Category: Reviews

  • A year with my TVS Wego!

    TVS Wego, the scooter of the year 2011. TVS Wego, my first ever vehicle.

    The Chits

    More than a year ago, I got my hands on this two-wheeler. I was confused between buying a Car and Bike, and was wondering what should I be doing. At home, along with Mom, Dad and my sis, we all made chits to decide what should I do. First chit was written “Bike”, second one had written  “Car”, third one as “Car & Bike” and forth one as “None”.

    Well you guessed it wrong, the chit that got picked was “Car & Bike”. Now to my amazement, I was finally able to buy both and the worrying bit was that I would need to look at financing both. I went to all possible Hatchback showrooms in Thane and checked almost every car under the budget of Rs. 3.5 Lakhs which got extended time and again as I was impressed by higher valued cars. One thing I was certain – which ever car I will buy it will have to be the top end model.  (more…)

  • Maruti should bring updated Gypsy soon

    Timeless classic that it is, Maruti Suzuki’s Gypsy has been a hit with off-road enthusiasts. Based on Suzuki’s second generation Jimny, Gypsy has been one of the favorite vehicles of defense personnel and those who are into Rallying.

    The reason why I am saying this is the recent success of Ford Ecosport. Not that Gypsy is anything like Ecosport, which is much modern and has all the latest gadgetry but an update Gypsy could bring in some cheer to enthusiasts and would find new buyers. One of the classic Mini SUVs that Maruti has in its stable, and still on sale.

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  • airtel advertisements scores again…

    airtel advertisements scores again…

    It’s after a long time I am writing about Advertisement reviews. Airtel has come up with another set of awesome advertisements. The last time they had released their re-branding campaign with an Airtel Endless goodbye advert which launched its 3G video calling services.

    This time around, they have managed to touch the emotional chord again, with four new adverts. And it is targeting Facebook users, Music Lovers, Devotional people and Business people with Email advert covering more than 90% of the users. The new marketing tag line is Songs, Facebook, Email and Devotional songs for one Rupee, Friendship Free!

    Catch lines in these adverts.. check the emotion running behind..
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  • Food… err… Vote Security Bill – pay now, reap later

    Congress’ plan to hatch the egg before elections is questionable. Everyone sees this as an opportunity to garner votes ahead of the crucial 2014 elections. Even more so since there is a NaMo mania creeping the countrymen and women.

    As I set my eyes on horizon for the next year elections, there are two things which are very clear.

    1. BJP does not have the strength of its own to stand guard at National Parliament as things are at present.
    2. Congress’ coalition politics still can work

    Food Security Bill would not have been needed if the existing bills worked the way they were supposed to work. The middle men are the largest beneficiaries – as things turned out with Ration and other schemes.

    As Sharad Yadav puts, “The beneficiaries of the schemes hardly get any benefits because of the middlemen and rampant corruption. It is hunger and dignity that affect the poor the most in the country”
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  • Increasing number of deaths on tracks…

    The recent tragedy at Dharma Ghat has brought forth the long standing issue of deaths on the tracks. The tragedy, which killed 37 people (mostly women and kids), is currently marred in the blame game between the Railway Board, Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP).

    Apparently, people flocked Dharma Ghat because the day being last day of the holy month of Sawaan or Shrawan. The local train arrived at Dharma Ghat was over crowded due to this event, and the Railways were aware of the crowd turnout. The railway station does not have a Foot Over Bridge so the passengers are forced to cross the tracks.

    As per their plans, all trains running that stretch were supposed to run max at the speed of 80KMph, however this was not informed to the driver. This would have helped to slow down the train in a timely manner and accident could have been averted. So clearly, the blame is on Railway Board.

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  • App Review: inTube – watch Indian movies for free on an App

    Pariksha Labs approached me to review their latest App in the market, and write about it on my blog. My first reaction was, while I have not been doing App Reviews on my blog, today’s smartphones are nothing without an App. So it made some sense then to add a new category under Reviews.

