Tag Archives: radha
How long = f(time) or f(distance) or f(fun)?
If someone would ask me how long it takes for you to travel to work, I would have a few options to respond with..
Takes me X minutes, or its X kms, and you figure, or interestingly, I could respond by saying that it takes me 24 songs to reach my office 🙂 or maybe 36! It was almost this number when I used to drive the 45 kms to work in about 90-120 minutes one way every day! I don’t miss those days at all!
Last night, it took me 1 song to reach home! Radha running like a dream at a 3000 rpm (guess the speed, if you’d like), windows rolled down with the nippy wind hitting my face, and queen playing in the background at a volume and quality that would put a lot of car audio systems to shame… “I want to break free“!
Some Queen songs are just unbelievably detoxifying! This one is one of them! Not to forget that the artists of yesteryears seemed to real! So Analog! (There is something going on in my mind about Analog and Digital for weeks, and I have to write it down before I forget)
On a side note…Veda, when you are old enough to get a license and drive, I am going out on long drives with you! Our favorite music, our favorite roads and a destination unknown!
Single hand drive
Its rare that I use both my hands for steering.. One of them is usually on the gear stick!
Nine and Zeroes
Its been a long journey and a bond that has only strengthened over time. Radha completed 90,000 kms recently and is still going strong!
With some minor denting/painting done last week, she is shining like new, and gives a lot of new hatchbacks a run for their money!
Thank you FIAT for making such a brilliant car! Hope you keep doing the same for years to come!
damn! i am back!
- 1 weekend
- 3 days
- 1 car
- 2 people
- 650 kms
- 2 states
- All weathers… hot, cold, rain, sun, hail storm, almost snowfall
- All terrain… road, no road! hills, plains, village, town, city, national highway, state highway, no highway!
- 1 feeling!
Happy Monday!
65001
Yesterday, me and Radha complete 65000 kms of our togetherness after a fantastic drive to and in the hills!!! Will write about the trip sometime later though!
She has been like an angel looking after me all these years we have been together!!! Thank you Radha and thank you uncle God for these wonderful times!!!
Like I like to say, Life is great!
Good ways to spend an evening – 1
1. Leave office on time (ok, a li’il late works too)
2. Get a tank full of gas (short for gasoline, and referred to as petrol and diesel in India) [abe firangi]
3. Find a direction to drive in…
4. Set a countdown timer (e.g. I will drive for 90 minutes, and look for the first nice place to have tea)
5. DRIVE
6. Stop…
7. Eat and have Chai
8. Come back!
I managed to do a 100km drive last night with a couple of friends and went till Dharampur… about 40 kms before Solan and 13 kms before Kasauli!!!! the hills are suddenly a lot closer than they were for the last 18 months!
I love it! Life is uber cool!
of driving and drivers
My theory is that while you are at the steering wheel, over a period of time you are driving with your sub-concious mind. This is the reason why the clutch, the gear shift, the horn, the dipper, the brake, the accelerator seem to be working together seamlessly while you become a part of the car, in a way!
And if my way of driving has to tell anything about me, it is that….
1. I have stopped rushing into a lot of things… an empty road does not mean a hard press on the gas!
2. I feel very contented with where I am, I see the road ahead and am more than willing to take the journey, and I see the rear view mirror to see the distance I have covered
3. I still get very annoyed at displays of irresponsibility and recklessness. I think Angry is a more appropriate word!
4. I am agressive in my approach
5. I do not get bothered by the surrounding noise. Even if I do, it takes a while for it to get to my head. Mostly I am involved in my own thoughts for the noise to be irritating
6. I like to give way and be patient.
7. I like to be protective and possesive of the things in my perimeter.
8. I hate being judged because of a few instances. Observations, alright! Judgements! get lost!
9. I do not mind changing pace depending on the situations… I do not have not go at the same speed always, and its ok to slow down
10. I ENJOY where I am!
Most of these seem to be hovering around the same point! interesting!
Wake me up when September ends!
There are so many memories that have been associated with her that I would not even know where to start and end…
- The first time I saw her, I knew she was going to be mine
- The extreme personification of something that a lot of people would call just a car
- The fact that most people who know about her call her Radha too!
