Today we celebrated the Karthigai festival. Its a festival of warmth, lamps, and light. Its a time to meet the family, spread the cheer, and generally be happy. To mark this occasion the following extract from Tamil Nadu tourism website is replicated here for people to understand the significance.

From tamil nadu tourism:

There is an interesting story explaining the link between Karthigai and lamps. Legend has it that Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma began to quarrel as to who was the more powerful of the two. While they were fighting, Lord Shiva appeared before them in the form of a huge pillar of fire. Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma gave up quarrelling and decided to find the top and the bottom of the pillar.

Accordingly, Brahma assumed the form of a swan and moved upwards. Vishnu transformed himself into a boar and started digging deep into the earth. But even after searching for several years, neither of the two was able to find the ends the pillar. Finally, they realised that the pillar was none other than Lord Shiva.
Soon afterwards, Lord Shiva appeared as a hill (Arunachala Hill) at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. Indeed, the very names `Tiruvannamalai’ and `Arunachala’ translate as `holy fire hill.’ The Shivalinga in the temple here is the agni linga. The tiny lamps lit during the Karthigai festival (Karthigai Deepam) are believed to be the miniature replicas of the fire linga. Every year thousands of devotees from Chennai and elsewhere flock to Tiruvannamalai to see the spectacular Karthigai Deepam there.

While speaking with a customer service rep today I happened to show my willingness to understand the data packages offered under the Tata Docomo 3G banner for Bengaluru city. This information is perhaps the first such information which is still not published for everyone’s benefit on the docomo website. Take a look and choose your pick. All these plans are valid only for postpaid 3G connections. For prepaid the first 100MB is free per month for two months and after that its 1p per 1kb which amounts to a whopping 10000 bucks for 1 GB which is insane.

For the postpaid connections the following packages hold good and are more reasonable by nature.

POSTPAID PLANS FOR BENGALURU

BENEFITS: Anytime, Anywhere minutes ! Use them for ALL LOCAL & STD CALLS. Even when roaming on Tata Docomo networks.
BONUS OFFER: Postpaid customers activating till 31st December’10 get additional 100 MB data for 2 months.
Note : All the above packs are applicable for the INTERNET APN only.

HOW TO ACTIVATE 3G

Just send a message ACT 3G to 53333, and within seconds you should receive a confirmation that 3G is active. Go to APN settings, type TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET on the values for both internet and MMS and you are done. Ensure you have the 3G radio switched on (as in the case of apple iPhone for example). Wait for a while and enjoy the fast life !

The best way to choose a plan for yourself from here is to go to www.tatadocomo.com, choose 24/7 customer support by CHAT, and ask the rep you chat with to enable this plan for you. Calling customer care should also help!

HOW FAST IS TATA DOCOMO 3G

The time it takes from when you type a URL on your phone browser to when the DNS resolves the IP Address for that URL is very crucial in determining overall speeds for content download. This is unfortunately taking a few extra seconds of impatience on Docomo 3G. So typically upto 5 seconds you dont see any activity, and then suddenly content starts to download in huge bursts. Its not the experience you would get out of a PC say with a Reliance or BSNL broadband connection, but its not really bad either.

WHAT IS TATA DOCOMO 3G’s BAD PATCH ?

Well, I must say here that it is only the Signal quality that really determines how strong a 3G connection lasts with respect to consistency in data download and in this respect, Docomo are still very far away from other operators like Airtel or Uninor. Having said that statement, I observe that frequent signal variations (drops and rises) affect the real 3G experience making it not so enjoyable. Many a times, just walking out of the office to an open area makes 3G stronger, while within your home or office 3G drops to E(dge) and sometimes even E(dge) is not recognized at all. Signal varies from 5/5 to even 1/5 and no service in lifts, basements and higher floors of buildings. This is really bad and affects overall connectivity to an extent that making normal phone calls itself become impossible. Tata have a long way to go in first getting their act right which I am sure Airtel are good at though they would be pricey.

LOOK OUT FOR A COMPARISON VIDEO BETWEEN UNINOR 2G AND DOCOMO 3G – COMING SHORTLY !!

Everything comes by experience. Some details come by enquiries. Whichever way you look at it, there are still mistakes bound to happen and this blog post is a ready reckoner for those who would love to organize parties for their loved ones calling all near and dear. Particularly this post reflects on a recent birthday party I had for my son. Some important experiences I underwent while organizing this party has made me to pen them down here so that people organizing similar events would get a clue as to how to go about.

