A hurried visit to Nokia's Chennai Factory

It's been a while since I last wrote. Not much has happened, at least nothing interesting. There was this activity that was pending since many months (at office). A few of my over-enthusiastic colleagues were curious to visit the Nokia manufacturing facility at Chennai to get a real view of how Nokia's cellphones are manufactured (all the steps from A to Z). The request was finally approved by the head honchos at my office and those at the Nokia factory. Since my team has almost 30 members, everyone could never agree on any single day to visit. Finally 10th June was the day when most (read most, not all) colleagues were fine with the visit. 10th June was a wednesday... I really didn't like the idea of returning by an early morning train on thursday and coming to office completely fatigued and worn-out but I didn't have much choice :-( . Since we were paying money from our own pockets, we decided to stick to a tight budget (I was hoping for a company-paid Free Flight to Chennai by Business class ;-) ). Also, we were not booking for any rooms since that would overshoot the budget and prolong the time spent there. We were leaving Bangalore in the morning and returning home the next morning!

The train was scheduled to leave Bangalore by 6.30am (Lalbagh express - chair car). A few of us (including me) who live inside the city, boarded the train at the Majestic railway station. The rest of us boarded the train at KR Puram since that was closer to Whitefield where most of my colleagues reside (due to the proximity to the office). I was travelling out of Bangalore by train after a long time - more than a decade in fact. This was the first time I was visiting Chennai and I was pleasantly surprised to find that 100% of the track between Bangalore and Chennai has been electrified.

What I was disgusted about during the Bangalore-Chennai journey, was how some people used the train to get to their destination without even buying tickets. They just boarded the train at small stations where the train stopped for a few minutes, stood for half an hour since they obviously didn't have any seats, and got down promptly at their destination stations and walked away. Most of these offenders were not from the labour class (although some part of them were of that class). They were decently clad in formal attire. Some people even had the audacity to sit in the passage between the seats. No one could get up from their chairs and move!! The amount of civic sense (or rather, the lack of it) that we Indians have is appalling, especially so in trains. And not to mention spitting out of the window, eating breakfast and throwing the used paper plates and washing hands outside the window. Do these clowns realize that the train travels at around 100kmph and at that speed, dirty water becomes a fine sewage spray for the innocent guy at the next compartment putting his face at the window and appreciating the outside scenery? and by the way crumpled plates provide for a nice Slap when it hits your cheeks at that speed if you are watching at the window. So why do these people offend so easily? Are they sadistic? No. It's just that when you get hit by dirty water or paper plates, you won't know who threw it- the guy behind you or the guy behind him or someone else. So they know they won't get caught. And yeah- it is easy to just reach out and throw the paper plates out of the window than go searching for a dustbin, right?

One of my colleagues next to me said "What more can you expect from a second class train?" and I knew he was right. All of these offenders should be fined heavily but alas, there are no such rules. I wondered where the TT went. He got in at the Bangalore Cantt. station and checked OUR tickets (people who were sitting in the seats) but why could no one monitor those hundreds of dastardly people who got in and out later without tickets? The train looked more like a BMTC 201 bus with the amount of people standing. Looks like Indian Railways has a long way to go in terms of improvement. They need to know that "perfect" trains like Rajdhani express and Palace-on-Wheels aren't the only trains in India. And instead of arguing over the ban of Coca-Cola and pepsi at Railway stations and replacing aerated soft drinks with Lassi and butter milk, let the railway ministry concentrate on more important issues like these. We will at least move another step towards civilization.

Aside from the topic of inefficient train management, let me get back to my original topic. We reached Arakkonam at around 10.45am. This place is around 40-50 km from Chennai. The Chennai heat hit us as soon as we got down from the train. We had hired a bus to pick us up from the railway station and take us to the Nokia factory. The bus was Air conditioned and most of us dozed through the 1 hour journey to the factory. After reaching the factory by 12 pm, we were served complimentary lunch. We completed the factory visit by around 3pm (I cannot divulge details of the visit for confidentiality reasons) and left the place by 3.30 pm. All I can say is, it was a thoroughly memorable visit.

We had booked the return tickets for Mysore Kaveri express which was scheduled to leave Chennai by 9.30 pm. Since we had the whole evening left, we headed towards Chennai city and our next stop was at Besant Nagar Beach. This was already pre-planned and most of the members had carried along a change of clothes, lest we got wet in the beach (which most people intended to do anyway). After crossing a narrow alley with a disgusting, nauseating odour of fish(a tiny fish market), we managed to reach the entrance to the beach. Our plan was to complete the beach outing by 7 pm, have dinner and then leave for the railway station.

We spent a good 2 hours on the beach. Some people ventured into the sea. Some others went horse riding, the rest took photographs or just chose to munch some snacks at the beachside stalls (me included in the latter category). After a plate of delicious Bajji/Bonda, Channa Dal Bhel puri and Peanut Bhel puri, my stomach was almost full. I had not brought any change of clothes either so I went for a small walk along the coast just for the feel of it. The beach was quite crowded that evening and the usual variety of crowd you can expect at beaches, were visible- small kids playing cricket, couples enjoying cozy moments together, foodies gorging happily at the snacks' stalls and families who wanted to have an evening outing, with the father/mother teaching their young kid(s) to stand still or swim when the tide washed ashore.

Behind the beach just a few hundred yards away was where I spotted the fishermen colonies. The identification never took long. As I was approaching a particular side of the beach, suddenly the stench of rotten fish became unbearable, I could see garbage strewn all along the place, and stray dogs moving around. Small huts where these fishermen obviously resided were abuzz with activity, presumably with the womenfolk cooking that night's dinner, small kids playing outside the huts and the fishermen themselves were busy sorting out their fish (whilst smoking beedis) after returning on their boats with that day's hard-earned catch. Being a vegetarian, I am not a big fan of edible fish or inquisitive about how they are caught from the sea. I could not bear that stench any longer and decided to return the way I came, making a beeline towards where my other colleagues were. On the way, I was little too over-confident about the position of the tide. I ventured closer towards the coast to take some good photos. For a minute my concentration was lost and the next tide hit me instantly, wetting the lower 1/3rd of my trousers and flooding my shoes and socks with water. I regretted not having brought my change of clothes :( My shoes were waterproof and dried almost instantly. For the socks, I had to borrow a table fan that a nearby corn vendor was using to get his charcoal to burn properly (read as a Gadi selling Muskin jola for you kannadigas). After drying the socks for 15 minutes with that table fan, some of the moisture was still there! :-( We moved out of the beach at 7 pm.

