Tata Harrier : First Ride Review

After months of writing my first impressions of the Tata harrier, I finally got to take it out on a little test ride. It was a relatively small ride but it was enough to make me not want to give it a second thought. Let me explain why..

So, as I had mentioned in my previous post, I was totally floored by how the Tata Harrier looked. I loved how butch it looked, the bold new design, the LED's on the bonnette and the main headlights being part of the bumper, the humongous tires, the interiors and almost everything about the car was very impressive. I just couldn't wait to get my hands on the car and yesterday was finally the day.

It is said that beauty is only skin deep and I feel it kind of applies very well in case of the Harrier. Its a great looking car no doubt but only after you drive it will you know how unrefined the car actually is. It took me a while to get the driving position right and after I did, I could feel the unease from the moment I put it into first and started to drive it. Then engined felt extremely laborious. There was a lot of noise creeping into the cabin which was quite unnerving and most importantly the A pillar and the huge rear view mirrors kept coming in the way when I want to take a right turn. I didnt like the hand break and also the storage space near the hand break which didnt have a push button life. I just didn't like it one bit and was waiting to get out of it.

I drive a Hyundai Creta and by far I think its one of the best car there is. Im not being partial towards it because I own one. The sheer number of Creta's on the road is testimony of the fact that it is just the perfect little SUV. The cabin feels rich and its so quite in spite of it being a diesel engine. There is ample amount of power when you need it and its not too large and neither is it too small and its extremely easy to drive. It was introduced with the tag line of "The perfect SUV" and I feel Hyundai just nailed it. Nothing seems to be able to come anywhere close to how good this car is. Most importantly, mind you the Creta just had a face lift and the version 2.0 is yet to come. If they can maintain keep everything like the current creta and design it in a much futuristic way, I dont think anything can ever beat it.

Anyways I digress from what I initially started off saying. I didn't like the Tata Harrier one bit. The Tata buzzard which is a 7 seater version of the current Harrier is also around the corner. The design once again looks spot on but I hope the engineers at Tata do something to the noise insulation and the slightly sluggish performance. The 19L on road price for the Tata Harrier seems way to steep. Just waiting to see the sales figures. The Jeep Compass was a runaway success but it fell flat suddenly. Tata Harrier may also face the same problem. Lets see.

I wish I took some photos of the interior to add in this article but like I said. I just wanted to get out and get back in my Creta.

I'll keep doing more of  these reviews. Stay tuned for more. 

Jack of all trades

Everyone must've heard the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none". It is usually used to describe someone who has tried everything that came to his/her way but never really mastered any of them. It was used in a negative connotation but in the current day and age, being Jack of all trades but not necessarily master of anything seems to be the best way to be.

I am an IT engineer by profession. I work for a large MNC where I develop softwares for different clients. My "expertise" or rather the area where I have most experience in, is application development using the Microsoft .Net programming language.

I have a problem though - Technology is advancing at breakneck speeds. Every day something new is being introduced. Either a different programming language or a different Javascript framework and now even AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) which threaten to take away millions of jobs in the near future.

In times like this I feel its more important to be a Jack of all trades and not necessarily be stuck to one area. You never know how you'll have to adapt as time passes. Will the technology that you worked with all these years still be in existence in a few years time? Will something new come up? You just cannot predict. This is when being the Jack of all trades becomes your strength.

If a situation arises when you may have to work on a new technology all together, if you had dabbled into it earlier, it'll make it easier for you to quickly adapt and pick it up as opposed to having to start learning from scratch. I do agree that you might not have dabbled into everything there is and there will always be something new to learn but if you have even skimmed through some emerging or popular technologies it will surely give you an edge over others. You already are quite adept at one tech and the versatility of having knowledge of other techs will surely give you an edge over the others.

So, moral of the story is this: Its ok to be Jack of all trades and master of none. In fact its good to be one because it adds versatility to your profile.

Let me know your thoughts. 

OnePlus 3 Long Term Ownership Review

I've had the OnePlus 3 for a little over 2 years now. This was my first departure from the more popular mainstream brands like Samsung and Sony and I do not regret that decision one bit. I confess that I was slightly apprehensive about making the switch but after hearing all the almost rave reviews of the devices from OnePlus, I just had to give it a shot. To add to that, my previous phone the LG G3 had given up on me and I was in desperate need of a new phone.

