Bengaluru’s metro corridors – trying to understand them – green line

There was much fanfare over the launch of the green line for Namma Metro, which was considered an important milestone for Bengaluru. There were lots of things which were positive about this development.

Much of the underground work was completed and functional
The critical link between Jayanagar and Malleswaram sides were fixed
The distance covered by the metro was now longer and much more viable
More importantly South Bangalore was connected to the West and to East

The map from WikiPedia is worth looking at. It shows the exact extent of coverage of the Metro within the city with the Green and Purple lines

(image source: By Doc.aneesh – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18874026

While the east to west Bangalore covers about 18km of distance, that of South to North covers about 24km of distance. In absolute numbers this is relatively decent but the real extent is seen in the benefits for the passengers.

Important areas are now more accessible such as the city central railway station, KR Market, Vidhana Soudha and Malleswaram shopping areas. Puttenahalli and JP Nagar are residential and semi industrial areas, Banashankari has a Bus terminal which is a major interchange connecting different parts of Bangalore. RV road, Jayanagar and south end circle are areas of commercial activity and green spaces including Lalbagh as well as educational institutions such as National College, BMS College, KIMS, etc.

KR Market and Chickpet are some of the oldest areas in Bangalore and hosts the famous shops of SP Road, vegetable and fruit markets as well as shops selling lots of other stuff from photo frames to books and everything in between.

People who travel from Banashankari are now able to reach Byappanahalli much more easily and this reduces the time it takes for them to come to work which was otherwise a good 2 hours each way during the day.

Similary connections to North Bangalore and shopping areas such as Malleswaram is definitely making a lot of people happy as they can now access the many shops in and around the area including the famed Mantri Mall, CTR, Janata, Asha Sweets, Veena Stores and many more.

In fact Mantri already boasted of Greens in the vicinity but now also has the Centrium with an asking price tag upwards of 4 to 5 crores. Given that for the effluent the metro runs right near their apartment (almost into it) this project is a good buy. The Kempegowda interchange is something to write about in another post.

I parked my car at CMH road station and reached Malleswaram in about 30 minutes max which was an otherwise impossible task on a regular weekday. Even on Sunday morning 730am the rush inside the train was unimaginable. Given the frequency is nearly 15 minutes once, this is the most immediate issue that BMRCL will have to solve. With countries like Singapore having an every 2 minute train service, Bangalore seems like a tortoise, but I guess the government will understand this sooner than later.

I had to take tokens from CMH to Malleswaram and the cost for 4 people one way was 112 rupees. Its not exactly steep but its not exactly cheap either. For me by cab the entire journey for the same place would be about 200 bucks for 4 people. Its almost on par with nations like Singapore who charge about 2-3$ for an up and down journey.

Links:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Inside_the_MRT_train%2C_Singapore.jpg)

(https://previews.123rf.com/images/jennzhen/jennzhen1512/jennzhen151200034/54240440-Singapore-Dec-13-2015-Singapore-MRT-train-station-Bukit-Panjang-The-Mass-Rapid-Transit-or-MRT-formin-Stock-Photo.jpg

This said the reason I keep comparing to Singapore is simple. They have one of the best MRT and LRT services in the world (of course the London Tube is much more complex no doubt).

(https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/05/06/15/tube.jpg

In another post let me tell you about my visit to CTR using the train 🙂

Read this before you go to ‘Unleash 2016 Kids Festival’

My kid’s school had provided a pass to the UNLEASH 2016 KIDS festival by AtomConnect at the Nimhans Convention center bangalore. Today though I wanted to drive there early, I managed to reach there only by 10AM.
The registration counters were swelling with people who were not even aware of what form to fill and what activities are available for the day. Car parking had already become a hassle and I somehow got a slot after much searching which did not leave a pleasant experience for me either.

Once I was inside by paying Rs.49/- each for two parents, many activities were there some paid and some free. This include the playstation area, trampoline, carousel with horses and benches, caricature, photos with comic characters, revolving bull, automated cricket practice etc.

There was also a pottery class, but strangely it was restricted to girls alone! Very bizzaire. The queues were not much for all these activities but there was some wait nonetheless. However, due to the hot sun, I did feel that the event organizers could have done a better job to keep the little ones more comfortable.

Inside the auditorium there were carnival games like dart boarding, foosball, merry go round, etc. Also there was a fashion show organized where little ones could walk the ramp. There were also remote operated toy cars for smaller kids. In the first floor was a concert hall which was getting ready for a magic show and singing competition which I did not attend.

The rear area behind the auditorium had food stalls selling doughnuts, chats, sandwiches, etc. All these were medium fare and not really tasty at all.

One of the highlight for me in this whole event was the DJI phantom drone which was used to capture high quality videos of the event. While the person managing the drone told me it costed him about 5 lacs, an actual web reckoning threw up a price of 799 USD which is only about Rs.50000/-. Either it was then a much more professional version or its simply a jacked up price being quoted. Either way it is good to see drones into event video making and these gadgets are bound to get cheaper and cheaper as time goes by. One must also remember that drones can be operated only against permissions within the city.
Overall the event experience was not even average including event management, food, and general stalls and games available. I hope a lot more professionalism is put in, into organizing such events in the future.

Technorati Tags: unleash,2016,kids,festival,nimhans,convention,center,bangalore,bengaluru,blog,karnataka,games,carnival,play,station,food,auditorium,traffic,parking,comics,characters,carousel games,registration.

