POCO to Launch Gaming Smartphone X2 on Feb 4th

Xiaomi has just spun off its Poco unit to be an independent company, and Poco India announced the second phone Poco X2 under its brand name in 10 days on January 27th, 2020. POCO X2 will be launched on February 4th in India. 

Though much details was not revealed of X2 so far, it would be a gaming centric smartphone, with reality flow 120MHz refresh rate (#SmoothAF). There will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor - but no further details was disclosed. 

The company will target all price brackets in coming days. 

Poco F1 was launched in August '18 and it's still in the market at Rs 14999-16999 (6GB+128GB/8GB+256GB) that's $210-238 approx. It is equipped with flagship chipset from Qualcomm - Snapdragon 845. It's still in demand from audience just like Xiaomi's Mi A3 (Android One), thanks to the high end processor and regular Android updates. 

Zakaria and Teritti Bazar Walk - Calcutta

Long Post Alert !!! 

After a long ​​wait and planning for years we made out a food walk as well as heritage walk across the city of joy, Calcutta (now known as Kolkata). I would prefer the name Calcutta as it carries the weight of history that's a mix of cultures. Calcutta, being the first capital of British India is a perfect landscape if you're looking for the colonial India, though it's not very perfectly maintained for somewhat reasons. 

Our walk begins with food, and why not? Bengalees love food. While winter starts its steps across the city, mughlai breakfast starts at sharp 4 o'clock at Sufia, Zakaria street, just opposite to Nakhoda Masjid. 

My friend Sagnik and his wife Ayindreela booked their Ola from Khardah (north suburb) at 4:40 am, and I took a local train from Barrackpore at 5:15 am to reach the city. I boarded off at Bidhannagar station and took a Uber ride to reach Sufia at approx 6:10am, while my friend directly reached there earlier. However Sufia is full of crowd, and men of Sufia are very busy in packing Nihari and Paya in the tiffin carriers as well as serving hot breakfast at the tables. All tables are full and remained full till we completed our Mughlai breakfast. 

I was told and read through the blogs that Sufia is out stock after 6:30 am, and yes that's true. You may miss any item if you're late enough. 

#KolkataHiddenGem #Food : Barua and Dey's Mutton Pantheras

Mutton Pantheras at Barua and Dey

Barua and Dey Fast Food Center (বড়ুয়া এণ্ড দে ফাস্ট ফুড সেণ্টার), as it is known as now is one of the oldest fast food (or telebhaja/evening snacks) center in Kolkata. Located at Shyambazar, one of the oldest area of the metropolis, Barua and Dey is mostly famous for authentic pantheras. 

Founded in 1934/1935 Barua and Dey (or Boruah and Dey) was founded by Nakul Chandra Barua. He was a cook at Great Eastern Hotel. He later left that job and start the canteen of 'Theta Pheta' club in Shyambazar region. I am not sure about the club whether it was for only Bengali babus. 

From the title of Nakul babu, it is obvious that he was from Assam. During that pre independence era, there were many clubs formed by different British people as well as Bengali babus. It could be assumed that Nakul babu was a descendent of Mog cooks (জাতে মগ, কাজে রাঁধুনী) served in the kitchen of Shovabazar Rajbari or in the British kitchens. 

Brits liked the Mog cooks, who originated from Arakan & Chattagram area with Buddhism being their religious path. The Mogs did not have any issues with cooking of beef, lamb, pork or any meat. 

After the death of Nakul Barua and post independence the next generation stepped in. That time it was a joint venture between Fatikchandra Dey and Bidhubhushan Barua. Bidhubhushan babu was famously called as mama (maternal uncle), and their famous shop - Mamar Dokan [মামার দোকান] was located just opposite to Manindra College. 

Now it is run by third generations -  Jaydeb Dey and Raju Barua. The location is also shifted from the main road to bylane. The present location is Gaurimata Sarani. Google Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/wMg3fc7NUiUckWUX8

It is just a 2 min walk from Shyambazar metro, and you may not be very happy to see the condition of the shop. But they serve one of finest snacks in north Kolkata. Price wise they don't burn your pocket. It starts at 5:30 pm everyday and runs til 9 pm. But please go there before 7:30 pm as top items go sold off fast. 

There is basically no sitting arrangement, but few tools are placed in front of the shop on the road where you can sit and eat. 

Unappealing Condition of the shop, but don't go by the looks!

So what is Mutton Pantheras (মটন প্যান্থারাস)? This is something as fried patishapta with minced mutton inside. Well that's oversimplification! To make that cover one needs talent, and here they excel. 

