Misleading Ad

There was a television commercial in which a family was traveling through the mountains, and the elder of the family sought to inhale the fresh breeze, but before he could fully breathe in, the family hurried him to another location, and this continued till they arrived home. The father complains at home that you didn't even let me breathe. The son asks his father where else he might go to breathe pure air.  We could be at home, and as he says, he turns on the A/C (a brand that comes with purified air), and afterward, the father stood in front of the A/C and breathed.

I was like what the heck! Actually, it was wtf, that came out unmindful. 

I was uneasy from the time I watched it, and I was like, how could they think of replacing nature and its breeze? I wonder if they realize what they are conveying through this commercial. The world is already descending into hell as people seek the artificial lifestyle and drown in a virtual world, disrupting their relationship with nature and fellow humans. Such commercials will be pushing into the abyss.

The growing generation, particularly children who are unaware of the commercial aspects of the AD, will believe that the air from the air conditioner is as good as or better than the pristine air that oozes from the natural environment. And this will encourage and induce them to use air conditioners frequently without realizing the harm they cause to the environment - and using excess a/c is also one of the causes of global warming. 

The gadgets had already held back kids inside the home, and the COVID came as an advantage to the younger generation, which was more than enough to keep them at home. Online education has encouraged the activity. The youngsters who come out to play have declined, and with such advertisements, it deteriorates! 

As a nature lover with a social concern, I condemn the commercial's creators and the concept of bullshit. At the same time, I am never against the comfort of people and in today's rising temperatures, normally in summer, the air conditioner is a boon, but we should know when and where to use it.  Sweating is not a curse, and there's nothing wrong with sweating unless it's extreme to dehydration.

No parent wants to see their children suffer during the summer, and the air conditioner has become such a necessity that we cannot stop its growth. However, sticking to limitations will benefit the environment. There are various ways to promote a product, but using nature as dice and creating an illusion against the natural elements would result in future generations being distracted and held captive within the home. 

As a believer in life outside the window, this ad made me endlessly sad. I wish the promoters realized the ad was misleading and changed its course before it reached a large number of people. 

For your reference here is the ad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_AtlUFREgQ

Smartphones and Contemporary Kids

Smartphone, the word has become a heartthrob of man, particularly the younger generation, and each whining of the smartphone is a stimulator on the veins. The smartphone has created a global revolution in telecommunications in the short time since the introduction of cellular phones in the early 90s. Smartphones have become inseparable and mandatory power of the human race in their daily life. 

Like everything that has a plus and minus, negative and positive, good and bad, smartphones do their part of the sum. Every instrument, device, and gadget made possibly good purposes, and it is up to us to use it in the same way. And I think it lies in understanding the invention of the device and its use. 

Smartphones are for adults, and I still believe even after the pandemic situation had become favor against my thought of kids using smartphones, for online classes, except the occasions of emergence, kids don't have any business with smartphones. A consoling thing (this time) was kids using smartphones in the right way for education rather than gaming. Though kids and games are inseparable, let whatever the purpose for you to hand over the smartphones to kids, their gaming intend is indispensable. 

image courtesy

Leaving that apart, let us move into the intention of the post that handing over the smartphones to little ones and infants. Let's say it has become a trend or newfound custom by the young mothers to feed their children by playing something on the smartphone for the little ones to watch to take a mouthful. Perhaps, smartphones are handy, and the young mothers who always hold to them entertain the child by showing something amusing on the screen to feed the stubborn instead of heading out or relying on something real for amusement.

And what this shows is their laziness or lack of time (if she's a working mother) to use smartphones this way to quickly and easily feed a baby. (The young mothers in the blog world should forgive me if I'm wrong in my perception.) The young parents see if the kids trouble them, and if so, they give away their smartphones to the kids to sit quietly in a corner to allow them to do their chores. And this is where the trouble begins. 

One of my uncle's daughters, less than the age of 3, was in trouble when she allowed watching the smartphone continuously. My uncle had another baby when the elder daughter was a year and a half, and to look after the 2nd baby, they gave the smartphone to the elder and made sit quiet. Since the child keeps looking at the smartphone is not able to focus on anything other than staring and smiling only at the smartphone screen. She is still under therapy and is recovering at a good pace. 

I think the young mothers feel trendy to say that they feed their child by showing smartphones. I saw a mother trying to feed her child by playing a youtube video on the phone, but the child wasn't interested, and she was forcing him against his will to play, but not on the phone. On the same line, my cousin also tried this way on my newborn nephew Jeshwanth, and we have warned her not to follow this route, and I hope she listens to us. 

(My little nephew is now flipping and started to lay on his stomach. The boy began to take solid food like our traditional idly and biscuits in creamy form. His activities and naughtiness have increased, which needs a separate post to show off his actions.)

I fear smartphones would steal the children's childhood because friends and games (not online gaming or gambling) are a vital part of the period that lasts as evergreen memories of our lifetime. If they miss this chance, there isn't a chance to get back things, and the virtual world will end in a flash of great disappointment. 

The children's world is big, their imagination is boundless, and it is unreasonable to shrink it with a small device called the smartphone. We should make understand kids that smartphone isn't the world, but a part of it. I agree smartphones are essential in today's online education and communication, and it is better if they stood with that for the kids.

