Twister's Tales

Year in Review: 2011

2012-01-02T02:06:00.001+04:00

And another year draws to a close...

I don't think there is any need to mention that 2011 was a rather eventful year...Japan, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Sudan, USA, UK, the Eurozone, all have seen rather significant years, some politically and almost all economically. But this is not the point I am going to dwell on here...there's plenty of other sources for these details...

From a personal perspective, I feel very happy to have had a good year. 2011 has been a significant year, and a good one at that: I have now finished my undergraduate education.

From an academic perspective, I have managed to cap 5 years at university with a strong performance in the final year, leading to first class honours in engineering and a healthy distinction average in the commerce degree (I have attributed the credits for this here). Looking back, barring 2008, I have had a good run at uni. S1-2008 was a low point, but that's life I suppose...almost everything is prone to ups and downs, and I wasn't immune to taking a hit where my attention faltered slightly...

I would reiterate here, I would not have had this success without the motivation from family, and the assistance of academics, particularly the supervisor of my Final Year Project.

There were other developments in the year as well...I bade farewell to the city of Muscat in February, and in July, in absentia my ties from the city were brought to an end when my parents moved back to my home country permanently. I recapped that experience here. In late November I also bade farewell to Howitt Hall, which had been my place of residence for the straight 5 years that I was at Monash.

I now find myself in a transitional phase in life; I am yet to enter the workforce properly, and in the course of the same, I am awaiting the finalisation of residency status. With the end of a good year in 2011, I do sincerely hope and pray that 2012 carries on in a similar streak.

I got what was then my seventh mobile handset in February, and the eight joined the fray in October. A ninth handset may join the club as well if necessary, as the Blackberry is will be retired soon on expiry of contract.Ofcourse I will not run through the chronological list of these handsets again; the newest addition to the kitty is a Nexus S though.

I had obtained my driving license in late 2010, and this year I took refresher lessons to get myself acquainted with the roads of Melbourne...a vehicle may be on the cards, but that is something I postponed in July, and I dont see any definite time-frame for getting it as yet.

This is the first New Year's Eve that I spent in Melbourne, away from family. It was a different experience altogether for me to spend New Year's Eve in sweltering heat instead of Muscat's mild or Lahore's brutally cold winters.

As usual, the roundup of random stuff from the year:

I havent seen any movies which I liked strongly enough to get a place on the blog.

Coke Studio produced all of 3 good tracks this time. "Ni Oothaan Wale" by Ataullah Khan tops my list, followed by "Panchi" by Jal and "Daanah pa Daanah" by Akhtar Chanal/Komal Rizvi.

The Australian Dollar seems to have developed a floor at the parity level...it has fluctuated between 110.81 and 93 US Cents, but seems to have stabilised at 99-104 cents.

I came close to closing this blog a few times, but decided against it...

And without boring you guys much more, I'll wind up this blog here. For those who had a good year, I wish you an even more prosperous 2012. For those who aren't satisfied with 2011, I wish you a good year up ahead, and hope that 2012 brings to you all that you desired but couldn't get in 2011.

Once again, I wish all readers of my blog a very happy and prosperous new year!

Drawing to a close...

2011-12-16T18:38:00.001+04:00

Last week, my stint as an undergraduate student finally came to an end. It has been a long 5 years, but all's well that ends well. I am beyond happy to meet and exceed expectations of friends and family, and meeting and somewhat outdoing my own expectations as well. I also had the privilege and honour of imparting knowledge to the people in the batches to follow me as a tutor/demonstrator.

It has been a long journey to say the least...five years of happiness, struggle, toil and turmoil, sleepless nights, days spent with exhaustion and red eyes (due to lack of sleep) dragging on the body, dotted with the celebratory moments for accomplishments, and the very invigorating visits to family. These five years have had all sorts of ups and downs...much like a roller-coaster, I've had moments of happiness, disappointment, frustration, relief, anger, loneliness, joyful company, and the list goes on...

I have learned a lot from my experience at university, and I hope to carry it forward as useful learning as I transition from education to the workplace in due course hopefully. It goes without saying, there are a number of people who have shaped and influenced my thoughts over the years, and I cannot miss out on acknowledging their contributions.

It is rather needless to say, but I absolutely could not have accomplished whatever I have done without support, motivation and encouragement from Mom, Dad and my sister. Their encouragement, words of wisdom and doses of motivation at just the right times have always helped me get myself back on track during moments of frustration and disappointment, and sometimes where i would have been inclined to throw my hands up and say "who cares", their support always got me back into thinking "bring it on!". Their happiness when I got to my goals is my motivation as well. I feel proud and privileged to be from this family, and I bow to acknowledge the part they have played in making me what I am. You may be thousands of miles away in person, but in spirit you have always and always been here for me. Your belief in me is what led me to take on a subject area I had no background whatsoever in, and finish it in good form. To Mom, Dad and Sis, I bow down to you, and I hope I will be able to fulfill your expectations in the future as well.

One also learns a lot from teachers, and my teachers all the way from kindergarten to university have had some effect on me. If there's one person I would single out for appreciation, it would be supervisor during the final-year research project. My first encounter with the soft-spoken gentleman with a rather unobtrusive presence was back in second-year. Not only has he been an excellent classroom teacher, but he has played the role of a mentor through and through. From counselling me when I needed, to teaching me skills for real life, and teaching me to look beyond stereotypes and cliches, I owe a lot to him. He has dispensed some bitter medicine to me on more than one occassion, but every single time I got something good out of it. And I cannot help but mention the supervision and guidance during the final year project. Very few supervisors would be able to match his approachability, and I acknowledge that with all sincerity. To you, Sir, I bow in acknowledgement of your contribution in making me what I am. You are a truely a mentor and teacher in truest sense, I hope I get to work with you in the future as well.

I have been fortunate to have supportive friends all the way through school, and university was no exception. I have made a number of friends over the years, and many of them are friends for a long long time to come. I would also acknowledge their support and appreciation through and years, and especially those who have been here with me in absence of family members. They'll know who I'm referring to when they read this. To all of you, I acknowledge your support and presence, and I hope we stay friends for the future as well.

There also some people who are no longer on the same terms with me as they were, but if one of you happens to read this, be aware that I always appreciate good things, and needless to mention, I do acknowledge the time we had as friends, and do wish you all the best for the future as well.

On 12-Feb-2007 I entered the Robert Blackwood Hall for the welcome address to university. and on 13-Dec-2011 I entered the building again for the hand-shake to culminate 5 academic years at university.

Once again, I bow and acknowledge to my family, friends, teachers and all well-wishers.

It may be time to move on...

2011-10-03T22:04:00.000+04:00

This is perhaps not the first time I'm posting this...but the signs seem to get stronger every time it occurs...

I started my blog nearly five years ago...and it has been a companion to me ever since. The blog has allowed me to connect with, interact with and get to know many new people, many of whom I've never met in person yet.

I have used the blog to review, ramble, critique, discuss and even sometimes show off a bit...but as life goes on, everyone comes to a stage in life where the realisation gets overwhelmingly strong. The realisation that it's time to move on...

When I started blogging, the situation for blogging was like that of a vibrant, active playground, and I indeed made many new acquaintances and friends while blogging and interacting with other bloggers. However, with most people whose blogs kept me coming back to this platform moving away from it, and with my own personal and academic commitments beginning to mount, it may soon be time for me to hang up the gloves and move on.

Provided I get enough time on my hands, I will try to write another series of blog entries which will reflect on my journey from the curious, tentative 12-year old to the current day...

It does give an ache to the heart to distance myself from something which has grown with me, there are always points in life where the decision to move on it a natural follow-through of events...

I am entering a phase in life which is very probably going to bring with it a lot of change, and this may well be part of the same...

This is not meant to be a good-bye post though...

Cliches and Conventions

2011-09-15T20:56:00.000+04:00

I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently; it was about potential pathways we intend to take after completion of undergraduate education (which, for both of us, is a matter of weeks). When asked about continuation of studies at a research post-graduate level, my reply and the following conversation with him was quite intriguing. It was a semi-hostile convo almost, but not an argument. That is not the main point here though...

I have always loved to hate cliches and the "book" answers for things. Particularly now, when I believe me and my peers are at an age where we should be making decisions on practicality rather than fulfillment of stereotypes. Let it be very clear though, that I am in no way rebutting my friend's argument or challenging/downplaying his decision for his own career. What I am coming to is the comments I received on my potential career choice methodology.

I'm not sure about the rarity of my type, but I am one of the very few in my direct vicinity who have studied a double tertiary qualification, and my choice of specialisation on both sides makes the two degrees quite separable from each other. So in addition to choosing between going out into the workforce and returning for post-graduate qualifications later and carrying on for post-graduate qualifications right after the end of this course, I also have to make a choice between two distinct career lines. Each has its own set of post-graduate qualifications to suit, but the mechanisms are wildly different (engineering being best served by a masters degree relevant to the area of work, and possibly rounded with an MBA, accounting requiring completion of a CA or CPA followed by an MBA to complete the suite, and these are only one of each side's possible combinations). Ofcourse entry into research or academia would require doctoral qualifications.

I am heavily leaning towards entering the workforce after completion of this course...and the reasons for that are possibly too long (and/or boring) to stick them all up here...but my friends reaction to this was "this means you are interested in money rather than knowledge"...Perhaps sealing his take was the fact that I have implied on more than one occasion that my choice of career structuring would also depend on monetary considerations.

This is not the first time I've had people put the tag on me of prioritising money over "book-value" items like "knowledge", "passion" etc...and to put it honestly, it irks me to no end. Ofcourse my choice of career is influenced by monetary expectations...money is not all there is in the equation, but that certainly says nothing to diminish its importance. My family has invested significant capital into my education, and it is only fair that I expect to recoup some or all of it in due time.

There was a time when I loved to say I'll follow my "passions" and what not. Now I feel I'm repeating stuff from fantasies if I were to say that. Or maybe following my motivation and passion is what I'm doing...just that money and career progression are now part of my motivation factors in choosing a career...

In times when things get rough, "passion" is not going to help if events like the GFC mow down your Super...and neither will love of an occupation come to help...

All that said, I do not advocate everyone to start chasing investment banking as a career...some extent of attachment with where you work is perhaps important. While I don't discount that, how many of you would actually consider replying with "no thanks" when offered a significant monetary incentive to switch career lines?

All said and considered, I stand firm by my thoughts still...I do consider the monetary aspect in making the life-changing decision of career lines in a few weeks or months. Materialistic? Perhaps. But I don't have a habit of lying to myself and taking solace in aligning with cliches and stereotypes verbally, only to contradict myself implicitly. I know how it will pan out later down if I were to make a decision...so why not accept the underlying reality all through and use it here as well?

Music Choices: Coke Studio 2011

2011-07-30T21:28:00.001+04:00

Coke Studio is one TV program I look forward to every year (well, close enough to "looking forward" to it). Some of you may remember though, that I gave the 2010 season a total miss...none of the 2010 performances made it to my Music Choices column, simply because I didn't feel they were good enough. That, ofcourse, is my subjective opinion only.

The 2011 version is a somewhat refreshing change, although the number of genuinely good performances is relatively small. There seems to be a peculiar trend with many performances this year, especially the collaborations, in that they sound more like 2 back-to-back individual performances rather than one cohesive performance. I'll get to specific examples in a moment.

There seems to be a relatively consistent trend of 1 song per episode that stands out, and the rest seem to be gap-fillers of sorts...without further ado, here's my choices from this year...once again, a reminder that the list is not in any order of preference.

Daanah Pa Daanah / Laal Meri Pat (Akhtar Chanal Zahri/Komal Rizvi)

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This is a collaboration between Akhtar Chanal, a Balochi/Brahvi folk singer and Komal Rizvi, a singer with reasonably good voice...

This performance illustrates the disjointed performance syndrome very well...From the start to 3:50, let Akhtar and Komal take you on a vocal journey through the rugged terrain of Balochistan...the lyrics are mostly in Brahvi, but subtitles do the job. From around 4:00 onwards, Komal renders the classic sufi song "Laal Meri Pat"...she doesn't do too bad a job, and Akhtar provides a good backing.

What strikes me is how much flair Komal shows through the performance...perhaps it's her background from TV, but she lends a lot of graceful vanity to the song...

Looking at how much Komal seems to focus on providing some grace and flair for the camera, you almost wait for her to drop a note....she carries it through quite fine except for a few niggles here and there.

Overall, a good performance. However, I don't think it goes very well in a singular video...this could very easily have been two standalone songs on their own.

Ni Oothan Wale (Ataullan Khan Essakhelvi)

This is the absolute best of Coke Studio 2011. In fact, after Javed Bashir's "Aj Latha Naeeo" in 2009, this is the first performance which delivers that level of excellence.

Ataullah is a household name in Pakistan, especially in Punjab...and this performance is very well up to his name and fame. The first minute builds up to it nicely, and from there it's just brilliant.

This song also has subtitles for those who don't understand the lyrics. As a further aid, I'll add some explanation as well.

This song is about the legend of Sassi and Punnun, two lovers from the Balochistan region (Kech to be precise). Punnun was a prince, and once the two lovers united, his brothers were able to drug him, and sneak out with him in the dead of the night. The song is based on poetry by Bari Nizami, which urges Sassi not to fall asleep or her love would be stolen from her. There are some other analogies in it as well, including the legend of Sohni/Mahiwal.

Back to the song, the music and lyrics complement each other very well, and because it is a singular performance, it does not suffer from the disjointed song syndrome. The last minute or so is more of a poetic narrative, but flows smoothly from the faster main song.

Panchi/Tere Ishq Mein (Jal and Quratulain Balouch "QB")

This is a reasonably good performance, but suffers from the disjoint song syndrome very severely. Not only could this have been two songs, it would have worked much better that way.

I've never been a huge fan of Jal except the odd one out good performances they sometimes come up with, but they have managed to salvage a song out quite well...

Previously I've always disliked their song "Panchi" but this one is not bad at all. And from 2:45 onwards is the second performance. It's a cover of the Sindhi/Urdu Song "Huma Huma/Allah Allah kar bhaiya" by Mohammed Ali Shehki and Allan Faqir from 1986.

QB does a good job at the second song, but I feel she was under-utilised. The song "Tere Ishq Mein" could easily have been expanded to a performance in its own right.

Back to why I like this song, for the first time I've seen Gauhar sing properly...and QB's vocals are very strong. Good job overall.

That's about it for the performances from this year's Coke Studio which dont have me reaching for the change song button.

Other performances aren't really worth mentioning (subjective opinion again) but there are some which I can't help but mention...

In Episode 5, Komal Rizvi absolutely destroyed the legendary "Lambi Judaai" song...when trying a song by Reshma ji, you have to possess a certain level of aura and quality...sorry Komal, doesn't cut it this time. Meesha Shafi really took it head-on and came out on top last year, but Komal didn't. Better luck next time.

In Episode 1, Jal again come up with 2 disjointed performances in one video...and in that, they murdered, mutilated and butchered Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Dam Mast Qalandar"...thumbs down.

Bilal Khan was disappointingly medicore all the way through...perhaps he should focus more on vocals than making contorted facial expressions when singing....

Sanam Marvi doesn't strike any chords in the mind either...very raw sounding, and very wayward vocal belting at times...there's just something missing in her performances that keeps her songs well south of the thumbs up in my opinion.

I'm not into orthodox qawwali, so I cant really comment on how those were...but they sounded quite monotonous and repetitive as such.

Coke Stduio seems to be turning victim to its own success over time...over the last couple of years the decline has been quite sharp in the number of performances that really stand out. Many of the songs just look like they were meant to fill gaps in the air time...

A Goodbye in Absentia...

2011-07-10T23:35:00.001+04:00

I've almost always had a case of double identity...I'm one of the many OSP citizens of my country. I was born in my own country (Pakistan), but hardly remember the time when I left it for the scorching mountainous and coastal city, Muscat, capital of Oman.

It was some time in early 1990 when my mother moved over to Muscat to accompany my father who had moved several months ahead of her. I was all of 18 months old at the time. Being brought up in the country where for almost 7-8 months in a year, even survival without air-conditioning would be unimaginable, transport other than cars is as abundant as kangaroos is Polynesia, I do remain thankful to my parents for not letting my mind slip into a state of confusion about myself. I am the child of expatriate parents, but at heart I remain firmly a true citizen of where I was born, and the culture of that land still shapes me.

As I grew up in the city of Muscat, I saw the city and country grow up alongside. From a silent, subdued presence on the horn of the Arabian peninsula to a sprawling, fast-paced and dense city, and from a sporadic bunch of mid-rise buildings dotting the low-lying skyline to a city getting more and more crammed by the day. I saw the city grow from 2-lane to 4-lane highways, Toyota Cressidas and Coronas on the road giving way to Camrys and Avalons over time (perhaps 10 for each 1 superseded judging from the traffic on the roads now), mountains being blown up to make way for traffic, and evolution of shopping from streetside haggling to supersize malls. The changes the city went through are probably well too many for me to either enumerate or describe in words properly.

Not all has been a bed of roses obviously...being the capital of a country heavily dependent on petroleum products for revenue, I've also seen through the times when it got hit hard. I can relate to a lot of "benchmarks" that would in my memory let me draw a somewhat rough timeline correlating the changes I underwent while living in the city under perpetual metamorphosis itself. I have faint memories of the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, and how it became the talk of the town when Oil tumbled to US$8/bbl, and took down the entire GCC region's economy with it. I remember the aftermath of the 2001 recession when every psychological barrier oil prices broke led to louder and louder mental cheers in the region. That was a time when I was a curious 12-year old trying to make sense of what people from a generation above meant by "barrels" of oil and the surrounding terminology...that planted the seeds in my mind of following financial markets, and over time I did further this a lot more. The day remains in my mind quite vividly when my father gave me the business section of Khaleej Times in response to my repeated questions...the habit of opening newspapers by the business section remains to this day too. Perhaps a bit tangential to the main theme I was at, but indirectly, I don't think I would have developed the keenness into news and current affairs had the events of 1998 not eventuated. (Fuel prices in Pakistan did not start to invite loud outcries until much later).

Where I believe that Muscat was almost the perfect city to live in till before the 2007-08 crisis, I also believe that the word "almost" had its value increased tremendously post-2008. It was a bit painful to watch the once serene city where one could get from work to home in 15 minutes turn to a crowded concrete jungle where getting from A to B became more painful than Lahore's most crowded roads at times, and that is saying something, and the city where once the common man could afford himself transform into an ultra-expensive metropolis getting more and more shallow over time.Over time it seemed that the city has transitioned into more concrete and less substance.

However, this does nothing to take away the subtle charm the city of Muscat has about it in my mind. It is still a city I love, for its values of tolerance and diversity. I never came across a city where people from so many origins and cultures coexist in total harmony and contribute to the progress of themselves as well as the city and country rather than hindering themselves and the economy. It is a city where all faiths are free to practice, where the government ensures an environment of harmony between all. There is a certain indescribable "character" to the place which always attracts me to it. I made almost all of my good friends in Muscat, and many of them are friends to this day.

However, a few days ago, I bid goodbye to the city, and to my double identity, albeit in absentia. While I am in another country in pursuit of higher education, my parents have moved back to my home country on a permanent basis.

I feel saddened by the realisation that I will not set foot for the foreseeable future in the city that gave me so much, that shaped so much of me, and has become a part of me. When I was boarding the flight outbound from Muscat in March, heading back for resumption of the academic year, I had a faint feeling that it might be the last time I was there. And last week, it came to be realised. I am somewhat confused about the feelings emanating from the realisation; one part of me is sad, and one part of me says "no worries mate! move on with life"...

I will miss the late night drives along the Corniche, the crowding at the Lulu Hypermarket cash counters towards the starting week of every month, my friends who I may not get to meet again, Pakistan School Muscat, the respect the whole place had towards the month of Ramadhan, and the list goes on...I will miss the city, and the character the place has...

To the credit of my parents, they did realise that at some stage it would be time to bid adieu to the place and my thoughts towards Pakistan have been shaped as they should have. The importance of Muscat to me does not diminish the importance of Lahore...

It comes down as very heavy on the heart whenever I think back over the times I've had in the city...and even heavier is perhaps the feeling that I may not get to meet some of my best and closest friends in person...

So in absentia, I bid farewell, and say goodbye to the city of Muscat...it will always be a part of me, and always have a place in my heart. May prosperity always be with you, Muscat, and you will always remain in my heart and mind as the place that gave me much more than I can remember.

Probably the only words that I can use to sum up are the words I spoke in a soft whisper looking out the window of the plane as it took off from Muscat when I was leaving it in March...

خُدا حافِظ مسقط
Khuda Hafiz Muscat.

Your place in my heart is permanent. I cannot say when (if at all) I may get to set foot on the soil of Muscat again...I may not live there, but the city lives in my heart now...

Random Thoughts Scribble-box II

2011-04-19T09:14:00.000+04:00

Another random one from my diary archives...

Living in fantasy is easy because fantasy bends whichever way you want...living in reality in much harder because reality resists bending to your will. Reality has to be made to bend your way by determination, strategy, force, coercion and more often than not, a combination of more than one out of these...but more importantly, living in fantasy is the equivalent of kicking the can down the road. At the end of the road, reality will have to be faced anyhow.

There is no particular contextual importance to this one on a case-in-point basis...but I find this is the approach I've always used to life in making decisions...

However, nothing wrong with a little bit of fantasy here and there...but when fantasies engulf you in a bubble, the consequences can be painful when the bubble deflates...

Movie Review: Crook (It's good to be bad) plus a general commentary

2011-04-10T00:48:00.004+04:00

Heads-up: this is a review of the movie interspersed with general commentary and my viewpoints on certain broader and specific issues that the movie touches on. While I have tried my utmost to maintain neutrality and respect cultural and local sensitivities, I do apologise if any content is offensive to any particular audience.

Warning: Full of spoilers.

There's many degrees of how bad a movie can get (within the category of negative reviews only, ofcourse there's good and average movies as well, and the associated sub-categories within these)...there's just plain bad, there's very bad, there's exceptionally bad, ridiculously bad, a disgrace to cinema, and then there's crook.

This movie fails on so many levels, that writing a review is in itself a tough ask...one can swallow attempts at comedy like Sunday because at least they don't detract much from their overall theme and purpose...but attempting a pseudo-descriptive documentary-cum-Romper Stomper ripoff-cum-Love Story-cum-bad boy turn good and what not would take an exceptionally good effort from the movie makers to make sure it doesnt end up at in the "ridiculously bad" category at best. Crook, due to a weak plot, and downright insensitive dialogue-writing, is well off the scales in terms of what I've seen in Hindi cinema to date, and that is counting the negative axes only.

The movie begins on a fairly cliched note...Emraan Hashmi as the typical next-door small-time bad boy, pirating movies for a living, and avoiding confrontation with law enforcement by hiding under the shadow of his well-respected uncle...his uncle manages to somehow send him to Australia on a forged identity. And that's where the movie starts to test your nerves. It takes some serious resolve to sit through the 2 hours and not come out fuming to get either your money or the 2 hours (or both) back.

The inconsistencies start right from the moment the protagonist lands in Terra Australis...the first one being that Melbourne Airport does not quite look like that the movie shows. Nitpicking aside, the acting by the "Romi Latti" character is utterly lifeless and clownish...and not to mention the idea of a person who cannot string together a sentence properly is arriving as a recipient of a scholarship from a prestigious university is laughable to say the least. Then there's the protagonist hoodwinking Mr Latti into walking into the wrong direction while he happily takes a seat in a pickup vehicle reserved for him. Now, where exactly is the writer's brain at that moment? There's something called an ID check and since when did uni students start getting picked up in Merc cabriolets?

Then there's the hero's arrival into the "Golde House"...the portrayal of a South-Asian dominated suburb within the city almost as an enclave, outside of which they would be endangered species is ludicrous, bordering on dumb. In fact I'm inclined towards the latter. And for bizarre untold some reason, the inhabitants of the house refer to a Permanent Residency as "Pyaar" ("Love") rather than as "PR"

Author's General Comment: I find this section of the movie factual on one side, and stupidly naive on the other. Portraying Melbourne as if it were a third-world region where people of particular races get targeted if they dare to leave their own areas is insensitive and is making a grossly sweeping generalisation. Melbourne is not Rwanda or Congo for heaven's sake! Dialogues like "This is our area...our own. Beyond this is dangerous" are testament to perhaps what is a hastily done script in an attempt to cash in on the political hoopla surrounding Indian students in Australia at the time. Melbourne is consistently rated among the most liveable cities in the world, and is quite free from targeted racial violence. It is one of the most diverse cities in the World.

However, the portrayal of the tenants of the Golde House is somewhat realistic. It does reflect well on a certain sector within the overseas students from a particular country, and is surprisingly blunt and upfront about their motives. Also surprising is the admission that students within this cohort routinely resort to forgery and falsification to further their aims. It fits in well with both statistical and anecdotal evidence.

And a Permanent Residency is often referred to in Australia by the full name rather than the initials or acronym.

The next phase lays the base for what the movie is themed on...a Sub-continental cash counter attendant racially attacked while the protagonist manages to save his backside and scoot off, only to find refuge in the vehicle of a local female who works as ...surprise surprise...a stripper. And not surprisingly, our hero manages to bed her in due course in the movie (it's Emraam Hashmi after all!)

Author's General Comment: How likely are you to get stabbed if you are manning a cash counter in India past midnight in a relatively rough part of a city in one of the more backward states like Bihar? Lying with statistics is easy, because they can be re-jigged to fit a purpose. Students from the cohort highlighted earlier in the movie are likely to live in cheaper (and hence less secure) areas, work late hours in jobs which expose them (fuel station convenience stores, cabbies etc)...putting 2+2 together isn't hard is it?

Moreover, the movie also tries to say that somehow the people trying to systematically rort the system are justified and it is wrong on the part of the authorities to try to close loopholes from time to time. Which is ofcourse, bloody nonsense. Systematic rorting of a system is not justifiable.

