Raju Alluri’s Personal Blog

I hurt my back while picking up something from the floor early this morning. A bit of exercise later, I though I am good to go to work, but was proved wrong after being at work for about 4 hours. Managed to drive back home but situation got worse by late afternoon. Rushed to Care hospital and took appointment of Dr. B. N. Prasad. The X-rays showed no dislocation or slip disks. But there could be minor collapse of the column due to muscle spasm. The next set of tests are due early next week and the doctor suggested bed rest until then. I was given a shot to relax the muscles in the lower back area. That helped a bit, but not much in relieving pain.
So most  of the online activity now is by keeping the laptop on a 4-ft tall cooler and using the same as support while standing. Reminds me of those kiosks in transit areas of international airports. .

Sunitha and kids headed back to US on Saturday. The four week long trip bonded the kids together, so that is a bit hard for them to leave. We went to the airport close to midnight and they had an easy check-in. The seating allocation by Emirates is not good though, for the longer leg of the travel. May be that thing gets sorted out in the plane. The airport is relatively empty by the time we reached there and customs and security is very smooth for them. It got a bit crowded after that though.

The McDonalds at the airport didn’t offer any dessert menu items at 2.00am . A bit saddened by that because I was in a real mood for a Coke Float at that time.

Our Xylo came in handy for the airport trip. The third row seats are folded and I kept 4 regular sized international baggage, two small sized baggage and a couple of carry-in bags in the resultant trunk space. After that, 5 adults (including me, the driver) and two kids could comfortably sit through the 35+km journey. Nikil slept on the lap though, that being an odd hour.

Ravi headed home last week itself, due to shorter vacation. His Emirates flight is rerouted via Toranto due to the European ash clouds. Now the aircrafts are taking their normal flight paths.

I got the first service (4 months or 5K, whichever is earlier) done for my xylo last week. The car has roamed about 2.3K so far, not much for the first four months. The clutch needed a bit of tuning and some of the plastic stuff needed refitting (example: The plastic casing that hides the spoiler lamp unit fell off from the rear door.) They also added Gods’ pictures to one of the “Digital Drive Assist” screens. Now I have a wallpaper .

The outside temperature sensor gets stuck at 40C max. Not sure why. May be never tested in temperatures beyond that?

The vehicle is returned in a clean and neat condition. The service took long time (1.5 days) though, primarily because the technicians didn’t do the wallpaper loading prior to this. The cost of service is high too, about Rs 2.2K for engine oil, filter and other parts. Note that this is a free service with no labor charges.

Based on the first four months of driving this beast, it is a very good buy, a total VFM. I really love the AC in the vehicle, 42C external temperatures are easily mitigated while the AC is running at level 2 (out of 4) and is running at AC-Low setting. When I needed immediate cool off (when getting into a open parked car during mid summer day) I used the AC-High for a few short minutes.

I found that the mileage of the vehicle has dropped a bit (according to Digital Drive Assist and during my steady airport trips) recently, but need to double check that after filling the tank to the full.

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.

Nidhi’s pamita function dinner is held at Vijayalaxmi Gardens in Kompally on Saturday. We headed there early in the evening. Kids got a chance to pet the newly born calf at the farmhouse there. Guests started arriving a little after 6.30pm and the prime dinner time lasted till 10.30pm. Kids had a gala time playing in the cooled off summer evening. Even though there is no much breeze, the lower temperatures (when compared to the city) offered a good backdrop for a nice evening. We stayed there with close-knit family members till 12.30am the next day and headed back home.

Pictures and video are shot by a professional photographer and won’t be with us for another 10 days. Stay tuned…

The home edition of Nidhi’s Pamita function completed successfully. We have 50+ guests from our family during this private event on Friday. All the kids enjoyed the function well. Nidhi did a good job while performing the rituals and while socializing with guests. Here are the pictures from this formal event:

NidhiPamitaHome

Both breakfast and lunch sessions went well without any hiccups. Looks like the lunch menu is good and the taste is to the liking of our guests. The weather was hot for the last few days, but gave a bit breather in the morning. The later hours are a bit humid though, but our place accommodated the guests fine.Thanks to everyone who visited us during the day.

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:

• Is it okay for me to consume a couple of liters of water from the park in that situation, from the hose that uses a few thousand liters a day to water the lawn?
• Is it okay for me to jump over the gate when it is locked, barely 5-10 minutes after the visitors hours, despite getting the nod from the guard?

What do you think?

Here are the photos from my visit to Palm Meadows last week.

SA_visit_201003_01

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.