I am a great fan of Fiat Palio. I owned one for the last 4 years before deciding to move onto something more economical like a Swift Diesel. Not that my Palio was a thirsty baby, just that it used to run on Petrol and given the way Petrol prices are I thought I should switch to Diesel.

You can read my older entry on Fiat Palio mileage HERE

I loved my Palio 1.2 ELPS extremely smooth ride and amazing handling. It took a really bad stretch of Road to perturb my baby. Most holes and ruts could not be felt at all, many were just a small sound, some were a bit of  a wobble but it took it in its stride without a jerk, jars, tail twisting or loss of direction. I could really throw it around the curves at 60 -80 kmph, without any fear, whatsoever. With curves I mean curves on Kerala roads, which are a bit more curvaceous than most.  I agree that I achieved the feat with 185 size tyres, which are a definite improvement on the stock 165.

Actually I was waiting for Fiat to launch the Grande Punto at the end of 2007, but that was getting postponed indefinitely, meanwhile I landed a good buyer for my old Palio and I decided to let her go, with some grief in my heart. I then immediately booked my next set of wheels in the form of a Swift DDiS. Immediately after my booking Fiat launched their own Multijet Palio. I thought that I should check out this vehicle before I take delivery of the Swift DDiS.

So I landed up at the Tata Fiat showroom in Cochin and the test drive vehicle was immediately available. I looked and saw this Silver Grey shape which looked similar to Palio.   Now the old Palio had a nice muscular, thickly curved bonnet, which lent it a very aggressive stance. The new vehicle’s bonnet seems to have been flattened a bit and the curves toned down, I think maybe to improve visibility. The grill looks good but looks like an afterthought rather than an organic part of the vehicle.

I opened the door and was greeted by a familiar layout complete with the Blue oval key. Only change is the Beige colour which they have tried to incorporate to lend a slightly modern look, but given the quality of plastic used looks a bit cheap actually. Cheap plastic looks better in dark Grey shapes rather than beige. If a company should use beige then the plastic should be similar to ones used in Chevy Aveo at least. Anyway……the layout is completely same as old Palio, they have not even given a digital odo/ trip meter. AC controls are same with heating and direction controlled by rotary controls.

Once I turned the key there was an earthquake and the whole Car shook once and then settled into a steady tak-tak-tak of a Diesel motor. The sound actually intrudes quite a bit into the cabin and the vibrations could be felt right through the steering wheel and the seats.

The ride quality remains as good as ever. Though the original fitment 165 tyres dont do much justice to the handling capabilities of the Palio. Under normal driving they are OK though, and the low profile of the vehicle and lower passenger seating helps bring down the centre of gravity and helps to hug the road . On Swift DDiS the 165 size tyres are positively dangerous, lacking in grip and frequently skidding under hard braking. Only when Swift is carrying four passengers it feels attached to the Road. So if you are normally drive solo on bad roads, the the tyres should be upgraded to at least 185/ 70, or drive very carefully.

The Palio gear lever is the same though I feel with a smaller and cheaper gear knob. Gone are the precise gates and slick shifting. The lever is all wobbly and the gates are wide and sometimes difficult to find. Engage the first gear and release the clutch and you need not press the Acc pedal, the clutch immediately bites and the vehicle shoots of the mark. In-fact it is quite disconcerting. There is very little gap between fully disengaged and when it starts to engage, which means that the clutch needs to be fully pressed before engaging the gear and that it may be slightly difficult in bumper-to-bumper traffic where I drive only with the clutch. Also if the clutch is not released very smoothly the engine can also stall, like I managed to do once, even with a 1 lac kms plus experience on fiats. Swift on the other hand have come up with nothing I have seen on Maruti before. The gear lever is delightfully short throw, with nice smooth shifts, which click in with lovely TIK sound. The clutch also is light and has a good gap between fully depressed and when it starts engaging.

Both vehicles pickup is awesome with huge tank like roar filling the cabin as you push in the A pedal. The noise starts to get bothersome  very early in the Palio and by around 1500 rpm in Swift and may actually intrude in the driving pleasure as I love to listen to some music while tootling along.

Once you have reached a decent speed you need to brake. The Palio brakes are powerful and have an immediate bite like the clutch. I feel there should be smooth gradient in the brake force starting with a touch to some hard pressing. Old fiats had this nice gradient. With the pressure you could smoothly vary the braking force. Here the pressure comes all of sudden. A peculiar thing which I noticed was that brakes don’t disengage immediately when I released the pedal. There was just a fraction of a second delay before the wheels felt free from the iron grip. THe sales person said that it could be a problem with this vehicle only. Swift’s Brakes are also quite good and have the nice gradient which I have mentioned earlier.

AC is good and does not affect vehicle performance much in both cases, but pick-up from low rpms in high gears becomes slow, but that is hardly important as it is very rarely that I need to it. Palio says 184 Nm torque compared to Swift’s 190, but its impossible to make out the difference.

Palio also has this nice double barrel head lamps which illuminate the road nicely, though in true European fashion are highly focussed, designed not to blind the fellow coming from opposite side. But in India we have lot of ignorant and arrogant drivers who drive with high beam on. Swift’s headlights are a nice cure for such drivers. It throws a very wide diffused high beam which can blind such drivers coming from the opposite side and motivate them to dip their own lights.

Swift for all its good looks is built quite flimsily with door panels that actually stretch when the door is closed. Something or the other keeps making a nagging rattling sound. The bumps which could not even be felt in a Palio are a heard and those that could be felt,  positively make a jarring noise in the Swift. If the road is rough when you are taking a turn, you might end up loosing control of your tail, as it bounces out tangentially. Suspension is very hard and 36 psi of tyre pressure in the front does not help at all.

Swift seating is high with a lot of visibility, which helps handle this very wide vehicle. The seats are OK though not as comfortable as a Palio. The driving position is also not very good. I with 6 ft of height have to stretch for every control if I adopt a relatively comfortable driving position. Palio’s controls are within easy reach, I could comforably adjust AC controls by resting my hand on the gear shift.

Swift may probably have little advantage in Fuel economy as it rides on bigger diameter tyres and has overdrive in 4th and 5th gears, whereas Palio has it only in the 5th. Palio though may have better city driveabilty, but with almost maximum 19 Kgs of torque (same as Skoda 1.9 TDi)  both vehicles can be driven comfortably in any gear.

