Mere Dad ki Maruti 800

A few days back  my dad decided that the car he owned for 17  years (the second generation Maruti 800) needs to be sold off. It had lately been giving a little trouble, but the main reason was the lack of airconditioning. Delhi summers are unsparing to those who travel without an AC in day time. The car had been just like another family member. It was the car on which i learnt to drive, drove to friends, malls, my first job and late night drives. Needless to say, we were emotionally attached to the vintage four wheeler.
The last few days were spent on getting the minor issues fixed. So today while getting it thouroughly cleaned i felt a bit guilty of letting go of this car. I actaully noticed today how  beautiful this car is. Yes it is a little bit of trouble driving it in the heat, and compared to my own car, the Hyundai I10, it is highly under powered, but the 800 has been with us  far too long - when we needed to go for a family outing or to my exams  or to that friends place after school. My younger sister, who isn't even eligible to drive, commented, "can't I use it? I don't feel like letting it go. It feels so bad to see dad sell it"
But just like a father takes solace in the fact that his daughter is going to a good family, we also take comfort in the fact that our 800 is going to a decent family.

Last exam, reliving the first day

Today being the last exam of my MBA, some of us chose to celebrate it exactly in the same way as we did our first day in college. We went for a movie. Some might ask what the big deal is. Well, on the first day, when we had to run around, get a ton of formalities done in the college, a small group of people who barely knew each other decided to go to a nearby movie hall and watch “X-Men: First Class” (read about our experience that day here). Technically, we should have been in the campus, but we all thought, “What the Heck, let’s go for a movie”.

It was a good experience and a good memory now.

Today, I and a few other friends had an exam - Our last exam in MBA. I hurried, and left the exam hall over an hour before the scheduled end – only because I had to catch a movie. I said to myself, “What the Heck, I’m going for a movie today”. It felt like reliving that day (though with a number of variations).

Unfortunately, the movie we went to was “Olympus has Fallen”. A movie that reminds me that Hollywood movie makers are also humans. They make mistakes!

It was a bad experience and a bad memory now. But while I write the blog, I say, “What the Heck, it was with friends(Charu & Nimit), so not a total waste of time & money”.

And with this, I sign off as the student writer in me. Will soon resume as a jobless person sitting bored at home, followed by as a person taking a break from my career once again.

No to Nokia

During a recent debate with some friends over the sorry state of affairs in India especially from the perspective of women safety, the conversation brought up the case of private companies taking actions to ensure women safety. One of the initiatives being generally followed is that a lady is not the last employee to be dropped off in the cab or that there is a security guard in the vehicle in case she has the last stop. Assumption being that the security guard has probably undergone an extensive background check.
I mentioned how Nokia is not doing any such thing despite requests from women employees. 

How do I know this- because my sister was an intern with Nokia and their cost cutting measures were quite evident from the frequent changes of transport contractors without any proper checks. What did this mean? The cabs they provide to employees (including interns such as my sister) were changing every second day, with new drivers, ones completely unknown. No courtesy of dropping off a lady passenger earlier or sending a guard in the car. On top of that, the cabs used to come at around 7AM for the pickup. Thankfully it was summer when she was doing her internship. Had it been winters, 7AM would have meant fog, darkness and a situation where one doesn’t really feel safe. Why didn’t my sister raise this matter with the HR or someone else in the company? She DID, and then got shot down. Besides this, Nokia India’s desperate attempts to cut costs have eaten into the pie called employee morale. I will leave commenting on their survival in India for another blog post.

On the other hand, I was doing my internship last year with Coca Cola. The company took pains to ensure safety and comfort to its employees, at least in my opinion.

Long story short- Avoid working for Nokia, at least until they prove that the work place is not as bad as I have imagined it to be. 

Joan of Arcadia, reminds one to think beyond just 'I'

For the last few days I have been watching a series online called "Joan of Arcadia".
I had come across this name somewhere online and the only reason I took some interest initially was because I have actually been to Arcadia (in California). Plus, from my early days of Age of Empires, I remembered 'Joan of Arc', who I had later found on Wiki was a French 'Folk Heroine'.

So my curiosity got the better of me and I went to Youtube to check out some clips of the show. went to IMDB and found that it had a mediocre rating. But I still ended up watching the first few episodes of the show. The show focused on a girl who talks to God and God asks her to do things that lead to something indirectly. In short, she becomes the 'Instrument of God'. The girl Joan gets to see how her actions can indirectly lead to someone being happy or someone relieved of his or her suffering. The show is different. Definitely different from my usual platter of TV shows that I watch.

