rajesh stated that he urged the police to pursue Hemraj, because being missing, he was the obvious suspect.
Rajesh also claimed that he had no recollection of the police asking him for the keys to the terrace door.
He could not recognize Hemraj's body as it was highly decomposed. He also claimed that he noticed that the T-shirt on the body read "New York"; the police had told him that the person was wearing a kada (a bracelet). He went down to ask Nupur (who was sitting in the car) whether Hemraj had worn these two items. When Nupur confirmed that he did, Rajesh called Dinesh to say that the body was most likely that of Hemraj.
Dinesh denied asking KK Gautam to use his influence to change the post-mortem report. He claimed that CBI could not find any records of him making calls at the post-mortem house.
The crime scene had been compromised, so Kumar turned to polygraph test (lie-detector), brain-mapping tests and narco-analysis. Rajesh and Nupur cleared two lie-detector tests and a brain-mapping test, which did not find any evidence of lying on their part.
The Talwars' relatives and friends state that the parents displayed adequate signs of grief. Nupur's father BG Chitnis reported that "Rajesh had become hysterical and was banging his head against the wall." Radhika Chada, a family friend, stated that Nupur was in "complete shock". Masooma Ranalvi, mother of Aarushi's friend Fiza, said that Rajesh and Nupur were "numb with grief".
The size of the shoeprint found on the terrace was 8 or 9, while Rajesh's shoe size is 6.
The later evidence suggested that the killers did not drag Hemraj's body to the terrace to hide it: he was killed on the terrace, which nullifies the theory that Rajesh killed him when he saw him in Aarushi's room.
The parents denied that they had dressed up the crime scene, pointing out that if they wanted to do so, they would have not left the Scotch whisky bottle with bloodstains in the living room for everyone to see. The family denied that they had shown any haste in cleaning the crime scene or cremating Aarushi's body. Nupur's mother Lata Chitnis and their clinic manager Vikas Sethi stated they received permission from the police to clean the house. The police had told them that they had already collected all the necessary evidence, including a part of Aarushi's mattress. It was the police who suggested that Aarushi's mattress be taken to the terrace for now, given the media clamor downstairs.

Also in the end, CBI filed a closure report in October 2012 in which they asked court to shut the case as they were unable to find sufficient evidences against the talwars, but court rejected this plea and ordered CBI to use this closure report as chargesheet against the couple. When CBI again started investigating, they preapred another chargesheet in which they clearly mentioned that in the best possible scenario, the murder could have been done in sudden provocation not intentional and the punishment for provocative murder comes under section 304 of IPC(Indian Penal Code) in which min punishment is zero and max is 10 yrs jail. But when the judgement was given on 25 Nov 2013 judge took it as case of direct murder and framed the charges under section 302 of IPC in which either the accused can be hanged off or they have to face life imprisonment.

Now it is still a question, when CBI itself was looking for punishment under sec 304, why did judge moved the punishment to sec 302 by himself??... The couple has also been charged under sec 201/34 which states they have tried to clean the crime scene and destroy evidences.

The truth says something else, when police went to investigate on 16 may 2008, morning, they did not take the case seriously and the crime scene should have been banned for any media or public entry so that all evidences, finger prints etc could have been the same. but the reverse happened, it was turned in to a picnic spot anyone was coming to see the crime scene, media, general public, police ; everyone was enjoying to see the crime scene. No one cared that it is a delicate case, so crime scene should be banned for visitors and media.

Even when talwars asked to clean certain objects in their house asking the permission of police, they simply allowed them to do so. I do not understand what kind of investigation is this???

At last, my point is, if the Talwars have been accused of murdering their daughter, police should also be questioned because, had the police took the matter seriously in the beginning of the case, there would not have been so many confusions as the case today is just based on circumstantial evidences nothing else.

Disclaimer: The views mentioned above does not indicate my personal opinion or does mean to hurt or dis-owner the honorable court/police justification. Only the perception of Police and media is mentioned here.

Android 4.3 update pulled off for Samsung Galaxy S III in U.K., AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 in US

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 16:35:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, Samsung finally released the much awaited Android 4.3 update for the Galaxy S III, but immediately after updating the device to Android 4.3 users started to complain about various bugs they were encountering. We ourselves tested the Android 4.3 update extensively and came to the conclusion that Samsung might have rushed with the new update just so that they could bring in GALAXY Gear’s support to the Galaxy S III. Samsung KNOX was also not implemented in the software update, even though Samsung promised that it will introduce KNOX with the Android 4.3 update.

Major issues in new Android 4.3 update for Galaxy S III:-

- Wake up lag (Sometimes it takes a few seconds to wake the device from standby and sometimes a few minutes)
- Random Freezing
- Huge battery drain
- Bluetooth Audio issues during playback in car
- Stuttering music playback with stock Samsung music app
- Device freezes as soon a call is received (Black screen issue)
- Poor RAM management (very difficult to multitask)
- Wi-Fi issues

After receiving so many complaints about the new Android 4.3 software update, we contacted Samsung Mobile UK for an official statement on the matter, check the statement below.

“As we are currently investigating the reported issues with Galaxy S3 4.3 Jelly Bean update, the upgrading service has been temporarily suspended. We are committed to providing customers with the best possible mobile experience, and will ensure to resume the upgrading service at the earliest possibility.” – Samsung Mobile UK

According to the statement, Samsung has temporarily suspended the upgrade service and the Android 4.3 update (I9300XXUGMG9) has been pulled from FOTA and Samsung KIES. So you won’t be able to update your Galaxy S3 to Android 4.3 at the moment.

Galaxy S3 users were waiting for this update for a long time now as the device was still running a year old version of Android (4.1.2), Samsung never updated the device to Android 4.2. We think Samsung should have taken some more time and iron out all the bugs before actually rolling out the firmware upgrade as it has made a lot of its customers very unhappy. We will let you folks know as soon as Samsung resumes the upgrade service again.

Meanwhile, Samsung is also experiencing problems with the Android 4.3 update in the U.S., this time for the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S4. In this case, there is no indication why the update was pulled. It was just last Wednesday when Android 4.3 started rolling out to AT&T customers sporting the latest Android flagship model.

Source: Phone Arena and Sam Mobile

Samsung GALAXY Note II, Android 4.3 update hits Samsung service centers; OTA update soon?

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 06:10:00 +0000

The Android 4.3 update is scheduled to roll out for the Galaxy S3, Note II, and the Galaxy S4 in this month and the next, but while rollout has commenced for both the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 (at least in the US) already, the update for the Note II is nowhere in sight. But that could change quite soon – apparently, Samsung’s service centers already have access to the update, and one user in India was lucky enough to get his Note II updated from a local service center.

The build number of the firmware is N7100XXUEMJ9, while the build date is of October 31st, making us fairly certain that it’s the final version of the update that will roll out officially. At this point, it’s uncertain what the extent of changes and new features are in the update (we’ve asked for some screenshots and info from the one who sent us the confirmation, and will update this post when we get them), but expect to see mostly the same changes as those that arrived on the Galaxy S3, apart from a few new features from the Note 3 for use with the S Pen.

Hang on Note II users, the excruciating year-long wait for your first major update could end very soon. In the meantime, heading to the nearest service center is sounds like a good idea, right?

Source: Sam Mobile

The Hidden truth of Jawahar Lal Nehru

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 07:22:00 +0000

VERY SHOCKING HISTORY!

At the very beginning of his book,'The Nehru Dynasty',Astrologer K.N. Rao mentions the names of Jawaharlal's father and grandfather. Jawaharlal's father was believed to be Motilal and Motilal's father was one Gangadhar Nehru.
We all know that Jawaharlal's only daughter was Indira Priyadarshini Nehru; Kamala Nehru was her mother, who died in Switzerland of tuberculosis. She was totally against Indira's proposed marriage with Feroze.

Why? No one tells us that!

Now, who is this Feroze? We are told by many that he was the son of the family grocer. The grocer supplied wines, etc.. to Anand Bhavan (previously known as Ishrat Manzil)

What was the family grocer's name?

One frequently hears that Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather was Pandit Nehru. But then we all know that everyone has two grandfathers, the paternal and the maternal grandfathers.
In fact, the paternal grandfather is deemed to be the more important grandfather in most societies.

Why is it then, nowhere, we find Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather' s name? It appears that the reason is simply. Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather was a Muslim gentleman from the Junagadh area of Gujarat .

This Muslim grocer by the name of Nawab Khan, had married a Parsi woman after converting her to Islam.
This is the source where from the myth of Rajiv being a Parsi was derived. Rajiv's father Feroze, was Feroze Khan before he married Indira, against Kamala Nehru's wishes.
Feroze's mother's family name was Ghandy, often associated with Parsis and this was changed to Gandhi, sometime before his wedding with Indira, by an affidavit.
The fact of the matter is that (and this fact can be found in many writings) Indira was very lonely. Chased out of the Shantiniketan University by Guru Dev Rabindranath himself for misdemeanour, the lonely girl was all by herself, while father Jawaharlal was busy with politics, pretty women and illicit sex, the mother was in hospital.
Feroze Khan, the grocer's son was then in England and he was quite sympathetic to Indira and soon enough she changed her religion, became a Muslim woman and married Feroze Khan in a London mosque.

