i20 - First Impression

Impressive..very impressive..!!

60:40 split folding rear seats, dual tone beige interiors, 2 DIN CD + MP3 Music System, front & rear power windows, refrigerated glove box, a multi information display. The top-end model ASTA optional comes with features like fully automatic A/C, leather wrapped steering wheel and TGS knob, steering mounted audio control (a first for this segment), foldable key with keyless entry function, alloy wheels, height-adjustable driver seat, electrically foldable and adjustable outside mirrors and the category first six airbags.


Phew!!..All this in one hatchback. Amazing!!

The moment i sat on the driving seat my reaction was ..WOW!! Its pretty much ..luxury blended with hint of Getz behind it. A wheelbase even greater that Verna is an amazing fact for a hatchback. The boot space is sufficient enough and much greater than an i10.

Sadly ..test drives are not on yet..so me and my wife were touch disappointed on that..but surely..we are gonna take it as soon as it is on.
we wanted to try i10 automatic also..but we learnt that automatic is delivered on order and no demo car is available.

HMIL Managing Director, H S Lheem

Looking forward to the test drive!!

Undercover

When things came out from Underground...they went Undercover.

EA's latest release Need For Speed - Undercover.

I luckily got to try my hand on this one on one of my friend's laptop in Lunch Time. Well..this one has that good old fashioned NFS kick in it. Pretty much all the cars that you can think of, pretty much every kind of jaw dropping graphical genius work and pretty much everything that you expect from a NFS episode.

One difference being Brooke Burke getting replaced by Maggie Q and "Accomplice", a collaboration movie from NFS.

A Tribute

Courtesy: NDTV

Roadies going down under....

Well..the most loved as well as the most hated series is back in its 6th year. This time the destination is Australia.
The promos have been making rounds over the net and different channels and i spcially likedthe promo where there was one burning bike in he middle of nowhere. Scary but with the true
roadies spirit i would say.and i actually noticed that the burning bike is not the Karizma,it is infact a Pulsar :) The message is clear.....its not about riding and enjoy riding things...its all about that spirit and intelligence to make it through.

The auditions are having double trouble as Raghu is accompanied by his twin brother Rajiv this time around..interesting enough to start with!! every hell mate selected so far is one unique charcater...vicky, samrat, devarshi, bhanu, paulami, varisha and longkiri..totally different from each other.

Its gonna be interesting.

The Intruder

Well...we found this one standing outside a gate in a nearby area. My better half did a few quick clicks and here is one of them:

A 1783cc, stroke, liquid-cooled, DOHC, 54° V-twin monster.

Heard a few days after the click that suzuki fianlly launched this monster for india and bookings are open.

11/26 - Mumbai - 2

36+ hours and no one is sure even now that it is over.
Longest siege in india as i can remember.

11/26 - Mumbai - 1

Its becoming the longest street battle ever. Hostage situations and Bombings are old fashioned now! Its simply a street battle!!
I am getting goose bumps whenever i look at that TV screen with a news channel on.
This is depressing!!
And yea...England cricket team takes the safe way out. Champions league is postponed. Almost all inbound international flights are off..and one of my client executives is asking.."do you think it's still safe to do my trip to India?"....i would need to answer that!!...Thats a shame!!

11/26 - Mumbai

Blackest day for Mumbai and India. I Dont feel like writing on this more.
Well, where is Raj Thackrey and his Daredevil north india bashers now?
God bless everyone stuck in this.

A Star - not shining enough

This sunday was another car service day. generally a car service takes double the time that of a bike service. And there is always some free time in between like workshop's lunch hours. So i decided to walk to the nearest Maruti dealer to check out the new A Star.

First Impression when i had a go at the driver's seat/cockpit....Cramped!! Rear seats...Cramped!! There are some serious space issues with the car. Boot...Cramped!! It is basically more of a Zen or a spark than an i10. Interiors are interesting but not lush. A popup tacho is good idea but sometimes can be a vision blocker.

Time for a test drive.

The engine is interesting and has good power not sure about its behavior on high speed though. Engine noise/vibration, negligible as expected from a new car.

Overall a good attempt by Maruti, but i honestly feel that something very similar to the original concept even with a slightly higher price also would have done wonders. The stripped down A Star might not create that big an impact.

I would love to write a detailed report but since i dont get paid for these reviews..and also by the average length of my posts you might have guessed by now that i generally dont get time for it... .so..this is it!! :)

Good ad..strange music

Another member in the DTSi club.



Good ad though....but the music sounds kinda funny!!

The Mayhem so far....

Well.... its been happening in bulk lately result of a doldrum called recession. It started long back but the real trigger happened with Lehmann Brothers episode. It has many names: job cuts, layoffs, downsizing etc..etc..

