The Sword

O Tiger, Where Art Thou?

2010-02-20T04:46:00.004+05:30

"Just 1411 Tigers left in India"

India has the world's largest number of tigers in wild. Poaching (Hunting of Wild-Animals) is a very serious offence, but still it continues to be the case here in India. Our neighbor China is the largest illegal consumer of 'tiger-products' for medicinal purposes. Now you are smart enough to make a connection between poaching and illegal use.

Almost four-decades ago in 1973, a wildlife conservation movement was initiated know as "Project Tiger" (http://projecttiger.nic.in/index.asp) which aimed at tiger conservation in specially constituted tiger reserves throughout India. The sole responsibility of "Project Tiger" was to increase the number of tigers by building reserves around their natural habitat and thus providing them safety from concrete-madness. Now the big-question is 'did it work?'
The answer is Yes and No.
No, because there were reports that these reserve officials themselves got involved in some poaching cases. Yes, because, if not for these reserves we would have been looking at a figure of some hundreds left today. So 'in the bigger picture' Project Tiger is a success. But as usual our government failed to capitalize at the right moment, by not building attractive reserves which will attract tourists and some funds for wildlife conservation, making stringent laws for poaching any wildlife and so on...
The result is we are severely lacking good tiger reserves and infrastructure (ill-maintained park vehicles, irresponsible drivers and guides etc.). I have had a first hand experience of this on my last visit to "Melghat Tiger Reserve" which is government maintained. The basic rule of a Wild-life Reserve is you never throw rubbish or honk or get out of your vehicle inside the reserve area. This rule was blatantly broken by our driver and guide until he heard a mouthful from us, after which he got back to his senses.

As you all know (thanks to media), our current situation regarding tiger population is critical. How many times since last wildlife census have you heard "Just 1411 Tigers left in India"?, too many times right? and how many of you visited the site or atleast gave it a thought? Few..and yes, just updating your status on Face-Twit-kut-space does not count. Go to http://projecttiger.nic.in/index.asp or http://www.saveourtigers.com and take it from there. I wont suggest visiting the former website, as it seems to have lost its plot with no good tips or navigation. The Aircel initiative website http://www.saveourtigers.com/WhatCanIDoLeadtheChange.php is the answer for anything that you can do to help out the Tiger. I know we hardly have time to manage our personal life and issues, but just a small thing like 'being a responsible tourist the next time you visit a wildlife reserve' can help a long way. If you can, Donate, http://www.wwfindia.org/help/donate/ it does not have to be a big amount. I know we live in a corrupt society, but imagine this 'even if 500 out of 1000 rupees get through to the initiative, its a big thing'.

Act NOW and Who knows the tiger number might triple as we are a populace loving country.
Amen.

Thanks for Reading.

Top 10 '2D-Animated' Movies

2010-02-13T01:09:00.001+05:30

Thanks for all the comments and response on my previous posts; as promised, here's a list of my top 10 2d animated movies, also from now on, i wont write a short synopsis review about each one of them, just simple 'good' and 'bad' like pro's and con's, to be initiated from this post following.

Some of you must be wondering why distinguish animation between 2d and 3d. I feel the need to explain this difference is very important, and in simple words 'watch Avatar in 2D and 3D' and you will be able to distinguish by yourself. If for some reason you "haven't can't won't" watch both the versions, here's an explanation. 2D animation is flat (involves drawing on a flat surface like a sketch and than it is shown in frames i.e. flip-book animation) referred to as 'cartoons' (Simpsons, Tom&Jerry, Aladdin). 3D animation is modelling (constructing in a software) which has no viewing limitations from any angle, you can see all the sides of a cube (in 2d only one face can be seen at a time). The main element of 3D is 'adding depth with whole environment of lights, textures and animation' which makes the image photo-realistic (e.g. Transformers, Incredible Hulk). Enough of the explanation, so lets get on..

10) South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999):

The Good : Song Lyrics, Terrence and Philip, Canada, Dialogues.
The Bad: Too Short.

9) Beauty and the Beast (1991):

The Good: Visuals, Classy Animation.
The Bad: None.

8) Grave of the Fireflies (1988):

The Good: Details, Story, Characters
The Bad: Very Depressing.