- That I was using a Rs. 250 radio to listen to music for the first few months because I was totally broke after I got the car
- That I feel the most secure when I am driving around with her
- That she probably has one of the best audio quality that I know of… what else do you expect from a combination of Sony, JBL, and Blaupunkt?
- That it has saved my family from an accident which would have been a nightmare in any other car
- That she is one of the finest machines, one of the safest cars and of course one of the smartest looking cars that runs on Indian Roads
- That she is a perfect example of what friendships should be like
- And that she still looks as beautiful as she looked the first day I met her 🙂
This September is a special month for me! a lot of things happened including Chai ki Dukaan celebrating 5 years, some things and thoughts moving at the personal front, and my EMIs for the car getting over! now I can start saving for the Enfield I have been eyeing for a while! 😛
Speaking of cars, this weekend I drove the largest SUV I have been in, so far! A Toyota Sequoia. It was a 4.6 litre, 32 Valve V8 engine which produces a mind boggling 310 bhp@ 5400 rpm! The pictures below should tell you something about the size too!
Photographs with me in them, courtesy : Pritam
of Love that is not that common, but IS !
It was her brother’s marriage, and she out of courtsey came and talked to me… and then the smartass mr. Prashant spoke, “आप अकेले अकेले chewing gum खा रही हो, मुझे नहीं दी !!!” (aap akele akele chewing gum kha rahi ho, mujhe nahin di)… and she simply takes her gum out of her mouth and offers it to me !!! I am stunned and She just laughs her ass off !!! and I still shocked ! Thankfully I am saved from any further embarrassment, and her friends come and take her away !! I am sure I was their laughing stock for the evening !!!
However later in the evening, we met again and I took her number… I think she felt safe giving her number to a stupid guy… we cannot be much trouble, I guess !!!
I did not call her for a while… weeks in fact, and after a month or so I gather enough courage and call her up, hoping that she picks up the phone… she does, and she says,” ओह, तो फ़ोन कर ही लिया आपने, मुझे तो लगा के फ़ोन नम्बर कॉल्लेक्ट करने का शौक है आपको “! (oh!, to phone kar hi liya aapne, mujhe to laga phone number collect karne ka shawk hai aapko) third encounter, second embarassing moment !!!
That one phone call matured to a call a week and then, in not too long a time, our daily 1600 hrs 30 minute call… and then transformed into one of the most beautiful relationships of my life… It did not work out the way we wanted ( but that’s another story, and I rather not talk about it right now)
Bhoomi and me went around for a good 4 years, and she, till date, is the only woman, who managed to pull my leg as often and leave me dumbstruck and in a state of shock like no one else… but her chuckle and more often than not a loud laughter at my state, made me happy…
It was like I grew up with her, from college to masters, overdose of Theatre in Graduation, to loads of study and Basketball in Post Graduation, to the IT bubble burst and my hunt for jobs and the stress and struggle, and my first training/job and then the real fist job !!! I think it was THE perfect relationship… no point regretting now though…
anyway, why was I talking about Bhoomi?
because I was reminded of my second longest relationship ( yea yea, I have a few extra feathers in my cap, but so what!!!)
Radha… another relationship that did not take much time to develop and only got stronger with time !!! My first and only “Love at first sight” as far as I can remember… here are a few pictures of her that I took on our first long drive together to Uttaranchal ( now uttarakhand).. More than 4 years now and her charm is still as strong as the day I first saw her !!!
Some more pictures from the trip here and here. and if you are keen on reading about the trip click here.
a bLaSt a BuRsT and GiFTs !
Radha completed her 4 years with me in the last week of September and I wished her a belated happy birthday with the following gifts 🙂
– A pair of 300W/100 RMS 3-way DS Series Rear Speakers from Kicker
– A Roots Wind tone horn !!!
She is moving much better, sounds like a dream ( though my previous Pioneer 2-way speakers were and are fantastic, but just some loose connections and worn out cables and magnet were distorting the sound too much) and the horn sounds much better… the previous windtone horn had one of the two components bad !!!