Besant Nagar Beach, Chennai




Yours truly, at the Chennai coastline

It was now time for us to go for dinner. 90% of my team were non-vegetarians, and most of them wanted to try the popular Chettinad cuisine which is supposed to be a set of Tamil-nadu style spicy non-veg dishes. They found a "good" Chettinad hotel near the beach and settled down there. We vegetarians were outnumbered!! We were just 3-4 of us and we wanted to join them but that hotel had only "Veg Salad" listed under vegetarian section!! So we went to another hotel called "Murugan's" which is supposed to be famous for Idly, Sambar and Vadas. After a simple and light helping of 2 Idlies and a Vada with some tasty Sambar, and a dessert of a "by 2" sweet pongal, we completed our dinner and waited for the others to join us in the bus. We reached the Chennai central railway station well within time and the train left Chennai by 9.30 pm.

In the sleeper coach, I had the middle berth to sleep on. Much to my dismay, because of my height my feet were jutting out of the berth almost by a foot when I slept and people passing by were mumbling and grumbling about my feet touching their heads. To make matters worse, the guys at the bottom berth were some strangers who wanted the windows closed for some strange reason. And so with a lack of oxygen and a few hundred curses by passersby, I spent an almost sleepless night till around 3 am. My colleagues who stay at Whitefield, got down at the KR Puram station at around 3.30 am. The train finally reached the Bangalore station at around 4.15 am. We had some difficulty negotiating with the pre-paid autorikshaw drivers over the fare. All said and done, I was at home by 5 am. My head was aching and my eyes were burning by now because of the lack of sleep. I hit the gym and did my hourly quota of workout from 5.30 to 6.30 am. I applied for sick leave that day and relaxed for the whole of that day. I in fact slept for much longer than what I would have on a normal night ;-)

The next day, it was back to work as usual

Until my next post, so long
KK

A Long weekend with Nature - Bandipur and Wayanad

I am writing this post on a Monday, taking rest after a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable trip to Bandipur and Wayanad this weekend. 7 of us (our BMS group) set out for a fun-filled (Extra-Long) weekend from April 30th to May 3rd - Vinay, Vinay's brother Abhiram, Ajay, Ashwin, Mahesh, Sandeep and myself. Since May 1st was a Friday (and a public holiday), most of us applied for leave on April 30th to extend the trip to 4 days. May 4th was rest-day at home, for recuperating from the tiring treks and long (and painful) journeys in the cab. I have almost recovered from the body-ache and fatigue by oversleeping, and this is when boredom is killing me. And since I have nothing else to do now, I thought I could as well blog about the entire experience.

The entire course of our trip was divided into 4 days.

Day 1 and half of Day 2 - Bandipur
Day 2.5 to Day 4 - Wayanad

The start of the trip - Day 1

Everyone was in full enthusiasm in the early morning. All of us got picked up at our houses by 6 am and we hit Mysore road by 6.15 am. From then on we stopped to stretch our legs at a couple of places, once at a petrol pump when the Cab driver wanted a fill of Diesel and another one at a highway Chai-wala to have a cup of tea. We then proceeded to Maddur where we stopped at the famous Mylari Hotel for breakfast by 8.30 - 9 am. We had a stomach full of Sagu-Masala Dosas (speciality here - instead of Potato Curry inside, there is a Sagu filling) and Idlys and Vadas. Our next stop was at Nanjangud to stretch our legs. Also, there is a famous temple at Nanjangud which we visited for a couple of minutes. It is a really beautiful and age-old temple with lots of devotees flocking there by the hundreds. After some cool and natural Elneer (coconut water), we left Nanjangud and headed towards Bandipur, taking the Mysore - Gundlupet - Bandipur road. We stopped for directions a couple of times, but once we saw the signboards of Country Club Bush Betta (the place where we stayed), we were on track and reached our destination by 12 pm. We checked into our cottages, changed into swimwear and rushed to the swimming pool to beat the sweltering summer heat. After an enjoyable two hours in the pool, we headed to the restaurant for the simple, yet-tasty lunch buffet.

Breakfast at Mylari Hotel, Maddur

Beating the heat in the pool

Post-lunch we relaxed in our cottages watching TV till the wake-up call came from the club guys for the evening Jungle Safari. This was the first hands-on Safari for most of us (in an open jeep barely meters away from the wild animals) and we were all hoping we could see some Tigers or leopards crossing our path. The Safari was from 3.30 pm till 7 pm- nearly 3 and a half hours in the jungle. The Deer are as common in Bandipur, as what stray dogs are in Bangalore. We saw many herds pass by us frequently. We also got to see herds of Bison, a couple of wild boars, barking deer, Langurs, peacocks, Elephant herds, a Mongoose and lots of rare birds in the forest. The Safari ride is something I will not forget- a truly breathtaking experience in the forest. The guide who was driving the Safari vehicle was pretty informative and patient, explaining about where in the forest he could find specific animals, time and again warning our over-enthusiastic and noisy group of friends to stay quiet lest we scare away the animals ;-)

Spotted Deer in Bandipur - a common sight

Making our way through the forest path

We got back to the camp at 7 pm and chilled out at the club, playing indoor games such as Table Tennis and Snooker. After 2 double games of Table Tennis, the other friends continued the doubles games but Sandeep and I got bored and had a game of Snooker, which we ultimately abandoned when we got the aroma of the evening dinner from the adjacent restaurant ;-) All of us were tired and hungry after an eventful day. After a very heavy dinner (cursing the club for the ultra-spicy food that evening) we retired for the day.

Snooker Time!!

Day 2 - The end of the Bandipur trip - Wayanad beckons

We woke up to screams of camp guys and sounds of a Forest jeep rushing through the narrow forest paths. Our curiosity led us to see what was going on- we saw a herd of elephants thrillingly close to our row of cottages, right behind the fences of our Club area. Everyone wanted to get a closer look at the herd. The animals were frightened to the core, and rushed back to the jungle. We climbed an old, deserted Watch tower to get a better aerial view of the proceedings. After this small incident, we had our morning coffee/tea and set out at 6.30 am for a small walk-cum-trek with a camp guide inside the forest. We spotted a small herd of elephants near a water hole, feeding on the adjacent trees and plants. After quietly taking a few photos, we walked along a small lake and a cliff which runs alongside the length of the lake. The Club guides prefer to call this a natural Dam for some reason!!! maybe to hype it up. Apart from a full grown reddish-black centipede, there were no more wild animal sightings for us that morning- just a few paw-marks of a leopard, an adult bear and the claw marks of a peacock that the guide showed us on the muddy path.

