Being Religious is good! No, I am still an Atheist. The reason why I am saying this is because of a couple of phenomenon that I have observed over the years.
In India, whenever there is a religious festival around the corner, suddenly the followers of that sect become saints. They become vegetarian, they don't drink, heck they don't even abuse. And not just on the day of the main festival, it goes for anywhere around a week before and after. Some people go to the extreme and do a fast, in effect giving their digestive systems and their bile juices a biologically much needed break from constant work.
In the western world, religion has more of a "mainstay" effect. It becomes the raison d'etre for acting good. Non-vegetarianism is not a sin there, so only the other forms of "bad" are abolished, like intoxication and indulgence of the adult kind.
There was a study done which proved that Religious people are healthier and live longer than the non believers.
Religions provide a huge employment base. It has propelled small time people into the handful owners of Ferrarris in India (the surviving family of the late Gulshan Kumar). I don't have the latest data but the last I heard, 11% of all the music sold in India was Devotional music. I am sure it still holds a huge share.
Why just the music industry? Imagine the total number of SMEs it supports. Have you ever visited a large Hindu temple? Flocks of stalls surround it; of flowers, sweets, other offerings; sometimes for kilometers. Imagine the number of publishing houses and workers it feeds. The most published book in the world is the bible. I just cannot begin to fathom the number of copies of the Quran, Geeta and Ramcharitmanas that must have been published and being continued.
Apart from the tangible benefits it offers to the society, there is another important function that Religion serves. It gives strength and support. The strength of mind and the will that drives many people to live, achieve and survive through tough times.
So all you religious people out there, keep up the good work. Just don't get too cocky over your individual beliefs. I believe that any Religion will serve its fundamental purpose only if it is not imposed on anyone. And if you are not in the category, don't fret, just do good for the sake of doing good.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
The world
At the risk of sparking an outburst from the feminists and the opinionated section of the society, I am making a statement. It is a woman's world.
Before the boos and the hisses are thrown at the statement, hear this part out.
We are all encased in an all encompassing society that is pro-female. The laws that apply to everyone are somehow either biased towards the fairer gender or are somehow female in origin.
Gillete came up with a campaign recently; indeed to boost their sales. It utilised a powerful tool of women asking their men to shave regularly "or else". Why?
Where did the concept of shaving originate from? What is a beard? It is technically nothing but the side-effect of the male hormone. The same testosterone that is responsible for the elongation of the vocal chords and subsequently the deeper voice. So by removing the signs of testosterone, the society is trying to bring men to the proximity of women, who don't have such side-effects.
How many men will, if left to themselves, in the company of only men, shave? Or apply deodorant? Market Research also categorises the two products in the "Social needs" driven basket.
Another controversial topic that finds a place here is "Monogamy". A man, if left to live on his own terms, would like to be around a dozen supermodels if not a couple of them. Those with the means and the motivation do try to exercise them. Not everyone but quite a few uber rich men do flaunt their "capabillity" this way. Doesn't multiple partners concept apply to the majority of animal species?
Hence the law making polygamy illegal. One of the ways of defining laws is something that regulates the external human behaviour. And of course, monogamy being 'feminine', makes the society more female. Indeed, for the society to work for the benefit of everyone, it should allow a woman the full commitment of one man to raise her child. Let alone the right to live.
Violence is in the genes of men. Men (and males in other species) were born to fight. Fight for food, for territory and for mate. But it leads to problems for others. Hence the need to remove violence to lead to "civilisation". So is it really, on the whole, a man's world?
Before the boos and the hisses are thrown at the statement, hear this part out.
We are all encased in an all encompassing society that is pro-female. The laws that apply to everyone are somehow either biased towards the fairer gender or are somehow female in origin.
Gillete came up with a campaign recently; indeed to boost their sales. It utilised a powerful tool of women asking their men to shave regularly "or else". Why?
Where did the concept of shaving originate from? What is a beard? It is technically nothing but the side-effect of the male hormone. The same testosterone that is responsible for the elongation of the vocal chords and subsequently the deeper voice. So by removing the signs of testosterone, the society is trying to bring men to the proximity of women, who don't have such side-effects.
How many men will, if left to themselves, in the company of only men, shave? Or apply deodorant? Market Research also categorises the two products in the "Social needs" driven basket.
Another controversial topic that finds a place here is "Monogamy". A man, if left to live on his own terms, would like to be around a dozen supermodels if not a couple of them. Those with the means and the motivation do try to exercise them. Not everyone but quite a few uber rich men do flaunt their "capabillity" this way. Doesn't multiple partners concept apply to the majority of animal species?
Hence the law making polygamy illegal. One of the ways of defining laws is something that regulates the external human behaviour. And of course, monogamy being 'feminine', makes the society more female. Indeed, for the society to work for the benefit of everyone, it should allow a woman the full commitment of one man to raise her child. Let alone the right to live.
Violence is in the genes of men. Men (and males in other species) were born to fight. Fight for food, for territory and for mate. But it leads to problems for others. Hence the need to remove violence to lead to "civilisation". So is it really, on the whole, a man's world?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Fight!
I have been hooked on to this game for the last 4 months or so. No wonder it has more than 7 million players playing it online, and growing. What a journey it has been beginning as a street thug and making my way up. Which still continues. So it is only obvious that I do some justice to a thing that takes up a lot of my daily time, the thing that is the most important reason I log on to facebook.
Mafia Wars Guide by Abhishek Pandey :D
So you have entered the big bad world of virtual mafiosi and are now beginning to make some strides. Wondering how to optimise your game play so that you enjoy the max while moving through the ranks the fastest? Read on....
First things first, I have made a lot of mistakes, hence my guide is all the more "authentic".
The best character is "Maniac". If you have chosen "Mogul" because you had no idea that making money fast has no value in this game and it actually is the weakest character, well, welcome to the boat. A lot of people including me have made that mistake. But you can't change your character mid way. You can't even remove that application and start all over again because Zynga does not delete your character for 90 days after you have removed the application! But Mogul is not all that bad, after me and my friends have achieved a lot in the game with the "weakest" character. It just requires more patience than Maniac.
Right, so what is the game all about?
Doing Jobs. Leveling up. Fighting. Leveling up gives you refills of your health, energy and stamina, which you can use to do even more jobs and achieve greatness.
How to develop your character?
* Start by adding mafia. Tons of them. More mafia means:
1> More attack and defence strength used to win fights.
