Month: April 2013

Categories
Tech

Facebook announces ‘Home’ for Android smartphones

Announces the advent of the launcher, which will allow users to check their Facebook right from their phone’s home screen.
by Manik Kakra

Yesterday, Facebook held an event at its HQ, during which Mark Zuckerberg announced new paths for Facebook’s mobile users.

First of all, Facebook has launched ‘Home’. What is it? Basically, it is a launcher for your Android smartphone. But there are plenty of launchers available from the Play Store, so what’s so different about this one, you ask? Well, we haven’t yet got our hands on the launcher, as it’s going to arrive on April 12, but what is clear from the event is that, the launcher will allow users to check Facebook right from their phone’s home screen.

This means you don’t have to go into any particular app to browse through your Facebook feed. You will also get notifications, messages, photo updates, etc. right on your home screen.

 

Chat Head is another feature of Facebook’s new launcher for Android; with chat heads you will get to see instant message on top of whatever app you’ve currently opened on your phone. Home is where you will have all the apps from the launcher, and it will be a unified hub for Facebook on your Android smartphone. So, this Cover Feed tries to make a deeper Facebook integration in your smartphone.

Next, Facebook and HTC announced HTC First It’s a new Android smartphone, which comes pre-loaded with Facebook Home. There are no official statements about the hardware specifications or Android version that power the phone.

The HTC first sports a 4.3-inch 720p screen, and is powered by Qualcomm’s 1.4 GHz dual-core Snapdragone 400 processor, along with 1 GB of RAM. The phone comes in black, white, light blue, and RWhat’s know and will go on sale on April 12.  It costs $99.99 (approx Rs 5,485.50, on the US’s AT&T network). Zuckerberg also announced that Facebook has signed with, apart from HTC and AT&T, Sony, and Samsung. This new launcher will be supported for HTC One X, One X+, One Samsung Galaxy SIII, Note II at the launch.

There is no news about the global launch of any device that comes preloaded with Home.

We can’t say how good or bad the launcher or its implementation is, but one bad thing is that it will soon have ads. Yes. Ads right on your home screen. Let’s see how the launcher cops up in day-to-day use.

Categories
Hum log

‘The only obligation you should have is to your craft’

SA artist William Kentridge’s mantra is amazingly simple: he believes that to appreciate art, one just needs an open mind.
by Salil Jayakar

On a visit to India, South African artist William Kentridge and his wife were taking a walk through the lanes of Colaba, Mumbai. His wife saw a sign pointing to Tushar Jiwarajka’s Volte Art Gallery, where the artist and the gallery owner had a chance encounter. Jiwarajka expressed his desire to exhibit Kentridge’s work and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

‘Poems I used to know’, Kentridge’s first solo India exhibition was showcased at Volte for nearly two months from February to March this year. It included ‘I am not me, the horse is not mine’, an installation of eight projected film fragments, a series of flipbook films, two large drawings over multiple book pages, fragmented sculptures, a large tapestry, and several prints.

Now back home in South Africa, Kentridge expressed his “delight” to have an exhibition in Mumbai. “I was curious to see how my work would be received in a post colonial country other than South Africa, outside the periphery of Europe or America where I usually showcase my work,” he says.  According to him, the reality of atrocities isn’t native only to South Africa or India. “Every country has had its fair share of demons to deal with. The core theme of many of my works wishes to drive home the unifying point of finding that elusive form of optimism amidst the disparaging gloom surrounding us.”

An artist, painter, sculptor and theatre and opera director, Kentridge’s work has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Albertina Museum in Vienna and La Scala in Milan. He received the Kyoto Prize in 2010. Yet, for all his work with different mediums and formats, charcoal paintings are a favourite. “All my work is rooted in drawing, as a primary medium. I guess charcoal paintings would be a personal favourite,” he says.

