The consequences of driving SLOWWW....

(I'm back to writing about something I like best - Driving!)

I say consequences because my reasoning might not actually make it clear in the end if it's good or bad to drive slow, although it's purely a matter of choice. And by slow, I mean slow by MY standards, considering that I usually drive in the 70-100kph speed range even in the city. So slow here means in the 50-60kph range, or putting it another way, in the 4-5k rpm range, the usual being 7-9k and redlining before every up-shift. But anyway, here's the reason I've been committing this "act" pretty consistently since about 2 weeks now. My new year's resolution this time has been to-quite unlike me-extract maximum fuel efficiency from  my bike. No, wait, please don't laugh, I'm serious. I know its very much NOT in line with my reputation of being an adrenaline junkie on the road. But these days of recession and the news of an upcoming trucker's strike and petrol pumps going dry has made my resolve even steelier. Apart from that, my bike's engine has been running-again quite unlike it-unusually smooth, thus making it harder for me get the ohhh so yummy vibrations when I rev the hell out of it! The performance hasn't been affected one bit though, so I'm happy anyway.

So let's start by listing out the the advantages-

1. My expletive-meter (while on the road) has gone down a few notches. This is obviously due to the fact that I'm driving slow myself and rarely in a hurry, so there isn't a need to give the "move out my way you .........." treatment to anyone.
2. Same reason why I honk a lot lesser.
3. It gives me that extra second to dodge any potholes and speed-bumps. At my usual speed I hardly care about dodging any at all.
4. It gives me an extra moment to gaze at a PYT on the road without risking an accident.
5. I can listen to even "soft" songs on my i-pod while riding my bike. That's partly due to the smoother engine. And at my usual speeds, the engine sound as well that of the air rushing past makes it difficult to listen to any music at all, even with noise-canceling earphones.
6. It's easier talk to anyone riding pillion for the same reason.
7. I shake less because of the chilling air. At 50kph you hardly feel any wind at all.
8. When a friend of your's is driving say a Splendor or Victor, which cannot go as fast as your bike, you need to slow down for him to catch up. But with my new found enthusiasm to drive slow, my "slower" friends can always keep up.
9. While cruising at 50-60kph and in the 4-5k rpm range, I know I still have at least 50% of the engine power in reserve waiting to be tapped on for a flyby.
10. AND The most important one- MORE MILEAGE! I know that extracting a decent mileage from a CBZ is like trying to find the holy grail. But I gladly take anything better than I normally get. So I'm up from the usual 35kmpl to almost 42-43kmpl. Not bad at all considering that for the Rs.300 worth of petrol that I put in at every re-fueling, I'm able to make an extra round-trip to my office which is about 25km from home.

And the disadvantages-

1. It takes me an extra 15 min. to reach office, so I have to start early, which means waking up 15 min. earlier as well. Now everyone knows how excruciating it is to sacrifice those precious last 15 min. of comforting sleep on chilly winter mornings.
2. This I miss a lot - revving the crap out of the engine.
3. Wow...i can hardly think of any other disadvantages...damn...
4. Ummmmmm... still thinking...
5. Okay okay...that's about it, I can't think of any more.

And here's another "observation", I can't decide if its an advantage or not. I'm still overtaking 9 out of 10 bikes/cars on the road. I guess it means there's scope to go even slower. Nahiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..... I'm not even sure how long I would be able to carry on all this. Maybe till my bike itself screams one day "Abe aeee...ab chaleaga bhi? Kab tak chalegi teri ye nautanki?"

But for the moment, I'm happy saving a few extra bucks.

A Good day.

It was mommy dear's birthday recently. I was in the city of (kill)joy so I couldn't be there with her to celebrate. But then I had to send her a gift somehow. Daddy dear suggested I arrange to send her flowers at least. Living in the age of the Internet and telecom revolution helped a lot this time!! So I managed to get the no. of a florist in Noida and called him up. After taking down the delivery address and other details, he asked me what kind of flowers I would like to send and what is my "budget". I was not exactly sure of my "budget" so I asked him what options do I have. He said he had bouquets ranging from 1000,2000 and so on. GULP!!! was the only thing I could do at that instance. But then I thought it would be a little embarrassing to tell him my budget now. So I said that would be a little too extravagant and I could do with something half that cost. "Hmm" said the florist and then finally said "OK, that's fine. I'll have the flowers delivered in 30 min.". Wow! That's faster than Pizza Hut, I thought. Then I asked him about the payment. He said I'll have to make an online transfer into some account number he gave me. Shishir helped me make the payment (I sincerely thank him for that) and Mommy dear got the flowers in the promised time. The flowers really surprised her, and very pleasantly too !! And I felt good... All this strangely reminded me of the Master Card ad

Flowers for Mom- 550 bucks, Birthday Card - 100 bucks, Sparkle Pen - 40 bucks, Courier charges - 160 bucks.

Smile on Mom's face - PRICELESS !!!