2> More people to give you gifts, energy packs, help during fights (rallying troops for more experience, taking bullets for less loss, finding loot), boosts and helps for jobs, laundering money (experience and money), chance to benefit while doing jobs/fights if someone adds you to their top mafia, fighting a guy on whom you set a booty (supari in bhaigiri language), even winning wars against your friends.
In short, the chance to get experience and money without spending energy or stamina. Also helps in many achievements.
The gifts and loots that you receive help you complete vault collections as well as increase your attack/defence strength. There is no limit to the number of mafia you can add. The game anyways picks up your top 500 mafia for fights, so you need not worry about stopping there. How to add other people in your mafia? Go to http://forums.zynga.com/forumdisplay.php?f=36 and to the thread "Add me Facebook *one post per thread*". It has hundreds of posts per day by actual players wanting to increase their mafia. You have to add people in your facebook friends list before you can add them to your mafia. And if you add starting from the last page, they will accept your request and add you to your mafia in minutes if not seconds. There is a limit to how many people you can add per day on mafia wars (I think it is 24), but there is no limit on how many you can add on facebook. So add as many as you can, and wait for a couple of days for them to add you. Now whether to keep those friends in your facebook after they are a part of your mafia or not list is your wish, but keeping them in your list has certain advantages. E.g., you can get experience on doing jobs that they post on their walls only if they are in your list, otherwise you just get a token amount in $ (if you help them via your live feed on mafia wars home page). The only bad thing about adding random people is that they clutter your facebook feed with posts. There are people who play 24/7, and their "xyz had just iced abc and is offering you a bonus" message can get irritating after a limit. Alternatively, you can keep them in your friend list and remove such posts using scripts like greasemonkey.
Within a week you can make your mafia grow by 250! So start right NOW.
The benefit you get to attack/defence, war participation and even gifting is available even if you remove them from your facebook friend list.
* Spend skill points wisely:
You have a choice between three types of characters:
1> The energy junkie.
You only spend your skill points to your energy and level up fastest focusing on jobs with highest exp ratio. You don't mind losing all the fights when someone attacks you
2> The fight junkie
You spend your skill points on stamina, Attack and Defence and very few on energy. You fight your way to glory and are more content by pounding people rather than watching the blue exp bar move towards right.
3> The middle man
You wisely balance between energy and Attack/Defence. You do jobs as much as you fight. You don't particularly level up fast like the energy junkie but you don't lose many fights like him.
I chose 3rd for a large portion of my time, but later found that my friend who had a modified version of 2 was much better off. Reason? The experience you get with fights is close to 3 per stamina spent, (averages out with 1,2,3,4, and 6 exp per fight won) while the best exp paying jobs won't give you more than 1.7 exp ratio per energy spent.
My friend had not put any points in attack/defence as well, and still he was winning fights! I discovered that stat points (Attack/Defence) has little bearing on winning fights, (zynga never declares the formula they use to determine who will win the fights, and is subject to a debate involving millions of people), but the size of the mafia matters the most. So if you are level 250 with only 20 attack, but 501 mafia size, you will cream (even) a level 280 guy if his mafia size is 50 or 100 and defence is 200. And there are many such jokers to be found on the fight list whether it is cuba, new york or moscow.
To illustrate, just today I finished 50 stamina on fights and got 150 experience in spite of losing 3-4 fights on the way!
One important thing to be noted is that your mafia attack/defence strength for fights is calculated on your loot items (not on your bought weapons/armor/vehicles except body armor and town cars). Also, gifting your mafia loot items with attack/defence will decrease your strength. So when you read about "equipping your mafia", it is NOT the same as "gifting weapons/armor/vehicles to your mafia", it just means having more loot items or buying items to compensate for not having enough loot.
So NEVER EVER put any points on health. Put it only on energy and stamina. Don't put points in your attack/defence after a certain point. You anyways get a lot of free stat points on vaulting collections (attack/defence/energy/health).
When to use energy packs?
You need to use energy packs wisely, as you can use them only once every 23 hours, and they can make 0 energy to 1.25 of your max energy. The best point to use energy pack sent by someone is when you just finish your entire energy that you get after you have just refilled it by leveling up. That means, you should wait before using energy pack if you are just a few exp away from leveling up. Once you level up, finish the energy, and then click on use energy pack.
With tweaking around, you can develop strategies on leveling up. E.g. I used to do max exp ratio jobs before leveling up. As soon as I leveled up, I used to do least exp ratio jobs, then use energy pack, then again do least exp jobs. By the time I finished that energy, I was already at next level. Then I switched again to max exp ratio jobs. I used to level up twice a day with that strategy. I have modified that strategy to level up thrice a day after getting "Golden Throne" by finishing New York. It involves fighting to get the remaining experience after spending energy. With 100 stamina, you can level up even 7 times a day if you play like a maniac.
Boss Fights:
Do not enter boss fights until you have put your money in the bank. Also, do not enter into boss fights until you have enough shivs/stun guns (there is no need of a getaway driver, I never used one). Don't do boss fights more than once, since their exp payout is pathetic despite their claims.
How to make good money?
New York:
During our times we had properties, and we had to buy more properties for more cashflow. You will most probably have "rackets". I am not aware of how these work, but have heard that they can be more lethal than properties if used correctly. Hunt for guides on rackets on zynga forum. I am sure you will find more than one.
Just keep on building cash flow. Keep banking money. People who win fights against you won't win your money if it is in bank. Once you hit a cash flow of say 1 million $ an hour, you can stop going to bank forever. Since banking will cost you 10% of money, and it becomes much more of a loss losing 1 million dollars on banking 10 million than losing 5-6 fights and 5-600,000 $ before you get iced. Once you are iced (under 20 health), no one can loot money from you until your health recovers over 20.
Cuba/Moscow:
Here, you need to keep selling your stuff to make money. Here, you need to keep all your money in the bank at all times, because here there is no assured cashflow per hour. Instead, how much you make depends on whether you can sell your goods before they hit the maximum capacity.
One important thing I learnt is that while upgrading your businesses, upgrade only on QUALITY and OUTPUT (Quantity). Upgrade capacity only in the end. Since you can log on once every 9/12 hours to sell your crates anyways. And investing in quality and output gives maximum gains.
There are achievements related to trillion dollars and above for New York. It is impossible to get those with properties. There are guides on zynga forum on how to make trillion dollars, but it involves doing absolutely nothing else for months. So don't bother about them now. But do increase your cash flow as much as possible.