The character who later turns out to be the principal antagonist is portrayed with a strong but cynic personality, somewhat suiting his role. (He happens to be the male sibling to the female lead role, quite obviously one of the love interests of our hero Mr Suraj/Jai)

What gets offensive shortly afterwards through, and is perhaps the lowest point reached by Indian cinema in a long long time, is to follow soon...

The problem this movie keeps on having is contradicting itself at every step...while the good guys watch a cricket match on the beach (complete with the Bhaji-Symonds battles on the field), Mr Latti decides to do a clown dance after Team Blue wins...nothing wrong, except that he decides to dance by intentionally disturbing passers-by, and when they hit back, our macho-vigilante Mr Samarth intervenes and saves the situation...(or the "bad guys" scurry on seeing a police patrol, it isn't clear enough).

The very next scene, had it been included in an English movie would have probably led to the director being sued his skin off for hateful speech. I would rather refrain from repeating the dialogue here, but there's some review sites on the net translating that. Or just jump to around 39:00 in the movie. Or better yet, spare yourself the trauma.

Author's General Comment: Generalising the entire Australian populace under such nonsensical terms is rubbish. It is racist and insensitive, and once again shows an attempt to cash in on the sentiments fueled by reckless Indian media around the time. Every country has right to take offense when portrayed unfairly, and the way Australia is portrayed in the sentences uttered by the character in the movie is not only offensive, it is racist and vile.

The movie changes track quite sharply post-intermission, and .somehow manages to get some elements right. But the sweeping generalisations drawn in the first half linger on. The hero manages to keep himself clicking with both the heroine and the stripper, while maintaining a neutral stance on things. Mr Latti is hoodwinked yet again while the hero and heroine go to a movie, and Mr Latti gets mugged and bashed.

The next part is a re-enactment of the 2008/09 Indian Student protests...however, our villain (Samarth) reveals his racism and thrashes an Australian guy out to support him. Result: prison. A police officer colludes with the racist gangs targeting Indians, who manage to bash Samarth. Somehow our hero is again in the thick of things, and is called to testify.

For some weird reason, information which had not been available to the decision makers of his visa at the start of the movie makes its way to the Police now, and he himself is rendered a fugitive.

What follows from here is a feverish and hurried attempt to wrap things up while trying to undo some of the damage done earlier in the movie...Samarth kidnaps both the stripper and our hero, and decides to despatch both of them for reasons revealed in a heated exchange of words...the juice of it: Samarth's sister pregnant with Russel's (head of Indian-hating gang) child, Samarth forces into abortion, sister dies, Samarth becomes anti-Australian, Russel becomes anti-Indian.

And the various acts of deadly sabotage, including one on the stripper's (Nicole) workplace are revealed to be the handiwork of Samarth as well.

Our hero manages to first shout the truth at and then subdue Samarth, who is then killed by Romi in an absolutely cringe-worthy scene...the one part which could have redeemed the movie manages to push it further into the abyss and nails its quality at the "abysmal" level.

Author's General Comment: This part of the movie is somewhat neutral but the same theme should have been applicable to the movie as whole. It shows both sides as having elements of racism, and ultimately the Sub-Continental character is shown to have stronger nationalism and racism. However, the movie maintains a biased view of Australia right to the end. Where is portrayal of the thousands who participated in the "Vindaloo against Violence" campaign? Indian Consul-General to Melbourne Anita Nair's comments on TV further dent what is an already weak assumption by the movie maker.

The movie is a weak attempt at an already weak topic, diluted by outright bias. There is nothing to make the movie stand out from any perspective, tecnhical or otherwise. Emraan Hashmi's acting is repetitive from earlier movies i.e. flat dialogue delivery, and very little punch in portrayal of emotions. Arjan Bajwa does OK as Samarth, particularly as a cynic. Romi Latti is a weak character throughout. And trying to speak Hindi with an English accent is not attractive at all, which weakens the female lead character's grip on her already weak performance.

My rating:
Baseline Score 3.5/5

-0.5 for weak plot

-0.5 for bad acting

-0.5 for generalising an entire populace in negative terms

-0.5 the dialogue at 39:00 or so (yes, it's THAT offensive)

-0.5 for being a bad rip-off of Romper Stomper

-0.5 for portraying Australia/Melbourne like Congo/Rwanda

+.25 for the somewhat true portrayal of the cohort of students shown

+0.25 for the very average music

Net 1/5

Author's General Comment: While the movie has generated negative reviews in Australian media, I don't think they went far enough in highlighting how deeply offensive this attempted exercise to make money over what was a sensitive issue from the very onset can be to anyone who is a reasonable and unbiased person, particularly if of Anglo-Saxon origin. While I am of South-Asian background myself, I find this movie to paint a truely unfair picture of Australia to unsuspecting eyes. However, anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature should be able to see past it and treat the movie as 2 hours of comedy perhaps...

And its goes on...

2011-03-26T22:51:00.001+04:00

Finally, after what felt like an elephant on my lap for 2 weeks, I breathed a sigh of relief...I had to repeat a certain assessment (voluntary/external, not a curricular assessment) required by some companies for job applications . In 2006 I ran through it almost effortlessly...I retook it in early 2011 (the results are deemed valid by most institutions for 2 years), only to find that my score in the spoken category had taken a dip by a fair amount...

That was, ofcourse, peculiar. Unless there was something to suggest that 4 years in an English-speaking country had caused my spoken English to deteriorate instead of consolidate....I retook it again in mid-march and this time the results align themselves much better with what I was expecting...well, one tick-mark on the checklist. Now I can focus on more important items in the short term like academics.

Moving on to a different topic, I was quite intrigued by one reader of my blog pointing out that I need to re-think how I allocate scores for timeliness to airlines when I review them (not that I've reviewed too many, having done AirBlue and THAI on different occasions, and using significantly different scoring methods). The reader pointed out that my scores tended to almost always reflect on the fact that THAI seem to be perpetually undercutting their written flying times.

I inferred from this discussion that there are two possible causes for this: either THAI's schedules intentionally overestimate flight times, or there is something wrong with how I actually measured/estimated them. Ofcourse, my inclination was more towards the latter. For clarification, I consulted THAI's in-flight magazine out of curiosity, and here's their definition: "the total duration of the flight, starting from the powering up of the engines for take-off till the time the aircraft comes to a complete stop at the airport terminal".

This makes perfect sense, because the time taken from the terminal building/apron to the start of the runway can involve queuing and/or push-back, factors on which the pilot has no control.

However, I have no intention to re-jig my reviews. The reason behind my refusal to overhaul my scoring method is not personal per se; I have no qualms about people pointing out genuine issues. However, my perception is based on what an average passenger would go through. To the passenger, he is on-board a flight from the moment the captain ejects ground staff from the aircraft and starts the push-back. However, from a technical perspective this is obviously subject to much variation and adds unnecessary volatility to measurements.

Secondly, upon re-examination of my archives, I found that my scores for timing are a lot more detailed than what my friend had read through. I actually dissect the flight time into individual events, and then score them based on how they compare to the 2 end-point times written on the ticket. Regardless of any intricacies, if the arrival at the destination is on or ahead of the schedule, it's nearly (or entirely) full marks. Even better if the destination arrival is on time after a delayed gate push-back. I actually scored the flights based on time between push-back and docking; if that is less than scheduled, then I don't see why they shouldn't get the high scores I awarded them.

Coming off the surgical details of past reviews (I have another airline which potentially can be reviewed, but a review based on a flight lasting all of 1 hour and 20 minutes would be almost unfair) and on to a different topic, the academic year is well underway, and the stress levels are up to historical highs. Every day that goes by is a reminder that this is a tremendously important time, and the outcome at the end of this crucial year will shape things for a long time to come. And every day is a reminder that the real struggle will start only after this era of sorts draws to a close.

Now that I've ranted my mind off, I can probably round up the rest for this blog post before pushing the "publish" button...

I retracted (deleted) part of my previous blog post because it was drawing unnecessary attention from a wrong (in my opinion) perspective.

I'm happy with my Samsung Android phone as it's going along...playing Angry Birds to kill time on public transport is fun to say the least...and this firms up my intention of probably staying in the android world for the next handset too...

I am also contemplating adding a cheap (in fact the cheapest in the Canon portfolio) lens to my photography kit...a wide-aperture prime is a quintessential and multipurpose lens, so no harm in giving it a spin I suppose...and besides, it's only around 120-odd dollars, so no biggie if it isn't quite what I was after...it's not like not suiting my photographic taste is going to make the thing go quit in retaliation...

And so it begins...

2011-03-06T22:09:00.001+04:00

I'm now one week into what is my final year of undergraduate education...and the first thought that comes to mind is how quickly the previous four years have passed...the last four years seem to have gone by in a flash. Four very active years, filled with ups, downs, turns and twists, hard work interspersed with sporadic laziness, and four years in which I've learned a lot, not just in academic skills but also in life skills.

Four years ago I stepped out of the proverbial cocoon of the family home, from the sheltered environment into the "big bad world" of sorts...for the first time in life I was totally on my own, at least when it came to managing myself. No "assisted wake-ups" any more...no more food cooked and served every day with the only intervention on my part being helping to carry the crockery and cutlery from kitchen to dining room and vice versa...no more being picked up and dropped off wherever, whenever for outing, shopping etc...no clothes ironed for US$0.2 each...

But there are no regrets at all in my mind with my choice...In the last four years or so, I've learned to manage the workload of two degrees running concurrently, and alongside them, all the work that I need to do, or to get done. I cook my own food, I actually iron all my clothes after washing them, and no, my room does not look like someone dynamited the wardrobe to spill the contents all around.

I begin this year with a lot of nervousness....not because I think it's a very demanding year ahead (which it very well is), but because beyond this lies the true "big bad world"...with this year will end the shelter of being a student, and exposure to the wider, professional world will commence. Beyond this year lies a period of struggle before settling down. And that period is what I don't know exactly about. The transition from student to work status... completion of formalities required both before and during the process, the length of the process itself...it's all adds up to cause more than just the solitary butterflies in the stomach...

But with every ending is a new beginning...I don't intend the end of this year to be the last of my educational endeavours...I still have a long way to go....

The long way to go is certain...and while I am no stranger to making new starts and stepping out into previously uncharted territory, leaving behind what has essentially become my nature (being a student, a knowledge-seeker) by some accounts and stepping out into the world of work, politics, fierce and knockout competition, it will be the biggest transition yet I think...

With a demanding year up ahead, I hope to come through in as good a shape as I did over the last few years (bar 2008 perhaps), and hopefully I'll be in good stead for the new beginnings that lie straight up after this era in life draws to a close...

And welcome...Phone no. 7, plus first impressions from Android

2011-02-08T01:14:00.001+04:00

And so it happened...I welcomed to my possession the seventh mobile handset on the 2nd of Feb, 2011. While I ran through the list of my previous handsets somewhere in here, a very brief rundown is perhaps in order again (or maybe not...but I'll stick it in anyhow for good measure). Starting with the legendary Nokia 6600 (the forerunner of a long and successful line of S60 handsets from the Finnish powerhouse) in 2005, I moved on to a Sony Ericsson k750i (the pioneer of autofocus cameras in mobiles) in 2006, and in 2008 to a Motorola V9. That same year I made the transition to keeping 2 active handsets, and an N82 joined the club. The next year, the V9 changed hands and became Dad's phone while a Samsung i560 took its place in my kit (now it's Mum's phone)...

While my BlackBerry 9700 keeps its job as a faithful sidekick (and that changing it doesn't make too much sense at the moment because I pay a premium for the associated services with that handset like BIS and BBM), the N82 has changed hands, and is now my sister's backup phone. It did suffer from a rather serious injury to the keypad in my hands, but that was taken care of with a replaced keypad. Job well done, Nokia Care Muscat (MHD) for keeping spares of the (now) rather old unit!

Coming to the more relevant point (which I bloody well should by now considering what my post is titled), The "second handset" now with me is a Samung i5500, which is known by several names (Galaxy 550, Galaxy 5, Galaxy Europa). I don't think the handset itself warrants writing about so much as the software does.

The hardware is fairly inauspicious to be honest: a 2.8" QVGA screen, a 600MHz processor, and a rather lean camera (2MP, no auto-focus, video maxes to QVGA at 15fps(!), and no shutter key), mated to a rather paltry 170MB of internal memory for apps and the likes.

However, this collection of rather unaudacious hardware still manages to chug along rather well under the operating system that powers the handset: Google Android.

I'm rather sure you've all read heaps on the ins and outs of Android, and I have no intention whatsoever of regurgitating manufacturers' or developers' lists of features they cram (or don't) into it. What I am coming to in a moment or two is what I felt as a completely new user to the platform...

First up, Android is a very intuitive and fluid system, especially when mated to Samsung's TouchWiz platform. While the relative advantages of manufacturer-specific skins are debatable (MotoBlur vs TouchWiz vs Sense is a fight I would rather not instigate lest it fans a flame war), TouchWiz is the only one I've had extended experienced with so far.

The user experience is quite consistent, except that it needs a bit of intervention that many people won't be used to. For example, connecting your phone to the USB port needs a selection on-screen once the cable is hooked up (which is quite similar to the options presented by S60 Nokias I would add here), but before you disconnect the cable, you have a choice of either dismounting the USB connection from the phone or from the PC.

Widgets and Icons are nothing new to most people, and Android has plenty. The selection of apps is quite healthy, with some particularly good ones such as Winamp, Sygic Aura, NDrive, XE Currency Converter, WhatsApp Messenger etc...

Contact management is quite nice, and the Swype keyboard is one product of absolute genius. Totally and thoroughly impressive, 2 thumbs up!

That said, it does haves its niggles...the biggest so far in my experience being lack of support for USSD/MMI commands...in many Asian countries, prepaid customers are able to check remaining credit, recharge prepaid accounts and do a number of other things with *-Code-# commands, and Android does not support them (yet). If this (not so minor) hitch is ironed out in the next iteration or so of the OS, it will complete the OS and make it truly versatile.

While this particular handset is a bridge in most probability to get me into touchscreens properly, it has done its job already (well almost), in the sense that I'm into touchscreens for good now. While not as fast to type as the BB9700 keyboard (which isn't going anywhere for the time being), touch-screens make navigation on d-pad based phones look much slower than it perhaps actually is. It feels strangely liberating to be able to tap anywhere on the screen rather than having to navigate to the link and then click (try navigating a webpage with oodles of links by going down-down-down-up-left-left-press and so on!).

Now that I think I've bored the non-techies (and techies alike perhaps) adequately, I'll move on to more random things...

I'll be returning to the land Down Under in a little more than a week, and almost a week after that will commence my final year of undergraduate education. And that reminds me again, that time spent with family on vacation seems to pass by an order of magnitude faster than uni days (not when uni is making for interesting study, which isn't all that rare, truth be told)...

I've had an absolutely fantastic holiday so far, spending time with family, and also visiting extended family after almost 2 years...

And finally my passport is now one of the newer-generation multi-biometric e-passports being issued by our government...hopefully it will reduce the number of cases of immigration officials opening my passport the wrong way round and then asking "where's your picture?"...

With this I wrap up this session of random rambling, see ya all next time!

Holiday in progress, and Year in Review...

2010-12-16T14:12:00.001+04:00

And finally...what a relief!

Melbourne-Karachi-Lahore-Okara-Lahore-Karachi-Muscat!

After a fortnight or so in Pakistan (which was very nice, being my first visit to homeland proper in 2 years or so), I'm finally in Muscat...on a break from more or less everything related to uni (including perhaps the people in uni too)...

With nothing major upcoming for the rest of December and much of January, I can probably make for a year-in-review as well...

Overall I've had a fairly reasonable year with very few major unexpected shocks, if any. From an academic standpoint, I wasn't able to outdo the best I've done in uni so far (which happens to be 2007 and 2009 in close succession) but still stayed well above the low point I had in Semester 1, 2008, and in what I usually consider as "good" territory...

On a subject-specific note, I did let myself down a fair bit in Semester 1, especially with one particular subject...the mark for that subject now stands as the lowest on my transcript, a fringe borderline credit...but well, what's done is done, and I am quite satisfied with the overall direction things took in the year overall...

I got what was my sixth mobile phone in March ...and no, I'm not a collector...I started with a Nokia 6600 back in 2005, which was succeeded by a k750i that went bananas before my sister took over possession and was able to get it back to working order, and in turn the k750i was replaced by an N82 which still is with me, although seriously injured and awaiting treatment at the BellTel Nokia Service Centre here...the N82 was joined by a Motorola V9 (now with Dad), which was a year later superseded by a Samsung i560(now with Mum), which was in turn replaced by a Blackberry Bold 9700...that is ofcourse counting out the 24 hours which an E63 spent in my hands before the phone went back and my cash returned to my wallet.

If the N82's severe injury to the keypad renders it terminally vegetabled, a seventh handset purchase might be in order to keep my working team of 2 handsets intact...

Coming to a more serious note, I did make a few new friends this year...or so I thought at the time. While I have no intention whatsoever of naming anyone on this public blog, my perception and perspective towards certain people changed quite rapidly over the course of the year, from considering them strangers, to close to being best friends, to outright liars, backstabbers and egoistic idiots. I started respecting certain people, and wanted to keep doing so, but their behaviour left me no choice other than what I did. I stand by my decisions still. While I derive no pleasure whatsoever from ignoring, hurting or stinging people, I have no qualms here, because I wasn't the one to start it.

Pretty interesting times working for Design-III with one laid back lecturer, and an absolute gem of a team. While I was initially disappointed for day or so ending up with a team I knew absolutely nothing about except that they were classmates in most of my subjects, I remain thankful I ended up with them...the level of cooperation and understanding shown by my team-mates was nothing short of exemplary.

I finally have my driving license too! YAY!

And because my work experience requirements are satisfied already, I can chill for a bit this holiday period...

I got a brand-spanking-new Canon EOS 50D with my own savings...YAY! Now to start saving for some glass for the baby...

The Aussie Dollar is back to ridiculous highs...

No good music from Coke Studio this time...

Inception was an exceptionally good movie! And ofcourse Avatar 3D (which I saw sometime in March 2010)

Did I just forget to mention that I blogged what was on average less than once a month this year?

4/5

2010-11-16T20:14:00.000+04:00

And finally, on 12-Nov-2010, my 4th year in uni came to a close...4 years going by in an absolute flash, talk about flying time!

And now time for some travelling before getting it on for Year 5!

Whirlwind...

2010-11-06T05:49:00.000+04:00

And another year in uni will soon draw to a close in a week...

And to say the least, it has been eventful!

My perceptions and thoughts have changed a lot over these 2 semesters, and for good reason mostly...and I must add, not for worse for most people...

I'll be heading home in a few weeks to chill over summer before I start my final year in '11...

More updates to follow...

A New Family Member

2010-09-19T17:26:00.001+04:00

I've made an investment of sorts a number of weeks ago...looking back at my archives, and the fact that my point-and-shoot is still a bloody good camera but is ageing slowly but surely, I gave upping my photographic hobby a serious go...

After tossing up the idea over several weeks, discarding and picking it up again and again, and finally discarding it for good (or so I thought), I came across a deal for a DSLR which drew me right in...

So on the 17th of July 2010, I welcomed another member to the family of cameras I have (previously led by the venerable S80, backed up by a Nokia N82 and BlackBerry 9700). After much deliberation, and enough rounds of haggling with shops that I've actually lost count of, I got myself a Canon EOS-50D...

Hopefully over the coming months and years I will grow this family a bit more by equipping the unit with better and sharper glass (but looking at the sharpness of even the much-maligned 18-55IS makes me go "blimey!" at times, and portraits that I've managed to take so far need a pass through GIMP or PhotoShop for a bit of skin buffing) and more importantly, improving my technique as I go along...

Photography DOs and DONTs: Twister's Take

2010-06-25T21:05:00.005+04:00

Digital photography is supposed to be as easy as “point and shoot”…well that’s what most cameras targeted at everyday consumers are categorised as, with their elder brethren up the hierarchy taking the name “prosumer cameras”, after which the SLR and EVIL domain starts (for the record, EVIL cameras are not literally “evil”…they don’t punch you in the face if you put them up to your eye. EVIL stands for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens, cameras which have interchangeable lenses but don’t use the reflex-mirror mechanism of SLRs)…

As such, it is only wishful thinking for photography to be “point and shoot”. Well in a way it is, but think of it like driving a car with traction control, ABS, Stability Control and an automatic transmission…while these uber-gizmos will make driving the vehicle easier, it will still crash if you don’t know how to steer it.

Let me set the record straight here…I am not advocating for everyone to dump their P&S cameras and jump on SLRs (which often cost a pretty penny, weigh almost equal to half a dumbbell and will punch a neat hole in your wallet for the initial one-time purchase)…I am going to run through some common mistakes most people do while using digital cameras…some of the points will make a massive difference to your pictures, some not so much so…

Without further ado, lets get going then…

1. Judge the Subject to be photographed and decide a technique

This is the most important part of taking the picture perhaps…there is no one-size-fits-all method of taking good pictures. Depending on the nature of your subject, your technique should vary.

If your subject is a person

•    For people as subjects, always keep in mind that the most important area of focus is the face. Hence point the camera straight through the line of sight of the person you are photographing. If the person is shorter than you by a significant margin or is sitting on a chair/stool, get down on the one-knee position (similar to how you would propose I suppose? Can’t really say, I just call it the one-kneed kneel) or sit down on a level surface with them.
•    Make the person look straight forwards
•    Point the camera straight forwards. MAKE SURE the camera lens is level with their eye level (don’t get too close though...stay around 4-6 feet away). Holding the camera too low will make their neck/chest region the centre of the picture instead of the face.
•    Ask the person to look towards either (1) your shoulder or (2) The RER lamp in the camera. Make sure the person does NOT turn their neck for doing so…gaze at your shoulder only by changing focus of their eyes
•    Half-press the shutter button to focus for a while, and then snap

What If the person is wearing reflective clothing?
If the subject of your picture is wearing reflective clothing (silk, satin etc), it’s better not to point the camera straight forward at them, particularly if the torso is a substantial part of the picture. This will create over-exposed glary spots on their dressing. Instead, point the camera slightly downwards while holding the camera slightly above their eye-level.

Demo Time!
For privacy reasons, I will not be reproducing any pictures with people here…but I can demonstrate with reasonable examples I guess…for this blog post volunteers for models are items from my room…

First, lets see a matte surface:

Above: Photo 1: Matt Surface. 1/60sec, f/5.3

This picture is taken head-on, at 1/60 of a second with flash. Notice the box is more or less uniformly illuminated, with no glare spots.

Now let's come to reflective surfaces:

Above: Photo 2: Reflective/Glossy Surface, 1/60sec f/5.3

The picture is more or less unusable…there is hardly any detail visible except the huge spot of glare. The big bright spot is over-exposed and washed out, the rest of the image is under-exposed and lacking brightness…

Now lets experiment by taking the same picture at an angle:

Above: Photo 3: Glossy Surface, Angled Bounced Flash, 1/60s, f/5.3

I would myself call this an outlier...normally glossy surfaces dont come out so good. Reason for this one? Well it's a case of bounced flash. With the camera angled donwards, the illumination of the object is through the light bouncing off the seat of the chair. Bounced flash in other cases is only possible with swivel-head speed-lights, so lets take another shot without the bouncing factor:

Above: Photo 4: Glossy surface, no bounced light

Unless your hobby is taking pictures of graph paper, you would ignore the barrel distortion from my camera and see that even though this picture is taken at the very same settings as the one head-on, it shows much different results…the illumination is more concentrated towards the lower half of the object, but the image is still much better in terms of usability and clarity compared to Photo 2.

So here’s the key when photographing people (especially close-ups):

•    Ask your (female) subjects to wipe their faces with Kleenex if necessary…many cosmetic products create a glossy look on the face, which has a very similar effect to Photo 2.
•    Stand at least 4 feet away from them, your head level with theirs.
•    If they are wearing reflective clothing, hold the camera slightly ABOVE their eye-level (and match your eye-level with theirs…do the proposal posture or sit on a chair, your choice), and aim the camera slightly downwards, almost towards the nose from the level of the forehead. Remember, distance MUST be 4 feet or more at the lowest zoom setting of the camera.
•    If they are wearing matte clothing, aim the camera straight at the face, point straight forwards. Camera must be at your eye level, and somewhere in between the level of the nose-bridge and eye of the subject.
•    If your subject wears glasses, ask them to look slightly downwards i.e. towards your nose/chin.

The problem with photographing people is the variation you will encounter…stand too far away and a slight downwards point of the camera will send the flash towards their torso rather than face…Stand too close and you’ll get glare. Over time you’ll learn with experience…as it is said, practice makes perfect!

If your subject is inanimate
If your subject is an inanimate object, you can try adjusting the position of it if possible. If not so, the same general guidelines apply as for human subjects…Get level with the centre of focus if possible (if not, get as close as possible)…
If object is reflective, aim flash so that it bounces at an oblique angle rather than straight back at the camera. If the object is matte and non-reflective, fire head-on.
Stand a good distance away to prevent harsh reflections…zoom in if necessary.

2. Apply the technique properly

Now that you’ve seen what difference a mere holding method can make to a picture, it’s important to remember when to use what. As a rule of thumb, I avoid firing the flash head-on on to reflective and glossy surfaces. When it comes to people, there’s no harm in taking several pictures in several different ways and keeping the best…there’s no 36-exposure restriction on you!

Moreover, keep in mind that the camera lens zooms for a reason...you don't need to stick your head into the subject to get a good close-up.

Next Step: Daylight Flash

Ever had an instance where your subject turned out dark even though they were standing in glaring bright sunlight? It’s more common than you think.

If the background of your picture is very bright, it will likely cause your main subject to be under-exposed. This is because cameras decide photo settings based on the overall averaged light levels in the picture.

The workaround for this is surprisingly simple…just make your camera fire the flash. Yes, in broad daylight. It will illuminate your subject, and the additional advantage of reduced shutter time will dampen background brightness a bit. You can also use spot-metering

Volunteers for this section are my table-top lamp and my BlackBerry. It is held side-on to recreate the effect of a large bright background against a small, non-illuminated subject.