Thank you 

Asus Vivobook X441ua

Begin the year with a new laptop as I said goodbye to my nine-year-old companion, the Dell Inspiron 15. It was a journey uninterrupted in any major ways, and it doesn't require service for the last 3 years perhaps it could be a reason for its sudden loss of response. I could have woken it up by changing the motherboard, but I decided to put it rest and went for a new one.  Asus Vivobook is cool and enough for the works I do. It was quite an upgrade for me from Intel i3 to i5 processor, 4Gb to 8Gb ram and 500Gb to 1TB HDD, and Windows 7 to win 10. 

Actually, I thought of creating a record as I believed my Dell laptop would last another year to complete a round of 10 years. But I could have made it if I could spend one-third of the amount spent on a new one. I know it would give me trouble even if I spend the amount as the touchpad lost its senses – I couldn’t be comforting all the time with a mouse and a broken bezel, and I needed an upgrade, so I decided to spend the money on a new laptop. Though I couldn't think of any other laptop other than the Dell, I also no need to say why as its sturdiness is world known, but a friend suggested me to go for an Intel i5 processor and Dell's laptops at this range are out of my budget, so I went for the Asus which came under my budget.

The only difficulty with the Asus Vivobook was its change in some key positions on the righthand side of the keyboard. But the typing is much easier than before, perhaps because of the soft-touch keys, and being a new laptop thing looks easier. I need to install MS-office and photoshop, the prime software’s I use on my computer, separately, and add backup files from the previous laptop hard drive. I’m overall content with the gadget and need to work more to use its various features.  

RGB Monday

 A rainbow walks my street…    Let's begin the year colorful :) 

Hi guys, hope you all doing well and had a wonderful festive season of Christmas and New Year. I wish the year 2021 brings all good things to people all over the world and witnesses the end of the pandemic.  It has been a few weeks since I blogged and this is a long break I took after a long time because of the loss of my laptop. The laptop that was back from service didn’t last a few days and the technicians tried to save the laptop without changing the motherboard but failed to result in buying a new one after days of research.

I wish you all Happy, COVID-19-less, and Healthy and Wealthy New Year

Lappy back and A short video/photo slide of Bro’s wedding

The laptop is back in its former condition, and I'm glad the technicians saved the laptop nor should have looked out for new. To everyone’s amazement, my laptop survives 9 years without any major repair! There won’t be a surprise if it comes up with another issue because I’m in a situation to install anything additional to the system or force anything out of its circuit. I’m happy I could blog again, and I wish this laptop last some time to celebrate our 10 years partnership. lol 

Brothers wedding photos selection was going on my laptop and this setback with the laptop delayed the progress of sending photos for the album. I took some photos from the wedding folders and made a short video or photo slide with the Clips app on the iPhone to send to friends and relatives as Whatsapp messages. The app has some animation clips, and I used them to enhance the photo view. I share below the video for your views. Watch in full screen for a good show.

RIP, the Man of Laboriousness and Success

Undoubtedly his company's the No 1 dealer in India selling home appliances and we can’t easily point out someone who sustains the top rank continually and firmly for the last 35-40 years and it’s impossible without laboriousness.  Vasanth & Co is the brand name created by H Vasanthakumar (a member of parliament) who himself was the ambassador of the company and products he sold and he continued to taste the success in the competitive world even after the arrival of online shopping.  He’s someone who earned people’s trust in selling quality products, because people don’t trust anybody easily unless there's some truth and we have personally experienced it and as a regular customer we’re proud and content with any of the products bought from him. More than half the appliances that exist at our home are bought from Vasanth & Co and my first choice still to pick a product rather than online could be his and I always recommend purchasing from the same.

It’s really shocking and sad to know the man behind the successful brand is no more - he died at the age of 70 due to Covid 19. He picked up his business as a seller of home appliances from door-to-door in instalments and later opened his own shop in the shopping centre – T. Nagar, where our first television was bought. In 1984, a year before I was born, my parents bought a black and white Solidaire TV from him and he had enquired them about their income and the ability to pay the install amount, with personal care. My parents had mentioned this many times to us, and now watching his news of demise couldn’t stop them repeating the same. Should I need to mention anything more, how could he have come up this long (with 80+ showrooms across south India) without the concern and care about the consumers and supply of quality things? And he hasn't stopped there, rather chosen the field of politics or public life to serve the poor and simple people, as he himself comes from the same he understands the people's need and did what he could from his source of income and the posts he held as a Member of Legislative Assembly and Member of Parliament.

He chose Congress as his political party following his father and elder brother – Kumari Anandan, a veteran congress leader – and he shone well in the state politics and held office of working President and Vice-President and the Chairman of the Traders wing of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. Upon everything, it is his laboriousness that put him on all these chairs and what everyone would admire him as an entrepreneur and his life is a good lesson to read by anyone to reach various heights. And like a gem on his crown he has written three volumes of his autobiographical book series Vetri Padikattu (Ladder to Success) focusing on his entrepreneurial success and community building initiatives which I really want to read sometime. He’s such a simple and humble being lived to easily access is what everyone close to him says and he is a familiar face of Tamil Nadu and never a day passes without seeing his smiley face on television. Though it's all for the business, his reach and popularity at the homes of Tamil Nadu is not easy to dismiss. People will miss him but not his face.

