Living in the Present: Guru Gyan #2

This story has a nice message in it. Read on.

One day, a Swami was having a conversation with Lord Shiva one day and said. 'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like. Lord Shiva led the Swami to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the Swami looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the Swami's mouth water. The people sitting! around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.
But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The Swami shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.
Lord Shiva said, 'You have seen Hell. They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The Swami said, 'I don't understand.'

'It is simple,' said Lord Shiva.

'It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

I hope you have learnt the simple, yet powerful message the story delivers. So be kind and generous to all to keep away from a fall.

Aditya C.R
The Elite Window

Poll of the Month: Can India host Olympics by 2020?

The results of the previous poll are out and I'm glad to say that I'm happy!

81% [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Fab!

19% [][][][][] Good!

0% Poor!

0% Bland.

I thank everyone who voted profusely for your judgement. Also, I am proud to announce this month's poll - Can India host Olympics by 2020? You can either select online and vote on the right hand side banner or you can also send an SMS to +919962302293 - the Elite Window number with SMS service. Text POTM [space] YES if you agree and POTM [space] NO if you do not agree. Please keep voting and coming back for more exciting stuff on India's (and eventually) the World's best entertainment blog.

Aditya C.R

The Elite Window

Living in the Present: Hues of Homage

Hues of Homage
I think we should all spend a minute on this article as we pay homage to the people who have died in various terrorist attacks around India, Israel, China and Afghanistan. May all of them rest in peace.

C.R. Aditya
The Elite Window

88888 Lights Out!

LIGHTS OUT

Global Warming: is a pretty well spoken about term in every field- economic, environmental and basically Mother Earth's future. This is in response to the sights being telecast callously all over the media- like for the instance when a New York sized Ice sheet melted and broke off from the Arctic Shelf, and how Greenland is truly becoming more greener as the ice receeds. It is forecast that all coastal cities are in great danger around the world as the ice melts, raising sea levels, decreasing salinity (causing species extinction), raising water levels by around 8m which will submerge Mumbai, Chennai and other coastal cities on India's 7000 Km coastline. The main contributers to this progressive doom are GHG's (Green House Gases) like Methane (from cow dung 18%- it has to be tapped properly), Carbon-di-oxide (from vehicular exhaust- use public transport and your own legs as much as you can) and ultimately fossil fuel burning. 60% of India's electricity comess from burning of coal. It is predicted that this will all come true by 2025 so to prevent this you can do so in your own ways. Starting from this month. If we all pledge to switch of the lights and fans and tv's for 8 minutes on 8th August 2008 at 8 pm it will save lots of electricity and we could tide over the power cuts too! This campaign is carried out by Exnora International all over India similar to Earth Hour in Sydney, Light's Out in London and Batti Bandh in Mumbai. So you can do your bit by helping in a small and simple way. Also tell all your freinds and family- its simple and it will do good to the world. Don't forget that we hven't got time left and i'm serious! Do it quick NOW!

Save the world and not only yourself,

Aditya C.R
The Elite Window

Beijing Beckons: Olympics Draws Nearer!

Beijing Beckons

The Olympics are drawing nearer to its grand inaugral opening on 08/08/08, Friday in Beijing's National Stadium (Bird's Nest) amonst pomp and glory. It is said that Beijing spent more than 40 billion dollars on the Olympics (translates into 1680 billion Rupees roughly) which is a pretty tedious amount. Although it is expected that Beijing will recover all that and more with ticket sales and Infrastructural sales (Metro, Airport). Beijing has built the world's largest dragon shaped Terminal 3 (A, B, C) in addition to the first two terminals at Beijing's new Capital International Airport. It is connected to the newly built railway lines which go into the terminal for quick transport to the Olympic venues. The structure is gigantic just like the National Olympic Stadium or the Bird's Nest which is a framework of criss-crossing steel bars which can host around 90000 seating with a floating capacity of around 30000 people. Even the National Aquatics Centre or the Water Cube is quite large, situated next to the National Stadium and can house 3000 people with 6000 floating capacity. Also the CCTV towers, National Theatre (The Egg) have all been built to create a sense of what Beijing really can do to prove its International standards. Around 3.6 billion people will watch it on TV from all over the world and 1.2 billion people will visit Beijing during the Olympics itself. India will bid for the Olympics in 2020 when its capital New Delhi will be a world class city with the other metros Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore following in its wake. With only four days to spare, all eyes will be on Beijing to witness one of the grandest and costliest Olympics of Olympic History.