The 'natural dam' we saw during the early morning trek

We returned to the club by 8.30 am and played cricket in a mini-playground for about 2 hours. By 10.15 - 10.30 am, we had breakfast, packed up and checked out of the club by 12pm. We left Bandipur, our next stop was Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta - a famous temple atop the hill. You can reach it by taking a deviation on the Bandipur - Gundlupet stretch of the highway. We wanted to visit it more for the scenic view from the top, and to spot herds of elephants on the hills (which we ultimately did) during the hill climb. Initially a few of us (including me) were hesitant to visit this place as we thought it would eat up time and spoil our trip itinerary by forcing us to skip future spots for that day. However, the visit was thoroughly worth the time we spent. Vehicles are allowed to climb till the top so there was no need to trek. After a heavenly 1 hour on the top, we descended and stopped at Gundlupet to draw some cash for our expenses from the lone ATM. We then had lunch at Udupi Upachar, the only (decent-looking) restaurant. The food was pretty bad, plus we got free cockroaches in the Curds cup that we ordered. After a brief altercation with the hotel manager, we proceeded on our journey to Wayanad, Kerala.

Mahesh, Ashwin and myself sharing a joke in Country club

The view from atop Gopalaswamy Betta

As soon as we entered the Kerala forest region, we began to spot wild elephants in the forests next to the roads, and got down on many an occasion to take photographs. We had to wait for a frustrating 1 hour at the Karnataka-Kerala border (the Kerala RTO checkpost) to get a tourist vehicle permit for our cab into Kerala, which we spent enviously watching private vehicles zooming into Kerala (white-board vehicles do not need any permit). By the time we actually reached Wayanad, it was around 5 pm. We asked passersby to help us out with directions to our next visit - Banasura Sagar Dam (supposedly the largest natural dam in the world). We reached Banasura Sagar by 6 pm, spent an hour at the beautiful place and headed to Mananthavady where we had booked our rooms- Hotel Brahmagiri to be precise. It was 8 pm by the time we made our way through the endless curving and twisting (but lush green) roads of Wayanad, checked in to the hotel and settled down.

NH 212- dense forests on either side of the road



Banasura Sagar dam at Dusk

The dinner at the ground-floor restaurant was pretty average- nothing to brag about. In fact the service was hopeless. Our order arrived 2 hours after we placed it. The waiters were hardly conversant in any language other than Malayalam- which made life difficult for us when we wanted to ask for or tell them something. In fact we faced this problem throughout the trip in Kerala, not only with the waiters and bell boys but also the passers-by when we asked for directions to places. I was always under the impression that Tamil and Malayalam are very similar. Being a tamilian I tried to converse in Tamil, but they hardly understood anything and neither could I make out anything said in their language :-( Coming back to the hotel, The only guy who knew English was the receptionist (fortunately). For all this they claim to be 3-star which I seriously doubt. Room service was prompt and on-time. The rooms were well maintained, but for one room which was stinking of naphthalene balls and another room which had some smoker previously using the room (residual smell of tobacco). Our complaints saw the hotel guys rushing to disperse the smell, armed with Deodorant spray cans but the Naphthalene ball smell unfortunately returned to haunt me through that night :-(

After that long dinner, we all returned to one of our rooms to catch the IPL action live on the TV set. I retired for the day halfway through the match. That was about Day 2


Day 3 - More of Wayanad, Kerala- truly God's Own Country

Our plan was to cover 3 places that day - Soochipara falls, Pookot Lake and Kuruva Island. After an average breakfast at the Hotel, we left for Soochipara falls by 8.30 am. We took around 2 hours to reach the place. The roads make their way through some exotic Tea estates which made for awesome scenery all through the journey. By 10.30 am we began the climb from the top of the hill to the waterfalls at the foot of the valley. We spent around an hour in the waterfall and climbed back up, huffing and puffing all the way. After a refreshing drink of cold water, we headed towards Pookot Lake, our next destination. This place was more commercialized, with boating and many shops selling Spices, 'Forest Honey' and many more local handicraft works.

Soochipara Waterfalls



Tea Estates on the way to Soochipara Falls



Pookot Lake - a very calm and serene place

One word about all these places - they all charge money around Rs. 20 to 25 per head but these places are well maintained by the Govt. authorities. The boating ticket counter had a long queue which meant we would only get our turn 2 hours later so we ditched the idea and just strolled around the lake to get some good pictures to take back home. After this place, we left by 2 pm for Kalpetta (one of the main towns in Wayanad) in search of a good restaurant for our lunch. We stopped at Hotel Haritagiri- once again the food was of horrible quality, overpriced and arrived an hour late. After waiting for an hour, imagine having to drink cold tomato soup with no bread crumbs in it, veg. Biryani in which the rice and masala was not properly mixed, Gobi manchurian which had so much garlic in it that it could have been renamed to Garlic Manchurian!, curd rice with loads of green chillies and very less curd and Peas Pulao with no green peas!! And yes, everything is served cold here! :-( Later we got to know that Hotels Brahmagiri (where we were put up) and Haritagiri are from the same "Soorya" chain of hotels- no wonder then that they were so similar in service!


Post lunch we left for Kuruva island on the other side of Wayanad (very close to our Hotel in Manathavady). After an hour-long drive we reached it with great difficulty (as usual). The authorities of Wayanad need to take a serious look at putting up signboards properly. Most of the times the passers-by try to be helpful but you end up going around in circles if you follow their directions- 2 people never give the same directions to a particular place. Sometimes signboards will tell you to take a right or left turn to a particular place, but ironically the signboard will be located after you pass that turn.

Once we reached the place,we found that we had to wade through 2-3 feet deep river water to reach the island, situated about a 100 meters away from our side of the shore. The island itself is not very big- just about half or 3 quarters of a square kilometer in area. It is uninhabited, harsh and has really dense vegetation, almost like a rainforest. The only company you can find here would be a few centipedes, millipedes or worse, leeches; not to mention, a few snakes here and there. We spent around 2 hours in this place. There was a raft ride on the river but by the time we reached that side of the island, it was 5 pm (and closing time for the island for the day). We waded back across the river and walked up the hill to our cab, sweating bullets all the while. We played '20 questions' along the way back to the Hotel that evening, to pass time through the hour long journey in the cab. As soon as we hit the main street of Mananthavady, all of us went shopping for some Kerala delicacies- a.k.a Banana chips, Jackfruit chips, Banana halwa, wheat halwa and coconut halwa. Heaving the massive (yet deliciously smelling) carry-bags we returned to our hotel.