New LG Nano cell LED TV, completes my home theatre dream

The year began for me with a real brand new thing; I expected to buy in last few years or at least from the time of purchase of my AV receiver, an initial step in building my home theatre. After a lot research, comparison and reading on various aspects I come down to choose the television that content my hunger for some quality. I was certain I want a direct backlight LED TV, just like my previous 26” Samsung TV, bought in 2010, and I have seen the differences in clarity the led TVs that produced later couldn’t live up to it and many who watched our TV had praise on its sharpness what their own led TVs couldn’t produce. I don’t want to go more on its detail. I know there’re greater TVs in market where finance decides the content and from my budget I looked for the best and I find the year end to be right moment for discounts and the television came in fair tag price of ₹ 57,000 at 35% discount in Paytm Mall online shopping.

We bought a 49” LG Nano cell Led TV and the LG promoted the TV as most advanced Led TV and a step down to OLED TV. Somewhere I read Nano cell Led TV is called poor man’s OLED! Ha ha. The TV has IPS flat screen and Ultra HD resolution with 4K Active HDR and 4K upscaler and wide viewing angle and many more visual enhancers to make watching pleasure. While choosing the TV I was much concern about the visual/image features because I already have the best sound resource in Sony AV Receiver to expand audio up to 7.2 channels, so the TV audio would be seldom used   but still the TV has good sound quality with DTS Virtual surround. Nowadays I watch movies mostly in Prime video (and yet to join Netflix) with almost contents available in HD and 5.1Ch audio, there are some 4K videos too that I am supposed to experience sometime.

I’m someone always lookout for tiny details or observe little things, so the detail was something strongly built within me couldn’t avoid this TV that has Nano cell particle to refine dull colors to accurate colors. The HD movies/videos are a pleasure to watch in this TV than the relayed satellite channels, that are mostly in SD content and it strains the vision with irregular to bright in colors and disband pixels. The best thing about this TV was its magic motion remote. The cursor at the shake of remote is easy to browse the television, access apps and above all it has voice recognition with both built-in Google Assistant and Alexa. The apple airplay and homekit is seems to help connect smart appliances but right away this will only useful to connect mobiles since they are the smart appliance we hold.

I was working on quite a home theatre setting from the wake up of 2018, when I purchased an advanced budget 4K AV receiver at half the price of its original rate through an Amazon offer and discount.  It was a dream comes true for me to buy a proper home theatre system than the regular surround sound existed through the satellite speakers system in market. Following the receiver I waited patiently and particular about the speakers’ purchase that should nowhere loses the signal and compatible with the receiver but the budget was something restricted me to progress step after the other. First I bought two powerful bookshelf speakers from Boston Acoustics for the front right and left, and last year I purchased the centre and surround left/right speakers from Yamaha to get a 5.1 Ch sound and for the sub-woofer I hold back from the previous system. Now with the big Led TV that was installed on the New Year itself my dream of a home theatre had come true really. I’m grateful for my parents to support and understand my need for building a home theatre, although they aren’t much interested they spent quite only because I desired for.  Thank you

New Purchase: iBall Compbook Excelance OHD

Lately I was looking for a compact laptop or netbook after I come across a smart one during a visit to doctor’s clinic and it was a MacBook for sure (which I'm certain apparently doesn’t need to define, as all apple products are smarter) and the way he dealt with it impressed me and produced a desire to buy one. I know I could not go near the MacBook that totally out of my budget and while come down the options were limited but still some renowned brands priced high the netbooks with specifications same as some local and unknown brands.  I did read many a reviews and comparisons on netbooks around 11 inches, anytime I felt and once get to know the Amazon Summer Offer is ahead, I took it seriously and settled at last for the Indian brand iBall – Compbook Excelance OHD – a Full HD netbook at around ₹9000 ($130) + 10% instant discount. 

I bought a chocolate colour compbook at a weight of about 1 kg and being a prime member of Amazon, compbook was delivered within 24 hrs of booking.  I was excited to power on the compbook (after 3 hrs of charging) and the first thing that stroked me was the spectacular color/contrast of the screen that turned the viewing stunning, enriched and refreshing sight! Thanks to IPS panel to turn things magical on screen and the 32GB emmc storage is left by 20 GB of free space and the 2 GB ram is unexpectedly quick for a leisurely operator alike me.  The multi-touch touchpad is super sensitive to my worn out fingers which lost track the gestures in the long run with my former laptop – what is still good and the compbook is only an alternate that I planned to use for  browsing, social networking and MS word.  Photoshop is strictly no on compbook so my laptop (Dell Inspiron) is the only choice for photo editing and storing data.  

The letter keys on compbook is bigger than the laptop to type but the location of shift, backspace and arrow keys are placed uncomfortable or I need to practice lot to make it usable.  The most impressive of the compbook was the battery that could run 8 hrs without charging, which means the netbook could last more than 2 days for my kind of use. The compbook comes with micro SD slot to expand storage up to 128 GB and also has option of adding internal HDD/SSD up to 1TB. I decided to do anything right now or until the system face trouble with speed or storage. It looks overall a good deal and could only wait and watch how worth the purchase was.  

Overrun Smartphones

Smartphones rules is what everyone would accept all-round. There’s lot of benefits using smartphones and it’s almost a pocket computer connected with internet, which means reaching every nook and corners of the world. But at same time there are many addicted to the device which means of killing themselves if they lost or someone prevent them from using smartphones. Though everyone beyond age difference uses smartphones, the young girls are so much attached to the gadgets where even they would drop their boyfriends but not their smartphones. I read news in paper where a marriage has been cancelled in Uttar Pradesh, when the bridegroom family learns that the bride is addicted to Whatsapp and was always online, sending messages nonstop to their family members. Additional news I read today was a judge at Jharkhand court has investigated a case through Whatsapp, for what the Supreme Court has condemn.

