tech talk tick tock

Technology – I have got so many technology innovations wrong that I almost believe that I have no sense of what the future holds. But funnily I am in a job that requires me to forecast and work towards using technology in our daily life. It’s not that the job description says so, but I guess my interests in technology make me feel so, behave so and be so.

But so many times I have seen myself as an older person not really embracing technology as I should be. I remember I got my blackberry well after a lot of the others got it. I saw it as a tool that people used to become wannabe peoples. People with the blackberries were the ‘I am so uptight that I will pull off my BB in a lift and check it rather than do nothing but look at the lift screen and get bored.’ This was especially trues because I worked in an uptight wealth management set up in a building teaming with investment bankers – all seemingly more uptight than the other. Hence – I resisted buying the BB for the longest time. Then once I got it, I used it way past it expiry date. I used it for three years it so till one day, it gave up on me. Then I bought the tough screen interface form Samsung. And I am hooked for ever to it. One thing I get really scared of doing is buying an apple device. With the restrictive iTunes interface, I really can’t get my head to work with it. See I am getting far older than I thought.

Some time back, I bought a shaving brush and a shaving round. I guess in ten years or so if any one were to read this blog they would be pretty confused as to what a shaving round is. Here, this best describes the round.

Basically a soap on which you vigorously rub the brush to get enough lather and then it goes on your beard. It was fun a start. A throw back to the time I first started shaving. My dad had this which I used after the tenth exams to get rid of my moustache. I was sure that the mouchie was a dam uncool thing to have. So I used my dad’s stuff. My dad realized I shaved and then sat me down and gifted me a set. My own shaving brush, I think a shaving cream and a razor with spare supplies. I think that was the ultimate father son cliché moment. The coming of age. I soon graduated to shaving foams. That was thanks to Jasmine and her cousins from US. Jasmine would routinely get me the cans. I kept the cans going for many years till one day I saw the round at the supermarket. It was cool to be retro I thought. And really really cheap. Till I realized a week back that it’s stupid. It takes more space and more time and given that shaving is the most boring thing to do when you are 39 (and amazingly exciting at 15), just take the latest thing and move on. So back to a fast and quick shaving solution. I am now waiting to get through my blades to figure if I would enjoy an electric shaver. The technology on those things seems to have improved drastically since I first used it many years ago.

And cars – there is one place I always wanted all the technology I could afford. I like to think small when it comes to possessions. And I have always had simple (relatively simpler) tastes in car. I don’t really drool over fancy sports cars and see no real use for them. But I wanted some stuff in my car. Always! Lets take a feature check. Tubeless tyres – who wants to change punctures in the middle of the road – I got that from the second car onwards. Alloy wheels – one friend in MBA had a brother who dealt in alloy wheels. He explained how they were lighter and stronger and cool to look at. Then I wanted rear defogger – my second car onwards. Air bags – safety first – third car had it. then you have stuff like keyless entry. Why would you need keys at all. Push start – all my life I wondered why we need a key to start the car. Just press a button. Isn’t that simpler. And the holy grail of them all – automatic. You need an Automatic. I was done changing gears after 20 years of driving. What a freaking pain. So now my new car is the 2014 Honda City. Push button start, automatic, alloy wheels, rear defogger, Rear parking camera integrated into audio system, key less entry – no button to press – just open the door if your key device is on you, a lock that automatically happens at a speed of 20kmph, sun roof (absolutely lovely useless stuff), airbags, ABS EBD and some other really cool stuff that I don’t know about. But it’s cool. and yes yes – Cruise control. How could I forget that. And the simple audio controls on the steering wheel. I am eligible for something much more than a Honda City from the company but I am ok with this. This is good enough for now. My first car was the Indica, we sold that and bought a Honda City, then we bought a second car – the iTen which we just sold to buy this City. So now we have two Citys. But truly for some reason this car is one that I am truly very excited about. I have no clue why I like it so much. The dam waiting period was 8 months, but I felt that it was well worth it. Japanese trouble free engineering with cool gadgets built in. I know it and I hate it, it’s not nice to covet something so much. it’s wrong. It’s just a car. But I like the leather seats and I don’t want to see them spoilt.