I missed out on the OnePlus 3T by a few months but I still am quite happy with the one I have.

What are the few major things that people usually look for in phones?
1. A decently and not too large a screen with great resolution.
2. A good camera
3. Great battery life
4. Speed of operation
5. Easily available service centers
6. Good sound quality.

The OP3 ticks all those checkboxes.

Screen Size and Resolution: The screen size at 5.5 inches is just about right. Its not too large and neither is it too small. The resolution is also quite good and none of the colors are too saturated. Viewing it under the sunlight is ok when you turn up the screen brightness to a 100%, otherwise in normal light its quite crisp and pleasing to the eye. A friend of mine noticed that it has a slightly more pronounced blue tinge but I didn't notice it that much.

Camera: The camera is great in good light but to be frank it really sucks in low light. I had recently been to a wedding where the whole stage decoration was ruined because of untimely rains and wanted to capture that and this is what I got. Its absolutely pathetic to say the least.

The light spreads and the images are also extremely grainy making the photos absolutely un-usable. Its not a deal breaker though. I seldom click in the night and this doesn't bother me as much.

The day time photos are very good though. Hers is a sample.

Battery life: This is where the OP3 shines like a bright burning star. Gone are the days when I need to carry my charger or an external battery with me. I never ever felt the need for it in all these years of using it. Given that it has a Type-C port, borrowing a charger from someone is also quite difficult as not many phones have a Type-C port. The OP3 also has a dash charging capability which charges it from 10 to 100% is just about and hour which is extremely handy.

I browse on social media all day, I watch a lot of Youtube videos and my data is also on all day and yet at the end of the day I am left with at least 15% battery life which in my opinion is a cracker of a deal. I remember having frustrating times when I am sometimes out late in the nights and I my phone had died making it difficult to call someone or even book cabs. Its a breeze right now and I am loving it. The 3000mAh is quite adequate.

Speed of Operation:  This is another strong point of the OP3. There is absolutely no lag what so ever. Even if all the apps on my phone are open and running in the background, it doesn't slow down or stutter. Switching between apps is also very easy. The highlight though is the finger print scanner. The scanning is very fast and it opens almost instantly. Its even faster than an iPhone and quite secure as well.

Service: OnePlus has a service center in most of the big cities. I one feel face forward on a concrete road when I was on a morning run with my phone in hand. I landed full weight on my phone and the whole screen was shattered. I took it to the service center and the screen was replaced in a matter of a few hours. That is an amazing turn around time. Im not sure how it is in smaller cities but if you are in big cities, its not a problem at all.

Audio Quality: This is not a problem either. The sound output from the earphone for calls and also from the external speaker is crisp and clear. The speaker isnt as loud as a Beats audio or something but its good. More than adequate to say the least.

All in all its an amazing phone. The only chink in the armour is the bad night time image quality but other than that it a no nonsense perfect phone.

Why you keep losing followers on Instagram suddenly?

I picked up photography as a hobby about a decade ago. I haven't pursued it as a career but I love clicking pictures and sharing them across the many photography sites. That is the best way to showcase your work and also get some work if your photographs are really good. I've been posting on Instagram primarily but I also post on Flickr and 500px.

Off-late I've noticed something strange though. I have been doling out picture after picture and trying to keep my Instagram grid as interesting as I possibly can but I keep noticing way too much deviations in terms of my followers. I keep using the right hashtags and also keep the title of my photo interesting but I cant seem to contain the ebb and flow of my followers. Look at my grid for example:

All the pictures in my opinion seem quite vibrant and are well composed. The theme is also quite constant. It mainly revolves around travel, automotive and some of my running stuff.

But still something seems amiss and I don't quite understand what. This got me to do some research and the below is what I found out. 

There are a million reasons for why one keeps losing followers but the below are some of the most common ones.

1. The baiters:

These are the people who follow you with the hope or rather hidden intention of wanting you to follow them back. I've had a few instances when some really awesome people, people I dont expect at all to follow me only to revert their like after a few hours or on the very next day. Im sure they would've done that even if I had followed them back. I've noticed this pattern and dont follow them back on purpose because I know the outcome. If this seems to be your case, dont despair. Im sure genuine followers will follow you and stay for your work rather than just baiting you to follow them back.