I think the smartphones and social networking is overrunning its need and we are out of touch from the real caress and brush. I feel our basic sense is challenged as we continue to rely on smartphones; our relationships are affected to a state of broke down. There’s a woman works as a housemaid at the neighbour’s house and she often brings her daughter along to perhaps help her and she looks like someone in her late teen and school dropped, held the phone always in her ear. Sometime she was loud talking passing our home and was also bold in uttering words that most would hold secret. There’s a young lady at the opposite house who used to keep talking once entered a call and go on walking the street until she end the call. She used to sit outside her home in evenings with mobile while her son plays around she keep doing messaging with an eye around. There’s another young mother in neighbour’s house who do the same whenever seen but from an iPad, which almost cover her side face. And I really wonder how she holds that size always in hand and up to the ear.

As I talk about others, I couldn’t give a miss to one of my cousin who’s always on her smartphone.  She keeps away her mobile is pretty rare and sometime use it even while at charge. Her mobile frequently beep with message notifications and she’s couldn’t do anything or look tense until checkout what’s up. I know two ladies who’re always on smartphone. Though we are friends in Facebook, they the sis-in-laws of my maternal aunt is so much used to smartphones and one of them is intense where she continues to share whatever forwarded to her. Other day the both came to our house to invite for one of their newly built home, where I noticed they don’t let down their mobiles. Both aged above 50, their devotion to smartphone is really wondering. I too use smartphone and more lately but I’m not a kind or influenced by the smartphone to keep on checking. There are days I unchecked the phone and I’m not an instant responder to any notification or message. Perhaps my online friends circle is small and mostly built on blog friends; I don’t get frequent messages and updates that much. There’s another cousin of mine who used to hang on mobile and he also carry a power bank along! I may sound complaining and I know that everyone’s part of this company but overworking may result in some other way unhealthy and we should make certain the smartphones doesn’t overrun our intelligence or make feel numb.

An Upgrade to Real Home Theater System

I already have a DVD home theater system bought in 2011 and it’s still continue to sound good and I watch movies connected to surround sound but lately I feel it wasn’t effective or I was in need of more effect and moreover the system isn’t reading the latest video formats and I need to convert the files or play through the television port to bring the digital out and then convert it into analog and play the sound though the home theatre. I always like listening to quality content and used to buy original audio cassettes and CDs when the albums of my favourite artist release and it continued till 2010 – Enthiran was my last purchase from the shop. I slowly converted to download songs from internet and later movies, but I still maintain my policy of not downloading or watching new movies rather than in theatre and watch movies at least 100 days after the release.

I was looking for a better opportunity to upgrade my listening and lately started to dream of buying an advanced music and home theatre system and while I was into research the Amazon.in came up with offers and 10% discount encouraged me to go ahead. I really don’t want another home theatre with a playable disk which has any other option of connecting. Technology keeps advancing and I can’t keep changing the home theatres accordingly and keeping it in mind I convince myself for an AV receiver with multiple inputs and UHD out though single HDMI. AV receivers are priced high even without speakers, and the basic system is not less than Rs.25,000 and I opted for Okayo or Sony as I got good reviews about them.

 I was in idea of using the old home theatre speakers with the AV receiver, although I was in doubt I went for a powerful system with more than 100 watts per channel, keeping in mind the future setting of big screen home theatre. After a lot of conflicts within, I was in conclude of not missing the advantages of Sony which is bit better than Okayo. Though both uses the Bluetooth technology to fully operate from smartphone, the NFC and few more technology, want me to go for Sony receiver which specifically is made for iPhone and iPods connectivity. I was really amazed at how it operates through iPhone and I could listen to any song from live stream or internet. As I planned I cannot connect the satellite speakers of old home theatre and was forced to buy new speakers.

The Sony STR-DH770 is a 7.2 channel receiver and I have connected just 2 channel bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer from previous home theatre, simply rocks.  I can’t describe the feel it produces even from just 2 Ch. Speakers; I can’t image how it would sound from 5.1 Ch., the basic setting of home theatre. The receiver has given me an opportunity to relive and enjoy listening to my favourite music/songs again through this enhanced AV receiver and I love the details it reproduces via Boston speakers, which cost me Rs.10,000 a pair and I’m in need of 3 more speakers. I really loved listening to old songs than the new ones and I can’t say how amazing it feels and each song sounds alike listening for first time.

Perhaps it’s the reason for my slow blogging as I can’t stop listening or watching movie from the time connected, I trying listening to many songs and genre. The actual price of the STR-DH770 including import fee and delivery charges is Rs.41,000 but amazon offered me at Rs.27,000  along with 10% discount. This receiver is not sold in India and amazon imports it from USA and it can’t be directly plugged into the Indian socket but need a 220 to 110 volt step-down converter to give power to the receiver which is at 120 volt. I also found the receiver to be damaged at a corner for which they refunded Rs.6, 660 after I sent mail to amazon with pictures of damaged part. And in this way we save the amount and I’m quite content with the outcome which I’m expecting to improve as I use it fully.

