Meeting Another Set Of Shivdes, Oops Shivades!

Our surname, Shivde, is certainly uncommon to most Maharashtrians. People in my city, Pune, call us Shinde at times because that's what they easily expect.

Our family background lies in Nashik, a moderately sized city in Maharashtra. My grandfathers and forefathers grew up there.

As we go about with our routine lives aka, my parents work at the hospital, I attend college, we get an odd ball quite often. In my case, I usually got two. A few people would ask (in an attempt to be highly modest) me who Dr. Shivde is to me and I would tell them he is my father. However, the odd ball confused me all the time.

However, we have often been asked by friends, acquaintances and common people we bump into, this very peculiar one question. "How is Advocate Shivde related to you?"

Take me back to 2009 and I really wouldn't know how to answer that question. I was just 12 then and I didn't know a lot about a lot of people that I know today, and this is but obvious.

Back then, I would humbly tell people that I had no idea who he has. My parents, who were asked the same question, would tell people we weren't related. We had never seen this man, who apparently everyone had heard off.

In 2013, we found a couple of close friends who knew Mr. Advocate Shivde and that is when I found out about him thanks to Google the great. It took me 15 seconds to realize, Mr. Advocate Shivde was a famous and reputed lawyer committed to the defense of a lot of big names and celebrities in India. However, thanks to family friends, the impression was he was an elderly main in his 60s maybe (as of 2013).

After literally being asked "WHO IS ADV.SHIVDE?", "IS HE YOUR UNCLE?" for over 200 times , I began answering that he is my grandfather. I had never met him. Never wondered how old he actually could be, but yes, that was my answer.

Until, 31st July 2016, when both of our families bumped into each other at a party. It was purely coincidental. My mother was asked the same question, "Is Advocate Shivde related to you? He is here tonight too."

My mother was curious too. The kind doctor who asked her that question happened to know the advocate's wife and introduced my mother to her. Mrs. Advocate Shivde was accompanied by her daughter Miss Shivde and that is how my mother Dr. Mrs. Shivde came to meet the set of Shivdes we were always asked about every now and then.

It was then, that we found out they were Shivdes who spelled their surname as Shivade. The two names are pronounced and written the same in Devnagari script. Shortly, my father was introduced to the two Shivades and soon, the advocate walked in too.

I was watching this scene from a distance and was surprised at the calm yet happy look on all their faces. It turned out that they were plagued by similar questions too. Mrs. Shivade told us she had answered easily over a 100 calls asking for Dr. Shivde's clinic and appointment times. I knew my father had made a name with his expertise and patient care. Except, I didn't expect them to have heard about us. My mother was pleased to hear that.

Mr. Shivade, seemed to be a man aged near my father and nowhere near a grandfather. And we shook hands too. A couple of other guests I knew at the party were my college principals at Fergusson College. Our principal again thought I was related to the advocate and began giving me a reference about their cousins who were related.

I introduced him to Mr. Shivde and Mr. Shivade.

In the end, the two Shivdes, oops, Shivdes and Shivades casually spoke about a cup of coffee sometime, to mark a new beginning to a probably new friendship.

A decade long darkness finally came to an end.

Working On Consistency

Over the past year, I've had a couple of amusing experiences which are really worth sharing and pondering about.

I've learnt a lot of things. Framed opinions. Seen opinions being enforced. Found out flaws and also derived strength.

And, I admit, I need to work on consistency. I'm rapid to start new things but I fail miserably at working to iron out the entire process.

So, I'm gonna try and blog consistently.

Cheers

Sometimes Some Things Just Get Left Out

Sometimes, due to some funny imbalance or impulse of the moment, we forget that special thing we wanted to say that was to spring from deep within our hearts.

Those may be a few words that we wished to say to somebody to inspire, please or rejuvenate them but they just get left out.

This happened to me twice majorly and I can't do anything but feel bad.

After our secondary school certificate examination results were out in style, an event was planned to distribute trophies and prizes. My principal requested me to speak a few words and I was actually ready to address the younger batches. 

I told them about how proud I was about our batch result and I told them about the various benchmarks and trends we had set for the school in the recent years, like increasing the no of Scholarship holders and merit holders and so on. And on a concluding note, I quoted the performance of a senior friend, Abhijeet whose score was yet unbeaten till then, I.e July 2014 and told the youngsters that they were extremely capable of breaking that recording and setting many more in the near future.

I had dearly wished to quote the names of my school founders : Phatak Sir and Madam, who used to love not just me, but every other student in our batch. They were proud of our every achievement and took active interest in awarding and praising us and I remember this right from kindergarten. 

I wished to tell everyone how proud they would have felt if they were here to witness the glory of millennium and the successes and feats yet to come but it just didn't come out on the stage. 