Gifting:
Gifting, as I mentioned before, has many benefits. Now when we start, we all make the mistake of gifting precious collection items (cards, rings etc), consumables (read more about them below), even items with good defence/attack like canonazo/tnt etc. While it is your wish what to gift, you will find that in the long run, you will regret sending an item if you can't vault a collection just because one item is missing, or if you are stuck in a new york job just because you have run out of consumables.
So while gifting, DO NOT give away any consumable, which are:
In New York:
Concealable Camera
Computer Setup
Untraceable cell phone
Blackmail Photos
Illegal Transaction Records
In Cuba:
Politico Corrupto
Untraceable cell phones
In Moscow:
photos of leaders
Concealable Cameras/Untraceable cell phones (based on your choice of vory/mafiya)
Consumables are the most irritating part of New York. I know of many people who have not completed New York just because they ran out of consumables. To put things to perspective:
You will require 368 Blackmail Photos just for Boss tier. And you need to spend energy on first getting concealable cameras, then spend energy AND concealable cameras on getting Blackmail photos. Plus, it is not guaranteed that if you do the specific job to get these drops, that you will get those items. That means, if you do the "obtain compromising photos" job in New York 10 times, you spend 10 concealable cameras, and for all you know, you might get only 3 or 4 blackmail photos!
So NEVER EVER give away consumables.
While gifting, a higher level person might not appreciate all your gifts. So gift prudently. I mean, when some low level guy gifts me brass knuckles or butterfly knife or lucky shamrock medallion, I get irritated a lot. They don't add anything to my attack/defence strength. I have much stronger items. So it is better to give a person what he or she has on his wishlist, as long as it is not a consumable or an item that you haven't vaulted yet. So do not give away any collection item until you have vaulted them at least once!
Also, you can trade gifts. I have used trading to complete a lot of my collections. Exchange with people willing to exchange.
Godfather points:
This is probably the only "revenue center" for Zynga. You can buy them with actual money. Hence it is understandable that these are the hardest to obtain. You get only one for leveling up twice. Sometimes there are promotions where you get free godfather points, like there was one during thanksgiving week (again, clicking on friends' post was required), plus you get 2-3 points if you become a "fan" of the application on facebook.
Where to spend Godfather points?
ONLY and ONLY one of the two:
a) Stat points (4 for 14)
b) Complete energy refill (1 for 10)
DO NOT spend it on anything else. I have wasted points on money before, many of my friends have wasted them on crates/buying consumables (20 points for 10 New York Consumables, 55 points for 3 mysterious crates etc), hence warning you.
General tips:
* Do not do Cuba and Moscow until you finish New York. Big Apple is frustrating but the payouts (especially Private island, Golden Throne) are worth it. My character was generating one energy every 5 minutes when I started out. It is now 2 every 4minutes & 30 seconds. I have used that to finish 5 tiers of Cuba (14 masteries) in 17 days flat.
* Look out for promotional events. There was a Big Apple week which helped many players to complete New York. I am hoping for a moscow week soon. It is tough!
* In case of any problems, do write to Zynga. They do respond, albeit after a long time.
* If you have some close friends playing MW, then ask them to promote you to Either their Mastermind or their Wheelman (only possible if your character is Fearless). The idea is to get maximum experience with least energy spent possible.
I guess this is a very exhaustive guide. But I have still left certain things for you to discover on your own. E.g. Whether to heal yourself at Cuban hospital if you fight in Cuba, is a decision you have to take. Also, I haven't mentioned on how to go about achieving achievements. Those are fun if you discover the best ways to finish them.
Have fun playing! And do forward it to other noobies.
Mafia Wars Guide by Abhishek Pandey :D
So you have entered the big bad world of virtual mafiosi and are now beginning to make some strides. Wondering how to optimise your game play so that you enjoy the max while moving through the ranks the fastest? Read on....
First things first, I have made a lot of mistakes, hence my guide is all the more "authentic".
The best character is "Maniac". If you have chosen "Mogul" because you had no idea that making money fast has no value in this game and it actually is the weakest character, well, welcome to the boat. A lot of people including me have made that mistake. But you can't change your character mid way. You can't even remove that application and start all over again because Zynga does not delete your character for 90 days after you have removed the application! But Mogul is not all that bad, after me and my friends have achieved a lot in the game with the "weakest" character. It just requires more patience than Maniac.
Right, so what is the game all about?
Doing Jobs. Leveling up. Fighting. Leveling up gives you refills of your health, energy and stamina, which you can use to do even more jobs and achieve greatness.
How to develop your character?
* Start by adding mafia. Tons of them. More mafia means:
1> More attack and defence strength used to win fights.
2> More people to give you gifts, energy packs, help during fights (rallying troops for more experience, taking bullets for less loss, finding loot), boosts and helps for jobs, laundering money (experience and money), chance to benefit while doing jobs/fights if someone adds you to their top mafia, fighting a guy on whom you set a booty (supari in bhaigiri language), even winning wars against your friends.
In short, the chance to get experience and money without spending energy or stamina. Also helps in many achievements.
The gifts and loots that you receive help you complete vault collections as well as increase your attack/defence strength. There is no limit to the number of mafia you can add. The game anyways picks up your top 500 mafia for fights, so you need not worry about stopping there. How to add other people in your mafia? Go to http://forums.zynga.com/forumdisplay.php?f=36 and to the thread "Add me Facebook *one post per thread*". It has hundreds of posts per day by actual players wanting to increase their mafia. You have to add people in your facebook friends list before you can add them to your mafia. And if you add starting from the last page, they will accept your request and add you to your mafia in minutes if not seconds. There is a limit to how many people you can add per day on mafia wars (I think it is 24), but there is no limit on how many you can add on facebook. So add as many as you can, and wait for a couple of days for them to add you. Now whether to keep those friends in your facebook after they are a part of your mafia or not list is your wish, but keeping them in your list has certain advantages. E.g., you can get experience on doing jobs that they post on their walls only if they are in your list, otherwise you just get a token amount in $ (if you help them via your live feed on mafia wars home page). The only bad thing about adding random people is that they clutter your facebook feed with posts. There are people who play 24/7, and their "xyz had just iced abc and is offering you a bonus" message can get irritating after a limit. Alternatively, you can keep them in your friend list and remove such posts using scripts like greasemonkey.
Within a week you can make your mafia grow by 250! So start right NOW.
