ifordesign

White Ribbon - The silent horrors

2011-08-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

Another Cannes winner. Use of natural light and the pace of the movie makes it true to the lives and times it represent. Of so many World War movies I have seen, this makes it closest to my idea of reality then existed. It is not just photography or color treatment, but body languages of the actors and especially that of the child actors make it flawless.

The bicycle they ride and how they handle things, there so much thought that was put into each character. Story shows a puritan pastor, a doctor and the baron - how it revolves around these three poles in a fictitious protestant village Eichwald - they represent kind of sub surface aggression and nodes of societal tension in the pre-worldwar era in Serbia.

There is a narrative of a school teacher that tells the bizzare incidents taht remains unresolved

There is no closure to many things but that is not the point of this story. How everything changed and became irrelevant with imminent War. This movie depicts what was that everything that existed before war and new value system it brought in. Pastor represents the close walled religious hypocracy, the baron the disregard of the powerful to the reason and fairness towards people he rule, the malicious doctor, the widower with degenerated values.

The white ribbon the pastor asks his son to tie stand as a reminder of the innocence and purity he lost. He makes them feel guilty about natural instincts and inflicts his own values on them.

There are some scenes that transport you to that age - when schoolteacher goes to meet Eva's parents, the conversations between man and his woman - Baron and baroness post dinner, doctor and midwife, schoolteacher with Eva in carriage.

The movie was shot in color and then treated frame by frame to remove traces of modern age. it shows. Haneke is capable of handling big canvas of a village and succeeds in delivering his message. Creates the tension without much of images of violence and horror and shows that terrorism and oppresion in different age can be equally disturbing without of the actors realising that are being subjected to it.

Abbas kiarostami : Certified Copy

2011-05-28T07:52:00.001-07:00

I think highly of cinema that initiates a compelling inner dialog especially when in the end you don't reach any closure. So much about happy endings.

Abbas Kiarostami's 'Certified copy' uses this ambiguity extremely well.

Of many Persian directors that I tend to confuse with each other except Majidi, from now on he is not the only one. Now there are two of them to distinctly remember and 'follow'.

Movie starts with a London writer, Shimell, attending launch event of its translation in Tuscany, the book flaunts the controvercial name - copy. Book as he describes is about art is in its perceptual value and not about its being original or copy. Among the admirer and attendee is Binoche, who runs a antique shop which sells copies of great originals and had views of her own. They end up spending time together later on and exchange views without necessarily sharing it, squabble through.

At a coffee shop he is mistaken for her husband and from the moment as they walks out, their interaction changes to as if they are married for real.

Abbas uses the graphic treatment of frame within frame with the use of mirrors when they argue over the statue and its artistic worth. Now the whole argument of fake-real uses the same recursive mechanism within the medium of movie making which itself is based on suspension of disbelief. He leaves the exact relation between shimmel and binoche ambiguous driving his point home.

He mixes his argument with light hearted almost natural comic vein at multiple instances. When they are approached by newly married couple or when Binoche waves at them from after the wine and outburst episode, or when Julian, her 8 yr old kid, decides to interrogate his mother for good, when she over phone help them find something. Juliette Binchoe is fantastic in her grace and illusive comedic presence.

This cinematic style does reminds of Linklaters. All those conversation heavy scenes - before sunrise. But the kiorastami and his graphic sense take this movie to different level than just an intelligent argument with yourself. Abbas is known for use of Persian poetry and so is Shimell takes refuge of poetics 'Garden of leaflessness' when he tries to convince her.

Go for it for a lingering thoughts of the movie that remains long after it is over.

Skin over skeleton

2011-04-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

Last few days were mentally busy and full of unstructured thoughts. Folks see me walking around with a cup of tea. This is beautiful phase in product design. Made me think...

Design is like Paleontology.

You excavate for bits and pieces, try put together bigger pieces that make sense and stand true within themselves. Then comes the skeleton and you try to imagine it in motion and put skin onto it. You try to figure the ambiance in which this creature must have lived and try to decipher his body in motion and his responses. User experience design in spirit is so much alike.

Paleontologists do the discovery. Fossils are a way to understand what must have existed.

While more like natures way of working, design tries to foresee different trajecotries of evolution that might work. Its fab way of worshiping the god by practicing his art. :)

Not so fluent

2011-04-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Atlantic is big but not enough. American's still have nostalgic feelings about everything British and the dynasty, Royal linen is even more for that matter.