Apart from pantheras, they sell breast cutlet, chicken fry, fish fry, fish roll, chicken cutlet, mutton chop, egg devil, fish finger. All are priced between Rs 40-60. 

Chicken Cutlet

Many believe that Mutton Pantheras is improvised Anglo Indian dish originated from French dish 'Crepes au poisson'. Many say it was made first at Shovabazar Rajbari. But Chef Nakul Barua made the modern pantheras. 

Many Bengali x English crossover food items have names originated from English word, like Coverage to Kobiraji (কবিরাজি), Braised (= fried lightly and then stewed slowly in a closed container) cutlet to Breast cutlet, Batter fry to butter fry as general Bengali people started pronouncing the words bit softly. Experts agree that's the flow of a language!

Barua & Dey now carries another example of cultural mix up (Mog & Bengali) on the gastronomic history of Kolkata. 

Other places to find Pantheras in Kolkata: Ringmo (Shovabazar), Nahoum's (New Market) - But I am not sure they still make it or not. 

Ooty - Coonoor (Tamilnadu) - Days in Western Ghats

Ooty, a hill station in the Nilgiris District of Tamilnadu is very popular for travellers. It is officially known as Udagamandalam, and also known as Oostacamund. 

With Ooty one can easily visit to Coonoor, kind of sister city of Ooty. Coonoor is more natural, and more beautiful.  ✈ 

Airtel Xtream to Add Lionsgate Contents Very Soon

Bharti Airtel is leaving no stone untouched to win the telecom game. While the telecommunications in India has seen expansion from simple call to video on the go, 2G to 4G, the new value added services is the content. 

The trend of offering good content to the subscribers was formed by Reliance Jio, they already have a seperate company for that - Jio Platforms Ltd, spun off from the main company. Jefferies research reports that the company, Jio Platforms which takes care of digital services (a suite of Jio apps and strategic investments) may have an estimated valuation of $65 billion-$70 billion. And Jio Platform is the second highest valued digital platform in the world after Amazon when considering EV/EBITDA (enterprise value by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). Going by this finance Jio Platform is ahead of Alphabet, Apple or Alibaba. 

Ola Gets Massive Response from Drivers in London, Uber's License to be Scrapped

Indian cab aggregator Ola is going Europe, as it is to launch services in London. Ola has been running operations in Australia and Newzealand since 2018. 

It should be noted that Ola is operating in UK since 2018 across South Wales (Cardiff, Newport and Vale of Glamorgan), South West (Bath, Bristol, Exeter, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire), Merseyside (Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and The Wirral), West Midlands (Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Coventry and Warwick) and Reading. 

Mobile Tariff Hike - My Thoughts !

When Vodafone Idea announced their plan to hike tariff, I expect an increase of Rs 10-25 in most of plans, on 28 day validity plans. So on 84 day plan that would be Rs 30-75 increase. 

But as it shows, the increase is Rs 150 on 84-day validity plans (i.e. 3 months pack). That's nearly 40% increase. Also they proved themselves that they are hypocrites, as both incumbents separate onnet and offnet calling, just like Jio did that on the ground of IUC. 
Update: Both incumbents removed offnet call capping from their plans. 
Update 2: Jio continues to offer free Jio2Jio calling and adds some minutes for offnet calling, while Airtel and Vodafone offer unlimited calling to any network with their unlimited packs.

As they declared new revised plans on 3rd December, Jio too announced a tariff hike scheduled on 6th December. 

Jio will be the maximum Gainer !!

Jio told that they will be cheapest service provider, they could not hike tariff. With decision taken by incumbents, Jio now can blame the incumbents for market's motion of tariff hike. 

Jio is pretty much non-liable for payment due compared to incumbents, who have to shell out Rs 1 lakh crore for AGR adjusted payment due to GoI. So as the wave of tariff hike is going on, their ARPU will go up, and all will improve Jio's finance, way
better than Airtel and VIL.

Jio will declare their plans later, so they will have a look into others, and may offer cheaper tariff than incumbents with extra benefits like more data. That might kill dual SIM market, as with multiple SIM the spending will be much higher (Rs 130 to 190 on avg), and may be users shift to Jio. More customers, more revenue - Jio may have the best balance sheet among telcos in coming days. 

As operators divide onnet and offnet calls, TRAI must withdraw 6p/min IUC and make it zero with immediate effect.  

Update: If you have WiFi at home and office, grab Jio's 329 plan (84 days validity, 3000 offnet calls, 100 text/day, 6GB data). With Rs 50 coupon you can get it at Rs 279. [per day cost Rs 3.32]