Bodycount so far:

Pepsi Bottling Group: 3,150
HSBC: 1,100
Citigroup: 52,000
Fidelity Investments: 3000
RBS: 3000
Sun Microsystems: 6,000
BT: 10,000
Morgan Stanley: 19% of 44,000
Virgin: 2,200
Nokia-Siemens: 1820
Volvo: 6000
DHL US: 9,500
NNC: 1,300
GM: 3,600
Ford: 2,600
Corus: 400
American Express: 7000
Bank of America: 7,500
DBS: 900
New York City: 3000
AMD: 500
Goldman Sachs: 3200
GlaxoSmithKline: 1000
Jaguar Land Rover: 400
Nokia: 600
HP: 24600

TCS: 1000
IBM: 700+
Wipro: 1000
Hewitt Associates: 200+ (rumoured)
Accenture: 150+
Capegemini: 700

The list is long.
Survival of the fittest as they say...!!I Hope the situation improves soon.!!

A star has arrived.......

Maruti Suzuki launched an i10 & swift cross with a price tag between 3.47-4.12 lakhs, named A Star. Powered by a 998cc K10B petrol engine, it has looks very similar to i10.

Initial reviews on different TV shows are pretty much same and from inside everyone is saying that its too cramped space wise..but alot is being said about its almost 1000 CC engine.



It looks very different from the concept that was showcased at Auto Expo earlier this year. The most sad part of the car so far..the rear door windows!!

Well..this one might qualify for a test drive :)

F1 at Rajpath

The occasion was the world famous prestigious ING-Renault Roadshow.

The Venue was Rajpath, New Delhi.

The stars were Nelson Piquet Jr and fellow teammate and test driver Luca De Grassi in their F1 cars, the special Renault Megane Trophy cars, the icing on the cake was the Renault F1 cars setting the tarmac on fire at over 300 km/h on the same stretch of road.

Well, there has been many speculations about the stretch on rajpath that goes right through india gate and turns near Rashtrapati Bhawan being considered as a F1 track as and when F1 debuts in india.

I gave the event a miss considering the fact that there were traffic diversions for the half marathon as well on the same day. Here is what i actually missed :(



There was one hugely popular stunt done by Piquet where he just jumps out of the F1 car waving towards the crowd leaving the car burning the track on a 360 spin and then jumps back in it and drives away.

I hate the damn marathon!! :(

Solace...

QOS starts from the point where CR ended, Bond introducing himself to Mr.White, and it starts on a very high speed, a car chase with an aston martin and and a alpha romeo tearing each other apart. The intensity ends only when the movie ends.



Daniel Craig lives upto the expectations but the line between Bourne and Bond is getting thinner with every bond movie.

3 Years

Its been some time since i last posted. I had to do this today as it is an important day for me. Recently i completed three years here in down town Gurgaon. Its been quite hussled up three years, lots of goods, quite a few disappointments...success...losses....victories..defeats..everything. So what next?
Next can be anything!!...last three years have been very fruitful and learnt alot..personally and professionally. But a time comes when one needs to move a bit to the next step..move ahead and i think i also might get the urge to move on for better things..for more stuff to learn..for better future for me and my life partner. Its just a little thought in a corner of the mind right now..but might grow big and become a decision.
I might sound like...i have changed or something..but am still that irritating one with a special attachements with Bikes...with a special liking for cars.....with an unbeatable inclination towards chinese cuisine....with an attitude that sometimes crops up (no regrets on this).
And with that ...on this important day on behalf of everyone i know...i wish myself..a very happy birthday!!

And here is another 4 wheeler that i test drove in recent times...

Dont ask about the top speed, the mileage and the horse power. it just had 4 wheels a steering and a crappy engine!!

Gurgaon - Agra - Gurgaon

Me and Eva drove for a weekend trip to Agra, actually original plans were a bit different but eventually in last minute decision we switched to this one and we just drove off. The drive plan was basically Gurgaon - faridabad - Mathura Road - Mathura - Agra and included one tea break in between. The Gurgaon - faridabad leg took some time as it was a working day and morning traffic was still on, plus the roads in faridabad are no better than gurgaon. Once we crossed faridabad and reached NH 2 it was pretty smooth with very good road conditions.
The stay in Agra was nice, thanks to May and Man, Eva's very sweet friends, who made sure that our stay in Agra remains hassle free and very pleasant :)
Taj Mahal and Agra fort were the first two things early morning next day and we really enjoyed the early morning atmosphere and we were back before the heat gets going. Some typical evening hanging out at the nearby sadar market and the dinner at the fast food joint in the market were real fun.
We decided to visit Sikandra on our way back. An hour or so there and after that it was the drive back to Gurgaon which was also pretty smooth and hassle free.
Overall a fun filled drive and a very pleasant stay at Agra.
Also, technically the drives so far on my i10 has been without a single glitch, touch wood. Looking forward to some more of such drives :)

When the sun goes down....