Swift is serviced by Maruti, which has very wide network of fully equipped Dealer workshops and they have been servicing the vehicles for more than a year now, whereas in case of Fiat, all Tata dealerships have yet to get Fiat products and many still dont service them.

Multijet is a sophisticated engine and I would rather trust Maruti with the service than some Fiat trained Tata dealer workshop who is used to working on miniature truck engines.

Feature for feature Palio MJD wins hands down, with the top end SDX being almost Rs. 20000.00 cheaper than the Swift VDi. Come to think of it the Swift Ldi does not even have basic safety features like the passenger seat head restraints, Central Locking, Tachometer and prismatic rear view mirror and luxuries such as power windows and cigarette lighter, which even Palio SDE comes with.

Anyway my test drive was over and I decided to take delivery of my Swift DDiS.

First impressions of the Palio Multijet ?? It makes a lot of noise and vibrates a lot, I feel even more than the old 1.9 Palio D.  Even Swift makes similar sounds but they don’t intrude into the cabin until around 1500 rpm, which is where I do most of my driving. At least I could not feel the vibrations in Swift. Palio seems to have forgotten some of its good points, while Maruti seems to have picked up a lot..

As much as I loved my Palio 1.2 I cannot forget that once it took Fiat 2 months to arrange for a rocker arm, and all the while I had drive with a damaged Rocker arm. Its only a Palio that could have survived being driven around with a damaged Rocker arm and it could have been only Fiat, which could have left its customers in a lurch like that. I could have forgotten that had they come up with something superlative, but this is quite ordinary, even though it costs less than the comparable Swift.

So even though I am diehard fan of Fiat and my heart says Palio, my brain ruled in the favour of Maruti Swift in-spite of all the wekanesses, for the sheer peace of mind that comes with it. I will allow Fiat some time to grow and become more experienced in manufacturing, selling and servicing before spending my lakhs of Rupees with them  Maybe it will be a beautiful Linea…..or something absolutely ravishing like the Bravo. But that is in future

Arsenal is struggling at the top of the league. They were on top of their form a couple of months back but after that  other teams have learnt to thwart their free flowing style.

Come to think of it Arsenal score a lot of their goals by quick  and fluid passing right into the penalty area. How do you counter such brisk passing. Simple,  flood the area with bodies at least one will be able to get a leg on a cheeky pass about to be pushed into the goal. Thats what all the teams playing against Arsenal are doing. Even teams placed at the bottom of table have sufficient defensive talent to choke any Arsenal advance. Thats why they are ending up with draws against teams  10 to 15 places removed from them.

Arsenal is still pretty successfull in the European arena, because most teams the European teams have not played many games against them and are still as yet to learn the counters to the fluidity.

Other teams like Manchester United have incorporated both quick passing and quick deep penetrating strikes with long range shots, which is giving them good results. Arsenal players meanwhile are continuing to look for the perfect pass, which will enable them to score that perfect goal, instead of improvising on even a quarter chance.

Even though I am big fan of Arsenal and their game but they need to capitalise on even small chances, instead of playing ‘passing the parcel’ at the Goal mouth, if they are hoping to finish the season with a top spot.

I googled RDF and came up with all sorts of answers such as Resource Description Framework & Reality Distortion Field, which I think is a very apt for what I saw the other day.

Parachute, a well known brand promoted by Marico Industries is advertising one new ‘Hair Therapy’. Hair loss they say is caused by RDF. I have searched the net and came up with everything else but hair loss. To see whether it is something they have invented, i searched on Parachute+RDF and came up with Military sites related to paratroopers and other such junk, but no RDF, which causes Hair Loss.

I cannot remember the Brandname of the product that they are advertising, but I dont think its worth remembering.

The ad centres around 4 good looking women, who have been made to appear educated and independent. I wonder if the women who are as independent and as educated would not love to know what is this new devil called RDF, which is causing their hair to fall like dead leaves in autumn, before dumping the latest Parachute product on their already deteriorating pate.

They do show some very microscopic fine print in the ad at the bottom of the screen, but the women were so distracting that I could not read it.

Shah Rukh Khan appears on the screen and starts talking in his melodramatic best. He talks about this new Formula One team promoted by Vijay Mallaya. How this team is the best that could have happened to this country. How this is going to represent the dreams and aspirations of 1 Billion Indians. How India has arrived at the world scene, by having this new formula one team.

How is it a sport which barely anyone in this country follows or understands claim to have brought its 1 Billion on to the world stage? It’s Billion, half of whom; a staggering ½ a billion live well below Poverty Line, which means that they find it difficult to find one square meal a day !!

It does not mean that the other half are well off. At least 40 % of the other ½ a billion, a good 200 million, struggle through the day, trying to make ends meet.

Can Owners and promoters and Ambassadors of Team Force India, claim to represent such people who have hunger gnawing at their stomachs, disease in their bodies and worries lining their heads, when this India does not even have time and television to watch their exploits (whenever it is going to start).

The only people who have arrived are Vijaya Mallaya and Shah Rukh Khan.

I am not against having formula One teams but how it is being promoted as a pride of this absolutely impoverished country. How success and sheer wealth of a few is being represented as being one of the whole country. Frankly the way Vijay Mallaya goes around strutting his stuff is vulgar to say the least. Not to forget that he is also an MP of the Rajya Sabha. I wonder what kind of representation he is giving to Karnataka, in the upper house?

Shah Rukh Khan I thought was a man of integrity in the slimy world of filmdom. I thought he did things with his head, but No if you throw enough money, he will say anything on the screen.

Formula One as such is an unfair and elitist sport where the winners and losers are more or less already decided at the beginning of the race. What chance does anybody starting in the eighth row have of winning? What chance does a team who is using Ferrari’s or Honda’s last years engine has of competing with them this year?

How can a sport where people start one behind the other, claim to represent One Billion hopes and dreams? It can only represent those who are on the pole position, at the head of the starting grid.

Do they know what are the hopes and dreams of the rest of one billion ?

It seems they do.

Please read my earlier posts of Kerala Guide series Here & Here.

Sorry for the delay. I got busy with quarter ending business activities and there was no time to write anything.

Anyway some feedback asked me to give guidance on specific things as to where to stay and what to do? But Ithink I should not deviate from goals, which is to inform about the spirit of this land rather than the physical infrastructure, which is known to all travel agents and available in all guidebooks.

But still I should just give some hints to those backpackers, who do not travel without any plans and are frequently stuck on the street without any clue.