Left with no other choice for dinner, we chose the same ground floor restaurant again. This time though, the service was fast, very fast. Instead of 2 hours, they took 1 and a half hours! What's more- they even served hot water instead of cold (in summer). I played it safe this time around and had a simple meal of veg. fried rice that night. Once again IPL kept us occupied till late at night. I had hit the sack early and dozed off by 10 pm while the rest of my friends watched the entire match.

Day 4 - End of the trip and back to our concrete jungle- Home Sweet Home!

We woke up pretty early in the morning, got ready by 7.45 and checked out of the hotel by 8.30 am. After loading all the luggage into our Tempo Traveller, we left for Edakkal Caves. This is one of the most popular tourist spots in Wayanad. Vehicles are allowed only till a particular point. From there, we had to park the vehicle and climb up the hill. We had an alternative- there were two to three jeeps ferrying 8 people at a time but we had to wait for our turn after paying 70 bucks. Mind you, this was Day 4 of the trip so almost all of us were tired. No one wanted to take the path walking. Finally after reaching the entry of the caves, we started our climb up the mountain. The caves were beautiful, and at one point we saw the age-old carvings on the rocks inside the caves- the authorities said the carvings were made in an era as early as 1000 B.C. Also there is a point where 1 huge boulder sits in between 2 other boulders creating a small gap through which sunlight streams in- it is this point which gives this place the name 'Edakkal' - which literally means the 'Stone in between' in Malayalam. At most places the steps are quite unevenly placed and there is only place for 1 person at a time. This meant having to wait for quite a long time at various points for one-way traffic to pass, more so because it was a crowded sunday with lots of people visiting. After reaching about 3/4th the distance, the climb became steeper and a bunch of us gave up and took rest on some nearby rocks while the adventurous ones in our group continued till the top. They joined us in about an hour, and we began the descent. All of us shopped for spices in a shop at the base of the Edakkal hill and then left the place. So much for Edakkal Caves

Inside Edakkal Caves

We decided to stop for lunch at Sulthan Bathery (a small town on the highway between Karnataka and the entry to Wayanad). We were already overshooting the budget and decided to stick to some simple South Indian restaurant. We soon found one which served us the ever-popular South Indian Thali. The food was simple and cheap, yet pretty decent here. After lunch we stopped at our final destination- the ruins of an ancient Jain temple near Sulthan Bathery. This was supposed to be constructed in 1000 A.D and was also being used by Tipu Sulthan for storing his war weapons and ammunition. The temple has been abandoned ever since. This visit marked the close of our stay in Wayanad. Though we had two to three more places in our original itinerary such as- Kanthapara waterfalls, Chembara peak and Meenmutty falls, we had to abandon plans of visiting them due to lack of time. I wish we had got one more day but alas, that was not to be.

We set course for Bangalore, leaving Wayanad at around 2.30 pm. We passed through endless kilometres of the Highway NH 212 (Mysore-Gundlupet-Wayanad). By now, everyone was dozing in the cab and all the excitement was over :-(

The ruins of the ancient Jain temple

We stopped at a place between Nanjangud and Mysore to quench our thirst with coconut water. After that our next stop was at Maddur- Tiffany's restaurant to be precise. After buying a few Maddur Vadas we continued our journey to Bangalore. We stopped again at Mc.Donald's and had quite a sumptuous dinner. The Bangalore-Mysore highway was packed with traffic- to my disbelief it had more vehicles than what I see on the Outer ring road in Bangalore. Not surprisingly, we were delayed by this pile-up near the NICE road entry. We fortunately took a detour and hit Kanakapura road via NICE road, and entered Bangalore near Anajanapura by 9 pm. Now as each one's house approached, it was time to say goodbye and experience the monday morning blues compounded with the post-trip blues :-(

The biggest fan of Mc.Donalds! - Ashwin

I will end my post right here. After an eventful 4 days, I now need to get some rest at home because I am back to office on Wednesday. Quite frankly I will end this post because there are other priorities now- I have to go and munch on Banana chips and wheat halwa- let me hope the stocks last at home for another 2 days ;-)


KK

The promise that realized a million dreams

Before I start off with this blog post about the Tata Nano, I would like to assure you that my next blog would be a non-automobile related one to avoid boring you (I will try hard to stay off the topic for the next few posts). If you're not an automobile fan and/or you are not interested in the world's latest heart-throb, I suggest you stop right here. Don't read ahead. However, if you are a potential Nano customer or someone who has not been able to follow the news and latest buzz about this car called the Nano (and assuming you want to know more about it) then read on and leave me a few comments so I can improve the quality of my posts :) . I also take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Ugadi. May the year ahead turn out to be the most prosperous and joyful for you! Here's wishing you all the very best!

Back to my blog now, well.. where do we start off with regard to the Tata Nano? Seems to be quite a difficult and long story to trace, doesn't it? After all the delays and controversies plaguing its launch (remember the Singur episode which put Tata behind schedule by almost 6 months), it finally happened on March 22nd, 2009. I still remember watching the unveiling of the Tata Nano way back in January last year on the TV, at the 9th Auto Expo, 2008 held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, the chairman of the Tata group, Mr. Ratan Tata said, “I observed families riding on two-wheelers – the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family. Tata Motors’ engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. Today, we indeed have a People’s Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions. We are happy to present the People’s Car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility.” And so began the journey- to build the world's cheapest and most affordable car- The Tata Nano.

Ratan Tata at the unveiling of the Tata Nano, 9th Auto Expo, New Delhi, January 2008

Those words meant a lot. They said it all. For everyone out there who was criticising and cursing the fate of luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover for falling into the hands of a 'Sub-standard Indian company which had little or no brand value' (the international opinion of Tata Motors till last year), this was a befitting reply. Ratan Tata has gone where no car-maker has gone before. Just to achieve the feat of building that tiny engineering marvel at the cost of a 2-wheeler and to present it before the world required guts- not only to put tons of money into such a project and believe in his own engineers' efforts, but also to realize that the company could actually make a profit by selling that car at that low rate. This speaks volumes about the 'Mega' amount of planning and engineering effort that has gone into the 'Nano'. I will speak about the cost saving methods involved in the production of the Nano and how Tata has managed to price it so cheap and still earn some bucks out of it; but let's put that off till later in this post.