The next couple of pictures show the effect of fill flash and spot metering.The lamp subsitutes for the bright background…my lamp has a diffuser against it, so it should work well.

Notice what happens if I allow the camera to meter the picture according to the brightness of the lamp: the phone I hold in front of the lamp is seen as just a silhouette…this is because the camera, in deciding its shutter speed etc, takes the average brightness across the entire frame. The lamp is exceedingly bright compared to the rest of the frame, the average goes up and the camera fires the shutter at 1/160 of a second. The outcome:

Above: Photo 5: Bright Background, dark foreground...1/160s, f/5.3

There’s nothing useful about this picture. I want a picture of the phone, not the lamp…(you want the picture of your subject, not the background as such).

Now I turn to using a spot meter. The Spot meter, although present in very few cameras, is almost a brute force technique. Instead of taking averages across the entire frame, the spot meter takes the approach of forcing the camera to make sure only a small portion of the picture is correctly exposed, rest can be trash (so to speak) for all the camera (and photographer) cares...

Above: Spot Metering; only the area within the brackets is metered

If I use the spot meter to make sure the phone is correctly exposed, the pictures looks like this:

Above: Photo 6: Spot Metering

The phone is OK, but the background is over-exposed. The shutter speed is 1/60, which causes massive over-exposure of the background. Close but but not close enough.

Now lets get to the fill-flash. In this method, I let the camera focus on the entire frame as it did without the spot meter. And alongside that, I force it to fire the flash. Some of you must be thinking why I'm firing a GN13 flash straight into a 60W lamp, but the outcome speaks for itself:

Above: Photo 7: Fill Flash...win-win situation!

Notice how both the phone and lamp are correctly exposed. The shutter speed in this method reduces to 1/500 of a second, and the flash covers for that. Results speak for themselves. Go figure.

Zoom:Cameras today often have rather significant zoom ratios…some even go as far as 20X. But at close range, walking closer/further will produce better results. Zooming in and out, especially on very high zoom-ratio lenses tends to induce distortion. Towards the wide end most lenses will show "barrel" distortion (straight lines bulge outwards) and at the longer end the distortion changes to "pinchsuion" (straight lines bulge inwards). However, you can zoom in to a moderate degree safely enough on any camera worth its money…distortion is not something you’ll notice unless you take pictures of graph papers or radar grids.

Play around with a combination of zooming and changing your own position…again, no harm taking multiple pictures, because it’s not a 24EXP Velvia on your hands…

After Taking pictures

Digital pictures, once taken, only begin their journey (so to speak)…once on your computer, you can manipulate them further to enhance them and get the best out of them. I particularly recommend the Canon ZoomBrowser software…it has a rather clunky interface at times, but it can salvage incredible amounts of seemingly lost detail in pictures, and it does an excellent job at auto-adjusting for brightness, contrast etc.

Other very capable software packages that can do similar stuff are PhotoShop elements, PhotoShop Album, ACDSee, and offcourse the full-blown photoshop.

For people who shoot image formats such as RAW or TIFF, more advanced software such as Adobe Lightroom, Canon DPP or Nikon Capture NX would be required. Most consumer cameras do not shoot RAW, so I wont cover it in any depth.

Red Eyes: What to do?!?:

Red-eye is very often an eye-sore on people-shots. There’s no sure-shot way to prevent it unfortunately. Although Canon ZoomBrowser EX does a good job of removing it, some cases are difficult to correct. Lets see some examples:

This is a case of an angled red-eye, which makes it pinkish.
Now lets see what it becomes after correction in ZoomBrowser:

The image still retains a pink circle in one eye…although it has been greyed out to some extent…

Now lets see Twister’s top-secret work-around for this:

Although it seems a bit obvious to the trained eye at this level of zooming (this is a 400% magnification), the net result in printing, say a 4x6 image will be practically not noticeable.

And here’s the workaround:
Once the image has gone through a red-eye correction tool, if the other eye remains red/pink, simply copy the pupil from the corrected eye over to the red eye. And voila! I did this in MS Paint. If your subject is looking head-on towards the camera, then both pupils should be fairly circular. If not, you might need some more serious editing, including copying the pupil part of the eye from someone else in the photo with similar eye colour.

As I said, the solution to red-eye can be trivially simple or long-winded, but it differs from case to case.

Red Eyes What to do?!? Part 2: How NOT to get red eyes

Unfortunately, correcting red-eye is complicated and at times can be long-winded, needing precise manual intervention.

Fortunately, not getting them in the first place is easier than you think. However, it needs cooperation from your subjects as well. (If your subjects are ~~girls~~ impatient, it ofcourse makes it debatable whether not getting them is easier than later on painstakingly correcting them).

First lets see why this creepy phenomenon occurs…

“Red eye” occurs when harsh, white light shines straight into the subject’s eye, and reflects straight back to your camera. It’s the red colour from the blood in the retina basically. Red-eye can be prevented by 2 methods which are effective, but only when they work.

The first method is relatively unobtrusive, but the results are variable to some extent. If you want to prevent red-eye, ask the subject to look at your shoulder instead of towards your camera. Looking at the shoulder instead of the camera will produce reasonably oblique reflections from the eye, but if the photographer does not level himself/herself properly, asking someone to look at the shoulder may end up with pictures of people craning their necks or other odd poses…

Alternatively, you can ask the subject to look at a bright light before they look straight into the lens. This will cause the pupils to contract and red-eye will be virtually gone.

This is implemented in most cameras as well nowadays…most cameras have “RER” (Red-eye reduction lamps, or use strobe-pulsing before firing the flash. This has the same effect as looking at a bright light before you say cheese (or the equivalent).

If your camera has an RER lamp (which it is very likely to have unless it’s from circa 1977), make sure you activate it (set your flash to “red eye reduction” mode or similar). Hold your camera in focus mode for a few seconds before going for the shot. And here’s the important part: Tell your subject to look straight at the red-eye reduction lamp! It’s called that for a reason.

Some cameras have Strobe-pulsing instead of red-eye lamps…this is an effective but obtrusive mechanism. Some cameras, instead of using an RER lamp, fire the flash in a series of short, medium-brightness pulses before firing it at full power for the actual picture. This works very well because it makes your subject comply almost by force…it doesn’t matter where they’re looking.Strobe-pulsing eliminates red-eye very well, but can dazzle and distract subjects at times, and sometimes can cause people to close their eyes during the actual photo-shot.

If your camera has a red-eye lamp, use it unconditionally. If your camera tends to pulse the strobe light, use it with some discretion...they can be distracting to others in busy settings.

Compensation:

Don’t worry about this section if you’re a mum-dad photographer, or if your camera does not appear to have these settings, and don’t bother if don’t know the difference between shutter and aperture.

Getting a bit technical here, but there are ways to work around as to how bright your pictures appear. For pictures with flash, there’s Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC), and without flash there’s Exposure Compensation (Called "EV").

EV is basically bumping up the brightness of your picture, or the other way round. Most cameras will allow you to set EV from -2 to +2 in increments of 1/3 units. Dial in a negative EV for reducing brightness of the picture, and positive for vice versa.

I personally tend to use bracketing, where the camera snaps 3 shots in a row, with EV set to +/- steps. For example, a +/-2/3 bracket will take 3 pictures, with EV set to -2/3, 0 and +2/3. You can keep whichever you prefer. Example:

This one is the "normal" exposure with no EV compensation.

This is the lower limit of the "bracket"...in this case I have set it to -2/3

This one is compensated to +2/3 stops of EV. Notice the brightness and detail resolution differences between the "ends" of the bracket.

The bounds of the bracket is something the user defines himself, can be anywhere from -2 to +2 in 1/3 stop increments.

FEC is similar, except that it cannot auto-bracket, and it works with flash only. Dialling in a positive flash compensation makes your flash appear brighter but reduces the working distance, and a negative compensation does the opposite. Example:

This picture is taken with flash at its normal operating power.

Notice what happens when I compensate the flash by -2/3 of a stop:

The flash loses apparent brightness but the effective distance increses.

Now notice if I compensate the flash by +2/3:

The apparent brightness over short range increases but the working distance goes down.

Now this feature (EV and FEC) is present in many cameras but it can be hidden deep within menus quite often...

Many consumer cameras dont distinguish between the 2 and call both FEC and EV as "EV" or similar...

HANDY TIP: Dial in an exposure compensation of -2/3 or -1 EV when using fill flash in a a sun-lit environment. Let it stay at 0 for fill-flash at twilight or under overcast conditions.

Other Stuff:

That covers my most frequent gripes with pictures others click usually. And to be honest, it borders on annoying when tremendously capable cameras are wasted on producing absolute garbage.

For example, the picture below. It was snapped (for the record, by me) using a 7MP Samsung unit (which was also absolute trash to begin with), but the picture is nigh on useless. Nothing has been taken into focus properly except that twig at the bottom-left. Wrongly set focus points ruin what otherwise would have been a very good picture…so my verdict: Garbage.

Above: Garbage

Now, notice what using the right technique can do. See the picture below:

Above: Phone (Nokia N82) knocking out a 7MP samsung Digicam

This picture has been snapped using a phone. But notice how everything is in tack-sharp focus.It seems a bit ironic to see a phone absolutely whack the daylights out of the dedicated camera, but with the right technique, it is possible. It's not exactly a phone beating the camera...it's the camera which is under-utilised. Having an F1-car is one thing, but if you drive it at the speed of a bicycle, obviously even a corolla will overtake you...you get the picture.

While many people are not really concerned with the technicalities of snapping pictures, this is not meant to be technical either. I learned this stuff not from any formal education in photography, but by mere trial and error.

That is the beauty of digital…it’s almost limitless. To practice, you can click as much as you want…format the memory card and start over…it’s that simple.

What I mentioned in techniques for holding the cameras wont necessarily apply to SLRs, because they have very different handling dynamics. But over time, these habits will lead you to producing consistently good pictures. For a wrap-up:

Hold/aim the camera properly…

Level yourself properly

Focus properly

Fire the flash when YOU think it's needed, not when the camera thinks it’s needed. If doubtful, take 2 pictures, one with and one without flash.

Take as many pictures as you need to get a good one. You can delete the un-needed ones later.

Lastly, anyone who thinks “megapixels maketh the image” doesn’t know photography. Period. Those who think “megapixels, the more the merrier” are the very reason Nikon bluffs customers with products like the D3x…it sells for twice the price of the “normal” D3s just because it has twice the megapixels.

Without getting too technical, megapixels increase in count as a square factor of image size. So an image needs to increase in length and width by 40% for the megapixel count to double.

For prints at 4x6 sizes, 3MP is enough. 8x10 prints, 5MP. 13x19 inches is fine with 8MP.

Anything larger is only a necessity if you intend to print your family holiday pictures on bill-boards.

Notes (as usual):
-    This is meant to be a personal experience post only, not an exhaustive guide. I could well be wrong on more than one count…so yes, I take no responsibility if following these tips makes your camera start singing the national anthem.
-    I welcome all feedback. However, please acknowledge if using any of the images.
-    I do not endorse any particular brands. However, I am more than happy to name the gear that went into producing the pictures you’ve seen: Canon Powershot S80, Nokia N82, Canon ZoomBrowser EX6.4, ACDSeePro 8.
-    ALL pictures used here are my own work. Please acknowledge if using elsewhere, as a matter of courtesy at the least.

Coming Soon: Digital Photography 101

2010-06-19T01:18:00.002+04:00

After I finish the coming week (which will mark the end of my 7th exam session in Monash), I will be doing a post on photography...

Looking through my photo albums, it makes me cringe sometimes as to how people manage to turn potentially beautiful pictures into dustbin-worthy abominations...many a time I've seen people turn what would have been stunning portraits or close-ups into pictures that not even the subject themselves want to even glance at, let alone treasure or cherish...

For those getting thoughts like "not again...I have a Cyber-Power-Super-Shot 4GS with a trashload of megapixels and half a mile of digital zoom already, and still my pictures are crap?!", yes they are if you solely base decisions of picture quality on megapixels. It's the technique that makes for a good picture....

As for technique, no, I wont run you all through the boring routine of "set your shutter to 1/2000th of a second and set your aperture to f/32 and fire your flash at GN13F with FEC of +1/3 and EV of -2/3 with spot-metering" sort of stuff...

By technique I mean simple stuff like how to hold your camera (I can hear a few gasps already...wait up fellas, because the way you hold a camera makes a huge difference to how your photos turn out...don't believe me? I'll show you when the blog post goes up), where to fire your flash and where not to (trust me, sometimes you need to fire it in broad daylight!), some settings you could try playing around with on your camera, and so on...

Now back to study...

New Series...Random Thoughts Scribble-box

2010-06-15T06:05:00.001+04:00

I came across a few quotations I wrote in my diary last night...some of which I wrote myself, some taken from other sources which I find noteworthy...I might post one or two of them here and there on my blog sometimes...here's one for a start...

"Only one opponent needs to be actually defeated: the one who is able to defeat you if given the chance, believes he can defeat you, but does not assume he can do so. An opponent that can defeat you but does not believe in himself to do it, will let you win. And the opponent who can defeat you but underestimates your ability out of over-confidence will be done for by his own complacency and arrogance." (A.Mujtaba).

This is something I wrote in a context which I shall not reveal out here on the blog, in my diary, to which I write on a sporadic basis. It came almost sub-consciously...I hardly realised it as my hand moved to write this...At that moment it was just another out-pouring of my mind through a pen on to paper...but re-reading it later made me realise how much this actually fits in, not just to the situation I wrote it on, but in general as well...

It is rather surprising at times to see how insecure some people can be, and how complacent others can be...but in the end, it's the middle-ground that matters, because extremes of anything are not good...

Music Choices: May it Be (Celtic Women) - OST Lord of the Rings

2010-06-08T18:02:00.000+04:00

The Lord of The Rings is one of the finest movie trilogies to be ever made...in effect it's just 1 movie split over 3 releases, similar to how Tolkien's legendary novel is 3 volumes (because of the publishers back then, not Tolkien himself)...

The soundtrack for the movies is composed by the legendary Howard Shore...and of all the tracks in the soundtracks for the 3 movies, the very best is "May it Be" by Enya (which plays alongside the credits in Fellowship of the Ring)...

Enya's rendition of her own composition and lyrics (using a few expressions from Tolkien's Quenya Elvish language) is beyond excellence itself...but the 2005 live performance by Lisa Kelly (from the band Celtic Woman) is a notch above even Enya's performance...

In simple words, live performances don't get much better than what Lisa was able to come up with...the music, chorus et al all support her beautifully, and the control she has over her voice is absolutely amazing...

Here's the youtube video for that:

It doesnt go without mentioning the lyrics...inspirational to say the least...

May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be as darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home

Mornie utúlië (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantië (darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now

May it be the shadows call
Will fly away
May it be you journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun

Mornie utúlië (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantië (darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now

A promise lives within you now...

Music Choices: Coke Studio

2010-03-25T22:32:00.003+04:00

It's not all that often that I come across music which I like so much...but Coke Studio is by a distance the best music I've come across from the sub-continent, at least for 2009...

NOTE: All songs I've highlighted here can be downloaded from www.cokestudio.com.pk. These songs are all from Season 2. Season one has some great numbers as well but I wont be covering them here. The MP3 files from the CokeStudio site are 320kbps, so the files can be quite large. All videos embedded here are from www.youtube.com/cokestudio.

While Mustafa Zahid holds his own as Roxen's lead singer (and his performances in Lams, Rozen-e-Deewar, Bujh Hai Gaya and Tera Mera Rishta are absolute crackers), Coke Studio treads a different path...it's about experimenting with music.

Modern or old lyrics, coupled with super-charged drumming by Gumby, and the traditional "dholak" by Waris Ali...and to ice the cake there's guitaring by Omi and Violin by the unmatched Ustad Javed Iqbal...and lets ofcourse not forget the flute melodies by Ustaad Baqir Abbas...and that's not all, some songs even feature instruments like the ubiquitously Persian "Rubab" or the distinctly South-Asian "Sarangi"...you get the picture...

There were nearly 25 or so performances in the 2009 season...ofcourse not all of them pass through my radars as recommended...here's the ones I liked:

(The list is purely numerical and not in order of preference)

1. Jal Pari by Atif Aslam (Urdu/Punjabi)

Atif does a reprise of his previously appalling song "Jal Pari"...and gives it a new life in this version. He starts on soothing slow notes, and moves up to faster paced lyrics seamlessly and with uncanny ease. The part where he almost "takes off" from slow to fast pace, (from around 4:00 onwards) and then falls back to gentler notes is remarkable, and shows the lad has come of age since he first burst on to the scene in 2004...Good going Atif.

2. Aj Latha Naeeo- Javed Bashir (Punjabi)

If there's one person who has done justice to one of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's most famous renditions, it's Javed. This song is in my view the absolute best of the entire 2-dozen odd performances in Coke Studio Season 2 (2009),

For the more restless ones out of you, skip the first 1:20 of the song. And then just plug in a good pair of headphones or speakers, sit back and let the music take over. This song is not about melody. It's not about tunes either. This is all about energy, and the ridiculously smooth fusion of classic lyrics and western music by Rohail Hyatt as composer. Gumby's drums, Javed's powerful lyrics and the touch of the traditional "Dholak" drums makes for a very good listen. That's probably an understatement, it makes for an almost addictive song! And if you want to watch the highlights of the match, do give the song a listen from 5:30 onwards.

Two thumbs up to this one!

3. Paimona by Zeb and Haniya (Dari/Persian)

This is not my favourite by a long shot. But it still makes it to my list of recommended songs simply because I like Zeb's voice...soft, soothing voice, and the music that goes along is bloody brilliant.

4. Dastaan-e-Ishq- Ali Zafar (Punjabi)

What do you get when you take poetry by Peer Waris Shah and Bulleh Shah, and add to it flute notes by Baqir Abbas, and violin by Javed Iqbal? Well, you get this song which is done beyond excellence by Ali Zafar. The music is heavily dominated by violin and flute, and does absolute justice the song.

And for those who understand, the lyrics are very touching as well.

Want the best part of the song? make the jump to 3:50. From there onwards it's just bloody fantastic.

5. Aankhon ke Sagar- Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan (Urdu)

They say it's hard to improve on perfection...but Shafqat proves it wrong to some extent by bettering what was already an absolutely awesome performance in his earlier album...the music is dominated this time by Dholak and Sarangi, and except for Shafqat's dark glasses in an already dim studio, good job!

5. Bari Barsi- Josh (Punjabi)

Canadian duo Josh come out with an energetic rendering of an all-time Punjabi classic...If you don't get the lyrics, just go with the music! And yeah, the ending comes out of nowhere...but it's ends the song very well nonetheless.

6. Mai Ne Mein- Atif Aflam (Punjabi)

This is almost a punjabi version of trance...for those familiar to this type of music, this song will throw you into a state of trance from 1:30 onwards...from there on, just close your eyes and take a dive into the abstract lyrics that go with an amazingly soothing music composition till it ends...

The lyrics of this number are abstract enough to throw even the most experienced translators into a state of coma...but the "Alaap" from Atif is one of a kind...and when you have dhol music alongside it, who really cares about lyrics?

Bulleya- Ustaad Riaz Ali Khan (Punjabi)

A textbook rendition of Bulleh Shah's poetry...nothing too bombastic, but worth a listen nonetheless. Riaz's voice shows signs of ageing in places, with marked signs of shaky notes in some places...but experienced hands is what you need to handle Bulleh Shah properly (or you end up like Rabbi Shergil's abysmal rendition that whacked the life out of the entire poetry).

Husn-e-Haqiqi- Arieb Azhar (Punjabi)

Khwaja Ghulam Fareed's poem Husn-e-Haqiqi is rendered by Arieb Azhar...and he does a marevellous job in my opinion. He appears to be a tad too animated, but that may be a side effect of the passion he sings this song with...

I found a translation of the poetry as well, which can be seen here

The poem basically is a description of the various forms God is worshipped and remembered in different faiths...

________________________________

These are my choices from the 2009 Coke Studio. Ofcourse there are some genuinely bad performances as well in the same show...for example, Atif Aslam's "Wasta Pyar Da", where he sings the Punjabi lyrics par excellence, but absolutely butchers "Billie Jean" alongside it in the mix...Or "Titliyaan" by strings, where instead of enjoying the music, I was struggling to get what they were singing to begin with..

So that sum's up this edition of MusicChoices. Till next time, enjoy the tunes, Cya all!

P.S. Please do not ask me for the MP3s of the songs. They're all available at the website given in the first 2 paragraphs.

Nokia E63: A short-lived experience

2010-03-12T10:28:00.010+04:00

Today I returned my Nokia E63 to Optus World in Chadstone, after all of 18 hours with me, of which it only spent 4 hours turned on and in my hands with a SIM in it...

It has been getting rave reviews all over (well for the price, at least)...but the unit I got had a big flaw...the keypad light didn't stay on. Even when it was pitch-dark. It might be a quirky unit in the box, or just me not digging deep enough into the settings...but when the guy at the Optus world couldn't make it budge from not lighting up the keyboard in a dark place, it wasn't exactly rocket science to guess that the unit was faulty.

I could have chosen to go for a one-for-one swap with an identical but brand-new unit, but I opted to have this one returned and refunded. So as it stands at the moment, I'm still on the hunt for a phone. But before I resume the weekend searches online for a good phone, I'll have to wait patiently before the refund gets processed back into my accounts.

Update: Optus World has processed the refund and it has been cleared to my account as well. So here's a thumbs-up to the customer service of Optus World Chadstone. They didn't fuss around when the handset I returned to them was a suspect DoA* (some stores like to give customers the run-around at times...like "Oh Sir we understand but the unit has to be inspected by 5 technicians at Nokia first before we accept the DoA*"), and refunded the full purchase amount without fuss when I told them I was rather uninterested in an identical replacement handset (which possibly might have the same flaw as the one I returned, because I suspect the keyboard backlight issue is a design fault with the ambient light sensor and light leakage around the LCD bezel, but that's just me I guess)...

In all honesty, the few hours with the phone didnt leave me impressed one bit with the unit even if I don't consider the faulty keypad backlight...

True it has a whale of a battery that can probably last a seriously large amount of talk (or standby) time , a price that keeps seeing it run out of stock at nearly every phone outlet in my vicinity, and a tactile keypad that many consider better than the E71...but it has more flaws, or rather omissions than I am now accustomed to, having had an N82 for a couple of years (which is still with me), and alongside the powerhouse Nokia, a Motorola V9 (which went to Dad), a Samsung i560 (also no longer with me) and now a BlackBerry Bold 9700...

First up, it doesnt have a volume rocker. And neither does the headset have in-line volume controls. Big blooper Nokia. The last thing I want while listening to music is to keep fumbling for the phone in my pocket and dig into the menu for the music player every time I need to raise/lower the volume a notch or two.

Then there's the keypad...it's nowhere near as good in feel as the Berry. It seems a bit of an unfair comparison and I will agree to it (RRP for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is AU$799, whereas the Nokia E63 is sold by telcos in the locked state for AU$200ish and outright for 250ish). But when there's a Berry 9700 in your pocket, and the E63, you wouldn't want to touch the Nokia. Spoiled habit? maybe. The 9700's keyboard is that good.

The Camera on the E63...well GSMArena's words will suffice: "Should'nt have bothered". And to boot, there's no camera key either.

And my gripes didnt quite end here...the retail box is very patchy, with just the phone, battery, charger, manual and headset. Where did the PC-Suite DVD and Data cable go? Come'on Nokia, there's a limit to how stingy you can get (and that limit is not defined on this phone....it's the 5230 which gets that honour, shipping without a stylus, memory card, data cable, or even a DVD)

Then there's the implementation of themes and icons...the icons on the phone look very crude and ancient. It's the same S60v3-FP1 system as the E71 and much of the previous-gen N-Series, so why it gets the short-shift even in the software side is rather bizarre. Sorry Nokia, another thumbs-down.

And lastly, the build quality is nothing to write home about either. The plastic all over the phone feels OK, but the general vibe it exudes is nowhere near as polished or classy as the E71. It almost screams "I'm cheap!" right in your face.

It's horses for courses in the end...and those whose needs are satisfied with the phone will no doubt love it...after all, it has a battery that under infrequent use may last well close to a whole week, a full QWERTY keypad (although Nokia is under some serious fire from Samsung on the mid-low end QWERTY phones), excellent signal retention in areas where even the BlackBerry gives way (and it's not a bad receptor by any means), WiFi, and a low price to complement it all. But for me, it simply didn't click. It didnt quite have the "kick" of confidence that I would get from buying something and coming back satisfied with the fact that it would keep me going for the next couple of years.

I wont rate the phone in this post...this is not meant to be a review. A few short hours with the phone, of which it would have spent probably like less than half an hour in my hands is insufficient for me to call any ratings on it. But my experience with it is not something I would remember for too long. I think I had developed a distinct bias against the handset unknowingly even before I thought of giving it the rundown for a review...so I'll leave it at that. Score: Unrated.

I guess it's back to keeping the hunt on till the right one clicks in...I dont mind spending a higher (possibly significantly higher if worth it) amount on another handset provided it is reliable enough. Perhaps the Samsung S8500 Wave might fit the bill if it isn't priced like how the OmniaHD was at launch...The Wave is more of a successor to the S8000-JET, so I hope (and think) the price should start lower than the i8910-OmniaHD, which is a member of the more elite Omnia family of handsets from the Korean powerhouse...And to cut myself off before I start fantasising too much, perhaps Samsung will realise that the Wave will need to have a low price compared to its peers if the Bada OS is to be anywhere near successful...

And Nokia, can you please stop shafting the Australian consumers? the E71 is still AU$380...drop the nonsense guys, and bring it back to what it's worth. And that is all of US$275 (AU$330 or so when GST is added).

And that goes to you too, Samsung. The i8910HD's 8GB version should be dropping close to AU$450 now, because the S8300 was a total dud. And because you've left the i8910 as little more than a piece of tremendously capable hardware, it should probably be AU$400 instead. And yeah, bring on the subsidies like the i560 (OK, I'm probably drifting into a bit of a dreamy state here maybe)...

