Dreams Do Come True

Diwali time - time for another flight to Mumbai and time for another airport post too. 3rd November 2018 - Saturday - Flight is at 6:10 am. I came a bit early to catch up with my office colleague and so I have a bit extra time to write. It was a very sleepless yesterday and no sleep at night too. I took a shot of Black coffee to help me be awake. I have been thinking about this post for a very long time and finally I write it and hopefully I'll finish and publish it too.

What was once a Dream - this is about the things and/or events which were once upon a time a dream (wish) for me and which materialised.

- - PASSPORT - -

As a kid I used to say I'll just stay in India and won't go abroad at all. There used to be pressure sometimes that I should keep my passport ready since one never knows when the chance to go abroad comes up. Anyway, I dodged and delayed making a passport. I used to say that if a company wants to send me abroad then let the company make my passport, I won't do it myself. I kept saying this till I finished engineering. Finally I went through the process of making my passport in IIT, since the process to get one was made easy now. So where is my dream getting fulfilled here.

The company might not have helped me get a passport but it surely helped me in getting my first Visa and sponsored my trip too. A big thanks to Kartik - because of whom we won the Mahindra Auto-Quotient Quiz competition. The prize was a paid trip to Malaysia to witness Mahindra and other teams participate in Moto GP Race. So that's it - Company played a crucial role in my first foreign trip.

- - FLIGHT TRAVEL - -

As a child most of my long trips used to be to Gujarat and occasionally to Jammu and Kashmir. I used to travel to these places in train. I still travel to Gujarat in train - it is more convenient. I never used to dream about travelling to Gujarat or Jammu in train but I used to wish to travel in flight. I saw all the episodes of Air-Craft investigation on Discovery and that fueled my desire to fly high.

My First Flight and Airport Visit (Mumbai) - April/May 2015

My first flight experience was from Bombay to Kolkata for MTech admission interview. I had to book the ticket at very last moment since the shortlist for interview came late. I traveled with dad and it was a good amount of money that went into the ticket. I created self pressure to make sure I qualify so the the investment didn't go waste. Luckily I cleared the interview but didn't go there. Instead I went to IIT Bombay for Masters. Now a days I travel by plane whenever I want to go to Bombay. I pay a visit to home minimum 5 times a year. I have been privilege to make some abroad trips too. Now it's very very normal feeling for me whenever I travel by Air. Time to board ;)

- - RUNNING - -

I was never an athlete in childhood. I used to struggle in street cricket too. I could never play games that involved running fast or long. I used to catch cold and cough quite easily. It was only in engineering when I was around 21 yrs old that I had some sort of Asthma. Suddenly everything fell in place. I got the answer for my poor performance in sports.

After the First Full Marathon -  Jan 2016 - 5:15 hours

Marathons mostly take place on Sunday. Once I randomly stumbled upon a live stream of Mumbai marathon and I saw the happy and tired faces of runners. The sense of accomplishment of those who finished can be easily seen on their faces. 42 kms hahaha - running 42 metres used to be an impossible task for me. I always had a special respect for people involved in any sport, irrespective of the level that they played at.

So the turning point came when I realised I'll had to take Asthma pump for my entire life. Hell no, I was not at all ready for that. Slow and steady I started. I never had a clear picture that I'll be finishing the marathon in this lifetime. I can write a book about how I managed to dump the Asthma pump forever and do a sub 5 hour marathon, bit it is out of scope of this post. Long story short - I can proudly say I am a marathon runner. Ran first in 5:15 hours, next in sub 5 hours and third did not finish. It took time to get over physical and emotional damage that unfinished marathon did to me. At the end of the day, I have become a marathon runner.

- - CYCLE - -

Again going back to childhood days, may be when I was in 4th - 5th standard, I used to dream about getting a gear cycle. Those days there very few gear cycles available and damn costly. I lived in a flat terrain and so gear cycle was not actually required. Anyway, i had a very good cycle in school days and then I went to college. In college I hardly used cycle. Fast forward and then there is MTech in IITB. Having a cycle in IITB is very normal and I bought one as soon as I got into IITB. That was my first gear cycle. 18 speed. IITB has many ups and downs and so having a geared cycle made sense.

