A festival of colours…

To all my friends and family – a very happy Holi – enjoy the festival of colours.

And like I never fail to mention, enjoy the bhaang, while I enjoy sanitized trappings.

Bose In-Ear Earbud Review

Recently, without a warning my trusty and excellent Sony MDR EX81LP cans gave way after more than a year of service. Since I am pretty much on the road all the time – and also since I forgot to carry the other headphones I use – the sonically stunning Etymotic ER 6i Isolator - I decided to go out and buy one.

After contemplating getting a cheap pair, I decided to get the Bose In-Ear headphones. Searching on the internet, the information and opinions are so conflicting – I decided to add to the confusion and add my two cents based on three days worth of use – especially now that they are “burned-in”.

A disclaimer first – I am no headphone snob. I like to believe that I have a relatively evolved and eclectic taste in music – but I dont necessarily have adequate appreciation of the likes of those who can tell the warmth of the 8th Octave of a particular speaker over the other – but I do listen to – very passionately – to a vast array of music including Bollywood, Indian Classical, Ghazals,Rock (both classic and modern), 80’s pop, Western Classical, World, Hip Hop, Jazz, Blues, Country and everything in between.

So to come back to the main topic – all reviews of the Bose headphones fell in two distinct categories – the professional reviewers gave it mediocre marks and the listeners and users very high marks. The professional reviewers disliked the “bass heavy” nature of the sound signature while the users presumably loved it. Also, there is a lot of chatter on the internet about how the headphones tend to “fall off” from the ears and the tips pick up dust and have a tendency to fall off from the main body of the headphones.

First the sound – I wasn’t overtly impressed when I started using it – I don’t know if its my imagination or the actual placement in the ear – but they sound better everytime I use them since – maybe they did need to be burned in. Overall, the sound signature is very warm, detailed and creates a sense of space – which my Etymotics dont. Bose tends to enhance bass – and this is no exception. Compared to my Etymotics, the bass is definitely enhanced. Conversely, the higher end treble is not as detailed and rich as the Etymotics deliver. But here’s where I differ from (perhaps) my more knowledgeable reviewers. Sonic signature is only useful when taken over the entire spectrum for the average listener. And for an average listener, the sound from these cans is rich, deep and detailed – that actually makes listening to music very very pleasurable. Yes, the highs are not as well defined – but it doesn’t matter. Because the overall detail is very warm and rich. Very Bose.

Even though the Bose IE headphones aren’t advertised as In-Canal earphones, they dont block any noise on the outside. I don’t think I’ll use them on a flight anytme soon. Conversely, they are a lot more comfortable than my Etymotics ( much like the Sony MDR EX81 LP) and that matters to anyone who has experienced the in-canal “ear-pressure” on using the in canals for a long time.

One problem with the Bose IE cans is that they require significant power from your MP3 player to drive the audio – in other words, you will have to set the volume levels higher to get the same level of output compared to other in canal earphones.

I have heard all kinds of music using my Bose – and I find them unusually pleasurable. And I suspect this is why most listeners would give the new re-designed Bose IE (the redesign takes care of the falling buds – both from the ear and the headphone base) – high marks. And I suspect that is because when we listen to music – we tend to focus on the overall sound filling and detail of a headphone than how separate notes sound – and on that count Bose delivers very high marks.

Yes, there are headphones at the same price that would offer much more sonic detail – but that comes at a price. For those who are interested in more noise isolating headphones – check out the Etymotics (referenced above) or the Shure 2c – excellent headphones both.

Sound, ultimately, is very subjective. While I cannot say the Bose In-Ear headphones will satisfy everyone – it certainly more than works for my listening needs.

123 Nuclear Deal Shenanigans

The frankly Machiavellian machinations of the government, the allies and the opposition continue on the 123 Nuclear deal. And while the comport of our esteemed friends from the Left is as disgusting, ill-informed,myopic and politically as usual – the motivations of the Congress and the BJP isn’t any significantly better.