As for Sony Ericsson, it's easy enough to see why you guys are dropping deeper and deeper into the red every quarter. Your phones are simply not worth the price you ask for them. True that the U10i (Aino) has an 8MP cam and ships with a fancy bluetooth dongle, but anything which has your trademark (read: sign of ridiculous obstinacy) FastPort connector is not worth AU$500. Not with the fact that it's just another A300-based phone with a touch-screen that only works with more or less nothing in the phone (except the picture gallery).

And even if it is, then your previous flagship, the W995 should be worth like AU$350 by now. But it doesnt matter does it? Because it certainly seems you've decided to be erased off the catalogues of mobile phones pretty soon, and for good I suppose (remember Siemens Mobile?).

Notes:
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 mentioned in this post is an Optus handset, supplied by Optus as part of a post-paid contract. It is unlocked but the software carries some customisation.

The E63 mentioned here was an Optus PrePaid handset. The unit was an E63-1, Black. Optus mentions the handsets as being locked to their network. However, the unit mentioned here was unlocked out of the box.

Disclaimer:
The information and pricing is correct as of 12-03-2010, 1739 AEDT. No responsibility is taken for the accuracy of the information, and it should not be relied upon solely for your purchase decisions. Please check with your mobile phone dealer or carrier for up-to-date and more specific information. I take no responsibility whatsoever for any price discrepancies between this blog and the actual retail price of the unit, which is discretionary on the retailers and/or carriers.

For convenience of readers, I have linked the names of handsets mentioned to respective specifications pages from GSMArena.com.I share no affiliation with the website whatsoever, and any links provided are for information/indicative purposes only. Hence, I assume no responsibility for any inadequacies in the published specifications by the website.

*DoA: Dead on Arrival. This term refers to mobile phone handsets that have an immediately perceptible major fault right out of the box, or if they develop a major fault or stop working as expected within 48 hours of being put to active usage. Handsets that develop major faults between 48 hours and 30 (14 for Sony Ericsson) days of purchase/being put to active use are normally referred to as ELF (Early Life Failure) . Both ELF and DoA require replacement of the entire handset as per policy of most manufacturers.

2009: Year in Review (Random thoughts recapping the year)

2009-12-31T23:17:00.001+04:00

As I write this entry to my blog (which has become more and more of a rarity this year, with almost the entire academic year going through before I resumed blogging), I have a lot of thoughts going through my mind...as I think back over another year that now, in a few hours, will be relegated back to history and memories...

There's a lot I can write about going back over the year...but I am pleased to say that I can shorten it all up into the fact that I finish the year on a high note...

2008 was not a year I look back on very fondly for a few reasons...my academic performance in 2008 left a very sour taste in the mouth, and I started 2009 with high hopes of bettering myself over 2008 and perhaps even the high point of 2007 (which was my first year in university)...And I can say with relief (and perhaps a bit of pride?) that I have put myself back on track in 2009...Both semesters of this year produced good academic results for me, which has given me a big confidence boost as I enter the tenner...

That said, there has been a fair amount of disappointments as well...like coming very close to getting the summer job in Australia but just missing out...but well, every stumbling block is motivation for me to improve myself, so I'll take it at that...

Some more milestones/benchmarks went by in this year as well...

I was in Oman for vacations back in Jan as well...and I had the pleasure to witness Oman winning the Gulf Cup 2009 after a rather long wait...It felt absolutely amazing to be in the middle of the celebrating crowds along the Corniche, and that day will remain in my mind as a day of celebration for a long while...Omanis and expatriates alike, seeing everyone burst out on to the roads was true representation of the One Oman, One Pulse! slogan...

My Canon PowerShot S80 completed 5,000 pictures, of which 3,000 were saved and kept on my PC on a permanent basis, while the rest were torpedoed...I absolutely love photography (though I find less and less of time to stick my hand into it now), and I find that experimenting with settings is the best method of getting the best out of pictures...This camera started its stint with me in Jan-2006, and as of now, it's still going strong...so that's US$650 well spent in retrospect...

I completed exactly half of my 5-year (10-semester) course at university on the 16th of July, when results for S1-09 were shot out on the Results by SMS service...This was a big landmark for me, and a reminder that such progress is not possible without the support and motivation from my family and friends...

Coming to a broader perspective, being a keen follower of the currency and equity markets, I will recap some of this as well...

2009 is seen as a "year of recovery" for almost all countries ravaged by the so-called "Global Financial Crisis" during late 2007 and 2008...Oil has recovered to circa US$80/bbl from lows of US$33/bbl in 2008, Gold resumed its stratospheric climb and went smashing past US$1200/ounce before settling at the 1100 level (US$1092/ounce as I write)...the Aussie dollar has outperformed almost every other currency by a distant margin as well, recovering to go above US$0.90 (high point 94 US cents), from its trough of 60.5 US cents back in late 2008...

The Australian economy was seen doing surprisingly well among all the major economic powers...how sustainable any "recovery" is will be revealed in due time...

From a tech perspective, a year Sony Ericsson would like to forget about, and Nokia would be fairly neutral on...Sony Ericsson continues to suffer big losses as it keeps churning out over-priced phones which self-destruct as soon as put under any serious usage, while Nokia continues to consolidate its position...the Koreans have set a strong foothold in the market as well with a fair few success stories to write about...

In 2009 I saw the price of 32" LCDs dropping under US$400 for the first time...yet another signal that the ugly abomination that is the CRT TV should be relegated to the scrap-yard in this day.

I don't intend to bore readers with more yada-yada, so I'll try to crunch my Year-in-Review into a list...here's a shot at it:

Best of 2009:

Best voice:
Mustafa Zahid (Roxen)...singing in a captivating voice, with excellent control and consistency, my personal choice for male voice goes to Mustafa Zahid of Roxen...
Among females, I give it to Nadia Ali for her song "Love Story"...a distinctly trancey voice, with good control on it...

Best Song:

With Coke Studio upping the ante big-time this year, this has to be a list in itself rather than one single standout name...The songs which stood out to me are (not in order of preference):
Bujh Hai Gaya- Roxen (Single)
Jal Pari- Atif Aslam (Coke Studio)
Aankhon Ke Sagar- Shafqat (Coke Studio)
Aj Latha Naeeo- Javed Bashir (Coke Studio)
Love Story-Nadia Ali (Single)
Dil Ibadat- Javed Ali (Tum Mile)

Best Movie:
Avatar...I dont think this one needs much description!

500 Days of Summer...a run-of-the-mill story, told in a very refreshingly different way...I give it a definite thumbs-up!

Other Bests:
Doner-kebabs from Melbourne Kebab Station (MKS) on Sydney Road, Melbourne; the best Turkish food I've had in a long long while...thumbs up!

Sennheiser HD-202 Headphones; got them this year in August, and absolutely LOVE the sound these cans can push through...

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone

Intel Core i7 processors

Dell's RGBLED display for XPS-16 laptops...just one look at the demo unit at Chadstone had me thinking "this one's my next!"

Worst of 2009:

Sony Ericsson; yet another "epic fail" sticker on their foreheads with the US$700 Satio...seriously, you guys should give up making phones. You make them overpriced, unreliable and most of them just fall apart once in the customer's hands...Big Thumbs down to you guys! You should learn from your own quality controls which produced gems like the K750i and K800...

Apple; like c'mon! what's with all the hoopla? Apple is stuck back in the stone-age, and thanks to writers of NYT, present stuff that was ubiquitous in 2002-03 Nokias as the best thing since sliced bread...I include iCrap in this list because it's overpriced and over-hyped...thumbs down!

Other worsts:

Melbourne's buggy, over-budget MyKi system for public transport ticketing

Melbourne weather, remains as unpredictable as ever, and to top it up, bakes us all with an unusual heat-wave in november...thumbs down!

I guess this should be enough of random rambling for most readers for the time being...so here's wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous new year! May the new year bring for all of you peace, happiness and joy, and success!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!

Airline Review: Thai Airways Internaional (THAI)

2009-11-28T23:15:00.023+04:00

Muscat, the capital of Oman, a Middle-Eastern country with a touch of difference, and Melbourne, the capital of the Aussie state of Victoria down towards the south-east and perhaps the most diverse city in the world, and one of the most liveable in the world, are the two cities that most of my international travel takes place between since the last three years or so (Muscat-Lahore is probably as frequent, but in terms of the miles/hours flown, it’s much smaller).

Separated by a good 12,000 kilometres of land and sea, the two cities are 6 (and in times of DST in Melbourne, 7) time zones apart, and the only practical way to get there faster than a shipping container onboard a Panamax is, yes, you guessed it…by plane. Now obviously, flying that distance, which is already a bit of an endurance test for the restless traveller, in sub-standard or uncomfortable conditions is more than likely to go down as less than impressive with most.

There are no direct connections between Muscat and Australia, but several options exist. Connections such as Muscat-Dubai-Melbourne (MCT-DXB-MEL) or Muscat-Dubai-Singapore-Melbourne (MCT-DXB-SIN-MEL) are operated by Emirates, Qatar Airways commences its Doha-Melbourne service on 6-Dec-2009, so another possible route will be Muscat-Doha-Melbourne (MCT-DOH-MEL), and Etihad flies into the city as well, so Muscat-Abu Dhabi-Melbourne (MCT-AUH-MEL) is probably another possibility (Why Etihad’s online reservation system doesn’t let this combination be reserved is something I am not very sure of). Then there’s THAI’s connection, which runs from Muscat-Bangkok via Karachi and then connects on to Bangkok-Melbourne; effectively it’s MCT-KHI-BKK-MEL but the technical stop in Karachi is rather negligible. Although it adds an hour or two to the itinerary, they don’t ask continuing passengers to disembark and re-board, so here’s one up to THAI already.

However, as with any other purchase of significant monetary cost, it is important to ascertain the value the service has to offer. Back in 2007, the only direct fly-in combination to Australia from Muscat was Emirates and Thai. While for some reason the guys at Emirates think it is appropriate to charge fares that go within touching distance of the stratosphere, Thai’s fares were a lot more digestible for me.

While Feb 2007 may seem a bit dated, back then, Emirates’ fare for a Muscat-Melbourne one-way was OMR 332, return at OMR 651 (for the EK406/EK407 flight from Dubai-Melbourne, which, for some reason is treated almost as if it’s an all-business-class plane), while Thai’s fare was OMR 235 one-way, OMR 455 return.

Come 2008, THAI’s fare was at OMR 262 one-way and OMR 491 return, while Emirates thought it would be nice to give customers a good joke by quoting me OMR 388 one-way and OMR 698 return…and 2009 was no different when Thai quoted me OMR 265 one-way and OMR 475 return, while Emirates fished out a “special” fare of OMR 770 return for me…

Obviously at those quoted fares, I would choose only one option unless THAI flew using DC3s or DeHaviland Comets (which they don’t).

This review is loosely based on a scoring methodology similar to the one used in AirBlue’s review earlier. However, the scoring method itself has been extensively revised. Now each category starts with a baseline score of 3.5, and then penalties or positive points are added or subtracted as required. Then each category score is weighted to get the final score.

Lets get to business now...but before getting down-and-dirty with the review, some preliminary information may be helpful...

Preliminary Information for ticketing and fares

Fares for airlines are, as most people would be aware, booked in three or four broad travel classes i.e. First, Business, Economy and on some flights, Premium Economy as well. However, that’s where the simplicity of three travel classes generally ends. Within each travel class there are several fare categories that vary in price according to the restrictions and validity periods on the tickets.

First class, although very rarely offered nowadays on most airlines, can carry the fare codes of F,A and P, out of which F is full-fare unrestricted, P is standard-fare and A is discounted fare which may carry reduced validity or other restrictions. However, first class fares are generally stratospheric and there’s little, if any at all difference between the different fare categories as such. First class fares usually get 150% of physical miles as their FFP points. For example, a flight that is physically 1000 miles will be 1500 miles on the FFP accounts of first class fares.

Business Class fares can carry fare codes of C,D,J,I and Z. J is full-fare unrestricted, C and D are standard-fare, while I and Z are discounted fares (not that they’re anywhere near “cheap” though). Business class fares typically accrue 125% of physical miles for FFPs.

Economy class is where it gets interesting. Economy class tickets, unlike their counterparts from upper tiers of the pricing bracket, vary greatly in both pricing and the conditions on which they are issued. Economy class fares are usually categorised as:

Y and B is full-fare unrestricted economy class. This is usually a very high fare, often within touching distance of the more discounted business class fares. This carries no restrictions whatsoever and a validity of 12 calendar months from date of issue.
H,M and N are standard-fare economy class buckets. M is usually a very common fare bracket for people wanting a reasonably flexible fare, with little restrictions if any. M fares can closely mimic Ys or Bs in terms of validity, FFP miles etc but is priced much lower.
Other fare brackets in lower categories can have reduced validity, or other restrictions such as lack of airline-paid accommodation at long stopovers of reduced or prohibited accrual of FFP miles. Such fares can be designated G, I, K, L, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, or X. Out of these, generally the Q fare is very common because it allows for 100% accrual of FFP miles. On most airlines, U,V and W fares only get 0 to 50% of the actual flown miles.

Lets now get down to the actual review...

Ticketing and Reservation

From Muscat, the only viable option is in-office booking, because this is not a station for online reservation as yet (neither are several other destinations in South Asia such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad etc). From Australia, there’s a reasonably sophisticated online booking system in place, with fairly flexible options for flight configuration etc. However, this is where the goodness probably ends when it comes to ticketing; the system falls flat on its face when it comes to pricing the flights properly. From Muscat, for example, it only likes to pick up the full-fare Y-category pricing. This seems to be more of a fault of the Amadeus booking system rather than THAI themselves, so I’ll let them have the benefit of doubt on this. That does not let them escape penalty altogether though.

THAI get a penalty of 0.25 for no online booking from Muscat, and a penalty of 0.5 for the hit-and-miss fare quotes from the online reservation system. The reasons for the penalty are primarily because as a potential customer, seeing a US$3200 fare for economy class where I expect to pay around US$1300 may well be enough to put me off if I am unaware of the shortfalls of the system. And to top it up, Thai’s representatives in Muscat are less than exemplary for customer service (Not that Emirates’ agents do any better at their office, happily ignoring me to discuss shopping over the phone last time). However, relative performance taken into account, I don’t think they deserve negative points for Bahwan Travel’s behaviour, and either way it was better than Emirate’s GSA (UTT).

Coming to some positives, from Melbourne TG offers the iCheck-in facility, which can greatly speed up check-in procedures at the airport. The iCheck-in allows for checking in for flights online up to 24 hours prior to the flight, and pre-allocating seats if required. This is a very nicely done system, so I give them half a point for this. Not only that, this allows you to skip the normal check-in queue and get to a counter dedicated for online check-ins. Overall, I think THAI should take a leaf out of Emirate’s books when it comes to implementing online booking systems in terms of making it intuitive and flexible. Not that it’s bad as it is, but there is room for improvement.

Scores for ticketing and reservation:
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: -0.5 for unreliable fare quotes online, -0.25 for absence of online booking from Muscat
Positives: +0.5 for the excellent iCheck-in system in Melbourne
Total: 3.25 out of 5

Initial Impressions and Check-in

THAI like using the slogan “Smooth as Silk” when it comes to most of their marketing material. And the check-in process in Melbourne went word for word as they claim, clean as a whistle. Staff at Melbourne airport is very courteous, and very accommodating for most passengers. No fuss over “Sir, please remove 3 grams from your suitcase or we charge you half a reserve bank per kilo” as long as you’re not way over limit and conform to OH&S rules of Melbourne Airport (i.e. no individual item to weigh more than 32 kgs). Most economy class passengers were let off with a shade under 30kg, which is fairly generous considering the ticket shows 20kg for most passengers.

Boarding passes are printed on TG’s standard stationery, mostly white with the top stripe differentiating the classes (economy is pink, business is purple). The boarding cards are printed nice and clean, and the staff took added effort to ensure all passengers understand the gate the flight boards from as printed on the passes. They even went as far as highlighting the gate number and gate report time by pen on it to emphasise. Now that’s something I am very pleased with, as taking added effort to ensure passenger facilitation is not something many carriers would fuss about with.

Check-in from Muscat is usually equally good, except that the OAS staff don’t usually do the manual highlighting of gate numbers and boarding times. This experience has been pretty much the same over the last three years or so; another plus-point for consistency. One slight gripe I had was speed; check-in could be a tad faster but with the standard of service I’ve seen, big difference…they’re not terribly slow even now.

Scores for Initial Impressions and Check-in:
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: -0.1 ; check-in could be a tad faster
Positives: +0.5 for the excellent behaviour and professional courtesy of the check-in staff, particularly at Melbourne (includes politeness when handling with knuckle-headed passengers), and +0.5 for the added effort taken to ensure passengers understand boarding times and gates clearly.
Total: 4.4 out of 5

Boarding and welcome

If put in one word, it will be “excellent”. The boarding process was structured to reduce the hassle passengers face when getting on to the plane (and these weren’t those dinky 737s or A320s…we’re talking a 777-300 and an A330-300, both large widebody planes seating more than 300 passengers. Both flights (TG462 outbound from Melbourne and TG 507 outbound from Bangkok) were full right to the brim.

The gate staff at both airports followed the standard boarding priority with Business Class and ROP/Star Alliance Gold members boarding first, then passengers with infants, and then normal economy class passengers. That’s where it gets interesting…the Business Class cabin has wider aisles and seats relatively few passengers (42 or so), so no biggie having them settle down…but when there’s 265 passengers trying to make their way down economy class, it’s not fun. Not at all. The seating is 9-abreast (8 on the A330-300), and if let board without a seating order, the plane would become an absolute mess…passengers up the front trying to set their luggage into overhead bins and clogging the aisle while passengers down towards the back wait for aisles to clear…

To get around this, economy class passengers were split into 2 cohorts; the filled up the rear half of the economy class cabin first, and then the front half. That’s a simple idea, and it makes things a lot more hassle-free…I didn’t have to fight my way down the aisle. And to gauge the effectiveness of this simple yet important idea of split cohort boarding, the entire aircraft from Melbourne and Bangkok were filled and ready to go in a total of less than 20 minutes. From both airports we boarded 20 minutes prior to scheduled departure and left exactly on time.

The cabin crew were very friendly, helped passengers with their hand luggage, and the seats already had pillows and blankets kept on them…plus point here too. There are no obvious penalty points that I could whack on them in this category; boarding procedures were excellent all around. However, the Bangkok-outbound flight had only pillows on the seats and blankets were provided on-demand. This can be excused because this was a daytime flight though. This would have been a dock for quarter of a point in a night-time flight.

The safety demo was one of the best I’ve seen. It was thorough and very detailed, and shown as a moderately long bilingual video on the IFE system.

Scores for Boarding and Welcome (inc. safety demonstration):
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: None
Positives: +0.25 for prioritising people with infants, +0.25 for split cohort boarding, +0.25 for the friendly welcome on-board and assistance with hand luggage in overhead bins, +0.25 for keeping the blankets and pillows on every seat beforehand, and +0.25 for excellent safety demonstration
Total: 4.75 out of 5

Seating and Comfort

Seating on both the aircraft is reasonably comfortable, the 777s deserving particular mention. In the travel experience I’ve had with THAI so far (a good 50,000 miles or so), the seating on the aircraft has been clean, comfortable and well maintained. The 777s have foot rests as well, although it’s not very easy to stick your feet beneath your own seat (the control unit for the AVOD in-flight entertainment system is underneath the seats). The A333s have standard economy class seats but they do recline a fair bit.

The 777s have one very nifty feature; reclining the seat does not tilt the back-rest alone. It also slides the hip-cushion forward. So if you recline your seat, the seat itself moves some distance forward while reclining. So, yes, you can recline it fully without the pesky passenger behind you whinging about your seat falling into their lap when you recline it. The A333s don’t have slide-recline seats, but I still had no complaints from the passenger behind me when I reclined my seat fully. Neither did I face any constraints for space when the lady in front of me reclined hers. So no points docked here.

Scores for Seating and Comfort (Melbourne-Bangkok)
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: None
Positives: +0.5 for seats that don’t disturb others when reclined, and +0.25 for presence of foot-rests
Total: 4.25/5

Scores for Seating and Comfort(Bangkok-Muscat)
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: None
Positives: +0.5 for the rather generous recline on the seats that still doesn’t disturb others, even though the seats are not slide-recline
Total: 4.0/5

Seating and Comfort(Overall)
4.25/5 and 4.0/5, average out to 4.13 out of 5 (to 2 decimal places)

In-Flight Services and Meals

On a long flight, the in-flight service can be a deal-breaker if it is poor. Very obviously, no one wants to get stuck 40,000 feet up in the air with a bunch of snobs who walk around the aisles like robots serving food without any emotions or hospitality whatsoever. However, a good experience on-board can make the journey a tad bit easier on the mind…

Let’s face it, airline food is not something to look forward to most of the time, particularly on lower-end airlines. The very mention of airline food is usually enough to evoke memories of bland, plastic-like food that does little other than divert your attention from the drone of the turbofans for a short while.

However, there are some airlines which in my experience don’t provide all that bad a meal on board. There’s PIA with their characteristic “PIA Pulao” rice and then there’s THAI. My experience with THAI with regard to food served on-board has been positive all the way. Lets get down and dirty with the nitty gritty details of this particular journey…

From Melbourne to Bangkok, the selection included 2 options under the standard menu (other options such as vegetarian, Halal, infant food etc are available on-request, but you need to stick it into the system at least 48 hours before the flight). The food itself was hot and didn’t taste all that bad…from Melbourne there was rice and chicken curry, with steamed broccoli as well. Also present was…surprise surprise, a couple of Arnotts® water crackers and Cracker Barrel® Extra Sharp cheddar cheese…now that is thoughtful!

drinks were served nice and cold with plenty of selection available, ranging from water, juices and standard-fare items like Pepsi, Coke, etc. These guys are one of the few out there to carry both Pepsi and Coke…now that’s again rather thoughtful! There was tiramisu cake for dessert.

The flight crew was very attentive and quick to respond to any calls, and just after the meal we were provided with hot towels as well…now the hot towel could have been a tad hotter than what it was (felt more like a warm towel) but nonetheless, it was good enough.

Around 2 hours before landing in Bangkok I was woken up to a gentle “Good Morning Sir!” from the stewardess, who handed us hot towels again before providing us immigration registration cards to fill up for the immigration officers in BKK. Then came breakfast, which was again nicely done. The omelette was hot, and the salad was crisp and fresh. The dinner roll (fine, it was breakfast time, but we still call them “dinner rolls” down under) was warm and crisp as well.

The In-flight entertainment system on this flight was an interactive AVOD system with a control unit and PTV screen for each seat. There was a reasonable selection of movies, including relatively new ones such as “500 Days of Summer”. There’s also games in the system, including Super Mario! The system was at times slow to respond though.

For this leg of the journey I would give them 0.35 points on top of the baseline score for the food, another 0.4 for the excellent service by the attendants, and a quarter for the AVOD system. I dock them one eighth of a point for the sometimes slow response of the AVOD console.

From Bangkok to Muscat the IFE system was semi-centralised and did not have AVOD. This gets no scores hence. The behaviour of the flight crew was just as good on this flight as well, so same half a point for this.

The food on this flight was even better; Three standard choices (excluding special requests), and all of them seemed very tantalising. I took the chicken option. It had in it spicy Pulao rice, chicken curry and Palak Paneer (spinach and cheese curry)…dessert was taken care of by crème caramel cheesecake, so another one-up to them. Half a point again for food. Karachi-Muscat was just a small snack-box with a pastry and some tuna salad. For a one-hour flight, no biggie that.

Scores for In-flight service and food (Melbourne-Bangkok)
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: -0.15 for slow and sometimes unresponsive AVOD system (rounded penalty)
Positives: +0.35 for the very good food, +0.4 for the excellent service by the stewards and stewardesses, and +0.25 for the good selection of programs on the AVOD-IFE system.
Total: 4.35/5

Scores for In-flight service and food (Bangkok-Muscat)
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: -0.1 for no PTV system for AVOD-IFE
Positives: +0.5 for excellent food choices, +0.4 for the excellent service by flight attendants
Total: 4.3/5

Scores for In-flight service and food (Overall)
4.35/5 and 4.3/5, average out to 4.33 out of 5 (to 2 decimal places)

Punctuality

This is where the review gets a tad bit complicated. I don’t have detailed time logs compiled from the last 3 years, but THAI have very rarely delayed me by any material margin. This time, I noted the actual times. Here’s the nitty-gritty:

TG462 was scheduled to leave Melbourne-Tullamarine (MEL) at 0020 and arrive in Bangkok at 0530, a flight time of 9h10min. The flight left Melbourne at 0020 (push-back from gate), take-off was at 0035. Since departure is push-back time, this is spot-on, and gets +0.75. In Bangkok the scheduled landing was at 0530. The pilot announced a landing time of 0520. We touched down at 0518, and docked at the gate at 0523. I give them another full point here for arriving ahead of schedule. We flew for approximately 8h 50min instead of 9h10min.

TG507 was scheduled to leave Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi (BKK) at 1510. Due to an operational delay, the flight was held up for half an hour, and the departure time was rescheduled to 1545. We left Bangkok at 1550 (push-back), took off at 1610. We arrived in Karachi at approximately 1910 local time, which was spot-on in terms of the pilot’s estimates announced over the PA system. We left Karachi at 1900 (push-back), took off at 1910 (approx) and landed in Muscat at 2035 local time, and de-boarded at 2040 which was again exactly in line with the pilot’s estimate of 1h30min of flying time. I would be enticed to dock a good half a point or so for the Bangkok delay, but the fact that they made it to Muscat almost perfectly on time again, with a delay of only 10 minutes means that I will not be penalising them very severely. I deduct 0.25 points for the delay from Bangkok, and award them 0.5 for making it almost exactly on time to both Karachi and Muscat. Covering up a delay of nearly an hour and arriving only 10 minutes off the scheduled time, take a bow guys!

