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Driving Dilli-Bhakra-Dilli

If you take Cement enough in quantity to build an 8 ft road around the equator, you will be able to make another Bhakra Dam…. Sounds large isn’t it…. Well that’s what Bhakra is all about… Large… Majestic… Something that will make you proud of your country… Behind the Dam is the 96 Kms long Govind Sagar Lake which is one of the largest lakes in India as well…. And I managed to drive down to see it myself last weekend….

The last week was very hectic… daily drives to Gurgaon… and long study hours… I was being trained on a few things… and the result is
~ I am now an ITIL Foundation Certified Consultant… You can read more about ITIL here if you are interested.
~ I managed to learn a few good things about presentations in the last two days of the week… Attended a good workshop on presentation skills…

And Friday is when the drive started…. not from NOIDA this time… but Gurgaon… picked up Aro around 1830 hours after talking to Ankur Gupta and Deepak and freezing the plans to meet at the Azadpur Bypass around 2230 hours…. Reached home around 2030… Took a bath while Aro was talking to mom dad… and moved out at 2130hrs… Did not have dinner as I wanted to use the opportunity to have my favourite paranthas at Murthal…

Met Deepak @ the Bypass… Ankur, who was driving his Petra with me for the trip, was running a bit late. So we three decided to move on and wait for him at Murthal… exactly 36 kms away from there we stopped at Zilmil Dhaba… had dinner… with white mmm butter… Ankur soon joined…. This was the first time I was meeting him, though had talked to him on Orkut and on the phone… but not met otherwise… Met Nidhi… Said Namaste to his mom and dad… and got introduced to Neitya, his daughter…

And there we were, with two Fiat Cars… all set to drive away to glory… I was to follow him on the road… surprisingly I managed to overtake him a number of times… and at all the instances, I was reminded that Petra is a 1600 cc 100 bhp beast that could zoom away in front of me with a li’il effort… but I still managed to keep up with him at speeds of around 110-120 kmph….

Out biggest mistake… a right turn just before Chandigarh towards Shimla/Kalka and then the left from Pinjore which took us to Nalagarh and then Swarghat via one of the worst roads I have ever driven on…. but we still managed to reach Swarghat in good time and were there by 0530 hours… and this where were realised that the Manali highway also reaches the same place in the same distance… bad turn that was before Chandigarh… but anyway…. Ankur here gave me one of the best compliments that I have got about my driving “Prashant tu to Bawlo ki tarah gaadi chalata hai Pahadon par…” “Prashant, you drive like crazy on the hills… ” 😀 I was so happy to hear this… infact when I am driving uphill…Radha handles the roads the best… and there is so much sync between me and her that we literally burn the road 🙂

Unfortunately, there were no rooms in the new constructed HPTDC Hotel Hilltop in Swarghat… which left us with no choice but to either move to Bilaspur 40 kms ahead or go to Nangal about 50kms downhill…. we decided to go to Nangal….

While driving to Nangal, I realised that fantastic roads I had missed 🙁 but never mind… we reached Kiratpur in about an hour and the took right to reach Nangal via Anandpur Sahib… Nangal does not have a lot of places to stay… so this was now getting a li’il tiring on me…. the entire weekend I was caught up… and even now I was not getting any rest at all… so the body was almost giving up on me… we talked to a Khanna Lodge in Naya Nangal then, no rooms… and then we decided to move a li’il away towards Mehatpur hoping to get a place there… which we did… Hotel Menon… decent place to stay in… the only issue being the construction on the first floor and our rooms had wet walls… and the switch board was more then happy to give us a small electric shock when we touch it with bare hands 🙂 we still managed to stay and sleep comfortably there…

0730 is when we checked in… And I think I went of to sleep almost immediately after I sat on the bed….

woke up because of a few calls at regular intervals… but still managed to get up fresh around 1200 hours… after having a good lunch we headed towards Bhakra… we found out that the route was open only till 1500 hours and that made us rush… We reached the barrier and then were told that the pass is not issued there and we would have to travel about a km back to get the pass to go forward… went back… got the pass… deposited our phone cameras and other cameras there and then moved ahead…