The lights go up and the Marina Bay Street Circuit is set for the first ever night F1 race. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella steering his Force India car onto the streets of Singapore started free practice session followed by his team mate Adrian Sutil.Now the drivers will get to know what happens under street lights specially when its raining :)!

Delhi...

Delhi got shaken and stirred last evening with 5 bomb blasts within 30 mins at top notch places like barakhamba road, ghaffar market, central park, GK1 M block market. After bangalore, jaipur, surat and ahmedabad Delhi was always on radar as suggested by earlier alerts sounded in capital. On that basis, it was about time!
Heart goes out for family members of those 30 who are no more and those 90 injured, who will think more than twice before entering any market place.
Get going Delhi!!!You have done this before!!..question is how many times you need to do it all over again!!?

Rock On concert...

The FM channel BIG 92.7 decided to cash on the mania and organised an all star concert of Rock On at Select Citywalk, Saket this Staturday. Got to know about this on Friday only since am not a regular listener of 92.7, so obviously didnt get hold of those " entry passes", however on the concert i realized that it would been lot more frustrating if we had passes, because there was some major miscalculation from organizer's part and many people with passes didnt get to enter the designated area. Now since the whole thing was open air, the balconies and other places were put to good use, and Eva actually got hold of a really good place with a good enough view on the front balcony.

It started with Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy getting the crowd on their feet and then the start cast joined in. As expected crowd was going nuts for Aditya, Joe, KD, and Rob :). Every inch was jam packed and in that Eva somehow managed to capture some videos and pics, everything shaking though, and i dont blame her, you cant get a stable video or a pic if you have jumping and screaming and dancing guys and gals around you. The above one is the only "still" picture available :P.

Over all a fun filled evening :)

Rocked...Totally!!

If you ever liked Bon Jovi with long hair, with his guitar on full song and fire blazing in background on a high mountain and singing blaze of glory, go watch this movie.....
If you ever enjoyed Bryan Adams putting that guitar to good use and creating an all time smash hit, Summer of 69 , go watch this movie...
If you ever enjoyed banging your head up-down on realy hard beats of Limp Bizkit, go watch this movie...
If you ever enjoyed Dil chahta hai, go watch this movie....
If you ever enjoyed real campus flavour rock, go watch this movie...
If you ever liked any kind of freshness in any movie ever, go watch this movie.....


Go watch this movie....and you will start believing in Magik...
I bet you will come out of theatre humming...tum ho toh

Rock On!!

R1 - Dreams

when u were a kid u wanted to fly
u wanted to go faster
u dreamt of speed
of wind and know how one can touch it
when ur young ur told to stop dreaming
but you still dreamt'
now u've grown up
and all those dreams have got u this far



where you go now is upto you!!

Coming soon..Fireblade

India Debut in Honda Showrooms...Q4 2008. R1 should watch out.

Bad Review

I have never written a bad review ..ok let me rephrase this as , i have never written any review if it is bad but i have to write this one and i will keep it simple...
Don't watch Mission Istanbul, its horrible!!
Thank God my card gave me a 100 Rs discount on the tickets.

Happy Birthday Jim

To Someone who lived under the shadow of man-eaters and enjoyed it....
Happy Birthday Jim Corbett !!


A click from my last trip to JCNP

The Great Road Trips

My plans for road trips...well..i always planned..but somehow-someway...everytime at the last moment roadblocks appear. But there are many people who actually succeed and hit the roads for a trip...a road trip..long one.
Was going through the XBhp site and found these three fascinating triplogs:
The Great Indian Road Trip 2006-
18,780 Kms, 108 days, 4 bikes, India all the way.

This pic is my personal favourite
The Great Australian Road Trip 2007-2008-
3 Indian, 2 Bikes, 1 Van, 20,500 Kms, 72 Days
The Great New Zealand Roadtrip 2008-
23 Days, 1 Bike, 1 Indian

Talking about plans...there is one more roadtrip planned with a friend in furure..lets see how that goes.
Image Courtesy: http://www.xbhp.com/
Links Courtesy: http://www.xbhp.com/

why so serious?...

Have been in a unsettled frame of mind lately...so decided to unwind a bit and we decided to catch "the dark knight" on sunday.
It turned out to be one very fine Batman movie, and i think the best i have ever seen.


Heath ledger raised the bar significantly as far as "Joker" is concerned, infact the person sitting next to me in the theater was talking to his friend and i overheard it, he said "Jack Nicholson is nothing", and i second that. Jack played the "Joker" last time the character appeared on the screen.
Action sequences are getting better and better on Batman standards and that was awesome.

