Entertainment
Fans tweet best wishes on Ruskin Bond’s 81st birthday
New Delhi: As Mussoorie-based author Ruskin Bond turned 81 on Tuesday, fans turned to the micro-blogging site Twitter to wish him and quoted many of his memorable lines to highlight the simplicity of his writings.
“Red roses for young lovers. French beans for longstanding relationships. Happy birthday, Ruskin Bond. Where would we be without you,” tweeted Kay Fernandes, a Twitter user.
Prasanna Peshkar posted: “There is a thin line between covalent bond and ionic bond and it’s called as Ruskin Bond (sic).”
Vivek Tejuja thanked the Sahitya Akademi recipient for making his childhood beautiful.
“Happy Birthday Ruskin Bond! You have filled my childhood and even adulthood with smiles, laughter and joy. Thank you so much for writing,” wrote Tejuja.
Creator of iconic character Rusty lives in quaint Landour in Mussoorie and is known for his love for the written word. He still writes on paper and can be reached at a landline number. Author of over 100 novels, he is best known for his novels like “The Room on the Roof” and “Vagrants in the Valley”.
The prolific writer, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014, was expected to release two books and cut a cake with fans in Mussoorie on his birthday.
His ability to give vivid descriptions of random things, mountains and hills and write prose devoid of heavy words has bestowed him with the title of “children’s writer” and through these narratives he has kept alive the charm of mountains forever.
“Happy birthday Ruskin bond. You describe the hills like no other. My summer holidays would have been very empty if it wasn’t for you,” posted a Twitter user.
Many of the fans also quoted the most quotable quotes of Ruskin Bond on the micro-blogging site to wish him on his birthday.
“She was less than beautiful but more than pretty — this is how Ruskin Bond describes a face to remember,” wrote a Twitter user.
“It is always the same with mountains. Once you lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape. – Ruskin Bond,” posted Amit Pundir.
Vishal Khandelwal posted: “As children, we are all individualists; it is only as we grow older that we acquire a certain grey similarity to each other. – Ruskin Bond.”
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s learning to dance in the rain. – Ruskin Bond,” posted Rohit.
Many of Bond’s novels have been adapted into movies. The most popular ones are “The Flight of Pigeons” which was made into “Junoon”. Besides, popular Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwaj’s “The Blue Umbrella” was based on a novel with the same name.
Interestingly, Bond made his Bollywood debut in Vishal Bharadwaj’s film “7 Khoon Maaf” which was based on his short story “Susanna’s Seven Husbands”.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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