'King’s Speech', after all the hype of last month, comes across way too short of expectations, but individual performances make it up for the lack of depth in movie-making. Or I would say, it is the subject matter that triumphs over the 3d s of story - details, dialogues and drama.

There is hardly any subtext or deeper insights into the characters and it fails to impress. Colin firth is in his usual self except for his temper which gives him this edginess; He carries that throughout the movie while it is nicely contrasted by the revering looks and nodes in the last shot of the movie. Colin is king of his craft and shows subtle changes in expressions and demeanor, steals key moments.
Worth mentioning is the role of your Highness of York, Queen Elizabeth by Helena carter, her eyes do all the talking. She was among my list of probable with Eduardo Saverin, who portrayed Andrew Garfield in social network. Both were unlucky as so were many ace actors in different era when it came to Oscars. She fits the bill for an aristocratic alpha woman and whole aura comes naturally. Churchill gives authenticity to this period movie with his stiff upper lip and hard hitting enunciations. David's character is weakest in the lot and so is Wallis. Even Doctor’ the family man needed little more build up and flesh.

There is no dramatic peak, any muted crescendo of sorts and movie just ends as expected. One of the remarkably crafted scenes is in which his daughters show mix of hesitation, respect and distance to the new Your Majesty, the only place of comfort for the protagonist.

Suzanna... Sultana....Sunaina

2011-03-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

रोज उठते धुवें की कालक से उस तरफ आसमा का एक टुकड़ा सारा दिन सिया रहता हैं

उसके नीचे न कोई सजदा करे. सर झुका के जमी पे रखने से अब खुदा पाँव खीच लेता हैं

'7 Khoon Maaf' owes all its defining punches to Gulzar. So is becoming the case with VB.

May it be Baban's spontaneity in Ishquiya or Wasiullua khan aka Musafir's poetry. In a way, Gulzar and VB are complementary.. or else Chopras and Johars employ it for remoantics and tragedies of rich and sensitives. But somehow Vishal gives a outlet to Gulzar's genious is multitude of situations. No wonder Gulzar calls it the priceless association.

Gulzarsaab may not have the wherewital to make a movie but he is adapting his pennmanship to making some of the urdu words immortal and still relevant. Thanks to VB for making it happen.

I felt story is so representative of story of India. Hangover of Anglo Indian, hippie culture of 70s, then the burning paradise, affair with Russia. And Ruskin bond penned it down from a vantage point of detached outsider, somewhere from his cottage in the hills of kumau. Of Priyanka's, Suzanna ..sultana .. Sunaina, her last affair is very interesting.

What so subtle by rusty is actnetuated in the way VB weaves it. The lyrics and dialogs stand out and you notice how elegantly each scene is made natural and yet anything but pedestrian.

When sultana joins in with her couplet...

Irrfan exclaims, "mukarkar... mukarar..."

when sultana asks "वो कौन हैं?" who is this mukarar?

Hemiles and says, "हाहाहा.... आपके चचा ! " Your uncle.

that was fabulaous...

Vivaan as 'sugar' is okay in the narratior role and got a baritone that will narrate many tales to come. Yah its in genes. We are now getting a great team of like minded supremely talented people coming together... VB, Rekha bhardwaj, Gulzar saab, Naseer, vivaan, konkana.

Annu kapoor's first and second act steals the rare laughs of the movie. Movie is longer than the average pot boiler. Given the age we live with attention span of butterfly, most movies stick to sachet version of stories and game plan is to survive 2 weeks and break-even.

Here VB takes the artisitc freedom and deft editing to portray his gang of well sketched characters. One tend to see the scorsesee-like apetite to take time to carve out the characters, gives them enough flesh and blood, without worrying too much abnout the fearture length...

Good casting is job half done. Like Siddhu says, a good lather is half the shave! The forever nervous Neil Nitin Mukesh looks solid in his shoes for the first time. Irrfaan can now slip into any of VB's stories. Nobody would have recited the poetry and those lines the way Irrfan did. well of course except Gulzar.

कूडे करकट के ढेरियोंमें अभी ठंडी लाशों के सर सुलगते हैं

टांगो बाहों की हड्डियों के लिए लड़ते रहते हैं भूके चोपाय

जिसने भी पहले दात मारे हैं हड्डी बोटी का हक़ उसी का हैं

मजहबो वाले पूछते हैं अब किसने पहले कुदाल मारी थी

कोई कहता हैं एक मस्जिद थी कोई कहता हैं एक मंदर था

सर झुका के जमी पे रखने से अब खुदा पाँव खीच लेता हैं

उसको भी अब यकीन नहीं आता इस जमी पर उसी का एक घर था.