Today, Pranab Mukherjee, our venerable External Affairs Minister and longtime “leader” of the people took the stage to say that there was “no question of sacrificing” the government to ensure that the Indo-US Nuclear deal goes through. The BJP is going around accusing everyone – the Congress and the Left about “sacrificing National Security” – that much flogged bugaboo that politicians call out when all intellectually derived arguments fail. And with that bugaboo, goes to hell all pretenses of actual concern to national good – but then, these are the guys that would bring down a 800 year old mosque to “redeem” a religion. So expecting anything better from them is egregious at best.

About the Left – the less there is said, the better. My views of Mr. Karat and his cohorts is well known to the readers of this blog – as is evident by my earlier posts on this subject. The Left knows it has hit something here – aka the National Security argument of the Republicans in the United States – and are trying to exploit it to the hilt. And given their traditional loathing of everything United States (even though all their kids would go to universities there – on taxpayer expense) – it serves them well. But they are skating on thin ice on this one. All the states they govern is going down the drain. The only reason why there is anything going on in West Bengal, for e.g. – is in spite of the government there – not because of their policies. They are simply riding the Indian boom coat-tail. They are skating on very thin ice – because their fundamental argument does not play very well with urban educated India. And the rural masses eventually wouldn’t care less about a hypothetical Nuclear deal – which for all practical purposes – does not impact – and will not impact them for a long time to come.

So what does it all mean for the Nuclear Deal (with or without the much maligned Hyde Act)? It means that it probably going to be delayed indefinitely – further complicated by the fact that if a democrat gets elected to the White House – especially a very liberal democrat like Barack Obama – it would probably entail some renegotiation – and consequently, further delay. All when India needs power production ramped up faster. All when Indian power distribution needs to be ,modernized to reduced the highest in the world distribution losses. So every new factory, every new apartment complex, every new software venture and every new enterprise does not have to have captive power capability.

There are times – when India really is a wonder. Wonder that we are still the second fastest growing economy of the world – it cannot be anything but a stellar testament to the Indian enterprise, the home grown Indian initiative and an ambition of a country – inspite of the bunch of incompetent, ill-informed and hideously corrupt and power hungry politicans that “lead” it.

My country, my power

We have a power scarcity. Mittal-Arcelor talks about setting a steel plant in India – and in the same breath – talks about how it has captive power.

The government – whose role above all – is to provide basic amenities to its citizens – has failed. If I buy a house in Gurgaon today, I will probably buy it in a private gated enclave – where power is generated by the builder – and water is harvested from the monsoons.

I am not complaining (apart from the fact that I have to pay 5 times as much for power when I pay a private company). But I AM saying that the Indian government is a failure. Everything that has happened in India – has happened inspite of the government – not because of it.

And now, we have a situation where the geriatric  Left parties insist that we shouldnt have the NPT with the United States. Because they dont like the United States. Much like the Chinese. And the Russians.

And they write all these lofty intellectual discourses from air conditioned party offices where the power never goes off  – since they are the ruling “coalition”. I write this because their intellectual disingenuinousness makes me sick. Makes me want to kick their butt like we kicked the brits once before.

The problem is when you read the anti-India-US nuclear pact news items is this: While they claim to be grounded in egalitarianisms, they really opine privileged ideas against the nuclear deal. Really – if I dont have power in the middle of summer without the environment killing impact of raw coal burning power stations – I dont really give a shit about “imperialist” the Americans are.

The problem is that the Left leadership, while it would like to believe is with the people, is very privileged.  Mr. Yechuri, Mr. Bhattacharya et al – arent really people leaders. They have not had a day to stay a normal man’s life in India – and hence can make all these claims about the interests about the common man .

I will state this – I hope these and their ilk rot in hell. Because India is too intelligent for you – Mr. Basu, Mr. “JNU” Yechuri and Mr. Bhattacharya. We arent the Middle East. You cant lead us on into a dark alley with “America” paranoia. And while it may take time, when it does, you guys, with your privileged backgrounds and your pseudo intellectual egalitarian concepts will be in the past.

Thank you. And be gone now!

Sprint-Nextel-T-Mobile. Ahead?

