Cool Journeys, unforgetable memories

We brought home the nano in November 2011, but we did not do many outings until April. Being a new driver and living in Ahmedabad where traffic habits are a bit am.. different, I was afraid to drive her, so I basically did journeys to my hometown.

By April, I had made a few highway journeys under watchful eyes, drove her to office a few times, so I was confident. Vacation started and pressure to go out every week-end started building up. I had purchased the nano cx - the base AC version, mainly for week-end outings, so be it winter or summer, outing to hona hi tha.

My hometown trips were 2 hours trips and return the next day. Going used to be in the morning. Return used to be in afternoons, but we did not really use the AC since I liked to give hand signals to other drives for sides and all.

Then we started half day outings. Trips to Modhera sun temple and Vadnagar, return trip was always in afternoons and we had to turn the AC on. This not only gave us cooler ride, but also gave a quieter cabin. When we stopped by Tropic of Cancer for a photograph, we realized how hot it was outside and how cool it was inside the nano.

The trip to Lothal was early afternoon to late afternoon. We started at around 10:30 am and returned at around 4 pm. In this trip, we were 4 adults, 2 kids and one infant. Nano gave everyone cool and comfortable time. My cousin and his younger son were sleeping in the front seat, kids kept on playing and ladies kept on talking through out the journey. They realized only when we were back home "Le, ghar aavi gayu?" meaning "Oh, we have reached home?"

The visit to Nal Sarovar was full of surprises. As usual I forgot a left turn, and we passed by Tata Motor's Sanand Plant where my car was born!! We traveled an additional 30 km through a state highway where we spotted a hurd of Neelgai and took a few pictures of my nano. We reached Nal Sarovar after a journey of around 2 and a half hour, at around 12 noon. Return journey of around an hour and half, was once again under the bright afternoon Sun, but we three were cool inside our nano, at around 70 kmph, AC was at 25%, blower at top speed and watching convoy of Banjaras passing by and me singing a garaba "Vanjara vanjara vanjara... ame game gam saathe jaiye.. ame chare disha ma fariye..."

Our latest trip to Palitana, was going to prove the toughest for my cutie nano.

It was over 220 km journey, we were tight on schedule, since we cannot start before 1 pm and have to reach before 6:30 pm. If we delay, we would not get dinner. We started at around 1:30 pm. Carrying 4 adults, 2 kids and their week-end baggage, nano went on and on through the National Highway and state highways, mostly with AC turned on, made sure we reach Palitana before the dinner service ends for the day just before sunset. Paliana tirth is situated on top of a hill known as "Shetrunjay". We completed the jaatra by around 2 pm. We had faced sunshine and its heat during our return from the hill. My nano had a challenge to transport all of its tired and exhausted passengers safely and with the highest level of comforts back to Ahmedabad. After starting at 3 pm, within 15 minutes of our starting the return journey both the ladies and kids were fast a sleep in the rear seat enjoying cool comforts offered by nano's powerful AC. I went on driving and my friend went on talking with me. On state highways you need quick pickups to overtake the trucks. And so, I decided to turn off the AC to get that extra kick, but that was only at around 6 pm. We reached home comfortably after completing the pilgrimage.

Now, monsoon days are on. Not much rain however, but hard days of nano are not over. She will have to take us outing almost every week-end. And she will, happily.

Chet to nar sada sukhi - precaution is better than cure

I and Divyarth were at the dinner table. "You know dad," he told "Today one sir were taking a session on fire safety at our school. And he told that we should keep A B and C type fire extinguisher in car."

"Hm..." I replied "Actually, son, instead of fire extinguisher, we should keep a foldable bicycle in the car." I looked at him with serious face.

"Cycle? Why?" He was highly confused.

"Because, Divyarth, if our car is under fire, all one can do is try to get out of the car and go as far as possible in shortest possible time. So, bicycle."

He bursted into laugh (and many of you also are right now). But I was damn serious.

"Dad, joking?"

"Naaaaaa.. me serious!!" I told him.

He also got a bit serious, but still that cycle idea was making him laugh which he was trying to hide and stop.

"Because, actually, the car has many parts which are made of inflammable material like plastic, rubber, seat-lining. Also, it carries fuel and oil, which are highly inflammable. Except passenger cabin, all the parts of the car are exposed to high-speed wind and heat. So, just a spark at wrong place and that is enough. By the time we come to know about fire in the cabin, it would be too late.

"Now tell me, son, don't you think cycle is the best idea?" He appeared to be a bit convinced, which I could notice from his expression-less face and big big eyes.

I thought this is the best time to give him some care fire safety lessons.

"So? Look for early signals of fire, like smoke behind or on sides of the car, abnormal vibration or noise, car gets imbalanced, etc. But you don’t need to be so cautious that you forget to enjoy the nazaara around, because as a driver, the nano keeps on giving me so many type of inputs, in terms of vibrations, engine sound, radiator fan sound, AC, tyres, and I also keep on watching SVRM, and OVRM.

