Why I wanna visit the States again

Being a diehard auto-enthusiast (well, maybe not diehard, but still an auto-enthusiast), I always envied my American friends and colleagues for the variety and price that they get while buying cars in the States. They also get to lease cars for virtually any duration of time (at realistic prices too), something that is non-existent here. My friends in the states who buy used cars, quite often get them in mint condition, unlike the options that I had when I thought of buying a used car 2 years back. So today when I went online, I thought of looking at the American automotive market at a more granular level, and so I searched for American automobile websites to see what variety and price range Americans get. For instance, a Honda Accord in India costs anywhere between, Rs 20 Lacs to Rs 27Lacs (Approx 25Million Rupees). In the States, the same car, with more engine options, sets you back by only $20,000-$24000. Now even if I take the Dollar-Rupee exchange rate at Rs55 (to give this comparison a fair chance of reasoning), the entry level American Accord costs Americans about Rs 11Lacs (1.1 Million Rupees). Besides, when I was looking through the stats, most of the cars there have a higher power range, better transmission (of course lower fuel efficiency, but that’s beside the point). If you take SX4 in India, you pay about Rs8-9 Lacs(0.8-0.9 million, or about $15500) with a 1.6Ltr Petrol or 1.3Ltr Diesel engine with about 102HP & 90HP respectively, while in the USA, though the car costs about the same - $16000(one would think it is good news for people like me, yeah right!), but it comes with a 2.0 Ltr engine with 148HP. These numbers become more shocking when comparing cars, such as Mercs, Beemers, Audis, etc I always knew that the reason for such differences - TAX, something that a friend of mine who recently returned from the States re-affirmed. I am not sure precisely, what the American government levies and what the Indian Government levies, but one can get an idea by just looking at a simple comparison that I just made for the Accord. In India, cars are considered a luxury item. Taxes are high, and despite a lot of people now having some or the other car. Another reason of course is the level of automation in the factory that is itself dependent on volumes. Needless to say, USA has higher numbers in terms of volumes, and that is again part of the reason (Economies of Scale). However over the years, I don’t see the effect of increasing sales numbers indirectly reducing the cost of car in long term (ignoring the ever increasing tax & near double digit inflation). The way car & fuel prices are going, im considering looking for jobs that allow all work to be done from home. Having been to the States once, I remember that it was a heaven for auto-enthusiasts like me. The variety, the drive on freeways (though I didn’t get a chance to drive much), were simply ….. ‘Peaceful’. I wish one day I get to lease a car in India and change it every year, but that is probably a few years away.

New "Energy" kid on the Block called "Tzinga"?

Sometime back while talking to my sister, the name Tzinga came up in the conversation and I asked her what it was. The name Tzinga intrigued me, a queer name in my opinion. So when a friend of mine brought up this name again, I was inclined to know more about it, and he told me about this company that is relatively new and trying to compete in the small but fast growing segment of Energy drinks in India. Considering that it's products reasonably priced(Red Bull is overpriced at Rs75+/Can for no apparant reason - No sudden boost of energy I think), I thought I can give it a shot when I go to the market. Besides the way they are marketing the product, one does'nt stand a chance to miss out atleast a glimpse of the Posters. I thought that the packaging (pouch with a spout) was a bit funny at first but I guess that’s something that adds a “Zing” to the whole thing(thinking different and out of the box is all that counts). So last night at around 10:30 PM, when I had plans to watch a movie and sleep off by midnight, I wanted to grab a snack before I start the movie. While picking out some left-overS from dinner and microwaving it, I rummaged through the fridge only to find the Tzinga in one corner. I thought to myself; let me try a sip with my late night snack of left-overs, and pulled out the drink from the fridge. My sister who was planning to work till late night on her assignment came from her room to grab a snack herself and mentioned that she needed to pull an all-nighter (despite the day being a Sunday, I wondered why people can't enjoy on the last day before a work week). I offered to share the drink with her (Plus, I was hoping that the huge amounts of sugar and caffeine would get divided and hopefully I won’t feel guilty) and mentioned that this may be an ideal opportunity to test if the drink can prove to be as an energy booster. I was quite confident, that a small quantity of 200ML divided between two people is not going to give an energy kick. I guess I was probably a bit wrong. I don’t know if my sister was able to pull her all-nighter(i just spoke to her briefly about her all-nighter attempt in the morning), but I definitely was up till around 1:45AM. I had plans to doze off by 12. So either the drink or the movie or both were the key ingredients in keeping me up till late. Maybe someday I might be able to skip the movie and might need to pull an all-nighter, that day I would try the drink and write another short description of the experience in helping me stay awake. That day I could verify if the claim of 5-Hour energy boost on a 200ML pouch holds true. Attaching a picture I took before having the tropical flavor here, since I knew this kind of packaging is really interesting and worth sharing here.