But, my words turned to gold as the very next year, that is this year, my friend Tanvi Ganu not only bettered my friend Abhijeet's 97% with a 97.2% by topping their batch and in addition to that the entire batch turned up the result a notch as more than 53 students crossed the 90% mark which was a significant increase from 34 students above 90% from my batch.

Truly proud of her, and their entire batch. I'm glad my motive was clear to them all and my words came to life due to their focussed perseverance.

Never Imagined This Good Photography With A Tablet

When tablets went mainstream a few years back and started shipping with cameras, people were truly sarcastic about the approach. I partially agreed with them back then because it looks ridiculous. Same holds true for phone calling using a tablet of 7 odd inches or larger. Your face is covered by a huge sheet of plastic while calling using a tablet directly.

Some sights we see everyday in today's world. Some might consider it natural, some might call it absurd. Because human sizing has changed since decades. Everyone's feels bigger is better.

So, even Apple launched a larger iPhone, the iPhone 6 :)

Well, I never felt I would be using my tablet for photography until I discovered the clarity and convenience of the current technologies. I have an iPad Air 2 and the camera is superb. The display is awesome. 

Merge the two and you have a powerful viewfinder with an array of tools to edit and share on the fly. Some of the photos I've taken so far.

 

Does One Know That The End Maybe Nearing?

We live and we ultimately have to die one day once. We do not know neither can we know when we might spend our last moment. No being, no magic can predict the way something might end for us naturally as it is to be. People might call it fate or destiny or prewritten tragedy.

Do to our experiences and research, we are in capable positions to predict events. But, I firmly believe the power of nature cannot be fully comprehended by science. I believe that even if 100 years go by, we won't still be in a position to perfectly define what is to be.

Here's our Christmas tree which grew from under 2 feet to a monster that is almost 45 feet tall reaching the top of our home. It has stood tall for 12 years so far. It even survived the renovation which was a season of cement and no water for it. 

Today, however, it's not as green or merry as it always is. 

It is losing its pine like leaves at a drastic rate and this is a scary thing for a tree so heavy, mighty and elegant. On looking at the fallen leaves, one might interpret it as the end nearing. 

It has to end someday and maybe that day is nearing some might feel. Sadly, I feel the same. The leaves are shedding at a super fast rate. However, it's a living being too. It can make a comeback for sure. It might be losing some leaves to make space for new stock. It might be prepping for coming back stronger and taller. Who am I to decide its fate and spread it to people?

These lines I sang as a kid, "What will be will be. The future is not ours to see.. " is a song in the right direction. 

Nobody knows when life might take a tragic or drastic turn nor the reason behind it. People love believing a million sources like god, bad acts million births ago and all. But yeah, people like reasons and may jump to any extremes to grab them. 

My firm belief for the very individual whose case is being discussed is as follows :

One never knows it is the ultimate end until it truly is. 

In short, keep enjoying the present with a goal of the future. Nobody knows whether or not it is to be or not to be.

Reviewing My Moto X 1st Gen, True Hardcore Review

Hello friends, 

I am going to review my year old phone the 2013 Moto X. It has been an amazing phone for me and I'm really proud of Motorola's recent devices as 3 of my family members use Motorola android phones (you guessed it. G and G2 and my X)

So, the device was priced at Rs. 23999 which is roughly $400. No customisation in India but just the solid shades and a woven black or white phone. 

I got the woven white phone and the image on flipkart was deceptive in a good way. It seemed plasticy but the real thing is gorgeous folks. It's soiled a bit due to my extreme use in mud, water and rains but yeah, it looks great. The Motorola dimple is cool and the phone being curved is easily appreciated by spectators. 

You all know about the phone through specs and all. I'll cover some unique aspects and experiences.

1) Build Quality

Phone is built great. It feels nice in the hand. It's comfortable and rigid. Front has a gorilla glass display but it did pick up few light scratches despite no specific reason. I even separated my keys all the time but still. 

My phone has been dropped like 10-15 times face down and it's not nicked or cracked at all. However, due to a few falls on the back, the plastic casing has developed cracks. Surprisingly, the cracks are parallel to the sim slot and so it doesn't look bad or out of place magically.

2) Hardware And Camera

The hardware might deceive a few. Some may dismiss this device as a dual core product but I challenge you to find a phone that runs as smooth as the X even though it is almost full of music and apps. I've used every new phone like the iPhone 6, Note 4, Xiaomi MI3 and even One Plus One. They have a small degree of lagginess somewhere but moto X has been a star.

It is a special designed chipset with 8 feature rich cores. Each for a different purpose. One handles battery saving voice detection, one detects motion and action. One for battery etc. the graphics chip is ahead of its peers even today. 2GB Ram helps you breeze past screens on the current OS kitkat which will becom Lollypop very soon.

Camera is 10MP Omnivision sensor and it is a slight letdown. However, with practice and other alternatives you can get better images. 