The benefit you get to attack/defence, war participation and even gifting is available even if you remove them from your facebook friend list.
* Spend skill points wisely:
You have a choice between three types of characters:
1> The energy junkie.
You only spend your skill points to your energy and level up fastest focusing on jobs with highest exp ratio. You don't mind losing all the fights when someone attacks you
2> The fight junkie
You spend your skill points on stamina, Attack and Defence and very few on energy. You fight your way to glory and are more content by pounding people rather than watching the blue exp bar move towards right.
3> The middle man
You wisely balance between energy and Attack/Defence. You do jobs as much as you fight. You don't particularly level up fast like the energy junkie but you don't lose many fights like him.
I chose 3rd for a large portion of my time, but later found that my friend who had a modified version of 2 was much better off. Reason? The experience you get with fights is close to 3 per stamina spent, (averages out with 1,2,3,4, and 6 exp per fight won) while the best exp paying jobs won't give you more than 1.7 exp ratio per energy spent.
My friend had not put any points in attack/defence as well, and still he was winning fights! I discovered that stat points (Attack/Defence) has little bearing on winning fights, (zynga never declares the formula they use to determine who will win the fights, and is subject to a debate involving millions of people), but the size of the mafia matters the most. So if you are level 250 with only 20 attack, but 501 mafia size, you will cream (even) a level 280 guy if his mafia size is 50 or 100 and defence is 200. And there are many such jokers to be found on the fight list whether it is cuba, new york or moscow.
To illustrate, just today I finished 50 stamina on fights and got 150 experience in spite of losing 3-4 fights on the way!
One important thing to be noted is that your mafia attack/defence strength for fights is calculated on your loot items (not on your bought weapons/armor/vehicles except body armor and town cars). Also, gifting your mafia loot items with attack/defence will decrease your strength. So when you read about "equipping your mafia", it is NOT the same as "gifting weapons/armor/vehicles to your mafia", it just means having more loot items or buying items to compensate for not having enough loot.
So NEVER EVER put any points on health. Put it only on energy and stamina. Don't put points in your attack/defence after a certain point. You anyways get a lot of free stat points on vaulting collections (attack/defence/energy/health).
When to use energy packs?
You need to use energy packs wisely, as you can use them only once every 23 hours, and they can make 0 energy to 1.25 of your max energy. The best point to use energy pack sent by someone is when you just finish your entire energy that you get after you have just refilled it by leveling up. That means, you should wait before using energy pack if you are just a few exp away from leveling up. Once you level up, finish the energy, and then click on use energy pack.
With tweaking around, you can develop strategies on leveling up. E.g. I used to do max exp ratio jobs before leveling up. As soon as I leveled up, I used to do least exp ratio jobs, then use energy pack, then again do least exp jobs. By the time I finished that energy, I was already at next level. Then I switched again to max exp ratio jobs. I used to level up twice a day with that strategy. I have modified that strategy to level up thrice a day after getting "Golden Throne" by finishing New York. It involves fighting to get the remaining experience after spending energy. With 100 stamina, you can level up even 7 times a day if you play like a maniac.
Boss Fights:
Do not enter boss fights until you have put your money in the bank. Also, do not enter into boss fights until you have enough shivs/stun guns (there is no need of a getaway driver, I never used one). Don't do boss fights more than once, since their exp payout is pathetic despite their claims.
How to make good money?
New York:
During our times we had properties, and we had to buy more properties for more cashflow. You will most probably have "rackets". I am not aware of how these work, but have heard that they can be more lethal than properties if used correctly. Hunt for guides on rackets on zynga forum. I am sure you will find more than one.
Just keep on building cash flow. Keep banking money. People who win fights against you won't win your money if it is in bank. Once you hit a cash flow of say 1 million $ an hour, you can stop going to bank forever. Since banking will cost you 10% of money, and it becomes much more of a loss losing 1 million dollars on banking 10 million than losing 5-6 fights and 5-600,000 $ before you get iced. Once you are iced (under 20 health), no one can loot money from you until your health recovers over 20.
Cuba/Moscow:
Here, you need to keep selling your stuff to make money. Here, you need to keep all your money in the bank at all times, because here there is no assured cashflow per hour. Instead, how much you make depends on whether you can sell your goods before they hit the maximum capacity.
One important thing I learnt is that while upgrading your businesses, upgrade only on QUALITY and OUTPUT (Quantity). Upgrade capacity only in the end. Since you can log on once every 9/12 hours to sell your crates anyways. And investing in quality and output gives maximum gains.
There are achievements related to trillion dollars and above for New York. It is impossible to get those with properties. There are guides on zynga forum on how to make trillion dollars, but it involves doing absolutely nothing else for months. So don't bother about them now. But do increase your cash flow as much as possible.
Gifting:
Gifting, as I mentioned before, has many benefits. Now when we start, we all make the mistake of gifting precious collection items (cards, rings etc), consumables (read more about them below), even items with good defence/attack like canonazo/tnt etc. While it is your wish what to gift, you will find that in the long run, you will regret sending an item if you can't vault a collection just because one item is missing, or if you are stuck in a new york job just because you have run out of consumables.
So while gifting, DO NOT give away any consumable, which are:
In New York:
Concealable Camera
Computer Setup
Untraceable cell phone
Blackmail Photos
Illegal Transaction Records
In Cuba:
Politico Corrupto
Untraceable cell phones
In Moscow:
photos of leaders
Concealable Cameras/Untraceable cell phones (based on your choice of vory/mafiya)
Consumables are the most irritating part of New York. I know of many people who have not completed New York just because they ran out of consumables. To put things to perspective:
You will require 368 Blackmail Photos just for Boss tier. And you need to spend energy on first getting concealable cameras, then spend energy AND concealable cameras on getting Blackmail photos. Plus, it is not guaranteed that if you do the specific job to get these drops, that you will get those items. That means, if you do the "obtain compromising photos" job in New York 10 times, you spend 10 concealable cameras, and for all you know, you might get only 3 or 4 blackmail photos!
So NEVER EVER give away consumables.
While gifting, a higher level person might not appreciate all your gifts. So gift prudently. I mean, when some low level guy gifts me brass knuckles or butterfly knife or lucky shamrock medallion, I get irritated a lot. They don't add anything to my attack/defence strength. I have much stronger items. So it is better to give a person what he or she has on his wishlist, as long as it is not a consumable or an item that you haven't vaulted yet. So do not give away any collection item until you have vaulted them at least once!