Scores for Punctuality (Melbourne-Bangkok)
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: None
Positives: +0.75 for the on-the-dot departure, +0.75 for arrival ahead of schedule with an added bonus of 0.25 points for arrival ahead of schedule.
Total: 5/5 + 0.25 bonus points, total 5.25/5

Scores for Punctuality (Bangkok-Muscat)
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: -0.25 for delay from Bangkok (caused by a cascading delay of 35 connecting passengers)
Positives: +0.5 for covering up most of the delay time and in the end arriving 5 minutes off the printed time
Total: 3.75/5

Scores for Punctuality (Overall)
5.25/5 and 3.75/5, average out to 4.5 out of 5 (to 2 decimal places)

Stopovers and Accommodation

When connecting between flights, long stopovers are sometimes unavoidable. For example, when I fly from Muscat to Melbourne, after arriving in Bangkok, the next closest flight to Melbourne is 16h25min away. For such a long layover, I expect the following:

Airline to provide reasonable accommodation as part of the airfare itself for the period
Transfer my checked-in luggage by themselves without me having to re-check-in.

Back in February when I flew with THAI, they provided me a hotel room and 3 meals in the Novotel Hotel right next to the airport. Ditto for 2008. In 2007 I was provided a room and 3 meals in Ambassador Hotel inside the city. Both are good hotels and had a wide array of food on offer.

There is an option to have a dayroom integrated into the fare on the way back from Melbourne as well, but THAI has not recommended I use that option because it costs almost US$300 on top of the fare, and booking the dayroom using a pay-on-book basis from the TG Melbourne Office costs AU$100.

Scores for Stopovers and Accommodation
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: None
Positives: +0.5 for providing a very good hotel for accommodation, and +0.25 for always recommending the cheaper option for stopovers wherever I needed them.
Total: 4.25/5

Customer Service (Including Australia office)/Response to Feedback

Now that the details for staying up in the air are taken care of, lets get to how they do back on the ground. I generally deal with 2 THAI reservation offices, so I’ll put them through their paces individually.

The Muscat office is a representative office (GSA), managed by Bahwan Travels. They’re nice to deal with in person, having a dedicated counter for THAI at their MBD office. The staff is a bit hit-and-miss in terms of consistency, but usually will honour any commitments they made in terms of pricing provided it is not significantly deviant from the fares at date of ticketing. Their service over the phone is very patchy though; you would need a stroke of luck for them to pick up your call before at least 2 of your calls time out and hang up on you…there is no centralised call queuing system in this office. 0.25 penalty points for lack of a proper phone system for calling and reserving. I would dock half a point for this usually, but none of the GSAs in Oman appear to have such a system, so I’ll let them have the benefit of that.

The Melbourne office is located in the CBD area (250 Collins Street), which is a fairly easy to access location, even if a tad bit distant from the outer suburbs. There is an Australia-wide local-call number available (dialled as 1300 651 960 from any Australian phone; charged as a local call from all networks), and the Melbourne office also has an IDD-accessible number. It is possible to do a lot on the phone including making a reservation (payments still need to be made in the office though), change reservations, put in meal preferences etc. The waiting times on having your call answered can be rather long, but that’s not something particular to THAI. Australia-Bangkok is a very busy route, and THAI is one of the prime connectors of the Kangaroo route (Europe-Australasia), so it’s not unusual to have to wait a fair bit to have calls picked up. However, because there is a call queuing system in place, it doesn’t hang up on you.

The staff at the Melbourne office is very professional and courteous. In 2007 one guy from that office went as far as telling me not to book a ticket through them because he was not likely to have the best price on offer. My missing FFP miles in 2008 were pushed through manually through the system promptly as well back in 2008.

Scores for Customer Service: Muscat
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: 0.25 for no call-queuing and management system
Positives: None specific on top of baseline
Total: 3.25/5

Scores for Customer Service: Melbourne
Baseline 3.5
Penalties: -0.25 for long wait times when calling to the Australia-wide access number
Positives: +0.25 for presence of an Australia-wide local call number and a centralised booking station, +0.25 for the professionalism and courtesy of the staff at the Melbourne office, and another +0.25 for having my missing FFP miles pushed through manually in a quick and painless procedure.
Bonus: +0.25 for having the professional courtesy of letting me know that they might not necessarily offer the best pricing for their own tickets
Total: 4.25/5

Scores for Customer Service: Total
4.25/5 and 3.25/5, average out to 3.75 out of 5 (to 2 decimal places)

Value for money

This part of the review is very volatile, because ticket prices keep changing every so often. I am going to base my review on prices I’ve paid over the last 3 years:

2007: Muscat-Melbourne One-way OMR 245, Melbourne-Muscat one-way AU$ 1205
2008: Muscat-Melbourne Return, 12-month validity M-fare OMR 491.200
2009: Muscat-Melbourne Return, 12-month validity, Q-fare OMR 475.100

This compares with Emirates’ quoted fares of:
2007: Muscat-Melbourne One-way OMR 325, Melbourne-Muscat one-way AU$ 2055
2008: Muscat-Melbourne Return, 12-month validity M-fare OMR 772.200
2009: Muscat-Melbourne Return, 12-month validity, Q-fare OMR 711.400

Emirates has different fares for their flights depending on whether they are of the non-stop Dubai-Melbourne variety or the Dubai-Singapore-Melbourne ones.

That said, a comparison over 3 years leads me to conclude THAI offers much better value than Emirates, and even though a comparison of prices as of today would probably be welcome, THAI’s hit-and-miss online fare quotes make it less than easy. I do not have the fares from the Australia station with me, but as such, they’re rather on-par with Emirates when not in seasonal specials.

Moreover, those fares are sometimes skewed because of the heavy demand on the MEL-BKK route.

I would be tempted to leave the score at baseline, but since THAI appears to be consistently cheaper than others, I’ll award them a +0.75 on this. There might be cheaper options available, but at the same level of service, I’m yet to come across anyone much cheaper.

EDIT: I've been asked about the luggage allowance for THAI by several readers. The standard luggage allowance is 20/30/40 kilos (Economy/Business/First respectively), with another 10 kilos allowed for silver status on the frequent flyer program. Silver status requires 10,000 accrual miles in a year, and is then valid for 2 years from date of issue. While Emirates has revised their luggage allowances recently, the fare differences are still large enough to keep THAI at the score they have.

Final Scores (each out of 5)

3.25/5 for Ticketing and Reservation
4.4/5 for Initial Impressions and Check-in
4.75/5 for Boarding and welcome
4.13/5 for Seating and Comfort
4.33/5 for In-Flight Service/Meals
4.5/5 for Punctuality
4.25/5 for Stopovers and Accommodation
3.75/5 for Customer Service (Including Australia office)/Response to Feedback
4.25/5 for Value for money

Overall 37/45 which is 4.1/5 (both rounded slightly)

Weighted Scores

Each scoring category has been assigned a weight ranging from 1 to 2. The following rationale is behind it:
part of the service least frequently used is allocated a lower weight. For example, ticketing and reservation gets a weight of 1 because once ticketed, they’re pretty much out of the game for that category.
Initial impressions/check-in and boarding and welcome get 1.5 because they are encountered every time you board the plane. An itinerary is likely to have multiple flights in many cases, so this is important.
In-flight services, and comfort and seating get a weight of 2 because they are relevant for the entire duration of the flight.
Punctuality is 1.8 rather than 2, because there are possibilities of delays due to reasons beyond carrier control such as weather etc.
Stopovers and accommodation gets 1.5 because they are relatively important, particularly on connecting flights separated by large time blocks. However, they are not part of every itinerary and hence don’t get the maximum weight of 2.
Customer service is important, but again it’s not always required. For the informed traveller, much of the job of these guys can be done online.
Value for money gets a full-on 2, because in today’s world, air-fares aren’t cheap. And value is one category where carriers have a lot of room to turn up the heat on the competition.

Here's the finalised scoring table inclusive of weightages:

THAI get an overall weighted score of:

62.5 out of 74

Which is

4.22 out of 5

An 84.4% score, which is a definite “High Distinction” by Monash standards. And a well deserved one.
Conclusions:

Pros:
• Excellent on-board service
• Check-in staff very courteous
• Planes are comfy and clean
• Food is good
• Good value for money
• iCheck-in is convenient

Cons:
• Online booking is hit-and-miss
• Oman booking office doesn’t pick up calls unless called 5 times
• Melbourne office takes bloody ages to pick up calls

4.22 out of 5

I give THAI a big thumbs up, and they have Ahmad Mujtaba’s “First Choice” award. They’ve done it time and again, and provide excellent service with remarkable consistency.

Take a bow guys, you deserve it!

Mini-Glossary for the aerially challenged:

Some acronyms I've used in the review are as follows:
AVOD: Audio/Video on-demand; a type of in-flight entertainment system where each seat is equipped with its own personal screen and each seat has individual controls for the content the passenger wishes to view
FFP: Frequent Flyer Program; airlines have programs where passengers can accumulate points/miles as they travel and the redeem them for various awards/upgrades
IFE:In-flight entertainment system
GSA:General Sales Agent; in many countries (especially GCC countries), airlines dont have their own presence, instead they are represented by an agent acting on their behalf. A GSA may have more authority over local sector pricing than a normal travel agent.
STPC: Stopover Paid by Carrier; an STPC is basically accommodation provided to a passenger at the airline's expense for long gaps between connecting flighs.

Other notes and Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this review are solely mine and do not reflect the views of the management and are not endorsed by any carrier or individual at the time of writing
I welcome any feedback, but please acknowledge if using this review as a source for another publication or website.

Coming Soon: Airline Review- THAI Airways International

2009-11-21T14:32:00.003+04:00

After AirBlue facing the pen-and-diary test at the beginning of the year, now it will be THAI (Thai Airways International) facing the test of the trusty pen and diary on the way to Muscat...

Coming soon on this blog...

Using the same criteria...

the same objective standards of comparison...

Will THAI be able to better AirBlue's scores of 3.17/5 and 3.5/5 (revised)?

And a bonus mini-review as well: Melbourne's SkyBus airport express bus service as well...

To find out more, stay tuned!

Shopping in Muscat

2009-11-21T14:08:00.005+04:00

(Note: Most of this post was written several months ago, so it may be a tad bit outdated...but I think this post was long overdue for the blog)

OK, so it’s shopping season again…Eid, Christmas, holiday season, you name it. And it’s time for all the sales (and so-called sales) and discounts to be on. Many people will be out there doing the deal-hunting, looking for pretty much everything from the much-awaited winter clothes to the glitzy Mont-Blancs…

One thing which is now revealing itself very significantly is the fallout from the prolonged weakness in the Omani Rial over the last year or so. Many retailers who brought in the inventories over the summer to stock up for the winter collection were slugged with high prices due to the weak rial, and this is now being passed on to consumers as the products trickle down the chain. This is particularly evident in items from Europe, because the Euro skyrocketed more than 35% over the last 2 years or so before hurtling down again.

Here’s my rundown of different outlets in Muscat…what they offer, how they offer, and are they worth your money? Read on to find out…

Khimji’s Megastore (Khimji Ramdas)

Perhaps one of the best known retailers in Oman, and not surprisingly so. Being one of the oldest retail houses in the country, it is inevitable for Khimji’s to have built up a strong brand portfolio. However, the shopping experience is as exciting as cold sausages topped with hot fudge. The ambience in the stores, particularly the one in Qurum (in between Alasfoor Plaza and Pizza Hut) is nice. But start a convo with the salesperson and soon you’ll have a spinning head with all the claptrap they throw at you trying to sell you stuff and trying to make you feel you’re getting a “special” deal.

Where?
In Ruwi, opposite the Haffa House Hotel and next to SARCO, close to the Ruwi Roundabout. In Qurum, it’s sandwiched between Alasfoor Plaza (The Omega showroom) on one side and Pizza Hut on the other, located in the same vicinity as BHS, Capital Stores and Salam Stores.

What do they sell?
Quite diversified…Fragrances, Cosmetics, Electronics, Jewellery, crystal ware, clothing and garments, writing instruments, luggage and bags, eyewear, cookware, bedding and towels.

What brands do they carry?
Most brands of designer perfumes, Chanel cosmetics (some other brands too, but relatively limited range of cosmetics), Cross and Sheaffer writing instruments, Ray-Ban eyewear, Nikon cameras, Swarovski crystal ware and jewellery, Samsonite Luggage, Bagagerie bags, Carlo Potti suits, Royal Scot, Tanagra and Toyo Sasaki crystal ware, Noritake, Moulinex kitchen electronics, Fissler, Ballarini and Tefal cooking utensils, Thomaston bedding and towels, Mora Bedding and Linen.

What is it like to shop there?
Not very exciting. The stores look deserted, the salespeople are not the most courteous around either.

How about pricing?
Be prepared for plenty of nasty shocks if you expect good pricing from them. The discounts seem to be a bit hit-and-miss for the most part, being uniform in sale and non-sale periods on most products. Pricing on Nikon cameras, particularly the higher end models and DSLRs and lenses is bad to the point of being a disgrace. Cross writing instruments are priced quite good, but the discounts are somewhat a sweet-talk tactic. Pricing on Samsonite luggage is nothing to write home about either, except the odd good deal here and there on the clearance items. The pricing on Laptop bags is good though. Pricing on Thomaston towels, Mora bedding/linen and cooking utensils from Fissler is passable.

Any further comments?
You have competitors for most of the stuff they sell; Ray-Ban is also stocked by most major opticians while Areej, Salam, Mohd. Sharief and Capital Stores provide plenty of choice in perfumes/cosmetics and luggage (Delsey at Capital and Carlton at Sharief). Search for a deal and you might end up with one like the 50% discounted Cross® rolled gold pen I managed to get a couple of years ago, or the 35% discounted American Tourister rollercase. Pricing on Samsonite luggage is not anything to highlight either, and be well aware of the tags on the products; the prices pre-discount are sometimes outrageous. Do your research and you might be lucky enough for a good deal. And finally, they don’t stock the Black Label range from Samsonite.

Camerasura (Khimji Ramdas)
This is a new face they are using for selling cameras in the newly opened City Centre in Qurum. Needless to say, pricing is exactly the same as the megastore.

Where?
City Centre Qurum

What do they sell?
Cameras and accessories

What brands do they carry?
Canon, Nikon

What is it like to shop there?
Sales staff seem to be quite nice, but seem to have an assumption that the customer is naïve. The shop-front is quite nice, well lit up.

How about pricing?
Same as Khimji’s Megastore.

Any further comments?
For smaller point-and-shoot cameras you have plenty of choice in the big retailers like Lulu and Carrefour. For more professional equipment you don’t have many other options in Oman.

Al-Salam (Salam Studio and Stores LLC)
Another well-known retailer for luxury brands not only in Oman but also in the UAE, Kuwait etc. Carries a wide range of brands, and having renovated the shop-front after being ravaged by Gonu, sports a very new look on the shop. The name tag they use now is “Al Salam”, and “Top Note” for the outlets that sell only fragrances.

Where?
Qurum, behind the Al-Wadi centre (Al-Salam), and Madina Qaboos (Al-Noor Plaza), and both the Lulu Hypermarket outlets. (Madina Qaboos and Lulu have the “Top Note” shops only). In City Centre as well, keeping garments.

What do they sell?
Fragrances, cosmetics, garments, footwear, accessories.

What brands do they carry?
Focus quite heavily on Hugo Boss for garments, footwear and accessories like belts, cufflinks etc and La Prarie for cosmetics. Also keep most designer brands of fragrances like Chopard, Dior, Hilfiger etc. Quite a strong focus on Lacoste as well. Keep quite a number of other very luxurious brands as well. The City Centre outlet stocks Hugo Boss, Canali, Just Cavali, Lagerfield, Lacoste, and sometimes A|X, Dior and the likes as well...and there’s Gerry Weber for the ladies too.

What is it like to shop there?
Not bad. The store seems very deserted most of the time though. The lighting etc in the Qurum store is good, but has a very characteristic tone of tungsten lighting, which makes it less than ideal when purchasing garments. The stores in City Centre are a lot more modern in layout though; the denim section of the City Centre outlet is very youth-oriented.

How about pricing?
Quite OK to ridiculous for the brands they carry, not fantastic by a long stretch. Most of the brands they carry are inherently very costly, but the pricing is hardly passable. The mark-ups seem to have gone up dramatically after the shop was renovated.

Any further comments?
The days when you could get a Hugo Boss suit for US$200 during the sale here seem to be over now, with even in the sale the suits from Hugo going for well over US$500 now after the post-Gonu refurbishment of the store. Nevertheless, could suffice as a last resort if you have no other choice. As a side note, try Pierre Cardin/Domani/Ted Lapidus/Azzaro for good deals on the upmarket brands. Or try Areej and Capital Stores for the cosmetics/perfumes and then decide on the best deal.

Capital Store
Another very well-known luxury brand retailer in Muscat, coming from the well-known Jawad Sultan Group (of the older Mustafa & Jawad fame). Has been a very stable player in the market ever since the days of their showroom in Muttrah more than 10 years ago.

Where?
Qurum, in between the Alasfoor Plaza and its adjoining car park and Al-Salam.

What do they sell?
Luggage, designer fragrances, cosmetics, writing instruments, watches, accessories (wallets etc), luxury table-ware, crystal ware.

What brands do they carry?
Thom Bohemia, Baccarat, Villeroy and Boch, Mont Blanc, Waterman, Delsey, Azzaro, and most other brands of designer perfumes and cosmetics as well.

What is it like to shop there?
Quite a good experience. The store has a nice layout, but the sales people are less than a treat to deal with. The range of Delsey luggage is quite good, but they don’t stock the lower end of the range.

How about pricing?
Nothing fantastic here either. Tags are again phoney, and “discounts” on some products will bring prices more or less to RRP levels.

Any further comments?
Perhaps check the offers out on competitors like Khimji’s and Al-Salam, and then choose between the three. The outlet in Markaz-Al Bahja stocks perfumes and cosmetics and a limited range of Waterman pens. Also check out what the Mohd. Sharief store in the same mall offers and your choice might be a tad easier.

Areej Muscat
Opened with the first opening of the Muscat City Centre (in Seeb) a few years ago, and stirred quite a hype in the market for luxury brands of cosmetics and perfumes, and to some extent, accessories in Muscat. Areej was the first retailer here in Muscat to bring in offers with bundles instead of monetary discounts. Areej has been quite successful so far, offering prices very competitive with its rivals.

Where?
Muscat City Centre (Seeb)

What do they sell?
Perfumes, Cosmetics, Ladies’ bags

What brands do they carry?
Most designer brands you can think of. CK, Dior, YvesSaintLaurent, Rochas to name a few. The list of brands they carry is truly enormous.

What is it like to shop there?
Quite a nice experience. The salespersons are well-trained and the showroom has a very nice feel to it. Well lit, and the lovely ladies at the sales desks (most brands have their own) are very nice to deal with. Monetary discounts are very rare to come by, instead they’ll offer bundles in times of sales.

How about pricing?
Mostly in line with the prices you would expect from the brands they carry, plus a markup varying from nominal to somewhat steep on some items. Prices are very much in line with RRP.

Any further comments?
Offers a solid alternative to Khimji’s, Capital and Salam. Do check out the deals on the other three as well, and perhaps Mohammed Sharief too before you take the plunge and part with your cash.

Mohammed Sharief and Brothers
Another well-known retailer not natively from Oman itself; They also have outlets in other places, but the one I remember having visited is the one in Al-Ghurair City, Dubai. Sharief has often had a reputation among the masses for being a very pricey store, although it has more to do with the brands than the store. One notable feature of this store is the sale; the sale runs for quite a significant time period, with the store having as many as six in a year.

Where?
Markaz-Al Bahja, Seeb

What do they sell?
Luggage, eyewear, watches, jewellery, cosmetics and perfumes from some designer brands, and a few mid-range brands, decorations and crystal ware, bedding and linen etc.

What brands do they carry?
Pierre Cardin bedding, watches from some mid-range and more obscure brands, crystal ware from some very prestigious brands, and luggage from Cartlton. Eyewear is not a huge range (better stick to the opticians for that), being limited to Ray-Ban, Sting, and a few odd pieces from DKNY etc.

What is it like to shop there?
The store is big and spacious, and well lit. The sales staff seem very silent, but respond to queries very readily.

How about pricing?
Not fantastic, but passable. The luggage is priced quite OK for the brand, especially in the sale.

Any further comments?
For eyewear perhaps the opticians are a better option (like the one in Lulu, or the likes of Magrabi and Yateem). For perfumes etc, good deals can be found. Compare it with the Capital Store outlet in the same mall, and your choice might be easier.

Mont Blanc
I’m not sure who operates the shop for Mont Blanc here, but it seems to the Mohammed Saleh guys from Muscat itself. This one’s a Mont Blanc exclusive store that doesn’t stock anything else.

Where?
Muscat City Centre (Seeb)

What do they sell?
Writing instruments, refills, accessories, cufflinks, belts, watches, jewellery, wallets, bags, luggage

What brands do they carry?
Just Mont Blanc

What is it like to shop there?
The interior of the store is every bit as classy as the brand they sell. Usually manned by just one person, who I’ve found to be quite courteous most of the time. The range of pens is quite wide, covering almost all of the Meisterstuck range, and most of the Starwalker range as well.. They don’t stock much of pefumes (I’ve only seen a couple now and then), and the range of jewellery is quite limited as well. Not a hell lot of watches either, but perhaps Mont Blanc does not have a huge catalogue of watches from what I’m aware. There’s quite a big range of cufflinks in store.

How about pricing?
Quite close to actual RRP prices of the products. Refills and accessories for pens are expensive. There are no discounts on prices as tagged.

Any further comments?
Not bad for Mont Blanc fans and enthusiasts. Will also suffice as a stop for refills etc for existing Mont-Blanc owners.

Canon (Genetco)
Genetco has been a long-time distributor for Canon in Oman. Right from their showroom next to the Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Ruwi a number of years ago to their now separate showroom which they call “Canon World” in the basement of the Araimi complex.

Where?
Basement, Al-Araimi Complex, Qurum

What do they sell?
Digital cameras, digital SLRs, lenses, speedlights, printers, scanners, memory cards, batteries, carrying cases etc.

What brands do they carry?
Canon, SVD, Kingston

What is it like to shop there?
The sales people don’t walk up to you at all unless you prompt and probe for answers, their way of answering back is not ideal either. The shop itself is small, but the layout is quite good though, with items shelved at either side of a wide aisle.

How about pricing?
Out of the world. And that is not in a good way. Quoting OMR 299 for a US$500 camera is enough of an example I believe. Way way overpriced.

Any further comments?
Don’t touch them with a 10-foot pole if you have the choice. Check the electronics section at Lulu and the E-Max store to see if you can find a better deal. I would be hesitant to go there even as a last resort with the prices they quote.

Marks and Spencer
The well-known upper-middle range British retailer set foot in Oman with the opening of the Markaz-Al Bahja almost half a decade ago. M&S is one of the very few brands in the price range they fall into (although Pierre Cardin etc are priced somewhat lower for certain products with the 75% rebate they run in Oman and UAE) along with ZARA. Woolworths ZA was one store of similar pricing before they closed before expansion of City Centre Muscat, and was never seen again.

Where?
Markaz Al-Bahja, Seeb.

What do they sell?
Clothing, footwear, accessories, belts, wallets, jackets, cosmetics, artificial jewellery, undergarments, cooking utensils, food items and confectionery, books.

What brands do they carry?
Carry only their own brand, but have sub-brands within the Marks and Spencer label, such as Collezione, Autograph, Blue Harbour.

What is it like to shop there?
It’s mostly a “help yourself” store. You are free to browse through the shelving, and if you need to try something on, the sales staff will willingly direct you to the fitting rooms. Jackets etc can be tried right in the aisles, which are laid in an interlacing matrix with small shelves to prevent jamming. The store is well lit, and spacious too. Everything is from their brand label.

How about pricing?
The pricing is fixed and there is no room whatsoever for any discount on what is tagged. Discounts are run in the sale though. The fallout from the weak rial has trickled through, with most products being around 10% more costly than about 2 years ago. Sales are rare, as they only have 2 collections coming in for the year. Most good shirts are around the US$55 mark, jackets range from US$85 to US$220, suits go up to around US$350. They don’t stock the more expensive cashmere suits. For the fall/winter 08-09 collection the conversion factor is around 0.77 Rials to one Sterling.

Any further comments?
Somewhat pricey but good quality stuff. Check the deals in the Pierre Cardin/Domani/Ted Lapidus/Azzaro and ZARA stores as well. For the price it’s good stuff. It’s a bit disappointing to have only 1 or 2 sales in the year compared to 3-4 for most others.

BHS
Another British store that has been present in Muscat for quite a long time. Represented by GIE (Gulf Imports Est.) here in Oman, the range of items they carry is certainly nowhere near the wider portfolio of BHS. The outlets in Dubai (franchised to Al-Maya) carry a much wider range. That aside, the outlet in Muscat has held up well over all these years.

Where?
Qurum, right behind Sabco Centre, right next to Pizza Hut.

What do they sell?
Clothing for kids, men and women, girls’ accessories, accessories etc for infants, undergarments.

What brands do they carry?
They carry their own brand for the most part, but like M&S, have sub-brands like Tammy, Atlantic Bay, and Mothercare.

What is it like to shop there?
Quite infamous for always excluding much of the store from discounts during the sale (a practice that still continues but to a lesser extent), it’s not a bad place to shop. Like M&S and ZARA, it’s mostly a “help-yourself” outlet, Lighting on the upper level might feel a tad dim to some. Sometimes the outlet feels a bit understaffed and you might need to look around the aisle a bit to spot the salesperson.

How about pricing?
It’s not very apparent what the base prices and conversion factors are. Again, like M&S, priced are fixed as tagged. Discounted items will say so on the tag during the sale. However, of late the pricing has started to drift off from being reasonable to downright pathetic for some items. For some winterwear, the conversion factor from Sterlings to Omani Rials is around 0.9, 0.95 and even 1.1, which is plain ridiculous. The Sterling never crossed 0.8 in recent times, so the price premium is not very justifiable.