My First Road Bike - Fuji Sportif 2.3

After IITB I moved to Chennai for job and sold my old cycle. Here in Chennai and office is less than 4kms from my apartment and so I bought a basic cycle for commute. After year I started planning for Triathlon and started searching for good road bikes. It took another 6 months and so key turning points in my course of life and I finally bought one Road Bike. Almost 40% lighter than old cycle, 8 Speed, with Drop bars and so many things. I made many 80 km cycle rides using it and it doesn't feel a big deal now to own such a road bike.

- - INTERVAL - -

I wrote the above blocks on 3rd November from Airport but didn't publish the post. It is 24th November and i am adding few blocks which I feel is applicable here.

- - CAR - -

Again - another book can be written on it. To know more about my Car adventures you can go through - car-drives-so-far. Owning a car has always been a dream. Some of the details are in the last post and I am skipping that. Post that I hired a car with my friends and went to Pondicherry - road-trip-to-pondicherry. Then I drove in Mumbai - inch-by-inch. Then came a big break and I went to Euro and UK trip. There I hired and Drove Volkswagen Golf - One of the costliest car that I drove till date and also the first 6 speed manual car. In a nutshell - I drove many cars owned by my friends. I actually learnt on many of those cars - and my friends were patient enough to teach me good driving.

First Car - Alto 800 - Chennai

In the past para I told that I used to go to office on cycle and at times I dream of having a car and go to office in that. Cars used to go past by me and I used to be on cycle. I used to wonder when will I get a car and when will I enter the office in that. Finally it happened yesterday I bought my first car and took it to office too. Again there was a big role played by my office colleagues in various stages of my car purchase. A Dream Come True.

- - END - -

I'll end my post here. I assure you that there many more dreams of mine that came true and there was no particular reason to not include them. It is just that I these items are on top of mind and have been very close to my heart. What I expect now is you to click on the comment box and write few lines on your Dream Coming True. Lets get this post going on. Thanks for Reading and Stay tune for many more posts.

Inch by Inch

Entering Mumbai Domestic Airport Starbucks at 7 pm, ordered some cold coffee. Coffee came and we drank and talked and drank more. Suddenly it was 7:30 pm and coffee mug half empty and there came a realisation that the flight to Chennai is at 9:05 pm. 7:32 pm coffee finished and a sprint was made to get in the terminal on time. Your Bestie seeing you off at the Airport - one of the best ways to end the Friendship day. Readers, let me take you to my ZoomCar Journey in the City of Dreams - Mumbai.

If you go through some of last posts you will know that I was very excited about driving car in Mumbai. I have a Europe trip planned from 9th August with parents. My last trip to Bombay was in Mid-June so it made no sense to go to Bombay on first weekend of August. The fact is I always wanted to do a short weekend trip to Mumbai, booking tickets at the last moment and having an impromptu plan. Luckily for me there was some offer on Indigo airlines and I used it to book the current tickets. My total stay in Bombay was suppose to be less than 48 hours and so I decided to book Zoomcar for like 40 hours (Tata Tiago). pick and drop at airport.

to Chennai Airport -

My flight was at 10 pm from Chennai and most of the time I take a train for night flights because of heavy traffic. This time though I had two friends of mine accompanying me from Mahindra World City to Airport. They too had evening flights. We stopped in between for some snacks, A2B to be precise. A2B, Guduvanchery- I used to go there for breakfast on Mornings with one of my friend. So yeah, I had some fond memories about the place. Anyway, I had some 2 hours to spare after Airport security clearance. I made the most of it by writing my usual airport blogpost - Trip to Pondicherry.

to Sweet Home from Airport -

This was the moment I had been waiting for a week. picking up the Zoomcar. I had to struggle 15 mins to find the parking building. The pickup point is at the fifth floor of the building and it took some 10 mins to complete the checklist and take the car. I was tired and I wanted to be home as soon as possible. I didn't check the car thoroughly and didn't care to see if I had the car papers or not. Anyway, I launched the vehicle in first gear smooth and not stalling but the brakes were too sharp. Sharper than the i10 that I drove. As a result car stalled and skid little in the parking lot itself, making a high pitch sound. Troubles didn't end there. Another 5 mins it took to find the exit from fifth floor to the ground floor. Going round and round I reach the ground floor. here again I took a wrong turn and ended up circling the parking building thrice before entering the Western Express Highway. I was thinking if I made the right decision or not.