Also, you can trade gifts. I have used trading to complete a lot of my collections. Exchange with people willing to exchange.
Godfather points:
This is probably the only "revenue center" for Zynga. You can buy them with actual money. Hence it is understandable that these are the hardest to obtain. You get only one for leveling up twice. Sometimes there are promotions where you get free godfather points, like there was one during thanksgiving week (again, clicking on friends' post was required), plus you get 2-3 points if you become a "fan" of the application on facebook.
Where to spend Godfather points?
ONLY and ONLY one of the two:
a) Stat points (4 for 14)
b) Complete energy refill (1 for 10)
DO NOT spend it on anything else. I have wasted points on money before, many of my friends have wasted them on crates/buying consumables (20 points for 10 New York Consumables, 55 points for 3 mysterious crates etc), hence warning you.
General tips:
* Do not do Cuba and Moscow until you finish New York. Big Apple is frustrating but the payouts (especially Private island, Golden Throne) are worth it. My character was generating one energy every 5 minutes when I started out. It is now 2 every 4minutes & 30 seconds. I have used that to finish 5 tiers of Cuba (14 masteries) in 17 days flat.
* Look out for promotional events. There was a Big Apple week which helped many players to complete New York. I am hoping for a moscow week soon. It is tough!
* In case of any problems, do write to Zynga. They do respond, albeit after a long time.
* If you have some close friends playing MW, then ask them to promote you to Either their Mastermind or their Wheelman (only possible if your character is Fearless). The idea is to get maximum experience with least energy spent possible.
I guess this is a very exhaustive guide. But I have still left certain things for you to discover on your own. E.g. Whether to heal yourself at Cuban hospital if you fight in Cuba, is a decision you have to take. Also, I haven't mentioned on how to go about achieving achievements. Those are fun if you discover the best ways to finish them.
Have fun playing! And do forward it to other noobies.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Justified
Happened to sneak a peek on a TV soap on India's no 1 Channel. For the last 4 episodes or so, the prime theme has been the plotting done by a girl to ruin and screw up a marriage that's about to happen. The marriage is of the girl's best friend. Who has been her best friend since her childhood. They have been living under the same roof since childhood for Krishna's sake!
So a logical person should ask "Why then would she even think of such a heinous act of destroying her marriage?" But by now everyone should have guessed that logic has no place in melodrama.
So the reason according to the serial is like this. The guy had originally come to "see" the other girl for arranged marriage but due to some miscommunication (my my, how surprising) ended up picking up her "best friend". This has led to the original girl abandoning all sense, of friendship or of everything human etc etc.
This is the stuff that drives the imaginations of millions of ladies of our country. And it is not just any program, it is one of the most watched program. It is the love of the audience that has made the channel to take the decision of converting it from a 4 days a week show to 5 days a week. So I can make a fair statement (backed by a lot of empirical evidence) that this is what drives a woman's fantasy. Ok, an Indian woman's fantasy. If my mom, who has absolutely nothing to relate to the serial (no big bungalows, no huge joint families, no couple of daughters of marriable age) can also watch it, then I am sure the serial has hit the right spot just like the hundreds of other serials on TV suffering from the same symptoms.
So if this is what women like watching, how can those same women treat the act of their men watching internet porn like criminals? Don't get me wrong, I am not justrifying porn, but I am just correlating the two and deducing that both are equal. Whether equally bad or equally good is for every individual to decide.
After all, the reason given by women of why they absolutely hate, abhor, loathe, despise this sick act of watching porn that men enjoy is that "It is so sick. How can anyone be so sick to enjoy even think of such fantasies. It makes me wanna puke". Then by the very same reasoning, even men can ask the same question to women who watch these soaps. If this is justified, then that is too.
So a logical person should ask "Why then would she even think of such a heinous act of destroying her marriage?" But by now everyone should have guessed that logic has no place in melodrama.
So the reason according to the serial is like this. The guy had originally come to "see" the other girl for arranged marriage but due to some miscommunication (my my, how surprising) ended up picking up her "best friend". This has led to the original girl abandoning all sense, of friendship or of everything human etc etc.
This is the stuff that drives the imaginations of millions of ladies of our country. And it is not just any program, it is one of the most watched program. It is the love of the audience that has made the channel to take the decision of converting it from a 4 days a week show to 5 days a week. So I can make a fair statement (backed by a lot of empirical evidence) that this is what drives a woman's fantasy. Ok, an Indian woman's fantasy. If my mom, who has absolutely nothing to relate to the serial (no big bungalows, no huge joint families, no couple of daughters of marriable age) can also watch it, then I am sure the serial has hit the right spot just like the hundreds of other serials on TV suffering from the same symptoms.
So if this is what women like watching, how can those same women treat the act of their men watching internet porn like criminals? Don't get me wrong, I am not justrifying porn, but I am just correlating the two and deducing that both are equal. Whether equally bad or equally good is for every individual to decide.
After all, the reason given by women of why they absolutely hate, abhor, loathe, despise this sick act of watching porn that men enjoy is that "It is so sick. How can anyone be so sick to enjoy even think of such fantasies. It makes me wanna puke". Then by the very same reasoning, even men can ask the same question to women who watch these soaps. If this is justified, then that is too.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
just for the records
Even after I die, my spirit will have the satisfaction that some remote server owned by Google will continue to hold my likings and dislikes. Call this narcissism or some sort of ego massage or another of those offbeat ways to achieve "immortality" but this post will have only my likings and dislikes in the important matters (read matters that I consider important).
Thanks to an application on Facebook that gave me this idea to store it "offline".
Machu Picchu, Ladakh, New Zealand, Brazil and Greece
The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions, The Lord of the Rings, Eragon and Eldest (Inheritance, Books 1 & 2), Deception Point and The Alchemist
SportsCenter, Friends, The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry and Globe Trekker
Behind the Sun, A State Of Trance 2008, Deep Forest, Enigma - MCMXC a. D. - The Complete Album Dil Se
Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, david villa, Lewis Hamilton and Justine Henin
Ana Beatriz Barros, Ana Ivanovic, Ana Hickman, Giorgia Palmas and Bipasha Basu
Spanish, swimming, Shaolin Kung fu , Become a professional DJ and Skydiving
Titanic, The Jungle Book, The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King, The Matrix and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Lionel Messi, Armin Van Buuren, Adriana Lima, mithun chakraborty and Bipasha Basu
Thanks to an application on Facebook that gave me this idea to store it "offline".