The drama-fantasy show is actually quite nice. It gives a emotional touch beyond just the typical drama shows having numerous love connections, heart-breaks etc (eg The OC). This show revives your emotional quotient from a more altruistic perspective. It borders on being 'sentimental'. Most of us, and especially me, are so self absorbed in our lives that most of the time we (again, especially I), think of academics, career decisions, and to a degree social standing almost all day long (Metaphorically of course).
And all these things seem so trivial when I think about how the rest of the world survives, feels and handles issues. I am reminded of my friends who have faced many more challenges than what I have, financially, emotionally, even physically. Watching Joan of Arcadia, I feel guilty for not being a better human being. And even though I resolve to do better while writing this blog-post, I just know that tomorrow morning onward, I will again be the same self absorbed individual.

Oh, did i forget to mention that I'm an Agnostic.

Well, I guess I can conclude by saying: You should definitely watch this show.

Last Resort: Military Drama at it's best.

One day somewhere in the month of Jan 2012 when browsing through Youtube videos, I came across a trailer about a TV series called ‘Last Resort’. It was a military drama with a Nuclear submarine’s captain gone rouge. 

The series was aired in Jan 2012 on ABC channel, and soon after we unfortunate outside USA got to watch it online. The first few episodes of the series were quite gripping, and then gradually it started losing steam with totally unrelated conflicts falling in the lap of the crew of the USS Colorado. The series had its moments of rising interest based on government conspiracies, mutiny in the Navy and crossing & double crossing between the crew of the submarine and the people of the NATO Early warning Station (EWS) based on island of St Marina. Geographically, I’m not even sure if and where it can be placed. The drama was truly gripping especially with the action sequences around the highly advanced nuclear submarine having new equipment onboard for going undetected underwater.

 

 

There are not too many shows that give you this kind of thrill, and there are very few shows with conspiracies involving the highest levels of the government. After the TV series ‘The Unit’, this seemed as a good military drama. 

However, unlike the occasionally slow and dull moments of ‘The Unit’ where there was extensive focus on the family drama of the special ops team, ‘Last Resort’ usually stuck to fast paced moments of gripping fever & suspense. Towards the end of the first season of ‘Last Resort’, the momentum started building up again after a little bit of slump. While watching the last episode of the season, it became evident that the season finale had been living up the expectations. It was proving to be simply awesome.

In an attempt to check when the season 2 would be aired, I googled online and soon realized that the series had been terminated by ABC channel. And since the channel had informed the producers of the show well in advance, the producers wanted to end the show on a high note. The finale went on to be a brilliant episode leaving die-hard fans (like myself) utterly disappointed cursing ABC.

The last episode had numerous moments of shock & suspense as the story raced towards of the end of the AVI file lasting a mere 41 minutes. Moments such as, or when the Captain Marcus Chaplin forces everyone off the sub to go down with his submarine in anticipation of the incoming strike, or the moment when the F-16s actually blow up the USS Colorado or when Kylie Sinclair (played by the beautiful Autumn Reeser) shoots the president of United States.

I had a remote hope that if I check online and find that a lot of fans are outraged, there could be a glimmer of hope for the revival of the show. And then I read an article (on http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11/17/canceled-shows-last-resort/). Most of my hope got washed away. And then I gave a long and hard thought to the way things ended in the last episode. If by any chance the show gets revived, what would we find? Chaplin is dead, XO Sam Kendal gives statement to the press in the US and would likely be shown serving time in a penitentiary (probably a high security one). Christine Kendal hands over the proof to the news reporters who then lash out to the administration and Kylie Sinclair gets arrested for killing the President. Conclusion: After watching the last episode, the show has ended at a point where any form of revival is likely to lead to a huge disappointment from the next part of the story. 

Someone else wrote, “All good things don’t last too long”. And if they do last longer, I guess they don’t live up to the expectations.

This reminds me of other series that I have liked a lot that ended on a high note. The Sci-Fi series called “Firefly” went on for only 13 episodes only to give the finishing touch to the story through the movie by the same name. 

I seriously recommend watching these three series, “Last resort”, “Firefly” & “Prison Break”, and if you like military dramas, "The Unit".