Once the highway, things were smooth and calm. It drizzled a bit and then stopped raining and then started again. Driving on the highway wasn't a big challenge since there was hardly any traffic at 1:30 am in the morning. I reached home at around 2 am and called my dad to help me find a parking spot. Getting a parking space in Bombay is tough, another 10 mins to find the spot and park it as close to footpath as possible. After parking I realised that I didn't check if I had the car papers. In the darkness I wasn't able to find the glove box handle and I concluded that I forgot to pick the papers up. However, I found the papers in the morning, they were inside the glove box only. parents initially didn't approve of me driving at night in Bombay that too in a rented car which wasn't in a good condition. The morning after the adventures night everyone was normal and calm.

some Small Trips -

on Saturday afternoon we had small family function in Rmall, Mulund. It is around 4-5 kms from my home. I took the car and with me I had my parents and uncle and aunty. Normally it shouldn't have taken more than 10 mins but it was a working Saturday morning and very close to Bombay-Thane check-naka. It here that I realised how much the traffic has increased in my locality and I never knew I could drive in such a heavy traffic. Going forward Inch-by-Inch. Launching a fully loaded vehicle on a slope has always been my nightmare. I had to do that at least 100 times on a stretch of 500 metre road. There were buses, trucks and some Mercedes and BMWs. I was scared of hitting a Merc or BMW. The first turn was a really tense one. I had to make a right turn and then a left turn. The distance between left and right turn was less than 20 metres, meaning I had to change lane really soon. Thankfully my dad was in the co-driver seat and I negotiated the junction. The main part was never letting the tense nerves get on to you. When I write this post, i don't feel that junction a big-deal now. But back then it was a real big thing. Over the course of next two days I went through many such junctions and never felt tensed.

On Saturday I didn't drive more than 20 kms. I couldn't have ignored my building friends when I go to Bombay. This time we met for dinner and then went for our usual walk.

1. Campus Hotel, Mulund with Nupoor and Aamod

2. CCD, after the Campus treat

3. in the Car

4. our famous Lokmanya Tikal Road, Mulund

We had dinner in Campus and went to CCD for some more fun. As I mentioned there used to be parking issue. Aster dinner I was suppose to park the car close to the footpath and that is when we decided to go for a spin in Mulund East. The Pic 3 is from that trip. Pic 4 shows the car in the background. This is the street where I stay. On the right is my building and on the left is Nupoor and other friends houses. It is only at night that the street is so empty. So this pic marks the end of the Day too.


Sunday - Funday - Friendship Day -

This deserves an entire series of blog posts. Anyway, let me start with the overview. Sunday - my flight was at 9 pm from Bombay domestic airport and I had to drop the Zoomcar by 7 pm. I was to meet my Engineering college friends. It was 10 years back that we met and started out engineering studies in Somaiya. Deepali was to come to my home and from there we were planning to go to Mahalakshmi Temple, visit Temple and pick up my Bestie and then decide the next destination. The trip was to start at around 11 am from Mulund. In addition to this I had to go to Ghatkopar with dad for some small work. So there was lot of driving to be done. The trip to Ghatkopar was good, I mean there was hardly any traffic. Smooth ride and I was back home. Dad seemed happy with the driving.

Finally at around 11 or so the big trip started. A day back i had checked the map 3 times to be sure about the route to Mahalakshmi but things don't always go as planned. I had to make a stop at Chandiwali (near Powai) and then go to Mahalakshmi. Once at Chandiwali, Google bhai said that it is better to take the Bandra and sea-link road and we just obeyed it. There some patches of the road that I had crossed during my marathons and this time I got a completely different view when I was in the car. It was on the sea-link that I had to suffer because of 80 kmph speed limit. It wasn't a suffering as such, but you floor the accelerator pedal and the speed just doesn't go above 80. Feels powerless. Anyway, it was wide open road till we reach close to Mahalakshmi.

Thanks to my excellent navigation skills, I made a wrong U-turned. I turned before the actually turn which we were suppose to take. This was the most exciting part. The main U-turn which we were suppose to take was a very narrow patch of road and there were vehicles, big ones coming from two other directions. No signals and no traffic police. it was all about being aggressive than the most aggressive driver to make the turn successfully. There were Mercs and BWMs all around me and I was too scared to go close to them. Judging the front Left end of the car has always been my biggest challenge. Again - Inch-by-Inch and degree-by-degree I turned and moved forward. Things get exciting after the turn. You need to pick your lane carefully and that is what my Bestie kept telling me. Basically, there are many tourist taxis on the route and they slow down the left lane completely. I got stuck behind one of them. Learning the finer parts of road sense and driving. Anyway, after some more struggle I was at the desired location :)

Oye kake Oye, Fort - with Shrutika and Deepali

Cutting the long story short. We had lunch in Oye Kake Oye. Good restaurant, especially the tandoori Parathas. From there we went to Nariman point, Marine Drive and Worli sea-face. We had some other places to visit too, but never realised where the time flied in our recollection of old memories - Travelling Down the Memory lane. We then spent some more time at the Marine drive before winding off.