The Fighter: Head body head...

2011-03-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

Oscars like boxing movies - Raging bull, Million dollar baby, Cinderella man. But this time it is slightly different. "The fighter' makes it for different reasons. It is more of family drama, a family sorting out their issues... kind of movies that are coming to fore - "kids are alright" or 'american beauty' for instance. For the love of the boxing, technicality is limited to "head-body-head". That somehow seems enough too.

The surprisingly best performance is by Christian Bale. In the first shot of the movie you see him in a completely differnt look, twiching on his feet all the time, an air of spinless mercurial unpredictability. The whole style of talking and body language of a dude on crack in his 40s but still living in his past moment of glory when he knocked down 'sugar ray'. He showed his metamorphosis in machinist earlier, this is even better. This is definitely a role with more shades and dimensions than his all previous. Scene around the 'oh, they gave you new teeth!' he nails it.

Mark Whalburg has arrived. Gives a solid performance too. But movie is not about him. amy adams and christian bale takes the honors.

Black Swan : Watch it for Natalie

2011-03-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you leave the theatre with not fullest understanding of what the movie was about. Like for Inception. So is for Black Swan. You get enthralled nonetheless. It’s beautifully pictured and ensemble of a sincere cast. Darren Aronofsky was dead-on in executing his vision of this movie. I have seen his pi and requiem of dream before, and was expecting no less.

Black swan is a struggle of saint hearted white swan to get acquainted with but thereby acquiring the traits of black swan, the dark side.

It’s an allegory at some level. But what’s supreme about this movie is Natalie’s performance in different moods and state of minds. So wide is her palette that at times screenplay get vivid because of her rather than too stark or repetitive.

It keeps you guessing and you lose sights of reality at times as it uses impressionistic style of rendering her state of mind her hallucinations. Throughout camera point of view stuck her back and you become one with her. This style of moviemaking makes storytelling so engaging . The background score was actually the soundtrack of “swan lake” ballet so it is hard to distinguish where the theme of play ends or the life striving to achieve that perfection starts.

Natalie Portman had a good run but so far her roles were too restrictive or limited in terms of scope. This one blows your mind by what is capable of doing.

So subtly used were the special effects that they don’t overpower and fills in the imagination and fear just right. The peak of the story or the imagery of thorns and feathers from her skin so precariously overlaps at the moment it like reaching the crescendo.

This is in some way revives the ballet and the art and perfection around it through form of cinema.

A must watch.

✓ ....Just did it !

2011-02-27T19:42:00.001-08:00

Teee gets soaking wet and mind goes blank and serene. Last 4-5 km is completely mind over matter. Timed not that well but could finish nonetheless - 21km in 2 hr 22min. Kudos to Hyd-runners for arranging it so well ! Route was way too good than city scape and it felt good to just be there at that hour of the dawn.

कितने दफे दिल ने कहा दिल की सुनी कितने दफे

2011-02-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

कितने दफे दिल ने कहा दिल की सुनी कितने दफे

वैसे तो तेरी ना भी मैंने ढूँढली अपनी खुशी

तू जो गर हां कहे तो बात होगी और ही

दिल ही रखने को कभी, ऊपर पर से सही

कह देना हां... कह देना ... हां ...यूँ ही

कितने दफे दिल ने कहा दिल की सुनी कितने दफे

कितने दफे हैरान हुआ मैं ये सोच के

उठती हैं इबादत की खुशबुएँ क्यों मेरे इश्क से

जैसे ही मेरे ओठ ये छु लेते हैं तेरे नाम को

लगे के सजदा किया कहे के तुझे शबद के बोल दू

के खुदाई छोड़ के फिर आजा तू जमी पे

और जा ना कही तू साथ रह जा मेरे

कितने दफे दिल ने कहा दिल की सुनी कितने दफे

कितने दफे मुझको लगा तेरे साथ उडते हुए

आसमानी दुकानों से ढूंढ के पिघलादु मैं चाँद ये

तुम्हारे इन कानो में पह्ना भी दू बूंदे बना

फिर ये मैं सोच लू समझेगी तू जो मैं न कह सका

पर डरता हू अभी ना ये तू पूछे कही

क्यों लाये हो ये ..क्यों लाये हो ...ये ...यु ही

Extermely melodious song from "Tanu weds Manu"... Mohit sung his heart out...composed by new talent Krsna and sublime lyrics by Rajshekhar. Could not resist sharing this beautifully writen song.