2. Instagram Purge

Apparently Instagram does a purge of all the fake accounts every once in a while. Im not really sure about the frequency but it does happen and in the process you will loose these fake accounts which follow you. Remember those "Follow me and get 1000 likes" or some random accounts like that? well they follow you and when these accounts get purged, your follower count reduces.

3. Bad Content

Since my interest revolves around photography, I follow a lot of photographers and I notice how high quality their photographs are and because of that I am able to draw a comparison with other profiles whose content isn't at that level. When you have that comparison aspect, you naturally tend to unfollow other accounts which have mediocre content. Most importantly, the screen resolution of our phones have also advanced so much that the content really needs to pop out on those screens to keep the user engaged. Reduction in follower count is inevitable if the content isn't. 

4. Good Content 

This is purely a personal opinion but I do notice that people who have great subjects in their photographs also tend to have an increased number of followers. By subjects I mean either some incredible cars and bikes or someone who clicks models (**clears throat**, you know what I mean). They have great skill of course but what works in their favour is the subject in the frame (could be themselves also). Profiles which don't have these will slowly start loosing followers.

5. Too frequent or Infrequent posts

This can be quite confusing actually. Who or what determines a reasonable time interval between posts? Is posting daily too much? Is one post a week ok? Whats the bench mark? There is no set formula for this. So it purely depends on your luck and of course the content. So if you fall into either of those extremes you end up losing followers. 

6. Irrelevant or irritating Hashtags

This in my opinion is the most important way to get the reach. Random hashtags or a sentence without spaces converted to a hashtag doesnt work. #Travel is a valid hasthag #Iclickedthispicturepleaselikeit is just not a valid hashtag. I wrote another blog about how hashtags work. Check it out here. Random hashtags wont get you the reach and somehow reduces the follower count as well.

7. Time of Posting 

This is another very important aspect. Considering your audience is in different time zones, the timing of the post plays a key role. Instagram is a constant feed and your post gets pushed down eventually. Some of your audience gets to see it, some don't and this impacts your engagement and subsequently the follower count.

The above in my opinion are some of the most important reasons why a profile can either gain or lose follower. I still struggle with it and I would love to hear your opinion about what might or might not be a good strategy to follow. 

You can checkout my work here:

Instagram : https://instagram.com/nitinpaulk

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/nitin_paul/

500px: https://500px.com/nitinpaul

I'd love to hear from you.  

Tata Harrier : First Impressions

Tata's most advanced and the most awaited car is here. The Tata Harrier has finally made its way to the showrooms. The design hasn't changed much from the concept and I must say it looks absolutely stunning. I went to the Tata showroom here in Himayatnagar to check it out and I am thoroughly impressed. I was pressed for time, so I didn't get to take a test drive but I will go there this weekend for sure and write a detailed review. I didn't have my camera along either, so I couldn't take any high quality pictures but here is one I clicked on my cellphone and it sure is a stunner.

Please forgive the background and the poor image
quality. I promise to get better pictures and post them soon.

The interiors of the car were fantastic. I drive a Creta and I could see a world of difference as soon as I got into the Harrier. The whole instrument layout, the floating 8" touch screen, the wide seats and cushioning gave the car a very upmarket and rich feel. I simply loved it. As a lot of reviewers have already pointed out, I didn't really like the airplane style hand break lever and the center arm rest cubby hole which has to be pressed to get it opened. I sat in a parked car and could still make out that the A pillar and the rear view mirrors were too large and quite in the way of a clear view. A lot of cars I have driven don't have that problem so I found this to be a bit of an oddity. Another miss for a lot of people was the sun roof. I don't really feel its need so I don't miss it much. Its just a nice to have.

The rear seat was extremely comfortable. It didn't take too much of an effort to get in and the seats were wide and very accommodating. It is much bigger than my creta and I could feel that translate into space inside the cabin. The leg room and the head room were just massive. What I specially liked is the two level storage bins in the doors. It has space for the one liter water bottles and it also has an extra space to put your phone or other tiny items.

All in all it seems like a very good package. I am really looking forward to driving it this weekend. I heard about the engine noise and a few other little niggles but I would like to have a first hand feel of it before commenting further.

