Posts

The Top 5 Cities of India

Image
Out of the four thousand or so odd cities in India, which are the ones that are ruling the roost today? This comparison focusses more on the cities that are fiscal powerhouses forming the backbone of our country, acting as major nodes for business and logistics, offering posh residences and a lot else, rather than just tourist hotspots. Basically, we are counting down the New Yorks and Washington DCs of India rather than the Vegases.  So, if you wanted to relocate to a city here for work or sustained dwelling, with almost all imaginable amenities at your disposal as well as stay connected with everything else, then the below list is definitely for you. Granted there are tens of hundreds of other indispensable cities in India just nipping at the heels of these biggies, but the mentioned top five are pretty much in a league of their own. Now, although Delhi and Mumbai are relatively more well-known to outsiders, the no. 1 on this list viz. Bangalore is not unexpected. It is known by many

War Robots: F2P in Champion League!

Image
  This is just a short excerpt about my War Robots journey from Sep’22 to Sep’24, from taking a minor curiosity in the game to conquering it as an F2P (free-to-play) player and finally leaving like a boss. Now, although I’m not in the habit of spending a lot of time on mobile gaming, 'War Robots' which I stumbled upon about two years back, connected with me at multiple levels, starting from the infinite possibilities of tech to tactics and resource management, an interest which slowly dwindled with Pixonic’s growing antics. So, first off, why did I vouch to remain F2P? It’s not like I didn’t have a few bucks to spare, but using real-life money to get instant access to all the game’s goodies is like a cheat code which takes half the fun out of it for me… So, this page probably isn’t for addicts! That being said, I’ve come across a lot of talk lately regarding the near impossibility of entering present day Champion League with an F2P hangar, due to the high monetization of the ga

The Perfect Aphrodite: India vs the World!

Image
Although the finest lass as far as I am concerned is already mine, this comparison offers a glimpse into how women public figures across the globe today stack up against one another purely in terms of beauty, irrespective of how established they are in their respective professions from media to music to modelling to acting, from India's dreamboats to the rest of the world's lookers.  The following list is compiled solely based on my personal opinion, shortlisting faces that have a unique 'oomph'-factor to them, as I have always held that beauty is far more idiosyncratic than science can evaluate.

Best Smartphones under INR 15k

Image
With the mobile phone industry growing in leaps and bounds and high end phones becoming more and more accessible with each passing day, a comprehensive comparison of smartphones available on the Indian market today, at an entry level highly contested price bracket, has become inevitable. So, for this review, instead of putting a ceiling on the number of phones, I have considered all mobiles under Rs. 15000/-, which satisfy a few basic criteria, that are commonplace in reasonably well-spec'd phones these days, including a minimum of 64GB ROM, 4GB RAM, 6'' full-HD display, 12MP rear camera and 8MP front camera. Here, buying preference for a phone has been calculated based on a composite rank for technical specifications of the mobile, followed by its price and then by individual parameters, if the former two are same, starting with front cam spec and then rear cam spec, which seem to be the driving factors for both marketing of phones and decision making today. 

Wealth Categorization

Image
Although I believe that the near and dear ones one has, represent one's true wealth, there is no denying that monetary prosperity does play an important role in almost everything else, including facilitation of happiness and well being of those very same loved ones. Here in India, we are brought up hard-wired to certain perceptions of economic strata, as if it were passed down the generations in each family. And while some folks are truly born with a silver spoon in their mouth, others come from relatively more humble backgrounds. But does that confine us to remain at the same level throughout our lives? I think not... So, if we had to classify the various financial classes as per their buying power, also taking into account common notion in the public eye, we would probably end up with a table like this. Now, referring to the above list, although in reality the change from one strata to another is a gradual one and doesn't have a well-defined boundary line even a

Hierarchy of Countries

Image
If you had to prepare a modern day hierarchical classification of nations, you might think that that's an easy call! But is it really? Coming out of the two world wars in human history, some countries on the winning side did receive a better deal than others at the time, the major players getting a permanent seat and the veto power at the United Nations Security Council to appease each other. However, almost a century has passed since then and the US-Russia faction leaders' cold war heydays are over... A lot has obviously changed, but the original perception of hierarchy has persisted among the 195 countries today , irrespective of their actual standing in the present day world scenario. So, I began to ask myself who are the real biggies of today, strictly going by current statistical data, without any regional biases. Accordingly, I have ranked the nations of the world based on four important parameters, i.e. economy (in terms of GDP), military (in terms of defence budge

Upcoming Shocker: The Citroen C5 Aircross!

Image
In continuation to my last article, in which I talked about some of the latest entrants to the blistering mid-size SUV segment in India, how can one not notice the soon to be launched C5 Aircross from the house of French PSA-group giant Citroen?! I call it a shocker because the 1st time I came across videos of this car's cabin, I thought it to be a high-end BMW with the similarly shaped auto gear lever complete with a digital display of its own, and the fully digital 12.3 inch instrument cluster offered with a huge number of customizations, with no needles or physical dials whatsoever. Now, if the global spec'd Aircross is indeed launched in India at its expected price bracket of INR 15-20 lakhs, it would be an absolute steal, as can be easily observed from some of the following segment-first features offered by its top trim, unheard of in any of the other cars in its class:- Active or adaptive cruise control, which if set to a speed higher than that of the car ahea