Bhakra is about 18 kms away from Naya Nangal and it took us about 30 odd minutes to reach the dam… fantastic!!! loved the looks of it… I just wish I could have seen water flowing out of it… but could not 🙁 never mind… it was still a good experience to see the dam… next time i go… i will try to get the “Red Pass” that allows you to get inside the dam and get to see the turbines and all… will have to find out how to get that kinda permit…

we then moved to Naina Devi… and came back in good time by 1900 hours… when we reached Naya Nangal it started raining pretty heavy and we drove to Mehatpur in one of the best pours I have seen in sometime… overall this turned out to be a good day !!!

Slept around 2200 hours… with the plan of getting up around 0800 and then moving towards Delhi with a pit-stop at Anandpur Sahib….

We reached the Gurudwara around 0900 hours… light drizzle and the good weather made it all the more interesting… and the place more beautiful… as always… I enjoyed the Halwa at the Gurudwara… finally had something to click… so spent a roll in there… and moved from there after having some food in the langar…

a couple of pits stops for petrol, for bhutta, for Kulfi Faluda in Karnal and for paranthas later, we said Bye Bye to Ankur and Family, then dropped Deepak and Aro at the Kashmiri Gate Metro Station… and reached home safe and sound….

Time for a few things I would remember about from trip and you might want to take note of…
~ 900 kms driven in two days…
~ Saw one of the biggest Lakes in India…
~ I had drove for about 800 kms to gather a lot of mud on the car… and the only part which could be called clean was the windscreen… and one cleaner in the Dhaba @ Murthal cleaned my car 🙁 she was looking so goddam sexy with all the mud and dirt all over her !!!
~ Did not feel like clicking the mountains at all… infact the first day did not even touch my camera… so I guess… I am drifting away from Landscape photography now for sure…
~ The car handled fantastically well on the hills… and looked like I could drive her faster on the curves then on the plains… effortless gear shifting and very responsive acceleration… loved it…
~ To go to Nangal, the best route is to take the Delhi-Manali Highway…. Delhi- Karnal-Ambala-Chandigarh-Ropar-Kiratpur-Anandpur-Naya Nangal should be route…
~ You would find decent accommodation in Mehatpur… there is the hotel Menon where AC rooms are available for 500-600 bucks per day… we spent 2300 for the stay, lunch and Dinner for 7 people.

I am now waiting for Leh to happen… not many days from now, I would be in the Delhi-Manali Volvo on my way to Leh!!!

May God be with Me!!! Amen!!!

27 July 2006
WoKe uP TiReD…

I so badly wanted to listen to some rock in the morning today… but did not have a single CD with GnR or Bon Jovi or Aerosmith in my car… huh!!! and I talk about having a 10 mp3 cd changer in my car… no use at all!!

anyway… I managed to watch Gangster this weekend… a very nice movie… totally exploiting human emotions… however a li’il more pace in the movie would have been worth it… two songs that I managed to reeeeeeeeeally like are “Ya Ali” and “Tu Hi Meri Shab hai”… wonderful work… and the movie could have really done without that guy Imran Hashmi… he is CRAP!!!

And Italy won the world cup… I should be happy… because I own an Italian Car and I love it… I like to eat Italian food… Pastas and Pizzas… going by that logic I should have favoured Italy, keeping in mind how much knowledge of football I have… but I wanted France to win… don’t know why… they lost… not because they played any less better then Italy but because the captain chose to bring his Football Career to an end with a Red Card… and one of the guys decided to be extra forceful while taking a penalty kick and ended up hitting the bars instead of the net… wonderful work France… I for sure am not going to like things about France for a while… ok… French kiss would be an exception 🙂

Got up very tired today in the morning… felt like I have been thinking a lot while I was sleeping… things at office… things in life… career, work, home, myself, a lot has been going on in the sub-conscious….

