Google Nexus 7 Tablet

Just caught my eyes on this new baby that was launched at the Google I/O on June 27th 2012. The Google Nexus 7 Tablet. A poor man's super tablet. It weighs just 34gms much lighter than the iPad or Kindle and way cheaper compared to the iPad at $199 for the 8Gb version. It has a Quadcore processor "meaning everything is faster – pages load quickly, gameplay is smooth and responsive, and running multiple apps is a breeze". It doesn't have all the features what an iPad would have, but it does have all the features that you would require to do all your work. In short, it might feed your need but not your greed. The Nexus 7 is scheduled to launch mid July in the United States. It might take a while before it hits the Indian shores. So keep your fingers crossed and hope for a good review for this piece of amazing gadget.

Here are some quick facts about the product:

Introductory price 

199 USD (8 GB),
249 USD (16 GB)

Operating system    
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Battery Life:     
9 hours of HD video playback
10 hours of web browsing or
10 hours of e-reading and
up to 300 hours of stand-by time

CPU:    
1.3 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 (T30L) quad-core ARM Cortex-A9

Storage capacity:     
8 or 16 GB flash memory

Memory:    
1 GB RAM

Display:    
7 inches (180 mm) IPS LCD, 1280x800 px (216 PPI),

Graphics:     
416 MHz Nvidia GeForce ULP

Sound:    
Speaker, Microphone, 3.5mm stereo jack for headset / headphone / microphone

Input:    
Multi-touch Touch screen, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, GPS

Camera:    
1.2 MP (front-facing)

Connectivity:    
Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), NFC,

Bluetooth:
4.0, microUSB

Weight:    
340 grams (12 ounces)

Is it dove? No its love!!

My friend Amy called me the other day. She is in love like crazy. She is in love with some douche bag but she hates it if I call him by that name. So she was telling me how when she was at work, one of our friends told her how she looks so beautiful now and if she was in love? Amy couldn't control but blush to pink.. hahaha... But then I began to ponder upon that thought. What really happens when you fall in love? Why do we look so much younger, more beautiful, more charming, more presentable? Why does everything around us become so beautiful? What is so magical about love? I would love to hear it from you.. Feel free to comment me with your answer.. Until then stay loved!! :)

A birthday & Two Funerals

Today is my brother Christie's bday. He turned 25 and we had planned quite a lot of things for him. But then we got the news that one of my good friend, Benjie's grandmother passed away. I texted my condolences to Benjie and proceeded with the day when at about 4pm I got another call with a sad demise of one of our church member. Since we are part of the worship team it is mandatory for us to attend every funeral and conduct worship there. It wasn't quite a birthday we were expecting for my brother. But then something happened...

When a friend of mine called to wish him. She asked him so what are your plans for the day? And my brother without thinking answered, "Well I am going to lead worship at a funeral service." Normally I would feel awful to hear that. Well anyone would have. But that day when he said that I didn't feel it awful. I thought it was the awesome thing to do on a birthday. Something nobody would have ever done or perhaps thought of doing. What better way to have your birthday than by leading a funeral into worship. People who have come with a lost hope or none at all. People who are in grief of losing their loved one. I consider its an honor and privilege to lead them to worship and encourage them. To give them a hope in the Lord that not long and they will meet again. I am really glad he chose to lead at the funeral or God would have used somebody else to bless the broken ones. :)

What is life really worth?

Yesterday I got an opportunity to visit SEAL ashram. SEAL is an NGO dedicated to the mission of rescuing destitute and helpless people from the streets and railway stations of Mumbai. As it was Labor Day, some of the youth from our church decided to labor at the ashram and take this opportunity to share our love with the people there. The overall experience was quite overwhelming, heartbreaking, disturbing and liberating at the same time. If anyone of you think your life is worthless and not worth living, I suggest you make a trip to SEAL. You will learn to value your life more than ever.

We left town at about 6am and reached the SEAL ashram, situated in Vangani Village (a little ahead of Panvel) by 8am. We collected about 25 bags of used but clean clothes and toys and 50 Kgs of wheat flour, 30 Kgs of rice, 30 Litres of Oil, 30 Kgs of Onions 30 Kgs of Onions among other necessary items. We started our day by cleaning up the inmate's room and bathing them. It took us about 2 hours to complete the assigned task. we were done by 10am and settled down to have breakfast. After the breakfast we met with the kids. We played a few games with them and watched them entertain us with their dancing. Later we gave them all gifts and presents.. We bought them stuff that they can use when their school reopens. It was nice to see them all smile and happy & excited to get their presents all wrapped up in glittering papers.

Though I had a great time with all the kids, there was this one particular kid I got very attached to. While I was with all the other kids, there was this one kid who silently held onto my hand. He was unusually quiet for most part of the time. But when he got his present, he came to me and asked me what is this? I told him to unwrap the present to see what it is. But he still requested me to open it up for him. I saw how he had one of his eyeballs popping out of the socket. I asked one of the other guys if this guy could see properly. And the boy said, "Uncle usko Dikhta nahi hain, woh sirf mehsus kartha hain" (He can't see things, he can only feel them). So I unwrapped the present for him and my heart sank when he asked me what it was. It was a drawing pad with colorful alphabets on the reverse side of the pad. I didn't have the heart to tell him what it was. But I had to tell him. I told him its a drawing pad. And he could use it draw whatever was in his heart. Whatever he felt, he could give it life on this pad. The boy smiled at me but I knew how he really felt. So I called my brother and asked him if we had a replacement. It was good we had a little pouch, like a compass box. I gave it to him and told him how he could store whatever he wanted in it. He was quite happy and gave a nice genuine smile this time. The kid just continued standing there, holding onto my hand.