Nariman Point

Sea Link Moments

One more trip was made on the sea-link to reach the airport. After dropping the car we went to Starbucks at Mumbai Airport. Most of my trips to Starbucks have been with Kartik and each time I have tried some different drink. Best (or worst) part is that I don't recall what I had ordered three or four visit back. Then Kartik and I made atleast three trips a day to Starbucks when we were in Malaysia last October. So yeah, Starbucks holds a special place in my Heart and taste Buds. What happened after coffee can be found in the first para.

Thanks a ton for reading till here. Drop in your comments and words of encouragement.

Happy Friendship Day to All !!!

Road Trip to Pondicherry

9 pm Saturday, after the ofice, me and my friends decide to go to Pondicherry by booking a self drive car. We have been planning a short one day right from the start of the month, many yes and no and finally we made the car booking. It was going to be my first experience with a self drive car drive. This was the time when I was still getting used to driving and this was my primary motivation to go for the trip. Rohan and Ajinkya steped in for the trip too, without whom I wouldn't have started off this trip. One funny thing about self drive - when self drive concept was first launched in India, I used to hear about it a lot from friends. I used to think that self drive means it will drive itself, meaning an autonomous vehicle. I was like Wow !! India has a high tech car fleet and I wondered why Tesla and other companies were fighting so hard over autonomous vehicles technology. It was afte couple of months that I realised the actually meaning of the term Self Drive.

No, getting into the details about current trip. We planned a single day trip to Pondicherry. 300 kms approx total journey. We booked Ford EcoSport from Revv (Similar to Zoomcar) from 4 am in the morning to 10 pm. We were not sure about weather to start the trip at 4 am or 6 am. Anyway, we booked from 4 am and the car was to be delivered near our society by the company. Surprisingly the Delivery man called at 10 pm and he was ready to deliver it by 12am. We were more than happy to take it early without any extra charges but we were sure to start our trip at 4 am.

Midnight - He came and he delivered. We took it and went for a 15 kms spin in our area just to get the feel of the car. That 15 kms was enough to make us change our decision. We decided to leave at 1:30 am. Now, we idn't had any rooms booked and we searched few online. Most of them had 11 am checkout time, which was suitable for us. Atlast we thought we will reach Pondi and then search. None of us had our mobile phones charged above 50 %. Parents were obviously worried because of many reasons but finally we both came to agreement and I left.

Rohan told he will drive to Pondi since it was night time and Ajinky and I were very much okay with it. So off we went. There are many routes to Pondi from Mahindra World City. Two famous one are - one from Chengalpattu and ECr road and other one was via Tindivanum. We crossed the Chengalpattu and in the excitement or what I don't know, we missed the Chengalpattu turn. We were determined to go through ECR and so we found a new route and we all were travelling on it for the first time. Only Google to our rescue. The new route was very remote and felt like a forest region. On one on the road except us for plenty of kms. At times it became less of fun trip since there was nothing aroud us for several kms. Finally we joined the ECR road and all was good from then.

We reached at around 3:30 4 am. I made few calls to see if can get any cheap rooms for few hours. Btw we had reached some beach by this time. It was all dark and we were not sure how close we were to the wters. We parked the car somewhere close and started searching for options. I was damn sleepy but my friends seemed to be immune to it. After half an hour of fruitful attempts we decided to sleep in the car itself. Car off, windows down, seats reclined. I had put an alarm to wake us at 5:15am so that we didn't miss the SunRise. We were chatting and also trying to sleep. It was cool and brezzy night filled with wavy sounds. We doxed off in another half an hour and had 30 mins of sleep before the alarm went off. It was the Best and most Refreshing Nap of the year. My friends too experienced the same. I was no more sleepy and the rising Sun filled us with New energy. We were on the beach till 7 am.