Looking forward to the drive to Bhakra last week of July… and really excited about Leh in August… May God be with me…

oh… and I am looking around for a new email reader that can configure POP accounts for email and rss feeds… suggestions please…

I have already tried
~ Thunderbird – did not like it much…
~ Incredimail – is heavy on resources and works very very similar to outlook express…

10 July 2006
i ParTiEd… i tHoUgHt…

Its strange and sad at the same time that I have not written about one of the best weekends I had last week… and today I am finally writing about it…

So Friday was a party… yes… Last Friday was a party to celebrate the one year of fantastic performance by the Central IT Helpdesk, a project that I have been associated with for a while now… time to go ahead and acknowledge the best performers… the good contributors and so on and so forth… so a group of about 40 people got together to celebrate this event in the Lizard Lounge in South Extension… the party began… the prize distribution ended… and then PARTIEEEEEEEE

Danced for a good 3.5 hours before I could not dance anymore… and left a lot of people from the office stunned… they were like we did not know you dance… and we were very sure that you do not dance well… but they were so wrong 😀 and I was so happy… so Prashant rocks !!!

Saturday was a lazy day except that I went to Meerut and came back… and this time the record that set a few weeks back was beaten in and out…this time I drove 8 kms more then the last time in an hour and 10 minutes flat !!! About 85 kms that means in 70 minutes… cewl huh!!!

Sunday was a lazy day… with most of the time spent in taking care of things at home…

And then the week started… Monday… the day when I want to leave everything and get the hell out of here… I have also thought of collecting about 1, 00,000 bucks and then leaving my job… this way I would have about 50K that I would want to spend on my fixed EMIs and another 50K to spend in travel for these two months… am waiting for that day to come… I will everyone know when that happens… I would be gone for good for two months then…

Looks like I have figured out a few things late in my life… hope its not too late though…

Another thought that has been running around in my mind for a few days is “should someone throw his/her knowledge on a subject around? Should one give more information then asked for just to prove that (s)he is a subject matter expert? Should someone while giving an opinion also mention in some words that he is worth an appreciation… should you hunt for compliments or let the audience, this world decide when you should get them?”

i mean… if you are good… then people around you would realise by the quality of things that you do… not only in professional but personal life… but what to do when someone would keep saying things, keep giving you gyan, keep giving you information, without even realising that its not really worth it….

7 July 2006
LansDowne PiCs…

The Pictures from the drive are finally with me… I know that I have missed atleast 1000 shots that I wanted to click because I was driving… You cannot get everyone in one trip can you 🙂 sometime later, I probably will be someone who would be driving… and I would only click !!!

But never mind, I think the percentage of shots I can publish now is much more then what it used to be earlier… so all is well… and Life IS good…

You can click HERE to check out the fotos…

2 July 2006
SoMeTHiNgS… qUiCkLy…

A couple of quick updates…

~ I read nice things about myself on a friend’s blog… that made me happy 🙂

~ I found out a couple of things in office that were very disturbing… but the good part is that I know how to handle them… so its fine… for once I am fine with the incorrectness around me…

~ My photo-blog has been updated… no… Not with a new Photo, but I changed the template… The old page for some reason used to open new windows; hope this does not happen now after I have changed the template. Have also removed the flash entries on the page and replaced them with HTML… which means it should load faster and would need less plugins…For some reason, both my blogs now have a lot of black colour… and right now it looks just fine to me…
This happens to be one of my favourite pages every… you can also visit it by clicking HERE…

~ Attended my induction in the last two days… was very interesting…

~ Have been through times which made me feel that life could not get more confusing then it was right now, and the very next second experienced extreme clarity of thought… mix of thoughts, mix of feelings, mix of emotions, a cocktail of expressions, a mocktail of words, I guess that just means that I am growing up…