Invitation process:

• I first wrote down a list of main invitees
• I then counted how many people are totally there in each of the invitees families, which gave me a total invitee count
• I logged into www.evite.com one of the well known invitation sites and added the main invitees and prepared a detailed invitation.
• I presented/mailed the invite to everyone I added so that step one was done.
• The total invitee list stood at a little over 200 (including family members)

Getting the people to respond:

This is no doubt the worst part of all, but then the organizers have to understand that the stakes of a birthday party are high. The main costs involved in organizing the party today is that of FOOD. Hotel’s charge per head and its generally about Rs.120 upto Rs.250 or even Rs.300 for some high end resort style hotels. So even for a meagre 100 people, this works out to Rs.12000/- bucks just for good. To add the icing to the cake, the hotel charges separately for the party hall in case your guests are less than a hundred. So basically this high cost covers only the FOOD and/or the party hall itself. Absolutely nothing else.

Always plan an event in advance. This will give you enough time for you to go behind people for their responses on their availability. This may mean calling them until they respond or even daily birthday reminders by email, but so be it. It is important that we learn to estimate almost exactly on how much food is needed to be served.

Nothing comes free:

Remember that nothing comes free. There is no such thing as a free lunch! So barring the party hall and food there are many more things that cost money and time to organize. This includes games for the party, the birthday cake itself, the music, magic shows, tattoo-ers, return gifts and so on.

Event organizers cost money. So do different parts to an event. Lets go over these briefly.

The cake is supposed to be chosen carefully from a cake joint that is not only well known but also one that serves up fresh cake even if the event is on a sunday morning. Reliability is the key thing here as we cannot afford to get embarrassed without a cake for the birthday! Also check out shops that provide good designs and an egg/eggless option. Remember that NOT everyone coming to the party may want an egg based cake. One of the things I found in Bangalore is that the list you see of the designs available are rarely translated into the original thing by the bakers. Unfortunately reproducing a said design is an art and the end result is directly dependent on how good the person who produces that art really is. The safer bet would be to go for one of those normal shaped cakes which not only are made to perfection but also don’t have much fuss associated with it in terms of preparation.

The games for the party are plenty. Some entertainers for the party not only entertain children present but also the adults there. While its impossible to find the perfect entertainer, its equally impossible to judge whether the chosen entertainer would do his job well. This was one of the biggest failure points of my party. A few suggestions for the party entertainer are these:

• Its preferred to find a friend or someone inhouse who is very talented in handling entertainment and event management in general
• Never go with the people the hotel suggests unless their reliability is verified. Unverified people not only present things badly they also give a general perception of incapability to put up with children and adults. Its best to go by word of mouth for hiring such people.

The music is charged for extra. While this is normal due to the setup involved I have found no one to be using some good quality speaker systems to conduct the event. This is disappointing really and I would love to see people hiring good bose speakers and the like to maintain clarity in the music. It otherwise boils down to a loud noisy package of din and disturbance rather than something pleasant. Even though you may find it costly go for a good system to enjoy the show properly.

The magic show creators and guys who put tattoos on children are quite creative with their work, so no worries here. They cost some bit, but its ok for what they finally are able to bring up in terms of their performance. These two would be a good hit with children.

Additionally I hired a caricaturist who came up with some spell binding caricatures. Though initially people did not appreciate what he started off with, he was the star of the show, to the end of the party as he proved to be a major hit with the adult crowds as well. These are the people who matter really and who can decide the success of an event single handedly.

Finally the decoration and the return gifts. These are by choices and the people doing the decoration do a good job usually with different themes to our liking. The return gifts are something we need to buy and choose for our near and dear ones. One suggestion though is to buy different sets of items according to the age profile of people (kids) coming to the party. You don’t want to be giving a toy to a 10 year old kid do you? So you need to plan accordingly.

This is where the event planning in advance helps a lot. Start atleast a month in advance so that you don’t get stuck anywhere.

Some final words for a great party:

• Choose a hotel wisely
• Choose the food package wisely. Less items are ok, as long as they have quality
• Invite guests quite early on in the planning and ensure they respond on their availability
• Always provide guests with a detailed map to reach the place along with your contact numbers
• Ensure the hotel readies the chairs, tables and decoration as per said date and time, this requires followup regularly.
• Ensure you keep the party to start after 11am or after 6pm.
• Ensure you hire good event managers, and good audio systems
• Ensure you plan your return gifts properly according to age profile of kids invited
• Ensure you add some good stuff like caricature, or even singing events as need be
• Ensure that you choose the right level of room decoration according to your budget
• Always follow up with stakeholders to bring them to function on time
• If you can find inhouse talent to handle the show use them
• You dont need expert photography, ask your budding photographers within the family to show their skills, its a good opportunity for them
• Always choose an egg cake and an eggless cake and ensure the cake does  not have too much of colour in them (dye)
• For a crowd of 80-100 people a cake of upto 4kgs is enough. Increase accordingly by proportion if more people attend
• Always ensure the games planners keep kids occupied while adults get time to mix and talk with others around
• Always ensure you welcome guests, and keep speaking with them. Its a nice opportunity to introduce your guests to one another so that new friends are made.
• Always keep a tab on food necessities and keep the men organizing the lunch or dinner to be on their toes – you have paid for this and this is the most important thing in the event – the FOOD!!
• You can keep distributing return gifts to kids right from the beginning of the function, you will not have time to do this later
• Ensure you have paper plates, spoons, and mainly water with cups – these are bare minimum essentials.
• Ensure you have a couple of kitchen tissue rolls, these are very necessary and will certainly be used.
• Ensure party hall has a room to store your personal belongings including the gifts your kid receives
• Ensure you have upto Rs.10000/- in hundred rupee notes or five hundred rupee notes during the time of the function to pay off organizers as they leave. Alternative would be to settle upfront or after the function to avoid extra money from being paid without your proper notice.
• Bear in mind that food gets wasted. I had 115 final invitees of which 80 made it. The rest of the food IS A WASTE and won’t be packed for your guests if required. Its therefore very important to plan exact quantities of food properly.

LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, CONSIDER DONATING MONEY TO A BLIND SCHOOL OR A KID’S ORPHANAGE FOR COVERING THEIR FOOD EXPENSES OR OTHER NEEDS. This is the best thing you can do to wrap up the party in style.

If you encountered any other experiences you would like to share, please comment on this post for the benefit of others. Thank you!

Today I happened to test drive the FORD FIGO TITATNIUM DIESEL. Initially I thought i would take the car only for a short distance, but then I decided to try this baby out on a rather empty stretch of almost a 10 to 20kms highway. This was the Electronics city toll elevated highway. Person from Ford with whom i interacted with for the fiesta promised yesterday that he would be here in my home at 10AM and he appeared about 15 mins late.

(source: http://www.theautomotiveindia.com)

I jumped into the car and without wasting time shot off on my drive. From here on some crisp points about the drive itself. Just to give you a background, I ve owned 2 800s, one palio petrol 1.2, one swift diesel 1.3 and one honda city 1.5 iVTEC. Also test driven the punto 1.4p, 1.3d, manza 1.4p and 1.3d, linea 1.4p and 1.3d. Also test driven 1.3 swift Dzire ZDI and fiesta 1.6S petrol. Today was the figo’s turn after all this.

Seating position is spot on with ample room in the footwell. While the absence of a dead pedal would be found annoying by some people, especially on highway drives, due to ample room in footwell, this is hardly a concern on the figo. Unlike the cramped footwell of punto due to dead pedal, the figo was far more spacious down there.

(source www.fordfigo.in)

The gear shift is similar in nature to fiesta. Its not exactly slotty, but kind of still precise without leaving room for errors while shifting. There is no engine roar as in swift exactly but though the figo takes some time to pick up, once it does, nothing can beat it. if used effectively this translates to a 2000 rpm + manouvre on each gear. The torqueyness isnt exactly as good as swift but it is not unbearable as the car responds the moment you accelerate on any gear.

Driver and passenger ergonomics seem spot on though a bit lower than swift. the reason i keep comparing to swift is because i owned it before this one. being lower also means better stability on the road which i will come to shortly. thankfully the one i drove had the black dashboard and not the pink one. Seats have sufficient thigh support although back support could be bolstered a bit more. Plastics and interiors look a bit cheap, but then this vehicle is about value for money with respect to function not great interiors. For that look elsewhere like the polo which is more expensive.

Clutch was pretty easy to use and with an excellent gear shift, made the driving a pleasure. The AC is an absolute chiller. Though Figo does not offer climate control one can easily still control the temperature with the manual heat adjustment to offset for the chillness. The presence of a rear defogger also means good defogging in bangalore city during rains especially in the nights. The electrically controlled side view mirror switches are of very high quality and are also of precise action without errors or doubts. Needless to say when compared to the swift, which does not provide this feature, it is definitely a plus point during those hard to negotiate reversal and parking manouvres. The 154cc compressor acts immediately putting everyone in the cabin at utmost ease quite soon.

