aJCfreak - Dan's Blog

“Jallikattu protests  - All roads lead to Marina” screamed a headline. Truly, on Saturday evening, as we made our way to the famous Marina beach, we could see almost every third vehicle on the road was headed there. There were men and women dressed in black. There were bikers stopping by the roadside to hold up placards and signs. Some even held up phones displaying pro-Jallikattu messages. When we reached the signal on Mount Road just before the Chepauk stadium, we made a quick decision – we decided to head straight. We had heard that vehicles weren’t allowed till the Marina, so I figured that we could start much higher North and ride down the road adjacent to the beach. There was nary a vehicle on Flag Staff road, and my wife and I wondered at the completely deserted road. When we turned the last curve of the road to join the ‘beach road’, there she stood. The Indian flag. Waving boldly in the breeze. As if to say that Indian-ity reigned supreme – come what may.
 My...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII) poster from  StarWars.com Since  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII in the Star Wars filmogy) is releasing only on the 25th December (instead of the 18th December, like the rest of the world), I'm trying to keep everyone's Star Wars 'fixes' up, in the countdown to the India launch with the  7 Days without The Force Awakens  series. We're on Day 7 now - which means The Force Awakens tomorrow! Yeah, baby!!! 1. We're almost there! Just 24 hours for the Force to Awaken in India! Yipppeeeeeeeee!!!! See and LOL at this meme from a week ago... 2. Read this spoiler-free review of The Force Awakens from The Verge . Trust me, there are ZERO plot-spoilers:  http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/16/10243884/star-wars-the-force-awakens-review  This should help prep your anticipation for the film's release tomorrow. 3. Watch the full set of trailers and spots for The Force Awakens below (have you...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII) poster from  StarWars.com Since  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII in the Star Wars filmogy) is releasing only on the 25th December (instead of the 18th December, like the rest of the world), I'm trying to keep everyone's Star Wars 'fixes' up, in the countdown to the India launch with the  7 Days without The Force Awakens  series. We're on Day 6 now. 1. Watch this fun-tastic video of the cast of The Force Awakens, along with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, singing the Star Wars theme, A Capella style! 2. Read this thorough, well-written article from The Verge on what happens across the Star Wars universe (outside of the 6 films as well) in the events leading up to The Force Awakens :  http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/16/10215194/star-wars-the-force-awakens-guide-canon 3. Watch the Cinema Sins video for Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (it's only Part 1; you can click through to Part 2...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII) poster from  StarWars.com Since  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII in the Star Wars filmogy) is releasing only on the 25th December (instead of the 18th December, like the rest of the world), I'm trying to keep everyone's Star Wars 'fixes' up, in the countdown to the India launch with the  7 Days without The Force Awakens  series. We're on Day 5 now. 1. First things first - today's probably the day you can book advance  tickets to The Force Awakens premiere in India. So, mark the date - be prepared with all your login/payment details, and watch out for tickets to run out really quickly after booking opens. For people in Madras, www.spicinemas.in and  www.jazzcinemas.com should be the best options to watch the film (the latter providing IMAX shows; unsure if SPI has opened the IMAX theatre at the new Palazzo outlet) For people outside Madras, I guess in.bookmyshow.com , www.inoxmovie...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII) poster from  StarWars.com Since  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII in the Star Wars filmogy) is releasing only on the 25th December (instead of the 18th December, like the rest of the world), I'm trying to keep everyone's Star Wars 'fixes' up, in the countdown to the India launch with the  7 Days without The Force Awakens  series. We're on Day 4 now. 1. Watch this amazing  little remote-controlled, robot-esque toy of the BB8 droid from The Force Awakens, in action. It is just fantastic. Also, if you wouldn't mind spending $150 on it (about Rs. 10,000), then you should just go ahead and buy it. Really. 2. Read and interact with this seriously insane, well-detailed analysis of every  scene in all the trailers released for The Force Awakens . For a stats-junkie like myself, this is sheer gold:  http://qz.com/551572/every-shot-from-every-star-wars-the-force-awakens-trailer-logged-and...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII) poster from  StarWars.com Since  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (Episode VII in the Star Wars filmogy) is releasing only on the 25th December (instead of the 18th December, like the rest of the world), I'm trying to keep everyone's Star Wars 'fixes' up, in the countdown to the India launch with the  7 Days without The Force Awakens  series. We're on Day 3 now. 1. Watch this UK weather girl make plenty of Star Wars puns in a short weather report. It's fun! 2. Read this article from The Verge about how women and diversity is reflected in the Star Wars Universe:  http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9860588/star-wars-force-awakens-women-diversity-press-panel 3. Watch the Cinema Sins video for Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi below. WARNING: Mild NSFW for language of the narrator, Visit again, tomorrow morning (roughly 9 am IST) for what to do tomorrow.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) poster from  StarWars.com Since Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII in the Star Wars film-verse) is releasing only on the 25th December (instead of the 18th December, like the rest of the world), I'm trying to keep everyone's Star Wars 'fixes' up, in the countdown to the India launch with the 7 Days without The Force Awakens series. We're on Day 2 now. 1. We covered Google and Facebook yesterday - but what if you read a lots of news and other online articles, and you would prefer to have your online web Spoiler-free ? Well, we present to you The Force Blocker Chrome extension for the Chrome web browser. Install this, and it will alert you of possible spoilers in a page you are visiting. It's hit-or-miss, but it's definitely useful to keep me alert for spoilers in pages I'm visiting. 2. This well-articulated, well-researched (and backed with evidence) theory on why Jar Jar Binks is actually a su...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) poster from StarWars.com So, you're in India (or Greece!) and you can't catch Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) in theatres till the 25th of December. You're bummed, and you wish there was something you could throw at the powers-that-be which make you wait so long to get your long-awaited Star Wars fix. Me, being me, have put together a little something for those interested, to keep whiling away your time till the launch of the film in India. I'll be putting out a post every single day, from today till the launch of the film in India - D day (Friday, 25th December). Each post will attempt to collate and provide access to content from across the Internet - stuff that many Star Wars fans may have already viewed or read. For today, Friday, 18th December 2015, being the 7th day prior to the launch of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens in India, here's what you can do. 1. First, get your Google products in or...