As  far as Hotels and accommodation is concerned, Kerala is well endowed. You can find a relatively comfortable Hotel (By comfortable I mean a relatively clean room with an AC) in any mofussil level town in Kerala. The tarrifs at these hotels is also reasonable, by which I mean that it is within Rs. 1200.00. Hotels near major tourist locations such as Alleppy, Kumarakom and Thekkady command very high rates. It is better to stay at these moffusil level places and explore the touristy spots from there if you want to save money. But if you have money to burn then there is nothing like a lake side cottage at Kumarakom and Middle of the forest KTDC Aranya Niwas. You can google these terms and get the results, since I don’t want to do any free publicity for these locations.

As far as service is concerned Kerala hotels are not very reputed and anything less than the very best such as the Taj and Le Meridien, the service ranges from bad to indifferent. Only saving grace at most of these hotels is the food. These Hotels are generally not meant to attract any tourists and cater to the vast NRI population, who support the economy of this state and need some place to stay and unwind.

Most of these small Hotels don’t need any advance reservation. Star accommodation requires advance reservation like everywhere else.

The profusion of these small but OK hotels means that you can have an unplanned back packing trip to Kerala, without worrying about getting lost or stuck. Most of these Hotels are respectable establishments if not very well run, which are suitable to take your family to.

As such this is a very peaceful land, with very little violent and petty crime. Most women go around with Kilos of gold around there necks and limbs, without anybody molesting them. This does not mean that streets are safe late in the night. There is always a risk of being harassed by heavily inebriated men. If you are caught on the street late in the night, the best thing is to make a beeline for your hotel. Don’t try to get off your vehicle and mingle with the crowd. Men who in daytime are peaceful and harmless beings, become demons after downing a few shots.

If there is any trouble approach the nearest police post. Police in Kerala is generally very polite and helpful, especially if you are an outsider. This probably is because lot of policemen and women are highly educated but have joined the force because of dearth of opportunities. Though the police are not very well known for their crime solving prowess they are sincere in traffic direction, helping old people, women, children and lost tourists, which is very important to us.

More Later

Where are we headed……

Three Cheers for Thackeray and co. who could not bear the anonymity of their Marathi Name ‘Thakare’ and changed it to sound and appear more distinguished and English.

Are these the same people who are appealing to Marathi Pride (or Inferiority complex)?  Do they actually know who was Shiv and what did he stand for?  Does he really know the meaning of ‘Navnirman’? So this young Thackeray did not get his share of moolah in the original ‘Shiv Sena’ so he decided to float his own gang of hoodlums.  How does he differentiate himself and his pack from the original Shiv Sena, who was already venomously xenophobic ?  Very simple….take your xenophobia to the streets, be one up on the Shiv Sena.

Things do not seem to be so simple as they are made out to be. Why is he targetting only the North Indians (People from UP, Bihar)…because these people are poor and powerless to oppose. They clean the streets, drive taxi’s & rickshaws, work as construction labour, carry head loads, sell vegetables and are literally carrying the city on their shoulders. They have virtually shunted out the more relaxed local Marathi out of the trades at the lower spectrum, by their hard work and sheer endurance to inhuman living and work conditions that the city subjects its poorest to. Very few Marathi’s with their pride (or conceit) will work these trades.

Some of them are second or third generation and have got some education and are now begining to bite at the white collar jobs that most educated Marathi’s held in Private sector and government.

Why dont these people target Gujratis, Marwaris, Parsis, Shetty’s……….Its not that simple…. they are seriously monied. Mumbai pays 60% of India’s Income Tax, where does this tax come from?? Its easy to attack a cart puller but very difficult to put a hand on an Ambani or Tata or Birla for that matter. Marathi mannoos will not have any where to work if these people shift shop.  And kind of corruption that we have in this country its not too difficult to understnad that nobody attacks the hand that feeds.

So at the end its about Predation…..Thackeray wants to survive in an increasingly divided country and polity and he does what is easiest ot do. Marathi pride is the only one he can appeal to. Kill a few street labour in the bargain damage a few properties and voila I have a political career !

So what is this Marathi pride and respect for Marathi culture? I for one admire Maratha Valour stemming primarily out of my knowledge of Shiv and the Maratha Light Infantry. I love their Pav Bhaji, Wada Pav and spicy fich curry and am titilated by Lavani theatre. I dont speak Marathi  but I know many North Indians and others who can.

What more does Marathi culture stand for to a common man? I wonder if even Thackeray & Co can explain that? Have Marathi people worked to popularise their culture? Who watches Marathi films? Who reads Marathi literature?

I think Thackeray & Co will do much better justice to Marathi culture by opening a touring theatre company.

So are we headed for disintegration of this country?

Gujrati pride, Marathi pride, Tamil pride, Uttar Bharat pride, Naga  pride, Oriya Pride, Bengali Pride, Asamiya Pride, Kannada pride……..the list is long. We have already seen the effect of Punjabi/ Sikh pride on this country and are bearing the brunt of Kashmiri pride……

DO we need any more prides?

Why dont these people die early deaths?

So my Dell Inspiron 1520, which I had ordered on 08, Jan, finally reached me 22, Jan. (Read about the Ordering here). A full week earlier than the estimated delivery time of 29, Jan, given by Dell, which is very good, but the the cynic in me was wondering whether Dell gives itself too much time to deliver the stuff.

Anyway since I am in Kerala, I had to make a lot of effort to get the machine delivered to me. First I found out an acquaintance of a friend in Coimbatore, and had the parcel delivered there. A person then travelled from Coimbatore to Pallakkad to deliver it to my friend,  who then shipped it to Kottayam in local transportation.

All this rigmaroll because Dell will not deliver in Kerala without a certificate of ownership (Form 16) from Kerala Sales Tax. The sales tax department will not release the  certificate unless you have a valid invoice, which Dell will send only with the Merchandise once you send them the certificate in advance. So we end up in a Chicken and Egg situation, which is very difficult ot get over unless you have freinds/ relatives in Tamilnadu, Karnataka or in Kerala Sales Tax.

That is a lot of effort for a Dell, which I am saying in retrospect after getting the machine.

The machine reached me in one large box, which could easily have carried a desktop late on 22.01.2008. I was eager to open the unit and take a look at the result of my marathon effort. I fended off the day’s hardword crying through my bones and pulling on my eyelids, to cut open the parcel.

