Niponwave

I dumped Internet Explorer (IE) as early as 2003. I started using Opera then which was shareware at that time (I had the banner ads removed though, using some serial no. obtained from net). Then my Greek friend Lefteris asked me to switch to Firefox (FF). I was reluctant as it lacked the visual appeal that was (and is) Opera’s forte. But when I got to know about extensions in FF I became a Firefox fan.

Of late my FF experience has been bitter. Readers of this blog will know that I am using Reliance data card to connect to the net. This Reliance Netconnect has super slow speeds. Surfing at this speed using Firefox has irritated me like anything for the past 3-4 months. I can’t do anything unless a page has loaded completely - can’t click on whatever part of the page has loaded or worse still, switch to another tab. Firefox kind of hangs when I open 3-4 tabs using this Reliance connection, something that I have never noticed in my broadband experience and seemed unusual to me. Must be this pathetic connection speed is to be blamed. This slow Firefox interface and slow connection speed drove me nuts. So yesterday, I made the switch to Opera. Opera is working just fine.

Opera was already installed as I need to see how a webpage looks in different browsers. So the switch was easy. I miss the Firefox extensions though, especially the del.icio.us extension for FF. I know Opera too has many widgets. But I am lazy to find them out. I will be using Opera as long as I am with this Reliance. As soon as I go home, where I have Dataone, I will revert back to FF. Or if Airtel broadband comes to Siliguri.

Lesson learnt: for a slow connection, use Opera.

After spending like nearly 2 years here, let me jot down my Siliguri wishlist.

• A quick passenger train transport that will take me from medical college to the town in 5 minutes.
• An alternative road transport. The city autos are like running coffins - noisy, uncomfortable and very risky. These autos can comfortably sit 6 passengers but the drivers are allowed to take 8. Yet they flout rules taking upto 13 passengers at times. Plus the autos waste roadspace, besides looking ugly. Why not increase the count of buses? Not big buses, mini buses will do.
• I wish the pavements of Siliguri were safer. If you walk along the Sevoke road you will find the footpath interrupted every now and then by high drains dangerously gaping at you. Tiled footpaths is a necessity too, rather than the uneven bare concrete that adorns them now.
• Introduction of metered taxis, numbered buses are a few other things I would like to see in Siliguri soon.
• Siliguri sure lacks quality movie halls. I once went to Payel the only AC hall. That was my first and last time. It is far far worse than the ordinary halls of Kolkata. I see an immediate need of quality movie halls in Siliguri as also multiplexes. I hear 3 multiplexes are coming up.
• It has too many restaurants but I would like to have more places where we can hang out, say like Cafe Coffee Day outlets in other metros. The shopping malls are good places to chill out. Cosmos mall on Sevoke Road is really a nice addition.
• For Siliguri to become a bustling metro, it needs to be connected with adjoining areas as also the rest of the north Bengal by a thorough rail network. Something like the circular rail of Kolkata should be implemented. For example, if someone from Raiganj plans to come here he has to undertake the arduous bus journey of 4 hours, the nearest rail stop Dalkhola being 30-40 km away.
• The Bagdogra airport needs night-landing facility and international status. Once it is placed in the lucrative Kathmandu route and more planes start flying, the smaller airlines will cut the Kolkata-Bagdogra fares I believe.
• Introduction of Airtel broadband in Siliguri. So that I can then happily get rid of this pesky little thing from Reliance that is driving me nuts with its super slow speeds.
• Times Of India and other leading English dailies should open their press in Siliguri. Among English dailies, Now only The Telegraph and The Statesman get printed here. Rest arrive in the evening by plane from Kolkata. Also, t2 the daily tabloid supplementary of The Telegraph should be circulated here too - it makes no sense otherwise.

So much for now. I will expand this list if something strikes me.

I finished reading Fountainhead (by Ayn Rand) back in February when I was finally relaxing after going through the rigours of the semester exams. It is an epic novel championing the individualism of mankind. I loved this book like anything. I had borrowed it from a friend. I also finished reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) soon after which is a colourful and delicious narrative of a small village Macondo and its people as they rise and fall through the sands of time - hundred years of time, that is. This one, and also Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), I had bought from Oxford Bookstore in Cosmos Mall. I don’t think I’ll read Atlas Shrugged anytime soon, for it is huge. It is one of the largest novels in English language. Even in a small type, it crosses 1000 pages.

I had been home in the weekend at the time of Holi when I got two bestsellers from Crossword - Love In The Time Of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and Inheritance Of Loss (Kiran Desai). Also got 2 more from Golpark. Sacred Games (Vikram Chandra) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khalid Husseini). It will take me a long time to finish reading all these books.