First impressions of the Mahindra TUV 300

Ever since I have been car pooling with my boss with his new Scorpio we’ve had some interesting discussions on how Mahindra and Mahindra have tackled the automotive industry with their slew of new vehicles and makeovers. Firstly the XUV was launched to a rather awestruck audience, next the Scorpio was give a makeover it sorely deserved, then the XUV was rehashed a bit again into a bolder looking vehicle, and then the Scorpio automatic was also launched. When we just thought that the dust had settled, now this – the TUV 300 (three double oo)
From a long time I have always been wondering how M&M vehicles have increased the costing of their vehicles without launch of any substantially new in the models out there. But then deep inside, they have been working hard to upgrade the current models with either higher quality of steering and dashboard materials, or gimmicks like the hybrid mode, rain sensing wipers, quality of seats, tiretronics, cubby spaces designs, toughened materials on the body, phone on steering wheels, sat nav, some cool looking alloys, etc. I find that on Scorpio the hybrid mode alone increases the mileage by 1km per litre of diesel. This said, its not hard to see how the company has reinvented themselves beyond the vehicle itself all the way from the assembly line to design to employee welfare and what not.
The Tata’s on the other hand seem to be lost in a government office style working culture even through their products are finally showing a design betterment of late.
Anyway, as I entered the showroom the other day, my expectations from the TUV 300 were not sky high as I knew its probably an upgraded version of the bolero or a slightly modified version of the Quanto. Everyone knows that, but what Mahindra have done here is seriously something different. Every manufacturer will reuse the parts from older vehicles while designing something new. But however, the stance of the TUV itself is quite imposing. After all its the same platform that the scorpio was built on. And it shows. Its majestic, rectangular, imposing and manly to look at. I did not quite like the font chrome stripes, and would have preferred it to be like the XUV, but then thats more of a design thing and I dont care much about details on the looks such as this one.

So having said that, the next natural urge was to plonk myself in the drivers seat. And just as I had expected, M&M have replicated the Scorpio seating here inch to inch. The seats are very very comfortable and the ride height is just awesome. Its almost as much as the Scorpio but a bit less in my opinion. But it does not make a difference.
The steering wheel is very nicely made with all due respect. The interiors are well made. I did not see a climate control, but nevertheless the dashboard itself was of superior quality almost hyundai in nature. This is not the usual run of the mill Mahindra. Careful selection of materials has been adhered to. The seats are really plush, and very supportive. The dashboard panels, steering, instrument clusters are all very well done.

The car gets all window buttons near the handbrake which is a bit of concern for me in 2015, but maybe its a matter of getting used to. The thing I like about Indian manufacturers is that they tend to understand Indian conditions well. So you get a rear washer and wiper without a question which I don’t have even in my Nissan Sunny.
That said, the USB chargers, stereo everything make up for more than what we expect for. A top view showing the seating configurations shows the amount of space within the vehicle

You can notice how much space is there in the middle row, the flat floor, and all the cubby storage holes on all doors and near the handbrake. Awesomely done. Indeed. My only grouse is the storage panel on top of the dashboard could have had a lid like in the Mahindra XUV 500 which is a miss.
You can notice that even in the rear door you can place huge bottles in the storage. The rear also gets jump seats which can at best accommodate children. But it apparently does not have seat belts which is not a good thing at all. Anyway what we are looking for is two adults or kids sitting in that seat for about 5-10 kilometres within the city if not more than that. Anything more than that and the discomfort shall be perceived.
The car also gets reverse assist, voice controls, driver information system and static bending headlamps in the higher versions.
I am yet to take the car on a test drive, and hope it will live upto its purpose as a true blue tough SUV. Its not clearly the best in creature comforts but then you also get what you pay for. Pay another 5 lakhs more and you will end up with the bigger brother the scorpio with all what you wanted within it. I have seen the auto car review of the TUV and for city drives it seems the right vehicle to go for. One of the grouses said in the review is the inability to remain powerful after 3500 RPM which is because of the 3 cylinder 84 bhp engine. For a non hassled driving style this car should still be able to give other sedans a run for their money.
And the next time it rains horribly on potholed roads in Bangalore, you will thank your stars for being in the TUV 300.
As a final note here is the price list of the vehicle in Bangalore City.

The autocar review can be found here, for your viewing pleasure. And the manual can be found here. If you want to make your TUV look even more tougher, you can choose from a huge list of accessories described here.
Hope you liked the information provided. If you did hit the comment section below to tell me what you liked most about the TUV 300. Enjoy your drive and wear your seatbelts.

My mobile ownership journey

On a holiday me and my wife started discussing about whether I need to dump my iPhone 6+ and go for that new shiny Samsung Note 5 which was just launched, or perhaps the 6s, or the upcoming nexus phones. This is when my wife asked me whether I have kept a tab on how many phones I had purchased all my life. Well, I remembered and here is the list 🙂

Early 2000 : Motorola CD928

This Motorola was an awesome beauty way back in year 2000. It was a fashion to flip out the keypad, the large LCD text screen and the gorgeous antenna. Costing almost Rs.10000/- way back this was a status symbol to possess. Added to that the only mobile network at that time was JT Mobiles (which is now our famour Airtel) Not to mention outgoing calls were Rs.7 a minute and incoming was Rs.3 a minute. People still wondered whether as a college passout into industry I was mad to buy this expensive a phone, but the stares it got satisfied the ownership.
2002 : Nokia 3300

Nokia’s evolution from 3100 turned out to be the flashy 3300 and the gimmicky ringtones kept everyone tapping their feet. Solid battery life, some great call clarity, this was the phone doing the rounds in Malaysia when I used to stay there at that time
2003 : Samsung V200

Samsung’s V200 was their early foray into the camera flip phone segment and after much of analysis this phone was mine for a while until I returned to India.
2003: HP iPAQ

The HP iPAQ was already doing good with PDA’s and with GSM they took it a step further to have a portable computer running windows CE in your pocket. A phone, a PDA, life was great!
For the decade ending 2010, and beyond until now
Motorola A1200