My affinity with the City of (Kill)Joy

Its been a long standing association. Not that I've enjoyed any of it but it has been there for so long that I can't ignore it. The problem starts with the fact that mommy dear has been born and brought up in and around the city (she's not a Bengali!). There were days I was dragged along to my grandparents' place every summer vacation. So while other kids looked forward to enjoying their vacations, I actually dreaded them. I absolutely hated the dirt, pollution, weather, crowd, local trains, and what not(I still do!!). The days mommy dear decided to take me along as she went for shopping in Bada Bazaar (or Sada Bazaar as I used to call it, for it really is one of the dirtiest places known to mankind, or me at least) are some of the worst days of my life. True, I liked places like Nehru Children's Museum, Science City, Alipore Zoo, Birla Planetarium and ride in a Metro (it was one of the few places having escalators back then!). But they could hardly make up for the discomfort I had to undergo to reach them. Imagine a 5 year old being crushed on all sides while holding his mommy's hands and trying to get on a local train. Man, that was agony at its worst.

Then I grew up and mommy dear began to realize it was no use trying to convince me to go to the City of Joy anymore. I got good support on this front from daddy dear as well who shares my detest for his "sasural". He has been to the place only twice in 25 years. Both times he has fallen prey to extreme humidity and pollution resulting in his usually subdued asthma to resurface and ruin the entire trip. So, mommy dear seemed to be the only one protesting as I refused to go along with her. So it had been a nice and quiet 5 years or so without a visit to Kolkata.

And then, I got this goddamned job in this goddamned company which has its corporate headquarters in this goddamned city. So began my trips again. And at alarmingly regular intervals!! As much as I wanted to stay a million miles away, I had to come back to the place again and again. I've visited the city more in the last one year than I had over the past 22 years. Thank goodness the company guest house is in Salt Lake which seems  like a nicer and quieter and less polluted place than the rest of Kolkata which is more or less a complete mess. Here's more...until yesterday I was under the impression that my office was about 15 km. from the guest house because it always took almost an hour  to reach there no matter what the mode of transport was. But that was before today when I glanced on the meter in the taxi as  I was paying the driver after reaching office. And boy was I amazed...it read 7.0 km...I thought something must be wrong so I asked the driver. He conformed that the reading was indeed true. I guess you can imagine my shock as I'm used to reaching office in Delhi from home in Noida in about 35 min. during peak hours and its a good 25km. away. Need I say more??

The thing that keeps me going is the fact that I have a few friends who always spare some time to hang out and I don't really get bored after office and on weekends. I also have a lot of relatives here (remember its my "nanihal") so I can go to their place whenever I want have some good old daal chawal and alu gobhi...

Will continue narrating my other experiences in the city in the coming days. And by the way, I'm scheduled to be back to Noida this Sunday but I might just stay back for Haman's wedding on the 2nd of December. Hope to see you all then...

The mother of all K*PD's

Well, here I am in Kolkata spending a major part of Sweet November, all set to miss mommy dear's birthday and a few weddings, feeling really low, eating some trashy and lot of junk food, the worst part being, I don't even know what exactly I am here for !!! At least I have family and a few friends here so not feeling as bored as I initially thought I would.

So, last evening I called up good friend Nihit and we decided to meet up, the meeting place being Salt Lake City Center as its close to both our offices. We discussed about how our movie collections had soared phenomenally in the past few months, how Nihit felt lonely in Kolkata as most of boys had moved to Delhi, about the lack of quality chics in our offices. There also was this girl who looked like Manchester from behind, but a side profile confirmed she wasn't really her. Although Nihit told me that recent updates on her suggest that she's become a "heroine". Then feeling really hungry, we went to this Food Court, had some good Chinese food, chatted for a while and then returned to the parking lot after taking a paan. Just as we reached there, we saw 2 bikes with familiar looking reg. numbers standing side by side, one being silver Unicorn and other a blue Fiero. The Unicorn had Delhi no. and the Fiero had Kolkata no. Our first thought was that the Unicorn belonged to a junior, either JD or Viggy. But then, Viggy rode a blue one and what would either of them bring their bike in Kolkata for anyway. So we set our minds on the Fiero. Nihit suggested it might be Addy's bike. Then I remembered Addy actually had brought his bike from home during the final year, and it really was a blue Fiero with a Kolkata no. Nihit happened to have Addy's no. in his phonebook so he dialed it to just confirm. But Addy's cell was switched off.

In the mean time, a group came to the parking lot and they were standing right beside us discussing something and laughing and cracking jokes. Nihit and I continued to discuss possibilities about who the bike owner might be and I sat on the bike to rest my butt. All this continued for a while. Then a burly woman from the group came right up to us and pointed towards the bike. I thought she was looking for some other bike but then she pointed to the Fiero again as if saying "haan na re bhau...yahi hai...ab uthega ki dun ek ulte haath ka". And going by her looks, I knew she meant exactly that. She was almost as tall as me, weighed at least 25-30 kgs more and looked like a biker gang stud minus the leather jacket and sunglasses.

As Nihit and I stood there in stunned silence (the K*PD moment !!!), the stud rode away on the bike with 2 more studs riding pillion. And boy it was laugh riot after that...we didn't know what to say after that. Just a few co-incidences to fuel our imaginations maybe. But it was good fun in the end...nice food...remembering old times...a few nice chics around...and the grand finale...the K*PD !!!

(We even thought of putting our visting cards in the bike's visor so that whenever the bike owner came back, he could contact us. But we didn't have our cards with us at that time. So i had another idea. Why not put one of our passport size pics, that would be even better. But sanity prevailed and restrained us from doing anything silly like that or we would have had a lot of explaining to do to the STUDDD !!!)