7) Princess Mononoke (1997):

The Good : Kill-Bill of 2D, Direction.
The Bad: Addictive to watch.

6) The Little Mermaid (1989):

The Good: Visually Perfect.

The Bad: Tad Boring in some parts.

5) Aladdin (1992):

The Good: Lovable Characters, Repeat Value.
The Bad: Absolutely None.

4) The Princess and the Frog (2009):

The Good: Disney's belief to make a mainstream 2D in 3D CG world, Stunning 2D in a

looooooong time.

The Bad: Predictable, Mediocre Direction.

3) The Lion King (1994):

The Good: Lovely Characters, Excellent Dialogues, Hakuna Matata.

The Bad: No 3D version yet!

2) Spirited Away (2001):

The Good: Adventurous Plot, Perfect Direction, Lively Characters, Beautiful Animation.

The Bad: People who don't like watching Anime (Japanese Animation). It's an Excellent Movie to start with.

1) The Iron Giant (1999):

The Good: Funny, Touching, Delightful, Intelligent, Ages 8 to 80 viewable.

The Bad: Zilch.

Thanks For Reading.

Top 10 '3D-Animated' Movies

2010-01-25T00:21:00.008+05:30

Thanks alot for all your responses and comments on my previous posts, i want to start a 'top-list' series of posts which every blogger is tempted to post! So starting off with something i'm dedicated to....

Top 10 '3D-Animated' Movies

Technicalities: An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of at least 70 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture's running time.

10) Madagascar (2005):

Madagascar is one of the funniest movies ever-made. It has some amazing voice-over artistes which lend it a big-movie feel. Animation is an unconventional mix of 2d and real-life which is visible in both original and sequel. This is one of those popcorn movies, which you are never tired of watching again and again.

9) The Incredibles (2004):

The Incredibles was an excellent parody to superhero movies, but at the same time highlighted the hardships of being one. It was beautifully animated and every character had some kind of impact on the story-line which is a feat less achieved by movies amongst any genre. A great family watch!

8) Up (2009):

If adventure is your thing, you should watch this movie. Very rarely is a movie this adventurous, funny, inspiring and beauuutiful at the same time. Bold use of colors make this movie look like an artist's imagination painted on the screen, which is how an animated movie should be. On second thoughts.. even if adventure isn't your thing you should watch it.

7) WALL·E (2008):

Nobody, until Pixar, thought of making a full length animated feature-film whose lead-characters have no dialogue and are purely characterized based on their emotions. Flawless Animation, Brilliant Visuals and the best example of Pixar's path breaking story-telling!

6) The Polar Express (2004):

'The Polar Express' is one of the most under-rated animated movies according to me. It is a roller-coaster ride which has better animation than very few movies to-date. Zemeckis-Hanks Duo, Excellent dialogues, voice-overs, lighting and a beautiful soundtrack makes this one of the best holiday movie ever!

5) Ratatouille (2007):

Easily one of the best Pixar creations. No surprise, that it should entertain both the young and old as well. Just like all great films, Ratatouille is alive, and full of passion. At it's core are messages about friendship, family, compassion and determination.I loved every minute of this film. The characters were real and endearing. The bad guys had real motivation and also provided a lot of comic relief. The movie was as beautiful as "Nemo" and as heartwarming as "Toy Story".

4) Cars (2006):

One of the things you'll notice first about this movie is there are no humans whatsoever. Pixar does a job so well that you would have hardly noticed this. Everything from a slick gear-shift to a bad-silencer is so well animated that it will appeal to a wide range of audience from petrolheads-to-those who aren't. The main thing i love about this movie is that it goes on with its subtle messages without preaching, and that is an achievement!

3) Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009):

Fantastic, Absolutely Fantastic. There have been many stop-motion movies like Coraline, Mary and Max..but none is as stunning as Fantastic Mr. Fox. I haven't read the book so i wont comment on the screen adaptation, but one thing for sure is that Roald Dahl couldn't have got a better screenplay for his book. George Clooney takes away this masterpiece with his excellent voice and beautifully animated shots sans 3D. Quite the 'Pulp Fiction' of stop-motion animation this one!