Below is a response I posted to a commentor on Facebook, who said, "CSK team must be banned and Guru - the enthusiastic crook - jailed." and followed it up with "All these guys are frauds. But Srini is a shameless fraud". While it shouldn't be too hard to dig up the details of this enlightened human being, I personally would not mention his name here to maintain whatever level of privacy the world wide web offers. So, here we go. Dear Mr ...  All frauds are shameless. Having said that, let me focus on your actual point here - that CSK should be banned and 'Guru' should be jailed.  1. It is yet to be proven in a court of law if Mr. Gurunath (forgive me for using his full name - I don't know him well enough to call him 'Guru') has broken any laws. Let him be proven guilty first, before throwing accusations on him.  2. In the possible event that he is found guilty, banning CSK doesn't help you, me or anyone on this big, beautifu...

Tamil Brahmi inscription in jambaimalai, from Commons When the Mullaperiyar dam issue 'outed' in the press more than a year ago, my Facebook news feed was filled with comments from both sides of the border (I have plenty of friends from Kerala and Tamil Nadu). I read up as much as I could about the dam, the arguments from the two states and decided - I didn't care about the whole issue much. It's a dam. It affects the economics and public sentiments of two states of our nation. So be it. And I am a Tamilian. For several years now, I've been hearing of renowned actors, politicians and other public figures in Tamil Nadu 'speaking out against' the atrocities committed against the Tamils in Sri Lanka. When I first heard of such things, I used to wonder why those people were resorting to extreme measures to have their voices heard - when the issue they were protesting wasn't even in our country. Only later did I realise that these people felt a bond of ...

From 5th June 2012 till 9th November 2012 I was a Science Communicator aboard the Science Express Biodiversity Special. The journey across various parts of our country was a superb experience which I doubt I'll ever see the equal of, for the rest of my life. I have stayed in some of the worst and best hotels, eaten some of the best and worst food found in this country, interacted with a wide variety of people ranging from the uncouth to the top brass of the scientific community of our country. I've interacted with bright-eyed, interested children and with youth who just wanted to pass their time in an air-conditioned space. I have been left wondering, at times, at the magnitude of the task that we were trying to undertake - to educate a people that did not want to be educated, nor did they care - while at times, the understanding smiles from a class of eager young children have left a lasting, glowing memory in me. With this mix of memories, when I look back on my time...

For those of you (the two or three individuals out there) who are waiting for an update about my life, this isn't it. This post is fully and completely dedicated to detailing the unofficial story behind The Indian Geek . Long, long ago I started a side-blog titled "Dan's Desirables" to write about gadgets I love and desire. The blog turned out to be posts about mostly Apple products. (No surprises there, eh?!) Nearly two years ago, the blog was moulded into Gadget Desirables  adding Josh Rajasingh as a co-author. We didn't write much about anything after that, apart from writing about the gadgets/technology that we owned. Add to this the fact that I was a keen follower of all Apple-related news and rumours (via Macrumors.com ) and other tech-related news (via WinSuperSite.com and Engadget.com ) and you have a dude with a wealth of geeky knowledge. When reading articles on Indian tech sites and blogs, I was appalled by two things - one, the lack of functional ...

Vodafone has just released a statement on their website http://www.vodafone.in/iphone which states that the 8 GB model would cost 31k and the 16 GB model would cost 36k. This is way too much for the iPhone.... popular speculation held that the iPhone would cost anywhere between 15k - 25k in India, when released on August 22nd. This itself is higher than the subsidized price in the US, where the 8 GB model sells for around 8k while the 16GB models sell for around 12k. My personal estimate was anywhere between 18k to 21k. But if this is the price of the iPhone, I won't be buying it. No no, sorry. It's way too costly for me right now. Hopefully, Airtel would come up with some sort of subsidized scheme... I'm crossing my fingers and praying. The giver of good things hasn't let me down. Whatever He does, He does it for my good. Always.