Any further comments?
Perhaps the only store left in this price range, sitting in between Giordano/Hang Ten and the more expensive M&S and Zara. And one of the few stores left which tag items as “45” before the sale and “90 45” during the sale…

ZARA
Before the expansion in Muscat City Centre (Seeb) went underway, Woolworths ZA used to be a very solid alternative to Marks and Spencer in that price range. But as the Woolworths store closed to make room for the expansion, it never went up again, being relegated to a small shop stocking undergarments instead. At the same spot a new entrant popped up, and that was ZARA. More or less in the same price range as M&S, it differs in its styling. While M&S offer a lot of the “traditional” stuff, ZARA is a bit more “hip”, with the clothes being a bit more stand-out.

Where?
Muscat City Centre

What do they sell?
Clothing (Formal, semi-formal, casual), footwear, accessories

What brands do they carry?
The one they’re named as.

What is it like to shop there?
Very much “help yourself”. The shop is not staffed very densely, and most clothes are hung in the shelves in multiple sizes to try out as required.

How about pricing?
Sits in between the BHS and the higher-end luxury brands. More or less in the same bracket as M&S. Jeans etc is in almost the same price range as Levi’s (which no longer has an outlet in Muscat) and GAP. Suits will run you around US$250 for a 2-piece or around the 350-ish for a 3-piece.

Any further comments?
It’s one of the very few outlets left in the price bracket, the other one being M&S. However, with Paris Group having an almost perpetual rebate of 75% on the likes of Cardin, Azzaro and Domani etc, they might also be worth a look. Quality on some products of M&S seems to be a tad better.

Pierre Cardin, Azzaro, Domani, Ted Lapidus, Balmain and Verri
It might seem a bit strange to crunch all of them together in one roundup, but it makes sense. Firstly because they all stock similar stuff, and secondly because in Oman they’re all part of the same franchise (Paris Group).

Where?
Muscat City Centre (has all the outlets), Khamis Plaza (Pierre Cardin), Qurum City Centre (Pierre Cardin, Balmain)

What do they sell?
Men’s clothing, undergarments, accessories (neck-ties etc), winterwear, footwear, small luggage.

What brands do they carry?
The names themselves, plus Daniel Hechter, Guy Laroche.

What is it like to shop there?
Quite nice. The shops are not huge, but are staffed by a couple of guys who will be able to help out with things.

How about pricing?
These brands can be ridiculously costly at times (but well worth the money in terms of quality), but somehow Paris Group has a 75% rebate on all tagged prices. This makes them very good deals for the money you pay. Regardless of that, they are still quite pricey. Azzaro and Verri tend to be costlier then Cardin and Domani.

Any further comments?
A definite “check-it-out” if you don’t mind paying a small premium for excellent quality stuff. The prices are very reasonable for the brands (hell they are, with a 75% discount!).

Echolac
This outlet has been there for a very long time now. Often regarded as one of the prime outlets for mid-range luggage such as suitcases, rollercases etc.

Where?
Ruwi High Street, next to Muscat Bakery. Adjacent to the Ariston showroom of Al-Hashar.

What do they sell?
Luggage and bags

What brands do they carry?
Echolac, Regency

What is it like to shop there?
Relatively small shop in the dense Ruwi high-street area. Well lit, and like Canon, has a wide central aisle with shelving surrounding it. Usually staffed by two people, who are very courteous. Range might not be the widest out there, but usually refreshes every month or so.

How about pricing?
Very reasonable for the brand they carry. With the things they carry rarely exceeding US$80, there’s still room for a few notches of discount with some bargaining.

Any further comments?
A definite “check-it-out” if you are on the hunt for reasonably priced luggage.

Samsonite (Khimji Ramdas)
Another shop-front of Khimji’s for selling Samsonite products. Pricing is same as the megastore.

Where?
Muscat City Centre (the one in Seeb). Right opposite Carrefour, next to the Raymond Weil showroom of Omasco.

What do they sell?
Luggage and bags

What brands do they carry?
Samsonite

What is it like to shop there?
Not very exciting. Nicely set up shop, but quite narrow and boxy.

How about pricing?
Same as the Khimji’s megastore. Use your negotiating skills, and you might end up with a good deal. Otherwise for the unsuspecting customer, a total rip-off for some items. Surprisingly, they don’t carry the prestigious Black Label range from Samsonite. Pricing on the laptop bags is good though.

Any further comments?
Check it out if hunting for Samsonite stuff. Try Echolac for cheaper luggage, or Lulu. Or if looking for high-end stuff, check Salman Stores and Lulu for Delsey, or Mohammed Sharief Stores and Lulu for Carlton.

Rado/Tissot (Al-Sahil)
When talking luxury watches, not all of them have to cost you more than a small BMW. Rado is one of the brands. Although not the most impressive when it comes to design (that’s my subjective opinion however), Rado timepieces are not bad for the price. Tissot is another option, and generally the Tissots come at a price point even lower than the Rados.

Where?
Ruwi High street, close to Oman United Exchange Co., Muttrah, City Centre (Seeb).

What do they sell?
Watches

What brands do they carry?
Rado, Tissot,

What is it like to shop there?
Not bad. Be a tad bit wary of the tagged pricing though. Negotiate a bit and you’ll get a discount of sorts.

How about pricing?
Fairly good. Discounts are there as well during sale periods. Pricing is close to RRP pricing, which is not a fantastic level, but still passable.

Any further comments?
Yet again, another sole dealer for a brand here. However, not a disappointing experience. I’ve bought a couple of watches from them including a Tissot before, and sometimes the deals can be very enticing during sales.

Lakhoo’s (Lakshimas Tharia Ved and Co.)
I’ve found myself less and less of a customer at these guys (and indeed many others) since the trend of ready-made suits started catching on. (Lots less hassle, and better pricing at times). However, for those who insist on the tailored stuff, this outlet is one option.

Where?
Ruwi High Street (Makha Centre), Qurum (Al-Araimi Centre)

What do they sell?
Suitings, ready-made clothes (menswear), tailoring for men’s clothes

What brands do they carry?
Raymond and their sub-brands (Parx, Park Avenue)

What is it like to shop there?
Pretty run-of-the-mill. Nothing stand-out in the experience. The tailor in-store is not fantastic either.

How about pricing?
Close to RRP of the products, but with a steep conversion rate used.

Any further comments?
Pay them a visit if on the hunt for a suit or some ready-mades. Or if you can’t live without having your suits tailored.

Magrabi Opticals
My first encounter with Magrabi was almost 3 years ago, when I was searching for a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses. With the Rudys nowhere in sight at that time, I struck gold at Magrabi and became the proud owner of a pair of Rudy’s. It’s a shop with the “we mean business” look…

Where?
Qurum, next to OIB.

What do they sell?
Eyewear

What brands do they carry?
Rudy Project, D&G, DKNY, Dior, Carrera, Diesel, Versace, Safilo, Ray-Ban, Police, Army to name a few.

What is it like to shop there?
Excellent. The staff was well-versed with their stuff, but not pushy. The interior of the shop is spacious and well lit. It can be a bit cold at times though.

How about pricing?
Very reasonable for most brands. Rudys seem have gone up significantly in pricing over here even though a lot more opticians carry them now (*cough cough Euro cough cough*). Don’t expect any discounts on the Oakleys though.

Any further comments?
On the lookout for a new pair of specs? Go check ‘em out.

Yateem Optician
The oldest optician in the region, with a well-established chain not just in Oman. As with most long-time players, expect a wide brand portfolio and some good deals as well.

Where?
Qurum (Al-Araimi complex), Muscat City Centre (Seeb)

What do they sell?
Eyewear

What brands do they carry?
Oakley, Carrera, F.A.Porsche, Ray-Ban, Safilo, DKNY, Dior, D&G, Hilfiger and lots more

What is it like to shop there?
Not bad here either. The staff is attentive, and the showroom interiors are well laid out as well. The City Centre outlet is a tad dim when it comes to lighting.

How about pricing?
Good. Oakley pricing is very close to RRP levels, and there’s no discount on Oakleys (sometimes a measly 10%, but something’s better than nothing!). Rest of the range can have good discounts during the sale period.

Any further comments?
Need a new pair of contacts? Or smashed your glasses in basketball practice? Then make your way to Al-Araimi.

Khimji’s Watches
The offshoot of Khimji’s Lifestyle products division selling luxury watches and recently, the uber-expensive phones from Vertu (if they can be called phones that is). In quite a stark contrast to the store it sits within, this outlet has some really good pricing on Rolex, Oris, Chopard and other timepieces.

Where?
In Ruwi, opposite the Haffa House Hotel and next to SARCO, close to the Ruwi Roundabout.

What do they sell?
Luxury watches, phones from Vertu

What brands do they carry?
Rolex, Chopard, Cartier, Piaget, IWC, Oris, Bell & Ross, Vertu, Chanel, Tudor, Gerald Genta

What is it like to shop there?
A good experience. It is quite natural to expect a high level of service in an outlet of this calibre, and Khimji’s watches doesn’t disappoint. The staff was courteous, and the range they have is quite wide.

How about pricing?
Depending on model, ranging from good to very good. The Rolexes start from around US$3500, quite in line with their prices elsewhere. Pricing on Oris is also very good, somewhat better than the Rivoli guys in Dubai. Be prepared to pay a premium on models like the Cosmograph Daytona though, as they tend to be on a waiting list.

Any further comments?
If you’re a fan of luxury watches, you’ll need to pay up. And Khimji’s watches does not disappoint.

Qurum Jewellery
On the lookout for watches that cost anywhere from the equivalent of a month's rent in a Sydney apartment to the equivalent of a car (perhaps even more)? Head over to Sabco then...

Where?
Sabco Centre, Qurum

What do they sell?
Luxury watches, jewellery

What brands do they carry?
Breitling, Bvlgari, TAG-Heuer, Patek-Philippe, Ebel, Baume and Mercier to name a few.

What is it like to shop there?
A good experience. It is quite natural to expect a high level of service in an outlet of this calibre, and like Khimji’s watches, they don’t disappoint much either.

How about pricing?
Again depending on model, ranging from passable to very good. The TAGs start from around US$800, a tad high for what they should go for. The Breitlings are priced OK, and so are the Bvlgaris. I didn’t really check the jewellery for pricing (that’s best left to the ladies!). Fanboys of Patek will ofcourse know that Pateks can cost more than a Toyota Aurion, so no surprises there either. The prices are close to listed price (in terms of percentage if not absolute amounts).

Any further comments?
Fans of Breitling, Patek or TAG don’t have any other place to go for, at least in Muscat.

Haider Stores

Where?
Ruwi high Street, next to Alukkas Jewellery.

What do they sell?
Watches

What brands do they carry?
Casio, Seiko, Citizen, Eliz, Louis Cardin, Westar, Swistar to name a few

What is it like to shop there?
Not bad, but don’t expect any concierge-style treatment either. The sales staff will attend very readily to queries, but sometimes you may need to wait to be attended to. A bit of bargaining is also something you need to learn to extract the best deal from here.

How about pricing?
Nothing shocking here; they don’t carry very pricey brands, and pricing within the brands they carry is reasonable. With a bit of negotiation, they can go a bit further as well.

Any further comments?
A definite “check-it-out” for low to mid-priced watches.

ConneXions (OHI)
Connexions is a spin-off name for OHI electronics, previously housed in the basement of Al-Araimi complex. Home to some prestigious brands like Bose and JVC, OHI has had a solid reputation for quite a while. While the fanboys of products from Bose are not very easy to find (Bose tends to be an expensive brand well worth the money), the shop also houses the JVC brand from the “land of the rising sun” (Japan).

Where?
Ruwi High Street, opposite Makha Centre, and Qurum, in a building next to the parking lot close to Al-Salam.

What do they sell?
Electronics

What brands do they carry?
Bose, JVC and a few others

What is it like to shop there?
Not bad. The showrooms are well lit up, although they can feel a bit deserted at times. Sales staff is nice too.

How about pricing?
There isn’t much room to play around with prices of Bose products, but as such, it falls somewhere in the middle. It’s not pathetic, but not fantastic either. Given they are the exclusive distributor for Bose in Oman, you may not have much leeway if you’re a diehard Bose fan. Bose is known to be very stringent with pricing on their products; nobody discounts bose as far as I’ve come across. However, Bose does not put any ceilings on prices, and you’ll see prices on Bose towards the higher side here. With a bit of negotiation, good deals can still be found at times.

Any further comments?
Not fantastic by a long shot…but not pathetic either.

HangTen
Sitting below M&S and Zara in pricing, and a slight notch below BHS are Giordano, Jeanswest and HangTen. HangTen is a definite winner when it comes to denim among all of them though.

Where?
Muscat City Centre (Seeb), Al-Araimi Complex, Ruwi High Street

What do they sell?
Clothing, accessories

What brands do they carry?
The name itself.

What is it like to shop there?
Good. The staff at Al-Araimi are quite nice…similar at City Centre.

How about pricing?
It’s not ridiculous. Prices did shoot up in the last year or so, but have started to trickle down again. Discounts are good during the sales. Generally they use a conversion factor of 1:10 for the Omani Rial and UAE Dirham on the prices printed in dirhams on the products.

Any further comments?
A definite check-it-out for mid-range clothing. Also check out Jeanswest, the brand from Australia in City Centre for an alternative.

Giordano
Neck-and-neck in competition with HangTen, Giordano manages to differentiate itself by having less vivid colouring in their garments. Giordano, while in the same price segment, has quite a different product lineup that will help make your choice wider alongside HangTen and Jeanswest, and perhaps the Canadian guys at Bench as well.

Where?
Muscat City Centre (Seeb), Al-Araimi Complex

What do they sell?
Clothing, accessories

What brands do they carry?
The name itself.

What is it like to shop there?
Good. The staff at Al-Araimi are quite nice…similar at City Centre.

How about pricing?
More or less in line with the with RRP pricing for the products set for the middle east region. As such it’s not a very costly brand, so there’s not much that can shock you for pricing.

Any further comments?
A definite check-it-out for mid-range clothing. Also check out Jeanswest, the brand from Australia in City Centre for an alternative.

Jumbo Electronics
Opened in Muscat soon after Muscat Electronics gave up its stronghold on the Sony dealership (Muscat Electronics was a minority interest of Jumbo before some fall-out happened between the two), Jumbo is not an unfamiliar name for many. One of the largest electronics retailers in UAE and perhaps the GCC, Jumbo is by no means a small outlet here, esp. for Sony products.

Where?
CBD Area, Al-Araimi Complex

What do they sell?
Electronics

What brands do they carry?
Sony, Nokia, Apple

What is it like to shop there?
Depends really on what you are looking. The showrooms sport a very modern look, with most products having live demos as well.

How about pricing?
The $100 sony MDR-NC100s were quoted to me for OMR 49.500, which is a good 11 Rials, or almost 25% higher than Sony’s own RRP (like what the?). Cybershots are priced fine. They don’t carry a huge range of headphones or headsets from Sony (where are the MDR-NC6 or MDR-NC500 headphones?!) but carry quite a lot of TVs. Pricing on VAIOs is in line with RRP pricing, but as such, VAIOs are priced ridiculously bad all over the world.

Any further comments?
Do check out the deals at Lulu Hypermarkets and Carrefour as well…they also stock Sony TVs.

Carrefour
It’s been a fair while since these guys opened up in Muscat, brought in by the Majid-Al-Futtaim guys…these are hypermarkets, but I’ll only focus on the technology/electronics section primarily in my review.

Where?
Qurum City Centre, Muscat City Centre (Seeb)

What do they sell?
It’s a hypermarket, so expect to find a lot of stuff. There’s a fairly large range of electronics, including phones, digital cameras, computers and accessories, and ofcourse the customary supermarket stuff like groceries, and some cheap clothes as well.

What brands do they carry?
Too many to lost individually

What is it like to shop there?
Not bad. Expect the place to be very crowded, particularly on weekends.

How about pricing?
Generally OK. Not the best around, close enough to RRP in most cases.

Any further comments?
Shopping trolleys now need a coin deposit of 50Bz

Centrepoint (Landmark Group)

Well-known in Muscat for middle-range clothes etc, most Centrepoint outlets are sub-divided into several further sections or “sub-shops” within the larger outlets.

Where?
Al-Khuwair (on the road towards Madina Qaboos from the Al-Khuwair roundabout) and CBD (nearby the clock tower, next to MSM)

What do they sell?
Home accessories and furniture at Home Centre, rest is primarily a departmental store. Splash carries garments for adults, Shoe Mart/Shoe City is one of the largest footwear outlets in Muscat, BabyShop carries infant and children’s clothing and accessories, and LifeStyle carries a some of the more loud designs for home decoration, cosmetics from most middle to upper-tier mainstream brands and a fair bit of other personal care accessories as well.

What brands do they carry?
ShoeMart carries a lot of brands, including RBK, Puma, Adidas, Nike, Duchini, Bata, Lee Cooper etc…Splash carries Lee Cooper and some others, Home Centre usually carries their own “Home Classics” brand, LifeStyle carries HomeClassics as well as some rare brands in Muscat like John Frieda among others.

What is it like to shop there?
Can get very crowded on weekends, especially on sale days. Expect a fair bit of a queue on the chekouts during weekends in sale season.

How about pricing?
Generally quite reasonable. Discounts during sale season are good.

Any further comments?
Athough I personally find all outlets except for Shoe Mart rather off my taste (but that’s just me I guess), it’s still one of Muscat’s most popular shopping places for mid-range clothing.

Restarting the Blog

2009-11-21T13:47:00.002+04:00

It's been a while since I stopped blogging...VERY long infact, stretching the length of almost the entire academic year...another year done with at uni, and another annual vacation break before getting down-n-dirty with studies again in March 2010...

Searching in my archived drafts, I found a couple of blog posts that were started but left unfinished as I stopped blogging...one of them was about shopping in Muscat which I am trying to finish...hopefully it will be done soon and it will be up on the blog for all to read...

I also intend to write an airline review...after AirBlue coming under the spotlight last year, this year it probably will be THAI going under the magnifying glass and the "pen and diary" test...

Music Choices: Nadia Ali -II

2009-03-13T16:46:00.004+04:00

Nadia Ali is not an unknown figure (especially for fans of trance)...on a more personal note, I like a few of her songs as well...she has a really good voice which flows very smoothly...here's a few of her songs which I like:

Rapture

Oh yes...the 2001-02 superhit song...this song was the one to get her into the limelight...composer Marcus Moser is also there in this (the band IIO was Marcus and Nadia)...Here's the video:

There have been many remixes of this song...the Riva Remix is a particularly good one in my opinion. However, this one by Armin Van Buuren is excellent as well:

Another one of her really good songs is "Is it Love"...it came in both slow and faster versions...

The slow version:

There's no official video for this song.

The Radio edit for this song is one of the best radio edits I've heard in a long while:

(The song finishes at around 3:07...the last 2 minutes are blank for some reason)

The latest single out from Nadia is "Love Story"...perhaps the only one after Rapture to have an official video...

The videos may not be much to write home about, but the songs are good nonetheless...

MusicChoices: Bujh Hai Gaya (Roxen)

2009-03-07T16:58:00.007+04:00

Posting on MusicChoices after a long break, the song I'll recommend this time is "Bujh Hai Gaya" by Roxen...

Regardless of whether it's lifted from Omer Nadeem's "Dil Ka Diya" (Roxen's version has significantly different lyrics), Mustafa Zahid does a brilliant job with the song...the music complements it really well also, and overall the song is done very well.

The link to the audio is HERE (albeit in very mediocre quality)

And here's the Youtube link:

The lyrics are as follows:

Bujh hai gaya yeh dil ka diya
Tere bin laagay na mora jiya

Kaisi Jalan, hai kaisi saza
Tere bin laagay na mora jiya

Aansoo ki ladi aaj behnay lagi
Yeh aankhen meri kya kehne lagii

Sansen dil main mere jo behnay lagi
Yeh mujh se hain kya, ab kehne lagi

Yeh pyar tou hai deewana
Dil mere tu ne na jana

Kaisa tha tera iraada
Mujh se hi mujh ko churana

Jaane na yeh zamana

Kya hai jaza,Kya hai saza
Tere bin lagay na mora jiya

Bujh hai gaya yeh dil ka diya
Tere bin laagay na mora jiya

Yaadein mujh se meri aaj kehne lagi
Yeh kya bekhudi, yeh kya zindagi

Raatein bhi iss tarah hain katne lagii
Andheray main jaisay ek ajnabi

Ab tou hai qissa sunana,
Apna hua jo begana
Chaha tha uss ko manana,
Par mera dil hi na maana

Jaane na yeh zamana

Yeh zindagi bhi hai ek saza
Tere bin lagay na mora jiya

Bujh hai gaya yeh dil ka diya
Tere bin lagay na mora jiya

Unfortunately I don't have the translation for the lyrics as yet...and my skills at translating poetry are less than stellar, so I'll leave it there...

Another one I recommend is "Aana Jana" by Roxen...it took me a while to find this, although it's still only half the song...

Here we go! (Mk. V)

2009-03-05T14:51:00.001+04:00

From 2-March-09, and my 3rd year in uni has started...seems to be a demanding year up ahead, with plenty of engineering subjects in the mix...

Hopefully this semester goes well...

Mobile phones to have a standardised charger

2009-02-18T15:59:00.004+04:00

As the MWC (Mobile World Congress) continues in Barcelona, Spain, some really good news emerged from the expo yesterday...

17 companies, including mobile phone manufacturers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and telecom providers like 3 group, Telstra, Vodafone etc have come to an agreement for all their mobile phones to move to a standardised charger.

This comes as the European Commission pressurised mobile companies to standardise the chargers or face legal proceedings from the powerful 27-nation bloc.

According to Australian newspaper The Age:

EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told German radio station Deutsche Welle last week that with over 30 different kinds of charger in use across the 27-nation European Union, his "patience is now at an end," according to local reports.

According to the article in DigitalLife section of The Age, the standard will be Mini-USB (used by N95 for data connections, and most digital cameras, notably Canon), while the CNET article on the same mentions the Micro-USB (used by most post-N95 nokias such as N82 for data connections, and by the N85 and beyond Nokias for charging as well) standard for chargers as the adopted shape.

A magnified view of the USB receptacles is shown in this picture from Wikipedia (cropped):

On the left (black) is the MicroUSB used by Nokia phones post-N95, and the white cable on the right is a Mini-USB used by the N95 and most digital cameras.

According to PhysOrg, "The GSMA also stressed the environmental advantages of the new standard, saying the new charger would be more energy efficient and would reduce waste from unwanted or obsolete chargers.

"A universal charger will also make life much simpler for the consumer, who will be able to use the same charger for future handsets, as well as being able to charge their mobile phone anywhere from any available charger," it said in a statement.

The GSMA listed the leading groups in its initiative as 3 Group (Hong Kong/Australia/UK/Europe), AT&T(USA), KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefonica (Spain), Telenor(Norway/Thailand/Bangladesh/Pakistan), Telstra(Australia), T-Mobile(USA,UK) and Vodafone(Australia,UK,India,Europe).

Snobby Apple stays away from the agreement. Not surprising...

Sources:

The Age

PhysOrg

CNET

The search for a secondary phone

2009-02-16T00:01:00.004+04:00

It's the time of the year when I'm phone-hunting (again!)...and this time it's a dual search...Mum's ever-reliable 6670 seems to be on life support now (SIM-tray with a broken hinge, no access to the Memory card, and battery life little over two-thirds of a brand new handset), and so it's time for a replacement.

After a thorough search, I narrowed it down to the N79 and N85...mum chose to go with the N85, which will be with her shortly...

I am the (proud) owner of a Finnish-made N82...one of the finest phones Nokia ever made in my opinion...excellent camera, GPS, and stability and responsiveness that would put Mac OS-X to shame (touch wood).

However, generally I also need a secondary phone to slot in my second SIM card in Australia (Optus is a bit moody with SMSes to Pakistan, so the Vodafone SIM does that job). Since the second-SIM came in, the Motorola V9 handled the primary connection while the Nokia took over Vodafone responsibilties.

The V9 has since changed hands...I have handed it over to dad to replace his ageing 6600 (the forefather of all S60 phones).

I am now on the lookout for a phone myself...where I envisaged mum's phone to be a tougher search, her phone took all of 3 days to lock on...while a more difficult search has come in for me...the hunt for a lower mid-range phone that doesnt have a trashload of negative reviews...here are s0me (possibly not) choices:

Sony Ericsson W910i...generally sells for circa USD 220, Optus sells it at A$200 on rebate...but this one has a truckload of negative feedback

Sony Ericsson W595...pretty much the W910 with the bugs ironed out...has some issues with battery life perhaps...

Nokia has a few coming up...the 5630 ExpressMusic seems to have good specs for the price (circa 200 EUR)...Here's Nokia's take on it...

Update: the 5630 ExpressMusic is now official...Click Here Nokia's page on it...

So while I get myself busy and dedicated to studies soon, I will be on the hunt for a new junior sidekick (secondary phone as well)...guess some time will be spent on searching for the ideal one when I'm not preparing balance sheets and power curves...

Any suggestions? all welcome!

AirBlue responds!

2009-02-13T23:24:00.002+04:00

While checking my inbox today, I came across an e-mail from the managing director of AirBlue...
they have taken the previous blog post seriously (which was its purpose to begin with), and sent a response as well.

The response was very appreciative of my blog post, and offered some justifications as well. (Very plausible to some extent)

Well, on this, I have to say, Kudos to Airblue!

While I do accept the fact that I was a bit harsh in the review, my intention was never to defame or smear them. I do tend to go the whole nine yards if I find room for improvement in something.

That said, the e-Ticketing system from AirBlue deserves an "Honorable Mention" award as well. It's a really slick system, very intuitive and offering more ease of use than Thai's Amadeus system in my experience.

Unfortunately I was unable to review the ticketing system earlier because I did not book my ticket myself.