2) Finding Nemo (2003):

Finding Nemo is a movie i've seen many many times and it still feels as fresh as ever. It is as beautiful as visual animation can be, can only be compared to Avatar's 'Pandora'. While this film may not be a masterpiece, it's the next best thing to it. That's because the artwork is superb, unparalleled and unmatched. The colors, textures, lights, and shadings are the finest that have ever been done on any animated film ever, before or since...

1) Toy Story (1995):

Pixar's second-ever feature-film and they made a classic which is incomparable since. This movie is one of my inspirations to get into animation as a career, its that good!

Thanks for reading. Next post Top 10 '2D-Animated' Movies..

Pulsar vs Unicorn

2010-01-22T16:02:00.002+05:30

How i chose My Bike between Bajaj Pulsar 200 and Honda Unicorn.

This is my archived post on www.xbhp.com which got deleted in server crash, so am posting it again.
This post is purely based on my experience and observations, so please don't start brand-wars and try to keep it clean .

January 2008: I finally convinced my parents that i can ride a bike safe enough and started a tedious hunt for a good/reliable bike under 75k ( non-flexible ,which nullified heavyweights like ZMA and P220)
I was pretty much head-over-heels on P200 and was in no mood to compromise and go for any other bike, i closely followed P200 thread here on xBhp and was in touch with Sandeep K Ram ("Bike Advice Guru" as i like to call him, most of the seniors here know him very well. He "formerly" owned a P200, Now has a ZMA). After numerous chats with him, i was convinced to give some other bikes a try. I went to various showrooms and short-listed 3 bikes namely RTR 160 Carb, P200 (didn't consider P150/180 since P200 was the best amongst them and well within my budget) and Honda Unicorn.
The show-rooms were kind enough to lemme test-ride the bikes (especially TVS which allowed an extended ride )
Here is my feedback after Test-ride of all the three:

RTR: Revvy engine but at the same time vibrations are too much, was superb to flick around corners, a great track-bike but needed some refinement and above all ride postion was a great dissapointment (am 5'10).

P200: You can just keep looking her all-day and never get tired ( i rode a friends bike few times before), excellent throttle response, sofa-suspension, only drawback was heavy front-end handling (traffic flickability being an issue).

Unicorn: I never saw the newly launched 2G unicorn in flesh (only in mags and web), really caught my eye with tht beautiful monoshock and flow of curves. After riding both RTR and P200 was amazed to ride such an amazing silent/refined mill, was trying hard to find some flaws but could not except the "over-chrome" use and erratic Honda service guy as pillion.

Two things were quite clear from the test-rides:
1) Every person who is buying a new bike should compulsarily test-ride before making a decision.

2) RTR was out, and now i was searching for reviews and comparisons of P200 and Unicorn (until i found out that a friend has bought a Unicorn).

I quickly planned a ride to lonavla with both my friends on P200 and Unicorn. I rode both the bikes (P200 all the way till lonavla and Unicorn all the way back). This is what i came to conclude:

P200: Pros: Crowd Puller, Responsive Throttle, Pulsar-Grunt, VFM.
Cons: Vibrations, Not-so-Refined, Front Heavy.

Unicorn: Pros: Monoshock, Economical (though it didn't matter to me), Excellent Cruiser, Refinement, Its a Honda.
Cons: Chrome Patches, Could have done with a 6th Cog.

Notes: Both the bikes were few months old and just had their first services and run-in done. I had severe wrist-ache after riding the P200 and its electricals kept breaking down, also my friend had really bad experience with PBK Svc here in Mumbai. Brakes on Unicorn are Progressive and not spot-on as with P200 and took some time getting used to.

So finally i made a decision and bought a Red Honda Unicorn (Mar-08) and i dont regret it.

To sum-it-up: Pulsar is a Wild Stallion whereas Unicorn is a Race-Horse, and i'd prefer latter..everytime!

PMP vs Multimedia Phone!

2010-01-20T17:34:00.000+05:30

Have you noticed how many "Ipod vs Cowon" or "Ipod Touch vs Cowon S9" or 'to be more geeky' "Ipod Touch 3G 16GB vs Cowon S9 16GB" videos have surfaced on video sites like youtube, googlevideos; to name a few. As am sure, most of you "Gadget freaks" like me, love watching these "comparison" videos. We always prepare ourselves, by comparing such products, in advance, so that when time comes we make a right decision and buy the "winner".