Kentridge confessed that he has a limited understanding of the art in India and knows very little about India’s art world. At the same time he saw a lot of similarities between the work done here and in his home country of South Africa. As he puts it, “I am astonished at the range of work and the ambition of scale that is being done here. Having seen work by a few well-known Indian artists, I look forward to discovering more in my subsequent visits to the country.”

For artists worldwide who are constantly in conflict with people and religions for offending sensibilities or hurting religious sentiments, Kentridge firmly believes that an artist has no obligation to either. “Your art is your own and the only obligation you should have is to your craft.”

Finally, for the layman who has no knowledge of art, Kentridge has these words of advice, “Anybody can appreciate art. You don’t have to be an art aficionado. All you need is an open mind to embrace creativity.”

(Pictures courtesy William Kentridge)

Categories
Event

Osian’s Indian miniatures auction on April 13

Historically-significant Indian miniatures, modern art pieces include Mandi School works which had left India in 1960s before being purchased back.
by Osian

Opening its new annual calendar of auctions, Osian’s is bringing together a wide range of historically significant Indian miniatures and modern art in its Forty Masterpieces Auction to be held on Saturday, 13 April 2013, in Mumbai.

The opening preview exhibition of the Auction will be held at 7 pm on Friday, April 5, at the Osian’s Headquarters at G-2B Nariman Bhavan, Nariman Point. The Auction lots will be available for private previews at the same site from April 6 to April 12, 2013.

The auction comprises of 40 lots and is valued at the lower estimate at approximately Rs 5.6 crore (higher estimate Rs 8.4 crore; with average estimated lot price range Rs 14 to 21 lakh). Among the highlights in the section on Indian miniatures, there are some brilliant Mandi School works from the Ramayana and Devi Mahatmya series originally from the Royal Mandi Library Collection, which had left India in the 1960s and was purchased back by Osian’s from various Sotheby’s auctions to bring them back to India in 2005-2006. These works cannot be exported out of India now.

A few highlights among the masterpieces of the Modern Art Section include the works of Modern Masters of the Bombay, Bengal and Baroda School. The Auction includes a very rare and brilliant little work by early academic school modern master, Rao Bahadur MV Dhurandhar; rare and important paintings by Abanindranath, Gaganendranth and Rabindranath Tagore; a magnificent large oil on canvas painting by the master artist of both India and Pakistan, Ustad Allah Buksh; Jagdish Swamninathan’s  famous ‘Bird, Tree, Mountain’ Series purchased from the artist in 1979; the very best early etchings by master printmaker Laxman Goud on which his fame was established; leading British sculptor, Sir Jacob Epstein’s famous bronze Head of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; Himmat Shah’s uniquely brilliant signature style terracotta heads; an impressively large commissioned portrait by Hemendranath Mazumdar and powerfully evocative paintings by the masters DP Roy Chowdhury, Ramkinkar Baij, Sanat Kumar Chatterjee, and Nikhil Biswas among many others.

Regarding the consolidation and re-strengthening of the Osian’s Group and the Auction House, Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian’s Group says, “For the first time we have a fixed annual calendar for the Auction House, ranging from auctions for the antiquities, fine and popular arts, to film and sporting memorabilia, to rare books, prints and photographs. The Auction House has been separated from all other activities (eg. the film festival, the conservation laboratory, the museum, and the like) so as to make it a specialised leader once again and to start rebuilding the market for the India’s arts, culture and heritage. The last few years have seen immense pressures and challenges, and they have only made us recognise that the unique business model for the arts needs ever more diligence, buffers and care. A strong art market is pivotal for the growth of knowledge and the spreading of awareness and sensitivity regarding one’s cultural heritage.”

(Pictures courtesy Osian’s) 

Categories
Beauty

Smooth moves

Soft and silky legs are what every girl wants to flaunt in cute skirts and sexy shorts during the summer. Follow these simple tips for the smooth legs you always wanted.
by Beverley Lewis

A lot of people advise against it, but shaving can actually get you the smooth skin you want, provided you do it right.