Nehru was not happy, Kamala was dead already or dying. The news of this marriage eventually reached Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (better known as Mahatma Gandhi) .
andhi urgently called Nehru and practically ordered him to ask the young man to change his name from Khan to Gandhi. It had nothing to do with change of religion, from Islam to Hinduism for instance. It was just a case of a change of name by an affidavit. And so Feroze Khan became Feroze Gandhi.

The surprising thing is that the apostle of truth, the old man soon to be declared India 's Mahatma and the 'Father of the Nation' didn't mention this game of his in the famous book, 'My Experiments with Truth'. Why?

When they returned to India , a mock 'Vedic marriage' was instituted for public consumption.
On this subject, writes M.O. Mathai (a long-time Private Secretary of Nehru) in his renowned (but now suppressed by the GOI! ) 'Reminiscences of the Nehru Age' on page 94, second paragraph: ' For some inexplicable reason, Nehru allowed the marriage to be performed according to Vedic rites in 1942. An inter-religious and inter-caste marriage under Vedic rites at that time was not valid in law. To be legal, it had to be a civil marriage .'

It's a known fact that after Rajiv's birth Indira and Feroze lived separately, but they were not divorced. Feroze used to harass Nehru frequently for money and also interfere in Nehru's political activities. Nehru got fed up and left instructions not to allow him into the Prime Minister's residence Trimurthi Bhavan.

Mathai writes that the death of Feroze came as a relief to Nehru and Indira. The death of Feroze in 1960 before he could consolidate his own political forces, is itself a mystery. Feroze had even planned to remarry.

Those who try to keep tabs on our leaders in spite of all the suppressions and deliberate misinformation, are aware of the fact that the second son of Indira (or Mrs .Feroze Khan) known as Sanjay Gandhi was not the son of Feroze. He was the son of another Muslim gentleman, Mohammad Yunus.

Here in passing, we might mention that the second son was originally named Sanjiv. It rhymed with Rajiv, the elder brother's name. It was changed to Sanjay when he was arrested by the British police in England and his passport impounded, for having stolen a car.
Krishna Menon was then India 's High Commissioner in London . He offered to issue another passport to the felon who changed his name to Sanjay. Incidentally, Sanjay's marriage with the Sikh girl Menaka (now they call her Maneka for Indira Gandhi found the name of mythological Lord Indra's Court dancer rather offensive !!) took place quite surprisingly in Mohammad Yunus's house in New Delhi
The marriage with Menaka who was a model (She had model for Bombay Dyeing wearing just a towel) was not so ordinary either. Sanjay was notorious in getting unwed young women pregnant. Menaka too was rendered pregnant by Sanjay.

It was then that her father, Colonel Anand, threatened Sanjay with dire consequences if he did not marry her daughter and that did the trick.

Sanjay married Menaka. It was widely reported in Delhi at the time that Mohammad Yunus was unhappy at the marriage of Sanjay with Menaka. Apparently he had wanted to get him married with a Muslim girl of his choice. It was Mohammad Yunus who cried the most when Sanjay died in the plane accident.

In Yunus's book, 'Persons, Passions & Politics' one discovers that baby Sanjay had been circumcised following Islamic custom, although the reason stated was phimosis. It was always believed that Sanjay used to blackmail Indira Gandhi and due to this she used to turn a blind eye when Sanjay Gandhi started to run the country as though it were his personal freedom.. Was he black mailing her with the secret of who his real father was? When the news of Sanjay's death reached Indira Gandhi, the first thing she wanted to know was about the bunch of keys which Sanjay had with him.

Nehru was no less a player in producing bastards. At least one case is very graphically described by M.O. Mathai in his 'Reminiscences of the Nehru Age', page 206.

Mathai writes:
'In the autumn of 1948 a young woman from Benares arrived in New Delhi as a sanyasini named Shraddha Mata (an assumed and not a real name). She was a Sanskrit scholar well versed in the ancient Indian scriptures and mythology. People, including MPs, thronged to her to hear her discourses. One day S.D. Upadhyaya, Nehru's old employee, brought a letter in Hindi from Shraddha Mata. Nehru gave her an interview in the PM's house. As she departed, I noticed (Mathai is speaking here) that she was young, shapely and beautiful. Meetings of Nehru with her became rather frequent, mostly after he finished his work at night. During one of Nehru's visits to Lucknow , Shraddha Mata turned up there and Upadhyaya brought a letter from her as usual. Nehru sent her the reply and she visited Nehru at midnight...' Suddenly Shraddha Mata disappeared.

In November 1949 a convent in Bangalore sent a decent looking person to Delhi with a bundle of letters. He said that a young woman from northern India arrived at the convent a few months ago and gave birth to a baby boy. She refused to divulge her name or give any particulars about herself. She left the convent as soon as she was well enough to move out but left the child behind.

She however forgot to take with her a small cloth bundle in which, among other things, several letters in Hindi were found. The Mother Superior, who was a foreigner, had the letters examined and was told they were from the Prime Minister.

The person who brought the letters surrendered them...'I (Mathai) made discreet inquiries repeatedly about the boy but failed to get a clue about his whereabouts. Convents in such matters are extremely tight-lipped and secretive.

Had I succeeded in locating the boy, I would have adopted him. He must have grown up as a Catholic Christian blissfully ignorant of who his father was.'

Coming back to Rajiv Gandhi, we all know now that he changed his so called Parsi religion to become a Catholic to marry Sania Maino of Turin , Italy . Rajiv became Roberto. His daughter's name is Bianca and son's name is Raul. Quite cleverly the same names are presented to the people of India as Priyanka and Rahul.

What is amazing is the extent of our people's ignorance in such matters. The press conference that Rajiv Gandhi gave in London after taking over as Prime minister of India was very informative. In this press conference, Rajiv boasted that he was NOT a Hindu but a Parsi. Mind you, speaking of the Parsi religion, he had no Parsi ancestor at all. His grandmother (father's mother) had turned Muslim after having abandoned the Parsi religion to marry Nawab Khan.

It is the western press that waged a blitz of misinformation on behalf of Rajiv. From the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, the big guns raised Rajiv to heaven. The children's encyclopaedias recorded that Rajiv was a qualified Mechanical Engineer from the revered University of Cambridge . No doubt US kids are among the most misinformed in the world today! The reality is that in all three years of his tenure at that University Rajiv had not passed a single exam. He had therefore to leave Cambridge without a certificate.

Sonia too had the same benevolent treatment. She was stated to be a student in Cambridge . Such a description is calculated to mislead Indians. She was a student in Cambridge all right, but not of the University of Cambridge , but of one of those fly by night language schools where foreign students come to learn English. Sonia was working as an 'au pair' girl in Cambridge and trying to learn English at the same time. And surprise of surprises, Rajiv was even cremated as per Vedic rites in full view of India's public.
This is the Nehru dynasty that India worships and now a foreigner leads a prestigious national party because of just one qualification being married into the Nehru family. Maneka Gandhi, though Indian, herself is being accepted by the non-Congress parties not because she was a former model or an animal lover, but for her links to the Nehru family.

Saying that an Italian (or any foreigner) should not lead India will amount to narrow mindedness, but if Sania Maino (now Sonia) had served India like, say, Mother Teresa or Annie Besant, i.e. in any wayon her own rights, then all Indians should be proud of her just as how proud we are of Mother Teresa.

OR
Saying that any other party which comes to rule India is better is again equally worse.

The point is Indians who nominate the people to stand in these elections; and the people who vote their rulers (i.e. the authorities) must know that truth eventually come out some day. Don't allow the famous land of India (our motherland) to be looked down by others.

Krrish 3 public review: The best VFX produced on Indian Soil??

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 11:19:00 +0000

Rating : 4 stars
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Vivek Oberoi, Kangana Ranaut and Priyanka Chopra
Loo Break: Yes, you can skip all the songs
Whats Good: The best Villian and VFX possible on Indian soil
Whats bad: Songs are a big minus

Review:
Rakesh Roshan pairing with Hrithik as director-actor is unmatchable and every time proved golden atbox office.

‘Krrish’took the story of ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ ahead by establishing India’s first original super-hero. And you start thinking next what? But here comes ‘Krrish 3’ that adds completely new dimensions to a super-hero film with a powerful villain, stronger emotions and family drama.

‘Krrish 3’ continues with Hrithik Roshan saving the world in his superhero avatar when super-villain Kaal played by Vivek Oberoi starts destructing the world with a new epidemic.