I am reading Sacred Games right now. It is an epic. A moving story - or rather many stories intertwined - that takes you through the dark underworld of Mumbai mafias.. and every now and then moves back and forth, sometimes to Punjab ravaged by partition, or to Bengal in the 1970s Naxalite era. Vikram Chandra, with his elegant style, is a master storyteller.

At home I was reading a Bengali novel by Narayan Sanyal (নারায়ণ সান্যাল) titled Rupomanjori (রূপমঞ্জরী). It is a fascinating journey through Bengal and elsewhere in India in the 18th century - a time when the Britishers are making their presence felt but the royal forces are still present, languishing though. This brilliant historical fiction is a must read for anybody. I’ll complete the book when I return home again.

The Cosmos Mall is the newest addition in the changing skyline of Sevoke Road. The new-age shopping mall, first of its kind in Siliguri and introduced by the Pantaloons retail group, has central air-conditioning, glass doors that open automatically when somebody approaches and escalators running up and down. The expansive translucent roof lets in the daylight giving a natural feeling to the posh mall which has a large central open space dotted by small chairs at the basement. Covering an area of 3.5 lakh square-feet, the mall has more than 75 retail stores. The Pantaloons store is spread over the two floors - upper (women’s section) and lower (men’s) ground floors. Right now they are giving away stuffs at discounts marking the end of seasons sale. My favourite is the Oxford book store though the collection there is very limited. The Landmark Bookstore mentioned in the mall directory is yet to come up I suppose. Besides, you also get some books in Big Bazaar. The Big Bazaar occupies the top two floors of the mall. I like the computer shop (beside e-Zone) a lot where I always spend a lot of time feasting my eyes on the laptops, destops and peripheral devices. Another eye-catcher is the Furniture Bazaar section. It’s a treat to see the elegant and stylish furnitures, home decor items and modular kitchens on display. There is a utility tool pack containing screw drivers of all forms and sizes you will ever need at a price of 174/-. The entertainment zone has bowling, snooker and lots of games - with kids and teenagers battling it out in absolute frenzy in front of the screens. If you are the lazy type and not quite upto games, get ready to pamper yourself in Star & Sitara, the upscale saloon. Reebok, Moustache, Adidas, Thomas Scott and all the other big brands have their presence at Cosmos making it truly a shopper’s paradise. Parking facility is adequate but if you are coming on weekend evenings expect the two-level parking lot be full to the brim.

Last Monday, when I went to the mall for the first time I had bought two books then. One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. In normal circumstances I get my books from Golpark but these books are worth collecting I thought. Could not resist buying them actually. Today I witnessed the Woman’s Day event sponsored by Madame, INIFD, Drop and Radio Misti. It was great to watch the girls walk the ramp. Though the ramp thing was more of fun value than anything serious, they did it with such elan. Many of them were from SIT. They had to answer some questions too - albeit very easy ones. On another note, I spotted a shirt in Pantaloons to get which I will have to go tomorrow again. The discount ends tomorrow, the Pantaloons guy told me.

I watched No Country for Old Men, the oscar winner this year. Well the movie was absorbing right from the beginning. As the plot unfolded, I could harldy bat my eyelids. There were situations when i had to hold my breath. The acting was splendid. The villain sure looked monstrous. Javier Bardem won the best supporting actor award for all the right reasons. The storytelling was great. The pace of the movie was perfect. But i din’t like the story really. So much violence and gore! I had a problem in understanding the movie at first esp in relating to the title. Mostly because i had trouble following the highly texas-ised accent of the sheriff. I had to read IMDb to get an understanding.

The Kolkata High Court verdict has landed the Kolkata Book Fair in doldrums. While the book fair was scheduled to be inaugurated today, HC has thrown the fair out of the Park Circus Maidan in a ruling yesterday. The verdict was based on the grounds of pollution and traffic disruption. This is really shocking. More so, as the organisers have called off the fair this time.

While I admit had the fair been held in the Park Circus maidan traffic in the area would have come to a complete halt, I regret the fate that has befallen our very dear and favourite book fair. The guild which organises the fair should have cleared all legal hassles before zeroing in on a venue. They should have learnt from last year’s experience. Last year too the High Court had barred the fair from being held in the Kolkata Maidan, the original venue of the fair.

I am set to return home soon and visiting the book fair was my topmost agenda. It is really disheartening to know there will be no fair this time.

NB - I am updating the nameservers of my domain. There may be some downtime of 4-24 hours.

I bought a Reliance data card on 2nd Jan. Let me share my experience having used this wireless internet soultion from Reliance for almost a fortnight. Anyone considering to buy this may find this post useful. I have also mentioned how to improve the connection speed.