With a stylus and a brilliant resistive touchscreen, even though the options of font were too small, this phone was capable of being a PDA and a phone at the same time. Very pocketable, loud speaker, and amazing call clarity were hallmarks of a motorola A1200. What followed was the razor which went on to create history, but somehow I did not own that!
Nokia 6600

It was Symbian’s best phone at the time of its rule, with users swearing by its quality. Such was the power of Nokia 6600 that merely owning it was a status symbol. The joystick, its easy to use options, buttons, and some great battery life with needless to mention great call quality, this was the phone to have.
Panasonic A100

I was always a huge fan of little phones, and the A100 from panasonic proved itself to be the mighty Jerry of the Tom and Jerry league. Its cool blue lighting, and its somewhat difficult to use buttons, its miniaturization – it was a product unique to its category and surprisingly good quality of calls.
Olive Compacta

The olive Compact from olive telecom is not a mere play toy though it looks so. Started off at Rs.999 and now at Rs.575 or so, this phone is a testimony that the category it belongs to still has takers even now. I still have the phone, and it works even now. No nonsense phone, nothing smart, just the calls. Absolutely unique and cool
The Nokia Asha Saga – The 3 series asha

Nokia was struggling to infuse fresh life into its Series 40 based phones with the Asha series. They suffered from lags, useless apps, though had a good call quality. However the hardware was still cool to hold and use. Since there was a need for a dual sim phone, with the advent of dual sim needs, this one went out of my house
The Nokia asha 5 series

For me I felt the 501 was an evolution of phones like the panasonic, olive, and moto a1200. Nokia had their brilliant design language stand out, though the software was extremely slow and did not match upto what the industry expected. I still have this phone, though do not use it anymore. Some things are there to be seen and to make you happy everytime you see them.
The Windows Saga
Lumia 710

Nokia’s effort at moving to Windows was some sort of disaster with the 710 and earlier models with the operating system itself being no more than a dud. Frequent hangs, crashes, and glitches was MS’ way of introducing their new mobile OS
Lumia 1520

After a span of 2-3 years I decided to give Nokia another chance and purchased their outrageously priced 1520 flagship. This was the best Nokia ever produced, barring another model which had the 41mp camera. In every way the screen was the best, the phone was a beauty to use. However the lack of apps even after so many years, put me down and in order to salvage some cost out of the loss, I had to sell it out, thereby also signifying my exit with Windows once and forever.
The Alcatel Ice Cube 803

Alcatel does not call it the ice cube for no reason. The 803 series is a brilliant resistive screen phone (even in 2015) as its sold for a purpose. The SAR rating for this phone is one of the best in the market which means your brains wont fry even if you talk on this phone for hours together. I still have this, and use it sometimes for overseas calls that last more than couple of hours. Absolutely cool on the ear, and does not provide anything else fantastic
The Android Saga
Dell XCD35

About sometime after Apple starting rolling out their smartphones, Android which started off somewhat in a lacklustre way started catching up. The Dell XCD 35 was a brilliantly designed product off the shelf and it was running Android 2.0+ After some while of using it, I had to give it to my wife who used it to the hilt before dumping it to a mobile shop guy who wanted it for the spare parts to repair a customer’s similar phone. Till today, there are two brands that impress me – dell and Blackberry – they have always had some solid designs on their mobiles and this has led to some good models in the past including the dell Venue and venue pro.
Lenovo K900

Lenovo was a master of industrial design and this clearly showed in their K900 which had Android married to Intel processors. The phone itself was just super awesome, but gaming made it hot (not warm) and their speaker and mic quality let them down on this model. I had to return it to flipkart for a refund simply becuase the most important functionality of the mic and speaker were horrible. They learnt their problem and had since launched K910 and more lately their k3 series lower than Rs.15000 where they are playing in their field well. More on that later
Hello Moto G

After Motorola’s sad butchering in the late 2000s, they came back with Android and the new Moto G. This phone with stock android still remains popular in many avatars even today. It had the most oustanding vibrate mode, some exceptional call quality which was typical of moto phones since a decade, but with less RAM though not necessarily slow. The battery tended to go weak after a year or so, but my wife still uses this, and she can swear by the quality even today. No wonder then that Motorola is again on the upswing launching the play and style editions of Moto X shortly expected.
Hello Moto E

If you like something, and your people at home also like something, then you need to buy two of the same immediately. In order to make my father in law happy, I purchased the Moto E which was a lesser child of the moto family with reduced hardware but somewhat still usable
LG G2

The LG G2 was by far one of the best android phones I used in my entire life. The user interface was silly in my opinion, but very usable, it had IR, it had wireless flash access, and everything else one could imagine. They pioneered the backside buttons concept which quickly caught on among other manufacturers. It was great to hold, with a premium feel and had a brilliant screen. However, the user interface grew on me so much that I felt that I really needed a change beyond a year. No amount of rooting, or otherwise could refresh this on the LG so I had to let it go. One of the good things about LG is the amount of software support they provide where you can brick your phone entirely and bring it back to showroom condition all by yourself. However the android updates were a pain to get as well.
Nexus 4

The Nexus 4 was an example of how NOT to design a phone experiment that LG undertook. Glass on both sides, phone getting extremely hot which was identified as a design flaw all over the world with no solution in sight, my phone just cracked on the rear glass on its own. Just was kept on the table and boooom. It was getting so hot to even keep on the ear and make a call that the only thing I wanted to do with it was to dump it in the recycle bin. No wonder then that the Nexus 5 was rolled out and this one went into oblivion. LG’s two different faces between the Nexus 4 and the G2.
The HTC 1

After LG, right there was the HTC 1 which was yet another phone which made some waves in the android world. They had one of the best speakers almost rivaling apple itself, and the premium feel was one of the best in the market. Somehow HTC UI never really improved and evolved over time and their keyboard though one of the best started feeling boring after a while. With a difficult decision to make I had to let it go for good.
HTC 616