Now, morning time, we all were hungry and needed something to fill our stomach. It was not easy to find a hotel for breakfast. It was after 15-20 km of driving in the city that we found some place to eat. Also, by now I had taken over the steering wheel. I felt confident that I can drive mid-size cars too. Anyway, we were the first customers for the day at that hotel and got our food really quick. It was only 7:30am by the time we finished. An hour of driving more and we were at Zuca. Its a nice Chocolate shop, recommend you guys to visit. It is little on the expensive side but worth it. Some more driving here and there by Ajinkya and me and finally we were ayt Promenade. We had decided to have Lunch at Xtasy cafe and then go home. We were somewhat tired now. We reached promenade, roamed here and there and what not, just to realise that it was only 11:30am. The cafe opened at 12:30pm. That day we realised how slow the time goes when you actually have nothing to do.

It was getting impossible to kill time and we decided to go to Mahabalipura. It is between Pondicherry and mahindra World City. That was to be our Lunch spot. We reached by 1 pm, had some lunch and were heading back home by 2:30 pm. We didn't know our trip would end so fast. I drover almost 120 kms on my way back. It was a fine mixture of Good and Bad driving HAHAHAHA !!! Many of the things I did for the first time on that trip. Like Night road trip in a car and then sleeping off in it. Driving a mid-size car and that too for such a long distance. I was feeling little sleepy but I didn't tell my friends. They would have never let me touch the driving wheel if I had told them this.

Currently I am at Chennai airport and waiting for my flight to take me to Bombay. It is les than 48hour Mumbai trip. I always wanted to do this - have a very short trip to hometown. I am excited to meet my friends and something related to Cars too. Next post will have the details about my new adventure - Click here to read next post. Do let me know about your Self Drive and Night Ride experiences.

Recommended Reading -

Car Drives so Far

One From the Bar

One from the Bar

This one is from a Bar n restaurant.. it's bee a while that I wrote a post. I have two three topics with the sructstru in my mind that I want to pen down and publish. May be hectic schedule at work and equally relaxing atmosphere at home stopped me from writing something new. A glimpse of my ext post- last weekend I hired a self driving EcoSport ad went to Pondicherry. I drove some 120 kms back, my first long/medium drive, my first self drive car experience. Life has been good and I there s is a lot to look forward in August starting from tomorrow..

Few mins back there was a DJ playing and now it is pin drop silence since it is 11 pm. Today is just one of those many impromptu plans that we guys make on weekends. At 10 pm we decided we need to go an at 10:30 we had first drink on our table.. Fortune,it's some 12 kms from my society.. I have been here couple of times before too. Let me try to make it as one of my Airport post - An Hour at Airport

Things I see around, two tv screens. One is. Big projector one and I have no idea why they are playing an old IPL match. Second TV is the happening one. Some women's hockey match, it's far away and I am unable to see the score. Thanks light are dimmed creating a soothing ambience. There are some college students across the table and that's the only happening table. Others are filled with working professionals ad mostly busy in phones. Yeah yeah, I am busy in phone too just so that I can write this..

The next part - DJ.. DJ is just below the big projector screen.. I was just wondering what might be going through DJs mind. Generally there are people dancing and shouting and that serves as feedback and motivation, but how does he keep going here ?? Anyway, he is playing really good music, good mix of Hindi and English. The music is too loud to hear any of my friends. Just three four people daned for 5 mins and that was all. Sharp at 11 the DJ wrapped up ad aat 11:05 he was on his way back home. He might have been a student pursuing something in music and practicing and earning by playing here. That is what I can think about the DJ as of now.. btwTopics we talked on Office, College Crushes, old friends, planning next trip. Of course I can't go in details about the talk because of confidentiality and sensitivity of the content.

It's 11:35 now and we are the only group left here. 5 of us now including me. I am glad that our orders are still delivered.. Time to leave.. This was a small.post just to get starting with blogging again. Start tuned for net weeks some really interesting posts coming up.. Keep Commenting..

Good Night and Happy Sunday !!!


Recommend to read the Next Post - Road Trip to Pondicherry

Car Drives - So Far

Blog post has become one of the key aspects of my Bombay visit. Generally, I get to spend an hour at the Chennai airport after the security clearance and before the boarding the plane. Earlier I used to read books to kill time and I still do, but now I spend an equal amount of time blogging too. So what is this post about? Since past 2-3 months, I have been thinking about writing on this topic. Basically, it is just a short summary and/or story associated with the cars that I have driven so far. Before we start - All these cars are owned by my friend and none by me yet!