Tata seems to have gotten the pricing quite right as well. The Creta has been reigning supreme in the mid sized SUV segment since the past 3-4 years and it seems to have found the perfect rival. The Harrier is priced at around the same range, approximately 17-18 lakhs on road which is right around the Creta SX(O) price range. It is much bigger and more powerful than the creta and it sure promises to be its nemesis. Whats more noteworthy is that it will severely undercut the much costlier Jeep compass and is sure to hit its already dwindling sales. I havent seen to many new versions of the Mahindra XUV 500 but even that is bound to take a hit. Hyundai better pull up its socks and do something drastic for the next version of the Creta. If they don't watch out, the Harrier is sure to have their piece of the pie.

p.s. : I only compared the harrier to the Creta because I drive a creta. I will write a more exhaustive review soon.

Addiction

About a decade or so ago, addiction had a different meaning all together. It was always associated with something bad. Drugs, Cocaine, porn and a whole slew of other things that had grievous impacts on humans. Come 2000's and the things associated with addiction have changed completely. They don't have as grievous an impact as the aforementioned addictions but there are sizable repercussions none the less.

People these days are completely addicted to technology. They are addicted to such an extent that they tend to get restless in places without Wifi or even worse if God forbid they forget their cell phones at home before heading out. Memory has gone for a toss as no one remembers or even makes an attempt to remember phone numbers anymore. Simple calculations are difficult because we are so dependent on the calculator in the smart phones and so many other such tech dependencies. This technology addiction has also reached a stage where people are beginning to have withdrawal symptoms if taken away from technology.

Whats even worse is that most communication these days happens on Whatsapp or other messaging apps which has made face to face or even telephonic conversations awkward. Everything must've been discussed elaborately on whatsapp leaving very little else to actually talk about. People are physically present with each other but they are mentally absent scrolling through different social media apps looking at updates from strangers and people far away. Children are also introduced to technology so soon which in my opinion is a really really bad thing to do.

There seems to be some hope though. I noticed a new feature that was added to some frequently used apps on our phones. See for example the below two pictures from my phone about my YouTube and Instagram activity.

Apparently I spent an hour and 43 minutes on YouTube today and a total of 13 hours last week with an average daily usage of about an hour and 51 minutes.

Similarly I spend a daily average of just 37 minutes on Instagram which in my opinion is quite commendable. Not too shabby at all as some of my British friends might say.

I do not use Facebook so I don't have those statistics. Yes you read it right, I do not use Facebook. I have a profile but I do not login much.

Whats also interesting is that they have an option to set a daily reminder to put tabs on ourselves. I wonder how we could set a reasonable tab for ourselves and also what would actually happen after we reach that allotted time.  It is quite an interesting option. Need to give it a shot sometime.

We tend to grab for our phone at every given opportunity. At traffic signals, in toilets, in between conversations, while driving, just before going to bed, just after waking up, literally every single moment.

Google has also rolled out app time management controls which can be quite helpful. Read about it here.

I hope this new way of keeping track and limiting ourselves will enable us to get back into the real world.

Its really not a healthy direction in which technology is taking us. With the presence of AI increasing by the day, I dont think the day when computers will take over humans is too far away. I hope it never comes to that. 

Adopting Minimalism

Youtube as you all know, is a wormhole. Once you get into it, there is no turning back. You enter youtube wanting to watch something and before you know you it an hour or more has passed by and you will probably be watching something that is totally unrelated to what you started watching in the first place. It can be both good and bad. Sometimes you end up finding educational stuff which will increase your knowledge a little bit by the end of that one hour that magically slips by but in most cases you just waste time watching video after video of things which wont add any value.

I went through a phase towards the end of last year where I was totally obsessed with Casey Neistat. His videos are thoroughly enjoyable and I have learnt a lot from him. The way he makes his videos, his editing skills and basically his work ethic is something that has inspired me and has rubbed off on me. I watched video after video to a point where it border lined on addiction. Towards the end of that phase, thanks to him I bumped into this other amazing creator from Canada named Peter McKinnon. Now this is one guy who really adds so much value to my life as an aspiring photographer. He teaches different aspects of photography and video making which is very inspiring and extremely educative. His videos also have an addictive nature to them but there is a lot of learning that comes out of his videos which makes the time spent watching his videos totally worth it.