Kaal is handicapped but has extraordinary powers. All body below his neck is paralysed. He runs a pharmaceutical company that first creates an epidemic and then creates an antidot for it to earn money from it. He has created mutants called Maanvars –combination of Maanavs and Jaanwars. Being a superhero, Krrish has to fight these beings with unknown powers but only with the help of his father, Rohit Mehra.

‘Krrish3’ is the synergy of ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ and ‘Krrish’ and their goodness combined. The screenplay is full of entertainment and emotions throughout. Hrithik Roshan is phenomenal especially as the old father, Rohit Mehra. Hrithik is once again outstanding in a film directed by his father. But Vivek Oberoi as Kaal steals the show. He is the most powerful villian India has ever seen in a movie. His screen presence is just awesome. His facial expressions, dialogue delivery and actions are worth noticing. He is a powerful villain who can use only two fingers to destroy everything. Kangana looks menacing and Priyanka does complete justice to her role. Amitabh Bachchan introduces the film and Mohnish Bahl as Vivek Oberoi's poster father and Rajpal Yadav in a brief role are fairly good.

Music is a big minus especially ‘God Allah Aur Bhagwan’ but surprisingly other songs are not bad as it seemed on small screen. Though film misses that one big hit song. Editing is crisp and dialogues are fairly good.

The real winner is director Rakesh Roshan who again proves his command over the superhero genre who only he had the courage to start in 2006 with Krrish. Film has such a fine balance of emotions, action, romance and VFX. And yes, Red Chillies has done tremendous job with VFX.

Verdict: Watch it for amazing performances, a very good story and a breathtaking climax.

First half is a bit low because it is used in setting up characters though the Aeroplane scene in first half is worth clapping. It is the second half that is a surprise package. It is a complete VFX show, specially towards the climax, you will be stunned to see that this VFX work is done in India.

Vivek Oberoi will be noticed by masses as he is the real show stealer and his future is bright after krrish3.

Do not miss this one !!

Source: Box Office Capsule

The All New Nexus 5 is here : FHD panel, OIS, 2GB RAM and much more

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:49:00 +0000

The Nexus 5 is finally here. After countless rumors and leaks, Google has finally officially unveiled the new member of the Nexus family and it comes with a 5-inch 1080p display, top-shelf specs and the latest Android 4.4 KitKat.

Plus, it features an ambitious optical-image stabilized camera that aims to deliver ‘unmatched’ dim light performance.

Design and display

The Nexus 5 looks are not a surprise. The new Nexus is made out of plastic and it's lightweight and thin, boasting a huge vertical Nexus logo on its back and a large camera eye.

It comes in two colors from the start - you can pick between black and white. Most prominent on the front is the very sharp 5-inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. That’s as sharp as flagship smartphones get. The display uses in-cell touch, a fancy name for a technology that integrates the part of the screen that registers touch with the actual LCD. This eliminates reflections and makes the screen much easier to read outdoors.

Under the hood

Under the hood, the Nexus 5 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 system chip with Adreno 320 graphics and 2GB of RAM. This is the exact same chip that powers the latest cream of the crop smartphones from Samsung, Sony and LG. We have seen the leaked benchmarks earlier and we have no reason to believe it will perform any worse than those flagships.

The handset will be available with 16GB and 32GB of built-in storage. There is no card slot to expand that.

Camera

We’re excited to see Google pay special attention to the camera on the Nexus 5. Earlier Nexus phones

featured lackluster cameras, something that Google promises to change with this device. The main camera is an 8-megapixel one with a single LED flash and it features optical image stabilization (OIS) that is said to contribute for the ‘unmatched’ dim light performance of the Nexus 5. Google promises less blur and noise in Nexus 5 images, and we’re eager to put those claims to the test. Interestingly, the new Nexus uses the exact same OIS tech that is found on LG’s latest flagship, the G2, and we found it worked very well there. The handset also features an improved HDR+ mode that captures a series of images and enhances them.

Android 4.4 KitKat

Android 4.4 KitKat makes a debut on the Nexus 5. The new version of Google’s mobile operating system brings huge optimizations to the way memory is utilized and introduces new camera features like ‘auto-awesome’ images and movies, a compilation that the phone automatically creates using what’s on your camera roll. As with every Nexus, this one is expected to be first on the line for new updates as well.

Battery

The Nexus 5 comes with a 2300mAh battery. We have definitely seen larger battery packs on similarly sized smartphones, so we don’t expect the Nexus 5 to last more than the average smartphone. One cool feature that the phone has inherited from last year’s Nexus 4 is wireless charging.

Release date, price and carriers

Best of all, the Nexus 5 release date is imminent. The handset is going on sale today online on the Google Play store in United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K., Australia, Korea and Japan. Countries in Europe, Central/South Americas, Asia, CIS and the Middle East will get it in mid-November on other retailers. In the United States, the Nexus 5 will be available on Sprint, T-Mobile, Amazon, Best Buy and RadioShack. It will not be available on Verizon Wireless and question remains open whether AT&T will offer it.

To buy the phone on Google Play you don’t need to sign a contract and the price starts from $349 for the 16GB Nexus 5.

The phone will be available in INDIA for Rs. 28999/- (16GB) and Rs. 32999/-(32GB) respectively .

Nexus 5 specs

Display	4.95-inch Full HD display, 445 ppi
Dimensions	137.84 x 69.17 x 8.59 mm (5.42 x 2.72 x 0.34 inches)
Processor	2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974)
GPU	Adreno 330
RAM	2GB
Internal Storage	16GB or 32GB
Camera	8MP auto-focus camera with OIS
Front Camera	1.3MP
Sensors	accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, proximity, light, barometer, orientation
Battery	2300mAh with support for wireless charging
Other	Multiple LTE bands - support for Verizon (not confirmed), AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile; Pentaband HSPA+ (works across the globe), NFC, Nexus 7-like design, ceramic physical buttons

Source: Phone Arena

EXCLUSIVE: Android 4.3 unofficial firmware N7100XXUEMJ5 leaked for Samsung galaxy Note II [GT-N7100]

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Brand new Android 4.3 test firmware – N7100XXUEMJ5 – for the Samsung Galaxy Note II (GT-N7100) has been leaked.

Samsung is expected to officially start rolling out Android 4.3 update to the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II in the month of November and to meet that dead line Samsung is releasing a new test build every two days, so it can iron out all the bugs before the actual release. Please keep in mind that this is a pre-release firmware and there might be a few bugs here and there, so make sure to backup all your stuff before flashing this test firmware on your device.

In the Android 4.3 update, Samsung has updated the core UI elements to more like Galaxy S4/Note 3′s interface, including the tabbed settings. Samsung has included many new features in the Android 4.3 update, many taken from the Galaxy S4/Note 3. Samsung Knox and Samsung Wallet are also present in this test firmware. Android 4.3 update is still under heavy development and Samsung may add more features before rolling out the official update itself.

Model: GT-N7100
Country: Open Asia
Version: Android 4.3
Changelist: 1903221
Build date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 23:49:26 +0000
Product Code: OLB
PDA: N7100XXUEMJ5
CSC: N7100OLBEMJ4
MODEM: N7100XXUEMJ5

Download:Samsung Galaxy note 2 4.3 upgrade firmware

NOTE
- This test firmware will NOT increase your binary counter NOR void your warranty.
- This test firmware is a pre-release firmware and not official from Samsung.

INSTRUCTIONS
- Extract (unzip) the firmware file
- Download Odin3 v3.09 (from here)

- Extract Odin .ZIP file
- Open Odin3 v3.09
- Restart phone in download mode (Press and hold Home + Power + Volume down buttons)
- Connect phone and wait until you get a blue sign in Odin
- Add N7100XXUEMJ5_N7100OLBEMJ4_N7100XXUEMJ5_HOME.tar.md5 to AP
- Make sure re-partition is NOT ticked
- Click start button, sit back and wait a few minutes.
- If you encounter any issues with the firmware (Any FC, Bootloop etc)
- Boot into recovery mode (Home+power+vol up)
- Choose to wipe/factory reset. (THIS WILL ERASE ALL OF YOUR DATA INCLUDING YOUR INTERNAL SD CARD!)
- Then choose reboot and you should be good to go!

The Million dollar question: Installed BBM on Android & iOS but no one to chat???

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:34:00 +0000

As soon as the BBM for Android and iOS came on their respective app stores, people jumped to download it on their devices out of curiosity to know whats new BBM has to offer in a world of Whatsapp, Viber, line and We chat.

Hours after installing BBM, still my contact list is empty as I have no friends or very few friends who actually use BBM now except those who still use the catholic era Blackberry phones. So, as a user some thoughts came in my mind

The way it handles username and password looks like a thing of past.

Why do I have to still make a BBM account for using BBM as if I am making any gmail or yahoo account, I have to give my contact details and all of that stuff just to chat with someone.

In a world of whatsapp or every other chat app today, it requires only your phone number and a sms to verify your identity and you are good to go. Who would like to give all your details just to chat.