Talking of android UX

2009-12-04T00:46:00.000-08:00

In Google android,when you pan the desktop, the desktop background image (the seashore view) moves little slower than the icons and widgets thereby giving it a feel of depth. Such a simple but really intuitive thing.
Desirability in UX comes with such small details !!

Poetry Workshop With Gulzar... some very good poetry by humble folks..

2009-11-20T07:23:00.001-08:00

one from this workshop that's a gem..

नयी नज्मे कहा करे कोई, कुछ ना समझे खुदा करे कोई,

तुम भी ग़ालिब से कम नही अल्वी, तुम ना मानो तो क्या करे कोई....

How International Bankers Gained Control of America

2009-10-03T05:34:00.001-07:00

How Wall Street investment bankers controlled the economies and currency values, and more recently led to debacle and global recession was nicely explained in this documentary. Interestingly the anchor/author Bill still made it so simple to understand. He builts his case, starting with the History of money.
We all know how bartering goats and grains gave way to the shiny gold coins for ease of carrying. Later the goldsmith used to keep the gold and give receipts. And use of these receipts actually became safest way of carrying out transactions. No need to carry expensive gold. Slowly goldsmiths realised that not many people come back to claim the gold. And they started giving out more receipts than the gold they possesses. That is the origin of fractional reserve banking where the money changer as they popularly called then started printing more money and lending them than the assets they actually have. Thereby earning interest on them. Today RBI regulation requires every bank to at least have 1/10th of the gold asset of the money they are lending out in form of credit. So 8% interest that bank gives actually earns them 80% returns.
Today Federal Reserve, the central bank of US, those who print dollars, is not government agency (the word federal is quite misleading) but a quasi-public system, made of 12 regional privately owned establishments. Identities of the owners who own the stakes in Fed Reserve were kept away from the public knowledge. Throughout the history of banking, wars were financed, governments were toppled, civil wars, assassinations of the senate members carried out who opposed to the idea of reserves being privately held.
This is an eye opening documentary.

Polyester Prince

2009-10-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

A day journey by train, legs stretched out on side berth, pleasant windy weather cooled by late monsoon showers and a book that grips you from page one. Sometimes things do work out! The book is ‘Polyester prince’ on life and times of Dhirubhai Ambani. Somehow got my hands on this book. It is systematically ‘banned’ in India for reason unknown. Written by an Australian author in dispassionate way, crude at times to an extent that one feels how ‘indian’ness is looked upon by an external eye.
My image, so far, of the protagonist or RIL for that matter is through recent biopic by Maniratnam. When started dealing in stocks in around 05, I have been told by those with established portfolios how good a pick Reliance is. Indeed, Reliance do give a huge gain, ‘on-paper’ as nobody want to offload it but gain nevertheless. In recent times, feud between the brothers and mammoth wealth accumulated through different subscriptions were also fresh in mind.
It might be mistaken to be more of the financial accounting history than a biography. It runs you through a narrative of the events that occurred and the actors of the plot, a plot as dense as it called out to be Textile Mahabharata of that time which influenced the course of politics. So intermingled was the government machinery of licence raj and the industry at large that it looked like one single complex.
Dhirubhai’s financial wizardry was illustrated in many places. How he used different accounting years whenever company hit some trouble or profits were plummeting, How the clause of the non-convertible debentures into equity stunt used to finance the debts of reliance ever expanding ambitions, how he managed to ‘smuggle a whole plant’ in spare parts when aam junta was wary of going through green channel with a watch or an imported sari for wife. How fictitious companies under names ‘Isle of man’ were floated in Tax heavens and loans were taken to finance the buying of the reliance shares, how these funds were used to defend against the bear attack on the reliance shares by cliques of brokers.
The deeds and gimmickry goes to an extent of Ekta Kapoor soap rich with scheming saas-bahus and revenge seeking characters. The rivalry of Dhirubhai with Indian express’s R Goenka and Bombay Dying’s Nusli wadia was told in rich in the details. How Swaminathan Gurumurthy, Goenka’s protégé and journalist with deep understanding of accounting, managed to launch series of attacks on the company in a land mark piece of investigative journalism in the history of India, how CBI harassed him instead for his sources (since RTI rule was not then), How the murder plot of Wadia had involvement of PR manager of Ambani’s and how the whole case was archived out of the public memories, how he used of CBI head Katre as one of the ‘reliance’s people’, How then finance minister Pranab Mukherji at time to time secured the interests of a business house is narrated with finer details or. No wonder it is banned in India! So true, Indians are hypocrites as Amartrya Sen says.
In his account of events in 80s through early nineties, author seems to be honest enough to separate rumours from factual data and nowhere had he tried to sensationalize or malign an image.
It is a must read for those who want to go beyond the surface level understanding of corporate world and its manipulation of stock prices. The tightly interwoven plots and subplots reveal how each actor is out there to seek his own political gain or business gain. It’s like living experiment in game theory. There are some great gossips on Bollywood like Tina and Anil affair and then marriage, or how the defence deal or ‘Matinee idol’ accounts saga of bachchans which VP Singh used to secure his interests in UP politics, how the takeover bids of L&T failed but later Reliance could get his hands on the tech-giant.
Going back in time and empathising with this ambitious Kathiwari entrepreneur who had little background except support of his community, one gets amazed of his zeal and resourcefulness. A truly inspiring story. It’s a journey of a person who made up his mind to reach the top of the textile business and did that in 10 years and beat the established parsi business houses like Birlas, Tatas, Mahindras or Wadias in their own game. At times he went overboard and influenced, manipulated the governments as they came and gone. In US corporate lobbying is part of open politics, but with judiciary and governments still maintains a good set of controls. But India is different story.
After having read this book and history between the line, and when I recall the cinematised portrait of Dhirubhai in ‘Guru’, the image left in my mind is now wrinkled and with dark streaks, like the picture of Dorian Gray.

