Review of "MYTH=MITHYA" by DR. DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!

There's definately a DEARTH of good narratives and good writers on the subject of Indian mythology and specially the lesser known stories and symbols, Dr Patnaik has magically appeared on the Indian Non Fiction Mythology scene as a saviour! Kudos to the writer for creating a crisp and to the point concise writeup(yes!Its that crisp!) about the lesser known nitty gritty's of the Ramayan and the Mahabharata, with some snatches also from the Bhagvad Gita,The Skanda Purana and The Linga Purana.. I totally recommend it to you even if you do not read mythology regularly/don't know much about..Give this a go and you'll be hooked on to it...and hey, a little extra knowledge never hurt anyone ;) It may just give you a little extra brownie points in front of the elders!

Review of "The Aryavarta Chronicles Book 1-Govinda" by Krishna Udayasankar

KRISHNA,GOVINDA,GOPAL...All is You and You are All! Amazing!

GOVINDA,KRISHNA,BALGOPAL,GHANSHYAM,GOPAL,GIRDHARI... One of Hindu mythology's favourite gods is presented here in a very human and relatable form and as the Mastermind warrior of the book, you will never ever be left alone to wander away your mind as you will keep gaping and reacting at how he bears forward on his own shoulders the weight of the Mahabharata for he himself is the supreme,the one,the param atma or attained soul! Definately worth a read!

TWITTER-The gen next social network, a boon or a bane??

Pondering about what to write and how to start, when suddenly I realised that I should write about how I got into social networking, blogging and as a kind of introduction and after being exposed to it so much also the fact whether it is a boon or a bane?

Got hooked on to twitter when I found out that a person whom I very well admire i.e. Shashi Tharoor was one of the first politicosto come onto twitter. To think of those days and now, when he has almost had to quit his job due to many reasons (and also some fiascos on twitter), it makes me wonder that is twitter after all a boon or a bane? Citing the same example of Shashi Tharoor-Lalit Modi and the fiascos that they’ve had which have cost them their jobs, one thinks whether we are enclosing too much? Is there a line to draw? Should we think twice before posting something on twitter because once its out there, even if you delete it afterwards, it will be seen by atleast a few?

TWITTER – A POWERFUL TOOL -THE GOOD & THE BAD

Twitter is a very powerful tool, most of the worlds important people- celebrities,politicians,actors,musicians,bloggers,writers critics and also important news organizations are there and are in direct contact with millions of “followers” being ordinary people.

Good in the sense that all those celebrities etc. are there for YOU to contact directly and be in touch with,this being the only nice thing. This being the only nice thing doesn’t lessen its importance!! It is very nice and humbling to see a mention, DM (direct message) or a RT (Retweet) from your favourite singer/writer or actor!

Now, the bad possibilities – BAD takes a whole new meaning with celebrities and important organisations being in direct contact. Famous people obviously do not have the time to reply individually to each and every one of their followers, which results in hate mail, people using abusive language and in turn celebrities get hyper/irritated (like sonu niigam, one abusive soul on twitter) which end up in people leaving twitter finally!! There is also a possibility of an individual, say a fan of a celebrity not liking the information he’s getting from/about the celebrity from his/her account on twitter. Everyone has personal/individual tastes and may/may not like how the celebrity is in real life. Again citing an example of how some people were taken aback by sonu niigam’s boldness and brash comments about a journalist on twitter.

Mental Firewall

Keeping both of these in mind, the conclusion that I have drawn and even follow myself (being a twitter addict) is that though there is an urge to disclose and discuss everything, there should be a “mental firewall” in one’s mind that allows himself/herself to distinguish good tweets/twitter users from bad and also keep a tab on what personal/private information he/she is posting. Personally speaking, my mental firewall does not allow me to activate location based tweeting which gives out the person’s exact location on twitter, I find it too intrusive!!!

Keep tweeting and be safe :)

BlackBerry OS 6: Vibrant Yet No Nonsense OS

Finally after months of beta testing , Canada based Research In Motion (RIM) released the OS6 version for its BlackBerry smartphones. This was the much awaited updated for the enthusiastic BlackBerryowner like me and finally it got launched! Since the update I have been stuck to my BlackBerry’s screen, playing and testing the updated features, additional functionalities And here’s my short review of OS 6:

BlackBerry OS 6 Personal Review

Added functionalities:

• Complete new fluid UI with transitions,
• Enhanced battery,
• Better multi tasking,
• Social Feeds,
• Universal Search,
• More user friendly menu items,
• Improved browser support with capability of tabs and complete redesign.

The software update size was around 150MB. The update process was SMOOTH. It took me a mere 15 mins, including 100% device backup and restore, to install OS 6 after downloading the update. And when I say backing up and restoring, it includes apps, profiles, user customizations, email accounts (I had 7 configured) and registering the handset with the server again, all of this was done automatically by the software itself! The BlackBerry desktop manager 6 backed up each and everything right from the start and restored it fully after the update (yes Nokia that includes the applications too!!). It was switched on and ready to go (I surprisingly didn’t expect it to be so smooth after such a yuck experience with updating my Nokia E63). Definitely something which Nokia needs to take a cue from.

Reading the above mentioned “New” features you might be thinking that RIM seems to have taken a cue from other OS developers like Android, Apple and your probably right The integrated and less hassled menu options seem to be taken from Android and the glossy UI with its universal search from iOS. I’m not complaining as long as they get inspired from the right things.

To sum up, previously BlackBerry OS was considered extremely utilitarian, non user friendly and non aesthetic. In my view, all these 3 problems have been addressed to a large extent in OS6 and let’s not forget that this is just the beginning of things to come. All in all, the OS6 is a visual treat and a tactile on too on handhelds like the torch as its extremely vibrant yet no nonsense (just the way BlackBerry users like it).

Compatibility with BlackBerry devices:

Currently the OS 6 is officially supported on BlackBerry curve 3G 9300, Bold 3 i.e. 9780, Bold 2 i.e. 9700 and Torch 9800.