Makes Sense

Smart phones have become smarter than people, of late. The dumber people get the smarter the phone needs to be. The SciFi dream cum nightmare of Machines ruling human race is well in sight. If you have doubts ask your smart phone.

Just like a movie hero the iPhone made a dramatic entrance into the Gadgets market. And like in movies many people wanted to kill the hero. And every company sent out what is sweetly named as ?iPhone killer?. And Nokia has sent their own mercenary the Nokia N900.

I recently switched from a first generation iPhone to the N900. It was an easy decision to quit iPhone. But a tough one between N900 and Nexus One or even some other Nokia Sony Ericsson phones.

N900 is positioned as a Tablet PC with a phone. (If not it should be.) Because it is more a Linux running net PC than a phone. It even takes a few clicks to get to the Phone Application. And yes it is one of the Applications run by this cute little instrument.

N900 performs wonderfully. It multi-tasks better than my low end Compaq Laptop. I could have the Internet radio running while I was browsing or playing a game. The VOIP function is extended to chat services like Gtalk. Though the call quality on these were sub par. N900 has a 5MP camera and the photos looked awesome. This was something I was looking for in my new phone.

There are some cute applications available. And I just downloaded Firefox mobile and it looks promising with the usual Add-Ons.

Firmware update is very simple and can be done directly from phone. In fact the PC sync app that Nokia has sucks big time and seems to be incompatible with the N900. It has a file manager that is a very useful and gives you ways of keeping the inbuilt 32GB memory occupied. It even allows you to download stuff from internet on to the internal memory.

N900 is not without its share of downers. The user interface is not as intuitive as iPhone. Apple set very high standards with their super intuitive user interface which included the .com key, next key while filling internet forms (this is available in Firefox mobile), portrait mode applications etc. And the learning curve for an iphone user was much shorter. N900 has very few apps that run on portrait mode.

Getting N900 to work for you fully may require at least basic PC skills. Linux skills would help even better. While the out of the box apps and utilities are simpler to use there are times when you might have to get to the terminal and run some Linux Commands. I will soon be exploring this since N900 does not have Unicode font support but they allow me to install it.

I was disappointed initially when the N900 kept restarting for no reason. A firmware update fixed it.

I love the phone for what it is capable of. It does require some level of Geekiness. All I was looking for a phone that has a tiny little keyboard, a great camera and the ability to get my mails, social networking, and a bit of internet browsing. (Yes. That?s all ). N900 is much more than this. People have installed windows OS on it.

So I have no shame in admitting, like in TV Game show, I am Cyril Alex and I am not smarter than my smartphone.

At surface,
a fish leapt and
found a searing rock.
Another leap, found a
bird’s daunting claws.
One more,
then death.
Swiftly it became bird.

Is it its immaculate state?
Is it being rooted in love’s great plane?
Is it the gleaming brilliance on
donning the sun on its head?
Is it the rich realization that
it has nothing more to possess?
its gracious blissfulness?
Is it the wonder of being a minute speed bump?
The pride of this grass
that has come alive this dawn.

A fresh wind swung by.
The incense sticks and
garlands stunned,
god in the calendar paper
has turned backward,
manifesting his posterior.

Is it wrath?
Self-denial?
Or his latest posture?

A dry, dark and stiff face came in
with four nails
and a hammer.

Even the last sparkle has withered,
Death surrounds me.
With million glistening sparkles
the sky calls to me.

why do we need maps
to see a shining object in the sky?
Yet the sky
is between two grains of sand.

The reason I lit up my lamp
is to see things around me.
Not to show my face to you.

No. For you to see my face too
says the light.

Lonely moon,
it’s beauty is reflected
in everything.

Lonely moon,
admires it’s own beauty
in waters (below).

Lonely moon
in teary eyes,
lonely no more.

Read in tamil here

a favor I received

last evening

is staring at me

with its shiny eyes

this early morning.

Manushya Puthiran

either demand or

a command.

this day’s hunger;

a declaration of

how this day should begin.

need to return that favor

like returning a stolen object

it is not easily settled

with just a thanks

or a smile

like scars, favors are remembered.

by those offered

by those received and

by those who witnessed.

unexpectedly mentioned,

you are being stabbed by knife

under belly

or laid naked on ice

our cultural life has taught us

many provisions

for paying back everything

to the person who

lit up our cigarette

to the one who guided

through a puzzling

route

to the one who shared

with love,

a glass of tea or booze

to the one who gave alms

to the one who kissed the hand that asked for alms

to all, it is good to pay pack somehow.

faith makes us captives;

sense of gratitude, insecure.

betrayal scars us permanently

once

to a person who gave me a bird

I gave back tiger’s nail

one who got a secret map from me

gifted a bloodied sword

with money,

love,

prostitution and

words

a lot of favors are easily returned

those left unsettled

through mutual favors

might be questioned in afterlife

once

by your magnificent love

you redeemed  me from death

in return,

god made me

forget your face

for ever.

To read in Tamil click here

In my associations with
the husbands of my lady friends
chess squares appear all the time

secret shadow of
an ineffaceable pretence

the dangerous dares of
a circus clown

a trap spread over
an absurd space.

in associations with
husbands of my lady friends,
I absolutely avoid making eye contacts
with my lady friends.

I renounce the colors of her dress,
the covert liking for her tea.

I couple a memory of her
to another incident.

like her husband
I trivialize her existence.

to be in associations with
husbands of my lady friends
is by charity.

it is a generosity shown on us,
sometimes on our lady friends.

A cunning game, that tries to make believe
that we are not suspected.

in associations with
husbands of my lady friends,
my lady friend always speaks
a cryptic language of the devils.

tensed and with ease,
she passes the dangerous turns of conversations.

she post scribes a note on her husband
at the end of every discussion

she grows weary after each meeting
and begins thinking
it’s better for only husbands to be friends

in associations with
husbands of my lady friends,
there is no relationship
just a contest without objectives.
violent respect shown to a stranger.

a hooligan’s secret revolt against
the legally related
a fish bone permanently stuck in throat

in my associations with
husbands of my lady friends,
I change my habits,
I make all their concerns mine.

to talk to my lady friend
one little subject was sufficient
to talk to their husbands
I needed a lot of raw materials.

in associations with
husbands of my lady friends,
instead of my friends
I learned to love their children

I learned all manners like
how much to drink,
when to stop a joke,
the distance to set between chairs,
when to get out

I am only confused about
how to call my lady friend without mentioning her name or
just call by names just as names

about how to escape
from the filthy culture
of calling
a lady friend ‘sister’.

 To read in tamil click here