Mugged without motive?

I was standing at the bus stop opposite honda showroom, just a little walk away from the madhapur police station.

It was around 19:30 and I was gazing at the all new honda city ( everyone who knows me knows my passion for cars ), when the bus (no.127) was closing in. Oh, this was the new A/C buses that are launched in the city. I could see people foot boarding on it. Now that speaks of the need for more buses.

Anyway, there was one guy at the foot board saying something looking and pointing towards me. How’d I know it was only me? Well, no one else in the bus stop, except an elderly man at the other far end of it.
So, do I know this guy? I don’t. Paying no attention to what he was saying, I tried to board the bus (yes, 127 isnt exactly my route but, atleast could travel half the route). As I approached the door, and to my very shock, I was kicked; not one but multiple times.

The bus stopped and guess who, that same guy got down and started punching me. Along came two of his friends, one probably attacked me from the side, and the other was standing as if he was looking out to avoid anyone intervening.

I was in a state of shock. Never expected someone would just get down and start hitting! As I was recovering and also gaining conscience to self-defense, some guy intervened and said “Jaane do”. I was staring at that guy, wondering if this was the same one who attacked me from left ( I couldn’t see him earlier ), and also staring in surprise. What did he mean by “Jaane do”! Hello!!! It was me who got beaten up!!!.
By the time I was done with these thoughts, the other guy came up and delivered his last punch, yet again on my face. Then these three flee into the bus as the bus was in motion.

I immediately requested for a lift, and one guy helped me reach the next stop before the bus. We waited there for the bus to arrive and wanted to catch those guys, but alas! they already left the bus somewhere near the traffic signals.

Looks to me like a mugging just for fun. They didn’t try to steal my belongings, or take money. And this happening so close to the madhapur police station (believed to be safe place), at 19:30 (safe time?), and with public staring at this. Whoa! think what if this was some deserted place? Would they have killed me for fun?

I, now have a chilling bone pain in left arm and chest. The most painful is the nose which is a bit swelled, probably because it was already broken once during a cricket game (around 10 yrs ago) due to direct impact of high velocity cork ball. Umgh, too technical.

We need to be careful and on the watch even at public places. I wish no one else faces this.

Bike gets dented on tank…..for being good.

Alright, so after maintaining my bike in scratch less condition for over 2 and half years, after respecting every road rule and being nice at parking places where I practiced the equi-spacing of vehicles to avoid inconvenience to others, today is the day that my bike suffered a blow on its tank and leaving it dented badly.

How did it happen?
I drove to fresh@ stores and parked my bike. I then noticed that my bike could probably cause trouble to the people getting vehicles out of basement. So, like a good citizen I moved my bike from there, parked it on the other side of the row, checked twice for distance from adjacent bike to give him space to walk in and easily move out his bike.
Never in my dreams would I have thought that this would be the day when someone will damage my bike for nothing.

I return from the store to find my bike cross parked. Checked and found a big bad dent on my tank with scratch mark of probably another bike handle. My helmet lock was broken too.

SHIT HAPPENS!

Taste this…

I noticed lot of discussions about a blog which is now famous among many mukt.in members. It feels my blog’s mukt member traffic is being transfered there.
Sometimes I think to myself “I shouldn’t have given them the link.”

Anyway, its time to reclaim the traffic with this post (villainous laugh). So here’s my own recipe of..of..chicken!
Ingredients:
Few small pieces of chicken ( You wouldn’t want to ruin many pieces )
Ginger-Garlic paste
Salt
Red chili powder
Turmeric powder
Curd

How to do it:
1. Make sure these ingredients are available and step back. Just watch your mom mix them nicely.
2. After mixing, leave it undisturbed for about 30 mins ( go surf the net ) only to return a minute before your mom gets back to kitchen.
3. Now sneak few small pieces of chicken from the mixture (leave other pieces for tasty food mom cooks).
4. Search for some spiky kebab pierce sticks, or you could use kitchen tongs, may be even fork but be careful of heat conductivity.
5. Hold/pierce the chicken pieces, ignite the oven and hold it just above the flames.
6. Keep rotating so that it burns cooks nicely.
7. Take precaution and remember to turn the oven off when done with this tasty recipe.

I know people who’ve tried this must be amazed What did Gusteau say? Anyone can cook!

Tasty chicken unnamed recipe

PS: To be served hot. Could someone try to come up with a name for this crappy recipe of mine?

Paid Bike Service (Screwup) at Kiran Commercials – Part2

Continued from here.