Rest of my world is doing just fine…

30 June 2006
DeLHi-LaNsDoWnE-HaRiDwAr-DeLhi…

Time for a few statistics first…
~ Total distance: 720 kms
~ Total Petrol Burnt: ~55 lts
~ Approximate Mileage: 13 kmpl
~ Total hours of sleep between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon = 8 hours
~ Total expenditure per head in the trip (total divided between 3 people) < fun =”UNLIMITED” style=”font-weight: bold;”>Time for some highlights…
~ Buying a Palio was one of the best decisions ever… forget about how much I love the car… the only hatchback which can better the Palio 1.2 is the 1.6 Sports… nothing else !!!
~ The handling of the car on the hills is nothing less then FANTASTIC…
~ A lot of conversations added to the fun in the trip…
~ We did the first 254 kms in a li’il less then 4 hours, which included about 45 kms of hills… which means that the over 210 kms were done in less then 3 hours… an average speed of 70kmph and that too on the roads of UP…
~ I have not driven on a better road in UP then the Meerut-Bijnor-Najibabad-Kotdwar Highway…
~ We witnessed Clouds, Bright Sun, Heavy Downpours, Slight Drizzles, Flooded Highways, Slow Moving Carts, Bribe Taking Policemen, Erratic Drivers, Scenes which ask you scream WOW, and more that words cannot describe…Some important observations now…
~ Lansdowne is the closest hill station to Delhi at 254 kms… and the great road makes it really really accessible… The route that you have to take to reach Lansdowne is the Delhi- Meerut-Bijnor-Najibabad-Kotdwar-Pauri Route… a right turn after about 20 kms from Kotdwar on the Pauri route takes you to Lansdowne.
~ There is nothing that you can do there (even if you wanted). It’s just a small town on the top of a hill, inside a cantonment area. Your options are take long walks, talk to the people you are with, or just talk to anyone. If you are loner kinds… Its just the place to get away from everyone…
~ Only BSNL GSM works there… yippieeeeeeeeee…
~ There are only 4 hotels/resorts in Lansdowne… two of them are really not worth trying… One of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam’s guest house and the other one is the Fairy Dale Resort both at walking distance from the Main Market… The fifth option that takes you further away from anything related to humans is the Anand Retreat… About 3 kms away from the Main Market and driving on a 6 ft wide kuchcha road for 2.6 kms you will reach this resort in the middle of nowhere…
~ The best time to leave Delhi for Lansdowne is very very early morning around 0400 hours, this way you will be able to avoid most of the traffic and manage a speed of about 90-100 kmph most of the time with a few exceptions…
~ I would recommend going to Haridwar via Najibabad to anyone who asks me this question… better road, less traffic, better scenes… It would be about 50 kms more then usual, but is worth it…
~ There is an old Shiv Mandir about 45 kms away from Lansdowne called the Tarkeshwar Mahadev. Do not go into that direction in case you are not prepared to drive your vehicle on about 5.6 kms of something that is remotely away from being called a road… the other alternative is to walk those kilometres…

And now let me talk about my experience…

I was kinda scared that I would not be able to make the June Trip… and I was not sure where I wanted to go… I was discussing getting out of Delhi on the ODM day too… and looked like it would be just fine… we decided on the 25th wala weekend and it looked doable… Asked a couple of people… Aseem was ready… Deepak was game… Akash also was keen, though he dropped out at the last minute…

We tried hard to take Rohit along… but there were things that he could not run away from and go with us… so he stay put at his place over the weekend… too bad he missed it…

Aseem and Deepak were at my place by 2100 hours on Friday night, we had thought of sleeping for a few hours before we start an early morning drive… had a nice dinner at the Vishal’s kitchen and managed to sleep only by 0000 hours… rather go to bed around that time… kept talking and managed a sleep of only about a couple of hours… I was the last to sleep and the first to get up… which meant that I was awake at 0230 hours… got ready and woke the rest of the gang up @ 0300 hours… we managed to leave at 0325 hrs from my place and then went to the ATM… and managed to officially start our journey at 0341 hours…

Zoomed past the lesser mortals, took the right turns after asking the policemen about the route on BegumPul in Meerut… I could not believe the kind of road I was driving on the entire way… I was hoping for a much worse experience… actually was prepared for it… but could not really get out of the surprise till we reached Kotdwar… I was comfortably driving at 90-100 km/hr most of the time… oh… we almost hit a lot of stupid crows… who were not ready to fly off the middle of the road till the car was about 50 metres away from them… and we almost hit a few donkeys because they strayed on the wrong side of the road…phew.. that was a close shave… I do not care if the donkey had died on the spot… but a scratch on the car would have been a good enough reason for me to kill the rest of the donkeys and bury the owner alive with all of them!!!