A beautiful poem from Govind Nihlani's 'Ardh Satya'

2009-08-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

चक्रव्यूह मे घुसने से पहले
कौन था मैं और कैसा था
यह मुझे याद ही ना रहेगा

चक्रव्यूह मे घुसने के बाद
मेरे और चक्रव्यूह के बीच
सिर्फ़ एक जानलेवा निकटता थी
इसका मुझे पता ही न चलेगा

चक्रव्यूह से निकलने के बाद
मैं मुक्त हो जाऊँ भले ही
फ़िर भी चक्रव्यूह की रचना मे
फर्क ही ना पड़ेगा

मरुँ या मारू
मारा जाऊं या जान से मार दूँ
इसका फ़ैसला कभी ना हो पायेगा

सोया हुआ आदमी जब
नींद से उठ कर चलना शुरू करता हैं
तब सपनों का संसार उसे
दुबारा दिख ही नही पायेगा

उस रौशनी में जो निर्णय की रौशनी हैं
सब कुछ समान होगा क्या?

एक पलडे में नपुंसकता
एक पलडे में पौरुष
और ठीक तराजू के कांटे पर
अर्ध सत्य

Cognitive surplus and Roadies...

2009-06-22T03:45:00.001-07:00

Why do people like Mtv roadies this much? Led me to think. These days stories and movies are getting too hard to empathize with. Not every other person is a homicide detective or masked vigilante. So there is this vacuum to be filled in at prime time. Audience at these hours seek to meet their ‘cognitive surplus’.

There is certain idea floated by sociologist and thinker, Clay shirky, called ‘cognitive surplus’…(designers too are fond of this word, if we want to order bheja fry in Irani hotel, we would ask for cognitive tadka!). I see a good deal of substance in this observation. A man would like to spend his faculties in pursuits of different things in a day. What he calls cognitive surplus may sound like a heavy word for ‘free time’. But it is more than that. Of course what we do with our free time is only thing where one exercises choice. The rest of the activities are becoming so basic and commonplace that even expressing affection is also getting packaged in different forms and ready off-the-shelf.

In his book, here comes everybody (have not read it but read about it) he says, in 70’s cognitive surplus was a need which was met with soaps and sitcoms, but now it is an asset at work, as one finds it as a prime driver in collaborative authoring like Wikipedia. A concept also promoted in the book, wisdom of crowd.

Talking of sitcoms and soaps, we have it in our own K series and now let me stretch it to today’s reality shows like Roadies. Every one watch them and like to talk about them and give an opinion and feel included in the ‘game’. We hate them but still we watch it. Its most vicarious pleasure in seeing somebody doing things you would not do yourselves either ‘cause they are taboo or you do not have balls.

These shows result into engaging experience (?!) to many is ‘cause of one fact. What the characters in this show script is just a little bit more than average acceptable behavior.

They want the behavioral envelope to be pushed just a little bit not too much, like in a meeting or coffee conversation I score by saying this, or I could have done that.
Reality shows and the people in them try to recreate the similar situations resulting into consciously scripted situational entertainment around the emotional needs of this audience.