After sometime I was using HTC 616 as my secondary phone, but with its internal 4GB memory, and an absolutely laggy OS, it was not a difficult decision for me to get rid of it. Sometimes I dont understand why a company like HTC goes into this low end business and gets screwed without knowing how to produce what can sell in large numbers. Anyway, now that I have seen two HTC phones, I am done with HTC for good.
Xiaomi Redmi Note

This one single company from China has caused so much ripples in the indian mobile industry that perhaps even Micromax did not cause. Their product the Redmi Note is one of the best in the price range, and my dad still uses the phone even though it may have a cracked screen. A bit laggy with 2GB ram, still Xiaomi has one of the best user interfaces and the hardware itself is solid bang for the buck. At less than Rs.10000 there is still no phone to beat this hands down. This company beat the Oppos, Gionees and many others so badly that even Lenovo had to bow down to the pricing versus quality pressure with their A and k3 series.
The Lenovo A6000+

More recently I purchased my Lenovo A6000+ for Rs.6000. An android phone this cheap and of reasonable quality was all was needed to set this market on fire for low end phones. The K3 note followed through as well pretty soon. The ViBe UI from lenovo, is slick, fast and cuts the crap out of user interface design. With two 4G sim slots, memory card slot and a brilliant screen for the price who the hell cared for anything else? This now replaced my Alcatel and HTC as my secondary phone and is doing the duty for me at the moment at home.
The Blackberry Saga
You know there is this company which was one of the best in the market and from Canada, that the entire world once stood up for them with respect. They had the best quality hardware, an advanced and straightforward user interface and some really great handsets. Blackberry was the businessman’s best friend forever.
Blackberry Curve 8520

The blackberry had many models including the flip, pearl, etc which were hits in their own right, and there was a time in India where they were heavily marketing the Curve series. For some god damned reason, they always bundled their own Blackberry talk plans with the operators, which they did away with after sometime. They had and still have a huge fan following in Indonesia primarily now and some people in India. The Curve series had a navigation trackpad, physical keyboards and some exceptional call qualities and it was an absolute joy to use. However my patience with it ran out after sometime having seen other better models with Apple and Android in the market.
Blackberry Storm touch

True to their tradition BB brought about the storm touch with the clickable glass panel which was funky, unique and silly at the same time. I loved clicking the screen wherever I wanted and it grabbed eyeballs all around my office at the time of using it. However pretty soon, I felt it was bulky and not so intuitive and started bringing me into boredom state once more. So it had to go for good. The thing with Blackberry is there are buyers who are fans of BB and only true fans will understand the brand and the phones. others will not.
Blackberry Z3

After many failures trying to compete with Apple and Android, BB still did not give up, they brought in their z3 with android sideloading and other such features to still remain relevant in the app store market. I decided to give them another chance after seeing the way they goofed up on earlier chances. Their CEO was replaced, and now a chinese CEO took over and I hoped that after so much of layoffs and cost cutting they would have learnt the lesson. But it was not to be. It does not mean I was against their hardware. I loved it. Really. Honestly. From the bottom of my heart, i loved blackberry. I will always love them. For what they were, not what they are or what they become. But that is one thing as opposed to living with their products day in and out.
The z3 is a brilliant piece of hardware. Truly well made. But the software sucks. big time. Its nice to use. Start thinking apps and you are done. I mean really finished. I had to sell the instrument within one week of buying it. I have never decided against blackberry this soon in my life ever. News has it that BB is busy working on their next pure android device the “VENICE” and its expected to some out sometime soon. Real soon. But for now I will remain far away from them. Once bitten Thrice shy.
The Apple journey
iPhone 3GS

Colourful icons, milky white body, lots of apps – who did not like Steve Jobs and his product the iPhone. This was truly a game changer of sorts. The iPhone, 2G, 3G later, it was time for the 3GS – which was faster and thinner than the 3rd generation iPhone. When I first held the iPhone in my hand, I truly felt the influence a smartphone can have in one’s life. I mean really it was not hard to appreciate the quality, the build the software everything put together so nicely. Steve had changed the world one product at a time and this was the beginning of domination.
iPhone 4S

It became a policy for me to skip one version and go for the improved versions. After two years of using iPhone 3GS which by the way was the longest ever product usage time for me, I decided to switch to the 4S. Similar screen size, less curves, more squarish, and thinner by a margin. Nothing changed except having more and more apps and a better camera.
iPhone 6plus

The one thing I was fed up of with Apple was the screen size. With their mentally retarted thinking they thought they could continue changing the world with just a 4 inch screen. While all others were moving steadily towards larger screens. It took them two years or more to move out of the 5 and 5S to bring in the 6 and 6plus and now the 6s all sporting bigger displays. This was precisely the reason I was on android with bigger screens getting pampered. I was lying in wait for the big screen Apple and here it was. Beginning of this year 2015, I upgraded to the 6 plus. And I have only one word for it. Gorgeous. I mean it. The screen, the battery everything is great. And when you buy and apple year after year, you know what to expect. Or what not to expect. And it makes me at home with that understanding. I am appreciating a lot of things with apple. Its stability, usability the components used etc. But even the flatter look is wearing thin. The bezels around the phone are irritating. Not being able to transfer something using bluetooth is irritating. And every other such thing is irritating. So it will be only time before I give away this one also. For good. And the iphone 6S is no good either with just force touch, better camera, and 4k recording – something all other brands already have for a long time. I will definitely always sell an apple with a heavy heart no doubt mostly due to the feeling that Apple is not giving what the market is expecting. The claps are getting fewer and fewer during the keynotes and one day deathly silence shall fill the room. I really hope Apple turns around much faster than disaster strikes. And there is no history of any one company enjoying number 1 status for a long time. Headweight must not get in the way of understanding market sentiment. And I wish Apple hears.
This then my friends is the entire Saga of owning phones in my life. Clearly every product has excited me for some reason or the other and they have also left me for some really good reason or the other. The phones shall keep coming thick and fast and they shall also be owned thick and fast. But in these times of choices in plenty if any phone can be with me for a minimum of 2 years as my iphone 3gs did then, you will understand that history has again be created with a product worthy of ownership for so long. Till then, I hope you enjoyed this read.