Things are very well packed with accessories coming in a seperate compartmented box. The nylon bag which come free with 1520 is well built, but looks cheap, compared to the imitation leather bags that come with HP or Compaq.

The notebook itself is packed in a Thermocol box. I had ordered a nice midight blue colour for my laptop. The unit looks nice from ouside with lovely well finished matt blue color on the screen lid. There is a plasti-chrome latch to open the screen lid, which I thought looked a bit tacky and felt similar with a lot of play. The latch also does not hold the screen snugly with the body of the machine and there is a some 2 to 3 mm up and down movement of the screen lid even with latch closed. Compare this to smilar HP which does not have a latch and screen closes with a help of pressure from a spring loaded cam as you fold the lid and fits quite snugly.

Once the screen is open you are greeted by a swathe of pure brushed aluminium finish (or silver if you prefer). Palm rests are aluminium, keypad and touchpad are also aluminium. The screen is bordered by a thick aluminium finished plastic, the top of which holds the 2 MP webcam and microphone array.

So much aluminium might look good to some people, but I thought that it looks a bit cheap. The Windows and Intel stickers are also very small and unattractive and in my case a bit skewed and do not any value to the looks of the notebook. The palm rests though feels solid with little depression due to pressure. The screen also is tightly fitted with no sideways or untoward movement.

The keypad is nice with uniform key travels  and no sideways play. The touch pad is also quite good with decent screen coverage and dedicated scroll areas. The media buttons located on the front edge are again made up of cheap plastic, with each having a slightly different finish.

My unit came with a 9 cell battery, which I tested, lasted for around 3 hours 45 minutes while playing movies, which I think is good for a couple of hollywood flicks. With this battery the unit weighs a good 2.5 Kgs, which does not make it very portable. The battery itself is very snugly fitted, unlike some Vaio and Lenovo models where the battery moves quite a bit in its housing.

The performance is blistering with booting time almost same as my desktop. The screen is OK with good resolution and around 30 degrees visbililty angle horizontally. Vertically though visibilty angles are very poor with constant adjustment of the screen required with your posture to get the perfect picture.

The speakers are good though lacking in Bass and start losing fidelity at slightly high volumes, this though can be compensated by using excellent set of Creative ear-plugs supplied with the unit.

There are lot of proprietory Dell softwares come with the PC such as Dell Support, which essentially records your sytem configuration and changes to both hardware and software and alerts Dell everytime you log onto the net. This helps Dell have a fair idea of your system whenever you seek support. The Dell media centre is also good and comes with a remote and can be started without booting the computer, so that you can play media without booting the machine.

Dell also supplies you with all the CD’s of the softwares installed on the unit including the Windows XP (in my case), which I think is the first in the market.

Overall first Impression 

The unit as a whole feels well built with very little fan noise and limited heat generation. Looks though are not very sophisticated but not bad also with nice well painted screen lid. HP and Compaqs though with their Cool Blacks, Greys and sophisticated contrasts and Sony with beautifull finish look much better. But this beast offers the best configuration possible for the money paid. HP will take at least another year before they will offer similar configuration in similar price.

Read my other post on ordering a Dell here

Ok Now that we are on the ground and ready to explore this beautifull land, let me continue further.

 Earlier I mentioned the drinking habit of the taxi drivers. Well Taxi drivers are not the only drinkers in the town.  On the topic if drinking…….

Kerala has the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the country. Yes THE HIGHEST. They even beat the hearty Punjabi, when it comes to worshiping Bacchus.  

Alcohol is distributed by a Kerala government undertaking called the Beverages Corporation, whose logo is two arrows going up and one coming down encased in a circle. The symbolism in the logo is hard to miss. The shops will have this logo displayed prominently and there will be a big queue in front of the shop by around 6PM.  If you want to procure your own booze then ask for ‘Bevco’ and anybody will tell you the shortest route to it. The shops remain open up to 9 PM everyday except national holidays and major religious holidays. Most brands of Indian Made Foreign Liquor are available. 

Since the booze market is so big there is a lot spurious material available in the market. Though Bevco shops mostly sell good stuff , you should be careful if you are drinking in any shady bar. 

Toddy is another favourite drink of Kerala. It is made by fermenting juice from the coconut palm. It is nice and warming and not so alcoholic if taken fresh. Leave it over for a day and it becomes a hammer of Thor, to blast the drinker out into oblivion. It is cheap and easily available.  

This is my new series for those who are planning to visit Kerala in near future. Since I am from Rajasthan, which is a completely different country altogether and have become a naturalised malayali, I think I am in a good position to dispense free advice on Kerala to my less experienced brethren who might have a good fortune of landing here on business or pleasure.  

This not about what to do or where to stay. It will be mostly about HOW to do it.   

Some of the people would not agree with me or may have different views, to which they are fully entitled. This is only based on my experience of living and working in Kerala and is not intended to be the last word. Kerala like the rest of the country is fast changing and some changes may even surprise people like us who have immersed themselves in the culture.Anyway let me begin 

Landing in God’s own country : You can come to Kerala either by Bus, train or air. It is very well connected to the rest country with direct trains to almost all metros and mini metros and direct flights to all expect Calcutta. If you are travelling by land and coming thorugh Konkan Rail then the transition from Rest of India to Kerala is not that apparent,  but if you come through Pallakkad gap from Coimbatore side, then the transition is stunning. Previous station is Coimbatore which is surrounded by brown, dusty countryside and as you cross the western ghats thorugh Palakkad gap, you are greeted by the most stunning greenery to be seen anywhere in the country. Although it is mostly rubber and other cultivated trees, but still the transition is amazing.  

From the air also, if you are like me and love to look down and out then you will notice some clouds approaching from far, below you is the dust bowl of India and suddenly everything is green as far as the eye can see. It is very clear to make out where the dust bowl ends and where ‘Gods own country’ begins.Anyway once you have taken in a fill of the greenery from air and land its time to face the people. 

Language : Most north Indians consider this to be another state in south India where everybody hates Hindi and northerners and can be spoken only in English. It’s a big mistake. All schools in Kerala have compulsory Hindi up to class 10^th and given the popularity of Bollywood film and music your average Malayali is more likely to understand and respond in Hindi than anywhere in South India, except maybe parts of Andhra.Also Kerala has a huge expatriate population both in India and abroad. Most families have at least one person who has had exposure to north Indian or other cultures. Thus they have a somewhat cosmopolitan outlook, which is tolerant and more receptive to people of other cultures.  