Mtv audience is one of the most brash and exposed lot. To make them stick around this channel, they are always in need for freshness in ideas and thinking. I used to like it for that. But with reality shows and catering to ‘needs’ feels like going out of hand.

I am not a big time Tv fan, but whenever got time in front of it, I surf channels till I drop dead. I get my quota of sitcoms through p2p and watch them in one-go one after the other like stress eating.

The form of entertainment we are subjected these days, there is need for filtering and suggestion mechanism to bring up the good from mediocre. Till the time I am better off with my pc.

Jeux d'enfants - "Love me if you dare" [French 2003]

2009-06-21T05:30:00.001-07:00

Watched the beautiful French comedy ‘Love me if you dare’. Man, French idea of love is so eclectic that it shows in every shot. After watching French movies I wonder how come these people ever compete with brits in colonization, they are just not meant to be doing that dull things with their lives.

After watching Amelie and half a dozen other flicks, now I know what to expect before I click play in my VLC player. You get yourself ready for joyride of visually treated vivid visualisations and transitions of shots and breathe-taking handling of otherwise pedestrian plots.

A lot of times, I realised these movies involve a voice talking in the background and collage of animation, mixing, other media forms intelligently used in support to the narrative. I have seen a bad copy of this style in Hindi film ‘kidnap’ (Yaak!) with no distinct style of sketching but like a one lazy afternoon doodling of some amateur artist.
Although folks like Torintino make most of it…they take such innovative ideas of story-telling to mainstream audience in amazingly well crafted “ ”

Having seen extreme romantics like Korean my sassy girl etc etc where characters and story is nothing but loosely held incidences and moments which takes you in their embrace without you realising.

“love me if you dare” is of the same kind. In fact the story is about a game of ‘I dare’ Sophie and Julian play … and how it becomes a common thread of their lives. With time becomes only stronger. And at some time in their lives, after realising the futility in disillusioned but ‘normal’ life, they both resume the game. A similar theme I see running into movies these days – “Lot like love” . Either we are running out of originality in the name of inspirations or plagiarism or it is becoming un-denying fact of today’s life that two people go through ‘a lot’ before realising who is ‘the’ person to lead their life with.

One more thing, with ‘reach for certain bit of knowledge’ becoming too easy, only once in a while we see original screenplays. We have to exceedingly rely on handling of movie making or reinterpretation by creative mind when lights go on and you walk out on the velvet floor.

Usage patterns - mobile phones

2009-06-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

When piggy chops say shaking her bootie, "it’s not just phone, it’s who we are", it does make a lot of sense.
On an average, the time we spend on phones is reaching the point where it will match other competing media like cable TV, broadband computer. There lies the big opportunity. This comes as a boon to the so far poor ignored baby of the group will be more than happy if eyeball ear-time seeking corporations pay for their usage at the cost of embedded ads.

If mobile phones are the defining innovations of this era, then missed call is our own Indian low cost contribution. (instead of an Indian phenomenon of our generation) It’s about many things like affordability, power structure - "let him call when he is free - I can wait", who needs the most - "it’s his work, let him call me."

I don’t like model of this missed calls. it has too much redundancy.
It involves disconnecting the call, redialing it back. Why not to get rid of this by allowing to have "collect call" option,
I see my phone ringing and it says "collect call from xyz" and I receive, but it gets charged as if I called him. Simple. saves my navigation time.

India is fast becoming urban and the shock of change is softened by this cell phone bridge. Sam Petroda did it with 1 Rupee coin box and that is nicely augmented by “receive only” cell phones. This is the bridge that connects a displaced laborer to its remote village, and an IT nomad to his near and dear.

if you ask a house maid, a dhoodhwalah, an IT guy, a college goer to draw the navigation as you perceive it will all be so different. each got different level of stickiness with different features.
For doodhwalah or paperwalah, his contact list may be his clientele.
For a illiterate, last three numbers is the identity of the person on the other end. A clear design implication could be numbers shown in the way that uses this fact.

Cell phone is a shadow that follows you, gives a best way to excuse yourself from a group whenever you want, how much long you want it.
its an easiest self analysis tool for aspirants in interviews and leave it on and later on find where you lost the plot.
its a best and easiest spying tool for wives and girl friends. just pick up the phone and see what he or she is up to.

We still lack many things ... we don’t see things or we don’t want to see them as it does not fit in business model... incumbents would never try it and entrant faces uphill task. What one need is a innovation cell within giants that keep eyes are ears open to the usage trends in the emerging markets.