Anyway… I was not really surprised after completing the first 210 kms in about 3 hours… we reached Lansdowne around 0730 hours… and then spent time looking for a place for ourselves… GMVN was booked… Fairydale was booked… we had breakfast there… had read about the kinda paranthas that place makes… but it was just average… I have had better stuff and more then once… so once our stomachs were full, we decided to find another place to stay… tried two very shady hotels in the main market but both of them were full too… so we were not stuck with just one option, the Anand Retreat !!! we talked to the guy there and got a room, a semi deluxe room, in 750 bucks… while driving to the place, it started raining pretty heavily and we reached there in about 30 odd minutes in the middle of a heavy downpour… driving on a mud-stone track in the kind of rain is definitely not one of the best things I have done to Radha… but she was there with me right through and we were safe… checked into the room… and were kinda stunned to see the number of bugs in the toilet… this is not what we had planned ? but there was li’il we could do now… it was raining cats and dogs outside… and we three were stuck in a room in the middle of nowhere… anyway…I decided to take a nap… and quickly fell asleep while watching the TV… got up fresh in two hours… It had stopped raining and Deepak had checked out most of the surroundings… Aseem gave us the idea of getting out of there for good.. and staying somewhere else… we bought it right away and decided to first drive around the place and see whatever we could and then decide what we really wanted to do and where we could stay in the night… went back to the Town, drove to a so called Lake, did not bother to get out of the car, took a u-turn and went to see the St. John’s church, The St. Mary’s Church ( I think I am messing up the name here) and the Tip-n-Top Point… went to snow-view point… and then rushed straight outside Lansdowne to Tarkeshwar Mahadev temple a good 45 kms away… reached there in good time but realised that the last 5.6 kms were mud-stone road… and I was not keen on taking the car there… Deepak and Aseem were not too sure either… so we took a u-turn… parked the car there for a while, had tea from a local shop and started back to Kotdwar… the plan was to reach Haridwar ASAP !!! I was expecting to reach there by 2100 hours… but we made it in good time this time too… Deepak slept on the back seat while me and Aseem talked our way throughout the drive back and managed to reach Haridwar around 2000 hours… nice roads again… beautiful sunset… and also a good 2 hours of conversation… I missed out on atleast a thousand shots because I was driving… I wish to capture them sometime when someone else is driving…

Haridwar was full of people… most of them from Delhi… ?… and that ensured that we did not get a room in Haridwar as well… so a quick decision to go to Rishikesh was taken… and we reached Rishikesh in about an hours time… got a room in the Maduban… this is where we eat most of the time… and this time managed to get a room there for 350 bucks… extra bed for 150 bucks… in all 500 bucks for the night…

Went to Chotiwala for Dinner but it had already closed, checked out a few more places to eat but no luck… and at the end we ate at a small road-side restaurant near the parking for Ram Jhula… not bad eh !!!

Walked back to Maduban, and crashed on the beds… I had opted for the floor… so I managed to enjoy the sleep on the floor… got up at 0400 hours on Sunday… and rushed to Haridwar to catch the Morning Atari… it seemed we were late and we decided to have a bath before going to the Har Ki Pauri… I had the holy bath after a long time… and I loved it… it happened to be some auspicious occasion too which I came to know after I reached home… so I am sure it helped me wash away some of the deadly sins committed by me in the last few months… we went to the famous Mohan Ji Poori Wale, to have the poories, but they had not started serving… so we had to be content with some Khasta Kachauri and some Halwa and some Gulab Jamuns… moved out of Haridwar and reached Roorkee to have the Lassi there, but the shop again was closed.. and this time to keep us company, Aseem bought some Mazaa, some chips, Appy Fizz, and Little Hearts… nice… thereon the struggle to overtake started… there was a bumper to bumper traffic on the opposite side… to over a vehicle I was like waiting for atleast 5 minutes on an average… things became better once we reached the Meerut Bypass… it had started raining too…