Rock On!!

Was listeing to the songs of "Rock On!!" last night. Its a Farhan Akhtar movie...this time he is Producer/Actor of this movie not director.


Two songs caught my attention.."Rock On" the title song which actually reminded me of the rock climbing sequence of Farhan's Hrithik Roshan movie "Lakshya". Another song was "Yeh tumhari meri baatein". These two songs actually score higher than the "janne tu..yaa jaane naa" soundtrack for me.
Lovely!!

Parking...going hi-tech

necessity is the mother of invention.......

Problem: too many cars..space crunch in the basement parking of my office building!!

Solution: increase parking space...

How:

They deployed these!!
these are six slot two level parking bays. One unit provides 5 parking bays as one slot is blank to move the cars around...yes...they can move the cars around in a circular fashion. it is similar to that number shuffler we used to play with in which one slot was always empty.

What they achieved:
Now we get 10 cars parked in a space of 6 cars. There are slots of separate dimensions for large sedans. SUVs dont fit anywhere..so they go on different basement level. Small cars like santro and i10 with extra height go in the middle slot or on the upper level of the unit.

Peregrine Falcon

It is a bird capable of achieving speeds over 200 mph (322 km/h) -- and predator of (perhaps not coincidently) the common blackbird. In japanese its name is translated to Hayabusa. For our reference we will take it as suzuki hayabusa.
Now what about the blackbird?...
well that was clear reference to Honda's hawk models and this war goes back to 1999 when hayabusa was launched and it overtook Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird as the fastest production motorcycle. Now as Peter Parker says..."with power comes the responsibility"...and i rephrase it as.."with power comes the response". The power and speed war amongst the super sport bikes eventually led to Government response and that prompted use of timing retard and rev limiter to reduce the max speed and limit it to 299 Km/h from the earlier 319 Km/h (what!!!??..319??..nuts!!??). In 2008, competition again saw this falcon raising the bar and engine size went to 1340 CC from 1299 CC.

The Click from the auto expo:


The rivalry between the falcon and hawk..moves on.....but i must say one thing...people (including me) with machines in category of 125-225 CC....names like devils, hellraisers, beasts....doesnt suit on our machines!!

William Arthur....or should i say

From a really funny looking design in 1907



to a really serious design...muscled up and with lots of attitude..fat bob.



starting from 1902...William Harley and Arthur Davidson....105 years of pure genius...and glory....!!
That's Harley Davidson with 105th Anniversary!!

Revenge of the fallen...

Its a sequel.....
First one was called...The Transformers....
No trailers available....
No pics available....
Script...a well guarded secret.....
Transformers 2 - Revenge of the fallen!
June 2009!!

can you hear me..

was driving back from delhi today....this song popped up on one of the radio stations.. caught my attention...nice video also whn i checked it.. It is also the official anthem of Euro 2008. This one stands right up there with Ricky Martin's old one..."the cup of life"



Don’t you mean that you’re my vision
I gotta make a decision
Do I go, do I stay?

You’ve gotten into my system
You are in control of my mental
I need to mean for a stay

I’m on a coaster-collision
Am not about to give in
Can’t explain my position or the condition that I’m in.

Where I am is no limit, no walls, no ceilings
No intermission, so let
Let the party begin


Hey.. Hey.. Hey all the way
DJ let it play.
Hey Hey Can You Hear Me?


Hey.. Hey.. Hey all the way
DJ let it play.
Hey Hey Can You Hear Me?

Band of brothers

Got hold of this Tv mini series few days ago...one of the finest i have ever seen.
This 10 episode series went on-air in 2001 and was a huge hit at that point of time. Story of "E" Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from their initial training starting in 1942 to the end of World War II. They parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day in support of the landings at Utah beach.
They also participated in the liberation of Carentan and again parachuted into action during Operation Market Garden. They were the first to enter Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgarten.



This high budget series had some high profile Directors and Producers including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
10, 1 hour episodes, a perfect war epic.

Respect..

It was another bike service day.
Considering the last two horrible experiences at Bajaj service centers this time i tried a third party one since all warranty-guarantee issues are finished ages ago for my bike.
Center's name : Bike Care
Customer care: Better than bajaj
Turaround time : 2 hrs, however the heavy rains and some issue with there electricity circuit caused delays on that particular day.
What was wrong at Bajaj service:
I think they are concentrating too much on 200-220 segment and in that they are ignoring the 150-180 segment specially when it comes to giving attention to customers at service center. 200-220s are obviously getting the attention they deserve but the kind of careless attitude that comes out for others is totally rubbish and unacceptable. Last time they delivered my bike 1.5 hrs behind estimated delivery time and that also with half the work done. I think they lost one Bajaj fan that day :)
well, today its 200-220 which are getting the attention, tomorrow they might be among "others" and a 350 or a 500 will be enjoying the attention. Quite natural i would say, but still..others also deserve some respect.