As Ratan Tata said, "A Promise is a Promise" (referring to keeping the price below 1 lac rupees). As of March 2009 the Nano (cheapest variant) was priced at Rs. 1,23,000 (ex-showroom Mumbai), cheaper than the Maruti 800, its main competitor and next cheapest Indian car priced at 1,84,641 Rupees. It has an 8 percent smaller exterior size but a 23 percent larger interior space compared to the 800. If you have any doubts about its interior space and the comfort it offers to its passengers, rest assured you won't be disappointed. However, the major turn-off would probably be the lack of boot-space so that virtually eliminates the possibility of a family of 4 driving away on a weekend holiday with their baggage. But the Nano wasn't built to be a weekend getaway car. Where it does exceedingly well is in the city. The City is where its home is. And most of its buyers are bound to be either urban dwellers looking to buy their first car (and hone their driving skills), those wanting to shift from their 2-wheelers to 4-wheelers for safety reasons (as Ratan Tata himself quoted) or rural folk who want to be able to afford a good car to use in and around their homes.

A picture below shows the interiors of the Tata Nano. Sure, it doesn't look as swanky as the cockpit of an Audi A8 or Mercedes S350, but hey it does its job pretty well! The centrally mounted console houses an analog speedometer and a digital fuel gauge and tripmeter. Seems like a pretty basic layout.. but at this price, who's complaining?

Tata Nano Interiors

Before we move onto further aspects of the Nano, let us take a look at the technical specifications it puts forward to us:-

Tata Nano Technical Specifications

Make: Tata
Model: Tata NANO
Body Type: Hatchback
Number of Doors: 4
Seating Capacity: 4

Fuel Efficiency

City Mileage: 20-25 kmpl
Highway Mileage: 26 kmpl
Fuel Capacity: 15 litres
Fuel Type : Petrol (Diesel Version will be introduced later)
Fuel Injection: Multi Point Fuel Injection (MPFI)

Engine and Physical Specifications:

Length: 3100 mm
Width: 1500 mm
Height: 1600 mm
Engine: All-aluminium, Rear Mounted, Rear Wheel Drive
Capacity: 623cc twin cyliner
Power: 33PS @ 3000 RPM
Torque: 40Nm @ 4000RPM
Emission Norms: Euro-IV, Bharat Stage-III compliant
Safety Norms: Frontal Crash Tested
Versions: Std, CX, LX
Gearbox: 4-speed manual (+ Reverse)
Wheelbase: 2230mm
Ground Clearance: 180mm
Kerb Weight: ~ 600kg

Extra Specs

Acceleration - (0-60 kmph) - 8.42 secs

Top speed - 105 Kmph

Colours: Red, White, Blue, Gold, Yellow and Silver

If you're wondering whether the Nano comes with anything other than 4 wheels, a cheap chassis, cheap seats, a steering wheel and accelerator, clutch & brake pedals, you are mistaken. The equipment list on offer is way beyond what one could have anticipated when the car was announced last year this time. Take a look at some of the goodies the 3 models carry with them and I promise, you will be shocked.

Tata Nano Standard:

• three colour options
• single-tone seats
• fold-down rear seat

Tata Nano CX:

• five colour options
• heating and air-conditioning (HVAC)
• two-tone seats
• parcel shelf
• booster-assisted brakes
• fold-down rear seat with nap rest

Tata Nano LX:

• five colour options
• heating and air-conditioning (HVAC)
• two-tone seats
• parcel shelf
• booster-assisted brakes
• fold-down rear seat with nap rest
• complete fabric seats
• central locking
• front power windows
• body coloured exteriors
• fog lamps
• electronic trip meter
• cup holder in front console
• mobile charger point
• rear spoiler

Compare the feature list on the Nano LX and the Maruti 800 base variant, which is around Rs. 30,000 costlier and you will find that this package is more attractive at Rs. 2,00,000.

Getting down to the technical specs, at first sight, you might wonder how on earth you would end up getting 25 km to a litre of petrol- sounds marvellous doesn't it? After all, it is the world's 'Most Fuel Efficient Car'- another feather in the cap of Tata. The trick to this is having a rear-mounted engine. The engine itself is 623 cc in displacement and the car weighs just around 600 kilos. The power to weight ratio is hence almost that of a normal road car. It is definitely not an arrow in character but it serves the purpose of getting from point A to point B in city traffic. And that is all you will ever need. No questions asked. The rear mounted engine meant that the boot would be shifted to the front. Not that you could call it a boot, though. It is just a storage space for the spare wheel (stepney in common language) and also accommodates the fuel pipe. Very thoughtful, but inconvenient if you're considering a luggage transfer without affecting interior passenger comfort. But hey! you can't have your cake and eat it too.. And especially so at the price of 1 Lac Rupees!

The front bonnet houses the 5th (spare) wheel

Though currently, all the 3 models of the Nano will run with the 623cc MPFI petrol engine, speculations are on the rise that Tata will soon introduce a Diesel version, most probably a smaller capacity Multijet Diesel engine which it will garner access to, from its Indian JV partner Fiat Motors. Tata has plans of exporting the Nano's diesel variant to other markets even before it hits the Indian roads. Remember the phenomenal success of the Fiat Multijet engine in India (in the form of astounding sales figures of the Maruti Swift DDiS). Even the new Indica Vista is powered by this Multijet engine but its sales figures have shrunk, thanks to cheap build quality and other performance, refinement and quality issues that have always bugged the Indica since time immemorial.

The 623cc mill of the Nano produces 33PS of power, mated to a 4-speed synchromesh gearbox, which should be quite sufficient for manouvering in and out of our city roads and the horrendous traffic. You can't expect to beat a Ferrari in this car, but this is more than what you can get at that price-point. As mentioned earlier, the power-to-weight ratio offers quite a competitive bhp/tonne figure, which should brush aside all fears of being stranded on a slope or some such imaginary situation you could think of, where the lack of power could pose a problem. But the power problem would be non-existent as long as you stick to the city. Or maybe I missed out a point. With 4 people in the car and the A/C switched on, the car would definitely grunt, snort and protest when the throttle is floored. But I doubt you can expect much more from a 600cc engine. It offers a decent top speed of a 105 kmph, although how soon that speed figure will come up on your speedometer is another question ;-)

A very small turning radius of 4 meters makes it probably the most manouverable car in the country (or perhaps in the world). I was a bit taken aback during the press launch when I found that the feature list of even the top end variant (the Nano LX), did not include a Power Steering. However, the reason for this is- the front of the car is not heavy (unlike other cars which have a front-mounted engine assembly) and the lack of a power steering wouldn't really matter. The steering is supposed to be extremely nimble and responsive. Where the lack of the power steering will show, is only during tight U-turns, requiring more effort from the driver.

Space-wise the Nano doesn't disappoint. It easily seats 4 people, and the 5th person could be squeezed in too, albeit with a little difficulty. Safety and emission norms are adhered to, according to the company statements. It seems to have passed most Crash tests with good ratings. (Otherwise how would you expect them to be able to export it to European countries? ;) )

The Interiors are quite spacious

The car is currently being manufactured at Tata Motors’s Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand. The dedicated plant for Tata Nano is coming up at Sanand in Gujrat which is going to be ready by 2010 and will have an annual capacity of 3,50,000 cars.