– The trick to shaving legs is to wet your skin and let it soften from the heat and moisture. When you shave in the shower, make sure that the water is warm and not very hot as this will dry out your skin.

– You cannot shave dry skin. Shaving is a natural exfoliater and if you try to dry shave, you run the risk of clogging up the razor with dead skin while putting yourself at risk for nicks and razor burn. Be sure to exfoliate your skin before shaving. It gets rid of all the dead skin cells.

– There are several ways to exfoliate. You can use exfoliating gloves or dry brush before you shower or use a mild scrub.

– Next, finding a razor that works well for your skin, given the pressure you use while shaving, the texture of your skin, and the density of hair growth, takes some experimentation. No single type of razor works well for everyone, though the newer triple blades seem to work wonders.

– After finding the one that works best for you, the main thing is to change the blade frequently—dull razors make for poor shaving results. There’s no need to waste your money on shaving creams formulated especially for women, they are virtually the same as the creams sold for men. Avoid shaving products that contain irritants (such as alcohol, menthol, and peppermint). Used over newly-shaved skin, irritating ingredients can cause red bumps and ingrown hairs.

– If you find yourself without shaving cream in the shower, use hair conditioner or body wash instead. This is far easier on the legs than shaving with a bar soap or bar cleanser. For best results, shave against the growth of hair using careful strokes and applying even pressure.

– After you’re done, apply moisturiser and remember, if your legs are going to be exposed to sun, apply a moisturiser with sunscreen (SPF 15 or greater) that contains the UVA-protecting ingredients avobenzone, titanium dioxide, or zinc oxide.

Beverley Lewis has worked with beauty magazines and has amazing tips to share. Have a beauty question? Send it to us at editor@themetrognome.in or tweet it @MetrognomeIndia and Beverley will answer it for you.

(Picture courtesy missbudgetbeauty.co.uk) 

Categories
Do

This Bulb has some bright ideas

Blue Bulb acquaints you with fun, sometimes OTT things to do. If you’re a Mumbaikar, you can de-stress with them.
by Medha Kulkarni

“Malls, cafes and bars. Meh. What else is there to do in Mumbai on weekends?”

An oft-heard lament of most of the regular office-going crowd who are too busy to do anything during the week, weekends become repetitive after a while. Joining structured classes, say for dance or art etc. is out of the question for mumbaikers, as work hours are long and erratic. This is precisely the problem that the founders of Blue Bulb saw and sought to fix it.

This is precisely the gap that Blue Bulb seeks to fill. Started in 2011 by Mumbai-based Regan Rodricks, Blue Bulb is a company that offers people in the city a plethora of things to do. They organise sessions for everything from hula hooping to Parkour to pottery and beyond. Most of these sessions are spread over a weekend, lasting from a few hours to an entire day, depending on the activity, and are designed to be taster or introductory sessions that give you the chance to try something new. Blue Bulb organises special activities for children and even has packages for couples. The best part about it? They’re all totally affordable!

“We look out for people doing interesting things and then try to see if more people would be interested in doing something like this. For example, I was introduced to a professional fire breather at a party. We got talking and before I knew it, I was on the terrace with fuel in my mouth about to breathe fire. And that’s how the Fire Breathing Experience became part of Blue Bulb. We also get contacted by instructors wanting to be part of Blue Bulb. But every experience and instructor is first tried by us to ensure quality. Our experience partners are individual instructors, clubs and professional performers who do this activity for a living,” Regan explains.

With over 50+ activities on at the moment (excluding a dozen-odd that they have as one-offs, such as the Hula hoop workshop) what is the most popular activity offered? “One of the most interesting experiences is the 1 Day Paragliding Training. We take absolute beginners, people who have never seen a paraglider before, and by 3 pm, they are flying on their own at 800 feet!” Regan says.