Lets do this....

Encouraging....

Name: Barack Obama
He is most likely the next US President.
He said something in one of his recent election campaign speeches:
"Revolutions in communications and technology have sent jobs wherever there's an internet connection, that have forced children in Raleigh and Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore and Beijing!"
This is definitely encouraging for India.
Full Story

Why....?

Question is.....Why?

Why R1? -
May be because....
-Size does matter...
-Weight counts..
-A 998 cc, liquid-cooled, 16-valve, DOHC, inline four-cylinder machine means something..
-6 speed transmission has one above the rest..

Why R15? -
May be because...
-errr....
-ummm...
-hmmm...

I'll again try tomorrow....!!

Debut....in 6 Days

Called up a prominent Yamaha Dealer in Delhi today. My queries were regarding the YZF-R1.

My Findings:

Booking amount: That guy said...it wud be good if you can pay 3 Lc...down.

Total Amount: 11,16,000. (Round figure)

Delivery time: within one week from total payment.

bahut mehnga hai bhai!!....:(

but not impossible though!!....:)

Now....coming to the R15....6 days to go to its debut .....the teasers on Yamaha's site are looking good..!!

Exhausted

Totally....
Mentally....
Physically....

Going Black

I got inspired by this

Driving vs Riding...

Riding :
The uncomparable 360 view,
the feeling when the boot touches the ground after an hour of continuous riding,
raindrops dripping through while riding in rain,
that one irritating bug on the neck in night,
feeling exhausted after that long ride in that 40ish temprature and feeling that the vision is going blurt due to that exhaustion but eventually finding that the helmet visor was dirty,
feeling the heat of the engine near your ankles,
riding on the footpath when stuck in a dead jam,
taking the splash head-on when a car speeds past on a rainy day on a waterlogged street,
turning blue after a ride on 2 degree winter day,
never need to worry about parking as there is always space for one more bike,
using that well kept vocabulary when forced to drag the bike on foot for a couple of kMs in case of a puncture,
cursing yourself for not taking the car along..when it comes to adjusting all the stuff after a good shopping spree,
suddenly realizing that you forgot your wrist watch at home then confirming time to the biker standing next to you on the traffic stop and finding that even he forgot the same.

Driving :
The safe and secure feeling,
rain...potholes....splashes....heat...winter...who cares.
Scorching heat? ...AC rocks!!
Freezing winter?...Heater rocks!!
...the luxury....but you cant feel the ground anytime you want.....
...the space....but you cannot drive on the footpath when in a dead jam.
...the comfort..but you cant just drag it along when its puncture.
...cursing yourself for not taking the bike along instead of car when forced to get in the long parking queue,
...listening to dozens of FM channels and that particular favorite MP3 CD...but you still have to get in the queue on the toll counter...
...

Damn ...i confused myself...!!!

Diamond..is forever?

Competition..Competition everywhere!!
People thought that the Apple iPhone will just be a one-off breed...and will die like that only....but i guess they were wrong. It has got company now...and its called Diamond

With Qualcomm processor and Windows Mobile 6.1, this one is pretty much poised to shine.

Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
Operating System Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Memory
ROM: 256 MB
RAM: 192 MB DDR SDRAM
Internal storage: 4 GB
Dimensions 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 11.35 mm (T)
Weight 110 g (with battery)
Display 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA:
Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device Control TouchFLO™ 3D
Touch-sensitive navigation control
GPS GPS and A-GPS ready
Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
Audio Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
Ring tone supported formats:
MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and AMR-NB
40 polyphonic and Standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery
Capacity: 900 mAh
Talk time:
Up to 270 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 330 minutes for GSM
Standby time:
Up to 396 hours for WCDMA
Up to 285 hours for GSM
Video call time: Up to 145 minutes for WCDMA
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

hmmmm.....HTC is not that bad after all!!:)

Specifications Source: HTC Corporate Website

Guess whos this....

You know him very well.....:)'

21

winner winner chicken dinner....

blackjack players know what the above line is all about.

Caught this movie named 21 a couple of weeks back. Its about a bunch of MIT students..a group of card counters cracking the game of Black Jack and robbing the vegas casinos on weekends.



They did well till the time they faced another counter :)

...A very fine movie with some really good background score and fine performances from everyone including Kavin Spacey.

