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….

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 !!!

i cannot come out alive of the summers in delhi if the following are not there :

• Navratan Tel
• DermiCool Talc
• Cigar Deo
• Liril Soap
• Thandai/Sattu/RoohAfza
• Short shorts
• Weekends to get out of Delhi to a nearby unexplored hilly destination
• Water bottles in office

you never get to find out how the weekend and the day after that get over… the only day that takes longest for me is Monday… and this time it got over in a second too… maybe because I did not get time to see the time… meetings after meetings.. Presentation preparations and more and more…

activities done over the weekend:
~ nothing was done on Saturday… the hardest and the slowest thing to do it this!!!
~ Sid the smartie sloth went to watch Da Vinci Code on Sunday and almost understood the movie except for the 5403 words that they used… which means he needs to work on his English…
~ Sid also met another cartoon on Sunday… and spent about 4 hours with her… which was fun.. Initially both of them did not know what to talk about before they realised that both of them were cartoons and insane… and this is where the conversation picked up from… this cartoon with Sid was a very nice one… she looks good… Talks nicely… and told a lot of things about herself… Which were all nice… so Sid is now looking for bad things about her… he for some reason is not interested in finding what’s good about her… I guess that comes on its way automatically.

Weekend ENDS!!!

MONDAY came… and WENT… as quickly as you read this line…

Tuesday phew… early morning alarm…. 0500 hrs… I rushed to the airport to catch the Mumbai bus… uffo… airbus 🙂 and trust me Volvo’s are better… at least there is no expectation to see a hott airhostess… here you first enter the airport to see some nice faces.. which you do not… and then the aircraft in a dying hope of having the company of some short skirted pretty chicks… which obviously does not happen…

and I think the chicks on the INDIAN airlines were better then this flight of JET !!! The breakfast was ok sorts…

Pune Airport is pretty small… Bangalore is smaller!!! Huh!!!
Got a cab… rushed to Pimpri just to realise that the meeting was delayed by a good couple of hours… so did not have a phone… did not have the net… and did not have anything better to do then spend time going through the same prez which I was working on for past two days…

oh.. And I saw the largest ever canteen in my entire life there in Pune!!! Phew…

did not forget to mention that the weather was excellent… I am sure Delhi was burning when it was raining there in Pune… went to the guest house in the evening and slept peacefully before waking up at 0600 hrs today… rushed to catch the Volvo to Mumbai…

and today … all my charm for the Volvos came to an end.. because of the very badly kept State Transport Volvo 🙁 dirty bus, shaking seats, leaking AC vents, what not) and to make things worse.. They had dark film on the windows… which meant that I would not be able to enjoy the view of the so called one of the best expressways in the country properly…

anyway… couldn’t help it much…

it took about 50 minutes before we hit the actual expressway and I reached Mumbai in a li’il less then 3.5 hours…

two things that I loved about the journey…
~ the 10 km stretch before and after lonavla…never see this wide roads on hills…
~ the road quality… I am sure its going to be awesome driving with Radha on this road…

the view was ok sorts…. I have seen better…

went straight to JJMEHTA & Sons in Dadar(W) to return disappointed as they did not have the lens that I was looking for.. The one that they had was overpriced because of the unavailability…

now in Malad…. have the return flight around 2200 hrs… can’t wait to get back to Delhi…

Nidhi…”i am not sure….“

Nikhil…” i am…. i cannot see tears in your eyes… i cannot imagine you crying… i cannot think of a day when you are not smiling… “

Nidhi…”why…“

Nikhil…” because the only person i want you to be with when you are crying is me… the only shoulder i want your head on when you are crying is mine… the only fingers who wipe your tears away when you are crying should be mine… the only arms that hold you tight when you cry should be mine… and I know this can never happen.. so you better not cry….“

…this is a scene from one of the movies I am going to direct sometime in my life….

I have an alarm to get up at 0630 hours… but i do not remember when i really got up when the alarm rang for the the first time… i keep snoozing it for 5 minutes till it does not give me the option anymore… and then i have to get up !!!

Today… when I got ready and came out of the house… it was very hot… not because of the sun because there was none visible in the sky… there were clouds and some mist…

It was hot like you are standing inside a room which is being heated… the entire air was like that… Something felt wrong…

It was a very depressing weather… and I am going to talk about things which do not make me happy for a while now…

To start with the disadvantage India has with its politicians…. the power that has been given to these guys… so while we all are angry with Arjun Singh… and not happy with the decisions the Government is making… how many of us have actually promised ourself that we are going to vote the next time there are elections.. and also would ensure that we ask as many ppl as we can to vote…

I know of so many ppl who have enjoyed vacation when there were election days and also crib about the government at the first instance…

so while I think the country is being run by a handful of idiots along with some intelligent powerless politicians… Its we who also have a major role to play in this entire drama!!!

Now!!!

When I am depressed because of anything there are a few things I want to do… the first of-course is drive and listen to music… which I did… Radha is the PERFECT companion when things do not seem right!!! And music in the car obviously does not need any mention here…

So what do I listen to today…? Mehfuz… Euphoria’s new Album… wonderfully made… a lot of effort is there in the tracks… and the band seems to have matured with time a lot… but there is something that disappointed me… There was not one song that could cheer me up the way “Dhoom” or “Maeri” or “Gully” or “Kaise Bhoolegi Mera Naam” did… which means that I am not going to go back to this album when I need to be happy!!!

that brings to a happier thought… what all do I do when I want to cheer up…

~ I drive…

~ I listen to music… some of the songs in particular are “Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Galli”, ” Kaise Bhoolegi Mera Naam”, ” Meri Pyaari Bindu- Original”,”Jaaneman Jaaneman Tere Ye Do Nayan, chori chori Lekegaye Dekho Mera Mann”, ” Ek Ladki bheegi bhaagi si”, “Ek Chatur Naar”, “Getting Jiggy With it”, “Summer of 69”, “Sweet Child o Mine”, and lots more…