Earlier in the post, I had promised to show you how the Nano achieves its cost saving methods and still be a profit-maker for Tata Motors. "A promise is a promise" (a.k.a Ratan Tata). So here they are :-

• The Nano's boot does not open, instead the rear seats can be folded down to access the boot space.
• It has a single windscreen wiper instead of 2
• Some exterior parts of it are glued together, rather than welded
• It has no power steering
• It's door opening lever is much simpler

Made-in-Germany components - Some components of the Nano are made in Germany by Bosch, such as Fuel Injection, the Brake system, Value Motronic ECU, ABS (not present on Indian variants) and other technologies. As I speak now, Tata is carrying out rigorous testing on the Nano, to find out more areas for enhancements to produce a better product.

All right now. I have been harping and harping about the Nano for the past 1 hour. So I take it for granted that you are obviously overwhelmed at this instant and you are interested in booking for one right away. So how do you go about purchasing the Nano? You see, it is not that simple (yet!).

Firstly, you will need to buy an application form for Rs 300/- from any of the following locations between April 9th and 25th, 2009. There will be exclusive counters where you can purchase the applications. Most of these seem to be showrooms of the Tata chain of products (barring SBI).

1. Select SBI branches
2. Tata Motor Dealerships
3. Croma Outlets
4. Westside stores
5. Tata Indicom Exclusive Stores
6. World of Titan Showrooms

After filling up the form and attaching the relevant documents with the application form, you will need to submit the form + documents at those places (almost same set of places as those where you first bought your form) between the 9th and 25th of April, 2009. You will then be required to make a payment for the booking amount as follows:-

The booking amount for all the 3 variants will be the same throughout India:

Tata Nano Std : Rs. 95,000
Tata Nano CX : Rs. 1,20,000
Tata Nano LX : Rs. 1,40,000

The Ex-showroom prices at Bangalore look like this for the 3 Nano variants (add around 25,000 to 30,000 to these prices to get an approximate on-the-road (OTR) cost of these models)

Tata Nano Std : Rs. 1,31,028
Tata Nano CX : Rs. 1,59,027
Tata Nano LX : Rs. 1,79,278

Tata has tie-ups with a few financial institutions and banks to provide the facility of a loan with EMI payback, for those who want to avail a loan to pay the booking amount (and for the car cost itself).

Now assuming that is also done, there would be millions of chaps out there like you, who would have done the same thing. So how does Ratan Tata satisfy everyone and keep up his famous 'Promise'? Simple... read on... A computerised lottery or lucky draw is carried out within 60 days of closing of the booking window (60 days from April 25th, for the first batch) and the first 1,00,000 successful applicants are handed over their respective allotment letters. These lucky buggers would be the first 1,00,000 owners of the Tata Nano in India. If you're not lucky enough to get through the first lucky draw, Tata promises to get the allotment done in the second batch of shipments for these 'retainees' to prevent unlucky guys from waiting infinitely. It also gives 8.5% of interest (per annum) on the booking amount, to those unlucky ones. Should you get impatient by the time the first lot arrives (and assuming you are not in the first 1,00,000) you always have the option of getting a refund of your booking amount and cancelling the application (I wonder though, why someone would want to do that when they are promised an allotment in the following cycle and an interest on the booking amount for the waiting tenure)

In a nutshell, the Nano is one hell of an engineering miracle- to be able to put together this entire package and sell it at such a cost (When did we last see a more practical solution to all our commuting woes?)- which is why everyone wants a piece of cake from this segment of the market now. Bajaj is planning a cheap car in collaboration with Nissan-Renault sometime in 2010 and Maruti plans to slash prices of its existing base models such as the M800 and the Alto, to compete with the Nano. I am sure there will be many more competitors to follow Tata. This is one instance where Tata has proved its engineering superiority to the world. Agreed, neither can the Nano be as refined, well-built and trouble-free as a Toyota, nor can you expect it to compete with a Honda Accord in luxury, comfort or reliability. But at that price point, it is way too tempting for anyone to resist giving it a second thought. One last word- God save our (already flooded) roads once the deliveries begin!

So when will YOU be booking for a Nano? ;)

Note: I have written this blog post based on some information sources. However, if you have any suggestions and/or corrections in the information or statistics that I have put up (if it is wrong in some areas), feel free to leave me a few comments and I would gladly correct those parts.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post! :)
KK

Fedora 10, one of the finest Red Hat distros ever

Being a passionate fan of the Fedora family of distros, I couldn't resist bragging about Fedora 10, the latest release from Red Hat. With the success of Fedora in Linux distributions, Fedora 10 is perhaps the most anticipated operating system from their library. A faster and advanced distribution is what is proposed by them. Fedora 10, codenamed Cambridge, released on November 25, 2008. So before you go on and download this new Fedora version, let me give you a detailed idea about what benefits and changes are there in Fedora 10.

Features

Fedora has many a project finished or in the queue for Fedora 10. It is a mammoth project and obviously unimportant to take all of them out here.

1. AMQP (Advanced Message Queueing Protocol) Infrastructure

This is perhaps one of the biggest package that has been implemented in Fedora 10. You must be wondering about AMQP, right? AMQP is a technology that makes it easy to build scalable,high-performance enterprise applications. Its primary aim is to create create open and interoperable messaging. Though the application is not visible to you and as a user you can always question why it is so important, I have some use cases for you, who will benefit from AMQP enormously!

• Reliably deliver value bearing messages (fire and forget; you can absolutely trust AMQP to get the message to its destination once receipt is acknowledged by the transport)
• Rapidly deliver status events to a large community (publish sub-event notification)
• File transfer (secure, can be resumed, firewall friendly, and dependable)

I hope now you know about the efficiency of AMQP.

2. Better Printing

Printing and configuring the print set up has always been a problem with open desktops. And Fedora 10 has improved upon just that.

• The configuration tool window is simpler. Double-clicking on a printer opens a properties dialog.
• The list of printers are updated dynamically while the configuration tool is working.
• You can see an individual printer's job by right clicking and then selecting View Print Queue. Again, you can see all the queued up jobs from all the printers by right clicking on any free space in the folder where you have printers' icons.
• A diagnose button is there as a troubleshooter if at all your printer gets into trouble.
• Job monitoring tool is also there to display an authentication dialog so that the job can proceed.

So you see there are a lot of subtle facilities that Fedora 10 offers to make your printing experience better.