My first iPhone (SE) experiance

Just two weeks back my brother presented me a Gopro Hero 5, action camera, as my birthday gift while I turned 32 on July 31^st. This week I bought an Apple iPhone SE through a great Indian offer from the online giant Amazon. Though I am not a fan of apple products and had any thought of buying it earlier as I find their product costlier, but when I learned lately that iPhone SE comes with least weight of 113gm and advanced processor as iPhone 6s want me to go for it. Actually I was thinking about 16GB gadgets which come around $311 and I wasn’t in hurry, but the offer advanced my purchasing option and what I got was a 32GB iPhone at the cost of 16 GB!

image courtesy: google

IPhone isn’t new to my family and my brother had used iPhones for many years, but I had no interest of picking it up and I bought my first smartphone only in 2015 and my Samsung galaxy S4 mini is still doing well and smart enough. IPhone SE was in my mind to buy in future if I need an altar, but I didn’t want to miss to offer and to connect GoPro I need an advanced smartphone and SE is more than enough. In between my dad was complaining his mobile is very slow, so I thought why not give my phone to him and get myself an iPhone because he uses social network rarely and my phone is speed enough for his usage and this also one of the reason for purchase.

I am not a person who like big screen smartphones and the screen size beyond 4.5” is out of my comfort and difficult to hold. This’s the main reason I’m sticking to 4” display and I have searched a lot on internet but I couldn’t find an alternate to S4 mini and 4” category lacks great processer and has limited features to access and more over wasn’t weightless. I feel iPhone SE is designed for me personally because it fulfils my priorities and many reviews has praise the iPhone SE for holding a beast within a small cage of 4”. SE has the same technology as iPhone 6s and is operated by the most advanced iOS 10 and I really liked the classic look of this iPhone that comes from 5s.

Thanks to iCloud,  i could easy use the images shot from iphone directly from laptop  and one such picture was this

The iPhone has 12 megapixels camera with 4K video capture and to my surprise this is my third gadget with 12MP camera following my Canon Powershot SX 220 HS and GoPro hero 5. The iPhone camera is really superb and delivers an impressive DSLR quality images with quick shutter. The face detection and autofocus increases the desire to shoot. It has fingerprint security system but what amazes me atop all was the stability of the battery. So far I have charged the battery twice, and the one time change stands two full days for me using internet. Unlike my previous phone I haven’t switched off the wifi once stop using internet and it takes only 2 to 3% of power for the whole night.

Not to forget the iPhone Se is superb easy to use and instant response at the touch make feel awesome. The Space Grey color is admirable overall and l love the rear fining of the iPhone, so I have ordered for a transparent case cover for the iPhone to keep it visible. I’m happy about the real handset and it’s inspiring to use it more. 

கைபேசி / Handset

இன்றைய காலகட்டத்தில்

வாழ்கை துணையை விட

கைபேசி உடனான நெருக்கமே அதிகம்.                                                       

நேரடி உறவுகளை மறந்து,

மறைந்து, மறைத்து  

மெய்நிகரான வாழ்வோடு ஒன்றினோம்.

At present time period
more than a life partner
the intimacy with handset is much.

Forgetting the direct relationship,
hide, and hidden
united with the virtually made life. 

A small update

For last two weeks am going through neck and shoulder pain, and couple of times I was forced to take Paracetamol when it becomes intense. I had no sprain what I thought initially and took medicine but I felt much better for few days after taking tablets. But I wasn’t fine like I thought about and I started to feel much pain and visited the doctor who prescribed me the same and a gel to apply on the painful area. Once again I felt much better till the dosage power exists, though the pain wasn’t sever alike before I keep away from things that strain my neck and shoulder. My physiotherapist says this is perhaps spasm due to incorrect positioning on bed or working on laptop. I usually work on the laptop by placing it on the wheelchair tray and reading also happens by the same which means I have to look only down mostly and that could have stiffen or weaken the muscles to feel  painful.

My therapist advised me not to use the laptop for long time and also reading by only placing the papers/book high where staring is straight rather bending down the neck. I have reduced the usage of whatever gives me strain and also with limited time spent on laptop. I have bought a wireless keyboard/mouse and started to use it by placing the laptop on a high setting to keep the position straight. Though I finding little difficult with this change, as I have been practiced with laptop for last five year, adapting to the old desktop setting isn’t easy but I hope to become familiar with this soon. In laptop my hands action is limited to easily operate/communicate but with this I really need some time to adjust. And I wasn’t concern on anything for some time now to keep me away from blogging and I really want to write more and I have plenty of photos to share… but I wasn’t comfort to do it right now and that not mean I recede, I hope to come back with a bang.

Air con and tighten throat

I was pretty active with blogging and new found interest on craftwork but sudden throat tightness   over a night keeps me away sometime. I was uncertain what is happening with my throat but I was feeling difficult and sleepless night and it even continued through the day where I was going through the sensation of vomiting and was normal only by next night after doses of antibiotic.  From the time I was confined to bed for more than a month when I had my femur facture in 2013 I’m going through some difficult at night, related to throat, before I get into slumber. This time I’m certain that it was perhaps the effect of air con’s cold breeze, since the temperature started to raise our usage of AC has been increased slightly at night. I believe it is the brand that we chose for AC has been an issue lately.

Until we used LG for last 8 years, the device was in our control and it made the entire room cool and only after an hour and some it would feel chilly. But the Samsung AC blows cold air and it feels chilly in 10-15 minutes and once switched off the coldness goes away immediately. It wasn’t the case with us now; we have a Samsung AC already and it used to be like that. So when we shifted home we put it into my brother’s room and we settled for old LG, and when the blower goes off last year we had no option but to go for a second’s blower and that moment Samsung was available and we quite forget about the way it blows and got stuck now. Even one of my uncles has a Samsung AC and they complaints same. I would say it not air con but air cooler, and I will not recommend this to anyone. An air con should be cosy, but just being compact (Samsung) it gives trouble in other ways.