We stopped at Kadrabad to have the famous Jain Shikanji… this time it was better then the last 4-5 times I had it… because of less crowd I guess…

By the time we reached Modinagar it had started raining very heavily… and I drove with the left tyres in water throughout the town… the other side of the road was flooded as well with water… rain stopped after Muradnagar… and it was nice drive back home from there… dropped Deepak at the NOIDA Mode… and Aseem drove back to his place in his car which was parked at my place…

So this was the trip!!! I enjoyed writing as much about it as the drive itself… it was nice to know Deepak a li’il more… Aseem was nothing unusual, he has been with me for a number of years now and I more or less know him!!!

And for people who missed out this trip!!! Well I cannot say much but tell them that they missed out on one of the best drives I have ever been to!!!

Oh!!! And Next month, I want to go to Bhakra Nangal… anyone Game?

26 June 2006
OnCe A DoG !!! aLwAYs a DoG !!!

I used to be a Dog in my last birth… why… because I still have some traits left…

I am all over the people I care for and I like… At times to the extent of irritation, and the people who are not on the “I like you” list, always can hear the growl in the background from me… so if I like you, you would know it… but if I do not.. Then you probably would only hear some growling… And Silence!!!

I wanted to write about conversations… but for some reason I am not able to write about them… maybe I will soon!!! I actually was taken aback with something that one of my friends said about conversations…

To be frank at that time I felt that I was not good enough for getting into a conversation with her because I did not know shit about what she wanted to talk about… but then I was willing to listen, which apparently was not good enough for a decent convo… a lot of thoughts came into mind then… was knowledge really important between two friends to talk… do we talk because of what we know or because of what we are… are the friends I have made because I knew something… can I learn about things and be a good conversationalist… or is it going to make me a good speaker only…

Well… Here are two questions that I throw today in air…

1) What animal do you think you are and why?
2) What does it take for two people to be able to talk to each other? ( and I am talking about two people who are either friends or on the way to be friends)

23 June 2006
MoRe Of SoMeTHiNgs !!!

There used to be a time when I never thought I am going to write… and then there was a time when I spent a good 4-5 years writing poems… both in Hindi and English… and then there was a day when I lost my diary in a trip to pune… and there were times when I had people I could talk my heart out with… and there were times when I thought I do not need ppl in my life to carry on… and then there were days when I wanted the world to end… and then there were times when I could not wait for tomorrow to come… there were times when I hated myself for being myself because that made ppl I cared for sad.. and then I went through times when people thought that it could not getting better when I was being me… there were times when I was not taken seriously because I usually am the entertainer and joke around a lot… and then I know of times when someone told me that you are as serious as you do not look like…

Life’s full of different kind of flavors… lovely some of them… and some that you want to forget… but at the end of the day… it’s not what you went through that count… it’s what you brought with yourself from that time!!! You know thats what life is all about!!!

Ok with this uncalled for dose of philosophy, let me turn the focus towards something that I have been doing for a long time… writing about the weekends… 🙂

You want to know what Grand is all about … go watch Mission Impossible 3 from the 4th row from the front of a biiiiig hall…. manh!!! What action… totally loved it on Sunday!!!!

watching the trailers of Final Destination 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean and then moving to the trailer of Kkrish was like moving from a 6 bedroom penthouse apartment to a 1room flat… when would bollywood learn how to make action movies !!!! When…. we are good with emotional stuff… family oriented movies… but Hollywood is not bad either with emotions and romance and family… but when do I see graphics like Ice Age here? When do I see action like Top Gun here… well I am waiting… am sure so are you!!!