Places I want to visit
Machu Picchu, Ladakh, New Zealand, Brazil and Greece
my top 5 favorite books :)
The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions, The Lord of the Rings, Eragon and Eldest (Inheritance, Books 1 & 2), Deception Point and The Alchemist
5 best tv shows by Abhishek
SportsCenter, Friends, The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry and Globe Trekker
Albums I can listen to from beginning to end...
Behind the Sun, A State Of Trance 2008, Deep Forest, Enigma - MCMXC a. D. - The Complete Album Dil Se
My top 5 Favorite Songs (At the moment)
Falling in and out of love - Armin Van Buuren featuring Sharon Del Aden, Beauty Hides In the Deep - Doppler effect, Sirens Of The Sea - OceanLab, Please Don't Go - Dobenbeck and sasural genda phool - Delhi 6All-Time Favorite Athletes
Lionel Messi, Roger Federer, david villa, Lewis Hamilton and Justine Henin
Stars I would love to be stranded with on a deserted Island :)
Ana Beatriz Barros, Ana Ivanovic, Ana Hickman, Giorgia Palmas and Bipasha Basu
5 Things I Want To Learn
Spanish, swimming, Shaolin Kung fu , Become a professional DJ and Skydiving
Favorite movies of all time
Titanic, The Jungle Book, The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King, The Matrix and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
1 athlete, 1 musician, 1 celebrity, 1 actor and 1 actress (hmm maybe the subconscious bengali bias is because of my recent 68 day stay at Kolkata)
Lionel Messi, Armin Van Buuren, Adriana Lima, mithun chakraborty and Bipasha Basu
Monday, June 22, 2009
Even when there is no competition!
A word for movie producers:
Focus on the script.
"8 X 10 Tasveer" had 2 months without competition, but couldn't do any business
"Kal Kissne Dekha" (original spelling retained) had no competition as it was the first movie released after the multiplex producer saga, but couldn't do any business. So did "Aa dekhe zara".
Core reason?
Focus on the script.
"8 X 10 Tasveer" had 2 months without competition, but couldn't do any business
"Kal Kissne Dekha" (original spelling retained) had no competition as it was the first movie released after the multiplex producer saga, but couldn't do any business. So did "Aa dekhe zara".
Core reason?
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Yin Yang
What is life?
No I am not even attempting to find out the meaning of a subject so complex and so revered. A question that many greats have devoted their lives to answer. But I will touch upon one aspect of it. What the orientals call Yin and Yang, or what the westerners call duality.
Let's start with my favourite, Nature. Nature is beautiful, but comes with its fair share of "ugliness" as well. Complementing the gorgeous mountains are the zillions of creepy crawlies. Coexisting with fruits, grains and nutrition for all are the bacteria, virus and diseases for all.
Another favorite, The Matrix, which has many zen and oriental philosophies embedded in it. Agent Smith continues to exist as long as Neo is in the system. The only way to remove agent Smith from the system is for Neo to die.
Religion has its duality as well. With Gods exist the Devils. With deities, ghosts are present as well.
Similarly, with love comes the feeling of intense pleasure and severe pain.
So when we are afraid of the negative, why leave the entire experience altogether? Just for the fear of experiencing pain, why discard the chance to love? Just for the fear of leeches, why forgo the wonderful experience of trekking through the woods?
So to live life is to experience it in its full glory
Live. Experience. Embrace
No I am not even attempting to find out the meaning of a subject so complex and so revered. A question that many greats have devoted their lives to answer. But I will touch upon one aspect of it. What the orientals call Yin and Yang, or what the westerners call duality.
Let's start with my favourite, Nature. Nature is beautiful, but comes with its fair share of "ugliness" as well. Complementing the gorgeous mountains are the zillions of creepy crawlies. Coexisting with fruits, grains and nutrition for all are the bacteria, virus and diseases for all.
Another favorite, The Matrix, which has many zen and oriental philosophies embedded in it. Agent Smith continues to exist as long as Neo is in the system. The only way to remove agent Smith from the system is for Neo to die.
Religion has its duality as well. With Gods exist the Devils. With deities, ghosts are present as well.
Similarly, with love comes the feeling of intense pleasure and severe pain.
So when we are afraid of the negative, why leave the entire experience altogether? Just for the fear of experiencing pain, why discard the chance to love? Just for the fear of leeches, why forgo the wonderful experience of trekking through the woods?
So to live life is to experience it in its full glory
Live. Experience. Embrace
Monday, April 20, 2009
The 35 Watt principle
When you want to buy a bulb, out of the two which would you prefer - a 35 W or a 100 W? 35 W obviously. Why?
1) 100 W runs expensively
2) It goes bust very soon
When organisations would like to hire somebody, they would want a 35 W bulb. One that gives a mediocre output, but an output that lasts. They would want you to give sustained output.
"The McKinsey way" tells you to 'take one base at a time rather than trying to hit home runs all the time'. If you hit a home run, everyone's expectations about you are unnecessarily raised. If you can't perform to the standards you have raised, you will get a lot of flak, negative reviews.
When it is about studies, the person that learns the most (not necessarily scores the most) is who studies in short bursts, but regularly. People who clear certifications are those who study regularly rather than those who study intensively at the end.
1) 100 W runs expensively
2) It goes bust very soon
When organisations would like to hire somebody, they would want a 35 W bulb. One that gives a mediocre output, but an output that lasts. They would want you to give sustained output.
"The McKinsey way" tells you to 'take one base at a time rather than trying to hit home runs all the time'. If you hit a home run, everyone's expectations about you are unnecessarily raised. If you can't perform to the standards you have raised, you will get a lot of flak, negative reviews.
When it is about studies, the person that learns the most (not necessarily scores the most) is who studies in short bursts, but regularly. People who clear certifications are those who study regularly rather than those who study intensively at the end.
Friday, March 6, 2009
The reign of ruin
Colors, from the Viacom 18 stable, is all set to overtake Star Plus as the number one channel in India after already displacing sony and zee. What's sad is that the driving force is a serial called "Baalika Vadhu".