Aditya C.R

The Elite Window

National Stadium (Bird's Nest)

National Aquatics Centre (Water Cube)

Beijing Capital International Airport

CCTV Towers, Beijing Central

Gadget Gossip: iPhone 3G Exclusive! August Release!

Iphone 3G in India

Date of Release: Apple confirmed that, in its quarterly financial conference, 20 more countries will get iPhone on 22nd August, including India.

Price: Well thats a big question! Expected to be around 16500-20000 Rs (without applying taxes and import duties and without plan charges)

Plan Charges: Expected to be starting from 299 Rs per month for the basic plan and upwards.

Features: Plenty more than iPhone 2G!

1) A-GPS/Maps/cellular tower positioning/Wi-Fi positioning

2) Multi-Touch screen

3) Accelerometer and Proximity cum Light sensors

4) 2 MP camera (a let down as it does not have flash nor autofocus)

5) 3G speeds

6) Mobile Me (Push Mail)

7) Wi-Fi

8) Bluetooth 2.0 Sync

9) Flushback Headphone jack

10) Improved sound quality with Stereo Speakers

11) App Store with more applications to choose from (in Indian Currency)

12) iPod and Safari integrated

13) Cover Flow

14) Intelligent Keyboard

15) Home button

16) Scientific Calculator

17) Youtube App

Carriers: Vodafone and Airtel.

Network: 3G network will come later around mid-2009. As announced by Andimuthu Raja, Telecommunications Minister on 29th July, 3G spectrum will be auctioned for a price of Rs 2020 crore and above for local players and Rs 3705 crore and above for foreign players like AT&T who want to enter into the Indian market with a licence. It will take 2 months fo 3G to be auctioned to Vodafone and Airtel but BSNL and MTNL already have a spectrum reserved in Delhi and Mumbai circles which can have only one more GSM operator while the other areas can have around 10 operators. It is said that BSNL and MTNL have an unfair 3 month advantage over the other bidders.
Website: www.apple.co.in/iphone

Yours techno,

Aditya C.R

The Elite Window

Enchanting Eclipse in Totality

Eclipse Enchants Everyone

It was an awe-inspiring sight for many all across Europe, North America and Asia where one could see the Friday total solar eclipse in all its glory. The event was telecast live on the internet from Novosibirsk, Russia. The path of totality ran through Canada, Greenland, Siberia (West) and finally into China with a 200 Km radius. In india the maximum eclipse at peak was around 54% in New Delhi and around 30% in Chennai. Although, as a member of TANASTRO, I was at the Birla planetarium, rain played spoiltsport till just as the sky cleared at around 17:17 when the eclipse was at its peak 30%. We were a lucky lot (those who came to the planetarium at 17:17 till 18:04 when it finished). Although people got to see a partial eclipse in India and will see a total Lunar Eclipse on August 17th in the wee hours of the morning, on 22nd July 2009, India (and Chennai of course) will get to see a total eclipse. So hurrah about that!! Tune in for more astro news.

Aditya C.R

The Elite Window

Silver Screens: The Dark Knight

"Why so Serious?"'

Release: 18th July 2008
Status: Completed. Post Production.
Studio: Warner Brothers Entertainment Studios
Budget: A whopping 180 million $
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Cristian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhall
Plot: An awe-inspiring twisted plot where in Batman (Bruce Wane/Christian Bale) decides to tie up with Comissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) to wipe out the remaining gangster groups in Gotham City- but something goes wrong when an even more powerful gang with the most notorius villian ever in the Batman series- the mad and hysterical Joker (Heath Ledger) hits the city and wreaks havoc amidst Bruce Wayne- who is at his tenderhooks of choosing between his love Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhall) and the safety of Gotham.
Excerpt: (In the trailer) Joker (to Batman): "Why would I kill you? What would I do without you?" (laughter)
Tagline: "Why so serious?"

Trailer: Rating: U/A (India), Motion Pictures Association of America- PG 13

VERDICT

The Joker has done some immense potrayal of hysterical behaviour and unexpected mad bouts to utmost perfection which ads to the thrill. There has been a lot of stunt scenes for this movie especially the scene where the director has made a huge truck trailer flip over from back to front without any special FX. The scenes were shot mostly in Chicago and the famous Sears towers do feature in the movie (Batman stands on the edge of the rooftop). It is surely a better bargain then its predecessor Batman Begins- thanks to the Joker. We can sure hope to have a wonderful thrill watching this installment of Batman's.