Further more, Why do I still need to be assigned a BBM Pin??

The typical setup procedure now a days requires you to just start using your app after verifying your identity through sms and the app will automatically search the people from your contacts who actually use the same application and as a result they all are automatically listed in the contacts section of the app and you can start chatting right away rather than sending the PIN first, then wait for the person's approval.

In today's high tech world, smartphones are the new computers.
Although a smart phone can never be able to unleash the power of a PC yet they are the very first devices which are present with the user for all most all time through out the day. Users are now permanently logged into their Facebook, Gtalk applications round the clock via their smartphones to save the headache of entering the passwords again and again and moreover not to miss any message from their loved ones.

The authentication method used by BBM is just so old that you actually feel irritated.Can you believe it still asks me for a secret question in case I forget my password.

I want to ask one question here. How many users of Gmail or Yahoo still remember their secret questions/answers ??...Answers in positive would be very few; and moreover the integration of this absurd and useless feature is not required in a chat app at all. Who would take a headache of remembering some absurd question /password today when we are already flooded with this and that password like banking passwords, credit card passwords, mail passwords etc .

While we can keep name of our wish in every other chat app, BBM still requires a unique user name that is not assigned already to any user as if we are going to sign up for an email application and somebody would hack in to our account to read with whom we are chatting?

Moreover now a days our emails are already flooded with a plenty of spam mails which we all hate for eg:- A mail from a shopping website, a mail from a new start up social website etc.

If I send invite to someone asking him to join BBM and chat with me, his reply would be

" Are you sick??... I am happy with Whatsapp, I have lot of groups there and already enjoying, why the heck would I install BBM and send invites to everybody.Well, I really don't care"

Worst of all there is a long queue, even after you have installed BBM, you can not start using it right away, you have to wait for your turn as if some free candies are being distributed and you have to stand in line to grab them. Foolish??.. Isn't it?

The most likely scenario would be that millions of people will install BBM on their Android and iOS out of curiosity but in a short time , either the app will be un-installed or it will remain unused because one ,everyone today is addicted to whatsapp, viber and we chat etc, everybody is already enjoying in some groups there, secondly it is just so behind its time that it is quite a disaster.

The all new iPAD Mini 2: An epic update to iPAD mini 1-Retina Display, A7 64 bit Chip 1GB RAM and much more

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:29:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentleman,

The iPAD mini 2 is here !!.. Lets welcome the star . Let me tell you, it will take the market by storm as it is an epic update to the first edition of iPAD mini .

Lets talk about its design first !!...

The new iPAD mini 2 is thinner at 7.5 mm and lighter at 331gm and more compact (200*134.7mm) than the previous version. In terms of overall design, iPAD mini 2 stick to its roots and retains the same design as its predecessor.

Lets have a brief of its specs now..!!

Apple has managed time and time again to showcase that even seemingly inferior hardware simply works on their devices. Which is why the dual-core Apple A7 chipset with 1GB RAM on the iPad mini 2 is nothing to laugh at -- this very same chip blazed through benchmarks on the iPhone 5s. This also means that the iPad mini 2 has also inherited the dedicated M7 motion coprocessor.

A new, high-resolution retina display screen has been used in the Apple iPad mini 2. Running at 2048x1536 pixels (326 ppi), the 7.9-inch display on the iPad mini 2 will certainly not lack in detail.

Unfortunately, the rumors that the new iPads will get an upgraded 8-megapixel snapper on their backs with a wide aperture turn out to be untrue, for the 5-megapixel, 5-element, f/2.4 iSight camera is here to stay. Up front, we have what Apple likes to call a FaceTime HD camera, which is simply a 1.2-megapixel snapper.

Giving life to this entire show is a 2380mAh battery, a tiny improvement over the 2340mAh cell on the original iPad mini, though Apple is advertising that it's good for 10 hours of continuous video playback, identical to its predecessor. Though it is yet to be seen whether the minor improvement in the battery is able to resist the high definition retina display.

And last thing to be noted is that, you are not going to get any Touch ID fingerprint sensor with iPAD mini 2 and in my view that is not even needed in tablets.

Price:- 399$ for the base model 64GB

699$ for top end model 128 GB wifi

Availability:- November end in US and around Jan end in INDIA.

Source: Phone Arena

Finally BBM makes its way to Android and iOS powered devices

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 07:03:00 +0000

About a month after the first attempt failed, BlackBerry is planning on trying once again to get BBM for iOS and BBM for Android available for users of those two platforms. On Monday, BlackBerry crowed about the 1.1 million Android users that installed an unreleased version of the app back in September. It was that unofficial version, along with a number of bogus BBM apps put up in the Google Play Store, that made BlackBerry's task too difficult to complete at the time. Meanwhile, more than 1 million Apple iPhone users have side-loaded BBM on their phone.

According to the beleaguered Canadian manufacturer, the best way to download BBM on your iOS or Android phone is to visit BBM.com from your iPhone or Android browser. Install the app, enter your email address and BlackBerry will send you a message when you are at the "front of the line" and can use BBM. You can follow the line at @BBM on Twitter If you already signed up with BBM.com, you can start using BBM immediately.

BlackBerry says its developers have been working around the clock and made some upgrades to BBM during the past month. This is a great idea from BlackBerry because instead of going to your phone's app store and putting up with a number of bogus BBM apps, you are going straight to BlackBerry to install it.

Ok, you've gone ahead and downloaded BBM on your phone. Now what? Thanks to a series of videos released today by BlackBerry, you will see step-by-step instructions on how to set-up and create a group, know when a message you've sent has been read, how to set up a multi-person chat, how to set up a contacts list using PINs and how to share pictures, and more.

Delayed by about a month,BBM for iOS and BBM for Android both have been listed in their respective app stores. BlackBerry also has come up with another way to receive the app which requires you to head over to BBM.com using the browser on your phone, leaving your email address, and "waiting in line" to start using the messaging app. Those who previously registered with BBM.com should be able to use it immediately.

And if you need help running BBM on your iOS or Android phone, you can check out the videos below. One of them just might have the answer that you're looking for.

How to add a contact by PIN
How to share Pictures & more
How to check other's updates
How to do multiperson chats
Know when your messages have been read & delivered
How to create & manage groups

Source: Phone Arena

Sachin Tendulkar: A name so BIG , GOD of cricket retires from Cricket

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 08:49:00 +0000

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar also called as Little master is an abbrevation for perfection and dignity. He is the world's greatest batsman ever in the history of world cricket and there is no body who can surpass his greatness. Who thought that a small boy with below average height would make it so big one day that it would be almost impossible for future generations to even go nearer to the records set by him. Having 100 first class centuries is not a joke.
Having scored more than 60000 runs in all formats of the game is not an easy task.

You are successful only when people around you love you

The question is: What is so distinct in this man which sets him a class apart from all the players in the world till date???

The answer to this question can only be understood by the people who have spent time with the champ. The young players of today's generation treats him as an elder brother in dressing room . In-spite of achieving so much, he does not boast of anything rather lives a simple life and that is whats the secret of his flamboyant personality.
Sachin says "My father has always been a guiding torch for me, He told me that life is temporary, the only thing that matters is the impression you leave on people's mind".
I would like to share some lesser known facts about Sachin with the readers-
-Sachin used to sleep with his cricket gear during his junior days.
-Sachin's first car was Maruti 800
-Sachin was the first batsman in world cricket to be given out by a third empire in 1992.
-Sachin's tendulkar bat is the heaviest bat used by any player weighing 3.2 lbs.
-Sachin is the only cricketer to be awarded Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Padamshree by Indian Govt.
-Sachin is so possessive about his ferrari that even his wife is not allowed to drive it.
-Sachin is the only cricket to have 49 ODI and 51 test cricket centuries which is way way ahead of the runner up Rickey Ponting having 30 ODI and 41 test centuries.
-Sachin is the only cricketer to score 15837 test runs and 18426 ODI runs which is way ahead of the runner up Rickey Ponting having 13378 test runs and 13704 ODI runs.

Lets us throw some light on what other great cricketers have to say about Sachin:-

Sir Don Bradman

"I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play."

Kapil Dev

"The way he has taken on the role of India's greatest sporting ambassador... He has, among other things, inspired a generation and more to play cricket."

Sunil Gavaskar

"I would really like to bend down and touch his feet. If somebody is at that pedestal, I would like to do that."

Sir Viv Richards

"I have never seen Bradman but heard people talk about him. But I tell you what, if Bradman could bat like this man does then he was dynamite. Players like Sachin deserve to be preserved in cotton wool."

Shane Warne

"I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player."

Virat Kohli says--

"I have grown up watching him play and only wanted to bat like him. It will be a very difficult moment for me when he retires. He has been the biggest match winner for India and such a huge inspiration for all of us," said Kohli, who turned a touch emotional on the eve of India's second ODI against Australia here.
"For 24 years, we never thought that there could be an Indian cricket team without Sachin. I don't know how I would react when he would step out one last time and what will be the reaction of the whole team.
"Just like everyone in India, we are also sad that he will not play any longer," he added.