Though back to normal, the air con threats me now and going to sleep under its cold wrap make me wonder what impact it hold for next night! Lol Btw. I have couple of photos to show u the house I was making with Popsicle sticks and here it was incomplete. I plan to do some painting after working on roof. 

 

a tiny bench and dinning table

December and Troublesome

The year has almost come to an end with Christmas and New Year ahead; I convey the greetings to you all for the same, first. The mood seems to be refreshing every time a year set to dawn or beginning something anew and this time too I feel the same, though I decided to skip making Christmas tree that followed by lighting for New Year this time, the feeling of celebration happening around could not prevent giving a sense of happiness to me. Though the mind doesn’t agree to celebrate, when still many of our people are affected by flood and rain haven’t returned to normalcy, my anticipation with the year ahead were lot. There’s a promising feel in the air, which I don’t want to disappear, and the mind also makes conclusion with an urge to renew the activities to do much better. I don’t know what things going to happen next year and I wasn’t sure about my anticipation to share anything right now. But hope for the best, as it is yet to come.

So far this month, I have done only two posts and that too on the experience related to flood and rain. December has been a devastating month for some time lately, with great disasters taking place at this time mostly, the torrential rains and flood had made this year an unforgettable one revealing a face of Chennai that the modern Chennaities unseen before. December has been my favorite month always, despite being a primary season for mosquitoes, and the beginning of Margazhi – the Tamil month and the coldest season of the year, and the only time Chennai becomes cooler as it is well known for the hotter weather almost the year. December brings me memories of travel in past, as some of the places where explored during this time and trying to connect the moment and time of each passing day make feel cherished. I also decided to make use of this month to explore places around the Chennai that I wanted to do for some time and also waked up on the day 1 of December with an active mind-set but what happened keeps me away from almost everything and also couldn’t blog on things I intend to cover this month.

But later my laptop becomes a problem, which perhaps I guess is because of the disaster. When I opened my laptop after more than a week, I was slightly taken aback seeing at its condition of dirt and dust spread around the screen and keypad. I thought something could have happened and when I switch on the device I was asked to select windows to go inside rather right into the desktop. The screen read windows memory diagnostic and later it took long time to boot and unresponsive from certain keys make me feel useless to hold back the device rather way to service center to mend on things early. I didn’t expect it to make such expenditure on hard disk and keyboard, but glad I got back the data’s that stored in the hard disk, which was converted into an external hard drive. With the new and replacement from 320 to 500GB hard disk, the laptop works pretty good and quicker than earlier and I also decided to hold minimum files on the computer to keep alive the swiftness.

Alright, have an energetic and cheerful year ahead and more charming Christmas. Time to catch up with all your blogs and some have been untouched for less than a month. Hope u all bear me…  I am also on a mission to finish APJ Abdul Kalam’s autobiography (Wings of fire) before the year end, and being a slow reader, I am trying to be fast. Lol

My New Powered Wheelchair – Disappointments and Comforts!

I was looking forward for a new wheelchair from the time I started to experience back pain (from the beginning of this year) and that’s mainly because of the pelvic misalignment and mild scoliosis in spine that we find through a diagnosis in April. Without delay we approached a leading wheelchair manufacturer in Chennai to get a comfort wheelchair that perhaps decreases my back pain and prevent further spinal curvature. You might get more detail about the alignment and discomfort from my earlier post here. 

We placed an order on May 20 after discussing with him (the wheelchair manufacturer) at home; who came on our invite and as we know him already and being the manufacturer of my old power wheelchair, I thought he perhaps know my condition well and do his best to provide me the comfort I seek. Following his websites and the models he posted there, I thought of picking one from that that suits my need. But only listening to him at home reveals that those are models just to give an idea about the wheelchairs they manufacture to those unknown and he manufacture a wheelchair only on order.

He sent me a quotation listing down the facilities on the powered wheelchair including the specs I requested, with a notification on delivery within 45- 60 days. Though I was quite disappoint with the days his delivery marks, I console later that my normal powered/electric wheelchair took 30 days to deliver about 8 years back, the deluxe perhaps take that much. But what really happened was I got the wheelchair only after 100 days. We started inquiring about the wheelchair from the minimum days to delivery, in hope he deliver as soon as possible since my condition wasn’t comforting. But he keeps extending his delivery period from week to week on a constant basis of our inquiry.

He delivered the wheelchair on the day 101! To say the truth I was frustrated at the look of the wheelchair, which stood like a robot with big boot and being taller than expected I was somehow taken aback. I had no idea how he going to design my wheelchair. Because he hadn’t showed me exactly how the wheelchair would come up and also I hadn’t thought to ask him about the wheelchair height (from the ground to seat) as I didn’t find great difference in height when checking the wheelchair models in his website. Though the seat height is just about 4” more than the old wheelchair there’s great difference when putting me to seat. Perhaps it could become normal as we used to but right moment it matters lot!

I have nothing to complain much about seating in this new wheelchair, which has a bucket seat to sooth my back and very comfortable sitting to relax with reclining backrest and elevating footrest and handling! The wheelchair is much powerful than the previous one, where I used to drive in 3 of the total speed of 5. But in this I get the speed of riding on 3 in 1 apart the top speed of about 10-12 km/hr in 5 speeds. Though I feel comfort and increase in my level of confidence with the power of the new wheelchair, I somehow dislike on the look. The base and bottom of the wheelchair look disdain and the color of green isn’t likable and rather being thematic it outshines oddly.

