Book review: Secret of the Nagas

Contrary to what I read, this book does not get boring (which is usual of Part 2s - This is a sequel to the Immortals of Meluha). I found that he had taken it quite nicely to a closure. Overall a worthy read (especially for a person reading it a long time)

I am eager to complete the Shiva Trilogy with the third book by Amish Tripathi

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Movies: My review: English Vinglish

Good movie - worth watching in the theatre, maybe even twice.


 

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Book review: The immortals of Meluha

Immortals of Meluha is a nice historical concept book - Woven Indian history and fiction . Gripping and worth a read.
This is my second ebook. Have a strange feeling with better ink, lower backlight I will switch to digital books.

Could have built a more complex web of characters and story - rather shallow and unable to sustain the next book (like Asterix or Hobbit)

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ipad 2 glass replacement in Chennai India: cost and my experience

I have had an Apple 2 iPad 64GB (Wi-Fi + 3G) for about a year. Last week I was juggling between doodle jump and a haircut and dropped the ipad on my foot and then the floor :-(

The glass cracked though thanks to the screen protector there were no fragments fallen off and the whole piece continued to work as normal.

After 1 week of staring at a bad screen, I pulled myself to call the iStore and asked them if they will repair. On the phone, they said it would cost around 12K but when I visited, they said a phone replacement was 12K and an ipad was 20K and 1 week.

In fact the service engineer suggested its better I buy a new one.

I decided to call on crescent cell city (on TTK road, Alwarpet, Chennai) and he told me it would cost be about 6K and would be ready in 3 hrs. He checked the ipad model (and it seems the glass varies as per memory or atleast thats what he told me - maybe the thickness did - he gets it from a Bangalore vendor and does the fixing himself)

Not wanting to wipe off the emails and photos, I decided to go for the 6K option. Voila, in 3 hrs the screen was as good as new!

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Bose Bluetooth Headset 2 : Review - Music into my life again

For last 3 years I have been using various bluetooth and wired headphones for music and phone and almost never used them consistently. In fact, I have started music only during my exercise and mostly on shuffle and bluetooth for the phone while driving. I wanted to bring music back and also not carry an extra pair of phone accessories.

I realised that the following were my needs
1. Should be able to listen to music and voice
2. Should not be in 2 ears - looks awkward and also in an office setting you want to be able to listen to/be approachable to others
3. Should stay in the ear - even while running
4. Should not shut off noise and cause ear irritation like several in-ear phones
5. Should not be heavy
6. Should provide unobtrusive good voice clarity - the other person should not ask " Are you driving or am in on the speakerphone?"

I have tried the Nokia BH-505, Philips SB9000, Motorola, , Sony in-ear wired phones and the Bose Bluetooth Headset 2. I compared with the Stone2 (Jabra) and the Plantronics M100

I am glad that I took the Right ear version of the Bose Bluetooth headset 2 (Bose offers it in 2 different versions) and it seems to be just perfect

The music is clear and great (it is a BOSE - atleast the price tag of Rs. 8.8K confirms it! - it is expensive). No one has asked me to repeat myself or whether I am in a car. The set is just too light (i think some sub 20 g) and I had fogotten I was wearing it. The StayHear (TM) stuff is great and I have listened to atleast 6 albums in the last 1 week on this set.

It pairs easily and detects far better than the other sets I have had. Only issue is that you may have to charge it almost daily if you are a heavy user of headsets.


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