If a person starts off in English, an average on-the-street Malayali will not be able to make a head or tail out of it, because after school he rarely uses English. Most signs are in Malayalam, government works in Malayalam, newspapers are Malayalam. But Hindi is a language which many retain, through constant bombardment by cinema and music. Also if a Malayali does not understand English, but if you insist on speaking in the language then he may even take offence as you will hurt his Malayali pride trying to expose his ignorance of the language. But most malayalis are proud of whatever broken Hindi they can speak and love to show it off to fellow Malayalis.  

Malayalam is very close to Sanskrit with many words common between the two. So a slightly sankritised hindi can pass off as rudimentary Malayalam.

Therefore if you don’t know Malayalam, then it is advisable to start your conversations in Hindi, people will understand and even if they don’t some Good Samaritan who understands will come and help you out.  

I was on a lookout for a new notebook. After extensive search and excel tabulations vis-à-vis price and configuration I finally zeroed in on a Dell Inspiron 1520.

Why Dell??

Well Dell came out with flying colours when compared for configuration against price.

My budget was around Rs. 55000.00 and I seriously looked at Sony Vaio, HP, Compaq and Lenovo. Acer and others also were in my horizon at the beginning but the exact configuration that I wanted was not available in my budget.

Sony looked good but had lower HDD capacity and only 1 GB RAM. Also both RAM slots are occupied by two 512 MB cards, so if you have to upgrade then you have to discard at least one card, which is a waste.

HP was seriously competing with Dell, but was coming with only 6 cell battery and a spare battery was costing +4000 Rs. HP was offering a Vista home basic, which anyway I wanted to remove and upload XP. The build quality also looked circumspect because the shell underneath the keyboard was bending when I tried a bit of pressure on the keys. Also 2 GHz processor was not available. The 1.8 GHz model with rest of the things same as Dell was Rs. 62000.00.

You can watch an interesting video here.

Lenovo in the desired config was also too costly and came with 6 cell battery with no option of an upgrade and again had Vista home basic.

So after lot of thought and web search I decided to look at Dell. Now Dell in India like everywhere else operates on a direct marketing model, which means that there are no dealers and resellers. You have to go to the Dell website or contact them over a toll free number.

One major advantage of Dell, which is not available in any major brand is that you can configure your own PC, unlike others, where it comes fully bundled and you have to take some of what you don’t like with some of what you do.

It does not mean that you can configure everything. Some features especially the bundled operating system is thrust upon you. Like Inspiron 1420 does not come with XP, you have to necessarily take Vista. Also you cannot buy a naked PC without any software. You cannot touch and feel the PC and have first hand experience of the features.

Also once the delivery comes, you will have to setup the PC yourself as there are no Dell employees or franchisees to do it. This can be slightly difficult if you are technologically challenged. But you have help in form of a toll free technical assistance which will guide you through the process step by step. Let me see how effective they are once I get my delivery.

If you want to take delivery in Kerala, then things are a bit more difficult as you have send dell what is called Form 16 of the Keraka General Sales Tax, which is slightly difficult to procure, but you can try your luck at the nearest sales tax office. Better option is to take delivery in Tamilnadu or Karnataka and have somebody deliver it here.

All these disadvantages are small when you start configuring. The price at the bottom of the screen automatically updates as per your choice. The final price which comes will knock your head off.

You may have to shell out anything from Rs. 5000 to 10000 more if you buy any other brand with similar configuration.

Once the configuration is done you can submit the same and a Dell sales executive will call you to confirm the order and take payment options.

The surprise does not end here as I pleasantly discovered. My PC with desired configuration came to Rs. 56900.00.  Dell executives are very aggressive when it comes to closing a deal and there is fierce competition among them. After firming up the order I called up Dell to confirm something and my call was transferred to some other executive who had not dealt with me earlier. He immediately latched on to me and wanted to close the deal immediately. I told him that my budget was only 55000. He promptly obliged and reduced the price to 55000.00. After some time I called again to speak to my executive to finalise the order, I got transferred to somebody else, who promptly offered me the same PC for 53000.00. I thought, let me play the game further and tried to get some more discount through other executives, but it seems this was the lowest anybody will go. So I finally closed the deal at Rs.53000.00, which is a complete steal over all the PCs and configurations that I have seen.

I have finally ordered the following configuration

1. Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 at 2.0 Ghz
2. 2 GB RAM
3. 160 GB HDD
4. Windows XP Professional
5. 9 cell battery
6. Nvidia 8400 graphics card
7. 2 years extended warranty and damage cover

 Other bells and whistles such as 2mp camera, 15.4 in screen,  remote, stereo sound, ear plugs, USB ports, DVD R/W, bag etc are part of the system. 

The Dell executives were very friendly and ready to offer discounts. The delivery time is 21 days, which is a bit long, but tolerable considering the discounts that I just received and that the machine is made in Malaysia and shipped here.

1420 model is being produced in Chennai, so that should have lesser waiting time

Now that ordering part is over I am looking forward to the delivery and using my PC. I’ll of course write my experiences for all to benefit.

(Read about the Delivery Here)

I have seen this print ad earlier. GM India’s head striking a pose and promising to the car buying public, guaranteeing certain maximum maintenance expenditure otherwise they will refund the excess spending, though last time they had an Indian President and Managing Director.

It struck me as funny that time too but didn’t have enough time to actually analyse the thing. Now that I am out in the market looking for a new car, I have given it some thought and here are my conclusions.

The ad promises maximum maintenance expenditure for 5 different models over a period of 3 years

Spark                          Rs. 12999.00             *approx = 13000.00

Aveo – UVA               Rs. 14999.00             *approx = 15000.00

Aveo                           Rs. 15999.00             *approx = 16000.00

Optra Magnum          Rs. 17999.00             *approx = 18000.00 

SRV (Petrol)              Rs. 17999.00             *approx = 18000.00

* approximate figures are my own.

The company still believes in optical illusions which makes 12999.00 appear as 12000.00 to people like us with deep pockets but shallow brains, but that is a different point altogether.

In fine print the ad also mentions that the expenditure does not cover accidents, natural disaster, racings, tyres, batteries etc…standard list of disclaimers that any self respecting company gives. 