However, sometimes it can get difficult dealing with demanding customers. He recollects a parent who wanted to enrol their 10-year-old child for fire spinning. “We politely refused,” says he. “We get the most outrageous demands from parents, especially in the summer vacations. “

Priced in an affordable range, the rates vary depending on the activity. “But as a rule, we say ‘How much would you spend on a Saturday evening?’ and try to keep the price in that range. Ordinarily, a movie, popcorn and dinner would set you back by Rs 1,500/-. But most of our experiences cost less than that. And honestly, you will forget what you ordered for dinner a month ago. But you won’t forget the day you made your first clay pot or learnt to drive a bullock cart.”

For kids, they have a number of interesting sports like rock climbing, archery, and golf, and experiences like the cupcake workshop, doughnut baker experience, pottery, etc. One of Blue Bulb’s new experiences is the Pilot Simulator, where kids learn to fly a jet plane in an actual plane simulator. The simulator is a stationary cockpit which pilots use for training.

Each session is conducted by a trained professional and the team at Blue Bulb is very thorough and ensures that your experience lacks nothing. What I liked best about the way Blue Bulb organises these sessions is that they are never overbooked. Despite the steadily increasing demand, Blue bulb continues to retain its ‘First come, first serve’ policy and stick to their cutoff. This is good because a limited number of people per class means more personalised attention from the instructor and puts lesser pressure on resources.

Book an activity or experience with Blue Bulb here.

(Pictures courtesy Blue Bulb)

Categories
Learn

Asses on stones

Markers of a distinctive, historical past, stones showing donkeys in sexual congress with a woman abound in Mumbai and Maharashtra. Sadly, they are victims of neglect.

Shubha Khandekar spoke to Dr Kurush Dalal (in pic below), who teaches archaeology at the Centre for Extra Mural Studies (CEMS), Mumbai University and who has done extensive archaeological fieldwork in Chandore (Maharashtra), Sanjan (Gujarat) and Balathal (Rajasthan), about gadhegals, which have a quaint and fascinating history.

Shubha: What is a gadhegal?

Dr Dalal: A gadhegal is essentially a three-part stone slab in which the top part shows the sun and the moon, with or without a kalasha. The middle part consists of an edict, the shilalekha, which is usually the grant of a plot of land and sometimes of a house to a benefactor. The lowest part of this stone justifies its name gadhegal: it explicitly shows a donkey in sexual congress with a woman.

S: Why such a strange depiction?

Dr Dalal: A gadhegal needs to be seen in its totality, as therein lies its importance as historical source material.

The sun and moon symbolise perpetuity, the kalasha indicates prosperity. The graphic has evoked different interpretations: some feel that anyone who dares to violate the royal decree is being threatened with the most disgusting of punishments: that his mother would be violated by an ass. Others feel that it symbolically represents Mother Earth, and the ass (the vehicle of the goddess of pestilence and plague – Sheetaladevi) represents drought, famine, desolation that would come visiting anyone who defies the royal edict. A gadhegal is thus an Ass-Curse-Stone.

S: What is its significance for the study of history of Maharashtra?

Dr Dalal: These gadhegals are the markers of the Shilahara period as, being essentially land grants, they indicate the extent of the empire of the dynasty and sub-dynasties. The Shilaharas who reigned from the mid 10th to 13th centuries, were the first purely Maharashtrian dynasty that ruled the coastal areas of Konkan. They were initially the feudatories of the Rashtrakutas, who were responsible for the creation of such monumental beauties as the Ellora and Elephanta caves.

The earliest inscriptions in Marathi (in Maharashtra) are seen on gadhegals. A large number of early medieval land records and place names are also found on these gadhegals. The locations indicate the distribution of the cadet branches of the Shilahara dynasty, namely the Northern, the Southern and the Kolhapur Shilaharas. The language is either heavily Sanskritised Marathi or Sanskrit.

