Author: Nitish Kumar

I love to write and raising voice, sharing thought and heated debate is a kind of passion for me. Jobwise I am just another Computer professional handling Infra and designing solutions for a big Indian Media house but I love to write, sketch, photography and a lot more.

My First Hill Ride from Delhi to Dehradun and Mussorie

Last travelogue of mine was about the longest trip of mine in which I referred about the first hill drive of mine which was Dehradun-Mussorie from Faridabad, I guess I should detail that trip as well for Readers.

Till that time, I haven’t had any experience of hill driving even when I wanted to, having my first long car journey memories from Nainital 2011 with sister-in-law family. I had to choose that which place would be safer to drive on hills and would be within roughly 300 km radius from Delhi/ NCR. I zeroed in for Dehradun – Mussorie, not because of any blogs or recommendations but only because of the fact that I had an office branch in Dehradun. The initial plan was to drive up to Dehradun, till where it was supposed to be driving in plains and then to decide from there for Mussorie, if was doable.

But all of that was a plan, what if I face any trouble en-route? I got that covered with two of the friends who got along with me (though none of them knew how to drive but even then its better to have helping hands in case you need one). The date chosen was around our wedding anniversary which was January 26 and the period when we travelled was January 25-27, 2014.

When you make a plan for any trip, especially when its first of its kind then its hard to wait for the moment and same was for me. After counting of days, finally the day had come and learned from earlier mistakes, this time, I took a fine sleep before rising up early. I along with wife and kiddo, who was just one and half years old left the house in Faridabad by 0430 hrs though waiting for other two participants made us a little back on the schedule but I guess we were ready to move out of Delhi by some 0530 hrs or so.

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Early morning helps you to cut through from the city traffic but looks like it wasn’t enough with that particular route with so many trucks in the way, but still we managed to reach till Muffarnagar by 0745 hrs and first stop was Vaishali Vaishno Punjabi Dhaba. That would be a distance of some 130 kms in roughly 2 hrs & 15 mins, which must be called an achievement considering the kind of foggy weather, I was to face in the way. We must have spent roughly 15-20 mins there for tea etc and then drove ahead.

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Gionee Elife S5.5-The Final part of review-Is the software part same impressive?

1. Gionee Elife S5.5 – Time to move beyond biases and stereotypes

When you are reviewing an entirely new product about which you never knew anything before, nor you would have reviewed any sister product of it to understand part of things, then it becomes absolute necessary to give it undivided attention and comparatively longer period of use to understand the bottlenecks & possible issues that may start nagging over time. Because such issues can never been checked during two three weeks period as product remains comparatively new.

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I should thank Gionee on this part that they allowed me to retain the unit for a longer while to understand it and to put it in real world use (I kind of forgotten that it’s a review unit and sure gonna miss it hard as it became part of life).

I remember the time when I was to review a keypad phone while my own phones been all touch phones. During entire period of review, I restricted myself to use the touch phone to feel the essence of living with that particular keypad phone. Same was the right thing to do when it was about an entirely new brand.

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So how did Gionee Elife S5.5, which is sure a marvel on hardware front and head turner wherever I go, fared on software front? Did it performed at par with iPhone 5S or Nexus 4 which I had? Does it produce images worthy of 13MP camera? Does the battery sails through day? Does the glassy build survives in long run?

A number of questions which I intend to answer in the rest part of blog….

Continue reading “Gionee Elife S5.5-The Final part of review-Is the software part same impressive?” →

A trip from Delhi to Manali

Brother in Paris, one Sister-In-Law in Disney Land Miami with family and another been to Goa recently, Parents in Haridwar Camp, one colleague going to Srinagar… it looked like almost everyone around was roaming one place or another during the summer except me sitting back and planning for the longest self driving trip of mine till date, from Delhi to Manali (roughly 600 km one side).

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Thing with we tech savvy people is, we overload ourselves with information on the routes, places etc months, weeks before the actual date comes and I wasn’t different either. It was just two years before, when I started learning to drive the car for the first time and bought one for self.

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You can imagine that how big leap forward it was within two years that once a hesitant learning driver now tempting to drive on one of the toughest route leading to Rohtang (though that didn’t happen at the end as I got the cab on reasonable fares & decided not to take any risk). But it wasn’t sudden but gradual step by step evolvement by driving roughly 70 km/ day in this while.

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After nine months of buying the car, the first big journey of mine was to Jaipur from Delhi at around March 29, 2013 and then next big journey was to Vrindavan by November 30, 2013 covering Taj Expressway at peak speed. Then the main confidence building journey was drive to Dehradun-Mussorie-Kempty Falls by January 26, 2014. In short, I was prepared.