Anybody who has kept a tab on maintenance expenditure should know that the maximum maintenance expenditures excluding the disclaimed list mentioned are too high. I have been running my 7 year old fiat palio and after 7 years it has yet to run up a maintenance expenditure of more than Rs. 2 -3 thousand in any given year, other than the disclaimed list of course.

Can you imagine a new vehicle like let us say Aveo- UVA running up a maintenance bill of Rs. 15000.00 in three years.  The company’s marketing honchos have in the same ad mentioned that the vehicles are covered by a 3 years/  100000 kilometre warranty.

Note that both the warranty and maintenance expenditure promise are for 3 years and run concurrently.

This leads me to wonder whether.

1.  Warranty does NOT cover anything so in spite of such a generous policy you can still run up a bill of Rs. 15000.00 in 3 years??

2.  The car is so shoddily built that it needs maintenance to the tune of 15000.0 other than what is already disclaimed and other than what is covered by warranty??

  

So what are they trying to accomplish here?? They have promised something, which they know will never happen so they will never need to pay, so without paying they can bask in the glory appearing to be such a caring company, a company confident about the quality of its products.

If what they say is true and you actually need to spend say somewhere around Rs. 14999.00 on maintaining an Aveo-UVA (other than disclaimed list), while the warranty is also running, then God help them and the poor guy who fell for the promise.

When will these guys grow up and get over the fine print and convoluted logic and promises, which don’t mean anything other than showing lack of ethics, knowledge, education and basic human decency? I wonder if they thought that a nice white American face promising us the sky will make us dance with joy and queue up at the nearest GM showroom.

Frankly they don’t have bad cars. I loved their Opel Astra and my friends who have bought Aveo are also happy, but get over it, come with something new and honest.

We have a rabbit at home. He is called, quite naturally Bunny. We got him by accident.

We already had a tortoise, which is a very low maintenance pet, as in it eats and sleeps in hidden corners and does its things out of sight. We call it (we don’t know its gender) Tooky 2. 2, because this was our second tortoise. The earlier one was called simply Tooky. It was the sprightliest and restless tortoise I have ever seen. We used to leave it around in the house and it would roam around nooks and crannies exploring things. One day when we were having a siesta, it climbed right on top of me without me feeling a thing. Since it was a curious one, it found an open door one day and made a run for it. It was never seen again.

So hoping that our second one will turn out like Tooky 1, we got another tortoise. This one was a total disappointment. It doesn’t move around. If we leave it alone, it will go into one corner and stays there for hours altogether, until we take it out for feeding. Tooky 1 used to eat out hands. Tooky 2 is very shy.

We needed something more energetic. This was the accident.

We just went out for a ride and passed a row of pet shops. My wife instantly fell in love with one chestnut coloured rabbit who was sitting nonchalantly a bit away from others, who were clambering on one another to get to a small bowl of food. I was totally opposed to having rabbits as a pet. I have grown up with dogs and I know they can be disciplined and they show affection and respond to simple commands. But rabbits I thought were dumb animals grown mostly for food here in Kerala, they smell a lot and create a lot of waste.  I could not convince my wife, since she was already in love.

Anyway we brought it home. Initially we thought it’s a girl bunny and used to refer her as such. First few days went in experimenting and searching the net about rearing bunnies. Finally by trial and error we came to know that she loves cabbage, carrots and grass. Initially we kept her in a large cardboard carton, which she promptly started jumping out of. She loved marking her territory, in and around the house using both liquids and solids at her disposal. Liquids we used to clean up quickly as it would start smelling, but solids were slightly difficult as they have a tendency to roll and get into unreachable corners.

Bunny was cute but was difficult to love as she didn’t respond to us like a dog or a cat does. She will sleep and eat. If you let her out she will make a beeline for the most chewable objects like wires, hanging linen etc. Then she will go around decorating the house. I hated her initially, chewing the modem wire, mouse wire, mobile charger wires and then I found that my wife will not clean up after her, so that came on my head too.

She was growing bigger and was regularly out of her cardboard box. We thought she needed some containment and brought her a large cage which was padded with old newspapers and wherein she could lie and eat and use one corner as a toilet. This was a very comfortable arrangement for us. She could not get out and all her waste was collected in the cage which we used to clean up once a day.

One day my wife decided that she was smelling quite bad and decided to give her a bath. The moment she got wet, she revealed her true identity and turned into a boy rabbit. All this while her (now his) secrets were hidden under his dense undercoat.  

This came as quite a shock to us but we decided to continue with the name Bunny.

So that is how Bunny was revealed; in a bath.

Bunny has been with us now far the last 6 months and over the period he has grown on me and changed all my perceptions about rabbits. Of course they are not likes dogs or cats, but they are smart and engaging in their own way. They are highly gregarious hence they love company and hate to be left alone, except when they wants to eat or sleep.

Bunny stays in his cage most of time, eating and sleeping, except in the evenings when he is let out in the yard to get some fresh air. Yard is his favourite place where he loves to jump around and frolic for no apparent reason. He also loves to nibble at different plants that grow in the yard. Other time he is let out is after we have had our dinner. Rabbits are the worst beggars, even worse than dogs. We cannot eat in peace if he is out at that time.

He just loves to run around the place with a few high and long jumps thrown in between. His favourite game is to jump over me, climb up, give a little bite, a little scratch and run before I can catch him. He can repeat this ad-nauseum, unless I catch him and start stroking his ears

He loves to be stroked and groomed, especially on the ears and the jowl. He loses control and goes into a virtual trance when we do this. He is very fair when it comes to mutual grooming. He can almost time it to perfection. If I stroke him for 2 mins, he will lick back my hand for almost 2 mins exactly, and then he will become restless again for more stroking. He has a very small and very hot tongue, which he uses liberally, though he does not slobber like a dog, neither is he rough as a cat. He will intersperse his licks with small nips here and there.

After all the grooming and biting is over he loves to just lie by my side with his back comfortably resting against me. He does this only with me and not my wife. Probably because I feed him and rarely chase him away from the kitchen.

He has also developed good toilet habits. Once out of the cage he will go straight to his bathroom and do his things in one corner and come out. I was surprised at the sheer amount of urine this 1.5 Kg being can carry. Sometimes he will get into his ‘marking rage’ and will try to make his marks by dropping little puddles everywhere, especially where we sit. But I forgive him his rages, for the sheer joy of watching him do his things, eating, sleeping, jumping around, grooming himself or just plain lying around. There is so much innocence and gentleness about him. His eyes are his most attractive feature, all round, deep and soulful.