The Motorola camera opens with a twist of the wrist and it's great. It's efficient but the camera quality could have been better. However, by using Google camera, I could adjust exposure and take much much better shots with better details. I have uploaded those images too. 

Selfie camera is 2 MP and it's great. Selfies are clear and bright. I have attached a photo of my friend, Devavrat, a genius and awesomely crazy dude indeed.

Battery life is superb. I can pull the phone 1 and half day without charging after a full charge if I use it moderately i.e music, photos, some 3G browsing and normal gaming. So, I've maximum achieved a 4 hour odd screen on time on Kitkat after I discovered a great big that was eating up my battery.

Moto X has an always listening Ok Google Detection. It was on the moment I got the phone and had been on ever since. I was noticing a super abnormal low standby. An hour goes, the phone dropped by 10 %. I found out and then turned it off and my battery has become so much better. Now, the phone can standby for nearly 12 hours without dropping more than 5% even despite taking push notifications and all. A magical breakthrough. 

3) Active Display

This feature is the best one according to me. I barely have to touch my lock button. Whenever I want the phone or it needs my attention, it automatically lights up and I just have to hold a finger. As simple as that. I can't do without that feature now. But, turning it off improves battery tremendously. So, you'd get another hour I'm guessing. 

4) Clearing Some Myths

1) Call Quality 

It's okay. Calls are clear but sometimes, catching signal is a trouble on this device. 

2) Phone is incapable of high graphical and powerful apps.

No. The phone breezes every app you throw at it. It runs Asphalt 8 better than the iPhone 5. 

3) AMOLED Brightness

The phone has a maximum brightness which enables distinct and trouble free reading in direct sunlight. Anybody else saying otherwise is comparing visibility to an LCD panel. It's not the brightest but it's comfortable and pleading to use. 

4) Hidden Features

It houses an NFC chip and is capable of Wireless ContentMirroring via miracast. It is a 4G compatible handset. 

5) Camera Flash

It is terrible. With flash, colours are haywire. Photos are so much better without flash. Plus, your hand keeps blocking the flash as it sits right above the dimple. 

6) Audio Jack

The phone has a built in equaliser. The effects are great and input is clear. BOSE and beats headphones receive great sound from the 3.5 MM jack. 

7) Trouble multitasking 

If you subject the phone to a Google + photo backup, the apps will run slowly. This is the only disadvantage of the dual core architecture.

I'll upload camera samples in the next post. 

Cheers.

 

iPad One story

Computers have become nearly obsolete already though their faster counterparts were just launched. Tablets have rapidly taken their place. However, the iPad by Apple was the tablet to take the TABLET platform totally mainstream by introducing new ideas about the fluidic possibility of mobile computing.

I remember how we got our first iPad. It was 8 months from the U.S. Release but it wasn't made available in India then. We incidentally were in Dubai for our Diwali vacation and we grabbed it there 😂. We had to hunt a lot. In like 7 malls at 20 shops and we finally got our model.

One thing I can say about myself is that when I decide a specification about something, I don't let go of it easily. I've experienced this a million times and I think this is a good quality of mine. When I was getting an Android mobile in 9th, I had decided I wanted a phone with ICS, the then latest android os. Then, I fixed the phone and kept waiting till it hit India by even tracking its Spanish and Dutch release :D

When I was getting a cycle, I literally called the cycle dealers right across Maharashtra for that specific model and colour and we got it. For my first iPad, I wanted the 64GB Wifi + 3G variant and 3G wasn't even fully working in India back then in 2008 :D but yeah, I wanted that variant. It was the top of the line variant and we were wandering through shops just looking for that model. Thank god the iPad didn't have colour options else I would have been stubborn to grab that one too.

So that's how we got our first iPad. It changed my life. I was a computer(desktop Mac) addict. iPad made me change my style. It's convenience and form factor made me ditch the computer totally. And my father follow me too. He ditched his PowerBook and began delivering his conferences using the iPad. 

That was the iPad one. No camera. Just a pure tablet computer with Internet anywhere.

Then, for the next 4 years, we had no new iPad until dad decided to gift me a new iPad mini 1st gen ( as soon as it launched) for Christmas. I loved it. I somehow loved the new form factor. It was smaller but just right for me. It was perfect. It had two cameras and I had long wanted in my iPad since the iPad 2 that came right after we bought our first iPad shipped with two cameras.

But I didn't get to use the mini for long as i used it to set my dads office and iPad mini just fit the bill perfectly. So I got the iPad one back but Apple apparently had moved way ahead. They discontinued support for the iPad one and most developers followed suit. They stopped updates and existing apps began crashing too. It works even today and has a rock solid battery till date. So, I was iPad less but managing with a droid. 

But, just a month back, we decided to buy an iPad Air 2. Yes, finally after 4 years of waiting, we got a new iPad that was just the size of the one, but radically different. A million times better, literally. I don't regret I have it.

Thanks to my dad.

I'll review the device in my next post