I am a person don’t want to be noticed unnecessarily in public and the same goes to my wheelchair and I want it to look decent and though it wasn’t appealing much, I wish it was grayish instead being green. This wheelchair doesn’t come out exactly what I anticipated but it need to be rectify a lot to be more comfort and we have also stressed him to reduce the height of seat as main cause. I don’t feel any discomfort with the height but my parents do find hard to put me on seat. I took the wheelchair to road couple of times to check its ability and to see how comfortable it was on the long run. And few days back I took it to the doctor clinic, across the main road (LB road, Adyar) to check for my cold. The wheelchair is said to run 15 km per charge, but I guess it should be giving less than 10 km. Hope to test it more after the rectifying process, where the wheelchair will be brought back to the company. 

RGB Monday

Remote in hand, I was thinking what to post for my new found series. But I got the idea at the moment looking at the remote. And here I got the colors in a single click.

The buttons in the remote and in array of red, green and blue... although yellow interrupt the row I find it apt to the series. The TV remote is one of the objects we handle daily at home. 

My first Smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini i19195

Mobile phones have become an essential part of the life and Smartphone’s are greater advancement in telecommunication that works versatility. Once we shifted from our native home, cellphone has become our communication tool though telecom. Although I have a mobile phone, the calls I receive or dial is very less, so we haven’t got a number separately for home and my number has been the source of communication and only mom use it frequently.

Actually I don’t need a phone, as my communication has been least, but as you all know Smart phones are used not only for dialling numbers... it’s a small PC (personal computer) comes within our palms. There are countless apps to do versatile jobs and my intention for the smart phone was to connect internet (esp. to use social media and navigation) while on the go and get a personal number which I could use when going out with cousins to leave back the mobile used at home.

I was searching for a Smartphone, to suit my need, for long time and was sure not to go for the brick or tablet size (5 or above inches), because that size could not easily hold by me and also wanted the phone to be less weight. But at this range there are least phones and those less weighted aren’t powerful and enough with storage memory. And also I couldn’t afford more than 15K. By this time I find Samsung galaxy S4 mini which comes within the budget, but not here, in the US.

Glad my friend (who was in US on onsite, then, and who get the PTA) was left with more than a week to return home and even at that short period he agreed to get me the phone and placed an order immediately on Amazon. He didn’t say anything about the phone later and in the activity of importing the Patient Lift I couldn’t enquire him but only later when I visited him, at home, he told on my request that the order has been cancelled at the last moment. But he had arranged to get the phone though his colleague, in March, when he was supposed to return.

Actually I was to get this phone in December when my friend returned. But I got it only in the first week of May when his colleague really turned-up. The S4 Mini is a mid-range model of its flagship Samsung Galaxy S4 Smartphone and has a similar design and software features to its high-end counterpart. It has a powerful processor (1.7 GHz Qualcomm snapdragon) with 1.5 GB of Ram and 8 GB of storage memory that expandable up to 64GB.

Like I said above, it’s the weight (S4 Mini i19195 weights just 107gm) and screen size (4.27” Super AMOLED screen) that want me to for it. The phone comes very handy in dimensions operates with Android 4.4.2 Kitkat and it is an international version mobile that includes 4G LTE. The phone has 8-megapixle (mp) rear-facing camera (+HD Video recording) and 2-mp front-facing camera and also has advance features like NFC, Smart Stay, Hands free mode... For the single micro sim card holder, I use the Airtel telecom service and the frequency is very good. 1900 mAh Li-lon battery power is very decent for my limited usage.   

Portable Transfer Aid, Take-along Lifts

Four months had passed since I imported a patient hoist/lift from the USA, and only started lately to use it to transfer me from one surface (sitting position) to another. As you all perhaps know that after my fracture in femur in 2013, I lost my ability to stand and transferring from one place to another has become difficult. Initially the transfer between the wheelchair and car (and car to wheelchair) has been the most difficult thing, but these days every transfer has become difficult as parents find it harder to shift me here and there. My mom too has exposed to serious health issues lately and expected to be addressed (by hysterectomy) soon, so I thought it was the right moment to go for an alternate and thus the patient lift.

(my portable transfer aid)

There are hoist manufactures in India, but Indian make are bigger in size and take away large space while being operated as well as in idle, so I was looking for a portable ones which are available only in abroad.  First I inquired about the popular one in the hoist manufacturing, the Milford Peron Lift, both in US and UK through my friends there. It is a lift that can be mounted into a car as well as walls at home, near the cot and toilet, where the transference happens frequently. But the price of person lift cost a lot and falls out of the budget. Actually there isn't a budget quota but knowing my limits I kept away the idea and went to Take-along Lift, after learning its usage, which seems to be simplest, and the compact in size grows a desire and interest to fetch.

I decided to go for it with confident only after getting nod from one of the mobility aid manufacturer in Chennai, who I know for long time and who understand the needs of disabled so well. But moreover it is because of my friend, who was on onsite to USA, boosted my confidence. Because I believed someone being there would be great helpful in communicating with the company and can confidently progress with purchase. I just passed the link of the website to him and he takes care of the entire procedure and updated me with each step forward. He also paid the entire sum, including the shipping, to repay when he returns home. What really caused trouble was the imposed customs duty at the airport, which we didn't expect?