Let's start with the car on which I started learning to drive. I was part of BAJA (Off-roading vehicle competition) in my engineering college. Back then we used to design an off-roading car to compete in a nationwide competition. The entire team including the driver were pursuing their degree while working on the project. So yeah, I felt that I too could have been one of the drivers, just a small faint desire. Already there were established drivers in our team who did good justice but it is here that my desire to get a driving license reached a pinnacle and I enrolled in a driving school.

The driving school was in my locality in Mumbai and I was trained on Swift. Frankly, I don't recall if it was diesel or petrol but I do remember that it was blue in colour and a hatchback. Each session consisted of 20 mins and I drove it for 22 days. You can understand the level of skill I would have developed in such a less drive time. Anyway, this was sufficient to clear a very basic driving test and get me a license. One big myth was broken. I used to feel that one needs to accelerate and de-clutch at the same time to make the car move. Fact is, the technology advanced so much that I could launch a car from a stop without the use of accelerator pedal. I had to make sure that I left the clutch gently and the car would roll without stalling. So yeah - Sandy on Road ---

Getz in Somaiya - Akshat. My friend in college and BAJA teammate had a Getz and City too. He was a pretty decent and a very safe driver. I made many college trips in his car and at times I drove his car for 500 mtrs to 1 km near the college. The fun part is, I used to drive slower than the pedestrians walking by. That was like one real-world car experience where complete control of the car was with me, unlike learning vehicle which had two sets of control. Then few years went by and I almost forgot how it felt to drive a car and what was it like to hold the clutch at bitting point. Then came IIT, one of my professors had Tata Nano and Maruti 800. My professor didn't know the level of my driving skills and he was a good chap to hand me the keys to his Nano. Here I learned that how difficult it can be to launch a fully loaded less powerful vehicle. These were very short stints and mention here just for the sake of the record.

Then came a big turning point in my life. I moved to Chennai for my first job and also my first outside Mumbai posing. I met really cool friends here and I still keep meeting them. I can go to a complete book about the adventures with my friends here. Let me get to the point I mean the car. Mainly there were two main cars to talk about which I drove in the same era. Both were by flatmates.

Swift Petrol of Rohith and Grand i10 Sportz Petrol of Kartik. With the swift initially, I had some emotionally bounding and let me tell my bound just got stronger after the ride. Both, Kartik and Rohith are auto enthusiast and I learned a lot from them. Initially, it was the Swift that I drove the most. It was quick but at the same time wider. Rohith stressed the importance of driving slowly at around 30 kmph and learn to control the car. Back then there were no speed breakers in our society, Aqualily so I could drive at a constant speed and in a single gear. Main challenge there was the maneuvering. The lanes were just wide enough for one car and the majority of the turn were blind ones. It was with these driving that I got the confidence of driving on street roads. The second major thing that I learned on the road was launching a car on the slope using the handbrake. Earlier I used footbrake only. Now, there can be a lengthy debate about whether to use handbrake or not. My point is that one should know both the methods and I personally found the handbrake method easy and relaxed. Later on, I came to know that Kartik too used the same technique and I blindly started following the same.

Taking the Swift on road - Disasters at few initial outings. Now, Mahindra World City, where I stay is famous for notorious speed bumps. I used to go too fast over them which caused discomfort to the passengers and also damaged the underbody of the car. Then I learned to go slow and with that, I started to stall. I went through the worst nightmare - Stalling on a speedbump which was on a slope and there was a bus just behind me honking continuously. Now, if I stall once then I am sure to stall 4-5 times more in next one minute. I was literally in a panic mode and then Rohith is like - Relax and after a deep breath I was able to get out of the situation. Now, I don't panic anymore, no matter what the situation is. Earlier I was all attentive and in a very rigid posture. Now I am more relaxed and movements and gear changes are smooth. At the same time, I started driving i10 too. Next couple of months it was a good driving lesson for me with Rohith and Kartik.