If the soap that has had the last 6-7 episodes of every character weeping and wailing because of a tragic death is what is captivating the imaginations of the Indian viewer, then there is something seriously wrong with us. This is the serial that skyrocketed to fame by showing a 10-11 year kid being locked up in a filthy basement and howling throughout the night at the torture (which I am told took a neat 3 episodes). How can it represent the "Entertainment" and "Variety" positioning that the channel did when it launched itself? Colors had shows like "Khatron ke Khiladi" and "Big Boss". It then moved on to the 'universally Indian' likes of "Jai Shri Krishna". But where does "Baalika Vadhu" fit in this image?
Viacom has always been associated with MTV; youthful, vibrant, crazy, uncontemporary. I am afraid even they have taken the Balaji route to the depressing fantasies of the Indian housewife. How can something so depressing with so much negative focus be called entertainment? To make things worse, the serial is making people stay inside their homes till 8:30 pm, so the business of malls, restaurants etc is also effected (just like the KBC effect we saw around 8 years back).
It is high time that Indian women move on from wasting their time with this non sense called "soap" churned out in dozens by dozen channels every day. If the fantasy of an average Indian 'domestic engineer' includes multiple affairs, illegitimate children, squabbling family members all living and plotting against each other in the same house, handling a 500 rs crore "business" without any prior experience whatsover, then it is nothing short of an epidemic. If they get "entertainment" by listening to the preaching lectures full of Indian mythology delivered by sari clad "pavitra" women (who are later known to have done everything "apavitra") with full make up on even when they are cooking food or waking up, then I am afraid it is a mental sickness of the scale of an endemic epidemic.
Jaago India Jaago!
If the soap that has had the last 6-7 episodes of every character weeping and wailing because of a tragic death is what is captivating the imaginations of the Indian viewer, then there is something seriously wrong with us. This is the serial that skyrocketed to fame by showing a 10-11 year kid being locked up in a filthy basement and howling throughout the night at the torture (which I am told took a neat 3 episodes). How can it represent the "Entertainment" and "Variety" positioning that the channel did when it launched itself? Colors had shows like "Khatron ke Khiladi" and "Big Boss". It then moved on to the 'universally Indian' likes of "Jai Shri Krishna". But where does "Baalika Vadhu" fit in this image?
Viacom has always been associated with MTV; youthful, vibrant, crazy, uncontemporary. I am afraid even they have taken the Balaji route to the depressing fantasies of the Indian housewife. How can something so depressing with so much negative focus be called entertainment? To make things worse, the serial is making people stay inside their homes till 8:30 pm, so the business of malls, restaurants etc is also effected (just like the KBC effect we saw around 8 years back).
It is high time that Indian women move on from wasting their time with this non sense called "soap" churned out in dozens by dozen channels every day. If the fantasy of an average Indian 'domestic engineer' includes multiple affairs, illegitimate children, squabbling family members all living and plotting against each other in the same house, handling a 500 rs crore "business" without any prior experience whatsover, then it is nothing short of an epidemic. If they get "entertainment" by listening to the preaching lectures full of Indian mythology delivered by sari clad "pavitra" women (who are later known to have done everything "apavitra") with full make up on even when they are cooking food or waking up, then I am afraid it is a mental sickness of the scale of an endemic epidemic.
Jaago India Jaago!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Resonance
....and as the three wheeler; that I was riding alone; sped at the maximum permissible speed allowed by traffic; my mind was in a world other than this one. Surrounded in an epic rhythm and an acoustic melody; enchanted by a mesmerising soul captivating voice. As her last words rang my ears; I realised that there was but one thread connecting me to this world. Those words were, "Follow me yeah let's go"
The epic was ending and the male metallic voice was booming the familiar countdown. As he began "5.....4....." I saw that the traffic signal was also counting down in the exact order....5.....4.....3.....
Which is when I got the message. Loud and Clear. The world inside my bloodrushed head is not different from the "outside" world. There is resonance.
The epic was ending and the male metallic voice was booming the familiar countdown. As he began "5.....4....." I saw that the traffic signal was also counting down in the exact order....5.....4.....3.....
Which is when I got the message. Loud and Clear. The world inside my bloodrushed head is not different from the "outside" world. There is resonance.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Mumbaiite
The oldest history we have is that of the Magadh empire around 3rd century BC. The now NalaSopara was an established trade port of King Ashoka. It seems they left the islands to Fishermen and Buddhist monks.
(Reference)Bombay changed hands many times. The islands belonged to the Silhara dynasty till the middle of the 13th century. The oldest structures in the archipelago--- the caves at Elephanta, and part of the Walkeshwar temple complex probably date from this time. Modern sources identify a 13th century Raja Bhimdev who had his capital in Mahikawati-- present-day Mahim, and Prabhadevi. Presumably the first merchants and agriculturists settled in Mumbai at this time. In 1343 the island of Salsette, and eventually the whole archipelago, passed to the Sultan of Gujarat. The mosque in Mahim dates from this period.
Then it all started with jealousy. Spaniards were having an upper hand over the Portuguese. Christopher Columbus had accidentally discovered the new world when he had begun to discover India. Their hard rivals, the Portuguese imperatively had to discover the (route to) real India. With Vasco Da Gama, the first Portuguese arrived in India. The Indians discarded what they had brought in their ships (we had better quality materials anyways). The Original wanderers reported back to Portugal Royal elites that India w big. "They had big markets, so many people, long roads, big buildings. Everyone was so rich". But with other better goods carrying trips (Vasco Da Gama came thrice to India during his lifetime, dying here in his last trip), they slowly spread their wings in India.
Slowly the Portugese had captured much of the southern ports of India (The current Kozhikode (Calicut) and Pondicherry still carries the remnants of their "culture"). The britishers had to find a landing place in India. Their ships circumvented the Portugese ships and beachheads across the western southern coast and went a little north. To establish a small port. They picked Surat.
(Reference)With increasing prosperity and growing political power following the 1817 victory over the Marathas, the British embarked upon reclamations and large scale engineering works in Bombay. The sixty years between the completion of the vellard at Breach Candy (1784) and the construction of the Mahim Causeway (1845) are the heroic period in which the seven islands were merged into one landmass. These immense works, in turn, attracted construction workers, like the Kamathis from Andhra, who began to come to Bombay from 1757 on. A regular civil administration was put in place during this period. In 1853 a 35-km long railway line between Thana and Bombay was inaugurated-- the first in India. Four years later, in 1854, the first cotton mill was founded in Bombay. With the cotton mills came large scale migrations of Marathi workers, and the chawls which accommodated them. The city had found its shape.