The lower height (if not necessarily ground clearance) only means that the car stays well planted on the road. What better example can I take than the fact that I had to remind myself that I was overshooting 140kmph all along the long tollway drive. One of the superior characteristics I found about this engine was its eagerness to push beyond 140 all the way upto 160 or more without much ado. Of course I did not try this feat due to obvious reasons. Going at 140 seemed like going at 60.

(source www.fordfigo.in)

A few times I had to negotiate slow moving traffic ahead of me in a zig zag fashion and the braking was near perfect with ABS and EBD at play. Considering atleast people at front have seat belts on, braking is a no nonsense affair and the car exhibits extreme maturity doing this. Needless to say its also confidence inspiring for the driver. The steering is a bit heavy I thought and did not really check if its tiltable. Neither did I confirm whether seats had height adjust. In a relative context, I did not quite appreciate the open 12V socket and the bonnet latch on passenger side. This was pretty lousy in my opinion as kids in front on passenger side can be easily fiddling with this latch.

The door latches themselves are pretty cheap looking and cheap in function too. In the sense that children in the front can easily pull the door latch when least expected. This is quite dangerous to even think of and I wish Ford had heeded this possible issue during design. Instead they seem to have copied fiesta functionality as is causing some heartburns. Atleast when the car picks up a certain speed, the door latches should not be openable. Neither is there a complete shut possible from drivers side for windows or doors. To add to the glory only front two windows are power windows. While Ford says due to the way the Figo is designed, rear windows have not only had to be mechanical, but also they open only to the tune of 70-80%. Perhaps while in one way this is okay, the rear windows not being powered is a shame and only speaks of some serious cost cutting in some sense. Whatever it is this doesnt seem quite great.

(source www.fordfigo.in)

Flaws aside, the stereo is great to use. While FM radio was a bit cracked to listen to, CDs would sound much better on this system as compared to say Manza or the DZire. I also could pair my iPhone to the music system via bluetooth and the sound quality of songs from my iPhone to the Figo stereo was astounding without the real need for an amp/subwoofer. That said I am not yet clear whether Figo supports 4 channel amp + subwoofer. Also in the midst of listening to a song, when I accelerated the song cut off for a fraction of a second before resuming. Just some signal interference and nothing to think beyond that I feel. As a bonus I also made one call and received another call on the stereo and the caller’s voice was very clear and they could also hear me clearly. I am not sure where the mike is placed for this purpose. Bluetooth is one of the most important aspects of the figo at this price w.r.t swift, and these days its an indispensable feature to stay put on concentrating on the road while still enjoying a call or two.

The horn of the Figo is somewhat hard to press but provides the necessary sound externally to deter any annoyances displayed by other vehicles on the road. My personal choice would however be to put in a windtone horn (like what the skoda laura would have) as its more pronounced though it needs to be used maturely. I did not get a chance to test the headlights as it was daylight driving but I assume it would be good enough without warranting a change to Philips 100/120W.

(source www.fordfigo.in)

The rear space of the figo is an interesting aspect to talk about. I initially had the opinion that it would not provide me anything more than a swift. But to my surprise I found that with me being 5’10” and my driver’s seat pulled back to my comfort level, I could still sit in the Figo’s rear seat without feeling cramped. This is a marked departure from the swift days honestly and this could be a deal breaker for me other than price vs features. The third person (the guy in the middle) is always an unwanted guest and it so remains even in the Figo case. We should start treating all cars as strictly four seaters from now on and should not accept an additional guest simply because its our culture!

The only thing then left to talk about is the boot. By and large the boot is much much larger than say swift. Additionally one can also perfectly (100%) tilt the rear seat to make for much larger space to even carry a bicycle if need be. With this kind of versatality one does not really need a sedan for these purposes. The external design of the Figo looks somewhat oldish, but if one can just excuse that for the features it provides and a price its coming at, its perfectly drool maal. The tyres are not alloys but for a mere 15k more, one can add ford made alloys to the car.
The suspension itself is a bit soft which means if the car is fully loaded, one has to drive carefully on speed breakers. I scraped once with four people in the car at a certain high speed. so take note of this.

Finally, the pricing is the icing on the cake. with some cost cutting by Ford, they are today the only car in the category of diesels with so many modern features and a reasonably responsible engine and handling characteristics. The 1.4 engine isnt exactly a gem at 69bhp and 160NM torque at 2000 rpm but then it isnt a laggard either. The only thing then that will make Figo a winner or loser is the long term complaints about the car and service issues considering whether the strategy of Ford works or not as the case maybe.

The fuel efficiency must be in the range of 16 to 20 easily between city and highway driving which is what one can expect from most diesel hatches cut out for this kind of performance.

So what are you waiting for? Take your own test drive today and enjoy sheer bliss.