The Hyundai Creta first look

Today I got a chance to visit the Hyundai Showroom to take a look at the Creta, their newly launched mini SUV. As you would already be knowing by now this big fella is making headlines all over India as the latest on the block to demolish all other SUVs on the market (which includes Ford Ecosport, Duster, Scorpio, XUV and also the not yet launched S-Cross from Maruti).

Will the Creta have enough under its belt to take away the throne from the others? Looks? Performance? Comfort? Space? Read on.

There was no big fanfare about the Creta and as I entered the showroom, there it was in full glory in Cherry Red colour. I have been reading all about Creta in the last one month and I must tell you that I share the same opinion as the others when it comes to looks. No amount of photographs will be enough to explain the real perspective of a human mind unless you look at the car in person.

The design is brilliant. Initially I thought that the grill in the front would jut out just too much to make it bulky as seen in many of the reviewers photos. But you know what? Not at all. I mean really. As is the case with hyundai they have created an SUV with a massive appearance. It will really have some presence on the road. You need to see it to beleive it.

The macho front grill, the beautiful fog lamps, the triangle shaped bright orange indicators, and the imposing headlamps all of these add value to the overall body. The side profile is similar so XUV but a bit more sober and lends very well to the overall character of the car. Though Korean in nature the unmistakable thud while closing the doors is a bit reassuring. No wonder then that this car apparently has very high C-NCAP ratings.

The whole design begins to rise towards the rear ending a Santa Fe like tail lamp cluster which bodes very well to complete the muscular look. In terms of looks and styling Hyundai have a winner compared to the Duster. It even beats the Ford Ecosport by a small margin in my opinion. Somehow the XUV rear end looks very heavy and not connected to the frontal portions and side profiles. The cheetah inspiration has gone a bit too far. Hyundai have kept it simple and copying the Santa Fe has worked wonders for Creta.

Enough said about the front. I got into all the seats one by one. First and foremost, I did find that there was ample thigh support in all seats. Maybe some reports might be biased on this count, but I found the seats to be pretty well made and very cozy and comfortable. Hyundai has the bad habit of placing seats so deep that even the driver cannot see any part of the car and has to drive by assumptions. But somehow in Creta the seat height is better than in a say i-20 which means you can now see the road better if not the bonnet. Having said that, the rear bench has very generous leg room even for a person my height (5’10”). And that when my own comfortable position is adjusted on the drivers seat. To give you a perspective I can make a young kid of 1-2 years stand in front of me on rear seat. Thats the amount of space available. Rest assured each and every journey will be more than satisfying on this car.

The front row seats have good cushioning, good grip and engulf you well enough to keep you cocooned. I am somehow not a big fan of vertical aircon vents, and this disappoints me with Creta. But as such the looks dont appear spoilt with this dashboard design. There are enough cubby holes for all your knick knacks. And its obviously a hyundai. So this is expected. The steering is well architected, with nicely placed controls. The driver door has rest of all the controls which make it easy to use. I specifically like the mirror adjust angled towards the driver on the door, which is really a thought out placement.

The stereo system with all functions perhaps will be available only in the top end model as defined in the brochure here. The prices on road in Bangalore vary between 11.5 lakhs and 17+ lakhs which is very steep for whats on offer. Take a look at it below

Overall the car also has ample boot space, and passenger space which is its defining point. I have not yet got a chance to drive this far enough to make a conclusion, but I do not see why it can give other SUVs some nightmares.

Until I drive the SUV more and find out its bits and pieces which are of interest, I will leave you with some stunning pictures of what Hyundai has created for the Indian market. I am more than sure this will set their sales charts on fire.

Lenovo A6000+ review

Given that I now own an iPhone 6 plus, the next search was to find something useful as a second standby phone. After spending 30s and 40s of thousands on phones, there was an era where phones suddenly started costing 20s of thousands.

With the advent of Xiaomi, people like Lenovo and Samsung faced such a wrath on pricing that they even went to the extent of reduced profits, or even sometimes sacking employees to make good the loss on business somehow. The mobile phone market only got hotter with the introduction of newer – cheaper and equally powered – qualcomm snapdragon series of chipsets at a very sweet pricing of lower than 10000 bucks. So suddenly the need to spend anything more than this price for a good android phone effectively vanished.

As I was busy checking out what I would get at about this price, which suited what I needed, I rummaged through lots of phones on flipkart and Amazon. Primarily my needs for a standby phone were these things in no particular order

Very Good battery life
4G sim trays if possible keeping it bit future proof
decent screen if not the most sharpest
lightweight phone and display of about 4.5+ inches in size
Average camera – this wasnt the purpose for me to buy
Though service was important I could forego that at the cost of the phone itself
Reasonable audio, as my purpose was not this as well

One fine day I chanced upon the Lenovo A6000+ at my friends cube at office. After playing around with it, the next moment I ordered it on a special deal price of about 1000 bucks off on flipkart app. This means, instead of the regular 7200 bucks, I got the phone at 6200 bucks.

When I received the phone, I could not but feel very good about everything that the phone had to offer for that price. I am not a big fan of Lenovo. This was because of my previous bad experience on buying a Lenovo K-900 which I detailed out on this blog. You can read more about that here.