3. Better and Faster Startup

Fedora 10 developers have intended to make this operating system look shiny and glittery right from when it starts so to do this they are getting rid of RHGB and writing a new program, Plymouth, that starts earlier (even before / is mounted!) and gets pretty graphics. But Systems without driver supports also have a text mode fallback as an alternative.

That might make you a little suspicious about the speed of shutting down and starting up. But don't worry, Fedora 10 has improved and fast start up now. And they say 30 seconds is all it will take. Sounds awesome?

4. Better Remote Support

Fedora becomes easier to use in media-center scenarios where a remote control may come handy. With better LIRC support that helps it easy to connect to remote controls, infra red remote controls will be just fine to work with media applications.

5. Improved PulseAudio

The PulseAudio sound server has been rewritten to use timer-based audio scheduling. With this one Fedora 10 comes on par with Apple and Windows Vista. The main benefits that you get from this are,

• Lesser wakeups, reduced power consumption
• Dynamic latency adaption with flexible options.
• Less dependent on audio hardware
• Minimized chance of drop outs

6. First Aid Kit

Well, the name may seem funny but it is an automated recovery tool that brings together common recovery processes and applies them to a system. It is more of a plug-in that focuses on maintaining user data integrity and lets you revert the faulty changes. So that makes it easier for users to rescue their systems in case of problems. You can either choose Fix whatever is wrong with my system which works as a comprehensive chkdsk or you can select a specific process.

7. Kernel Modes Sharing for Graphics

The title itself may disinterest you. But believe me it is not that. In the words of Fedora's own developers,

Currently, most graphics modes are initialized during the X server startup. Kernel Mode setting moves this process from the X server's DDX drivers to the kernel, and it enables several new features including:

• Improved Graphical Boot
• Faster fast user switching
• Seamless X server switching
• Graphical panic messages

So basically user switching will be faster and smoother, making Fedora more pleasant for non-technical and casual users. Memory management will be better overall.

8. Remote Virtual Settings

It is another very important feature of Fedora 10. Its more than what meets the eye. This feature enables creating virtual machines on properly configured remote hosts. In other words, users will no longer need to login to individual machines to provision VMs. The system of adding remote connections to virtual manager will be fully automated through polling for connections on the local network.

9. Security Audit

A new security audit system and intrusion detection system will be there. sectool is a security tool that can be used both as a security audit as well as a part of an intrusion detection system. Advanced users can also see the documentation and logs of those test and can use as scripts to repair holes. This is something we will need from Fedora 10 and we hope that it is efficient.

10. Virtual Storage

If you remember, libvirt was introduced by Fedora 8 and became a hit. Here you will no longer need to directly login to a server providing virtualization capabilities. All common management tasks can be completed remotely using virt-manager. The test plan includes creating a new guest OS and associate it with some storage. Isn't it fabulous?

Goodies for Developers

Here are three most important features of Fedora 10 which are bound to attract you .

1. Appliance Tools

Tools for building virtual appliances have also been a focus for Fedora 10. This consists of an ACT (Appliance Creation Tool) and and the AOS (The Appliance Operating System). Let me quote Fedora here once again

ACT (Appliance Creation Tool)

• Enables you to build a fedora based appliance.
• Enables you to build a pre-installed multi partitioned disk! that is great!

AOS (The Appliance Operating System)

• Provides a template for developers who want to build a fedora based appliance.
• Provides a customized OS. I mean, you can start from the least resources (the minimum of what an OS needs, remember Just Enough from ubuntu?) and add whatever you want. This is really flexible from Fedora.
• It also allows developers to kick the tires of the AOS without having to build it from scratch.

2. NetBeans IDE

Are you a developer? Then I don't really need to give a formal introduction to the topic here. Fedora 10 uses Netbeans for two ways basically.

• Easy and rapid way to organize environment for development of systems that can be based on modern technologies and popular programming languages.
• a way for development of applications based on the NetBeans Platform. All the tools required for development of the Rich Client Swing Applications are included in the IDE.

3. Eclipse 3.4

Eclipse is one of the most influential work-areas in Linux distributions. So this time developers have kept that in mind and tried to make Eclipse is as fast as possible for compiling Java code in the future. As well, a new feature called Plug-in Spy has been added which is a useful tool for plug-in developers to determine what plug-in supplies a selection class. I hope Eclipse 3.4 is as advanced as it is proposed.

Conclusion

Inspite of all these, the Feodra 10 excels in EFI, Evdev Input driver, Python Bindings, Better webcam facilities and etc. The idea of Fedora 10 is to be as flexible and rich as possible serving both the worlds of developers and common users. With no notable glitches at sight, Fedora 10 promises to be one of the finest operating systems of the Linux family.

I am proud to be a Fedora 10 user. Are you Fedora'd yet? ;-)

KK

An un-Innovative trip to Innovative film city

I am writing again after almost a month now. Yes, that is how much time my friends and I took to find one common holiday when everyone would be free. These guys have been screaming hoarse about their "Film City", through TV ads, newspaper ads and FM radio commercials too. It was time we college friends went out together- our last trip was to Bheemeshwari fishing camp way back in Oct 2008. It has taken 4 months to find 1 single weekend when all of us would be free!

And so we set out this Sunday, to spend an entire day at Innovative film city. It is located near Bidadi, just past Wonderla. One of my friends, Ajay had bought a Swift and he wanted to get every possible chance at driving it on the highway (even though Film city is just around 30km from Bangalore). This was also my first highway drive in the Accent so my hands were itching to get at the wheel too. Another friend of mine, Ashwin (a 100% Royal Enfield enthusiast) who had bought a Thunderbird cruiser was eager to get us all going on 4 bikes, but Ajay and I outnumbered him later ;)


We started off on Sunday at 8am. There were 7 of us in 2 cars. Ajay took the NICE road to join us at Kengeri whilst I took the Uttarahalli road. From then on we continued till we stopped for breakfast at Kadu Mane restaurant just past the Wonderla entrance on Mysore road. After cursing the waiter for delaying the service and bringing saltless Vada, we resumed our journey to Film city. Ajay had already been here once and he knew the way quite well. A left at the Bidadi cross just past Kirloskar factory saw us entering a narrow road. After a kilometre or 2, we came across the Toyota Kirloskar factory set in a gigantic, mind-blowing campus. However, my desire to visit the Toyota campus was soon rubbished by my friends :(


