Time to change my phone?

The 3G iPhone's finally come to the UAE. Unlocked, updateable and completely usable with any simcard you want to put in it. It also costs quite a packet, just about $1,000. Do I really want to spend that much money just to switch from my 1st gen 2G to the latest 3G which could become a has-been in a couple of months?

Nah..I don't think so. Truthfully speaking, I like the first models of most of my gadgets.

Like my ipaq. Loved the first one more than the next two I owned. Or my iPod. If I could get my 1st gen iPod to work I'ld still be using it rather than any of the other half a dozen iPods floating around in the house. Unfortunately, Apple products seem to have a short lifespan, a couple of years at the most. So I guess I'll stick with my present iPhone till it's battery dies out and then I'll think about upgrading to a new one.

But that buzz won't be same. That feeling you get when you hold a new gadget, a completely new, not some updated version, just won't be there.

Just for the record, I loved Slumdog Millionaire. Don't know if I agree with all the accolades its been getting, or the superlatives showered on it, but I did love it, and that's even before I read all the reviews.

The movie's evoked some strong reactions either ways. People who loved it just went crazy over it and those that didn't like it, detested it. I'm part of the smaller group, those who liked it enough to plug it, but who didn't go completely head over heals over it. I didn't see any real reason to go sooo crazy over it. The story was good, but not fantastic, dialogues did their job but weren't memorable; the acting was just okaaay, the younger kids stole the show in my opinion; the music was fantastic and there can't be two opinions on that, as was the cinematography, the film editing and the direction. Those are the things that pushed the movie above the average notch.

I didn't quite "feel" the romance in the film. I mean, it wasn't primarily the love story it's being touted, for me.What I DID feel was the complete authenticity in the movie's portrayal of life for the slum kids. That story touched me; it made me want to cry, laugh, get angry and rejoice in parts. The best part about it was that even though the portrayal was brutal in the extreme, it didn't leave you feeling depressed or sorry for those kids. The opposite in fact, and that's NOT because the protagonist won the money and the girl. Even if he hadn't gotten those two, he had survived against all the odds and would live to fight another day, just like he always had.

I think the movie was a celebration rather than a voyeuristic look at India's dirty under-belly, poverty porn,  as it's being called. The tangible love and affection, the respect the director has for his subject and story is what makes this movie so touching. It's no documentary or some idealized fairy-tale but a finely balanced film which you know is fictional and yet is quite believable.

Like Rahman said, the best way to criticize a creative idea is to create another one of your own. Let's see which one of our directors has the guts to do that.