Monday, October 22, 2012

Me Too Is Smart Now... :)

When my favorite Motorazr took a dip and I need to buy my W205, I thought it will be an investment for life! Life, if defined in 14 months, I never knew! So I needed to hunt for a new phone...

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Secret Rule Of Age!

I always enjoyed when someone tells me I don't look my age. Dress in shorts and  I will qualify for lower school! Not sure whether they tease me or jealous of me, I liked it. So when this fellow, a student, asked me 'Uncle, where is Central Mall' I was surprised. Do I look like an uncle was not my thought it was more like, is this guy blind! Anyway I gave him the direction and he happily said 'Thank you, uncle...'

In Keralam, to greet an unknown person, we generally use 'Chetta' ( elder brother ) or 'chechi' ( elder sister ) and it was always accepted. Most other places, uncle and auntie is the way to greet unknown and that was always accepted.

Until last week... I needed to ask my new neighbour about the visit from broadband company. And following the custom, I addressed her auntie. She smiled and gave me the information I wanted. I was happy to get a new acquittance. It lasted only few minutes. Till my wife with a big laugh announced that the neighbour was annoyed and conveyed in a 'strong' manner not to call her auntie! She told she might look like one and may have a kid going to school, but she in fact is lesser in age than me! I need to call her only by name! I don't know from where she found out my date of birth! 

Well, that taught me a lesson. Now, in order not to annoy anybody, I use 'excuse me..' It helps ;)

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Fluidic Overflow !


With the new Fluidic i20 released, Hyundai has upgraded their entire range of cars to fluidic design. It didn't impress me at all. 
The Fluidic concept itself, for me, was loud and cheap. Friends say, Fluidic Verna is the example of the beauty and aerodynamicity of the concept. Well, have you seen the arrow-shoot design Honda City ??? Though it was launched more than an year earlier, it look more fluidic to me! Any doubt ? See both cars side by side. While Verna try to shout out loud its dynamicity, City does that in style and awe... in my opinion, of course.

But that is not the thing that wondering me. Every Fluidic sibling ( from Eon ( the worst Fluidic model,  with thick and loud lines than it can carry on ) to the Sonata ) looks similar! I mean not only the Fluidic theme gets boring, how can they think a premium car owner like Sonata, likes to be compared ( even in look ) with an entry-level Eon ??? I won't. I would like to see the extra money I spent on premium car make it a different class. Well, one reason why Suzuki's Kisashi didn't work, as told, was the prospect premium buyer for a 20 lakh car didn't like to be served along side a 2 lakh car.

Having a theme is good. It defines the company - great. But I guess Hyundai is overdoing it. The double bean grill of BMW's or the crossed grill of Volvo, though are in every car, it was used more as a signature than the theme. Even the Toyoto line-up have things in common, like headlamp assembly or grille, but not two guys are made copy!

Or is it something like, if one design clicked, stick to it... Do not annoy the admirers!


Thursday, June 28, 2012

When One Ceases To Be Special....

Bondings are for a lifetime - or that's what I hope and expect ( though I know I should not ). To avoid disappointment, I make bonding rare. Mingle with all, bond with few. I know that is a stupid policy and I might have missed many interesting people because of my inhibition. But, to me, that helped getting wounded lesser. Still I get hurt...


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Domestic Blues

Anybody remember my pre-marriage post Helping Husband ? If not click that link. Too bad for me, things didn't work out the way I expected it to be. My hope of giving 'oral support' and frequent compliment theory didn't work. It didn't back-fire, but my hope of lazy life after marriage simply didn't work :(

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I Like To Write ....



I remember Amma bringing books for me when I was a kid. My favorite was '101 Short Stories For Children'. I used to like the story of 3 piglets, though I don't remember the story now! The stories and the world it opened made me admire the story tellers - but being one was never in my dreams ( not even now, because the imagination to create stories out of nowhere is not in me, all I can do is narrating the things I already know ).


Sunday, February 5, 2012

One Long Drive



Though the Wagon R became a part of our family for quite some time, her service usually limited within 15 km trips. An occasional 110km trip to Kumarakam is something she gets to fight boredom. And except one trip to Thiruvananthapuram, around 300km,we never had a long trip. So I was all excited when we got the permission to take the car to Bangalore, around 500km, and first time crossing state border :)

My parents, being the parents they are, didn't give me permission to take it alone. Got a driver friend, Girish who, though had strict instruction from them not to let me drive, bend it a little bit ;)

We started early morning. The easy route through Palakkad, Hosur was avoided because of the ongoing Mullapperiyaar issue. We wanted to avoid driving through Tamil Nadu, so chose the Kozhikode, Bandipur, Mysore route. Soon we realised it was a mistake...

Kozhikode route is in fact almost 20km less than the Hosur route. But, most of it, except, Waynad and Bandipur when we drive through forest, is through towns. Busy towns with narrow road. And lots of curves and humps. We hardly touched 40kmph those regions. One thing noticed was, everywhere, stray dog nuisance was on rise. They were doing all the nonsense on road and I ended up hitting one, though it was not a bad hit, I hit!


The ride through forest was good. Waynad forest - it was the ghat section and the hair pin curves ( Girish didn't let me ride there :( ). The beauty of the sceneries though was completely taken by the bad quality roads. Poor car was struggling to find enough space to roll its tyres and I was worried whether the deep gutters disturb its suspension / or whether its bottom hit the road and what not...
Bandipur stretch was a different story. It was wide roads, almost good too, but there were humps almost every 200m, mostly for the safety of wild animals. I remember meeting a herd of elephants during one of my night trip in bus, so was hoping (!) to see them then... All we see was elephant dung on the road, not the animal as is :).
Once we left the forest, it was again busy roads. But this time, it was a different story. Both sides of the road were Ragi cultivation. The farmers dry it on road, so that the vehicles will help the grain separate from the plant! But the farmers who spread and collect it makes ride slow. Was not sure whether the highway belongs to them or the vehicles ! One poor sight was the over loaded bull carts. The carts were so heavy that the poor animals were not able to walk straight. And their drivers were hitting them hard to make them move. I felt death may be the only escape for those poor creatures...

Once we were in Mysore border, we wanted to avoid Mysore city and was looking for the cut to Nice road. We asked for direction and ended up where we started! Then a funny auto rickshaw driver helped us. He was saying ' it is ok road, not nice road! And for that you may take right and go straight!'. Once we were in the elevated, supposed to be express way, we realise what he meant. The heavy toll was not justified. Though the road was wide, it was very much un-even. There was almost an inch difference between lines and during overtaking it was causing trouble, made us go slower than we should be. And the pot-holes - it was as bad as Bangalore ring roads! The directions to get out of expressway - it also was confusing. They say only 'Exit to Bangalore' and not which part of Bangalore! We, only guided by intuition exited on the third one and thank God it turned out to the right one!

The drive in Bangalore city limits was another episode. In no time I was wondering whether I made a mistake to get the car here. Pure chaos. Bike here never felt this bad. I was sure I will not be able to move even a meter in this kind of traffic. Anyway after a good 13 hours, we reached home. Not sure, whether I was happier or my driver friend, who sarcastically said, if I need his service again, shouldn’t fail to call him !

Anyway, car is here. Though exhausted, I was back with my wife. All I needed was a hot bath and a nice sleep...

+'s about the trip : The speed governor was not with me, so I could go beyond 60kmph
-'s : I was missing my Love, with her, the trip would have been a totally different story
PS : My wife changes herself between speed governor and Love on trips ;)