Grand i10 - Kartik - As on date he must be having more than 10 years of driving experience and God knows how many cars. I tried to copy him and tried to be as fluid as he was. Soon I realized that it was not an easy task. He made driving look very easy but at my skill level, it was not that easy and smooth. Anyway, I tried my best to improve and I am sure I did. At times I used to take the car out for a ride at night, connect the phone to the speakers and enjoy a long chat my near and dear friends and long drive. Now I had started to realize the difference between brakes and acceleration capability of different vehicles. I could sense the difference in easiness of gear shifting across the different vehicle. Of course by no means, I am anywhere near to the expert level, but I am better than what I was when I came to Chennai. I have spent a great deal of my time in both the cars - both on the driver and non-driver side. Frankly speaking - this post isn't enough to write a complete story about both the cars. Some of the trips that I would like to mention is - Trips for dinner in our locality, then trips to Phoenix mall for movies, and one and the only long trip that I had was to Rameshwaram. At that stage, I was not yet ready for GST, ie highway driving. It was all local within 5 kms of my society.

Then there are other cars that I drove too. Polo - Jeeva, my colleague. My teammate owns a polo and I drove it at times when we used to go for team lunch. That car is really sporty, fast and worth the money.  Swift - Kamal, one of other teammate. His Swift was a diesel variant and I liked driving it. Mostly it was from office to home and back. I also drove it once to my friends home who stayed 40 kms away. There was no highway driving but the distance was long. The longest I ever drove. Kartik once showed me the real power of diesel engines and from that day onwards I fell in love with diesel power. Anyway, my first choice will always be petrol for no apparent reason. Time to board the flight. Will resume once I am inside. This was also the first car that I smashed it into another car at a very slow speed. Only few scratches were observed and nothing critical.

Then the famous WagonR - Abhijay. Abhijay was my batchmate in IIT Bombay and in Mahindra too. We both had a good 6 years of togetherness. Driving Wagon R was a completely different experience. Especially when taking it over a bump. I had to take care that it didn't touch at the bottom and secondly I had to accelerate it enough so that it didn't stall. I admit it, I don't rev-up the engine as much as required while launching it from start out on a slope. With this was the first car that I took it for a proper highway ride. Initially, it was short 30 kms ride in total on the weekend afternoon. Thanks to Abhijay for showing enough confidence that he gave me the keys to drive it from Phoenix market city to our residence. It is a good 35-40 kms stretch with few speed sections and few narrow ones. The highlight of the trip was that I didn't stall even once. That was the last major ride that I had.

I am really thankful to my friends who showed enough confidence in me and more importantly my driving skills. Kindly forgive me if I missed any major and/or minor Car rides. Kindly drop in your comments and your first car drive experience. Thank You !!!

Happy Driving Friends !!!

Bangalore Trips

Flying from Chennai to Bangalore in SpiceJet 3426 and this is the first time that I am flying in a twin propeller aircraft. I had a plan to meet one of my friends in Bangalore before going to Bombay. I booked my Bombay ticket long back. I was planning to travel to Bangalore by bus but due to some reasons my plan changed and I booked a flight. Today morning only I came to know that it is propeller aircraft, 80 seaters.

I am seated in row 8 and there are a total of 20 rows. Two seats on side of the aisle. I thought I'll get a good view of the wings but I was wrong. I am very much ahead of leading edge of the wing. On my immediate right is the propeller blade rotating at a very high end. All the aerodynamic flow goes for a toss once the wind hits the blade, as a result, there is a lot of noise at my location and vibration too. It is okay for a short flight like this one.

My flight to Bombay from Bangalore is at 7:30, means I have more than 4 hours to spare/waste at airport. It has been a long time that I last wrote a blog and I had planned to write one post while waiting at airport. It would be about my four visits in Bangalore and some memories/incidents leading up to the trip. I started writing early, as I said I am in flight and writing. You can see the view from my seat.

Trip One - 2010 - KJ Somaiya Engg college Industrial Visit

In engineering college, we have these long Industrial visits. It's actually industrial visits plus some fun and all. Our trip comprised of going to Bellary first. There we had 3 days Jindal plant visit. It is close to Bangalore. From there we came to Bangalore - ISRO visit, then Ooty to chill and back to Bombay. It was during this trip that I first went to Amoeba, MG road, Bangalore and played Bowling. It was a thrilling experience, especially when you get a Strike !!! All my friends were good and we had a fun time there. Remember, this was also the first time that I went away from my family for such a long trip and at such a far distance.

Leading to the trip - there was some fight I college regarding which faculty will come with us and will girls be a part of this. In the end management won and only boys went. This left a bitter taste before the start of trip. Everything was sorted out at last and it was a good trip.