I remember once when a political party in India wanted him to say publicly that He is a citizen of that state first and plays for that state first rather than India first. I feel proud to say in what he said. He announced "I am an Indian first and play for India, every state or my personal benefits come after that". The day he announced his retirement, during an official press conference he said very politely "I dont know what will I do after cricket?.. because Cricket is only what I know . I am borne with cricket and die with cricket, its in my blood and it is very hard to imagine a life without cricket."
Such is the persona of the person that everybody from a youngster to an elder wants to be like him. He is the definition of cricket in INDIA . There was a time when People used to say "If Sachin is out, whole team is out , lets switch off the TV now".
I finish my post here with tears in my eyes and pray to GOD that such a gentle soul continues to be loved by all through out the life and may he continue to inspire thousands of aspiring young players who born with a dream in their eyes that some day they will reach somewhere nearer to Sachin because it is almost impossible for anyone to reach there where he stands now.

Sachin's career stats

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct
Tests	198	327	33	15837	248*	53.86			51	67		69	115
ODIs	463	452	41	18426	200*	44.83	21367	86.23	49	96	2016	195	140
T20Is	1	1	0	10	10	10.00	12	83.33	0	0	2	0	1
First-class	307	486	50	25228	248*	57.86			81	114			186
List A	551	538	55	21999	200*	45.54			60	114			175
Twenty20	96	96	11	2797	100*	32.90	2310	121.08	1	16	359	38	28

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w
Tests	198	142	4198	2461	45	3/10	3/14	54.68	3.51	93.2	0	0
ODIs	463	270	8054	6850	154	5/32	5/32	44.48	5.10	52.2	4	2
T20Is	1	1	15	12	1	1/12	1/12	12.00	4.80	15.0	0	0
First-class	307		7563	4353	70	3/10		62.18	3.45	108.0		0
List A	551		10230	8478	201	5/32	5/32	42.17	4.97	50.8	4	2
Twenty20	96	8	93	123	2	1/12	1/12	61.50	7.93	46.5	0	0

The super-cyclone Phailin and How India succeeded in saving millions of life?

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 06:35:00 +0000

Cyclone Phailin on sunday left a trail of destruction knocking down lacs of homes affecting nearly 90 lakh people and destroying paddy crops worth Rs 2400 cr , but Odisha and Andra Pradesh escaped from wide spread loss of lives.

As the largest evacuation efforts in the country's recent history helped keep casualties to the minimum, reports from the two states tonight said that 23 people died, all but two of them in Odisha. Most of the casualties were caused by wall collapse, uprooted trees and in floods.Communication links were vastly disrupted by the strong winds that went upto a speed of 220 kmph when the "very severe" cyclonic storm crossed the coast near Gopalpur last night and weakened before turning into a depression. Ganjam district in Odisha bore the brunt of the storm.
The cyclone wrecked many coastal homes, uprooted trees and blocked roads in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states. When the cyclone made the landfall, its speed went up to 250 KMPH with waves heighting up to a level of 3.5 metres.

The good point in this disaster is that only a total of 23 people died and that too including both odisha and Andhra Pradesh. All this happened due to the efforts Indian Govt put this time to save human lives. Indian Met Deptt.(IMD) told the state officials 5 days in advance that a super cyclone is coming to both Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on this date.
The respective state Govts. immediately issued red alerts in the areas that were going to be affected by the cyclone. Aound 10 million people were evacuated from their places and shifted to safe places in one of the India's biggest evacuation operations so far.
A total of 1200 in Odisha and 500 in Ahdra Pradesh national disaster response force officials were deployed for the operation. Indian Air force's Super Herculus planes were kept ready for any emergencies. Indian Navy was also put on high alert and navy was monitoring the proceeding very minutely. They were kept ready to ensure that no casuality happens in the sea. Fisherman were instructed no to go in sea for sometime, inspite of that some 18 fisherman went in sea and got stuck there, however , soon the officials saved all of them.
One would no doubt agree that human beings are still puppets in hands of god, and one can not dare to face his fury but what we can do is to keep ourselves prepared enough to reduce the loss of human lives. This time, India showed to whole world, what they are capable of and how they can unite themselves in the hard times. Only 23 causalities in such a big disaster is a matter of pride.(and too due to falling of trees and walls).

Although property and crops has been destroyed on a massive scale amounting up to Rs. 2400 crores in both states but as we all know, property can be re-constructed again , human lives cant. !!.. It is better to let go of property, crops pr anything else rather than sacrificing human lives because they are precious and one can understand the plight of a family who looses a life in a tragedy.
Such a cyclone hit the same state Odisha in 1999 and that time India was not prepared for it resulting in a loss of 10000 lives but soon after that cyclone and also when Tsunami happened, India installed new generation high tech predicting devices in all the vulnerable areas that helps in monitoring all the sea and weather activity very minutely.
Going in to the details of losses
14,514 villages in 12 districts have been affected, hitting a population of 80,53,620.
Over 2.34 lakh houses have been damaged and more than 8.73 lakh people evacuated.

I was reading some newspapers of some countries like USA, UL and Australia , all were praising INDIA for its efforts in saving human lives this time and USA even offered its help if INDIA needed but INDIA was alone able to handle the situation .
Hope God shows less fury in future on his children and we all live in harmony.

Exclusive-Samsung GALAXY ROUND with World's first curved screen gets launched

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 12:17:00 +0000

Tuesday night, Samsung introduced the first smartphone to come with a curved display. The Samsung Galaxy Round isn't traveling too far away as it will make its debut and launch in Korea on Thursday. Priced at 1.09 million won ($1013 USD), the device will originally be offered in Luxury Brown but other colors will be available later. The Samsung Galaxy Round offers what is called the "roll effect" where the phone is tipped downward in the landscape mode and shows the time, missed calls and battery level (see video below).

Other features include something called the Gravity Effect which offers "visual interaction" with the screen. The display is off while the music player is running, so you can press the left side of the screen to play the previous track, and tap the right side of the screen to play the next track. Side Mirror allows you to tilt the phone to the left or right to access certain photos and video in your gallery. Multi Window is included on the handset allowing you to multitask by opening two apps at the same time, both apps claiming part of the screen. This is the world's first curved screen phone. But the question is- Do we really need a curved screen??.. We will get the answer in perhaps coming 5 to 6 months when LG will also unveil some ground breaking stuff with foldable batteries and phones.

The 5.7 inch Super AMOLED screen offers resolution of 1080 x 1920, and is powered by a quad-core 2.3GHz processor with 3GB of RAM on board. A 2800mAh battery powers the unit which has Android 4.3 pre-installed. The handset is equipped with a 13MP rear-facing camera. While the phone has just been introduced, we could soon see major competition. Fellow Korean manufacturer LG said on Monday that its display unit is ready to release a flexible OLED panel.

source- Phone arena , slash gear and All thingsd

Did you know: First Generation iPhone launch could have been a disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 06:19:00 +0000

On this date two years ago, the world lost a true visionary when Steve Jobs died due to pancreatic cancer. In Saturday's New York Times, there are some excerpts from an upcoming book entitled Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution that go inside the first launch of the Apple iPhone. For example, the software in the Wi-Fi radio packed into the unit that Steve Jobs would introduce to the world, was unstable. As a result, wires had to be run off stage and connected to the phone's antennas so that the signal would not have to travel so far.

Even though AT&T had brought in a portable cell tower for the event, Steve Jobs had the iPhone that he would use in the unveiling, programmed to always show 5 bars of signal strength regardless of what the true reading was. Andy Grignon, the senior engineer responsible for the radios in the phone, was so nervous about the event that he packed on 50 pounds in the weeks before the launch. "If the radio crashed and restarted, as we suspected it might, we didn’t want people in the audience to see that, so we just hard-coded it to always show five bars," Grignon recalled.

But the biggest worry was that the demo iPhone would crash while Jobs was multitasking on stage. In case the unit he was working with ran out of memory, Apple's CEO had a few other units with him on stage that he could instantly switch to. The phones had just 128MB of memory and were prone to crashing. It seems hard to believe now, but one of the greatest consumer products ever launched was far from complete on that January day in 2007 when it was unveiled. Not one unit ever came off an assembly line, and the 100 or so units built before the introduction of the device had plenty of faults. The software was buggy and the device couldn't even finish playing one song or video without crashing. Send an email and browse the internet and the phone would work. Reverse the order and it would crash. The challenge for Steve Jobs was to show a smooth running phone at the unveiling, make the public drool now, and hammer out the bugs over the 6 months before the phone was actually launched.