All this aside, the one creator who really got under my skin is a guy named Matt D'Avella. Now this guy plays a different ball game all together. He struck a chord with me by delving into topics which I absent midendly and inadvertently follow and that is this concept called Minimalism. Every one of my friends who has been in touch with me or know me for more than a year know that I have an OCD towards cleanliness. I like it when there is no clutter. I like it when everything is organized and easy to find. I like it when everything is clean and neatly arranged and this is the basis on which he makes his videos. His ideas, his interviews of other people who are into minimalism and his amazing netflix documentary on Minimalism have inspired me further and made my belief in "less in better" concept much stronger. This is basically the premise behind the concept of Minimalism. Its about having what you need and getting rid of all the excess stuff there by making life simpler, easier and all together happier.

I've also been implementing this purge concept at home where I have been mercilessly giving away or throwing away stuff which we rarely use. Matt also explains this by saying that "if you haven't used something for 90 days, get rid of it" and that's something that I have been doing. Well not to the T but yes, to a very large extent. I still find throwing away or giving away stuff quite painful but once you get over that little hump you end up feeling much better. There is now one less thing that accumulates dust which is good.

Anything that doesn't really add value to your life is a waste and it only pulls you down. This could apply to both material things and also to people whom you interact with. I understand that I may come across as being a little harsh here but give it a thought and you will realize how being in that forceful relationship (be it just friends or a love interest)  has such an impact on your life.

We are already 6 days into this brand new year. A new slate, a fresh start. 2018 may have had its share of ups and downs but 2019 is here and the choice is ours to make positive changes in our lives. I for one have made a number of resolutions this year and adopting minimalism is one of them. Dedicate one hour a day towards decluttering and cleaning. It is both therapeutic and will have a positive impact on your life.

Try it and let me know your thoughts on it. 

Year end challenge :: Update

Its been a week since I decided to do the year end challenge to live like Casey Neistat and it has been a huge failure so far. Maybe I picked the wrong time to take up this challenge or I just am not determined enough to make lifestyle changes.

The very first thing I wanted to try as part of this challenge was to wake up between 4:30 to 5AM and since the past one week, I havent been able to do that even once. Its december and it started getting a little cold and 4-6 am happens to be the time when we get the best of the sleep. That made it really difficult for me to wake up. So that threw my attempts at studying and learning something new down the drain.

The second thing I wanted to do was go on daily runs. In the past one week, I went only once and after that work got to me which made it very difficult to push myself to the gym and a bout of cough and cold added to that. I also thought I will blog daily. That didn't happen either. This isnt an excuse but it was more because of lack of a subject to write about rather than the time factor.

The silver lining though was my plan to do intermittent fasting. I did manage to skip having any carbs after 8pm and from what my parents say, I did reduce a little. Its weekend and this also has taken a toll again but I will persist with the fasting and will take it on till the end of the year and hopefully make it a lifestyle. I feel I wake up much lighter doing this and since there is a long gap between having my last meal and sleeping, it is also helping me sleep better.

Its a long weekend for us here and so far it has been quite productive. Lets see what else I can do this weekend and I vouch to keep up with my year end challenge into next week.

Will keep the blog updated. 

Year End Challenge

Its the last month of the year and its that time of the year when people go into a retrospective to assess what went right and what didn't go right this year and its also the time when people start preparing to make resolutions for next year. The same old "New year", "New Me" thing that happens year after year. I am also guilty of making resolutions, some unrealistic, some outright naive and some over enthusiastic ones and sadly I have not kept most of them.

There is one resolution I made at the beginning of the year and that was to be a medal collector and surprisingly I have been able to partially keep it. I wanted to earn a medal a month which meant I would've earned 12 medals this year but instead I managed to participate in the most famous running events and I earned medals there. I started with this enthusiasm at the beginning of the year and participated in some not so famous events and I could see the difference. Hardly any people participated in these small time events. There was no organization what so ever and even the medal I got was some cheap flimsy one which are given in schools. So im never going to participate in these small events every again. Anyways I'm quite happy with the progress I made. I started the year with a 5K and ended it doing two awesome 10K's in the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon and the Freedom 10K run. I plan to participate in many many more events next year.