That is how the 7 islands came upon being. It began existing. Slowly, with more and more trade, more infrastructure was required. People were required. The Marwari community began traveling humongous distances to sell their stuff. It began breathing. Nothing to take away from Kolkata, as it was the Britishers' original start up port. But the point is, that is how Mumbai began its life.
With more Gujrati people coming here armed with their business skills and community supportive work culture, it slowly established itself as a business destination. It follows logically that with the business culture and performance orientation, the skills and ability of a person would take the center stage. They would become more important than the origin of the person, or to which community or region the person belongs to. Without introducing any kind of bias on association of a person's community with her/his ability, people from different parts of the country began coming to the land of opportunity. With more favourable conditions, the place transformed itself, step by step, from a port to a residential place to a business hub to a (additionally) film city.
(reference)The name Mumbai is derived from Mumba Devi, the patron goddess of the Kolis. The Kolis called her ' Mumba Aai' (Mother Mumba). From this word came Mumbai. The British, however, preferred to call the islands as Bombay. The name remained in practice till recent years. The temple of goddess Mumba Devi is still exists in Mumbai and the area around the temple is popularly known as Mumba Devi area
Given this background, I want to ask a question to everyone even remotely concerned with this city. Whose Mumbai is it? The Britishers? The Portuguese? The Gujrati Bohras/Parsis/Banias? The Marwari community? The Kamathis? The marathas? The kolis? The north Indian migrants?
(Reference)Bombay changed hands many times. The islands belonged to the Silhara dynasty till the middle of the 13th century. The oldest structures in the archipelago--- the caves at Elephanta, and part of the Walkeshwar temple complex probably date from this time. Modern sources identify a 13th century Raja Bhimdev who had his capital in Mahikawati-- present-day Mahim, and Prabhadevi. Presumably the first merchants and agriculturists settled in Mumbai at this time. In 1343 the island of Salsette, and eventually the whole archipelago, passed to the Sultan of Gujarat. The mosque in Mahim dates from this period.
Then it all started with jealousy. Spaniards were having an upper hand over the Portuguese. Christopher Columbus had accidentally discovered the new world when he had begun to discover India. Their hard rivals, the Portuguese imperatively had to discover the (route to) real India. With Vasco Da Gama, the first Portuguese arrived in India. The Indians discarded what they had brought in their ships (we had better quality materials anyways). The Original wanderers reported back to Portugal Royal elites that India w big. "They had big markets, so many people, long roads, big buildings. Everyone was so rich". But with other better goods carrying trips (Vasco Da Gama came thrice to India during his lifetime, dying here in his last trip), they slowly spread their wings in India.
(Reference)In 1508 Francis Almeida sailed into the deep natural harbour of the island his countrymen came to call Bom Bahia (the Good Bay). Bahadur Shah of Gujarat was forced to cede the main islands to the Portuguese in 1534, before he was murdered by the proselytizing invaders. The Portuguese built a fort in Bassein. They were not interested in the islands, although some fortifications and a few chapels were built for the converted fishermen. The St. Andrew's church in Bandra dates from this period. For years, the Dutch and the British tried to get information on the sea route to India--- often by spying. Eventually, in 1661, Catherine of Braganza brought these islands to Charles II of England as part of her marriage dowry. The British East India Company received it from the crown in 1668, founded the modern city, and shortly thereafter moved their main holdings from Surat to Bombay. George Oxenden was the first governor of a Bombay whose place in history was finally secure.
The web of commerce which had supported the civilisation of the Indian Ocean littoral had died with the coming of the Europeans. The Mughal empire in Delhi was not interested in navies-- despising the Portuguese and the British as ``merchant princes''. The second governor of Bombay, Gerald Aungier, saw the opportunity to develop the islands into a centre of commerce to rival other ports still in the hands of local kingdoms. He offered various inducement to skilled workers and traders to move to this British holding. The opportunities for business attracted many Gujarati communities--- the Parsis, the Bohras, Jews and banias from Surat and Diu. The population of Bombay was estimated to have risen from 10,000 in 1661 to 60,000 in 1675.
Slowly the Portugese had captured much of the southern ports of India (The current Kozhikode (Calicut) and Pondicherry still carries the remnants of their "culture"). The britishers had to find a landing place in India. Their ships circumvented the Portugese ships and beachheads across the western southern coast and went a little north. To establish a small port. They picked Surat.
(Reference)With increasing prosperity and growing political power following the 1817 victory over the Marathas, the British embarked upon reclamations and large scale engineering works in Bombay. The sixty years between the completion of the vellard at Breach Candy (1784) and the construction of the Mahim Causeway (1845) are the heroic period in which the seven islands were merged into one landmass. These immense works, in turn, attracted construction workers, like the Kamathis from Andhra, who began to come to Bombay from 1757 on. A regular civil administration was put in place during this period. In 1853 a 35-km long railway line between Thana and Bombay was inaugurated-- the first in India. Four years later, in 1854, the first cotton mill was founded in Bombay. With the cotton mills came large scale migrations of Marathi workers, and the chawls which accommodated them. The city had found its shape.
That is how the 7 islands came upon being. It began existing. Slowly, with more and more trade, more infrastructure was required. People were required. The Marwari community began traveling humongous distances to sell their stuff. It began breathing. Nothing to take away from Kolkata, as it was the Britishers' original start up port. But the point is, that is how Mumbai began its life.
With more Gujrati people coming here armed with their business skills and community supportive work culture, it slowly established itself as a business destination. It follows logically that with the business culture and performance orientation, the skills and ability of a person would take the center stage. They would become more important than the origin of the person, or to which community or region the person belongs to. Without introducing any kind of bias on association of a person's community with her/his ability, people from different parts of the country began coming to the land of opportunity. With more favourable conditions, the place transformed itself, step by step, from a port to a residential place to a business hub to a (additionally) film city.
(reference)The name Mumbai is derived from Mumba Devi, the patron goddess of the Kolis. The Kolis called her ' Mumba Aai' (Mother Mumba). From this word came Mumbai. The British, however, preferred to call the islands as Bombay. The name remained in practice till recent years. The temple of goddess Mumba Devi is still exists in Mumbai and the area around the temple is popularly known as Mumba Devi area
Given this background, I want to ask a question to everyone even remotely concerned with this city. Whose Mumbai is it? The Britishers? The Portuguese? The Gujrati Bohras/Parsis/Banias? The Marwari community? The Kamathis? The marathas? The kolis? The north Indian migrants?
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