I also plan to replace the current Air-filter in my car with a K&N Air filter soonest ! Its a stock filter so I just have to buy it and replace the current filter with this one and its expected to increase the power of the car in addition to the fuel economy. Also whats interesting about these filters is that they can be reused after washing ! so you do not have to replace your air filter EVER !
Last night when I was coming back from a friend’s place, the rear Tyre just burst into pieces and I do not really know why… and there is still some 30-40% tread left on it. All I know is that it could have been dangerous, but I was lucky not to get involved in an accident !
and if you did not know it yet, every tyre has 6 small triangles on the outer side facing towards the tread… just next to these triangles there is some extra rubber between the grooves and the sign to change the Tyre is when your Tyre is used enough that the grooves match the rubber next to these triangles !!! A normal Tyre usually would stay with you for some 40,000 kms in India if you are doing regular city driving and occasional off roads !!! rest depends on usage ! my tyres lasted me for about 55000 kms and looked good enough for another 2-3K but I decided to get all replaced together and used one of the better ones for the spare !!!
and a nice news (Thanks Amandeep and Priyanka) to end the weekend :
One of my pictures was printed in the latest edition of Tehelka. (Thank you Nithin Manayath and Tehelka; using a picture and giving the photographer the credit for it is an excellent practice which some of the leading newspapers do not follow these days; you guys have just earned a lot of respect from me for this activity). The picture is in reference to the Delhi Photographers on Facebook with a few words from Dinesh Khanna who is a fantastic photographer and the administrator of the group.
50000 and still going strong !!!
About three and a half years after I bought my car, I still feel as great as I felt the first time I went out for a drive…
and this Sunday, we reached a milestone of 50000 kms… a journey worth it !!!
We met people during these years and kilometers, we lost some, we still have some… we saw people who loved us and understood us, and we also met people who did not understand the bond between the living and the non living… At one instance, I was even asked to go to hell and make babies with my car 😀 hahaha.. how I wish !!! A lot of my friends would not have to wait for the lakh rupee Nano then… I would have given them a lot of smaller cars for free !!!
So me and her when look back saw a lot that has happened in the last 50000 kms and we smile together !!!
It has been a life worth living !!!
and hope it stays that way !!!
God Bless !!!
and Heaven IS !!!!
having the windows rolled up…
Heaven is when you are with yourself and someone you love from the bottom of your heart… and you can’t figure out the different between the two 🙂
all this really makes me feel that Heaven IS…
Radhe Radhe…
Aro: I have something very serious to talk about!!
Me : Kya ho gaya?
Aro : I am thinking, what happened to Radha?
(What the fkk, what happened to my car)
Aro continues : Not your car idiot…(No points for guessing that the first thing I think about when I hear the word Radha is my car) the Radha Radha… the Krishna Radha, Radha…
Me : What about her?
Aro : What happened to her?
Me : What do you mean what happened to her?
Aro : Where did she go after Gokul? Do you know?
Me : She never told me where she was going ! How the hell am I supposed to know?
Aro : But there has to be a mention somewhere? She was with Krishna, and we all know what he was upto throughout his life… what happened to her?
Me : Oh I remember, she got married to someone else.. and used to stay away from her husband and all…
Aro : Really?
Me : Nope.. I think that was Meera.. I don’t know.. maybe she transmorgified or something herself into my car and is with me now….
Aro : Right, but what happened she broke up or whatever with Krishna…
Me : I don’t know.. maybe she left or something… maybe she was a potential threat to Krishna and he hid her somewhere to save the world… but this needs an investigation… call Papa, he would know for sure…
Aro : Krishna would not do anything for the world and not speak about it… everything that he has done was properly broadcasted… any act done to do good to the world cannot be hidden.. there has to be something else..
Me : I guess so.. find out… call home.. and its their marriage anniversary today..
(Laughter from the other side)
Me : Not Radha Krishna’s idiot, mom dad’s… make sure you call them and wish them too…
Aro : Ya i know 😀 hehehe… i will call.. send me the numbers again will you?
Me : Roger that…
Aro: Chal tata..
Me : Ok Bye…
This is exactly how the conversation would have went if I was in India or on Mars for that matter… its amazing how a few things don’t change… I am blessed !!!