~ I eat… and my favourite places are street side stalls or dhabas… I am just not a restaurant fellow… Streets it is for me 🙂

~ I talk… there are a few friends I always can think of when I am not feeling too good…

~ I sit alone… and look at the sky… not that it cheers me up all the time… but then it relaxes me a lot…

What do you do to cheer yourself up?

i did not get time the entire day today to write about the weekend… what a shame… and i was saying that i was not busy with a lot of work… chi chi…

anyway…

a lot of time today was spent in orkutting… and some regular office work… but what is interesting was the weekend… and here is the weekend-o-logue

Saturday started early because of some long overdue catching up to do with a few friends…

met Sayan first… and showed her some of the photographs that i have clicked in the past one year… she is the person who is going to give me a break as a professional photographer and that makes me very proud of her and myself too…

next in the line to meet me was Richa… and she looked HOTT with her nose stud!!!

next we met Deepu….. second time after he has come back from Chennai… the dude still looks super cool…

and then Rohit… the same S and F fella….

oh and by the way… Rohit and Richa are pyaar se called Kidda and Kiddi… i dunno who has given then these names… but the names are very cute…

and after we climbed up the stairs of Taste of China, Abash aka amtg joined us with a badly bruised left hand… some assoholotic car driver was responsible for this halat of this dude…

and then something very interesting started… my childhood friend Ankur while trying to find the Taste of Chine roamed around the entire CP and finally reached the “flavours of China” before he realised that he is in front of the wrong restaurant… and then called me to find the correct place… did not understand the direction even after two calls… however managed to reach ToC about 45 minutes after the scheduled time 😛

while this was happening.. Prashant Bhardwaj and Om for some celebrated his birthday with some of this best online pals… a cake cutting ceremony was there… followed by some nice singing by everyone around… and on demand “babuji zara dheere chalo” was also chanted… once all of this was done.. everyone ate the cake and lived happily ever after !!!

So Ankur and with him Anku also joined us !!!

a series of discussions followed which included…

why is October associated with the number eight.. and why octopuses are most horny in the month of October…

we learnt and practised a new grammar where in if you have to use the work Fcuk… you use it in front of the word.. and if you have to use the $uck you use it after the word with an $ at the end… e.g. Fcuk the glass… and the glass $uck$… we guys even thought of taking over the workshop that Sayan was going to attend and change the topic to Rohit’s new grammar… kidda got offended a li’il but he was fine after a while…

we talked about the food…

we talked about ODMs… Anku did not know what ODMs are.. so her knowledge was increased with some Gyan on it…

we talked about a lot of things other then the above… and that meant a whole lot of fun… which finally came to a temporary halt after the money for the food was collected…

next we said ta tu to sayan who left for her workshop..

and then ta tu to Anku.. who left !!! she did not tell us where was she going… and it might have offended her if i asked.. so i did not ask either 🙂

and palika is where we reached next.. bought a few movies…

Matrix Triology

Munich

MI – III

The fast and the furious/2 fast 2 furious/ XXX and XXX2

and one more.. ab yaad nai kaunsi !!!

went back home soon after that…

evening was spent at home taking care of the construction work !! things are kinda shaping up at home right now..

Sunday was spent in some regular home stuff… going to the market to buy some electrical sockets.switches.etc.etc. discussing the stairs in the house.. and a lot of other things…

and then comes Monday.. the sabse ganda day of the week after Sunday !!!

the best part about the day was…

~ getting some compliments from Anku 😛 and getting into some conversation with her about instructional designing and all 🙂

~ getting angry over some things in the office and telling a few ppl about how things should work… getting angry and taking that anger out at the right ppl is so satisfying at times…

~ completing the work i had thought about in good time…

~ and being able to write this post..

to abhi chalta hoon.. phir milta hoon 🙂

bhagwaan hum sabko sadbuddhi de 🙂

guess what did i do today…

ok.. forget it… i will tell you…

i used to think that ABS (Anti-Lock Brakes) means Disc Brakes in the rear wheels… and was wondering how come the Swift and the Accent Viva have Drum brakes and still claim to have ABS.. while a Corolla has a Disc Brake and also has an ABS ( which looked right to me )

so i finally decide to research and read about it…

the first stop was the yahoo answers site.. i have been looking at its banner for a while now on the DND.. but it did not have a lot of good content in this context.. and next i went to the site where i get all my answers… not about life though…

jai ho howstuffworks.com ki
so i read about
ABS

and then I read about the
Disc Brakes

and i now carry some more knowledge then what i had about 2 hours back..

and hey…

i also read about Toyota Innova today… i love that car…

so if you want you can talk to me about three more topics now…

• Anti-Lock Breaks
• Disc Breaks
• Innova…

am i cool or what 🙂

oh… and this is how my house is looking these days….

looks like i am down to writing only weekend posts 🙂

shweta are you still loving it * in the Mc Donalds tone*

well… this weekend was different from the other ones so far… spent in dust, heat, soil etc etc… there was not much that i was doing.. however resting and getting out was certainly out of question…

wanted to go to Chandni Chowk to get some film rolls for the trip, but did not go… thanks to the unbearable heat outside…

sunday was more or less a repeat of saturday… except the time spent at the workshop….
got the car washed properly…. and the wheel balancing and the alignment done….

came home and polished the car… and she is looking hott now…

and then came monday… sooner then needed… and i am in the office…. not feeling like working at all….

hoping that the next two days quickly get over… wednesday night i have to get out of delhi for dharamshaala…

anyone joining me?