Entertainment
When ‘The Siddhus of Upper Juhu’ met Delhi cousins
New Delhi: Director Rahul da Cunha was terrified to bring his play “The Siddhus of Upper Juhu” to the national capital because he was skeptical of its denizen’s response as the story with a Mumbai storyline. However, when a packed audience at the Kamani Auditorium gave it a standing ovation on Sunday, he knew that the Siddhus had walked straight into the heart of Delhites. The amusing satire made the audience realise that urban chaos that is here to stay.
Set in a tony Mumbai suburb, “The Siddhus of Upper Juhu” is the story of a middle-aged couple Balvinder Sidhu aka Bubbles (Rajit Kapur) and Behroze (Shernaz Patel). Like every metropolitan couple, they too grapple with existential issues of urban life and challenge the emptiness of the daily rigmarole.
The couples’ life is played out as a metaphor at the 14th floor apartment in the Sea View Towers highrise – where the sea view is no more than a ‘sea glance’ actually. In spite of having poured their life savings into this two-and-half bedroom flat, Bubbles is sleepless, weary, and irritated all the time. He curses the wailing dogs and the partying airhostess in the next apartment who keeps him awake. With the endless racket of this unsleeping city, Bubbles goes steadily paranoid.
Whether it is the malfunctioning air conditioner, nagging neighbours, stink of the uncleared garbage or the drilling by civic body, it definitely rings a bell with the Delhi audience. For that matter, the problems are universal for any big city.
The play offers a laugh riot with a script laced with satire and wit. It is also a social commentary on many issues like unemployment and urban angst. “Ache din” also finds a mention in the 90-minute play. Talented Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel essay the role of the couple with sparkling chemistry. With a stellar performance, Kapur has once again proved that he belongs to the stage. To drive home the point that life comes with little packages of happiness, the couple supports each other through thick and thin.
Uncertainty dawns on the couple when Bubbles loses his job and their house is burgled. To make things worse, Bubbles finds that besides his clothes, the thieves did not spare even his precious Black Label. The event takes a toll on his health and he has a nervous breakdown!
Though Behroze is back to work to support the family, her employers too shut shop. However, the play ends on a positive note, with Bubbles planning to set up a cricket academy at Lonavala, a long-cherished dream of his.
The play, is an initiative by Aadyam, to bring five new plays from highly reputed theatre groups to venues in Mumbai and Delhi.
Speaking to IANS about the initiative, director Rahul da Cunha, son of legendary adman Geson da Cunha and the brain behind the Amul ads, said that it has helped the theatre to reach masses. The audience can look forward to the second in the series, “The Merchant of Venice” on July 11.
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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