Rumors swirling around in the marketplace around a Merrill Lynch report predicting Deutsche Telecom (majority holders of T-Mobile) might make a bid to buy out Sprint-Nextel. Given Sprint’s abysmal stock prices now, it would make financial sense for them to acquire Sprint’s considerable assets and 55 million odd subscribers.

However, knowing a thing or two on integration of multiple OSS/BSS systems – it wouldn’t be a pretty merger. The good thing is both T-Mobile and Sprint use the same billing vendor (Amdocs) – so things might be easier than the Sprint-Nextel integration was – it shall still be extremely challenging on the BSS side to integrate all the operational systems of both systems.

Secondly, Sprint uses CDMA/iDEN and T-Mobile uses GSM – that shall be a a huge Mediation and Network activity to integrate the two.

I will go against the grain of conventional wisdom and say the the merger would have advantages. The reasons are relatively simple – for T-Mobile to survive against the behemoths of Verizon and ATT Wireless – it needs economies of scale. It is just too expensive to build out nationwide networks – especially given the fact that T-Mobile currently does not have a 3G network – at a time when leading players – with Sprint leading the pack are actively building out 4G networks.

So, for smaller players to survive -in an age of voice commoditization – it becomes increasingly critical to share infrastructure to rationalize cost. And a Sprint-T Mobile merger can potential have those synergies.

Its important to note that in areas of the world where telecommunication costs are the lowest – India for e.g. – telecom companies are already sharing critical network infrastructure for common good – In India the leading telecom players have a consortium holding company that owns and operates all the towers that are used by competitors. Its good business sense – allows for cost diversification and consequently costs the subscriber a lot less to use services.

I believe that the national telecom players currently have a lot of operational excess – and this merger – if done right – can correct some of that.

Forbes Billionaires

Forbes just released a list of the world’s richest folks. In the top 10 richest people in the world – there are 4 Indians – more representation than any other country in the world – America included. Laxshmi Mittal, Mukesh and Anil Ambani ( brothers, if their wealth were combined – would be almost twice as rich as Bill Gates and by far, the richest family on Earth), And then there is KP Singh of DLF at #8.

At one level, it makes me immensely proud – the number after all is a reflection on how well some businesses have done post-1991 liberalization period. Indians were always enterprising -and the experience of conducting business in a heavily regulated economy bode well when – metaphorically, the Indian Tiger was (relatively) unleashed. It was almost like losing those lead shoes when running a marathon. So no wonder Indian companies have done well. As a matter of fact, at 53, India now has the highest number of billionaires in Asia. Quite an achievement given 5 years ago, we had one.

But at another level, this just underscores the vast dichotomy that India still is. Stark poverty existing with immense wealth. Vast opportunity with grinding generational disadvantages. Yes, it is changing. But not fast enough for a billion ambitions.

While I am sure the world’s first trillionaire will be an Indian – probably one of the Ambanis – I dont see that trillionaire engaging in the level of social philanthropy that I see Warren Buffet and Bill Gates engaged in. I wrote about this a while ago – I scoured Arcelor-Mittal’s website for its social awareness – and while there was a mandatory presence of a page talking about “social responsibility” – it did no justice to an immensely wealthy family from an equally immense and poor nation.

I know its easy talk – each one of us has a personal responsibility.

But the new generational Indian billionaires certainly need to own up to theirs. For their sake. And for the country and the world they belong to.

Hilarious!

In light of unending prognostications on “foreign policy” in the Democratic primaries.

Credit: Random forward from someone unknown

And now Virgin Mobile

After Vodafone’s successful foray into India, it is now Richard Branson’s Virgin group that is entering the fertile Indian telecom market with its service offering from Virgin Mobile. The deal is essentially an MVNO relationship with Tata Teleservices with services focused on the the young market.

According to AFP, the venture will differentiate itself from all the incumbents by offering “more tailored and relevant” music, entertainment, news, sports and of course Bollywood offerings.

According to Jamie Heywood, deputy Chief Exec of Virgin Mobile India – they plan on capturing 10% of the market and generate 350 billion dollars worth of revenue in the next three years – impressive numbers indeed – regardless of how one looks at it.

The transformational evolution of the Indian telecom market – now the world’s fastest growing – keeps evolving. Stay tuned for updates.