Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Thanks to a tag.

Right I've been tagged. By one Aparajita. And I'm supposed to talk about myself. Time for self appraisal or more humble statements I wonder....

Ok lets hit the dirt straight.

1. I live on a few things. That includes, Music, Movies, TV shows. Love technology and cars. I have a dream garage of a dozen cars. Man I gotta get rich fast.

2. When there is a power disruption, I thrive on the more old fashioned habit of reading. I love books and love buying them. Sadly my buying power is still somewhat limited and hence my collection mostly includes a lot of duplicated versions.

3. Will kill for food. Good food. Will love the provider dearly. Will kill the creator of Onions though!

4. I currently, am a so called businessman, running my own content development team. Cut the corporate jargon and it means, I write stuff for the internet for a living. Any writers interested?? part timers wanted. Immediate openings!

5. I am a greenie in many ways and will try to recycle anything and everything. Yet I will drive my Dio like a maniac ignorant of mileage. Hypocrite? I am balanced! :P

6. I personally think am a very good driver, but make a really bad backseat passenger! I follow all road rules to the T. Seriously. Everything. Except the speed limit! :P

7. I will one day tour the world, just to take pictures! Saving up for that compact pro.

8. Stubborn. An Ass quite often. Crankily sensitive at certain times. Will ignore the world even if it was disintegrating during such periods.

9. Louves the rain. And sun. And moon. wind. and dark clouds.

10. Crows are fatally attracted to me. Guess maybe they think am not so full of shit yet or something and make generous donations on me and my vehicles. Will purchase an air rifle to wage war on them one day...

11. Will learn to shoot. Did a few times on my uncle's air rifle and loved it! maybe go on a GTA style rampage....

12. Started blogging out of an interest to be heard. Now lame reasons have added up which include earning Adsense money (55USD in 2 years, HEll yeah am rich) and the possibility of finding a significant other online! Ladies, tell me, does my blog in any way seem like a possible turn on?? :O

13. Have an inhibition to calculus. Especially Mathematics 3. M3 was truly more like MI3!

14. Academically weakened over time. Now struggles to add 1+2. Ahh Education. Over college rather. an 86% 12std mark became a 6.89/10 GPA in college! Ahh the inversion!

15. Thinks he knows everything. Maybe I do. maybe I don't. Try figuring it out.

Reading it again, now, I really don't know what I've typed and why I've typed it, but then hey its done and so it shall remain. Now I shall tag, Pranesh, Rya, Abishanth, Asha, Archie!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

New International sport!

The International Olympic Committee today announced the inclusion of a new sport in world sporting meets. The Sport know as "Shothrap" is an all new game that has been inspired from daily occurance in real life(Especially off late). There exists no exclusive governing body for the sport and hence the IOC has decided to take upon itself the task of governing all rules and regulations of the sport. The brief description given by them about the sport is as follows.

Shothrap is an athletic event on the lines of javelin throws and shot puts. It draws its inspiration from the basic human nature and instict to wield unique objects and propel them at a rapid pace. This sport shall test the athlete's ability to aim and throw with speed and accuracy at any given target. Parameters on which the performance of the athlete will be gauged include, speed taken for the given projectile to cover the prefixed distance and the accuracy with which the projectile hits the target. The Shothraper (object flinger that is) will have to exhibit inhuman strength and aim in being able to fling an irregular object to succeed. Initially, the given target will be a fixed object of some sort. But as the event gains pace, The Committe plans to bring the game back to its roots by using real people as targets, and shoes as projectiles. These targets will also be athletic participants in the event and will be tested on several parameters. These parameters deal with one's mental prowess and include being able to withstand repeated shoe attacks, identifying the type of shoe, size, colour, brand, stitch, height of heel while the object is being flung at them etc. And keeping in line with the strictest traditions of the game, the shothrapee(that is person at whom projectile is being flung at) will be politicians only. This will enhance international affairs as it will bring world leaders into direct active events which will test their mental strength and resolve while bringing them together to interact on a more casual and competitive platform instead of whiling away their time at their regular summits in air-conditioned rooms where they sit, eat and chat. Yes shothrap is basically an abbreviation of SHOe THRow At Politician.


Found this in the Hindu today morning. My inspiration for the above. I had thought of the very same lines a few days back....



Sunday, April 05, 2009

Nanobyte!

At last the people's car is here! and keeping in trend with the high tech society of India, Its called the Nano!

revealed to the world last year, initial reactions have varied from cute to interesting to modern. It does look exactly like how most predictions of future city cars looked like. Compact, spacious, cheap, efficient and decent looking all in one package. Lots of critics have been pessimistic about the quality of the vehicle, from safety, to comfort. But first impressions have clearly proved the pessimism to be just that. Pessimism. Clearly being launched at a 1-lakh price tag means certain draw backs will exist. Ratan Tata has mentioned that several times. But the game winner here is that, the drawbacks are in places where you will least identify it. the layman's requirements have been met successfully and that is where the success of the product lies.

The vehicle is not available for a test drive. Most motoring hacks have been given test vehicles but not the general public. This is due to the high levels of interest generated. Infact I dropped by at the local TAFE showroom where I know the salesperson well cos I bought a car frm them sometime back. There was a lot of fanfare with Aqua playing in the background and fancy strobe lights around the car. there was a huge crown mulling that I could not even see the car frm the road. It looked more like a party was underway! there was a security guard vehemently protecting the car from the crowd. No one was allowed near it. I was pretty amused by this sight and mentioned it to the sales guy.

Me: I don't recall this much protection for the Linea(a 7-9 lakh car!) when it was launched
SG: Yes sir, we didn't have this many people walking into the showroom then! In fact We've never had this much crowd at our showroom till date!
Me: But why so much security?
SG: Well Lotsa people keep coming in to look at the car and we've had some people keep opening and closing the doors and they broke the door on the safari! had we left the Nano unprotected we would have just the frame remaining!
Me: Right.

Anyways back to the car. it's impressive, hugely spacious and should I mention this; One car mag says it's easier to get in and out of the Nano than an S-classe! it's got the right features necessary and fits the right pockets. A first car for many families and a 2nd city only car for bigger families. In fact I hear many variants are in the pipeline including a 650cc diesel, and hybrid or pure electric car based on the Indica EV that was jointly developed in Norway. yes there exists an Indica and Indica Vista which run about 200km on a full charge purely on batteries. slated for production in Norway and for sale in Europe. It is expected to come to india sometime in the future. This technology may filter down into the Nano as well and then will make for a very good enviro friendly city car. it surely will be much better than the current Reva.

The launch of the Nano has made quite a stir on the international stage as well that, quite a lot of motoring hacks from abroad have dropped down to try it out too.

Autocar UK editor-in-chief Steve Cropley had this to say:
This is a car neither the Germans not the American could have built. They'd have lost sight of the cost and marketing objectives. The Japanese could get closer, but they've already had a shot and the resulting car costs twice as much.

Seriously, a tribute to Indian engineering Genius I have to say!
View the video reviews here.




View more videos on the Nano here.
You can book your Nano from April 9th till the 25th. But before that you have to buy an application that costs Rs300. I hear that nearly 500,000 applications are expected to be sold! That itself will cover quite some costs for Tata! Tata has stuck to its promise of a 1 lakh price for the base version which will total on around 1.2Lakhs for the on-road price.

On a lighter note, BBC Topgear say they've found the inspiration behind the design of the Nano. look below for that!








Quite inspiring don't you think! :D