First off when I opened the package, it was simple to open, package contents were easy to notice and understand without even a manual, and I could easily fit the micro sim cards along with memory card and battery without a fuss. Charging it was child’s play as well and nothing special from what used to be before.

Here are some of the positive things about this phone I would like to highlight about the Lenovo A6000+

Very lightweight even with the battery
4G sim card support for both sims – very futureproof
Screen is quite sharp for the price
The VIBE User interface is an amazing joy to use on android – I love the way the icons look and feel and its very modern for my kind of liking
Its just the right size for every hand and effortless to carry around
Screen protector was included which means no going to the shop just for this
I did not want a back cover for this phone as it was a standby phone for me. I guess you may not need it as well
Fast boot mode in lenovo simply rocks
Clear audio due to dolby compliance
Amazing battery life – almost 3-4 days if you keep data switched off, easily a full day on continous data usage – particularly google maps which consumes lots of battery
Easily removable back panel making it easy to access sim cards and memory card – though its not hot swappable which is not a big minus point

Every phone built to some price will have its negatives, and the Lenovo A6000+ is not an exception. So here they are:

Audio is not loud enough – this was the same grouse in my earlier K-900 and so also here.
Call volume cannot be increased beyond a point and in noisy environments this phone is just not suitable to use at all
Some people may find the phone too plasticky on all corners and at the back
No backlighting for the three android soft keys at the bottom of the phone – this is a major slip for me since you have to press they keys with more of intuition than anything of accuracy
The volume sliders and power button are easily accessible but they just dont have that feel to them as you find on other more expensive phones
Average camera – remember you are not paying for great optics here so this is the best what you can expect !!

(iphone 6 plus taken by Lenovo A6000+)

The one single selling point for me as far as this phone is concerned is the FAST BOOT mode that lenovo has put into the software. Rather it is emulating PC bootups by saving last memory status to flash storage and booting off from there the next time.

Whichever way the implementation has been done, I would say the lenovo boots up in just 2 seconds on fast boot. Yes you read it right – 2 seconds !! This is the single most important thing I have noticed as an improvement across all android phones in recent years. Simply mind blowing.

The camera is average – its not the greatest but you could live with images taken off this phone as readability is still clear. I am not expecting low light shots to be great on this phone either. If you are looking for a great camera – look elsewhere like Apple, not lenovo.

So does this phone justify the 6000 rupee price tag? – Heck, absolutely yes. Lenovo has provided brilliant value for money – or rather they have been forced to rethink on pricing by newer players such as Xiaomi who are determined to give them a run for their money. But Lenovo has clearly jumped back into the game and for good. The upcoming Lenovo k3 note is surely going to be yet another example of how good a phone can get for as low as about 11000 bucks. Yes, we already had the Xiaomi Redmi note for much lesser – by almost 40%, but then at 3GB ram the lenovo k3 note will kick some serious ass. The brilliant looking user interface only means better usability and the rather large battery and screen would only produce more fireworks.

For the budget conscious consumer the A6000+ is a very good buy offering some great usability experience, good battery backup, reasonable camera, future ready 4G sim slots and expandable memory and all this in an extremely lightweight shell. Look no further – swipe that credit card now!

Is the Satechi Portable Humidifier really so good? Read to find out

I have been researching portable humidifiers since sometime now and brands like Air-o-Swiss, satechi, and few other unknown and relatively cheap brands are littered all over Amazon. Deciding to plunge into buying one of them, with a cost of about Rs.1500 bucks or a little under $30, I checked out Amazon and froze on the Satechi Portable humidifier.

Here is a very brief and specific review of the item I finally purchased.

Purpose

The intent of the purchase was to see if the humidifier made any difference to my nostrils feeling stuffy in the transition between winter to summer in Bangalore
I wanted something cheap but of acceptable quality
I wanted something portable too as it was mainly meant for my office cubicle

This was brought in by my friend who travelled to India. My expectation from this unit was that it would throw a lot of fumes in and around my cube. However this unit just sprays a single jet of fumes which do not seem to make any difference after about an hour of usage. It has an auto cut off as well which automatically swithces the unit off in case you are not around after a while.

The filter itself needs to be changed often which is a bigger pain. It is good if you have a severe blocked nose and need some relief. But other than that for the amount, its hardly anything useful considering there is a lot of maintenance on it like replacing filters or changing water once in a while etc.

Renault Lodgy First Look

I had the chance to visit the Renault showroom to have a first look at the newly launched Lodgy MUV. Though its a bit late and all the news websites and magazines have been going gaga over the Lodgy, I still want to mention a few things here that might make sense to read for you if you are wanting to invest on the Lodgy.

From a long time I have been following the Innova, and even have taken lots of trips in the Innova. Though it was a failure model elsewhere like in Indonesia, India was a different ball game for Toyota. They were, are and would be still riding high on the success of Innova simply due to the fact that there were no real contenders to the vehicle till now. As such the vehicle itself was quite practical and served large family needs pretty well.

Maruti tried hard with the Ertiga which just passed off as a 5 seater with more luggage space rather than a seven seater, and the Honda mobilio is something I have already written about. They came close to being an Innova, but never really got there.

The only choices for space were the Xylo and the XUV500 and the former of the two is a real 7 seater. But then its not stylish, it has way too much body roll and its not really upmarket while on the road. Of course Tata has the safari and the Aria, but the Aria never really kicked off well even though it was a no nonsense vehicle in terms of practicality.

This is where Renault had a chance and they brought in the Lodgy. And they have taken time to address the basics first. SPACE. You know this word deserves capital letters for the Lodgy. I really mean it. Almost a decade of thinking about it by all other manufacturers and no one ever bothered to get it right. Renault did. And its evident in the reviews. Every single review never misses out mentioning the space. And I saw it for myself. First hand. The car can easily accomodate upto 7 adults and 1 kid. Or even 8 medium sized adults. Without the jostle for the space.