Trip Two - 2011 - Virtual Baja, Mahindra

I never imagined I'll end with Mahindra as my first job, but it is good I got I to Mahindra Chennai. More on my job in some another post. Baja - an event organized by Mahindra (along with few more) for college students. In this, a team has to build an off road vehicle under certain rules and regulations and then the car is evaluated for different performance measures. Few measures are braking distance, acceleration, etc and if your vehicle has passed all tests it will go for some endurance race on an off track terrain. Fuck, what kind of braking was that. We have landed in Bangalore. Post to be continued later.

Bangalore Airport

I get down and walk into washroom and there is a housekeeping staff guy greeting you Namaste. The placement of tissue papers and the dustbin is just amazing. Then you walk in and you see so many charging points everywhere. Then there are side tables where people can keep their coffee mugs and all. Plus you have separate tables where you can use your laptops and charge it. If required you can also access the free wifi. I am currently on one such table. The tables are placed in such a way that you will be facing the aircrafts and runway. The cleanliness is too good and as mentioned the staff is very supportive.

Back to where I left off - Baja. Before we can compete in actual car event, we need to present our design and business case to the jury. If they agree, then we will go ahead in building the vehicle and then compete. So, I was in Bangalore for virtual Baja. Out of 25 people team, only 5 can visit and present in Virtual Baja. Initially, I wasn't sure of going. As always I showed some typically Sandy behavior, but at the end I decided to go. That is how I ended up in Bangalore. I don't remember the college name and all. I do remember visiting few places after the event. Some temples and gardens and what not. I went to MG road but didn't get a chance to play because of the huge crowd. Overall it was a good trip.

Trip Three - 2017 - LSDyna Conference

LSDyna - In my company we use LSDyna solver (mostly explicit) for our day to day simulations. There was one conference in Bangalore to update about new releases and have a client connect. It was on 27th or 28th April and I was in Bombay until 25th April. I was very skeptically about my nominations. I thought I won't get a chance to go but luckily I was nominated and I made it. We went by company cab - Xylo, 5 people from Chennai.

A day before the conference we had our own companies annual communication meet. It is supposed to be a grand event and no one likes to miss it out. In order to make to Bangalore before 12, we needed to start from Chennai by 6. So, that is what we did. We missed the second half of our meet and left early. That was the first time I went through Bangalore highways. They are wide and clear and flat. You can easily go at 100+ for 2 hours.

After reaching Bangalore, it took us half an hour to search our guest house. We reached and we all were tired. Now, next day event was at 9am and the location was just 15 kms from our guest house. So max to max 40 mins, but no, it took us more than 90 mins and that's when I experienced the infamous Bangalore Traffic. In my previous trip I may have the traffic, I don't recall much. I was too busy enjoying the journey with my friends back then. Here, we had a target time and we were racing against clock. Credits to the corporate rules and regulations, we were supposed to be in the office the next day of our conference. We left at around 6 and expecting to be home at 11. We trusted our driver since it is almost a weekly routine for them. Not this time, he missed one turn on the national highway and we landed in Salem. I am not sure about actual distance between cities but we traveled 180 kms more between Bangalore and Chennai as compared to the direct route. We reached post 1 am.

Now, let me go back one more week, I was not in the best shape of my health. I was having a cold, cough and some breathing issues. This extended trip just worsened my condition. There were just 4 of us while coming back from Bangalore and I took the last seat to doze off. It was not easy and I was not able to sleep. Either it was getting too cold at back or it was suffocating, depending on AC setting. There was no balance between the two cases. The conference was good for me. A week before the conference they had showcased something similar in our office which I had missed because of my Bombay trip. I write automation scripts for my team for Oasys Suite. Now, Arup is the company which distributes Oasys and LSDyna licenses to us. As a result, I was able to meet of the members of Arup's coding and automation team. Overall I would rate this trip very hectic.

Trip Four - Today - Not Sure What to Name

This trip to Bangalore is like Medal/Trophy on my Wall of Fame. Wall of Fame of what? Well, you can call it as Sandy's Crazy Adventures. I can write a chapter if not book on my Crazy Adventures and Tasks. Let me just focus for a brief moment on the current trip. I just saw the start of my post and you guys already know why I am at Bangalore. Why this is crazy - seriously, there was no need to take such a step to meet a friend. Some lesson learnt though. A similar lesson was learned last March during Holi. Not similar but exactly same lesson and it repeated that again and so I say Crazy.

That should be all for you guys as of now. It is around 5:30 now and so 90 mins more to spare at the airport.