All this aside, coming back to the title of my blog. Yesterday I happened to watch a video on youtube in which one of the vloggers, Sorelle Amor made a video of her trying to live like one of my most favorite youtuber, Casey Neistat for a week. You can watch the video here. Casey is a very famous and an extremely successful youtuber who captured the hearts and minds of millions of people by making daily vlogs where he shows snippets of his day in a very interesting way. His work ethic, his fitness mantra and most importantly his story telling has become extremely famous and he is quite an influential person and people are always super anxious to meet him. This lady Sorelle did a marvelous job of trying to live like Casey for a week and it got me thinking. Now that sounds super interesting and very achievable, why don't I give it a shot as well?? The good thing was that it is just for a week and that seems like a reasonable time frame to try something new. Better make resolutions for a reasonable realistic time frame rather than for the entire year during which we become tend to become complacent and end up not being able to keep up the resolutions.

Casey has this really tight, yet interesting schedule each day which I intend to follow with some improvisations and it goes like this :

Casey	Nitin
Wakes up between 4:30 to 5 am and does some work. His work involves editing youtube videos or responding to mails	In my case it would be to wake up at that time and study and update myself on new technologies
He is very fitness conscious and goes for long runs (usually in the tune of 10kms) almost every day.	I love running too, so I could do something similar by hitting the gym after an hour or two of studying
He always eats healthy. Of course he goes on the occasional binge but he drinks a lot of green juices.	In my case I am going to try intermittent fasting where I am not going to eat any high calorie diet after 8pm.
Family time is important for him. He always spends time with his wife and kid after 6pm.	I'm not married yet and even if I come home by 6 pm, my parents aren't home, so I thought instead of family time, I will do daily blogs.
He goes for a late night gym session.	This is the only thing from his routine that I wont be able to do but I will try to incorporate something.

I thought I will start this today but I had come back from a 500 KM drive yesterday night and couldn't wake up. I will surely start following this routine from tomorrow and instead of a daily vlog, I will write a daily blog. Lets see how it goes.

Secret to being happy

I know the title is a bit tacky but I think its apt to what I am about to say below.

Life in general keeps kicking our butt all the time. Well at least that's the case for most of the people, unless you are filthy rich and have everything you want. You are usually working under a boss who is never really happy with you no matter how much effort you put in and while going on with the rigmarole of life, our only escape seems to be the world of social media (facebook, instagram, snapchat et all). Everyone does the methodical switching of different apps and scrolling through a few times and repeat it many times in the day only to end up a lot more frustrated than we actually are.

Facebook and for that matter even Instagram now a days has become a place to boast. Everyone seems to be having a better time than you, travelling, buying stuff and eventually they give you a constant feeling of inadequacy. A feeling that nothing interesting is happening in our lives. I've been the culprit and also the victim of this. I've been one of those who constantly posted about anything and everything I did and I have also been the victim of looking at other peoples posts and thinking that nothing interesting is happening in my life. I've had that uneasiness when I didn't get enough likes for my posts and went into useless self analysis about what might've been wrong with my post and all that. I'm sure a lot of people have been through it and must still be going through similar feelings.

Facebook had gone from a place to connect with old friends to a place to boast about anything and everything. I have a little more than a thousand friends on Facebook and if all of them were really "friends" every post I put should've ideally got at-least 500 likes which never really happens. That only means that the other so called friends are just there to snoop around to see what others are upto. It had become a sort of a authorized surveillance app.

I've had that feeling for a really long time and one fine day I had this amazing Eureka moment. I decided to stay away from Facebook for a month. I confess that it was a little difficult at first but as time passed, it became easier. I uninstalled the app from my phone which made it easier to not give into the temptation and over a period of time I noticed that I was much calmer. I stopped having the itch to click a pic of everything and post. Since I'm not looking at what other people are doing, I'm a lot more calm and best of all, my phone battery lasts much longer :) . I also noticed that I am more present in the moment rather than wanting to go live on Facebook or having to put up pics and thinking of fancy titles and hashtags.

Anyways all that aside, its been about 2 years since I've taken my hiatus from Facebook and I do not miss it one bit. I haven't deleted my profile as such but I do use it as a birthday reminder. Thankfully it doesn't need me to login and instead it just sends me a mail. The only social media app I use as of now is Instagram. I like this over other apps because you have the option to follow or unfollow people. You don't really have to unfriend anyone and that I feel is much better. Plus I use it only to promote my photography and Insta is an amazing way to get the reach provided we also use the right hashtags.

So, the gist of the story is this. We are usually unhappy when comparisons come into picture. The comparison between the haves and have nots and also between the pretty and the average. Facebook has inadvertently promoted this comparison which has lead to a lot of dissatisfaction and self loathing. I have kept away from it and I feel I am a much happier person. I don't feel the urge to post anything and neither to I feel bad for not getting a higher number of likes which unfortunately became the new sign of acceptance.