Why don’t we build a multi-user feature... typically for lower middle class where a phone like a PC is shared asset and it is carried by 'who needs it most at this hour" basis. So you get a number and its derivative and with a OS level change, these derivative numbers will kick in as per user selection in the phone.
Like a evolution of computing from personal to cloud, when I see how mobiles are evolving, they are driven by marketing than user needs, they want to mimic handheld PC than inherent mobile ubiquitous needs. whatever can be stuffed in that form factor is finding its place in final stank list. oh I can easily fit in a IR device, ...who uses it for crying out loud.

Like Mercedes Benz defines the farthest point in the stylizing for a generation. Rest of the herd try and aim their trajectories to it in surface styling. We need pioneers of that kind who set the bar high enough. iPhone did that with touch factor to some extent.

I strongly feel, Need to hold something to ear is one big No No for me.
this is first to get rid off when you want to put that farthest point.
I have seen a projector based keyboard sometime back, can we build the same for the phone.

Imagine a face appearing with whom you can talk. projector resides at the inner band of wrist watch and lets you project it on palm of other hand.
For hands free version you just put it down and project it on any surface.

I saw an ad today of multi-touch that lets you play piano on touch-screen of the phone. Imagine with the projector the limitation of 4 inch by 3 inch goes away. You can even play drums on this.

It can easily port the content of web with least changes in the wrapper “container of the content” since now the form factor is “stretchable”. You can browse web like in a dual monitor J

What I am writing must already be invented the way far eastern countries are adopting the mobile tech. But appropriateness for its audience is the key thing in design and one just cannot lift up a design and use it here in Indian market.

Google has a knack of doing the right thing at right time. They are entering the emerging markets when whole world is focusing on deep pockets US/EU markets.

Google started it with a voice enabled service on its no. 80041999999, for India and it give results with a fair amount of accuracy to normal queries like cab service etc. I don’t know what they plan to do next but I see a big eco-system of services evolving around it. It’s a baby with big hopes and big potential. Imagine once you establish a phone number in the heads of one million people, you need ways to “extend the brand”…may be last 3 numbers will change to search specific commodities like hotel, bus, electrician and all you need is register it back to Google’s server that I am an electrician operating in such and such area. It would capture the un-organized sector which is right now “loosely connected” with cell phones.
Do you notice how Volve bus operators optimize using a bunch of jobless people with cell phones and a shrewd orchestrator plus a scheme well understood by all (I know at the cost of frustrated and annoyed customer). In India cell phones made these people “intelligent agents that transmit back information” in an multi-agent system. Google can hold it all together and can orchestrate a productivity revolution in this market. Airtel / Idea etc are not thinking out of box. They are happy with margins and customer base. Some are moving or making a cautious attempts to move to holy grail of convergence when broadband-mobile telephony-entertainment will be through single pipe. Don’t know when will this happen. With recession dawning the bitter truth to these companies, it is now more farther than it was.

Like any other ‘stuff’, cell phone is a status-quo. I am not saying anything new here. Earlier days, having a house used to give that respect and social standing. It’s an extended identity and sense of permanence which so many people of different strata search and find in different things. For the lowest rungs now cell phone is doing it. Having a number is something. It’s getting counted. Its license to be included. I feel we are not doing enough. We are not doing it right.

Euphoria around good cause like literacy projects are just ad gimmicks used by leading cell phones companies. Nobody generates content and such things remain white board ideas or idea whose time has not come because I want some other ‘thought leader’ to come and show me how.

A mature Devnagari text or Indic script messaging is still a distant dream. Far east did not let go their past and heritage in their idea of development and progress. Middle east can afford it so long oil is there. No other BRIC nation is doing it. But we devalue our cultural markers in the name of progress. It’s like once my friend Anchal said, to drive faster and lose weight dumbass driver is shedding carburetor and engine. What will be left and how far will you go.

Oh Bee !!

2009-06-15T01:22:00.000-07:00

I came across a beatuful piece of photo capture by my friend vidyut and thought of this two lines... truly, Web is remixability. Web is about 'my 2 cents'...

"the essence and the essentials, for you its the one
we live through a mistake and end up finding none".

everybody loves zoozoo!!