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Gionee Elife S5.5 – Time to move beyond biases and stereotypes

Yes! Its again been long, since when I wrote last time, but I hope to make it up again with a detailed review of the product, about which I talked out in last blog post, the slimmest phone in the world right now, Gionee Elife S5.5. Slimness is obvious introduction, but trust me, this review would make you learn really a lot about the product and slimness would be just a little part of that.

Let’s know the brand first….

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Brand Gionee: Preface

If we look at landscape of phones or more precisely smartphones, then sometimes it looks literally unbelievable that what has happened within less than a decade. We seen how less relevant conventional calls and messaging have gone in last decade, we seen how outdated non-touch phones became in a short period of time and we seen once towering personality of phones, the Nokia, going out from even top three manufacturers from once 80% market share. Same happened around prices of smartphones,  which risen up with unbelievable rise in smartphone specs and crossed even cost\ capabilities of desktops even.

In high priced game of HTC, Samsung, Apple etc, players like Micromax, Karbonn, Xolo etc also tried their bit, but even if some of their products succeeded a bit or offered a valid alternative, the difference between premium products and their products was always visible even by single look at product. But then, Gionee entered into the market.  Trust me, you need to read further and see this product in action to know why I feel a strong endorsement for this particular product. It definitely helped me in enlightening myself about the new players, the bright future ahead and I expect it would leave the same effect on you as well, that never write anything off, the landscape has changed in past and can change again.

Before starting the review, one should have a look at my earlier two posts 1 & 2 to have an idea about the company and why it galvanizes hope even in early interactions. This is a company, who entered in a market where “china” was literally synonym with duplicate, mediocre, unreliable etc (Might not be true for all in reality but the common perception) and rather than bending own ways to handle the market perception like many other competitors, decided to take it heads upon over itself to change the entire landscape.

Be it kind of products finishing/ logo etc, be it bold & unprecedented market strategies, be it kind of blogger interactions, be in unique Tier 1 retail relations, Gionee seems to be combining all the good parts of their competitors like Nokia, Apple, Samsung and Huawei into one and its definitely seem to be getting it right till now at least. 

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A visit to Goa via GioneeSlimFest – Day Two – World’s Slimmest Mobile Phone Launched

It might have been just few hours of landing on the land of beaches, the royal treatment had made us forget about the real purpose of the event that was the launch of the world’s slimmest mobile phone. Trust me from hospitality to dinner\ lunches\ breakfasts to raw energy to the aura, we had seen nothing in slim format till that moment. Everything was that fat and royal.

We had already taken breakfasts so it was time to join the hall for the launch event.

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As the invited guests were in two categories, media and retailers, so we were given the badges accordingly and also given pedometers to signify the health conscious slim model. The sitting arrangements also placed the bloggers and media guys in the front seats while retailers were given a backseat.

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We played around the pedometer a little as well and @Kalpik came out as a winner who was able to reset the pedometer successfully while most of us been struggling with that part.

Continue reading “A visit to Goa via GioneeSlimFest – Day Two – World’s Slimmest Mobile Phone Launched” →

A visit to Goa via GioneeSlimFest – Day Two – The morning at beach

After a tiring first day which was spent mostly in journey and then in a charged evening\ night, majority of us couldn’t think of anything else than our cozy decorated beds in Five Star AC rooms of Grand Hyatt with magical dim lighting, but same wasn’t case for some “night walkers”, which I came to know at next day. So some of us had a better time than me while I rather chosen to enjoy sleep 😦

In the morning, when alarms started buzzing by 0600 hrs, I tried to give up the sleep and after a while contacted @NikhilPai, @Kalpik and @gauravshukla if they awake and ready to run to beach. Apparently @Gauravh1 and @NikhilPai happened to be early than me.

Beach being on west of the hotel and sun rays coming from the hotel end to sea mixed with foggy weather of the morning, this wasn’t the best of the view that beach could have offered but still it was enough for a great morning.

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A visit to Goa via GioneeSlimFest – Day One – The celebration night

Time to resume from where I left in last post….

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First of all, I was needed to dress up with the traditional Goa style shirts as was written in the instructions card which given to us at the reception. Obviously it was for all to unify all 1000 guests into one and turn it into some theme party. Later I come to know about the context behind the party which wasn’t related to slimmest Smartphone in the world at all, yet possibly most important of entire trip for some of us who been first timer with the brand.

Let’s talk of some pretext… this event wasn’t planned for bloggers and media alone, it wasn’t about the launch of World’s slimmest phone alone but it was about the celebration for the company reaching to a 500 cr mark (unable to verify the claim from authentic sources though) and also to announce the plans for the next big milestone. Gionee had been spending big time for their brand positioning since a while and this event along with unmatched energy of the product leadership team was sure enough for inspiring huge confidence in team of retailers from all across India.

Continue reading “A visit to Goa via GioneeSlimFest – Day One – The celebration night” →