Deepak got the tickets done for the Srinagar Leh Flight in August… I am supposed to get the Volvo tickets for the Delhi-Manali route… the sad part is that I do not have any money right now… so I will wait till I get my salary and then get the tickets… hopefully I would get them around the 1st itself !!!

Got my car serviced as well on Saturday… all set for the long drive the coming weekend to Lansdowne… the baby is rocking!!!

Not much otherwise has been happening otherwise in life… have been talking to a few new people I have met online, Kishley or Dolly, Anku, Mayuri….

Missed Sayan and the long conversations with her…

Richa and I have not been able to talk for a while… a very long conversation with her is long due…

Office is just fine… nothing great about it… I can see more work coming in…

Rest…. later…..

20 June 2006
MoNiToR UpGrAdED…. JeLLy DeStRoYeD…

Not much has happened in the last few days…

Though a lot of thoughts have come inside the mind and gone out… some of them left an impression as well…

Saturday was the ODM day…. which went pretty well… what was disappointing was the lack of new faces even after a whole hearted voting….

Sunday was not very exciting till I got a call from my mamaji in Meerut… I had asked him to arrange for a 17″ monitor for me… one of his colleagues is dealing with some second hand computer peripherals there… Mamaji gave me a call @ 1900 hours and 1945 I was out with my cousin on the way to Meerut…

Reached there…exchanged my old LG Studio Works 14″ monitor with a used Samsung DigiSync for a 1000 bucks… had dinner and came back…

another record was broken here… I drove 85 kms from mamaji’s place to mine in about 72 minutes… the last best was 75 🙂 and the good part was that I did not really drive rash or anything.. Just the right overtakes at the right times did the trick… looked like the entire Delhi was coming from Haridwar that night…

Monday was a bad day… was not feeling well right from the morning and the day ended with slight fever… which saw me take an off from office on tuesday…

Tuesday turned out to be a good day though… made pasta… which was goooooood… so the entire preperation was finised quickly… in the evening had lotsa vanila icecream with Mangoes…

I had also done some work to make another dessert with Custard, Jelly, Mangoes, and Fruit Cake… but i screwed up the jelly part… i froze the bloddy jelly… and it looked like rock instead of the jelly in the morning today…

Anyway… better luck next time… i am going to excel in all kinds of desserts one day!!!

One Day I Will….

14 June 2006
RaDhE RaDhE !!!

goods mornings ladies and gentalmans… in the series of the serious posts this week, one of the most important historical events was missed out on the blog…

No no, I am not talking about the biggest event in IBM India’s history… I am talking about a drive on the DND which was completed in 2 minutes FLAT…

THE 1242 CC Fiat Palio Sports was moving at speeds of over 125 kmph roaring at 3500 rpm to better the previous record of 3 minutes by about a minute!!! yippieeeeeeeeeee and these 2 minutes include the stopping time at the toll plaza…

am I doing this again… yes I am sometime later… post the fitting of a K&N Filter in my car…

I am sure almost all of you know about how obsessed I am with my car… to make myself happy and to let you ppl know in detail here is what happened in September’04 which turned out to be one of the best and the fastest decision that I have made in the 27 years of my life on this planet!!!

I had joined IBM in august 2004, and suddenly I had to switch over to a self driven mode from being chauffeured around in office cabs for over 3 yrs!!!

The 800 though doing great was not the most reliable mode of transport as it was already 15 years old… and the need of buying a car arose from there…

Did some research… I did not want to buy a Hyundai and Papa did not like the looks of a Wagon R… even I was not too keen on the two Hatchbacks which were available…

my next stop was the Opel Showroom… and a discussion on the Opel Corsa and the Corsa Sail followed… Both of these are wonderful cars but for some reason I was not convinced to buy them…