This is the first time we are importing something from abroad, although we aware about the customs duty but what make us carefree was that my friend told, the shipping company (USP) has said to deliver at home. He was further told the hoist will be delivered within a week of payment, so I was looking forward to receive it without going out anywhere. Meanwhile, I received a call from the shipping company agent in Chennai and he asked us to collect the hoist from the airport, via custom house agent (CHA), by producing the document which he had sent through email. Before that he asked us to come over their office and take away the dispatch notification by paying an amount and only showing that at the airport will lead out the hoist.

Initially he hadn't said anything about visiting his office, so we proceeded with a relative, who is working at cargo and who helped us with each step within the customs regulatory and I am sure if he hadn't it would have been great difficult with the proceeding. He had been in touch with airport authorities on the arrival of flight (BA 035) and also arranged for a CHA to clear away the customs proceeding, where we are insist to pay 25% of the entire cost ($2215) of the hoist. Although they reduced 10% on the customs duty later when we produced my medical documents and letter from our family doctor on the purpose of importing the hoist, we spent more than 10% of the amount of duty here and there on the progress including the rupee paid for the releasing order from the shipping company.

It was less than a week progress from the time I received the call from the shipping agent, and the flight hadn't arrived at the time/date he had mentioned in the mail and when we inquire about it, only then he told about the order to get from them.  In the other mail he indicated that only 1 pack of the 4 packs had arrived and our relative also confirmed it, so we waited for a couple of days for the others packs to come. But after a day or two day when we called the agent, in doubt, as I read the packing would be done as a sole carton, he told that it was only 1 pack and the other 3 were marked mistakenly. So no way blaming others, as we have to pay extra charges for the days it had been retained by the customs.  

Image courtesy: takealonglifts

Coming to the Portable TransferAid (PTA), it weights merely 20 kg and could lift individuals weighting up to 136 kg and though it’s a manually operated mechanism, it’s the easiest among the patient lifts I have seen. This lift can be used both at home and transported in a car to use where we needed and it can also be disassembled into two parts of approximately equal weight for easy transport. Unlike other hoist/lift that elevates patient in hanging or swing position, the PTA lifts like seated in chair and comes in two lifting options. The Seat and Split Slings are both used for transferring and the seat sling is positioned underneath the patient, while waking up from bed, with closed bottom, to feel not unease while travelling out of doors and quick transferring. But the split sling is designed to lift patient from their sitting position and is mainly used for toileting as the sling provides access to clothing and under-garments.

Just began to use it slowly, we are supposed to practice it more for easier transferring. The seat sling doesn't need much effort like the split sling which has extract strap to connect for safety feature and the force required to turn crack (to lift patient) is typically less than 5 lbs. So far we have been used it many time for transferring me from wheelchair to car/SUV, but haven’t take it out anywhere. I hope it will be very useful in coming days as my parents feeling tough to transfer me, and the PTA doesn't need much manpower to access and look after others. 

My attachment to old

I believe in old is gold! There are certain things that we can’t stop appreciating, however old or ruin they are and unused for ages, remain nostalgic whenever thinking about. I have a mind that does not give away certain things easily esp. used for long term or still feel content with quality and usage rather being old.  During my childhood or young days, one could see me roaming on the streets with friends and go rounds often in our area… and while this course we used to find many interesting little things on road and my favorite place of picking things  was Kailankadai (old iron shop). I had my own table drawer then where I used save things I brought from the shop and streets. My mother used to scold me for bringing those useless things to home and often engaged in war with brother for stealing one or two things.

My tape-recorder when in use

I never listened to her and kept saving those things and since my uncle had workshop adjacent to our house, I used to pick things from there as well. I had a collection of small iron balls in various shapes exists from the bearings until my brother swallowed one of it accidently. I think I had few of them even after shifted house for first time and I am interested even now if I get chanced to pick things at Kailankadai.  I know there is no future for broken arrows but we can do many things using those pieces. What is useless to someone could be utilized to other. Let me come to the matter of old things, which I still hold without use. I know tape-recorders and cassettes has no more futures and almost settled as sediments underwater leaving way to light and transparent technologies let move into air. The CDs and players has also become old stock with blue-rays and “I” series looking out for more light waves to wash away.   My passion for old and useless things comes out objecting the idea of mom’s proposes to dispose our old tape-recorder and a box full of cassettes.

I don’t know why and I am not going to listen to them anyway, but there’s something rolls me with the reels here. Until I bought my first CD player in year 2002, the tape-recorder was my only source of music and it was a foreign set bought to me by my late uncle, replacing the Philips tape-recorder with single speaker. I want to hold it back not because it was bought by my favorite uncle and it remain as a remembrance of him but apart being so, there was something that wants to keep it around. This tape-recorder enhanced my way of listening music with enough bass and treble effect unlike plain mono-stereo. Even until I bought my home-theater, I was connected my CD and MP3 players to this tape-recorder speakers using AUX wire. I ever had trouble like using this set, which often get struck with reel and have to bear to electronic shop, where the electrician used to take more than a week and above to mend it after number of walks to his shop, just two houses away from us!

Music always been my source of inspiration and uplifts my spirit when I feel down and there is nothing excitement like listening to new song or tune for first time that too from our favorite directors or actors. Until few years back I used to buy original CDs and cassettes from the music store, because for me quality is much important when it comes to music and movies… I can’t withstand the noise and sound disturbance. I know the tape is taking place enclose, but I have no mind to give away and not only the player there are few more things I kept safe in bureau.