September 24, 2014 – The Metrognome

High Street Phoenix opens its doors for art

The South Mumbai mall is currently offering visitors the chance to look at various art installations crafted by six Indian artists.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Till the end of this month, you can walk into High Street Phoenix and get a first look at various art installations by various eminent and upcoming city artists. On from September 4, 2014, the installations will be available for viewing till the end of this month.

Featured artists are Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Gajanan Choukhande, Reha Shishodia, Nayanjeet T Nikam, Abhijit Salunkhe and Siddhesh Chavan. The centre piece of this art showcase is Choukhande’s ‘Creator’, located at Palladium Level 1, symbolising how the hand is the creator and facilitator of things. Shishodia and Nikam bring together the ‘Tree Of Life’, while upcoming artist Chavan captures the friendship between a mother and her child in the namesake artwork ‘Mother & Child’ (in pic on left). Apart from this, he is also showcasing two creations from his going back to childhood collection ‘Playground’ and ‘Joyride’. Salunkhe’s works, ‘Growth’ and ‘Fish Eye’ are cast in metal and reveal meticulous crafting.

The piece de resistance in this selection is internationally renowned Sanjay Kumar Srivastava’s ‘The Ultimate Rotation’ (in pic on right) which poignantly captures how the hand of time is intrinsic to our existence.

Speaking about the installation, Rajendra Kalkar, Senior Centre Director, High Street Phoenix said, “High Street Phoenix and Palladium are the centrepieces of South Mumbai’s retail space and as such deserve to reflect their ethos of being a place where form meets function in spectacular fashion. By strategically placing art sculptures and installations in various spaces throughout the mall, we are looking at creating a pleasing aesthetic which will merge seamlessly with the rest of the ambience of high-end retail spaces by creating an extremely pleasing experience for shoppers.”

Head to High Street Phoenix till September 30 from 11 am to 10 pm daily.

Jolla launches in India

Finnish company’s smartphone priced at Rs 16,499 has a great OS, but will need more features to make a difference.

by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Finnish handset maker, Jolla, has officially stepped into the Indian market. The company unveiled its Jolla smartphone, which is available exclusively on Snapdeal. The phone, which has been out and released in several countries months back, is the first smartphone that runs on Sailfish OS. The OS is based on MeeGo (as well as Mer Project and Nemo Mobile), which was Nokia’s own project a few years back and is now taken ahead by some of Nokia’s ex-employees.

Jolla (pronounced ‘Yolla’) sports a 4.5-inch (960 x 540) screen, with the option to change the rear cover as per your choice from a range of colours made available by the company. Under the hood, there is a Snapdragon 400 SoC (1.4 GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 305 GPU), along with 1 GB of RAM.

The phone is powered by a 2,100 mAh battery unit and comes with 16 GB of internal storage, which is expandable. On the back, there is an 8 MP (AF) camera (with an LED flash); while the front has a 2 MP camera.

Connectivity-wise, there is Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0, 4G LTE (limited support), WiFi b/g/n, and GPS.

The phone has been priced at Rs 16,499, and is available from Snapdeal. The first 90 buyers will also get a special VIP box with the phone.

With so many affordable, value-for-money handsets available in the market today, it’s going to be a tough road ahead for Jolla. The OS appears refreshingly different from what we have on pretty much every smartphone out there – Android, iOS and Windows Phone – but would require a lot more to get some going into the Indian market.