After thorough diagnosis of the bike, my regular service center guys confirmed that the `oneway clutch` has a broken ring/disc. It is a surprise that this would happen at 17000 kms and considering that I use the kickstart very less. What’s more surprising is that operations were smooth enough with no indications of anything being wrong, until it went to servicing at kiran commercials!

I got involved into the servicing too. We noticed that the chain section had loads of mud, which means it was not cleaned during service a week ago. While chinna (the artificer) was working on the engine and gear, I cleaned up the chain section. New `Oneway Clutch`, new engine oil (wow oil change in a week), washing and labor charge got my bill to near INR-1500.
It was interesting to see the new design change of the clutch, which probably emerged when TVS wanted to increase the performance of RTR over apache. (Yes! my bike now has the new RTR oneway clutch.)

Chinna with my bike at Laxmi TVS

Sun bath after getting fixed

After fixing my bike, the mechanics enjoyed a small treat (snacks & cooldrinks) from me.
I do this after every servicing at Laxmi TVS. It is not wasting money because I learn a lot about my bike watching(pestering with doubts) the guys at work.

Paid Bike Service (Screwup) at Kiran Commercials

This was the first time I took my bike to Kiran commercials (Ranigunj) for servicing.
I hesitate to give in my bike where I am not allowed to see what the artificer is doing ( I love Open Standards).
Since my regular service center had no equipment for aligning my front forks, I was left with no choice but Kiran.

I got back my bike with almost nothing repaired and new problems added. The front brake wasn’t effective and front suspension was hard. The headlight assembly would produce a knock sound whenever I used the front brake.
It almost felt as if I were driving an old cycle. The engine was rough although `Engine Oil` was listed on the bill.
There was no bike wash!
So, I took it back and had to make 3 trips before they even wanted to look at the bike. Literally no emphasis on their quality process. When my bike was taken in for re-check, they did not start the work on first day. I was informed about this when I almost reached there to take the delivery. They delayed it for another 2 days and I was kept wondering what they were doing with it.

Surely after re-check, the front suspension felt smooth. All this at the cost of 6 days, 5 trips and not to forget the frustration. Should I be happy that everything is fine? Was everything really fine? No it wasn’t.
The very next day, my electric start stopped working and the kickstart (which I used only twice a day) gets jammed intermediately. They were in perfect condition before the service.

My bike is 2.1 years old now; 17000 kms done and I find it crazy to get these problems with it.
There is probably no way to tell if mechanics at Kiran had changed some parts or damaged them.
I would be sending the bike for check at my regular service center (Laxmi TVS – Anandbagh) and hope that things get better.

Moral: Prefer service centers that are open for customers to watch their vehicles while the artificer is working on it.
(Yes, my regular service center guys allow that.)
If the service center guys don’t allow that kind of transparency, then there is definitely poor service practices / something fishy.

laptop woes episode3

Continued from here…

Not receiving any call from the service center, I decided to walk-in and pick up my laptop.
To my surprise, they hadn’t tried any remedy / work-around for the heating issue. Upon asking the reason I was shown a similar model running windowsXP (some customer’s) which was generating almost the same heat.

insect backpack

The difference was that it was running for a long amount of time (probably being tested for some other defect) and my laptop would reach that temperature within few minutes (without any apps running).
This seems no make no difference to the tech guys there.

I requested them to open the laptop, check for thermal paste and clean the dust on the fan if possible. They should have done that already (what if the customer isn’t aware of these things!); I am glad they didn’t turn down my request.

By this time my laptop keypad had turned into some sort of gray color, thanks to the dust at the service center.
I had given my side-carry bag(the one that came with the laptop); absolutely new and never used earlier (I always use my insect backpack), guess what, I couldn’t recognise the bag at first look. It looked as if it was dragged on the floor.

Nevertheless, I am happy that my laptop is back.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Oh yeah, that cake tastes so yummy. I always avoid sweet edibles, but guess what?; I am eating a big piece of cake.

My mom went to sleep at 00:10. May be she was sad thinking that I must’ve forgot her birthday. She probably didn’t remember that the wall clock was running 15 minutes fast. So we had a 5 minute mission; as soon as mom turned off her room light, my gf sneaked into the house (she was standing at the door with the cake). We quickly arranged the chair, table with cake and candles. By this time, my gf’s mom gave a call.
I woke up my mom and handed over the phone telling that someone called for her.
She wondered who! (still believing that we don’t remember her birthday). With puzzled voice she said “Hello” and the next second she was smiling.