ELITE WINDOW RATING: An expected 10/10

Aditya CR
The Elite Window

Gadget Gossip: The iPhone is here!!

Hi- I know, I know looooong delay but still, (I have college you know),

We will be taking a ride through the iPhone 3G now. First of all the iphone has released all over the world in 22 countries today (July 11th) and the rest of the 48 countries in the waiting list including India will have to wait- not for very long. Apple director, Tim Cook, says that the iPhone will be "there and about"in the rest of the 48 countries as promised by the end of Fall and Winter 2008. When asked about India he said that he was "happy to bring Apple's iPhone to more and more hands around the globe". Apple signed a partnership with world's largest telecom giant Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel, a branch of Singtel (Singapore), earlier this month. Vodafone and Airtel have started pre-registering for the smart phone. One can send an SMS 'IPHONE' to 56789 for Vodafone and 54321 for Airtel. Although both companies are tight-lipped about the event, sources say that Vodafone will go ahead and launch it first by August end. We could expect it anywhere by August 20-25th. If not, latest by September, said the source. Unfortunately, the buzz around the price seems to be going on the down side- iPhone will not be subsidised in India owing to the already low call rates. The 8GB version of the phone should cost around 11000-16000 INR and the 16GB version around 19000-22000 INR. There are a lot of Pro's when compared to Iphone 1.0 like, 3G has A-GPS, App Store, a black metallic finish plastic body with white option, greatly improved stereo sound, common head phone jack, and many more software tweaks although the Cons do hurt the ears- there is no Message Forwarding, Battery Life is max 5 hours and gets juiced out by 7-8 hours at 3G otherwise, 13-15 hours, Bluetooth syncing is not user-friendly, camera has no flash, no auto focus etc. But it still makes it worth the wait for this wonderful beauty- It has got multi-touch, accelerometer, proximity sensors, light sensor, brilliant 3.5" gorgious hi-res display, geo-tagging, and oh! forgot the most important point when 3G networks operate in India it will be 2.5x faster than Edge- 3G will enter India by January 2009- until then use Edge. So, great phone, great looks- go buy it!!!!

The Elite Window rating: 9.8/10

Aditya CR

The Elite Window

P.S. For those who want some other news, look at my blog tomorrow at 3:00 pm IST.

Weekly Western: Last Parsi 'Bawa' retires from railways

Viraf Dalal, the last Parsi motor man

Parsi Bau, Viraf Dalal, the last motor man to run EMU's through the suburbs of Mumbai, retired on June 30th. He said that it was a prestigious job, ignoring the dangers and commitment involved. ''When there is mist or heavy rain, it becomes very hard to spot the signals. You miss any one signal and you are done for'' he said. He has had a clean track record with no accidents in his 34 long years of service. People from the parsi community usually are given the nickname 'driver' (those who work as motor men in the railways). He said that it was sad to see that he was the last parsi driver in the railways, as his great-grandfather, "Driver" Dorabjee also was a motor man. "But in his days, you had to shove in bits of coal to boil the steam- these days it is easier in EMU's - you do not have helpers, just the Dead Man's Handle for company" he said. Dead Man's Handle is a device which automatically switches off the train in the case when the driver faints or during other similar circumstances. The lineage of Parsi motor men have been etched in history. We should take note of their commitment without which a disaster would be eminent in the Mumbra-Kalyan stretch of the Mumbai Metro.

Aditya CR

The Elite Window

Up-to-Date: A month has passed!

Hi! (July in the air??),

Personal Updates ->
1) Got my new Quad core computer I mentioned in Gadget Gossip #2
2) Am in college!! Life rocks!!
3) The End

Updates Updates ->
1) Elite Window has changed- in looks, style, material, feel, etc.
2) Come on guys and gals forward your blog articles!
3) June has been extremely succesful for The Window as 20 articles have been published in 15 days which is very cool! Elite Window will bring in more interesting stuff about movies and music and boredom. Just hang in there and keep visiting every day to see if The Window has something new to show you.

Aditya C.R
The Elite Window