Here I would add another 2 categories to the score:

Ticketing/Reservation 4.5/5
Response to Feedback 4.5/5

This takes their overall score to:

19/30 + 9/10 = 28/40 = 3.5/5

However, I would keep the score of 3.2/5 as a reference score.

Once again, keep it up AirBlue! I certainly hope to see the assurances being met when I next fly with them.

Due to reasons of privacy, I will not reproduce the email here on the blog.

Airline review: AirBlue

2009-02-12T13:18:00.007+04:00

Lahore is a city of almost 8 million... Pakistan's cultural capital as they say...and my home city.

Muscat-Lahore has been a route I've been flying ever since I was an infant (my mum tells me I was 18 months old when my parents first came to Muscat)...PIA has long held the lion's share of this route.

Although the Muscat-Lahore flight has not always been direct (initially you needed to change over at Karachi, later it changed to the plane taking a 1-hour stop in Karachi, and finally they introduced non-stop flights somewhere around 2000- from what I remember.

The flight to Lahore is between 2h 15min to 3 hrs long depending on weather and routes taken.

This time I flew with AirBlue, a private airline in Pakistan that started flying to Muscat recently. My diary and the trusty pen accompanied me in my hand luggage, and I took the chance to review them thoroughly. Here goes...

Initial Impressions
Not anything to write home about. The check-in staff were stiff and had little (if any at all) courtesy to look up and even greet the passengers. The luggage was checked in fine from Muscat, but from Lahore the service was nothing less than pathetic. There was no conveyor belt at the counter to place the luggage, and the staff were downright rude. Comes in as no surprise that their ground handling is done by Gerry's DNATA...Emirates is equally pathetic in treating their economy class passengers, so perhaps it's natural for DNATA to carry it over to other airlines they service.

The boarding pass issued in Muscat was a blank white card with numbers and figures printed here and there...now that's the limit for being cheap...how much does it cost to print yourself some customised boarding passes?

From Lahore the boarding passes were proper ones...but once again the management shows their stupidity...every single passenger was issued an orange boarding pass, and then they say "passengers with orange boarding passes to board first"....like what the?

I rate Airblue a 2.5/5 for initial impressions.

Boarding and welcome

Muscat-Lahore sector:
No greetings/wishes when entering the plane...and no help offered in locating the seat either. Then no assistance offered with arranging hand luggage into the overhead locker either...

The pre-flight drink was nice and cold...but the safety demo was a total farce. It was rushed and barely understandable.

Lahore-Muscat sector:
Much better welcome on to the plane this time. The lead flight crew was the same lady, but the others were much more courteous, and helped with hand luggage placement as well. The safety demo was again rushed and pretty much useless.

Boarding and Welcome: 3/5

Depature/Arrival Timings

Both the flights (Muscat-Lahore and vice versa) departed on time and arrived on scheduled times as well. The one from Lahore was pretty much spot-on in terms of timing. The one from Muscat faced a 10-minute delay due to no-show passengers.

Keeping to time: 4.5/5

In-Flight Service/Meals

Nothing special here either. There was no provision of a closet/coat hanger in the plane...perhaps this has more to do with the size of the plane (Airbus A320) than the airline itself. So no penalties here.

The meals were pretty standard-fare for a low-cost airline. Both the times they served a chicken sandwich made with a croissant. The accompaniment was a cookie on the Muscat-Lahore flight and cake on the Lahore-Muscat flight.

Asking for additional soft drinks was attended to very promptly.

However, there was no reading material available on the flight, and no cushions/blankets as well.

Inflight service/meals 3/5

Seating

Very barebones seating on the aircraft. The upholstery is leather (or faux-leather), but the seats are quite hard and dont recline much. The recline is excusable considering the size of the plane (A319s aren't huge planes, they are single-aisle short-haul planes). Lack of cushions/pillows on seats gets a penalty mark.

Seating 3.5/5 less penalty -0.5, final score 3/5

Value

Muscat-Lahore return ticket priced at OMR 97 (USD 251.94)

Sector pricing:
Muscat-Lahore OMR 38 (USD 98.70) comprising of OMR 9 fare, OMR 24 in fuel surcharge, and OMR 5 in other taxes.
Lahore-Muscat OMR 59 (USD 98.70) comprising of OMR 19 fare, OMR 34 in fuel surcharge, and OMR 6 in other taxes.

Luggage allowed is 30kg either side.

This is not very good value compaired to PIA. They charge a higher fare but allow 10kg more luggage either side, which equates to OMR 25 in difference from MCT-LHE and another PKR 2600 (OMR 13) from LHE-MCT.

Value 3/5

Overall

I rate flying with AirBlue a very average experience. If you dont care about the 10kg of additional luggage, and prefer the timings (ED450 leaves Lahore 1100, Arrives Muscat 1300 ED451 leaves Muscat 1400, Arrive Lahore 1745), then go for it. They fly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Final Scores:

2.5/5 for initial impressions.
Boarding and Welcome: 3/5
Keeping to time: 4.5/5
Inflight service/meals 3/5
Seating 3/5
Value 3/5

Total 19/30 or 3.17/5

Back to Muscat!

2009-02-11T00:30:00.002+04:00

After a 3-week long trip to Pakistan, which was really enjoyable, and included a wedding of one of my cousins as well, I'm back to Muscat...

Pakistan was really good...the weather was pleasant, and it was a really good feeling to be back with all the relatives after a year...

Now back in Muscat, it's preparations to fly back to Australia on the 24th...

and ofcourse, my condolences to all those affected by the bushfires in Australia...

Upcoming posts:

Airline Review: AirBlue
Shopping in Muscat

Pakistan!

2009-01-19T00:42:00.001+04:00

I'll be off on a trip to Pakistan for 3 weeks...

Oman, See you 9 feb!

Oman Wins!

2009-01-19T00:09:00.001+04:00

After 2 consecutive final defeats in 2004 and 2007, finally Oman won the Gulf Cup 2009...

This is really a great moment!...It was really nice to be a part of the celebrations...

Congratulations Oman!...

Sales...discounts...oh really?!

2009-01-02T23:56:00.002+04:00

YET another shocker from the retailers in Muscat...this time it's the BHS outlet (Oh yes, the graphic details will not be withheld this time!)...

First they use a conversion factor of 0.9-0.95 for the Sterling to the Omani Rial (by converting GBP 50 to OMR 45 and GBP 40 to OMR 38)...and this time they've just gone too far, even if for a single product...

I went to BHS a couple of weeks ago...and saw jackets over there...there was a grey moleskin jacket for OMR 45.000....no surprises except that it was converted from GBP 50...

Now they put up a sale with good discounts on quite a few jackets...except that the only sizes you see on the racks are S,M, and then 2XL...there was no trace of L or XL in all designs except one...looks like they take away the nice ones when the discounts go up...absolutely disgusting!

And to top it up, the grey moleskin jacket is now tagged as...any guesses? here goes:

Was 90.000
Now 45.000

surprise surprise...the jacket was NEVER ever at OMR 90...in fact 45.000 is the price it was actually selling for without any discounts.

Have ethics and morals disappeared from these idiots? If they dont want to discount it, they can just stuff it with the other non-discounted stuff and say "Not included in sale"...but the deception to lure in the customer with "discount" that is not at all there is nothing but deceit and cheating. Simple as that.

I think the Ministry of Commerce should look into such dishonest practices...the retailers need to get Ministry approval before putting a sale...they should also submit price lists to the ministry and specify the discounts etc...

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T14:28:00.002+04:00

Here's wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous new year!

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Work in Progress: Shopping Venues

2008-12-14T00:02:00.004+04:00

The upcoming bumper-post on shopping in Muscat is taking good shape...since I've been going around looking for stuff (I'm a marketer's nightmare according to one of my friends), I've found some surprising things going on...As a primer:

Some of the worst retailers actually have good deals on...

Sales are unusually rare even around December this year, which is when they normally go up...

Some retailers using a conversion factor of 0.9 and even 0.95 for the UK Sterling to the Omani Rial (!)...

Some very well-known outlets having ridiculously understocked collections this year...

Size 43 (UK 9) being nastily hard to find for shoes from RBK, Adidas and Puma...(now THAT's annoying!)

More coming up soon...

(The blog post I'm working on is HUGE...it has lots of shops in the reviews...so patience should pay this time!)

Coming Soon: Shopping in Muscat

2008-12-09T00:25:00.003+04:00

I have a really big blog post coming up soon...I'll run through some of the shopping venues in Muscat....what they sell, how they sell and who offers the best deals?

Keep your fingers crossed...

MusicChoices- Nadia Ali

2008-12-06T23:53:00.008+04:00

Here's another tranche of songs for the music lovers (OK, no guarantees you'll love them!)...

This time, in my MusicChoices section, there's a bit of Nadia Ali...the lady has a lovely voice...here's a few of her numbers...

Another good one by Nadia is "Give it up"...again it has no video, so the still image on the audio. The starting music is really nicely done...and her voice is highlighted well by the music...

"Crash and Burn" is another good song by Nadia...probably one of her first prominent releases after separating out from IIO...again there's no video for this, so enjoy the picture collage of Greece along with the song...

And finally, to wind up this post of MusicChoices, here's "Kiss You" by Nadia Ali:

(Yet) Another price shocker...

2008-12-01T23:52:00.006+04:00

As the shopping hunt continues (finding a suit that fits correctly is no easy task as I found...), I have come across yet more nasty surprises when it comes to prices here...While browsing through the shelves in TSC in qurum, I found that the Braun Cruzer3 shaver is now priced at OMR 34.500...for exactly the same model that I bought for OMR 24.900 back in 2006...24.900 OMR was 53 Euros in 2006 at the exchange rate prevalent at that date. For the same price in Euros at the peak exchange rate of 1.6 against the USD reached in July, it amounts to 32 rials. This is fairly consistent with the price of 34.500.

Similarly, many other brands of electronics have risen up in pricing quite significantly. The only items I see to be cheaper are LCD TVs, but that's another issue altogether, because the inherent cost of such items can fall faster than exchange rates at times.

Here are some more items compared for prices between 2006 and now:

Galaxy chocolate bar: 2006 OMR 0.190-200, 2008 OMR 0.230-250 (up 0.040, or 21%)
Tilda 5kg basmati rice: 2006 OMR 4.560, 2008 OMR 5.960 (up 1.400, or 30%)
O'Lite sunflower oil: 2006 OMR 3.550, 2008 OMR 4.590 (up 1.040 or 29%)
Cadbury's Dairy Milk: 2006 OMR 180-200, 2008 OMR 210-240 (up 0.030, or 17%)
Braun Cruzer3 shaver: 2006 OMR 24.500, 2008 OMR 34.500, (up 10.000, or 41%!)

This was a random bunch of products I just noticed for price when I was in TSC and Lulu...

One of my friends suggested that the prices for some Japanese goods (see my previous blog post for Canon and Nikon) may have been increased due to the appreciating Yen...but if the same held, the prices should have gone up everywhere...the list prices in US Dollars are more or less unchanged, and the OMR being pegged to the USD should fix it...it's pure and simple greed on part of the retailers...clearly, the consumers deserve better.

But the absence of a regulatory body for consumer protection and enforcement of fair trade does not help either. The OMR plummeting to historic lows didn't help, and neither does absence of regulation for retailers and consumer protection.

Let the shopping begin!

2008-11-30T00:01:00.002+04:00

After having quite a few of my clothes grow too big on me (or rather me losing weight in Australia for some reason yet unknown to me, despite the fact that my consumption of chocolates in Melbourne is almost 3 times higher than in Muscat lol...), I am on the hunt for some replenishment of my wardrobe....which includes a suit, and a jacket for the cold Melbourne weather (the Muscat winter feels like a gentle breeze in comparison to be honest...the wind in that city in the winter is nothing short of brutal!)

This time, my visits to all major outlets like BHS etc were disappointing to some extent...prices on the up, discounts that are as exciting as listening to linkin park for 3 hours on a stretch after a hard day at uni (sorry linkin fans!)...it just doesnt feel like the same shopping experience any more...or is it a changed viewpoint after looking at those REAL sales at mid-year in Myer and David Jones etc?

Perhaps both...the prices seem to be on the up...because the OMR was smashed, pummeled, hammered, bashed, pulverised etc etc over the last year or so...and some due to plain nonsense...there seems to be developing some sense of greed in the retailers to an extent...And before people start aiming ATGWs at me for saying that, the fact that Genetco-Canon quotes me OMR 299 for a Canon Powershot G10 (that's supposed to be USD 500 or AUD 700 inclusive of 10% GST tax, which is circa OMR 200), or Khimjis quoting me OMR 655 for a Nikon D90 18-105VR kit (which is supposed to be USD 1400, or AUD 1700 inclusive of the 10% GST tax in Austrlia, which is almost OMR 540) is proof enough in my opinion...neither of them is a small or unknown retailer...and charging a premium equivalent to 50% or so of the actual price of the item is plain stupidity. Simple as that. It's absurdly stupid. I sometimes wonder how some retailers are still in business...and no prizes for guessing, these 2 figure well on top of that list...

That said, I still look forward to some good shopping experiences...Ted Lapidus, Domani, Pierre Cardin, GAP, Azzaro, and the likes still have some good offers up the sleeve...

Muscat...changes and similarities

2008-11-25T14:34:00.003+04:00

After a 9-hour flight from Melbourne to Bangkok (which was preceded by a 1.5-hour journey to the airport in a bus-train-bus combination), followed by a 9-hour transit in bangkok (6 of which were luckily in a hotel, and a 7-hour flight to Muscat (including a 1-hour stopover in Karachi), I reached Muscat for the summer (Australian summer that is)on 21 Nov 08....

The flight was pleasant and all...but what I saw in Muscat was not all pleasant to say the least...

the first thing that comes as a bit of a shocker is how small Seeb airport now seems...(don't fault me after travelling 4 times through Melbourne-Tullamarine and the formidable Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi airport!)

The city seems to look somewhat like a construction site in some places...and it seems like after Gonu, things just aren't the same...some of my favourite outlets have closed down (now why did Levi's have to close?!)...and most of all, prices for everything (EVERYTHING) have gone up to nonsensical levels...some things are now cheaper for me in Australia than here in Muscat...and it's certainly not a pleasant surprise to see how even chocolates seem to be almost 30% more expensive now...some of it might be normal inflation, some is just plain nonsense.

That said, I still look forward to a lovely trip...I still love the city just as much, and there's lots to love in the city still...

Homecoming Mk II

2008-11-18T12:53:00.002+04:00

Another year gone by in uni...whew! that was quick!

A very eventful year to say the least....I've seen a lot of stuff around Melbourne, made new friends, and finally, I'm heading to beloved Muscat tomorrow...

In the 2 weeks I had since finish of exams, I've now seem Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne Aquarium, and the Immigration Museum...Melbourne is a lovely city to say the least (and I'm still finding stuff about it, even after almost 2 years!)...

Another year goes by...

2008-11-04T20:38:00.002+04:00

Finally, exams for the year are done with...

More updates to follow soon (after I regain some lost sleep!)

1 down and 3 to go...

2008-10-24T12:06:00.003+04:00

This post comes after a relative long hiatus from blogger....it has been a busy month to say the least...

Now i'm on my way with exams, with one down (Accounting) and 3 more to come...the next one is Macroeconomics on monday...

Once through with exams (on 3 Nov InshaAllah) it's chill-out to the max for 2 weeks and then I'm booked to fly to muscat on the 19th (yay!)...

I will be posting some stuff here provided i find the time in between the studies soon!

But there's plenty of stuff going on, and for a financial-market buff like me, it wont go along without commenting on that...

Oil has plunged to multi-year lows (Good thing it has!), the USD is strengthening remarkably (the Pound, Aussie dollar, kiwi dollar, canadian dollar, Euro) are all at near 5-year lows, while the Jap Yen has surged to a 13-year high today...

Stock markets all over the world are in for a ride...the Dow Jones has been a roller-coaster, but particularly hard-hit have been the Nikkei (Tokyo) and the ASX (Australia)...the Japanese exchange has come close to plunging 10% in several sessions...the ASX has plunged close to 4% at least 3 times in the last few weeks...

Eid Mubarak!

2008-09-30T23:15:00.000+04:00

Here's wishing everyone a very happy Eid Mubarak!

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May this joyous occassion bring for all happiness and prosperity!

Great Ocean Road...literally "great"!

2008-09-28T20:53:00.023+04:00

On saturday the27th of september 2008, I went on a trip to The Great Ocean Road, which is one of the highlight tourist attractions of Victoria...

we started at like 730 in the morning, from uni we went to torquay via Geelong (a relatively large industrial town, with Ford having a car plant and Shell having a refinery there)..Torquay is the "surfing capital of Australia" with all the major surf-gear manufacturers having huge outlets there...Here's the exit from Melbourne via the iconic Westgate Bridge...

From the Westgate Bridge one can get a nice view around Melbourne...here's a view of Swanson and Appleton docks at Port of Melbourne, which happens to be the largest commercial port in Australia:
Geelong is quite an industrialised town, with many manufacturing facilities located there due to its relative proximity to Melbourne Port and a reasonable distance from the main Melbourne city...here's the North Geelong Freight Terminal:

It's a fair bit of a drive to Torquay...by the time we reach Torquay, it's almost 100km out from Melbourne...
Here's the RipCurl shop in Torquay:Torquay is often called Australia's surf capital, and is a popular getaway for people looking to try their skill at the surfboard...

From Torquay we went on to Bells Beach, another popular surfbeach...we stopped over there for morning tea...Here's a couple of snaps of the beach...

Not many large waves that day...but some still worth trying a surf..

A view from higher up the hill...

Ornate decorations mark the bathrooms (!)...

And as we depart Bells Beach, it's a view of Winkipop beach in the distance...

From Bells Beach it was on to Splitpoint Lightstation, which has one of Australia's oldest lighthouses...Here's a couple of snaps of the lighthouse:

Here's a lovely snap from just behind the lighthouse...

After a short stopover at Splitpoint, it was a drive to the Great Ocean Road memorial sign...On the way some peculiar sights can be seen, including what's called "The House on a stilt"...

Throughout the drive, there are signs warning drivers to keep to the left of the road (which seems common sense in Australia, considering practically all vehicles over here are Right-hand drive)...the frequency with which these signs show up is a bit strange though...I wonder who would try driving on the right with a right-hand drive vehicle (for the laymen, Right-hand drive vehicles are driven on the left side of the road like in the UK, and left-hand drive vehicles are driven on the right side of the road, like USA, Canada, Middle East etc)

On to the Great Ocean Road Memorial, here's the plaque giving a bit of knowledge about the road...

and here's the memorial arch itself...

From here it was a short drive to Lorne and just a brief stopover by the Lorne Pier, where a famous annual swimming race (The "Pier to Pub" race) takes place...There are some beautiful stretches of coastline on the way to Lorne...

And here's a view of the township of Lorne:

From Lorne we made our way to a place where we could see Koalas in the wild....

It was lunchtime by now, so we headed to Apollo Bay for a lunch stop...not much to snap here, but here's a snap of the pier and one random shot...

The next part of the trip was a walk through the rainforest in Otways National Park...

With so much done, the highlight of the trip still remained...and that was the "Twelve Apostles" and the Loch Ard Gorge...

The Twelve Apostles (although there's around 11 now) is a bunch of limestone stacks off the coast...the seawater crashes into them and the cliffs along the coast, often creating a mist due to the water sprayed up...

Although the pictures look a bit repetitive, in real life it's a breathtaking sight...

The next stop was Loch Ard Gorge, the place where the ship "Loch Ard" sank in 1878, tragically killing 52 of 54 on board...The gorge was named after the ship which sank in close proximity..

Here's a view of the Gorge...

And this is aproximately where the "Loch Ard" sank..

Looking towards the gorge from the lookout point...

That's the view from the inside end of the gorge...

Here's the back end of the gorge:

The last stop was "London Bridge", a rock outpost in the sea connected to a hill on the coastal land by a rock bridge that collapsed in 1990...it was affectionately named "London Bridge" after the nursery rhyme...two people were stranded on the islet after the collapse, who were later rescued by helicopter...

And here's the plaque explaining the collapse...

This was about it...after this, as daylight started to recede significantly (and my camera battery decided to give up after a measly 141 pictures instead of the 250+ i would expect from a full healthy battery...Thankfully I had the phone with me to continue snapping, and a friend's camera aided as well) we made our way to the township of Colac for grabbing some take-away dinner and then take the highway back into Melbourne...

Starting the day at around 730 am, it was 915 pm by the time we got back...

Finally, it's not complete without appreciation for Amy, our volunteer tour guide, and Simon, the tour guide/bus driver who kept us informed and amused with his commentary as we went by....And yeah, Good job Monash!

Approaching another one...

2008-09-17T22:00:00.002+04:00

Before running around scratching your head wondering "Another what?!?", it can be any one of:

1) Another (welcome) mid-semester break (which happens to be after week-11 of a 13-week semester...more like an extra exam revision break than a true mid-sem)

2) Another round of exams...fortunately I have a good exam timetable this time...which looks somewhat like:

AFC1030 Introduction to Financial Accounting Thursday 23-Oct-08
ECC1100 Principles of Macroeconomics Monday 27-Oct-08
MKC1200 Principles of Marketing Friday 31-Oct-08
MGC1010 Introduction to Management Monday 03-Nov-08

All this follows from from a fairly eventful couple of weeks...after recovering from illness, it was time for the annual Howitt Hall ball (a.k.a. The Gaudy)...this year's theme was "Black and White"...Not a bad event at all...good food, [relatively] good music, and a chance to wear full-blown formals (!)...and the chance to give the feet a bit of a spin on the dance floor (except that nobody gave us any space for the jive and we finally had to give up after being crashed into a number of times that I've lost count of)...And being the itchy-finger shutterbug that I am, I clicked a number of pictures as well (Which I dont intend to post on blogger anytime soon due to very obvious reasons (hint: Privacy!)...some of you have seen the pictures though...)

And today, I submitted by 3,000-word management essay at last to the lecturer (who was kind enough to allow an extension to allow me time to recuperate from illness)...

The next week has a couple of events to look forward to...including, but not limited to:

1) The LAST internal assessments for this semester...which happens to be a quiz for marketing and a short test for macroeconomics...

2) A trip to the all-famous Great Ocean Road...

3) Not revealing this one...time to test some memories!

Lastly, some respite coming from the Aussie Dollar...after punching through barrier after barrier this year and smashing past even the 98c (380bz) mark against the USD, finally it's back around the 80c (310bz)...Oil prices have retreated finally below the psychological century barrier (US$ 100/bbl)...

MusicChoices

2008-09-17T21:52:00.004+04:00

Another tranche of music choices for readers of the blog:

"Tu Jo Nahin" by Glen John (Album "Woh Lamhey", the movie)

This is an excellent rendition by Glen of his father's song from the late 50s...this version is a sad song while the 1972 original was a more romantic number...

"O Jaane Wale" by Strings

This is an absolute masterpiece by strings...the music fits in nicely, and the lyrics are very nice as well...

On the way back...(and exam timetables)

2008-09-10T22:22:00.003+04:00

After being sick for nearly a week with a cough and an infection in the lower respiratory tract (whoa!) coupled with a fever (talk about it!...saturday was bad enough to keep me nearly bed-ridden all day...), I'm on the way back...

After the pharmacist told me to go to the doc after asking my symptoms, I decided it was about time I went over to the university health service...the doctor put me on a course of anti-biotics for a week along with cold medicine...almost halfway through the meds, I'm much better and back to work!...(yippee!)

Plus my management studies lecturer was nice enough to allow me extension on an assignment to cover up (Thanks Tui!)...

Plus tomorrow I have the annual ball at Howitt Hall ("The Gaudy") coming up...

and what speed time flies by!...it's already the 11th of Ramadhan here in Australia...(whew!)....

Not only that, my exam timetable for Semester 2-08 is also out...I start on the 23rd Oct, finish on 3rd Nov...I have a reservation to go to muscat for the 19th of nov...(I might be looking to pull it ahead to around a week earlier...)

After that, Semester 1-09 begins InshaAllah on 2-Mar-09...

Out of a cold, into a cough

2008-09-04T14:36:00.001+04:00

It's been a fine week this one...got my assessments from last week back (well most of them)...Got a Distinction in marketing (lower than what I expected), High Distinction in the macroeconomics test (slightly above expectations...the cohort average is 23/40...ouch!), and a Credit+ in the management essay (not a particularly pleasing outcome, but still in line with expectations)....

Still awaiting results on the accounting mid-sem test (which didn't go as well as I hoped, but then, ups and downs are ultimately a part of life)...

Uni stuff aside, not a particularly pleasing 2 weeks...First I caught a cold with a massive blockage of the sinuses and nose...which is now fine...and today I caught a nagging cough that seemed to come up from nowhere...

Looks like it's another trip to the pharmacy lined up...

Edit: Pharmacist said go to the doc...

Music Choices (Again)

2008-09-04T14:35:00.003+04:00

Continuing with music choices, here's a few more:

"Kucch is Tarah" by Atif Aslam:

This one's a very touching and rather sad song...with beautiful lyrics...

"Mahiya Ve" by Atif Aslam:

The sound quality is quite bad and does absolutely no justice to the song...but since the song has no official video, this was the only one which didnt have trash overlaid for video...

"Judaai" By Kamraan Ahmed:

"Teri Yaad" by Jal:

This is one of the best songs from Jal so far...the video of a circus is not something that matches the the theme of the lyrics very well superficially...but the song is fantastic nonetheless. (Apologies for the near-pathetic sound quality from Youtube).

Another good one from the movie "Jannat" (Paradise)...

"Woh Lamhe (Remix) by Atif Aslam:

This one was a massive hit across all music channels in South Asia...the video is shorter than the full audio version though...and the video is a bit off-theme for the lyrics of the song...

"Tere Bin" by Atif Aslam:

This one is another good song by Atif...nicely worded lyrics...

Before u start getting bored reading through the blog, I'll wrap it up here...till next time, enjoy the music!

TechChoices

2008-09-04T14:14:00.004+04:00

Another section for my blog: Technology (don't worry, it's not a PC-Magazine competitor I'm aiming for...it's just a small section where I might post up stuff related to tech which I find interesting)...