I left to the other room before she started talking to my gf’s mom, only to return after the call was over. Here’s our conversation after that:
me: Who was it mom?
mom: Your gf’s mom. She wished me.
me: Wished!!! Is it your birthday?
mom:
me: OK. If it’s your birthday please come to the hall room.

This left my mom totally confused. I took her to the hall where we had switched off the lights. The first thing she could see was the dazzling lights of candles on her birthday cake. She then noticed my gf standing in the dark, that made her go all smiles.
We celebrated the cake and hmm I just finished gobbling up the last bit of it.
We didn’t know mom had bought some kit-kat chocolates for us; funny thing we had also bought kit-kat for her

I may be leaving for khammam by today evening; I wish I could stay but I guess it can’t be avoided.

/dev/null party and the amazing gift!

2 meetings is all what I did yesterday. It’s one of those `almost nothing productive` days.

The kdegames meeting ended at around 02:30 and I must’ve fallen asleep early, may be around 03:30.
The next meet was at 11:00, Subway Begumpet. Expected attendees: neenaoffline, vimzard, shriphani, punchagan and me.
I turned out almost 1 hour late. Why? Pushed my bike for more than 2kms. It almost slipped my mind that my bike was already running on reserve.
Anyway we did nothing at the party but just eat. Punchagan didn’t turn up for the meet; good for him. We didn’t find a good use for our laptops too; why did we bring them at all? Even the wi-fi at subway was down.
So well, the party is now officially named `/dev/null` party.

When I came back home, I got a call from country vacations trying to explain me that I have won an amazing gift..er. 3 gifts actually. If I remember it right, they said One kitchen utility product, holiday sponsor of INR 25,000 to Goa and a card to spend on anything for a day. They were throwing a party at Amrutha castle and invited me to come and collect my gifts. Supposedly I have won this so called gifts due to a lucky draw coupon which was dropped at Exhibition grounds.
I wondered when I did so? Its been ages since I’ve attended an exhibition!

I asked my mom whether she had dropped any such coupon. The answer was “No”. I wonder where they got my landline number from. If no one filled any such coupon, how do they even have my numbers and name? And moreover she insisted that we come and collect the gift.
I also called the Amrutha castle’s reception and they confirmed that country vacations were indeed having a party next day evening.

So, its true. I have won a gift for a non-existing coupon! Anyway, tomorrow when they call me again, I will tell them that it doesn’t belong to me.

Mom’s the best.

11 May this time it is, second sunday. Doesn’t strike you yet? It’s mother’s day and it’s gone already (atleast here in India).

So well, I hope people didn’t forget to wish their mom.
At least I didn’t, and we (gf & I) packed neat surprises for our moms’.
We purchased gifts two days in advance and ordered for cake on 10th. The cake was sneaked into my gf’s fridge and it lay there unnoticed until the clock struck 00:00 (digital life)

We woke up our moms’ at midnight to celebrate mother’s day. They were taken by complete surprise; they must have thought we forgot about it. Who wouldn’t? We showed no signs of remembering it throughout the day.
Gift’s were presented before celebrating the cake and what should I say, I guess we made the opposite choices of gifts. It’s up to them, if they want to exchange their gifts now.
Everyone was drowsy and we decided to continue celebrations in the morning.

I found out that mom had to go to office this Sunday. That was so heartbreaking. Nevertheless, when she returned in the evening, we ordered food from a Chinese restaurant. Thanks to my gf’s overestimation of our eating capacity, we all were full by the time we could complete only half the food.
I overate (may be due to good taste) and heck I have a belly now that looks almost like a near delivery pregnancy. Worry not, I will not be wished on mother’s day next year; heavy food just takes some time to digest.

New shortcut costs me

This is how I was feeling yesterday >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Wondering why? Because I missed my train; thanks to the auto-driver’s newly found so called short cut route, takes over an hour to travel 16kms with more than 6 traffic signals to get me boiling angry.
Another auto-driver brings me back in 28 minutes flat via normal route.
Well, this is like paying to miss the train. Especially when travel rates of auto are soaring high in Chennai.
Plus I couldn’t cancel my ticket; not even partial refund (It was booked under tatkaal scheme).

I cannot take a train today; I don’t want to miss my first KDE Games Developer meeting. The next best deal I got was on tuesday-April 8. Thanks to Srihari and also his girlfriend for the lift.

I wanted to reach home on Sunday morning and finish building KDE4; feeling sad now.
That would have enabled me experience some PyKDE extensions before the meeting; now I guess I’ll have to just sit shut up during the meet.

Hoping for things to turn out well.