The word ‘gal’ means a stone in Kannada and is a common term associated with hero-stones (Veergal) and Sati-stones (Satigal) which saw their probable origins in Karnataka but they abound in Maharashtra too, and have evolved in a distinctive form. The gadhegals though are unique to the west coast of Maharashtra and Goa with a single exception from Gujarat.

Related to gadhegals are the sati stones and the hero stones. These often bear inscriptions in Karnataka but sadly not in Maharashtra. That is how the gadhegals in Maharashtra have evolved from their earlier avatars.

S: Where and how many gadhegals are there in Maharashtra and how are they different from those in Karnataka?

Dr Dalal: In Mumbai itself there are/were at least 12. There are about six or seven gadhegals with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrhalaya in Mumbai. There is one at the Ram Mandir, near Charni Road, there is one from Nalasopara, one from Powai and one from Vasai. There is one recorded from Jogeshwari which is now in Portugal, and there are probably others in the environs of Greater Mumbai which haven’t been identified.

There are many more on the Western coast. One has been reported from Porbander, Gujarat, perhaps relocated from Maharashtra. Gadhegals are strewn in the belt from Thana to Goa. A few are inland: there are two at Tuljapur, one at Satara and a couple in Kalyan.

However, this being a poorly-researched subject, who knows how many would be lurking in the fields, homes and shrines of the Konkan?

S: Which are the most famous gadhegals in Maharashtara?

Dr Dalal: Eminent Marathi scholar SG Tulpule has identified a gadhegal at Akshi (there are two here) close to Alibaug in the Raigad district as the first ever inscription in chaste, though archaic, Marathi. It is a land grant by King Keshideva. Fortunately, it has a date on it: Shaka 934, which works out to 1012 CE, which means, as of today, this gadhegal is exactly 1,000 years old! This should have been the occasion for great celebration. But instead, we see only neglect, apathy and ignorance from all quarters! Wind, rain and sun have almost completely erased the inscription today due to our apathy.

Another at Diveagar issued by King Anantadeva records the donation of land and a house. It is datable to 1137 CE. This gadhegal, whose original provenance is not known, was rediscovered and reinstated by the efforts of the Centre for Extra Mural Studies (CEMS), Mumbai and India Studies Centre (INSTUCEN) Trust.  Two more in a damaged state have also been found in the vicinity.

Interestingly, a gadhegal issued by King Aparaditya I, originally at the Jogeshwari caves, was taken to Cintra in Portugal and was published from there. It has 22 lines in Nagari script which record a donation of houses to important people in the royal court.

What are your suggestions for the conservation of gadhegals?

The inscriptions are in low relief and hence they get weathered and worn out fast. Intensive conservation efforts are needed to protect this heritage. A simple initial step could be the erection of a small shed over the stones and a careful photographic recording along with their impressions.

CEMS is currently working on three gadhegals at Diveagar and another one close by at Deokhol.

For conservation it is necessary to harness popular support by making the people aware of what these gadhegals are.

Possibly with the best of intentions, the villagers often wash and scrub them, and coat them with vermilion. This has to stop. They must be told not to move them and instead erect a shed around them for protection against the sun and rain. The historic gadhegal at Akshi has weathered so much that but for a faint trace of some letters, all of it is blank!

Private agencies and the local Government must come forward to create resources for the conservation and the government must provide generous support. They are today lying in isolated places, scattered all over the countryside. We must create local museums where these artefacts are displayed. We should create fibre glass replicas for sale to generate revenue.

The tradition of gadhegals continues right up to the Bahamani period. At Dabhol has been found a gadhegal that has inscription in Arabic and Marathi, but no graphic representation.

If the local people, local panchayats and the State Government join hands and also get private agencies involved, conservation can bring knowledge, pleasure as well as revenues.

(Featured image courtesy Dr Kurush Dalal. Image shows an Akshi Gadhegal dated 1012 AD by SG Tulpule and which according to him contain(ed)s the oldest Marathi inscription in Maharashtra.)

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