Snow, T5 and FA Cup

There was this confusion of terminals for BA when i took off on saturday. BA used to work from Terminal 4 at heathrow and they are shifting it to the new terminal 5. The news is that its pure chaos at T5..flight cancellations, baggage misplacements etc. So not surprisingly my co-passengers were also worried and not sure which terminal we are heading to, but cabin crew confirmed that its going to be T4 till this month end. Another thing that added to the T5 problems is the snowfall. My first experience with the snowfall has been amazing....but its sometimes scary to see cars covered with snow :)..

another big news in this part of the world have been Cardiff city making it to the FA cup final after some 70 years..and i thought only the indian cricket team takes years in doing things.

Street Kings

KR is back!!

The Jag comes to india...

TATA goes shopping and brings home...Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.

Now can we expect a hatchback Jag??!!! :)

Image Courtesy + More Details: Economist

Good Enough II

Good Enough

Good Enough to qualify for my next bike!

Engine and transmission

Displacement:346.00 ccm (21.11 cubic inches)
Engine type:Single cylinder
Stroke:4
Power:18.00 HP (13.1 kW)) @ 5600 RPM
Torque:27.50 Nm (2.8 kgf-m or 20.3 ft.lbs) @ 3500 RPM
Compression:7.3:1Bore x stroke:70.0 x 90.0 mm (2.8 x 3.5 inches)
Fuel system:Carburettor.
CVFuel control:OHV
Ignition:Digital TCI
Starter:Kick
Lubrication system:Dry sump
Cooling system:Air
Gearbox:4-speedTransmission type
final drive:Chain
Clutch:Wet mulitiplate

Physical measures

Dry weight:163.0 kg (359.4 pounds)
Ground clearance:140 mm (5.5 inches)
Wheelbase:1,370 mm (53.9 inches)

Chassis and dimensions

Front brakes:Expanding brake (drum brake)
Front brakes diameter:178 mm (7.0 inches)
Rear brakes:Expanding brake (drum brake)
Rear brakes diameter:152 mm (6.0 inches)
Speed and accelerationTop speed:110.0 km/h (68.4 mph)
Power/weight ratio:0.1104 HP/kg

Other specifications

Fuel capacity:14.50 litres (3.83 gallons)
Color options:Black, red
Comments:Available in India. Optional electric starter and front disk brake.

Twin Wins

Congratulations to both the teams, Under 19 and the senior team for their wins on this real super sunday.



Sachin finally showed his capabilities in a final against Australia, in Australia. 1 down, 2 to go!!

The Under 19 skipper Virat ("Why-rat" as an oz commentator calls him) Kohli, is quite at-your-face kinda guy. South africans were quite zapped by the whole indian team going after them...verbally i mean to say!!:)



Image Courtesy - rediff.com

Vantage Point

Caught this one on saturday..had no idea about the storyline etc so took a chance basically. It turned out to be real cracking one. Nice strong crisp storyline and a "8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth." thing going which actually creates a certain kind of suspense.



It was nice to catch a near perfect thriller after a long long time..!! Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker creating magic as usual..!!
And by the way, just in case if you have just been bitten by the "Jodha-Akbar" bug recently, this one is only 90 mins long. :)

A Long day....

The day started just like any monday. the expectations were also just like any monday. There was a meeting planned for monday which was supposed to stretch over 4 hrs...and it actually stretched to 8 hrs...longest meeting ever for me. It was supposed to be more of a fusion meeting that we generally do for Requirements Analysis and after that design starts. My head is still ringing with that meeting. Someone called up in the morning..i said "am in a meeting" ...same person called up in the evening..same status "am in a meeting"....in came reply.."how many meetings you guys have?"....answer "thats the same meeting!!".....

Damn... its tough to lead five tracks....3 websites... 2 web apps...1 CRM tool and few (forgot the count actually) microsites!! Insane!!

GrandCentral

not the station in New york..no not even the London one.....its Google's newest acquisition!!
So what is GrandCentral ??......
its a free service from Google, through this we can receive phone calls and post voicemails right on our blogs. GrandCentral is currently in a private beta test, and also within US only, however an invite regsitration is on with Email and Country so whenever its up for a particular country, an invite will be sent.