The drink had a very different taste (let me add; for an energy drink). It tasted a bit like mixed fruit(Funny, i thought it was an energy drink that was supposed to feel like tonic), with a little bit of bitter taste, (much less bitter than Red Bull). I am not clear on the composition; however, if Red Bull and Tzinga are to be compared, there is no doubt that taste wise Tzinga comes as a winner. I had thought that the caffeine content in it would probably be resulting in a much bitter taste, but it didn’t, and the caffeine taste was well, almost non-existent. However, it was very sweet; something that I don’t think is the case with Red Bull (despite Red Bull having a very high sugar content). Comparison with Gatorade will be a bit difficult since I have not tried Gatorade ever. I’m not sure how people are viewing this as an energy drink. People abroad often take Gatorade as a sports/workout drink to help with their electrolyte levels. Not sure how Tzinga fares on that front. Remember, I had the drink at late night, not the best time to test its energy level, unless you are studying/working late at night and need support to help you stay awake.

New Gmail & Facebook looks

Gmail and Facebook both are on an aggressive drive to change their look and enforce this new look for all the users. Facebook with it’s timeline and Gmail with it’s, well, weird new look. Both of them recently also had some updates to their privacy policy. And just like most users, even I chose to ignore reading the new policy. The same thing happens when im installing some software or registering at some website. I always end up clicking “I agree” button.

There are apps being circulated that help users with Timeline on their Facebook profile to revert to the old look. But many of these either end up changing the entire look and readjusting the whole display very similar to the old look, or end up not working at all. When I tried to help a colleague figure out how to revert to the old look, I read a bunch of pages on the net where people discussed that the Timeline and Gmail’s new will be implemented for everyone. Just like a compulsory homework or a uniform that you need to follow when you are a kid. In case someone knows how to fix this ‘BUG’ that might force us to switch to the new looks, lemme know, will you.

However, I still have not figured out why users are being forced to switch to the new look for both Gmail & Facebook. Can’t we have the option of retaining the old look? Occasionally users who have accepted the new look for Gmail, get the option “Temporarily revert to the old look”. Something that inherently tells you, “Dude, enjoy the old look while you can, cause when we force you all to switch, there aint one thing you can do”. This message seems so wicked if I may say. Just imagine, a devil rubbing its palms, telling you to enjoy the last few minutes of something good, and hten it will be taken away. Being the administrators, they can easily snatch the sole decent internet based thing that we are hanging on to.

I am not getting “Temporarily revert to the old look”. I guess it seems like the life support of old Gmail (and Facebook) enthusiasts has been discontinued. With Facebook, the major concern is “Over-Sharing” of information. One of my friends realized that some random guy was stalking her profile. All this because Timeline made her profile more visible to unknown people. Of course Facebook says that users should have re-tweaked their privacy settings, but hey you can’t blame a user who is taken by Shock & Awe. Lot of settings change, lot of things become really different. A recent survey indicated that majority of people are not liking the new Look on both Gmail & Facebook. What do you have to say Mr Zuckerburg & Mr Page. PS: please do not terminate my Blog page or my email ID.