Here's something for a start...

Mobile Phone packages in Australia are "strange" in a way...for most people it's a love-or-hate relationship...and perhaps it's not very hard to see why. The way packages are laid out overe here is quite strange to many people...for most companies you pay X dollars and get a multiple. Which u can use on varying items.

Most companies over here call them "Caps"...e.g. you pay $49 and get around $300 of credit, which can be used for different sorts of calls depending on providers...e.g. Optus, Telstra and vodafone dont allow overseas calls from the credit (those are paid for on top of the $49), while 3 allows for up to $100 worth of IDD calls...

but looking harder, there are different deals out there as well...for example, Optus has plans which flatten out pricing for IDD and local calls at a single rate (I hear some oman mobile fans fuming already!)...Yes, IDD and local calls at the same price. To ANY country except for Inmarsat and Thuraya Satellites (who calls them anyway?)...

However, in my fndings, the best value at the moment is a prepaid package called "Turbocharge"...It gives heaps of credit for a recharge with no restriction on IDD calls, and along with that, between 50MB and 1GB of data too!

P.S. before you drop in to the Nawras or OmanMobile office asking for "Turbocharge", be aware that this is only for Australia.

Ramadhan Greetings to all

2008-08-30T13:33:00.004+04:00

It's almost time again when we enter into the blessed month of Ramadhan...

In Melbourne, Ramadhan starts from 1-sep-08 (Monday) and should finish by the 30th of sep...(runs over the course of September)...I'm not sure about timings for Muscat, but estinates point to a start from either the 1st or 2nd of september...

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone Ramadhan Kareem...with a prayer that May the blessed month bring for all peace, tranquility and happiness... And May the Almighty accept out endeavours to gain his blessings and mercy. (Ameen)

Music Choices: Lams (By Roxen)

2008-08-27T18:11:00.004+04:00

Adding on to the Music Choices Section of the Blog, (I will add stuff in this category periodically), here's another one of my favourite tunes:

It's called "Lams" (Addiction), by the Pakistani band Roxen...It's mostly an instrumental number, but the tune grows on you...there's just one line of abstract poetry repeated a couple of times over the length of the song, but the music itself is more than sufficient to make up for it...the music is a really good concoction of guitar and drum notes with overtones of the classical "Tabla"...

When this version came out, fans went on the uproar for Roxen having missed out on releasing the full-blown version of such a song...the full version, as performed live by them on "Playin' it Live" (a program on one of the TV channels in pakistan, is here:

The famous "Tera Mera Rishta" (The relationship between you and me) is a reprise version of this song used in the movie "Awarapan"...

Out of all these 3, the best version is the instrumental...the quality of the Youtube Video does it no justice though...some of the finer details are lost...

Happy Listening!

Music Choices: Garaj Baras (Coke Studio)

2008-08-25T17:48:00.005+04:00

Just as a random post, here's one of my favourite music choices of late:

It's a remix of Ali Azmat's "Garaj Baras", a very popular fusion number in both India and Pakistan, featuring in the movie "Paap" (Sin) circa 2004...This particular remix is rendered by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, an accomplished classical singer and Ali Azmat...they make a nice combo, with Rahat rendering the classical parts and Ali taking over the rock-ish parts...the music is nicely done as well...a good fusion of classical and rock.

It's a long video, but for those familiar with this kind of music, it's a treat to listen to.

This is the original song by Ali Azmat:

Shadows Of The Other Side...and Passing Neighbours

2008-08-20T21:00:00.001+04:00

Versatile....Adaptable...Flexible...Indiscriminate..Brutal...Ruthless....Hypocrite... Backstabber.

No, I'm not running through the grade-7 list of synonyms/antonyms/similar words...these are just the few descriptors that come to mind when looking back on some of my actions from the past...Dazed? Confused? Then perhaps read on...

Rewind back to Feb 2007...arrival in Australia...relatively rapid settlement and adoption to the place, and things are on their way...fast forward to Feb 2008...arrival in Australia to commence a new year...new peers, new neighbours bar a few, and most of friends from the previous year gone...But were they really "friends"? Or just "passing neighbours"? A part of me says the former, a part says the latter. However, there is absolutely no doubt that I have made some friends along the way who will forever remain etched as indelible imprints on my memories...I'll never forget the true friends I made along the way...people who I can share things with, go to in times of turmoil...but then, as they say, good friends (read: true friends) are far and few...indeed that's true as far as I've seen...because in real life, there's a slim, if any at all, chance of finding a friend who is not actually a hidden opportunist...

The "Passing neighbours" are nowhere near as important as true friends...that does not necessarily mean there's lack of (or avoidance of) communication...it just means that these people are simply people living in close proximity on the premises, but have little, if any effect on the decisions made in the course of things...It would hardly matter if they're moving out of the place...there's no part of me pushing to follow suit...it would matter even less if they had troubles to sort out...for it's the 21st century...and of all people, it's certainly not me who's benevolent (or daft) enough to take up problems that were not mine to begin with.

As I perceive life, Life does not have any hard and fast all-encompassing rules to live by. Every person defines life in his/her own unique way...and in that, sometimes goals can be similar (or in rare cases, the same)...but nobody takes the exact same path towards goals as any other person...so in that vein, it would be reasonable enough to assume that everyone is free to live life as per their beliefs/perceptions/attitudes/values; be it religious, cultural, socio-economic or any other factors, everyone is free to triangulate their own position and pathways in life as they find compatible with their values and beliefs.

However, apparently some people don't think so. Not that it makes an ounce of a difference to me. For this is where "The Other Side" takes over...it's my life, and nobody can force his/her beliefs on me. Nobody can force me to rethink the way I picturise the scenario around me. Nobody can force me to learn from his/her "experience"...Especially if that "somebody" is just a passing neighbour. In life, I draw inspiration from a number of people. And family people figure prominently up that list. But passing neighbours dont. They can mind their own business, and for all their "experience", take it an go jump into the 1-foot-deep pond in front of the Matheson library...I would hardly move so much as an eyelash, and that too out of curiosity rather than any sympathy or affection.

Incidences of interference i my way of organising things are not scarce...from "you're using 2 inches more paper towel than you're supposed to use to wipe the dishes" to "knives are supposed to be kept at this angle" to "chicken should be cut while holding the chopping board this way" to "This case does not sharpen the knife"...well sorry mate, it does sharpen the knife...and you might as well mind your own business with the paper towel, because it's not being claimed out of your pocket. The response was not something pleasant in all honesty...but then...some things need to be made clear right from the start. There's a certain way I do things. And that is how I WILL do things. For those who accept it the way it is, fair enough. For those who dont, too bad, I dont care.

There's a space around self...personal space...and any intrusion into personal space will draw ire. No exceptions, no waivers. Only family can come close enough in terms of authority and influence to make me rethink the way I go around things...friends are somewhat closer...Passing neighbours don't stand anywhere close...And to that, neither friends nor passing neighbours are family. Period.

This year also came by with some valuable lessons...and that is, if a problem is not yours to begin with, there's no reason to make it. Let the passing neighbours pass you by, and with that, take their problems with them.

Not only do some people think that everybody should somehow be living life according to the lessons drawn from their "experience", some also think that it is quasi-compulsory to enter into a relationship with the opposite gender while at this stage in life. Not because of a desire to enter into any long-term commitments, but just for the sake of it. Not because relationships are meant to be a two-way exchange of a lot more than just words and actions, but because of the fact that it gives them an opportunity to exploit the other half of the relationship and then wash their hands off the whole fiasco, citing reasons as believable as kangaroos being found in Polynesia. And not only that, there's an expectation that others will help cleanup the mess after the whole drama ends in a proverbial bloodbath. No thanks. I wasn't involved, and I'm not getting in.

Trust and Respect cannot be coerced or forced into a person. They have to be earned. Respect and Trust are not functions of some natural phenomemon that oozes from your persona. They are earned from behaviour, demeanour and reciprocity. Maybe reciprocity is not always true (ofcourse it's not!...if it wasnt, there wouldnt be the fake pseudo-relationships going on) but the former two definitely are. Pointing a .44 Magnum at one's forehead and dictating out does not earn trust. Actions that reaffirm credibility do.

When it comes to trust, there are cases where people start by trusting anyone and everyone, and reducing their list as they go along. Wrong approach. Suicidal. Could depend from person to person, but in most cases, it's just suicidal. I dont trust people. I just dont. You have to win over my trust. And if there's a thought that some super-heroic exploit is going to do the trick, dream on...for nothing is worse in building up trust than a puffed-up rant of emotional blackmail. And trust cannot be one-eyed...If you cannot be sincere to someone who sacrificed so much for you, and to some extent, literally laid down in front of you, there's no way in hell I'll believe you'll be sincere to me.

For those who I trust, who happen to be a select few, I know that they will remain faithful and sincere...and if they don't humans can make mistakes can't they? I'm no angel, Iadmit...I have cleared my way off people who clearly were in suffering and could have benefitted from intervention....but it's the 21st century...and I'm not foolish enough to stain my hands in blood over something that was clearly inflicted by someone else...Too bad mate!...your problem, you solve. Again, family is an exception. And yet again, passing neighbours are not family.

Those who think I'm up there for the taking can dream on. Those who think I'm unaware of what my expectations from myself and life are can set their own directions up first. Those who think I lead a dull life can go jump in the lake, for my definition of what brightens up my life goes beyond the shallows of loud music, powder-dunked females and pseudo-relationships that are established just for the sake of it. And for those who are naive (or daft) enough to assume I'll look at every other idiot as an inspirational figure, somebody please wake them up!...And for those who think they have an inherent right to interfere and intrude in my personal space, scroll your way up to the top of the post and read the phrase that sets the tone for the write-up. I will be indiscriminate. I will be ruthless. I will be blunt. And I have no regrets over it.

Passing neighbours are just that...they will pass by you. Or you will pass by them.

At the end of the day, my conscience is clear; for I can look anyone and everyone in the eye with dignity...I can go to bed without any guilt, because I dont have malicious intentions for anyone. I didn't exploit anyone. I did not force my way through to exploit and manipulate someone. The other side says its own version...At the end of the day I know I have to protect my personal space. I know I have to keep intruders and interferences out. I can keep away from other's problems and not care, because the problems are not mine to begin with.

For that, you have to be Versatile? maybe....Adaptable? definitely....Flexible? to some extent...Indiscriminate?..Brutal?...Ruthless?....Yes, Yes and Yes.

And this is what the short-sighted person sees...a Hypocrite...a Backstabber.

Update!

2008-08-17T11:25:00.000+04:00

Finally (!) an update to the blog (in almost a month)...It has been an eventful semester so far...for example:

+ For the first time in 4 semesters, I got a timetable that wasn't all 5 days a week...YAY!

+ I had to bid adieu to a friend who had to leave Australia for personal reasons

+ Optus finally had my online account sorted out so that I can check my mobile phone usage online....

Other that that, not a hell lot..the weather's fine (except for last week, which was brutally cold)..

And I've been experimenting with cooking (yeah I can cook!)...Trying out chicken tandoori today!

And finally, what's a blog post without a rant on assignments? For the first time in uni, I was actually told by my teammates working on the assignment to lay off because I had already done enough work!

For the next month or so, there's a fair few things lined up...3 Mid-semester tests, followed by management essay...The Annual Ball at the residential hall is next, followed by the last batch of assessments...in late september I am planning to go on a trip to the Great Ocean Road...

And Ofcourse, Ramadhan starts in about 2 weeks...

Semester 2: 2008

2008-07-16T12:48:00.000+04:00

Semester start...TAKE 4! (Action!)

Another semester finished!...With the results for Semester 1-2008 released, it's another successful university term done for...

And with this it's time to start another one!....time to embark on another hopefully eventful semester....

This semester has all business subjects for me...(finally some respite from engineering!)

Exams Over!

2008-06-19T20:26:00.000+04:00

Finally!...after an absolutely gruelling semester, the exams are officially over...now I can sit back and relax till the 13th of July before the next one starts!

Examinations: Take 3!

2008-04-25T20:55:00.000+04:00

Here comes the timetable for Semester 1-2008 exams...my timetable is not too bad...exams are spaced out fairly well...

Microeconomics 6 June,
Business Law 9 June
Dynamics I 16 June
Design I 19 June

Once the exam timetable's on hand, it's about time to get going and start preparing!...

Well Done Thai!

2008-04-25T19:56:00.000+04:00

Another story of my coming back to Melbourne...I travelled with Thai this time as well, and since I knew this flight (Melbourne to Muscat via Bangkok and vice versa) carries quite a significant mileage, I usually have my FFP account registered into the booking as well...

Somehow, for this sequence of flights (Muscat-Bangkok and Bangkok-Melbourne), the miles did not add up to my FFP account...I wasn't a happy customer after this, because air travel isn't exactly cheap nowadays...and with the scary fares up the list, I expect a reasonable level of service too...

While the inflight service of Thai was flawless in my opinion (they accommodated me in Novotel-Suvarnabhumi hotel at the airport for the gap between my flights), the miles not showing up left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth...

I called up the Thai Airways australia-wide call centre (hint: MUCH better than dealing with the agent in Muscat, who doesn't pick up half the calls even after a dozen rings)...the person on the other end was real polite, and when I explained my problem, he promptly offered apologies, and advised me to show my boarding passes to their office...

I did that the next day...and within a week, I had another 7400 miles added to my account...

I really liked the way the people on the other end of the phone were...very professional, soft-spoken, no arguing, and most of all, you dont have to wait for a gazillion rings before your call gets picked up.

This adds to another good experience with Thai...I really appreciated the guys at the Australian office back in September 2007...I was looking to book a ticket from MEL to MCT back then...I called the Thai Airways call centre...the person speaking to me said (exactly as I write):

"For the date you have nominated, a one-way between Melbourne-Tullamarine and Muscat is $1311.77...however, I recommend you check the same fare with a travel agent, because if you purchase it direct from Thai, it will be more expensive"...

I was left speechless for a few moments after this...Like c'mon..the guy tells me that he is selling stuff more expensive, and I better not buy from him...that's the highest level of professionalism I've ever seen from any company...I have nothing but praise for such levels of professionalism...it would have been very natural for Thai to try and persuade me to get the ticket through them...but the fact that they informed me of the fact that it was not advisable speaks volumes about their focus on customer satisfaction...

Way to go Thai!....

Project: DONE!

2008-04-25T19:50:00.000+04:00

Finally!...after working on a project for nearly a month, we're done with it...we were supposed to build a car which went along a track, crossed over a few humps and kept a ball up a slope...while we crossed over the ridges, out vehicle dropped the ball halfway through [:(]...the rest was all fine, and we're happy with how it went...because overall, it was a good learning experience...You can see the video here:

Companions...

2008-04-14T19:11:00.000+04:00

Ok, so in muscat it was time for me to say goodbye to my ever-reliable and trusty Sony Ericsson k750i..that phone was a real sidekick for me...I used it to take pictures at candid photo-ops, listen to music while travelling on public transport, send sms messages, and ofcourse, make the periodic international call (oh yeah...i'm that "nutcase" type of guy who sticks with IDD calls to oman at $1.47 per minute instead of getting through calling cards that have half your credit vanish into thin air while you are still dialing...and you dont get good calling cards for Aus-Oman anyway..)

So a few days before leaving Muscat for Melbourne, I decided it was time to get a new phone...and my choice was made really difficult between several phones (dad allowed me to go a bit luxurious, and get a high-end phone), the Nokia N82, the N95 and N95-8GB...and the Sony Ericsson k850i, and the LG KU990...

I was keen on the k850i, but after reading reviews, it wasn't feeling like worth OMR 180...the N95 sucks with battery life, and the 8G was a bit too expensive at OMR 248....while the LG was not there in Oman in late february...so I decided to go for an N82...and all I can say is:

It's an absolute GEM of a phone...it's the right size, the features are awesome, the battery life is good, and the GPS works like a charm...

Once in Australia, I was looking through some catalogues for phone providers...and I read in an ad from Optus (my network provider) that they had a A$59 per month package which would allow me to make local and international calls at the SAME price (yes, you read it right...I can call any country on IDD except for Thuraya/Iridium/GlobalStar/InnmarSat satellites for local call prices)...and to top it up, I could choose to have local call rates reduced by further 25% or have a free 20-minute calls to Optus mobiles between 8pm-12am (I chose the former)...

Here's another enticing part: Optus asked me if I was willing to commit to the plan for 2 years...I asked why that was so, and they said "You can get a free phone if you do that"...so off went my contract to Optus...and Voila!...in my hands the next day was a brand-spaking-new Motorola V9...(In Australia most companies do that...this is a saturated market for mobile phones now, with almost 19.8 million connections in a population of 21 million...and most companies are focused on customer retention rather can enticing new ones, because there aren't too many new ones...and most companies run the contract-subsidy here...if you sign up for 12 or 24-month contracts, they subsidise phone handset costs, in many cases making the handset free).

...This is a good phone too...it's a clamshell with a rather gigantic screen on the outside of the flip (seriously, 2 inches is huge for an external screen)...what I really like it the fact that when I get SMS messages, I can read them without opening the flip...I can listen to music and control it using the external touch-screen...what's more, if you receive a missed call, you can call theI couldn't help but to take snaps of them (a camera anywhare near me makes my trigger finger rather ithcy!)

Here's the two of them:

HelloMoto!...

Moto with music playing in closed-flip state...you just touch the buttons towards the bottom of the screen to control (gimmicky but very useful):

Yes!...it's Optus (They trade as "Yes Optus" here)

...and the Nokia gets a Vodafone SIM:

Next is a snap of calling back a missed call without bothering to open the flip of the phone...you just select the name of the person to call, and touch the green circle at the bottom of the screen...and the phone does the rest by dialing the number in speakerphone mode:

The coolest feature of the Nokia (apart from the 5-Megapixel camera with Xenon Flash) is the GPS...(for those who dont know, it's a system which uses satellites to calculate your position relative to the earth and pinpoint it on a map).

Here's the Nokia when it's triangulating your position against the satellites...

Triangulation in progress:

Successful calculation of position:

Once your position is calculated, it can be used for navigation on a map.

And both the phones have flight mode so that I can safely listen to my tunes even when 40,000 feet up in the air...

Semester 1- Reloaded!

2008-04-13T18:39:00.000+04:00

After a really long hiatus from blogging (I finished a year in uni, went home, came back and nearly halfway through a semester already) I am ready to get the blog rolling again...

This semester is one fine example of what a 2nd year engineering student goes through (coupled with Business/Economics ofcourse!)...so far it's one assignment racked up, one due, two mid-semester exams coming up, and a design-build project...

On a lighter note, I got myself 2 (yes, TWO) new phones...a Nokia N82 which is absolutely fantastic and a Motorola V9 (which is real stylish!)...

the holiday to muscat was really exciting...I just cant wait for November 08...(OK, lets get through a semester and a half first!)...

Another rant about inflation (or controlling the juggernaut)...and my own observations

2008-03-06T17:08:00.000+04:00

Another one added to the tally of a bajillion articles on inflation and what the government is doing to combat it was published in the Times of Oman recently...Click here to read it (it's a bit long).

Apparently the import of fish has been allowed, which will somehow drive down inflation. (It should drive down prices of fish and seafood, provided the imports are comparable in price to local produce. That aside, it should also calm the markets by balancing out supply/demand to an extent).

In my observation over the last year or so, I have noticed that inflation in Oman is not necessarily due to supply/demand...it is due to excessive liquidity in the market. This is due to the GCC states (except Kuwait) having to shadow US Monetary policy...while the US Federal reserve has cut interest rates form 5.25% to 3% from september onwards trying to ward of recession, the GCC countries are riding on a growth spurt fuelled by oil prices smashing new records everyday. This is practically a case of two economies moving in opposite directions but following the same policies.

This disparity in economic policies has driven up inflation in several ways...on one hand it creates a situation where a rapidly expanding economy meets excessive liquidity, excess money supply and low interest rates...when these combine together, it can drive up inflation very quickly...

Secondly, due to the OMR being pegged with the USD (at 1 USD = 0.385 OMR) and Oman shadowing the US economic policies, the value of the OMR has been dragged down to record lows against the major currencies...I'll cite a few examples:

Currency, Value in OMR 15-Dec 2006 , Value in OMR at 6-Mar-2008, % change from 2006 value

AUD OMR 0.300 OMR 0.360 (up 20%)
CAD OMR 0.332 OMR 0.390 (up 17.4%) [1]
EUR OMR 0.504 OMR 0.584 (up 15.8%)
GBP OMR 0.752 OMR 0.770 (up 2.4%)
JPY* 306.04 268.53 (up 14%) [2]
SGD OMR 0.250 OMR 0.277 (up 10.8%)
NZD OMR 0.266 OMR 0.307 (up 15.4%) [3]
CHF OMR 0.315 OMR 0.373 (up 18.41%)

[1] Canadian dollar attained parity with the USD in early November 2007, peaking at OMR 0.410
[2] The rate against JPY is expressed as OMR 1 to JPY. Other currencies are 1 unit of foreign currency to OMR
[3] NZD value was reduced by some amount after intervention by RBNZ

(All rates sourced from HERE)

As it is clearly visible, the OMR has lost significantly to all major currencies except the UK Sterling. This means that all imports (be it shoes from European brands, your favourite meats from AUS/NZ, and the Cars from Toyota APAC which is based in Australia and manufactures most of the Camry units for the GCC region) have become significantly more expensive.

A an example,If you were paying OMR 3 per kilo for a A$10/kilo meat from Australia, you'll simply have to pay OMR 3.6 per kilo for the same product...

Looking at the data, isn't it getting obvious that if not detachment from the USD, a revaluation of the OMR makes sense? It will make imports cheaper and reduce the "imported inflation" in food items...As such, there is nothing stopping the Central bank from revaluing later should the USD appreciate again...but for the short-term, another US interest rate cut is expected soon...

Homecoming

2007-12-09T06:32:00.000+04:00

After 2 eventful semesters in uni, it's time to head back to family....

By the way, I forgot to post Semester 2 results...High Distinctions in Accounting, Materials Science, and Computing Science...and a Distinction in Dynamics (introductory mechanical engineering)...

From next year I will start specialisaing in Mechanical engineering...

It's time to head home now...My flight is scheduled for Tuesday at 1245 am...TG980 leaves Melbourne on tuesday 11 dec at 0045, reaching Bangkok at 0555...Then TG507 takes over at 1750 Bangkok time, and is scheduled to reach Muscat at 2130 on Tuesday 11 dec...a total of 27 hours and 45 minutes including the 11h 55min transit in Bangkok...

EXAMS OVER!

2007-11-11T12:44:00.000+04:00

Whoop-de-doo!....exams over!...

With this comes to an end a very eventful year at uni...

MUSCAT, HERE I COME!!...(ok, on 10 dec)...

3 down!

2007-11-06T12:53:00.000+04:00

That's 3 down today!

After a tense and stressful exam for Engineering Dynamics (the introductory stuff for MechEng) on 30-Oct-07 (Tuesday), today was Materials Engineering...fortunately, THIS one was easy...

ONE MORE TO GO!

1 down, 3 to go

2007-10-25T15:47:00.000+04:00

"ENG1060: Computing for Engineers" became ~~"ENG1060: Computing for Engineers"~~ today on the exam timetable stuck on my door...for those wondering what's the difference apart from the strikeout, the exam is done for).

The exam was quite difficult...it went good in the end though. Tricky questions left right and centre, a question requiring integration in FIVE different ways (Ouch!), almost five function algorithms, program traces...

The pattern was quite different from past exam papers...no Gaussian elimination (Phew!), no ode45 questions...

all-in-all, a good exam

Next paper : ENG1040 Engineering Dynamics

P.S. If anyone asks me to estimate what mark I may get, or try to compare his answers with mine, do so at your own risk. Risks include receiving a drubbing. :P

Exam Time : 2007:2

2007-10-21T20:24:00.000+04:00

After a long hiatus from the blogging scene, this is my first post in nearly a month (or perhaps more??)...

The end of a very eventful year at uni is visible on the horizon...(time just flies by, doesnt it? it seems as if it was yesterday when I remember the first few days in Melbourne...orientation, enrolment, making new friends...)

It's semester 2 exam time from thursday...(25 oct till 8 nov)...after that InshaAllah I'll be heading to beloved Muscat on the 10th of december, 2007..

The ticket's a long story, but then...it's a one-way from MEL-MCT with Thai Airways, costing a cool AUD 1236.56 (!!)...yes you read it correct...it's a one-way...(ofcourse I'll get another one to return from Muscat...now whoever couldn't guess that is...well...a dolt)...

Just before exam time, some inpiring words...(I find this song very inspiring...lol)..

In a moment, everything can change,
Feel the wind on your shoulder,
For a minute, all the world can wait,
Let go of your yesterday.

Can you hear it calling?
Can you feel it in your soul?
Can you trust this longing?
And take control,

Fly
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away
You can shine,
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try, cause it's your time,
Time to fly.

All your worries, leave them somewhere else,
Find a dream you can follow,
Reach for something, when there's nothing left,
And the world's feeling hollow.

Can you hear it calling?
Can you feel it in your soul?
Can you trust this longing?
And take control,

Fly
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away
You can shine,
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try, cause it's your time,
Time to fly.

And when you're down and feel alone,
Just want to run away,
Trust yourself and don't give up,
You know you better than anyone else,

In a moment, everything can change,
Feel the wind on your shoulder,
For a minute, all the world can wait,
Let go of yesterday,

Fly
Open up the part of you that wants to hide away
You can shine,
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try,
Fly
Forget about the reasons why you can't in life,
And start to try, cause it's your time,
Time to fly.

In a moment, everything can change.

It's titled...well..."Fly"...by Hillary Duff.

Testing times

2007-09-22T13:45:00.000+04:00

It's september, it's spring break in the semester....and it's STUFFED....with assignments...

An assignment for accounting, one for computing, one for dynamics, tonnes of stuff to revise....arrrrghhh i hate epicyclic gearboxes!...