An accident and a vote out

For the first time in 5 seasons there is an accident on Roadies. Rider - Ayaz, Pillion - shambhavi.....injuries - bruises and scrtaches nothing serious..damage done - immense on Ayaz's part as people are questioning his riding skills and riding is a major part of Roadies. I won't be surprised if moving onwards or may be from next season they introduce proper riding gears which is missing right now specially considering the fact that they are using HH Karizmas, pretty fast ones right?
Right at the time of accident is became almost certain that Ayaz was going out next..but Roadies is never that predictable and Snehasish along with Sonel played a game which came down heavy on someone least expected to go out this early, Vikrant (Vik, as they call him). There was an advantage task played and 5 of the roadies, including Vik, got the advantage. the advantage actually was that only those 5 will vote in the vote out, others were not allowed. Vikrant got 3 of those 5 votes. Vik, not my favorite kind but also a very overconfident kind, even i was surprised of this vote out.
This season is going right along with roadies theme:



ghar se hum chale
bas ek backpack aur ek guitar
paison ki fikar nahin
bike pe hum sawar

raahon ki hai khabar
na manzil kaa hai pata
phir bhi chal diye
jaane ab hoga kya

woooho
ohhhh..yeah
okkk....
jeet lenge aaj

ab kisi bhi baat kaa mujhe darr nahin
mushkilon se hi toh hai himaat meri
khelni hai aakhri baazi yahin
humsafar hi ban gayi manzil meri
raaste wahi..raahi naye
raatein wahi.. sapne naye

jo chal sako..tum bhi chalo yaaron
choo lenge hum assman
h
wooowho ohyeah okkk....
jeet lenge aaj

At 23....

am not talking about someone's age...not even some batsmans's score. yesterday my bike clocked 23Ks and my car clocked 2.3K today.

Hows Bike doing: the way a P150 is supposed to do. kicking B**t!! One Km of warm up lap in the morning and then ready to rumble. Amazing mileage added with a smooth ride. Even after numerous servicings spanning over 2.5 years the service center guy always tells me "sir, this time you must get that leg guard up" ..my reply as always remains "kidding me?"...that reminds me..its service time again!! Someone suggested, its high time to sell your bike....get a new one..may be go for a exchange...i somewhat agree with that.....lets see how it goes. A phone cam pic taken in 2005:

Hows Car doing: the way a new hyundai i10 machine is supposed to do. kicking B**t!! Few meters of warm up and its ready to make my day!! After first service mileage actually improved a notch as expected, amazing balance and dynamics are worth mentioning. Went out on a trip to jaipur with that and that also straight after first service......a memorable drive!!

I hope both of them keep kicking....:)

the heat is on....

The heat is on and blazing in Roadies 5.0.

This time Vibhor ended up on the receiving end..and Prabhjot got lucky...whatever they plan..whatever they decide .....eventually every individual does whatever he/she feels like. Thats the beauty of roadies. An interesting conversation from the latest episode:

Host: Vote out is the worst part of roadies ..right?

All contestants: Yes.

Host: Get used to it... :)

another hike...

well...another one....this one is a bomb....real one.....petrol price hiked by Rs.2/Litre :((



Now am seriously considering to take the "Fill it up" approach and that also from delhi not in gurgaon where the prices are higher than delhi. Another factor supporting my thoughts are the quality of fuel in haryana. There is a distinct performance difference, i sometimes actually feel my bike/car coughing when fuelled up in gurgaon and the case is totally different when fuelled up from delhi.

memories....

a song very close to heart....some very sweet memories attached with it....



A very happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Roadies 5.0 ..The journey begins...

The Roadies were in for shock of their lives even before starting their journey on those new sparkling HH Karizmas. They have been divided in two teams, Blue and Red. Blue team lost heavily in the activities and lost the immunity. That meant..someone needed to get voted out from the blue team. All types of typical Roadies groupism and regionalism happened and right at the time of vote out...the roadies got shocks..2 to be more precise.

First, someone came back to haunt them......none other than Raghu.....

Second, Raghu then disclosed the news, 2 to be more precise: Good news - There will not be any ONE voted out. Bad News - There will be TWO to be voted out........and that cracked the whole scheme up. ...

Man!!its getting crazier than ever...!!

Now the two voteouts: First a guy, and i dont remember his name .....second, my favorite ..Ankita Sehgal...:(.....damn she got thrown out in the first vote out itself. .......

nazar....

this one surely stands out as one of the best from Atif

its tough.....

talking about its being tough another thing that comes in my mind is the MTV Roadies 5.0 auditions.....the judges Nikhil and Raghu are literally kicking some serious a**es. I get goose bumps while watching every episode.

Reason: Some real dumbo candidates....and two really pi**ed of judges.

I actually saw a signboard in the delhi audition episode or i think it was kolkata...it was placed right outside the audition hall and it said "Beware, judges are in a bad mood today!!"....seriously...the craziest thing to do right now is to show up in a roadies audition right in front of Nikhil and Raghu!!

More Auto Expo Coverage

A little bit more of Expo

National Institute of Design showcases their designs.

Image Courtesy: A very dear, sweet, young lady..!!:)


Rahul puts up his pics taken from his N series nokia

Expo ..reloaded

I have been to pragati maidan before in the last international trade fair.so i knew it's a tiring task to visit a big expo there. I parked my car at CP's MCD parking and took the metro to pragati maidan...considering the traffic jams that any kind of event triggers at pragati maidan. i was there from Gurgaon in 45 mins...a good start!!