Jobs had to be feeling nervous. If you view a video of his introduction of the Motorola E790 iTunes phone (aka ROKR E1), a glitch during the presentation made Jobs look lost and you could see him getting annoyed on stage. Ironically, Apple almost purchased Motorola in 2003, but at the time it was considered a company too big for Apple to swallow. Even more ironically, Google bought out the handset maker eight years after Apple failed to do so.

Things fell into place as Apple worked on the software that became iOS. Multi touch, which by 2003 could be used on a tablet like prototype, was introduced to the public with the new touchscreen phone. Despite this, the first prototype was similar to an iPod with a click wheel for dialing. Another prototype looked more like the device we know as the first-gen iPhone. But constructed of brushed aluminum, the radio signals could not escape the inside of the phone.

Security was tight. Apple didn't even tell the companies whose parts were driving the phone what it was building. Companies like Marvell, which produced the Wi-Fi chip, thought that its part was going into a new iPod. Phony schematics were drawn up to throw people off the scent. Amid some rumors about an Apple manufactured handset, the Apple iPhone was finally introduced on January 9th, 2007 and the world was changed. Not that the engineers who worked on the project realized what they had unleashed on the world. Fortified from a flask smuggled in during the event, they were all feeling no pain.

Source Phone Arena and nytimes

Are Benchmark scores for mobiles fake?? LG,Samsung , HTC all found to boost scores

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 06:32:00 +0000

Samsung has made the news a couple times because the company has been caught artificially boosting benchmark scores on various devices, most recently with the Galaxy Note 3 which saw 20-50% increases in benchmark scores depending on the tests run. And now, more research from AnandTech is showing that almost no manufacturers are innocent in this practice, which really shouldn't come as a surprise.

AnandTech has been looking through the data since July, and has concluded that benchmark gaming is a pretty common occurrence. In fact, the only devices that were found to not change CPU behavior when a benchmarking app is detected were Nexus devices and newer Motorola devices (most pre-Google Moto devices weren't tested). The testing showed that at least one device from major manufacturers like HTC, LG, and Asus all push higher CPU frequencies in order to score better on benchmark tests.

So far, Samsung seems to be the only manufacturer that has also changed GPU frequencies in order to game benchmark tests, and not all tests are being gamed. AnandTech talks about the need for manufacturers to simply stop the entire practice of altering test results, but that idea seems unlikely to us. Manufacturers all want to gain advantages, even if the number of users who would care about said advantages is relatively small.

In reality, the most likely scenario is that benchmark makers and OEMs will continue to play cat-and-mouse. Benchmark makers will try to stay ahead of the optimizations, and OEMs will keep trying to gain artificial advantages. We can always try to rename every benchmark test, and get around the optimization whitelists. But really, the best option all around is just to stop putting all that much faith in the raw numbers (which were never that useful to begin with), and just look at real world performance.

source: AnandTech

Nokia Lumia 520 is the top selling Windows device in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:15:00 +0000

We've often commented on how Nokia has really been sizzling hot in the lower end of the smartphone market. No surprise then, that the Nokia Lumia 520 is the highest selling Windows device on the planet. That includes other Windows Phone flavored handsets, Windows powered PCs and tablets. Microsoft itself has realized how important the Nokia Lumia 520 has become, not just for Windows Phone, but for the entire universe of Windows products. This is the impression that blogger Paul Therrott took away from the recent Microsoft company meeting.

The popularity of the Nokia Lumia 520, and it's twin T-Mobile branded Nokia Lumia 521, comes as a result of a low off-contract price (the latter recently was available for just $80 with a coupon code, off contract) and the features available on the model. Yes, there are certain things that the device cannot do because of its low-end specs, but that is more than made up by the things the phone can do. For an example of that, we can look at the recent GDR2 update. The Nokia Lumia 520 and Nokia Lumia 521 both offer FM radio reception after the update, but it will not have the new Glance Screen which includes an always on clock and the ability to wake the phone with two taps to the screen.

The Nokia Lumia 520 is equipped with a 4 inch screen with resolution of 480 x 800. A dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus is under the hood with 512MB of RAM aboard. The device offers 8GB of native storage and a 64GB capacity microSD slot is available. The 5MP camera on back does not offer flash, and there is no front-facing camera. In other words, the Nokia Lumia 520 is giving you a handset with 2011 specs. But for those who would rather not spend the money on a more expensive model, this device has proven to be a capable handset.

For Nokia and Microsoft, the big question is whether the Nokia Lumia line will continue to struggle with the high-end of the smartphone market where the Nokia Lumia 1020 currently sits. AT&T has already made a permanent $100 price cut to the subsidized price of the camera-centric unit, bringing the cost down to $199.99 with a signed two-year pact. This is the area of the market where Nokia and Microsoft have been concentrating their marketing dollars, but have not been able to get any traction so far. Will the upcomingNokia Lumia 1520 phablet, with improved specs thanks to the GDR3 update, light the spark for Windows Phone in the upper segment of the smartphone world?

A look at the specs of Nokia Lumia 520.

Can Blackberry survive??

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 18:03:00 +0000

In June 2012, when Blackberry delayed the launch of its Blackberry 10 OS, I had a thought in mind that it is too late.
Blackberry has always prided itself as a end to end solution provider, a maker of not only software and hardware products but also device security and management services that have helped enterprises to keep their data secure.
There was a time when Blackberry was class apart. It was always seen as a corporate centered company and it had a large customer base. Its messenger service called BBM was so popular that it was almost impossible to crack down its code for others who dreamt of creating a messenger service like BBM.
But as we all know, everybody has a dream run for a certain period of life, for blackberry its golden days are now over. The company which had once the potential of locking horns with giants like Apple, Samsung and Google is now crying even for its survival.
The company declared in August that it is available for sale.
The company has also planned to cut down 4500 jobs across the globe i.e. 40% of its workforce and has posted nearly 1 billion $ loss in recent quarter.
On september 23, fairfax financial made an offer to purchase blackberry for 4.7 billion $ or 9$ per share in cash. Fairfax already has a 10% stake in the company.
The question is: Can Blackberry survive?..Well, I doubt it.
In today's fast changing world, one has to keep itself updated to stay in competition but blackberry never learnt a lesson. It always advertised itself as a company that is focused on corporate employees. Companies like Samsung and google are the best examples of keeping themselves updated with time. They have brought so much innovation in their products through the years that it has now become impossible for a company like blackberry to even think of surpassing them. Blackberry woke up but it was already late. BB10 OS came at a time when market was already flooded with Android and iOS powered devices and people just cant leave them. So , when BB10 came in market, despite its awesomeness, it did not manage to win hearts.Also, its BBM application is now no longer an alien thing, applications like whatsapp have filled the gap for android iOS users who used to feel jealous of people using BBM. Company is posting more and more loss after every quarter. None of their strategies are working. Recently, they thought of introducing their popular BBM service to iOS and Android but on the day of release, it leaked online creating a fuss and blackberry had to postpone its launch. The question here is: A company which focuses so much on security is now seeing such a low day that its major release gets leaked?? Clearly the passion for work is missing in employees .

It is sometimes the nature of pioneers to think that the advantages that helped them achieve their leading positions will always be there. Companies that build successful business models using one set of assumptions tend to ignore upstarts and trends that run counter those assumptions, and thus wind up writing their own obituaries.

Yet that is the nature of the capitalist world--the "creative destruction" that economist Joseph Schumpeter hailed. It breathes life into new business, new models and new ideas. The downside is that is also destroys old ones, which is what we're seeing with BlackBerry today.

The Lunchbox Review: An exceptional breed

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 06:28:00 +0000

Rating: 4.5/5 stars (Four and half stars)

Star cast: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Denzil Smith, Bharati Achrekar, Nakul Vaid, Lillete Dubey

Director: Ritesh Batra

What’s Good: The film is a cinematic delight filled with the right amounts of love and warmth.

What’s Bad: Nothing

Loo Break: Don’t even think of one.

Watch or Not?: Don't even think of missing this!!

Analysis: THE LUNCHBOX is a story of a beautiful relationship triggered by the wrong delivery of a lunchbox that's delivered daily within the bustling metropolis of Mumbai.

If you think that in the modern age of Email and Whatsapp, old-styled romance will not work, then you are perhaps wrong. It is the precision with which it is portrayed on screen that actually matters. When you see 'The lunchbox' you will fall in love for it. Illa(Nimrat Kaur) is a housewife who has been neglected by her husband and she make his favorite dishes for him so that he can somehow notice her. One fine day the lunchbox reaches to wrong destination i. e to Government officer Saajan Fernandez (Irrfan) and that is how this sweet romance starts.

On the edge of retiring, Saajan has no spice in is life and nothing to look forward to. He is soon to be replaced by a trainee played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

The letters exchanged through lunchbox changes his life and he begins to get drawn to a life filled with colors and liveliness. Director Ritesh batra has shown Mumbai in its true sense, the crowded Mumbai local trains, messy Government offices and always high on spirits Dabawallas who feed thousands of Mumbaikars daily.