    So what is so great about this new App huh!

    inTube is a very simple, but highly effective app for its purpose. We all, at some point in time, have watched Movie Trailers and sometimes even Full Length movies on YouTube, thanks to large number of distributors cashing in digital media to increase reach and make access to Entertainment easier.

    However this exponential growth is lucrative for peeves too. They upload a different movie (one which is very less popular) video with a latest movie name to decisive users. This has happened to me many a times. Some times they upload the movie in parts split by 10 to 30 mins. This is a nuisance to the overall enjoyment of watching a movie.

    inTube is set to change that. And how!

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  • The craze for wild life, travelling and science TV Channels

    I am sure most of us have had faced this situation. At home, your dad / wife / mother / sister have all their time slots defined. At 8 it could be a serial at Colors, 8.30 at Zee, 9 at Star Plus and 10 at Life Ok (of course, for Mahadev). Do not go by the time I have mentioned, I never kept a track of these time slots anyway.

    And in afternoons, there is repeat telecast of the shows and your wife / mother / sister missed because there were seeing other ones which clashed.

    And I have to blame Ekta Kapoor here. She is the one who convinced Star to move Prime Time from 7.00 pm to 10.00 pm with Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and the likes. You know, they caused a drastic change in the lifestyle of people, and their bio-clocks. (more…)

  • Datsun is here, and it only gets complicated

    Nissan is re-launching the Datsun brand and it starts with India, one of the most looked out for among the emerging markets for global car manufacturers. For those who do not know, Datsun has a rich heritage in Cars and racing, but the brand Datsun was replaced by what is now called “Nissan” way back in 1981.

    It has been in news ever since last two years when it was first announced. The reason Nissan’s move has generated such a hype in media and among auto-enthusiasts is because of the brand they choose, and not what they are going to do with it. Datsun pretty much helped establish the Japanese car makes in the western world, particularly the United States.
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  • Places I want to see before I die…

    Places or events I want to see before I die – this was something I was planning for so long, but was never able to sit and pen down. Many thoughts, many reasons for these places or events to be in list of must do things before my immortality comes to an end. If you go through my list, you may find that most of the places you have not heard, until now.

    Well, I was in the same boat until I started reading an article-a-day on Wikipedia and often came across many places I have never heard. This was either through Featured articles, or random search. I am fascinated by these places or events simply by exclusivity of or rare nature.

    There are many places in the world worth seeing once in your life time.
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  • The Two Germans who championed F1

    Two of the most famous champions in F1 are Germans. And that speaks something about Germany. Both drivers dominated the world of Formula1 but never with a German teams. But outside of F1, some of the world’s best cars are also made by Germans.

    While Michael achieved his record of 7 championships of which 5 were back to back, Seb has 3 back to back and currently leading the championship tables by 39 points. Commendable. Sebastian had seen Schumacher as his idol while growing up and even has competed against him, a feat very few of all Schumacher admirers have achieved.

    Why am I writing about Germany and F1 now? Well, in a way it has to do with Mercedes’ recent improvement in performance and me liking towards Nico Rosberg. I liked Nico ever since he was at Williams, and the reason why I paid attention to Williams F1 was in part due to Royal Bank of Scotland’s sponsorship – my then employers – and followed him to Mercedes F1 team. I also started liking another German, Nico Hulkenberg, after he raced for Force India F1 (my current favorites). (more…)

  • My First ever Xtreme Drive: Safari Storme

    Call it the Call of Duty or Meeting a Beast. You can pick one, but both, I did with pleasure.

    The new IndiBlogger meet in Mumbai had something never seen or experienced before at any previous meets. As with every IndiMeets, I set off on my trusted and abused TVS Wego from Dombivali to Andheri Chitrakoot Grounds via Mankhurd for a stopover at my in-laws. Oh yes guys, I recently got married to my love of my life.

    Riding the Wego with Pillion for 36 Kilometers and then solo for the next 24.7 KMS was as always pleasure. For me, this was kind of an extreme drive (ride if you so wish) through horrible traffic as always. The longest I have ridden is for 125 kilometers, but more on that in an upcoming post.