One thing I always wanted at the bare minimum was a clean, rattle free, reliable free car. I hate a car which has a rattling part. Or a car that needs to go to the workshop again and again. I love technology in a car. That’s one place it needs to be. And I figure if I spend at least 90 minutes in a car every day, I don’t mind spending a little on this car; which gives me the comfort I want.

There… now let me leave you with a completely irrelevant bonus video… but is it that irrelevant…?

Bakwaas band kar

Yesterday we were watching the movie Citylights. In fact I have been trying to watch it since two days. I hate the stupid movie. It is really that bad. First, it’s depressing. It’s a story of a couple to whom only bad shit happens. At first I was disturbed. I thought it reminds me of my failings or my issues or my troubles and that’s why I hate it. Yesterday while I was watching it I realized that I hate it as it’s a piece of shit. It’s a couple who are so dumb so dumb that everyone wants to take advantage of them. Its full of old clichés in which people – gullible people come from the villages to the mean bad world and will be taken advantage of by the bad guys. It’s a piece of crap. No one is that dumb really! I have been to the villages, yes some are not yet exposed but they really are not that dumb. They are stupid and they fall for some stuff or the other but nowhere near this. The story is also just designed for cry porn. Show anything just in an effort to make you cry and feel bad. You feel nothing for the characters and nothing for their struggles. Just bad bullshit cinema. I think its amongst the worst we have to offer in the name of realistic cinema. Like this movie  - Queen. I hated that movie as well. A chic who is dumped days before her wedding goes to France and discovers her individuality. Puke on that movie. Everyone loved it and thought it was a great movie. I completely hated it and thought it was over the top. Way over the top. BAH!

But the reason Citylights was at home was because Jispa wasn’t at home. Where’s Jispa. Jispa is busy attending a camp at Japaloupe. That’s a place where the main aim of the camp is to ride horses and have fun. Nice camp reason. We don’t know the place too well, but my nephew used to go there and our friend’s kids go there often. Its pretty popular. In fact its so popular, Jispa knows some 12 other kids who have gone for the camp. Now that’s a nice thing. She is 12 years old and that’s her first camp. My first camp was when I was 15 and the first time I was out of home for a trip was when I was around 14. My friend had come to me after the tenth standard vacations and said – hey there is an ad in the Marathi paper on camp in Boisar – a military camp. It was for three weeks. Wow. I always wanted to go for a military camp and in fact I wanted to join the military. Misdirected aggression! So I went for it. Three weeks of camp, staying in tents and doing lots of fun stuff. The best was when I first say the toilet facilities. I think we were around 300 kids or so and the toilets were basically pits dug with a huge plank of wood on top with holes to let the stuff in. yuck. I think on the first day or so people did not aim right and there was shit around the hole and now no one wanted to go there. Luckily this camp was in an open field and all of us simply went into the fields. I first tried not going for a couple of days, then I remember having a little too much buttermilk on one afternoon and I couldn’t hold on much longer. Into the fields and far away so get some secluded undone spot! Hah! That was fun. We would run, do karate training and march past and other stuff. Then I went for three more camps through the NCC which I joined in college. They were much better with accommodation in dorm kind of places. I remember them as fun and I think it’s best if Jispa stars experiencing some of this.

As a dad I hate sending her where there is risk. Horse riding is as risky as it gets. I don’t like sending her, but I guess the maxim ‘protect where you must, permit where you can’ works well. So Jasmine was keen to send her and I didn’t protest. I too have to teach the kid that the world is there to be explored on her own. Uff. I don’t like her unprotected but this is as protected an environment as ever. Let go Jaimit. Let her go.

While she was preparing I told her of a few rules of camping. Some of personal hygiene. As I know how we were as kids. You need to have your bath regularly. Keep you nails and feet clean. To have your food on time and other stuff. None of which I used to follow too much, but its good advice to give Jispa. (Evil snigger). Then she tells mom – dad is making this out as if it’s a life and death situation. Rascal. She is now big enough to figure her dad’s tricks by now. Full Bakwaas it must be for her.

So there she is off and we are here. We are not missing each other… but that is another story…