Illa bares the marble of her boring marriage and suspects that her husband is having an extra-marital affair. The two actors share their memories with each other through letters and it looks so natural and sweet that you will actually feel happy at heart.

Saajan recounts to her, the memories of his past wife laughing over and over at same jokes of 'Yeh Zo Hai Zindagi' and recording them while he kept looking back at her reflection.

There is a hidden beauty in every shot. Even the supporting actors are at their best.

Nawaz plays Shaikh, the man who is to replace Saajan at work, a young man who chops vegetables on his files and always add weight in his lines by saying some random sayings of his mother. Let me tell you Nawaz is one of the finest actors ever produced on Indian soil. he delivers his performance with so ease that you will feel that he is actually saying the dialogues naturally and not before a camera.

Every time when he says 'Good morning sir, kaise hai ap?' , you will feel something at heart.

The voice of Bharati Achrekar as deshpandey aunty is also a delight although you will not be able to catch even a glimpse of her.

If I talk about performances, Irffan is a delight to watch and he do not want any introduction to prove himself. He slips into a character much older than him with so much ease.

He is terrific and somehow so charming in his role, that even as the retiring old man he will make your heart skip a beat.

Nirmat kaur is natural. She is not an eye-candy actress but she is someone who understands every shade of her character and her performance is top notch.

Nawaz as I have already told essays his role with keenness and brilliant at his work.He will make you fall in love with him by his work.

Direction: Director Ritesh Batra has done something which many film makers will not be able to achieve in years.He has make a simple story so convincing and natural that you will fall in love at first sight at the very first frame of the movie. The way he decided to end his movie at climax could not have been better. He leaves the decision to audiences and surprisingly you will come home with a positive head .

Last word: The lunchbox is a cinematic gem and a rare breed. I have watched the first show, you do not even think of missing it. People were literally clapping when the movie ended, that is the appreciation every director would think of.

A spine chilling and eye-wetting Rape story[MUST READ]

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 08:06:00 +0000

This is the story of Zahira, who was 13 years old when an unfortunate spine chilling rape incident happened to her.

(She was visited by Team Tehelka, a leading news daily in INDIA.)

Wearing a green salwar-kurta, with her hair braided neatly, Zahira comes to meet team tehelka(a leading daily in INDIA) at a busy road in front of Lucknow Assembly. Carrying a bundle of books wrapped in an old plastic bag, she smiles enthusiastically on seeing the team In her smile, there is no hint of the horrific incident which took place one evening eight years ago when four men kidnapped her from an isolated road of a posh colony. Nobody could have imagined that the girl being dragged into the car would later be counted amongst one of the country’s most appalling gangrapes. Zahira was only 13-years-old when she was subjected to burns using cigarettes and wounded badly with the barrel of a gun.

Looking at Zahira now, on the face of it, one sees a strong person who is hoping to get justice. But the country’s legal system is testing her patience.

Zahira’s poor family had migrated from Assam decades ago. Except for Zahira, who speaks in a pure UP dialect, many of her family members cannot even speak Hindi fluently. It takes us 30 minutes to reach Zahira’s house. All this while, she is quiet. Then as if staring into nothingness, she says, “I want to study further and be a judge. Then I’ll pass the judgements quickly in cases of other such girls. I often think that it’s been so many years, why haven’t I received justice yet?” She wipes the tears that silently flow from the corners of her eyes and goes silent.

Unlike other victims, she doesn’t shout and cry narrating her tale. After the gangrape, the subsequent struggles with the police, judiciary and society, in addition to an economic and mental breakdown left the girl numb. But she still stands firm in her struggle for justice against the six politically connected men who barbarically raped her when she was 13.

The team is in the drawing room of her house along with her parents. Three policemen are relaxing in a tent outside the front door. Zahira’s father is a scrap dealer. To help the family out, Zahira also worked as a maid in some houses in Aashiana colony. On 2 May 2005, she was returning home from work in the evening along with her five-year old brother. As they reached the main road of the colony, four men came in a Santro car and dragged her inside.

Zahira recalls, “Before I could make sense of anything, they rolled the windows up and sped off. Initially there were just four men. Then at Nishatganj, two more joined in. The six of them tore my clothes. They were abusing me loudly and laughing. Then they started watching obscene videos on their mobiles. They made me watch it too, hit me and burnt me with cigarettes. They threw me on the floor beneath the back seat. They were all yelling loudly and took turns to scratch and pinch me. The more I begged and cried, the harder they slapped, punched and kicked me. They pulled at my hair and started plucking my nails. Then beating me, they raped me. They even had a gun and Gaurav Shukla and his friends hit me with the gun’s barrel. Then they inserted it inside my urinary tract and burned the area with cigarettes. I was bleeding profusely and was almost unconscious. Then I remember the car reached a farm house. They pulled me out and dragged me in that naked state to a room. They threw me on the bed and all of them were on me. They were gnawing and chewing every part of my body; beating, abusing, burning me. Then I heard Gaurav Shukla talk to someone on phone. He was saying, ‘If you’ve brought the girl, then kill her after the work is done.’ I knew they were going to kill me too. But they left me to die on the roadside.”

In the Aashiana gangrape case, six men were arrested, including Gaurav Shukla, Faizan, Asif Siddiqui, Bhartendu Misra, Saurabh Jain and Aman Bakshi. The lower court sentenced Faizan to life imprisonment while Bhartendu Misra and Aman Bakshi were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Since Asif Siddiqui and Saurabh Jain were below 18 years of age, the court declared them as juveniles. But soon after this, both of them died in separate road accidents. Faizan, Bhartendu and Aman are in jail and have appealed against the judgement in the high court. But the main accused in the case, Gaurav Shukla, is free even today. Gaurav is a relative of SP leader Arun Shankar Shukla who is going to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Unnao. A close associate of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arun Shankar has a criminal background.

Madhu Garg, the UP head of Rashtriya Janvadi Mahila Sangathan, has been standing with Zahira and her family in their fight for justice for the past eight years. She says, “It is plainly a poor girl’s struggle against the political mafia of UP. With money and power, they have been dragging the case for the past eight years. Initially, they made every effort to prove the main accused Gaurav to be a juvenile. His school records were changed, a fake certificate of ChayaPublic School was prepared and they even attempted to seize his birth certificate from Lucknow Municipal Corporation. Then his lawyers proved him a juvenile in a forged case, and tried to use the same judgement in this case.”

She continues, “They have been pressurising Zahira’s family for so long; sometimes with money, sometimes with threats. Every time the lower court passes a judgement, they approach the higher courts to challenge it. For the past eight years, the case has become centred on proving Gaurav a juvenile. His lawyer is known to drag cases for decades. He openly asks Zahira’s father in the court, ‘how long will you fight?’ Zahira has been summoned 26 times to face direct interrogation. She has been interrogated only five times. The courage of Zahira and her father must be saluted as they have faced the torment for eight years and are still standing strong. If it is taking us so long to get justice even with all the pressure that media and our civil society has put, one can imagine what the plight of hundreds of other victims must be, who cannot even come out in the open to speak of the violence done to them.”

When asked about the punishment her perpetrators received, Zahira doesn’t respond. In his broken Hindi, her father replies, “You see, a woman has two separate holes for urine and menstruation to pass – the urinary tract and the vagina. When a barrel of a gun is inserted in your 13-year-old daughter in such a way that both the holes become one, and then the wound is burnt with cigarettes, what punishment would you demand for this? If your daughter returns home one night, her body burnt with cigarettes, slashed with blades, her nails plucked, and soaked in blood, what punishment would you ask for? No justice can ever reduce the pain. We die every day while Gaurav Shukla is free and married. No matter what they do, fill my house with treasures or shoot me, I won’t back off. Even if I have to sell everything for it, I’ll do it, but I’ll fight till the end.”

Salute to her!!..and shame that we are living in such a society.

--The story has been shared from Tehelka daily for purpose of awakening the society only, no other purpose has been served. Full credit goes to Team tehelka for visting Zahira and share her pain. Thank you.

Importance of Sex Education in Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 07:00:00 +0000

For a very long time, the issue of sex education for young people, particularly in the Indian region but not exclusively so has remained a taboo. Although sex is a natural developmental process, many parents, cultures and societies frown at discussing sex with their adolescent children because it is perceived as a generational taboo.