We reached Film city a bit earlier than expected- in fact it had just opened up at 10am. A couple of coconuts for everyone saw us quenching our thirst with Elneer (coconut water) before entering film city. The saga at the ticket counter is worth mentioning here. The "helpful" staff guy told us there were 3 packages- one was that we could pay 50 Rs. per head as entrance fee and then we would have to shell out 50-100 Rs. for every attraction thereafter. The second one was- at Rs. 699/- per head, we would be getting 12 coupons each which we could use for any attractions we wanted to visit. The third one was- at Rs. 1199/- we could use any of the attractions any number of times we wanted. He said since we were 7, if we went for the 699/- package we would be eligible for 2 memberships (which actually costs Rs. 5000/-) and we would be getting 50 extra coupons if we paid the extra 100 Rs (700 X 7 = 4900 + 100Rs.) . Only after everything was finalized and the bill was paid out did we realize that we were duped! 50 coupons / 5 people = 10 coupons per head, and the 2 members could use their cards for most (read "most", not "all") of the attractions. We were all along thinking that we each would get 12 coupons per head (for each of us paying 699/-) plus 50 extra coupons for the group. If you ever visit this place, beware of such marketing tricks.

And so we entered film city, walking down the main alley to spot a few familiar brands who have put up stores there- we even saw a Bata shoe store! The first attraction we visited was called "Innovative Talkies". Set in an olden days kind-of theatre style, there was Sholay and an old Rajkumar movie (Kannada) playing. The theatre was an old, rundown tent and you had 3 choices to sit- on the floor (on sand), on the benches or on hard chairs just like in the olden days. After spending 10 minutes watching the Rajkumar movie, we moved on to the next attraction.

It was a "Haunted Mansion" supposedly. With coffins, wooden skeletons and headless horsemen in the courtyard, small kids would probably get the fright of their lives. Repeated efforts by the "ghosts" to spook us out were in vain, and we ended up taking photographs with the ghosts inside the mansion :) We then promised to never waste the remaining coupons on such childish things. Our next stop was the Go-karting track. We had some great fun racing each other but the track guys cheated us in the number of laps we were supposed to be allowed to race. The coupon claims 4 laps, but the track guys stopped us at the third lap- very annoying indeed. The 4-D Cinema wasn't all that good either- Wonderla's 3D Cinema was better with more force feedback and virtual reality experience.

We moved on to our next attraction- "Mirror Maze". We were given plastic gloves, presumably to avoid fingerprint smudges inside. This was a good one- Mirrors were set along a winding path from entrance to exit and believe me, it was really difficult finding the exit. Groping around trying to see which was a mirror and which was the actual path saw us stuck in there for almost half an hour going around in circles! After this we decided to break for lunch- not many good restaurants are in the food court- what they call the 'Grub Hub'. There was plenty of choice for Non-vegetarians but very little for veggies- hardly a few restaurants had anything on offer for us. We finally chose a familiar name- Pizza Corner and got to eat some really cold pizzas (with a shortage of tomato ketchup sachets) after waiting for nearly an hour.

After lunch we got to face a cricket bowling machine which hurled balls at different speeds and places- giving us some batting practice.This was a good time pass and all of us had a go at this activity. It was great fun. We then visited "Fossil Museum"- dinosaur museum containing facts and fossils of dinosaurs. They even had some dinosaur working models emitting grunts and snorts and swishing their tail or head from side to side- another kiddish place.

We then went to the Arcade gaming facility and tried our hands at different games- Car racing, Bike racing, cannon shooting, Boat riding, flying a war helicopter and controlling a robot! After spending nearly an hour we visited the "Ripley's believe it or not" museum- This was awesome- in fact the only thing worth visiting- amazing collection of unbelievable events in history- collections of prehistoric articles, world war era articles, amazing inventions and discoveries, etc.

The "Louis Tussaud's Wax museum" wasn't all that great, with many wax statues hardly resembling the people they claimed to be! James bond star Pierce Brosnan's wax model looked more like George Bush and the Nelson Mandela wax figure looked like Morgan Freeman!

A couple of hours more saw us relaxing at the artificial beach which is quite well built- with natural sand and artificial waves in the water. There were a lot of people that day (being a Sunday) and the beach was overcrowded. It reminded us more of Kumbh Mela than of a beach. The water maintenance needs to improve a lot.

To end it all, we went to the shooting range called "Wild West". Use a rifle or a pistol and shoot down bottles situated around 40-50 metres from you. We got 10 shots. After each of us had a turn at the shooting, it was 6.30pm; all of us were tired and decided it was time to leave for home.



The return journey was quite pleasant. We took the NICE road deviation from Mysore road, to hit Bannerghatta road in less than an hour. I would attribute that travel duration to the decent speeds we could maintain on NICE. We stopped for dinner at SLV Ragigudda in JP Nagar, after which we dispersed, carrying home an empty wallet but memories of a good day spent together with friends. The next day saw most of us going late to office, courtesy the fatigue of Sunday's trip!




My opinion about this place is - It isn't worth the money if you are all adults wanting to have some fun. This is more of a children's theme park. It is ideal for a young family with school-going kids or couples wanting some 'romantic' outings. Most rides are childish- I would prefer Wonderla than this any day. Also, everything is overpriced- a glass of coke would set you back by 50 Rs, a single Samosa costs you 40 Rs. I had assumed the entire expense to be around Rs. 1000/- Rs. but ended up spending more than Rs. 2000/-. Last but not the least, be careful while you choose the packages or else you would end-up paying more and getting lesser coupons and still feel proud about it for a while (before you realize a while later that the staff guy outwitted you!)

On the personal front, my car was overdue for service. This Thursday I was forced to give the accent for service (even though I didn't want to part with the bill amount) and the regular servicing bill at Advaith Hyundai came up to a whopping 7k! My father kept grumbling that he hasn't spent that much on servicing for the Swift totally for the entire 3 years that we've had it! In Maruti we can just walk into the service centre in the mornings and give the car for service. In Hyundai you have to book a slot 2-3 days in advance and they come and pick up your car at your doorstep at the designated time. As much as I hate to, I have to admit that Hyundai is definitely priced around 4X times higher than that of Maruti's rates for almost everything- be it labour charges or spare parts. On the brighter side, I see that the Hyundai guys are much more professional and prompt. Also, the overall quality of the servicing has been great so I have to console myself with that :( Fortunately for me and my wallet, the Accent is a super-reliable, zero-maintenance car and the servicing interval is only once a year :-)

Apart from that, I have been pretty busy this entire month and have been staying back almost everyday to complete my work. I am now a Nokia employee looking forward to a great career with lots of challenges and fun. What's more? I get to experience the latest Nokia phones too! (Waiting to get an E71i or N79 from the company).

Until next time, ciao
KK