Wedensday evening is another traffic nightmare in the city. It took me more than an hour to reach home from work. In fact, I parked my car in an empty parking lot a couple of blocks away from home and walked home. By doing so, I might have saved at least another 30 minutes.
The much talked about fuel price hike is not implemented on Monday. Anticipating the hike, most fuel pumps in the city are fully packed, creating a bit of traffic headaches. Now they are eased a bit.
Surya is a patron of TreasureHouse, the library and experience house. They are conducting a summer reading program called Magical Ride from April 15th to May 30th. This is a very good program for kids during summer vacation. They also have a set of summer workshops. More details here: http://www.treasurehouse.in/summerWorkShopsList.jsp
The temperature recorded in Hyderabad city on Sunday is 42.4 C (108.3 F). The day is very hot and our family very much stayed indoors. The tiredness from previous night’s party added to the woes. We had to go a bit low on spicy foods and meats. Rather stayed with lots of fruits, juices, ice creams and veg foods that are low in spices. I read that the temperatures are going to be like this for part of this week.
Let me present the scenario first. The time is about 8.30am and I am driving my good old M-800 to work. Already a bit late to work, I am revving the engine to its max. The moment I reached the main entrance of KBR park and headed towards the checkpost/Jubilee hills area (just to give you Hyderabadis a picture), I noticed that my car engine temperature is almost hitting the top. I slowed down and realized that the car is due for servicing. I pulled over into one of the empty parking lots of the KBR park. Mine is the lone vehicle there and the only other person in the parking bay is the guard in the security post.
Once I opened the hood, I found that the coolant tank has open lid and the leftover coolant from last top-up evaporated due to hot weather. I found a spare water bottle in my car and put the remaining water from it in the coolant tank. The tank started fuming from the hot steam from the engine fan. I needed more water to fill the engine fan, but ran out of water in my bottle. I gave an apologetic and requesting smile to the security guard who has been watching the whole fiasco. I told to him that I needed more water. he pointed me to the gardener who is watering the lawns with a rubber hose a couple of hundred yards from me.
Now comes the challenge. The gate to the fence between the parking and the lawns is already locked. The time now is about 8.35am and the gates close at 8.30am. I walked up to the gate, saw the lock and ended up in a dilemma. There is no shop in the next mile or so where I can buy a bottle of water. Leaving the car there and fetching it in the evening is an impractical solution. So I decided to jump over the gate and get water. I put my hands on the gate and gave another inquisitive look at the security guard. He understood the situation and gave a nod. My childhood skills from the countryside helped me hop over the gate. I reached the gardener, got water and filled the coolant tank. After a few thank-yous to the gardener and the security guard, I am back on the road, retrospecting on the whole episode.
Ethically, in that particular scenario:
What do you think?
Spurthi completed her Board exams on Wednesday. With the local situation a bit bad due to riots in old city, we had some tense moments on Wednesday, right from transportation from School to the exam center. Finally, everything went fine and we didn’t have any unwanted situations in this part of the city.
Headed to InOrbit mall this week, to celebrate Rishita’s birthday. It is my first visit to the mall and felt that it is very well maintained. Still lot of construction though. Roamed around in the mall for an hour and then settled for dinner at McDonalds.
In addition to all the nice shops there, I really like the parking facility. I also like the open food court.
Finally, got our new vehicle registration completed this weekend. It turned out to be a simple yet longer process because of lack of communication. It took two Saturdays of presence for me and Latha. Last weekend, we went there for reserving a specific number. We roamed around throughout the day for a couple of things: right documentation from dealer and PAN card in original. There is no mention at RTA (Khairatabad RTA, AP 09) that these are essential for number reservation. So we had to go to the car dealer and then home. In addition to that, I went to the bank in the last minute to get a couple of pay orders done. That took care of the entire first weekend.
Yesterday, after managing the long queue, we were told that the car dealer gave one less form in the documentation. So we had to rush to the dealer again and get the documentation searched and delivered. What could have been a 30 minute activity turned out to be a 3 hour process. In addition to that, copying the chassis number onto the paperwork is a big process for these heavy vehicles like Xylo. I had to get right between the front wheel and engine and transfer the image of the number there on to the paper using a pencil. Finally I managed to a bad job and requested one of the guys at RTA (who does it frequently) to help me there.
In this whole process, I realized that the lack of good communication and better paperwork from the dealer led to me wasting a lot of time. Also, the lack of documented list at the RTA is another cause for the delay. The processes are simple and straight forward. There is absolutely no need for bribes, brokerage or any other incidental charges to get the work done. That entire process made me feel better.
The Khairatabad RTA serves lot of posh areas and there is a mad rush for fancy numbers here. On that day, I have seen auctions for certain numbers go to the order of Rs 45,000. I spent Rs 5000 for a number totaling 9, based on Latha’s interest.
India has designated Gods and rituals for every occasion. The key ritual at the time of the purchase of a new vehicles is Vahaha-Puja, the offering to the vehicle. It is performed (mostly) at an auspicious temple that is popularly believed to be good for the occasion. One such temple in and around Hyderabad is Tadbund Hanuman Temple.
I took my new Xylo for a Puja to the temple on a Saturday morning. I am lucky to get a parking space and Puja token that morning. Imagine 9 new cars and a dozen motor bikes parked next to each other for a 45 minute Puja session. The priests walk from one end to the other end of this string of vehicles, chanting mantras and doing puja to the steering, engine, wheels and other key parts of the vehicle. It is a nice experience!
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Woke up this morning and heard this buzz that is unusual for the season. To my surprise, there is a decent drizzle out there. The wind chill is still high and the temperatures are still low. But it is good to see a nice drizzle that hopefully cleans up things a bit.