But is it so? Are these reviews, previews and comparisons enough to make up our minds about investing a large sum of money into some gadget, that we may not use for more than 2-3 years at maximum (2-3 months being minimum).
For e.g. I am currently stuck in a dilemma on whether to invest in a decent multimedia phone or a pmp (Portable Multimedia Player for the non-geeks). I own a 5 year old albeit very well working Sony Ericsson W900i. Yeah i know some of you thinking that calling myself a Gadget Freak and owning something for more than 2-3 years is quite contradicting, but i'm sure most of us have that special attachment to a certain gadget, specially phones coz it lasted through your thick and thin, so thats that!
Back to reality; I also have a Ipod Nano 1g 2gb which was gifted to me by my brother (GG Gadget Godfather as i like to call him). What i want now is a PMP with a really good (read LED) screen with good battery life so that i can watch movies/videos "on-the-go".
Ipod Touch was certainly in contention with its blistering UI and Touchy touch, but than i came across Cowon S9 and it hands down beats Ipod Touch in terms of screen quality, display resolution and sound. So i should have bought the S9 and saved you the trouble of reading this stupid Blogpost; Right?
Nooo, thats where my Indian-bang-for-buck-mentality comes in and gives me a third alternative which was invincible before. Why not go for a Multimedia Phone? So i start researching and infact come with hell of lot of alternatives. After much permutations and combinations (we invented "0", didn't we), i came to a two-way tie between Cowon S9 and Samsung S8000 Jet phone (koreans are aware of our needs, might be due to our proximity). Now Price-wise both are almost similar, feature-wise Samsung is way ahead (better screen resolution 480x800, 800 Mhz processor, 5mp excellent camera, HD video Recording, FM, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, Micro-SD slot), only cons compared to S9 ( samsung not capacitive touch, sound sligthly better, battery life better). So the Pro's definitely outweigh (infact bury) the Con's!
So here i am, extremely satisfied with my decision to go for Samsung. Gone are the days when Samsung was just regarded as another cheap korean manufacturer (Apple uses Samsung NAND for the iPhone). Some of you might say why i left Nokia 5800 or ZuneHD out. Nokia; because Symbian is the the most buggy software out there since Microsoft Windows ME (Millennium Edition) and ZuneHD (because of their weird ignorance to not sell it outside United States).
Now don't go searching for Samsung Jet vs Cowon S9 videos. Firstly you wont find one, because no one is "stupid" enough to compare a Multimedia Phone with a PMP or no one wants (you) to!!
I'll leave you thinking at that, Thanks for reading.

Avatar 3D

2010-01-19T04:20:00.000+05:30

I've had this account with Blogger for two years now, but i never felt like writing; partly because i was too lazy and partly because i felt it wasn't that important to share.
But today after Watching AVATAR 3D for second time i had to share what i feel and couldn't think of anything better to start with.
Avatar is what you dream. Not a fairy tale, not a comic sci-fi, but a real-life adventure which is etched into your mind. Pandora, which is home to the Na'vi race in the movie, is what we have as visuals in our brain when we think of dreams. I would not delve into story much as most of the human race has watched it already and for those who haven't; please watch it regardless of anything; this is not a movie, this is not something that i like and you may not, this is something which connects the masses, and that is defined as cinematic experience.
Every single thing is rendered with such detail that you want to watch it again and again, to notice that thing you missed last time. I was never a huge fan of James Cameron. I enjoyed his previous block-busters, but thats it, i enjoyed..never felt them. But with Avatar, once you sit and wear those glasses, you are hypnotized into a world of photo-realistic imagery and such fine cinematography, that you only realize you are in theatre once interval lights come on!
It's easy to criticize the cliche'd storyline, but this is the first time in my life that i've read so many reviews by hardcore critics who gave it a 10/10 purely based on the overall experience and rightly so.
I have given this a lot of thought; For me, this is the best movie experience i've ever had till date, bar none, Period.

2008-10-25T05:06:00.000+05:30

To Be Posted Soon.........