Looking for pics?...they are right here!! Tried my best to get close shots everywhere and somehow managed to achieve that. However quite of few of them were blind shots luckily coming good. My personal favorite is the angle i got for the MT-01's dashboard. Again, there sre some pics in portrait mode, please flip them to see becuase that was the only way i could have got what i wanted in the pic.



all-in-all a nicely managed expo considering the daily turn-out there. TATA's pavillion was raising hell as expected.

Talking about TATA and NANO, here's what i have heard ....a survey was conducted with Auto-Rikshaw drivers/owners, most of them said, if given permission they would like to replace their Autos with Nano. The reason, an auto rickhsaw costs around 3 lakhs(i wonder how) and this car goes for 1 lakh, with seating capacity a bit more. Now did i hear someone say "Nano..The People's Car" :))!!

Skoda and Chevrolet did some nice presentations, Hyundai was spot-on and meant business, Maruti was a bit messy but it was really nice to see M800 phoenix.....they are raising it from ashes or what?? SX4 sport is really sporty.

No one was allowed inside BMW area...touch me not huh?....anyways..nice cars!! Volvo cars with their really heavy duty engines are making inroads for sure. Mahindra goes for an automatic transmission scorpio.

Honda was good and nicely arranged. Hero Honda pavillion was a bit strange ..and kind of disappointing....bajaj was quite modest but right on...suzuki, yamaha, honda all went all-out on bikes.

Mahindra and Renault were doing quite good....The long queue for GM pavillion was awesome...and they didnt disappoint once you are in. Missed the Yamaha Roxx concert..it went house full in a jiffy.

Royal Enfield's Small outdoor stall fitted right in the Enfield Spirit with dirty and rugged looking bikes put on show.It was nice. I'll wait for the day when Harleys make their debut at an Auto Expo in india.

I was supposed to visit the expo on saturday itself but some work popped up in office for saturday. So re-planned it with Rahul and Nishit for sunday. Will share more pics as both of them put their cell phone cams to good use.

Ads ....without stars....

now.... on TV nowadays its pretty hard to find an ad jingle without a Movie or a cricket star in it..so when you actually come across such ads (without any star).....you actually cant help noticing it. I came across a couple of them recently..and they made me realize how we blindly follow stars and whatever they say in those ads. They become icons through them and what they do for us ..is actually make us buy those stuff and add some overhead on our monthly budget.

First one:

Its new on-air and has that indian appeal and emotion blended in it..in short ...the right stuff for indian masses. There is another interesting thing with this jingle...many reliance mobile users were surprised one fine morning to find this jingle set as the dialer tone for their numbers. Many liked it ...some got annnoyed..but a nice marketing idea!!



one of the finest jingles ever...i'll put it right next to the "Humara Bajaj" and Cadbury's "kuch khaas hai" jingles.

Second one:

This one traces back to 2006 and was termed one of the funniest ads ever..a must must watch....!!

Nano technology

well..well...well!!

there goes the neighbourhood....

....india now has a car with ex-showroom price of 1 Lakh. Now thats some Nano technology.

Ratan Tata drove this baby in front of a packed media crowd at Auto Expo in New Delhi. An emotional Ratan Tata drove the car to the podium and said, “This is what I have for you. A promise is a promise, it will cost Rs 1 lakh ex-showroom.”






3 variants: 1 base model which actually costs 1 Lakh and 2 Deluxe models.

three-cylinder 624-800 cc petrol engine with 33 bhp of power.

30-litre fuel tank and four-speed manual gearshift.

air conditioning, but no power steering.

front disk and rear drum brakes.

The company claims mileage of 22 kmpl in city and 26 kmpl on highway.


Now this is supposed to really put some black clouds over new upcoming hatchbacks and small segment cars like Skoda's Fabia. Maruti already looks like surrendering, Huyundai is strangely silent and bajaj has already announced a similar concept car. Now thats quite a hussle!! Whats gonna happen to 2-wheeler market is hard to imagine going forward. What i can imagine is that every "second" car if there is any in any indian middle class home will be the Rs 1 Lakh Car. There will always be a doubt in anyone's mind whos planning to buy a two wheeler or a 150-200 CC segment bike, whether to buy the bike or go for the lakhtakiya.

Image Courtesy: http://www.zeenews.com, http://www.rediff.com

Wanted!!

A sheep or a wolf!!??



Love the swinging bullet sequence!!...Amazing!!

Suzuki.....bringing it on...

Now Suzuki goes the yamaha way but with a different attitude.....the CKD approach.....hmmm...interesting...
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