    The Backdrop stage
    The Backdrop stage

    IndiBlogger has been an extended family for me. Almost all meets in Mumbai and you can expect me to be there, standing with the IndiTeam and running around. Well, you are forgiven to think I am part of the IndiTeam! I get those feedbacks from people about the meet thinking I am from the IndiTeam, even after I told them many times over in the past meets that I am not part of the IndiTeam itself.

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  • Aviation woes

    Aviation woes

    Having followed two of country’s biggest aviation debacles of this decade, I have started accepting the fact that they may not last long. Of the two, Kingfisher is already in doldrums and I have already covered it many a times on my blog. And the other one is Air India.

    Why Air India now? Because I was just imagining what if today’s Air India was not backed by Government? It will just exactly be another Kingfisher.

    What is plaguing aviation sector in India today? Is it higher fuel costs or inefficiency? If it was the former, then how come IndiGo Airlines is in profits today after just 6 years into its operations and also be the market leader? Jet Airways had always ruled the roost in India and is on top during last two decades among Private airlines and to topple them, you need meat! And thats exactly what IndiGo did.

    What makes the airline different? For starters, it only uses one type of Aircraft, the Airbus A320. This keeps its cost in check and second, has outsourced its aircraft maintenance operations to SriLankan Engineering, a subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines. This is due to excessive taxations imposed on local MRO providers. Then it sticks to its low cost model and really does not experiment out of its core operations or have a business class on its planes. Except for its IndiGo plus services which offer on board meal and predefined seating at a small fee. While keeping the costs low, it has a very strong emphasis on on-time performance which makes it really likable for a frequent traveller. And hardly comments have come my way about rude IndiGo staff or unsatisfactory services as compared to other airlines, including Jet.

    What surprises me even more is the fact that Indigo is rapidly expanding its fleet at the same time and is currently adding a new A320 every 6 weeks!

    Now think about this with Air India and Kingfisher, both Airlines currently in doldrums while former is walking on a blanket of tax payer’s money. Air India has both Airbus and Boeing Fleet for its operations and Kingfisher is operating Airbus and ATRs, with a Boeing 727 exclusively used for UB Group. The maintenance costs for multi-make aircrafts goes significantly up as the airline has to hire specialists for a type of air craft or invest in months of training for its engineers. Air India has multi-make Aircrafts for political reasons too. India has been promoting foreign investment in India by the manufacturer in exchange of confirm orders for Airbus or Boeing.

    I am reiterating my earlier post about Air India and its treatment of employees, its Internal customers. And Kingfisher is just following suit. Strikes, delay in payments. I wish to see the aviation sector continue to grow. And I will read these very words back again.

    Feature Picture: Stock.Exchange

  • Aviation: a century and a decade

    Aviation: a century and a decade

    What led me to write about it? I stumbled upon a wikipedia article on Concorde and had the time to read it through. The most interesting part is what I read afterwards. Over the coming weeks, I am planning to research a bit about these and compose them for all of us to read. I am sure this is going to be interesting for all of you here.

    The Wright Brothers were the first ones to be able to commercially build an aircraft as we know today, but our history is star studded with aviators of folkfare. Leonardo DaVinci, Issac Newton and instances or references to those in Indian vedics who enabled Lord Rama and Ravan to fly across seas are just a few examples.

    But that is not I am thinking right now. There are already many who have read and written about them. I am more amazed by the fact that having formally invented an aircraft for our industralized age in 1900’s from non existance, we still had pioneers who started thinking about Supersonics in early 1950’s. A Boeing 747 was planned nd the first model manufactured by late 1960’s and it still rules the roost. And dont even think that by 2025 an Airbus A380 will be grounded. And now what I read is by 2050, we will possibly see a hypersonic (breaching speeds of Mach 8) aircraft.

    Can you imagine a world that has grown so fast. Consider space exploration for example where what was invented in 1970 is what we are using today. Or for that matter, this very medium. Internet. Being invented in 1990’s it has grown so fast.

    Whats truly amazing about avaiation is that it has enable humas to fly, and travel at twice the speed of sound.