So that Saturday evening, I thought I would go ahead and discover a Tata Indica… the car seemed to make a lot of sense in terms of fuel efficiency… I had thought of a few cosmetic changes that I wanted to do in the car which would have made the looks better too… changes like the spoilers, Upgraded Tubeless Tyres and Alloy Wheels and a few more… Me and mom were driving to the Nawab Motors when I took this wrong turn.. and instead of turning right towards the TATA Showroom, I took a left to see the Fiat Dealership in NOIDA, Dynamic Automobiles… I thought what the heck.. lets check this out now that we are here… So I enter the showroom… see a white Palio NV ELX which looked ordinary… and then turned LEFT !!! this turned everything 🙂

She was standing there.. all shining and smiling.. waiting for me to introduce myself to her 🙂 which I did… took the keys.. sat inside the car.. checked out the interiors, the exteriors.. and fell in LOVE !!! it took me about 2 minutes to decide that a FIAT PALIO SPORTS FERRARI RED is what I wanted to buy !!! rushed out of the showroom.. and went back home… what helped freeze the decision was the autocar edition of that month that had rated about 100 cars on Indian roads on various parameters… Fiat Palio was rated the highest in personal satisfaction and build quality and various other parameters, however lacked big time in A.S.S. ( After Sales Service).. Went through the magazine a number of times, to ensure that I was taking the right decision… and then the next day went with Papa to see the car… and he had a similar reaction.. he loved the car.. he later told me that he always wanted to buy the Palio as well !!! Pa and I were in complete agreement with everything after a very long time 🙂 and that ensured that the car was bought earlier then thought of…

I was thinking that I would do some more research to get the best price, but Pa decided that if I was keen on buying the car, I should not wait any longer and get the things taken care of the same day.. We sat down with the finance guy there.. worked out the EMIs and all.. and to our satisfaction he lowered the ROI as well a li’il bit to facilitate the purchase…

a down payment of 65000 was needed, and I did not have that kinda money 🙁 I checked out both my bank accounts and could manage only 40K after taking out every single rupee from them… the rest 15K took from dad and made the payment the same day… We had initially thought of taking the car after the Shrads but the guy at Dynamic said that he could arrange for the delivery before they even begin.. and I was more then happy !!!

21st September is when I got the car; and 28th September is when the registration was done: It was a Tuesday and the car market in NOIDA was closed, I remember searching for a number plate guy, managing to find one finally, and getting the number plate made… 29th is when I took the car to Delhi for the first time !!!

I also did not tell anyone about the car, because she was something that ppl had to see and not hear about.. and I still smile when I think about the reactions I got from my friends 🙂

some of the things which were invariably asked and said about it were:

~ Yaar, gaddi to mast hai par fuel efficiency nai hai.. 7-8 ki deti hai sirf..

My reaction: I did not buy this car for efficiency; If you are comparing it with a Santro or a Wagon R then you are not doing the right thing.. they are about 250 Kg lighters… and it obviously takes less fuel to move a lighter vehicle… and I expect to get 11+ in city driving…

My comments today: I have been getting an average of over 12 kmpl with about 30% AC in the City… the last 4 tank fulls I got more then 13.5 kmpl with minimal AC usage…

~ Kya mast gaadi hai yaar.. par parts ki fight hai… milte nai aaraam se… ASS bhi kharab hai… aur parts are really costly too..

My reaction : I know… hope things improve with the FIAT management changing in India…

My comments today: I have not faced any trouble with the car except a windshield wiper motor trouble since I bought the car.. The parts availability yes was a problem but things have changed in the past few months… with the FIAT-TATA MOU getting signed.. the workshops where you can get your Petrol FIATs serviced have increased and improved, though I have not faced any issues with my workshop in NOIDA…

Some of the other observations that I have…

I ride with the biggest and the widest tyres that are there in any hatchbacks today.. I run on a 165/85/R14 Alloys which come factory fitted with the Sports Version… The only car that comes close to Palio wrt tyres is the Swift…

The large weight of the car ensures a better grip on the road and safety… when you close the doors you hear a thud and not a cluck unlike most of the cars even bigger in size…

I am still in love with the car after almost 24000 kms… to the extent that other then me only approx 10-20 kms must have been driven by anyone else…

My Car ROCKS !!!

9 June 2006