"We don't go beyond 60 kmph, expect for overtaking. We will be extra careful when we drive in very hot afternoons. Such precautions will keep us and our cutie safe.

And in case such incidence happens when you are traveling in our or another car, open the window glass if closed, meanwhile I shall bring the car to a halt as soon as possible, you should immediately unlock your door, open the door, come out of the car, don’t close the door as other passengers can come out, and run away from the car to safety.”

"Chet to nar sada sukhi?" He asked. “Yes, and kids too. :-).” I smiled at him.
Satisfied with my answer and having completed his dinner, he went to watch TV.

Dare to dream impossible, and then, make your dream a reality

It is just awesome feeling to be the first. To be a pioneer. People talk about you. But to become first in something, you need to dream something that is impossible for others. And to fulfill your dreams, you need think differently. You need to do things differently.

When you do different things, people either criticize you or get afraid of you. They question you, object you, try to stop you, put hurdles in your way, and try to weaken our efforts.

We need someone to look at for inspiration during our weak times.

And I look at my nano cx for inspiration.

The nano project had faced many many challenges - Internal challenges, and external challenges. It met all the challenges head on and emerged as the winner. Today over 25 lakh people have clicked that Like button on its facebook page. Nano has lakhs of satisfied customers in 3 countries. It has made all car companies re-think about their future plans. I am sure when you are reading this story, you must have read the making of the nano on www.tatanano.com.

So, What I love most about my nano?

I love the most about my nano is inspirational words that it tells me - whenever I clean her, driver her, park her, or just watch her in a photo kept on my computer background as well as mobile background.

You want to know what are the words? Here they are:

"Dare to dream what is impossible for others. Work your way to make your dream a reality. Challenges will come. Meet them head on. Walk an exra mile. Take a step backwards sometime. Start all over again, if required, but don't stop. Because finally, your dream will become a reality. I am an example of this."

Yes, I also love nano's shape, design, space, air conditioning, comfort, legroom, turning radius, fuel economy and price too. :-)

This story should soon appear on www.tatanano.com's nano diary pages.

How much did it rain today?

"It rained almost one inch yesterday. Good. We need more rains." It was monsoon time and Harish was talking to his friend over the phone. For his daughter, Kaavya, who was overhearing the convesations, that "one inch" was confusing. "After all, how can one measure 1 inch of rain??"

After the telephonic conversation was over, Kaavya asked her dad "Dad, inch is measurement of length, right? It is used to measure rain too??"

"Yes Honey.." Harish replied. And as we all konw, kids are always prepared. She went to her desk, got a scale. "Daddy, common, lets measure rain."

"Well, your scale can't measure the rain, my dear. But we can measure rains. Lets do it."

Rain is measured as 'rain received in a column of 1 square inch area.' So, 1 inch rain is, 1 cubic inch of rainwater.

This is what Harish did:

Measure rainfall

Take a Jar having the same diameter from top to bottom. The wider the jar, better the measurement. If you choose a small jar, and if it rains much, the jar may overflow. So, make sure you use a deeper jar.

Now, go to your terrace and place the jar in such a way that it is not very near to any shade.

After a day, or say "24 hours" get that jar back to your home. If it rained that day, the jar will contain the water collected in it during last 24 hours. Now you need to do two things:

Measure the collected water in ML (milliter)

Measure the diameter of the jar's opening, because now it is time for some number crunching.
We have collected rains in "ml". And so, we need to convert the "ml" in "cubic inch". If you search the Internet, you will come to know that:

1 cubic inch = 16.387 ml. So, if your jar (having opening area of 1 sq inch) collected 16.387 ml of rainwater, you can say, it was 1 inch of rainfall.

But we had used wider jar, which collected much more water. So, it is time to reduce the "ml" accordingly.

For example, If your jar's area is 10 square inch, and it has collected 163 ml of rainwater, so we need to divide the figure by 10. Because, collection area is 10 times larger. To find how much rain water you would have collected in 1 square inch, apply following formula:

water collected in 1 sq inch = water collected in jar / area of jar-opening (1)

Now to convert the ML in INCH, apply following formula:

Rainfall in inch = rainfall in ml (1) / 16.3

Here you are. You just measured rainfall in your terrace, without using a rain gauge. Simple, isn't it? But this method is "home use" method. It will not work in all conditions, like:

• It rains only for 1 - 2 minutes, and then bright sunlight for remaining day. The collected water will get evaporated.


• It rains so much that it completely fills the jar and water starts spilling out of the jar.


• You may get inaccurate results if rain is accompanied by a heavy winds.


• You can't measure whole season's rainfall at one go.