At the moment, I began to wonder how awful would it be to be blind, to live a life in total darkness. I tried to shut one of my eyes to see how would the world look to me if I was blind by one eye. It was very awful and discomforting. I don't know how a 10 year old boy could manage it. But it just made me value my life a lot more. Here are some of the pictures from our trip. These are just some of the better pics, didn't want to put the disturbing ones.

Mumbai - A City of dreams...

Everybody knows how I am crazy about Ireland. But no matter how crazy I am about her, I have realized I can't deny the fact but agree that there is no other city like Mumbai. Why do I feel so?? And how can I be certain?? Well here are some of the reasons why I feel Mumbai is one of the best cities.. and why am I so proud to be a Mumbaikar...

1. Its a city that never sleeps - quite literally. You can take a stroll on the streets of Mumbai at 2am and you won't be alone there will always be a flock of people always.
2. You have shops/restaurants  in Mumbai that are open 24x7
3. You have the first local train at 4am and the last one at 1.30am
4. You have a train service every 2 mins & it carry a total of 2.2 billion passengers every year. Incidentally, the world's population is 6 billion.
5. You have a bus service every 5 mins
6. A city well connected with roads/rails
7. We have the Worli Sea Link
8. One of the safest place for women
9. The Most culturally diverse city - you will find people from every culture, race, ethnic, lifestyle here.
10. You can make it big doing anything here, whether it be window cleaning, shoe polishing, or even just by playing a god man.
11. The city where you have the most richest man living just feet away from the most poorest one.
12.We have the Queen's Necklace (Marine Drive)
13. The City with a 'Never Die' Spirit. We’ve survived repeated terrorist attacks, only to go back to work the very next day
14. Lamington Road - The street where you will find all the hardware & software's ever produced whether released or unreleased.http://s3.hubimg.com/u/5147134_f520.jpg
15. One of the most complex rail and road signalling system.
16. We have a national park right in the middle of the city
17.  It's a city where everything is possible.. especially the impossible.
18. Mumbai is the richest city in India and is the country’s commercial and entertainment capital. It has the highest GDP among any city in South, West or Central Asia and is one of the top ten financial centers in the world.
19. The famed dabbawallas of Mumbai are famous worldwide because of their efficiency, with Forbes giving them the `six-sigma rating, which means that they make about one error in six million transactions.
20. Spread over 535 acres, Dharavi is one of the largest slums in the world and has a population of approximately 1 million. The slum has around 5000 businesses and 15 thousand single room factories. The goods manufactured here are exported throughout the world.

Break Free 2012

So I got a call a couple of weeks ago. It was Keerthi Sagathia, one of bollywood's leading playback singers. He needed a bassist to play for a gig in Udaipur. Now really.. who wouldn't want to perform with Keerthi, not to mention when its an all expense paid trip to Udaipur and back. So I agreed to it.

The journey was quite cool, as we had a flight at 5.30am in the morning, which made us all stay up the previous night so that we can get to the airport at 4am. So we got to Ahmadabad by 6.30am and had us picked up from the airport to take us to Udaipur. We reached our Hotel - Hotel Mansi Palace by about 1.00pm. We had our lunch and headed off to the venue for the sound check. It was quite a good setup that was provided. I was contend with my Hartke 350 but the cabinet was little squeaky. It didn't bother me much. We had a good one hour dedicated for our sound check. Soon we got back to our hotel room, got freshen up and left for the gig.

We opened with Keerthi's new song from an Aamir Khan production "Satyamev Jayate". The crowd went berserk as we started the song. We continued with other tracks for an hour and half. We were quite excited but also really exhausted after staying up for nearly 45 hours on a stretch. The next day we had some other interesting people joining us. We had Naveen Kumar, DJ Lloyd, Mehul Gadani who shared the stage with us. It was really fun jamming with DJ Lloyd. Never thought would get a chance to play with him. He totally rocked the stage.

We were to leave the venue at 10.30pm as we had a flight at 5.30am in the morning. But we ended up performing until 11pm. We finished our dinner and left the hotel by about 12.30am. We are thankful to our driver who zoomed in past the other vehicles and got us to the airport by 4.30am. The best part about any gig is the time you spend with the band traveling, chilling out, rehearsing, sound checking, eating.. its that time of bonding that you always cherish from these memories. Here are some of the pics from the gig.. hope you like them.

Back from the grave..

Pic Courtesy: mademoisellefluo

That's pretty much how I look now, except for the long locks.. haha.. It's been so long since I last posted something.. To be more precise, the last post was on Aug 30th 2011 (you do not have to look for the post, its the one below lol). That's like over 7 months.. Man.. that sure feels so long. So what have I been doing all this time?? Why wasn't I blogging for so long?? well the simple answer is I was plain bored.. haha.. There has been a lot going in my life.. a lot of transitions.. I quit my band, i started a new web design company, I liked a few people, lost a few people, made some new friends, drove some of them nuts.. parents chasing after to get me married.. haha.. yeah lot of things happening..

I was just going through my blog yesterday and realized so much fun it was to write a post and then what happened.. how did i become so boring :P. So i have decided not to stay this way.. and start writing some fun stuff that's happening in my life again. So hello everyone.. Jesse Gigman Alex is back!!