Dinner, HTC and Volley of words

When dinner gets planned on the fly, things often end up in a messed up situation. In our group of friends, Nimit is known to be the person who should not be messed with. He gets really mad when things don’t happen in a proper way. Dont get me wrong, he is not a spoilt sport and does enjoy the occasional jest, however, whenever he has given a commitment, he will even blast his friends if he has to in order to keep his word. So the evening began when the 6 of us decided to skip the Hostel mess food, most Saturdays you would want to do that. We all ended up planning to get back to the hostel to our ton of assignments/ jobs/studies and other commitments. I happened to be the only one who had to get back to my movie and I had put on pause before leaving. We had plans of eating at a restaurant called Pop Tates, however, due to some confusion, the 6 of us left separately in 2 different autorickshaws. We had plans of being in communicado to confirm exact details over the phone, enroute to the restaurant. When Nimit, Ganesh and I were in the autorickshaw, almost half way towards the restaurant we had planned to go, we got a message from the trio in the other autorickshaw that there was a change in the venue for the dinner. The new destination was an additional 15 minutes away. After that Ganesh and I became the metaphorical punching bags. At one point of time when there was a massive confusion at a three way crossing. The auto driver was slightly scooped and ready to step on the accelerator, but the only thing holding him back was our decision. He kept on reminding us, “Sirji, Jaldi bolo, signal pe khade hain hum”. The poor fellow’s requests fell on the deaf ears of the momentarily turned barbaric Nimit.

Unfortunately we were the only ones blocking the traffic and the scuffle between Ganesh and Nimit on the direction we had to take was taking a toll on the nervous little fellow the autodriver. The argument didn’t really interest me much, since I was more or less indifferent to the destination. In the middle of all the confusion, I happened to see the headlights of the new XUV500 with its headlights on. Being the over emotional person when it comes to automobiles, I asked Ganesh if the SUV had LED headlights. That moment somehow got both of them to shut up about the whole argument and take a step back. I’m not sure if either both of them were shocked at the absurd comment or were truly admiring the SUV, but I would hope that it’s the latter one. Soon when the destination and hence the direction was conveyed to the autodriver, he put the auto on full throttle and we were pushed back into the tiny autorickshaw seats with a sense of irritation at the rickety bone racking structure of Indian roads. For some reason unknown to mankind, Nimit’s volley of nudging was not to end at the three way junction. He continued to curse the other three members of the group who Nimit thought had taken it upon themselves to intentionally get the plans derailed. Words like “Irresponsible”, “scoundrel”, and “careless” were actually so frequently used that the autorickshaw driver also thanked Nimit for helping him mug up new words. Once we reached the rendezvous point, the war of vocals between Nimti and Anshul was up and we were cheering them to actually take a swing at each other. It would have been interesting if we witnessed Fight Club. Then and there I started imagining how the movie I had paused to before leaving would have panned out with Anshul and Nimit in the lead roles in front of the restaurant. I was zapped back into reality when another friend Tushar suddenly violently grabbed the collar of Ganesh’s shirt. It seems Tushar had dropped his High end HTC touch screen phone while playing Angry Birds and panicked that the phone was damaged. His mind was racing fearing the worst outcome for the phone even before he had picked it back up to check for any scratches. Only when Ganesh reminded him, “Dude, have a look at your phone and check if it’s ok”. As Tushar leapt at the phone on the ground, everyone in the group had their eyes on Tushar’s phone. Had there been a scratch, the rest of the evening would have meant holding the uncontrollable raging Tushar. It obviously meant that we would have to skip our dinner anyway. However once the phone turned out to be fine, the other people were more relieved than Tushar himself.

Finally the argument came to a closing when we all learnt that the restaurant had a waiting time for another 45 minutes. A situation that Anshul was sheepishly hoping to avoid and it also meant that Nimit would hold this over Anshul’s head for the rest of the evening. After a quick poll and we all decided to head towards Hiranandani. A place with a decent variety of restaurants and fast food joints that could satisfy the taste buds of all the crazy people in the group. However our dear friend Ganesh quickly suggested a new restaurant that he had heard of from someone. He made a few quick phone calls and we all landed at a small tiny restaurant where the setting was quite unconventional. The restaurant was split in two parts with a partition hanging from the wall making it look like a weird whole thing. It seemed shadier than the new range of dark aviator sunglasses. I wonder how Ganesh gets all his weird information. However, our deadline set by Nimit was scarier than the crooked waiter who was waiting for the order to be placed. Needless to say, we decided to order something and leave quickly. Anyway let me leave the details of all that part for another day.

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.