Now the rear bench always will be placed higher and is not a place to spend a 1000km worth of ride in. But then when you need to move people these things are expected. And these people would be more comfortable in a Lodgy as compared to a Mobilio is what I am trying to say. Its a genuine effort by Renault in creating the space that people look for with that kind of pricing (13-14.5 lacs OTR Bangalore) and they have nailed whats needed.

Now having said so much about space, when I pay upto 15 lacs for a car, I expect all the creature comforts it can ever offer. And the Renault does that in style. Except for climate control which is still a sore point but manageable. It has speed limiter, cruise control, height adjuster (basic version with three levels only), tilt steering, complete navigation based stereo system, 15” Alloy wheels, airbags, abs, leather seats, rear wiper, defogger, and whatever else matters most. Truly for this price, it is a complete package in all respects and leaves nothing much to complain. The difference in ground clearance between Renault Lodgy and Innova is just about 2 mm which should not be so much of a bother. Arguably the Innova surely looks more upmarket on the inside, but a full 4 lacs of money for just the engine of about 1000cc more, especially when both the engines provide similar power and torque figures is somewhat expensive in my opinion.

What is really good about the Lodgy is the accessibility to the rear seat. So many manufacturers have just made vehicles for the heck of it (the Ertiga being a case in point) but on one worked for the end customer but rather for their own profits. Even old people can easily get into the last seat in the Lodgy and thats why I adore this vehicle so much. With the rear bench being completely detachable, you can even put a bicycle into the Lodgy easily.

The overall look and feel inside the dashboard is not extremely great, but does not make you feel sorry for the time you sit in the car to drive it. I have not got a chance to test drive this car, but owning a Nissan Sunny and knowing that its the same engine in the Lodgy, its not hard for me to imagine what the ride would be like. Renault’s engines are one of the best in the world and you can only expect a ready for race engine when you buy one of their cars.

The windows of the Lodgy are really wide and make the cabin feel airy. Added to this there are rain sensing wipers, and auto sensing airconditioner which I presume will switch on if there are people in a row else not. Small innovation but big fuel saving. The seating height also is pretty good on this car and its almost at Innova levels which makes it easy to drive on the road. It is pretty long, longer than the Sunny too, so you may need to have a good amount of parking space in the house for this car.

All said and done, for the features it offers, and the price it commands, the Renault Lodgy is no doubt the LODGYCAL choice! Autocar magazine agreed with me 🙂

Video Intro to Malabar Ocean Front Resort and Spa, Nileshwar

I had earlier written a review of the Malabar Beach Front resort and Spa in Nileshwar for your reading. There is no justice to saying how good an experience is without showing a small video of the same. So in this post I present to you a video of the Resort facilities so you may experience it before deciding to go there.

I had also written yet another article on what can go wrong in planning journeys specific to going to this resort. You may wish to read that article here as well.

Does the Celerio really offer what it claims?

The ageing Tata Nano needs a refresh and our family has to now take a call on which car to go for given the limited budget and affordability at this point in time. This being a second car its purpose would be to only run it in and around home a few miles everyday.

(source: maruti suzuki celerio official website)

A call to Pratham motors in HSR Layout and a word with them on the interest in Celerio was enough for them to scramble a car for a test drive. The AMT (automated manual transmission) is lately catching the fancy of many Indian car buyers as well as automobile manufacturers. Maruti, Tata have taken early leads to jump into the business of making this transmission in order to woo two kinds of crowds – ladies who would otherwise find it difficult to drive a manual tranny car and the scores of individuals who are fed up commuting in a 2 to 3 hours gruelling traffic jam each day changing gears thousands of times.

The Celerio was the first of the bunch to sport the AMT, followed by Alto, and news of Wagon R jumping onto the same bandwagon. Tata however have cleverly put in an AMT only currently into their zest sedan, needless to say only on the top diesel variant retailing over 8 lacs ex-showroom. This cost would definitely put off a few prospective automatic car buyers.

(source: maruti suzuki celerio official website)

On the non AMT side, we do have many cars that already sport an automatic transmission including but not limited to the Maruti Ritz & Dzire, the Honda Amaze, Brio and the City, the Micra and Sunny from Nissan, etc. While these are pure automatics, the AMT is a different experiment to keep the mileage returned at almost that of a manual. While the CVTs like the micra are the most fun to drive, the AMTs are basically trying to address the mundane commute in a much better way.

A couple of pleasantries later, I let my wife drive the Celerio first after which I took to the wheel myself. There are basically two modes provided with respect to the automatic transmission. One is the fully automatic D-N-R mode where the car takes over what to do fully, and the other is the Manual (M) mode with + and – for upshifts of gear or downshifts. This mode must be enough to remind you of the fact that at heart these cars are still the manual ones, but the manufacturers have pulled off neatly the clutch handling part by automating that physical action of engaging or disengaging a clucth.

My drive was roughly about 2 to 3 kms with varying terrain: some smooth roads, few really bad speed breakers, and some roads with potholes. The first part was the fully automatic drive mode. The car picks up rather hesitatingly but settles down from first gear and the gears quickly move upto 2nd and 3rd thereon. The idea of this mode is to bring the car to the highest gear in the shortest time to conserve fuel on the drives. This is both good and bad. Good for the money saved, bad for the thrill lost of driving a manual car. With due respects to manual cars, I would not hinge on discussing those here. The only aim here is to let you know the comfort that AMTs aim to offer and evaluate whether the claims really make sense.