Of course he is very soft and very warm, which make him all the more loveable. He hates to be picked up. He is I think afraid of the heights or the vertigo that he experiences when I put him down.

He is fastidiously groomed. Even though he sleeps near his own pee and potty, he never smells bad. He will spend hours licking himself thoroughly, even his ears. He will lick his paw to make them wet and then roll them over his ears.

 The joy of having Bunny is watching him, more than cuddling or petting him. He does not obey, he does not sit or roll when we tell him to. Sometimes he pees whenever he wants, wherever he wants. He plays when he wants, rests when he wants, but there is an air of dignity about him, with which goes about his business of life, an air of superiority by which he has accepted us as part of his burrow.

Normally I do not approve of starting another column with same topic, but here I would like to make an exception.

As I came back from work I found my wife happily going through my blog and sniggering away at something that somebody had responded to. On closer inspection it turned out that my earlier column has been noticed by the Whirlpool guys and here was no less than Customer Care head responding to my small column.

 He writes, “Dear Customer, Could you please let me know your name and telephone number so that we can arrange to address your complaint asap. Thanks!”. 

Anybody who has gone through the previous article will immediately know that the events in question have already happened and the refrigerator in question has also been repaired. But here is this highly educated gentleman who refuses to understand that. I do not blame him. He has probably tried to get the general idea of the nature of this useless column by reading the first few lines and concluded that it’s a complaint as usual….Ha how boring!!…why don’t people die before they complain……. He probably is heading the ‘Customer Care’ department, which is understaffed, overworked and underpaid and simply does not have the time to go through the full 1000 words.

Anyway he is apparently quite powerful as I received no less than 4 calls one after the other starting from bottom to the top man, the head of Customer Care of Kerala itself. It was fun to listen to their polite concern about the general health of my refrigerator and whether it has affected my emotional balance.

Apparently none of them had read the full article and were groping in dark what was actually that I had written and where. It seems Delhi did not send in the complete picture.

Anyway if they had actually intended to do something about it they should have responded to my Complaint posted on their website 2 months back or at least installed telephones that go to somebody’s desk.

So this is the end…..my friends of the whirlpool story. Let me pick some other ‘Customer is the King/ queen’ company to bash next time.

  

I was on a lookout for a new refrigerator as my old one was proving to be too small. So we decided to purchase a bigger model and promptly decided to make use of Onam season discount sales that we have here in Kerala.

Since Whirlpool is a highly advertsied brand  and we liked the looks and the price so we brought it home.

It was working very nicely for a week then suddenly one day the door hinge broke. I mean the DOOR HINGE, not anything even remotely high tech such as a compressor or the condensor. I would have felt better had some technology gone phut on me. No here was a measly door hinge.

Anyway I promptly called up the service franchisee here in Kottayam and they promptly sent a person to check up who promptly informed me that the spare hinge is not available and it will take 20 days to recieve it. I blew my top but since I am inept in Malayalam abuses I could not convey my true feelings. In present age of overnight couriers it is funny that a spare part should take 20 days to come from anywhere.

I decided to send a feedback directly to Whirlpool India and called up their Gurgaon numbers mentioned on the warranty card. I got sick of calling but I could not even manage to get an operator. I went high-tech and opened their website and lo and behold, they had a consumer feedback and complaints form, which I filled up and submitted with a lot of anxiety. As was expected I did not recieve any reply and am still waiting.

Anyway I was now totally on edge and decided to take up the matters locally and called up the service franchisee and poured all the venom I could manage in English and Hindi. He understood that if nothing is done he will face a court case and will get beaten up.

Next day the service fellow sent the spare, but which he did not fix properly, so that cool air was leaking between door and body. Again after some bouts of shouting, the fellow came again and refixed it, this time correctly.

So after suffering 4 days with a broken Refrigerator, I had my peace of mind.

Not attending to complaints and giving all sorts of excuses may be an indian trait, where consumer rights movement is not very active. But an american multi-national ignoring such a thing is a bit too much. They would have had to probably pay compensation to the customer for causing injury in US or Europe. I should have filed the case but I decided to save my 500 Rs. and some court time, the lazy bum that I am.

Probably they spend so much money on advertisements, branding  and salaries of their fat executives that nothing is left after that to do customer service.

Conclusion : Do not buy a whirlpool Refrigerator. At least if you are in India.

Arsenal is the best team in the premiership. For once we have a team in EPL that plays with the flair of the Brazilians, without too much fuss about style and selflessness and precision of the Germans. Otherwise till four years back when Arsene Wenger’ efforts started bearing fruit, EPL was mostly watching burly guys trying to push each other off the ball.

Arsenal has refreshed English footfall and turned the tables on people who thought bending like Beckham was the best thing you can do to a football. Now you have diminutive guys like Hleb and Rosicky scooting past large bodies in their path.

Only concern is their goal scoring ability. Many a times they are the better team but are coming of with silly draws at the very last moment. All praise to them for not loosing cool till the last moment, but why not convert some chances. Again they have started relying too much on one person, which is Fabregas, like last year when Henry used to score most of their goals

Of course as a ‘keyboard’ player, manager and a very active fan I am well within my rights to comment on how they should play.

The General has done it again, his second coup. For a country used to martial law and presidents wearing uniforms the reaction has been startling to say the least. We have these lawyers, judges, educated middle class and chic women dressed in equally fashionable hijabs hurling stones at police and army. In fact in most of the coverage on international TV you see only the intelligentsia of the country taking to the streets. Poor and generally downtrodden types are conspicuous by their absence or have they resigned themselves to their fate, which will remain the same, whoever is in the government?

A cynic that I am would think that the protests are stage managed and meant to give post General mileage to the protesting high heeled guys. But keeping that aside I really admire the zeal with which the educated middle class, the professionals, who would think ten times about getting their hands dirty, people who would carry on with the business trying to ‘Manage’, finding a middle path,  have come out enmass to protest against the General’s high handedness.

Actually General did this at a wrong time. I think Pakistanis have evolved. They got an education, have travelled, are on the net and learnt about the world more than Mullahs would allow them to, right under the noses of the Military-Mullah combine.

Compare this to Indian intelligentsia, educated middle class, Business class and professionals. Comfortably going about the business and even profiting from the rank corruption that is pervading our daily lives. Not a day passes when I do not see an instance of somebody making a quick buck out of somebody else’s misery. We are no better than a dictatorship or maybe a dictatorship of say something like Old Iraq, Cuba or even China is better than the stifling polity that we call democracy. The whole thing has become an ugly symbiosis of sorts. You scratch mine and I’ll Scratch yours.