Need For Wireless

I bought my laptop some months ago and was considering what internet plan to go for. Here in Siliguri I can’t go for my favourite Dataone (that I have at home) as that needs a wired landline connection. Also, a pity that Airtel broadband is not yet available in Siliguri. So wireless seemed to be the perfect option - it also has the carry-it-along advantage. I was unsure which data carrier to go for until a friend told me about Reliance’s freedom @ night plan.

Reliance Netconnect Plans

There are many plans to choose from. All are expensive I tell you. The one that suited me is the Freedom @ night plan. It offers unlimited surfing in night hours i.e. 10 pm - 6 am for a monthly rental of 400 INR and daytime surfing charges 0.50 INR per minute.

Getting The Data Card

The data card comes mainly in 2 models - USB and PCMCIA. The prices are 2890 INR and 2850 INR respectively. There is an activation charge of 330 INR. I went for the USB one as it can be used in both desktop and laptop. Besides, I thought there might be some heating problem with the PCMCIA as it is internal.

To get the data card you have to go to any Reliance Webworld or Reliance Communications outlet or computer shops. I got it from a Reliance Communications outlet on Hazra road (opposite Paramount Nursing Home near Hazra more), Kolkata. As for any other postpaid connection, you need to carry these documents - an identity proof (voter card, PAN card, etc.), a residence proof (ration card, electric bill, phone bill, bank statement) & a passport size photo. After two days I got a call from reliance for verification, they even went to my house to verify - the formalities of a postpaid connection.

Setting it up

Run the installation disc and follow the instructions to install the Reliance Netconnect software. Insert the data card in the USB port or PC card slot when asked.

Netconnect software

The installer registers the data card as a modem and adds a dialer software. The software interface allows you to connect/disconnect, send/read SMS, make/receive calls, change settings. It shows the connection speed and bandwidth used. However, the bandwidth and timer readings are reset everytime you disconnect making it impossible to keep track of total bandwidth or time usage. Netconnect installs an internet optimizer software called Netbooster which accelerates surfing speed by reducing the quality of images in real-time.

Connection Speed

This modem relies on the same tower as mobiles. A mobile tower is too busy handling calls to and fro and you can’t expect a dedicated connection. As a result, the connection is erratic. I have used it in Siliguri and Kolkata.

Siliguri: Every now and then the connection dies - although it is connected speed becomes 0 kbps. Chatting on Gtalk is next to impossible as I get dc almost every minute. Surfing speed is not bad, does the job. After 1 or 2 o’ clock in the night the connection becomes somewhat stable allowing me to surf with peace of mind. Those who are on time-bound plans will find this erratic speed all the more irritating.

Kolkata: Better speed and surfing experience. The connection is more or less stable and doesn’t drop usually. Gtalk experience is also good.

Delhi: A friend who has used this in both Delhi and Siliguri reports far worse speeds in Delhi compared to Siliguri which is really surprising.

Tips to increase the speed

I continuously ping a server (google.com) to keep the connection alive. This way the connection remains active all the while and chances of getting dc are significantly lowered. By continuous pinging, I am able to chat in Google Talk. Surfing speed also improves considerably this way.

Now how to ping? Open command prompt and type ping www.google.com -t and hit enter key. The command prompt can be invoked by going to Start > Run and typing “cmd”. Vista users need to enter “cmd” in the Search box under the Vista Start menu.

Value for money

I think the tariff pricing could be lower. The price for the data card is reasonable but the monthly tariffs are not. The problem is the wirless internet market is yet to mature and there is not much competition in the sector. Reliance will tell you the reason behind such pricing is it is wireless. But considering the quality and speed of connection this is priced steep.

Other options

Tata indicom has a similar offering. Though I have not used that, I think both are in the same league when it comes to speed. The Airtel data card is priced higher at 5000 INR. Then another option is using your mobile phone as a modem and subscribing to the Airtel Mobile Office. Mobile Office offers unlimited internet access over GPRS or EDGE (depends on your area). The cost in West Bengal is 498 bucks per month. Then you have the 199/- monthly rental plan for BSNL postpaid users which is also unlimited EDGE internet.

Future

With the launch of 3G the speeds will increase.

Final Word

I can surf most sites smoothly. I can keep in touch with friends online. Can download small files of megabytes sizes. I can research on net. Chat with friends. Orkut pages load pretty fast. People at home can see me on webcam (video quality sucks due to slow speed). I can have voice chat with friends. So this serves most of my needs. However I can’t rely on Reliance if I have to give an online exam which is timed.

Cross-posted on TechPointer.