7-2014-Maruti-Suzuki-Celerio-Interior-Dashboard-AMT

(source: carblogindia.com)

The automatic mode is something I can term as a complete fuss free experience. Release the handbrake and you are all set to go. That’s it. Accelerate when you want, brake when you want and the car simply wont switch off. Wish granted and it performs great wherever you amble the car around. While moving from standstill since it picks up from 1st gear, all the way to 4th, its a smooth acceleration barring a momentary hesitation in second and third to lunge forward. Its not unbearable, and in my opinion not significant enough to delay you so much to get you frustrated (unlike the honda amaze automatic CVT).

While slowing down the car tends to remain in second gear most of the times unless you physically get it to a full stop where it would switch back to first gear. Now when you accelerate rather hard when its on second there is a certain vibration before the car settles down. This is rather annoying but I guess we have to live with this flaw for the remaining creature comforts of an automatic. Its just an overlooked aspect in my opinion and may be addressed in forthcoming revisions of the vehicle after customer feedback.

(source: mid-day.com)

Now the manual mode. Slide the lever to “M” or “D” on the go as you like. In “M” mode, the onus is on the driver to trip down (pull down the gear lever) each time a gear upshift is needed. For downshifts the level would be pulled upwards. This is more precise for me and its like driving a manual without the clutch pedal but with gear shifts 🙂 And the car can be made to listen to your whims of which gear you want to be on. One clever thing that you expected and is provided as a feature is that you only need to upshift while on the move. If you slow down the car downshifts by itself upto 1st gear. Smart.

(source: motorbeam.com)

Even in the manual mode, the car tries to remain on second gear as much as possible. Not sure why this implementation was done this way, but that is how it is.

For the other bits that are worth liking about the Celerio now. Some colours are head turning in this car – I loved the green, red and blue specifically. The headlamp design, the indicators in the front are certain things that make the car look definitely good and modern enough. The rear seems in my opinion a bit disconnected from the whole frame, but its not totally worthless. The LXi version is for those who dont have money, and the VXi version is for those who have money but still dont get enough features for that money.

The difference is about 50000 bucks and for that money, you get power windows, wheel caps (yea we are still talking like its 1995), auto driver window down (I call this double click down), lots of chrome here and there, vanity mirrors (LXi owners wives would be an angry lot), rear parcel shelf (oh common maruti), 60-40 split seat (necessary in my opinion as a combination of passenger+luggage is possible at rear), central locks, and power windows. This feature set is worth paying the differential amount for in my opinion.

What the car is missing though is Airbags on AMT version which is a big minus (now you remember the indian dialogue “if i am driving slow i dont need airbags” 🙂 ). There is no stereo in either AMT version which is another minus. No seat covers, etc. The rear wiper is present which is much better than defogger. Another point is the gear indicator shows up on the console only in auto mode (wonder why!) if that really matters to you.

I don’t like manufacturers deliberately cutting down on the airbags just to make a model sell well. This shows the irresponsibility from their side on the lives of buyers. Even the impending rules from government for making airbags mandatory would mean they consider only the driver as a human being and provide a single airbag to satisfy the government. What I really hate is the either automatic or airbags choices which are really senseless and idiotic in the year 2015. I wish manufacturers use their heads more than just keep cash registers ringing by selling unsafe cars year on year. I wish someone puts up a petition challenging all this in a big way. For me an optional airbag facility would have made this an A+ car to drive. Unfortunately Maruti for their own reasons cut out that pleasure from buyers and dampened them for good.

So if I buy the car, I guess I’ll be one of those owners who’d have to tell anyone who asks “I am driving slowly why must I need an airbag?” to satisfy my foolishness of buying a car without these. The other way to ask this question is to say “I am willing to pay who is giving me airbags in this combination?” – that’s atleast a better proposition.

The space in Celerio is really commendable for a hatchback, and five people might be able to sit in peace. Overall I found the headroom, legroom and general comfort to be substantial for a car this size and Maruti has really worked on the space part and got this equation right on this car. Given Celerio is coming in with diesel, it would be a right spot that the company has got with respect to having its sales charts on fire. Not that it already hasn’t with whats available.

On bad roads the Celerio is a good boy and handles most bad-boy-road-humps with ease even when loaded upto 4 people and a kid. I really went on some seriously ugly humps and it didn’t bat an eyelid. The handling was good and the occupants did not complain or were thrown about much. I did find the pickup to be slightly less with AC on and 4 people loaded but I need to drive this car more to ascertain whether this is indeed a sore point or not. A 2km test drive was insufficient for me to understand this part. The window was slightly higher to my liking and kids would not be able to see out if they are on the rear seat. The Hyundai i20 is like that and there are some cars such as these which have deep seating which is both good and bad. The driver maybe able to feel the pinch with this kind of seating.

There is no seat height adjust or steering tilt which is really sad as I am pretty sure providing that feature is not going to cost Maruti a bomb. These are mainly missed out to keep that differentiation in sales and in my opinion these are really stupid moves to say the least.

In summary the Celerio is a likeable car for the way it handles, and the space. Sprucing up the feature list can make it the next Wagon R for the next decade or so. The AMT is a breeze and its a no brainer for new drivers. Five adults would be comfortable on this vehicle and on long drives it surely would be much appreciated for the cruises it can offer. The hill holding capability is not yet tested by me but I did see that on a sloping section of road, the car did not move backwards on releasing the brakes which means there is some sort of implementation to prevent that.

The LXi at the time of writing sells in Bangalore at 5.3 OTR and the VXi at 5.8 OTR. The recommendation is to go for VXi as the features are much better. All the colours are nice to look at and Maruti’s service assurance should keep 90% of the customers happy with any purchase you do through them.

There can be many things told about the car, but experiencing an AMT in action is a totally different pleasure and I am sure you would not have any complaints on that front. Until the next car review, this is Srikanth from the Bangalore blog signing off for now.