With out destroying the fabric of society, it is necessary to teach the teenagers the importance of sex education .Having sex is a primitive, intrinsic natural human tendency that emerges in all of us in different forms and at different times. One thing is certain: if we don’t educate our children on sex and sex-related issues, they would learn from other people or the mass media. Sex education is not only important as a developmental process in the life of a child, it arms the child with the tools to understand him or herself better in relation to the immediate environment and the threats that could emerge from such interaction. Sex education provides young people with the information they need to understand their bodies and gender roles in positive ways. It is about better understanding of humanity, our reproductive rights and developmental changes such as puberty, menopause, aging, that could be experienced in the course of one’s reproductive life.
Humans are curious animals and young people are exploratory as an expression of their intrinsic curiosity. Peer pressure and the media have enormous influence in the lives of the so called generation Y, and if we don’t teach them about sex, somehow they would learn and maybe learn in a way that may have devastating consequences. Some elements of the mass media - television, radio, magazines - are biased, ill informed and may not portray accurate reflection of reality. Sex education will serve as counter-insurgency to the war that has been declared against family values by mass media. Children are more likely to make better and more informed decisions when adequately educated, and parents will feel more confident knowing that their children are aware of the realities around their reproductive lives. Although most parents work hard to prevent their children from premature sexual relationships, the reality is that it still happens and could happen in spite of threats and intimidation. Educating the child on the importance of protection as part of safe sex routine may serve a higher purpose of preventing sexually transmitted infections.
There are a number of reasons why parents are reluctant to teach their children about sex. Prominent amongst the reason for families frowning at sex education include but not limited to the preservation of virginity, prevention of premarital sex, illegitimate pregnancy and abortion, religion and culture, as well as maintenance of family honor and dignity. Contrary to this assumption, a number of surveys have shown that girls who were not educated about sexuality, including changes during puberty are more likely to embark on sexual indiscretion and become pregnant in their teenage years than those who were educated about sex. Knowledge, they say is power, and this power when bestowed on adolescents could be the difference between an irrational decision and a well informed one.
Sex education should ideally start in the home where parents should engage their children as active participants in their development process. This education continues at school in a way that preserves the family values while embracing societal realities. Sex education that begins at school could have an untoward effect of these young children not understanding the position of their parents, leading to sexual licentiousness and catastrophic experimentation. The result is that these individuals may become pregnant or contract infectious diseases, and may never regain the will or opportunity to achieve their greatest potential. The social development of young people is a product of family and society partnership, where these children are active participants in their own lives.

The debate continues in the western nations whether sexual education should at all be taught to young people and who as well as when should this ideally commence.

In India, to be specific, usually we say that teenage is from 13 to 19 years, but in my view it has come down to 9 years. Today's generation has become so fast and tech-savvy that kids have very easy access to porn sites and other filthy material with one click. At this age the curiosity to know more is natural.
Various Bollywood celebrities are coming forward with the help of art to support sex education in schools. One of the hot names now a days in Poonam Pandey. While others are always treating her wrong for unnecessarily raging the issue of sex education, I see it as a positive sign because we Indians on one hand say that sex education should not be taught , on the other hand , we always do that task which is treated wrong generally. Every thing happens every where behind the scenes. Sex is treated as a nightmare and a very big object to understand. Every thing has a positive and negative point of view. Poonam Pandey has come with her new movie 'Nasha' , there are others too like 'Murder', 'Jism' and many more. The positive side of these movies are their educational side.. We need to understand that these kind of movies are made so that people can get more and more about sex education and do not treat it as a nightmare.
There is a staggering statistics that 25% of all girls and 16% of all boys will be victims of some type of sexual abuse or assault by the time they turn 18 years.
Children of the 21st century need more education on their bodies and body imagery, reproductive rights and birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual abuse and high-risk sexual behaviors and other exploitative behaviors.
http://www.debate.org hosted a survey in which it was surveyed whether children should be given sex education in schools or not?..Here are the results.

You can analyse yourself after noticing the survey results. Time has come to wake up from the deep sleep and tell your kids about sex education.Until the society, both in advanced and developing nations make sex education a common public discourse and encourage families to embrace the idea, sexual abuse and exploitation will remain a common threat to our children. There are sexual perpetrators everywhere one turns, from big cities to small country towns. Taking a collective stand and educating our children on sex and related matters will go a long way in preventing some of the tragic exploitative sexual experiences that harm our children and threaten their humanity.

--refrences taken from http://www.tigweb.org. only for educational and informative purposes.

DEC16 Delhi Gang rape case:Rarest of rare. Who needs to change to STOP all this?

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Gupta) — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 10:51:00 +0000

While starting to write this post, I am thinking where to start from??
If you are not an Indian, You must be wondering who these four people are?..Let me refresh your memories, these four men excluding other two are the biggest devils living in INDIA till date and the crime they have committed is the rarest of rare.

It was 16 Dec, 2012 chilling winter night, a 23 year old good looking girl was returning home with her friend after watching a movie. It was around 9 PM. They were not getting any means of transport to reach home. They were waiting patiently when a tourist bus stopped in front of them and offered them a lift. They got in to bus and sit like every other co-passenger. They were even given travel ticket to make them feel that everything is authentic and something is not fishy.
But soon four people sitting in the bus started passing dirty comments on the girl and in a while, they started touching the girl. When the boy opposed all this, he was hit in the head by an iron road, so he fell unconscious.
Meanwhile the other two sitting in the driver's cabin also came and 6 of them committed the rarest possible crime. They first raped the girl brutally and on the top of that, they inserted an iron road in her vagina which ruptured all her private parts and intestines. The girl was shouting for her life, begging to them as she was bleeding profusely but the devils never heard in the darkness of lust.They also inserted a candle in her vagina that went in to her stomach later on. Even this was not enough for those beasts and they threw away both the girl(naked) and boy from the moving bus in chilling winter night near a lonely area.
After 20 minutes ,Policemen came when someone covered her with clothes and informed the police. The girl was soon taken to hospital. She was so brave that she was still fighting like a warrior and her breathe was still ON.
Soon she was taken to Singapore for treatment but she died. She was not in a position to talk or respond to anything in the days she suffered or lived after the crime.

A rage got spread all over the country and people came in thousands to protest against the crime.Candle march were held for many days as such a rape was the very first to be happened in INDIA, this was indeed rarest of the rare crime. All the politicians, Policemen, Common man , every one had only one common opinion: PAINFUL DEATH for all the bastards!!.

Soon all the accused were caught by Police and they were taken in judicial custody. They were given third degree torture by police in jail and a charge-sheet was immediately submitted for their trial in court. Meanwhile one accused committed suicide in jail itself by hanging himself in fear of daily third degree tortures while one other who was a juvenile(not categorized as adult in India as he was below 18 yrs of age at the time of crime)
was given 3 years of rigorous punishment in a reform home cum jail.
The remaining 4 have been given death penalty today ,13 September 2013. They are to be hanged till death by the orders of the honorable court, Government of India.
This day will be marked as justice day in India.

The court, while pronouncing the judgment said that, "It cannot turn a blind eye on the rising cases of sexual assault against women," and that the incident shook the "collective conscience of the society". The court said the case fell under rarest of rare category.
"Need to send a message that it will not be tolerated." -The judge

Today somewhere in heaven, the holy soul(the victim girl) must be smiling by hearing this verdict. According to my opinion even this punishment is very less for these culprits.
They will not feel the pain which the girl felt, they will not feel the torture under which she went through for almost 4 days. Their execution should be held in public where firstly their private parts should be ripped off by a knife and then public should be allowed to throw stones on them. Finally they should be either hanged till death or a shower of bullets should be fired on them all in public. By doing this, they will at-least come to know what she went through that day. The reason I am supporting the public punishment is that everyone can feel the shiver in his body that such a crime will not be tolerated in this country so that any pervert could think thousand times before doing all this.
Meanwhile one of the victim's wife says "This is injustice. Court should have at-least thought what would happen to me and my child". I ask this lady a question "Your husband should have also thought that day what would happen with the girl, her future and her parents??..Did he think about all this??..NO??"..then why mercy? why?

Today my heart is heavy and there are tears in my eyes for the brave girl but at the same time I am relieved that the bastards got the punishment for what they did.

There are illiterate and uncivilized people also who say "'Girls are responsible for rapes because they wear small clothes thus inviting men to rape'".
I want to warn all these stupid people that their mind is uncivilized and they have no right to live among humans, rather they should shift themselves to forests or mountains.
A girl is also a human being and has full liberty to wear or speak like any other citizen of the country. Laws are equal for both men and women in every nation. Indian constitution gives full freedom to every citizen (men/women) to wear what they want, speak what they want to.The dirt is in your eyes if you think so. You need to learn to think and behave like gentlemen. If a girl likes to wear small clothes, it is her choice; you are not her boss to tell what she should wear and what looks sensible.

The need of the hour is to educate our child at small age in a right manner. Sex education should be made compulsory in schools thereby bridging the gaps between adolescence and adulthood. Basic defense training should be given to girls at school level and it should be made a part of curriculum. Parents also need to open up with their children by removing the generation gap factor and talk to their children in a friendly manner. They should behave like friends with them not like their bosses. The need is to educate the people in right direction and giving more powers to woman.

Remember men are existing in this world due to women. If there is no women, there is no men. Woman is to be respected, not raped.Finally I say Change your mentality, educate your children and give powers to your women and there will be no rape.

--RIP DAMINI/NIRBHAYA

-The country is with you. I am with you.