2009-05-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

Isnt it?.. each sporting event is taxed with drab dull bland ads..while "this year in televisions near you".. we got a beautifully crafted series of ads by Vodafone which I just love.

companion-de-catharsis

2009-05-06T08:03:00.001-07:00

Those who matter just a ring away, away they are…
the ring is tall and ring is strong, ring we got into and spectacle is on

With each applaud, jumping through the hoop
like blind folded trying to complete a loop
The circle of pleasure refuse to get a closure

trails to mirage never leave a trace for other
Each has to walk his own journey be the king or pauper

pushed the envelope too long, now collapse within
Like a star who forgot to shine
or a cursed genius of classic old time

At least a shooting stars fulfils a wish
Here I create and forget a thousand piece
each so complete but sum total a big miss

I pocket my pen, deep in thoughts once again
Have been my companion-de-catharsis,
no new yet no one knew its pain

Remorseful I write, I sing when in delight
In doubt I shut up, And then I bottle up

The lucky ones get happy with the map for the world
Rest cook a private hell and live like no rules hold

Another rip off, now in brand design

2009-04-13T07:18:00.001-07:00

Both got similar tag line, both got yellow, black and white. One a news channel trying to find its place in the crowd (although they got some good chat shows) and other world leader in antivirus.
I dont understand whether it is a chance occurance in the probabilistic world of Brand identity design or Is it another desi rip off. The resemblance is uncanny, isn'te ?

discounted refinement

2009-03-22T23:06:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel you can be either articulate and feel happy or escape to be a poet and seek refuge in the discounted refinement of thought and stay perpetually thirsty. I hate to become nevertheless becoming a clipart junkie who is trying to put together a collage.

hit and duck in the game of blow
be a meek or simple its way to grow
power play is on try and understand
Pawns we are, you sit or you stand

I have been a gifted fool sofar
see dejection in ashoka's eye even before the war
piggy bank the pain know not since when
shatter it into raptures to start the count again

endure we must

2009-03-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

The filth and degenration all around me..
am losing my ability to disgust
what have become of this collective dream
aint a perfect world, its all we got and endure we must

Have you voted today?

2009-03-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

This post is like a ideas put in the bottle and thrown in the sea.
Polls are around the corner. We live in the biggest democracy of the world and to make it work in its true sense we should vote. IDC, my design school, I am proud to say, was instrumental in designing the electronic voting machine.
Today we need a ad-push like Jaago-re or we need people coming down to our doorsteps to create that necessary stir that is a driving force if the things got to change.
Through 'jaago-re', I understand one can register on web, provide ID proof and residence proof and automatically your old voting card gets cancelled and new one gets delivered at the given address. For the mobile population like us, who like to throw empty rhetorics from the AC cabins of IT companies and post blogs filled with angst (like this one), who are 'supposed' to be worried about the running the nation than any other guy on the street, such convenience of 'getting hold' of voting card is not enough. We want more.
Here are some ways to make voting a faster, secure, cheap and all-inclusive.
1. Make voting machines talk to server in real time (if it is not already), if tampered with will black list all the entries uploaded.
2. Use ATM machines as a means of voting or online authentication followed by a voting interface. Since postal ballot is allowed for 'army bhaiyon' ko, then we might as well adapt the new ways of picking options. (Can a government body rent out / ask for already existing privately owned infrastructure by raising the issue of national forum and cooperation / participation?)
3. Mobile banks concept is picking up fast to connect the last mile 'the grassroot', so this can act as polling booth in villages as well where ATMs are not there.
4.Telephone based interface for authentication and voting. So one can start with any proof like PAN, DL, Passport, and land into the voting options. This sounds like a best option since today the connectivity is snowballing and Poll can be another prime mover to this 'telephony based economy'
5. The issue of lack of secrecy and possibility of coercion is significant in all the above discussed options, I agree, but some work around can be found and such thing evolve on its own if let develop. Atleast the chances of coercion is far more if the people are made to wait in a que in the scrotching heat where a free distribution of cold-drink can also sway the lesser minds. I am not trying to over-simplify but atleast the next poll should be far different than this one in its intrumentation is what I want.
6. how about social softwares to facilitate the voting or a quick app on facebook/orkut? May be tehre is quick links to party manifesto and 'whats there for me' comes filtered based on your demographics. Assume I login to facebook and decide to vote, it says, this party is offering tax reliefs, while this one is notching up the reform expenditures, etc... and I would be rational enough to vote with a reason than becoming a victim of tailered propaganda.

थोड़ा सा रूमानी हो जाए

2009-03-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

उन दो निगाहों के साए
जब से इस ज़िन्दगी मे आए
सो न पाऊ मैं इस डर से अब कभी
सपना ये टूटे गर आँख लग जाए