A doctor who overcharges and over-prescribes is happy to pay a politician or a babu to get his measly clinic certified as a research centre. A businessman who has never paid any taxes is also too happy pay police to lathi charge his own workers. Not to speak of politicians, who it seems were born without souls. Corrupt lawyers, judges, babus, police, even some in the army….where does it all end. When was the last time we saw educated middle class protest against anything other than price rise?

Why should I blame others when I myself belong to the same group?

This column is about how to get more mileage out of your Fiat Palio. Why Fiat Palio. Because I have one and I have perfected the art of getting Maximum mileage out of the machine. The tips here apply to most other Indian Cars also.

Fiat Palio in India is a much maligned model. To top its gas guzzling reputation the dealers and company left the customers in a lurch. Last year I read a news article in which the head of Fiat India was proudly announcing launch of online spare parts ordering system, wherein the dealers can go online and order the spares. They can also check a VOR (Vehicle Off Road) button and spares will be despatched on priority. The cynic in me didn’t fail to notice that why allow vehicles go off road in first place. It’s a shame that a vehicle of such calibre as Fiat Palio is allowed to remain off road as some Italian clowns didn’t have time to maintain adequate inventories. OK Fiat bashing is besides the point which can become a topic for another article.

You would like to ask how much mileage I am getting in a 1.2 ELPS (petrol) , model which is marketed in India. I am managing 15 Km/ Ltr on mixed roads, which includes bit of city, bit of open highway and bit of hilly roads with AC on 50% of the time. My Palio has been delivering this ever since I am running her. This is very much contrary to the general feedback that I have from people that they are barely able to get 10 or 12. Recently my father-in-law drove the same car and he could barely manage 9.

What’s the secret? It is all very simple actually….. First you must know your vehicle.

Fiat is a very spirited vehicle and if you are bit heavy on the right pedal then the motor just revs on and begs to go faster.

1. You do not notice speed because of excellent noise damping, suspension and body work which does not shake or rattle as you rev up the vehicle, and you do not hear the engine until you have already burnt a lot of gas. Rarely any of us see the tachometer (which is the rev-counter).

 

So if you desire higher mileage then you must learn & practice as I have done. These can be applied to almost all the vehicles.

1. Do other things that they routinely tell you. Maintain good air pressure, service regularly, keep all fluids topped up and use good petrol. If possible us ones with cleaning additives.

2. Learn to be one with the vehicle, which is a slightly Zen concept, but just learn to feel the vibrations. Cars communicate through subtle vibrations through steering, seat & pedals etc. It is always not possible to check on the meters regularly.

3. Starting up : DO not press the accelerator pedal while starting, which is a hangover for us middle aged drivers who have grown up on Carburetted engines. The fiat and most other vehicles have MPFI engines, which do not need pedal pressing while starting.

4. After putting the vehicle into first gear, let in the clutch gently, feel it bite the drive train and then only push the race gently. Most cars including fiat are sufficiently powerful to take on the vehicle load without accelerating in 1^st gear. In fact I do not press the race till the vehicle has actually started moving.

5. Move into 2^nd gear quickly at about 10 kmph

6. Move to 3^rd at about 30 kmph

7. Move to 4^th at about 40 kmph

8. Drive in 5^th gear at all speeds beyond 50 kmph. Almost all cars including  the humble Maruti Alto, is able to pull from this speed upwards in 5^th gear.

9. Off course you may not be the first one of the block on a red light, but that’s not our aim here.

10. Switch on the AC once you have driven for about 2 mins.

11. In heavy traffic I generally put my vehicle in 1^st gear and allow it to coast with the pace of traffic without touching the accelerator. If required I coast in 2nd gear.Fial Palio can take this load with full AC. But it requires a gentle pedal if you are staring from stop with AC on.

12. While changing down shift from 5^th to 4^th only when you reach 40 kmph, 4^th to 3^rd at 30 kmph, 3^rd to 2^nd at 20 kmph, In a moving vehicle 1^st gear would be required only if you are slower than 10 kmph.

13. While driving uphill increase your gear changing speeds by 5 kmph to take care of momentum loss due to gradient. Mostly it will be very difficult to pull any decent gradient in anything more than 3^rd gear. DO not try to drive at 60 to 70 in 5^th gear at a gradient in full throttle. The vehicle might climb but after burning huge quantity of gas. As a thumb rule if you need to open more than 30% of  the throttle then shift down into lower gear. The vehicle is very comfortable at these speeds without any unusual strain, vibrations or noise.

14. I have specifically not given any speed limits as the Palio and most vehicles easily reach above 80 kmph with barely 20% open throttle

15. Someone might follow the speed  limits in each gear but still get less mileage. The key is acceleration. As a rule of thumb in normal driving do not open more than 20% of the throttle in normal driving. Allow the vehicle to gently accelerate to the indicated speed and then change up. Cruise with maximum 20% throttle, which is sufficient for 80 to 90 kmph on a decent road.

16. You can also open full and reach the indicated speeds faster but will also burn a lot of gas in the process.

17. Also there are other things such as anticipate your traffic and braking and drive accordingly. Don’t be surprised. Surprise leads to abrupt accelerations and braking which lead to excess fuel burnt.

18. For example if you are approaching dense traffic , let go of the pedal and coast to slower speeds and the drive on rather than running with throttle pressed till last moment, then slamming the brakes and again accelerating hard out of the traffic.

To sum it up the key is not low speeds, you can easily cruise at 80, 90 or 100 and still get good mileage provided you reach that speed gently without pushing too hard. In palio it is very difficult to know when you are pushing too hard because it is never too hard. You always want to go faster and the vehicle allows you to, without a hiccup or a stray sound. Key as I said before is to learn to listen with your hands and feet and your bums as you car tells you its time to shift up.

So drive gently and intelligently and see you mileage figures change. In the process you can also help cut on green house gasses emmision and pollution.

So Finally I am here, my first blog. It will take me some time to get used to the technicalities but I hope it will be worth it. Heard about it a lot, people say that you can let other people peep into your head without ever knocking up a publisher. Great…I have high hopes from this.

Hope some day far far away  they will dig up the fossilised wordpress server and I’ll be there to tell how it was.