But, again, no problems. We are not weathermen. We just wanted to be with our kid and give him/her assurance that "my daddy (or mom whoever is reading this blog) knows everything". And you successfully did that.

Lessons from "Rocket Singh"

Normally, I don't watch movies, but I do watch specific ones, specially when they are aired on TV.

Well, they are free to watch, you can watch from comforts of your bed-room, pop-corns free, snaks free, tea coffee free, no need to change and get ready, no travel, no traffic jams, no parking fee, you don't endup buying 10 unwanted things because they had buy 1 get 1 free offer, no lost and found mobile calls "where are you - where are you I am here I am here", no queue at ticket widnow and also, you have a choice to go for toilet every 10 - 15 minutes... there are so many advantages of watching movie at home on cable TV.

Ok, coming to the point, that day, one of the channel was telecasting "Rocket Singh". I had nothing special to do and I had received good review of the movie, so I decided to watch it.

That investment paid off. I made some observations from it. Here they are:

• Rocket singh was selected because he DID NOT GIVE UP. Never give up.
• Biggies have no value of start ups (people who give less business, but ask many questions) / customers. Rocket singh took every order seriousy and provided 24x7 support. Take everyone seriously, take care of ppl who trusted you.
• A manager can convert all the situations to his/her advantage. Think twice before going against your manager.
• Rocket Singh's boss insulted him in front of a potential but currupt client. People will insult you if YOUlet them do so.
• When sales manager caught Rockete Sales Corporation group, no one could say anything, the smallest guy, who was made a director in RSC opend up secrets of the sales manager. Give due respect to everyone. Even the lowest employee in the hierarchy can take initiative and turn the game on your side.
• When Rocket Sales Corporation received very large order, Rocket Singh insisted to source parts from from the dealer who sold him his first computer. Never leave people who supported you you were a startup. It is about growing together.
• Even zero has a value. All you need to do is add 1 on the left. If given a suitable job, even the least perfoming employee can give you the best results.

Well there may be many more points, but all I remember are these. If you have more, feel free to add your comments!!

An unexplainable feeling

Yesterday we visited Ahmedabad for a day. For those who don't know, it is around 100 KM north of Vadodara, the city where I live. Some of our relatives live there and many of them I had not met for around 3+ years. So, a visit was long due. We had plans to meet 3 of our relatives in that trip. Target time to leave from Ahmedabad was 5 pm. But we could leave only at 7 pm and that too after so many "stay overnight, stay overnight, why you came only for one day, next time we will not allow you to come" arguments.

We had so much talk, so much fun, we returned only because we had to return. By 9 pm, we were at home.

Today is Sunday. But what is this? I don't feel like doing anything. Tried doing some or other activity. Cleaned balcony. Threw some old cardboard pieces that I had kept aside to do some or other "best out of waste" thing. No.. something is missing... I checked emails twice, thrice.

Today was not just like another Sunday.

It was the Sunday after the Saturday on which I had met my loved ones after many years and had a lot of fun with them. And today, I miss them a lot.

Son has gone to play with his neighbourhood friends. It is raining. They all will enjoy in rains. Wife went to buy panipuri even if it is raining, because son has requested for panipuri. I am alone at home. I love watching TV, but I don't feel like even turning it ON.

So, I just blogged. Now I feel better.

When we are unhappy, we should share unhappiness with our loved ones. We feel light. They feel good.

Powerful economy vs. Powerful country

Disclaimer: I am not a graduate in Economics.

India is witnessing something that was never seen before. Markets are full of products. People are spending. We have learnt to get bored and so we spend even more. We change mobiles, cars, TV, furniture etc, whenever we get bored.

India is buying. Sellers are happ The world is happy. They say "India is powerful economy". We feel "lifted".

Suddenly of articles start appearing predicting "India will become super power by the year XXXX". They give statistics of how many Indians are young, opportunities of new jobs, how much Indians spend, how much money goes into economy, etc etc. They also don't forget to praise our values and culture, family system, etc etc.

Now lets do an exercise. Define "super power". People say (I don't) USA is superpower, right?

• They have more land and less population.
• To feed hungry citizen, they produce a lot of food in large farms.
• To keep memories alive and learn from history, have a lot of museums and memorials.
• Their universities are less of teaching centers and more of research centers.
• Best technology used everywhere.
• Allowances for the unemployed.
• (I have never been to the US, but), people say, a US common man is hardworking and honest.
• For re-creation and entertainment, they have amusement parks.
• For the sick they have big hospitals. (I am talking of basic healthcare).
• One number for all sorts of emergency. Citizen feels secure.
• They make their own war-tools. They don't depend on any country for rifle or a submarine or an aircraft career.

List can go very long.

The country in which money flow is maintained, it is "powerful economy." But superpower is something totally different.

Wish you a great "thinking" week-end!!