In conclusion, live and enjoy the moments, take pictures and look back on them instead of trying to be physically present and mentally absent. Disconnect to connect!

#Change, #Happiness, #Facebook

New bike dilema

So, I've been driving my Bajaj Pulsar 180 for the past 17 years. 17 years!! Can you imagine that? I am still very happy with my bike and I am never going to let it go. I plan to do a full comprehensive review of it sometime soon, so keep a look out for it.

In any case, 17 years is a long time and I think its high time I got a new bike. Like I said, my pulsar is not going anywhere. Its just not going to be my primary bike anymore that's all. I've been on the lookout for a higher capacity bike since the beginning of this year but 2018 has been such an amazing year for bikes. Almost every month some new amazing has been coming up and that has made deciding on the next bike a practically impossible task.

A lot of people suggested that I take the Royal Enfield Classic 350, but I don't know for some reason I just cannot imagine myself riding an RE bike. My next alternative was the KTM Duke 390, but I read from a lot of youtube and other reviews that it tends to heat up quite a lot and sometimes the engine ceases, so I had to cross that out also. My primary usage will be for daily commutes to office and I want something thats powerful and also a good looker. Another alternative I thought of was the Bajaj Dominar . I personally love this bike. I like the way its designed, I love that its a 400cc and I specially love the full LED headlights but for some reason it just hasnt clicked. The other alternatives I have are the RE Himalayan and now, the newly released RE Interceptor 650.

The Himalayan is known to have a lot of reliability issues so that bike has one foot out the door but the interceptor sure seems promising. I recently went on a test ride and I must say I am very impressed and am almost tempted to go for it. The price is also just about right for a 650 cc and it sort of fits perfectly into my requirement. The only downside is that its way too retro which hardly any digital elements and it looks a lot like my current bike as I mentioned in my previous blog.

I was contemplating on the Ninja 300 but after watching a review by Bulu Biker, I might not actually go for the Ninjas. That kinda makes it slim pickings for me. All I am left with are
1. The RE Interceptor 650
2. 2019 Bajaj Dominar
3. Jawa (cant believe I am even considering this)
4. KTM Duke 390

Royal Enfield Interceptor 650

I had been waiting for the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 for over a year. I had my eyes on it the moment it was introduced and finally it is here. The announcement was made on a weekday and so I had to wait till the weekend to finally lay my hands on it.

I went to the Royal Enfield Showroom in Himayatnagar and they had both the Continental GT and the Interceptor. Though the orange color interceptor was the most eye catching, the one they had here was gray. I went there after a nice 5k run and was a little skeptical if they would allow me to take it for a test ride considering I was in gym clothes and all sweaty. The executives at the showroom were really nice though they parked the bike inside, they let me take it for a spin.

At first as you can see from the picture on the right, the interceptor looked almost similar to my current bike the first version of the pulsar 180. RE stuck to the classic bike look and so they ended up having the typical round headlight and very simple dials as well. A speedometer on the left with a small digital display which had a fuel indicator and two trip meters and on the right was the tachometer with all the tell-tale lights. Even from the side both bikes looked more or less similar.  (I'm not going into much details because a lot of people have already video reviewed it and all the specs are also available online. I'm just giving a first had impression of the bike).

The scene was completely different as soon as I got on to the bike and I must say I loved it. The handle bar was slightly higher as compared to my bike but it took me hardly few seconds to immediately get adjusted to the Interceptor. One of the major USP of the interceptor is the twin exhaust and the new exhaust note. I must say it was music to the ears when I revved it. It was absolutely throaty and made it clear that there was a beast just waiting to let loose.

What was was incredibly surprising was how smooth it felt. It being a twin cylinder engine generating 47 bhp, was very very smooth. The gears just easily slipped into place and there were absolute no vibrations what so ever. Ive been driving my pulsar for 17 years now. It still is in great condition and doesn't rattle as such but when I push it, I do notice a lot of vibrations around the handle and the foot pegs. I hadn't driven any other bike apart from this so I didn't really have a reference point. The interceptor opened my eyes, the smoothness and the refinement was clearly evident.

It is a 650 cc and strangely it didn't feel as intimidating as I thought it would. I owned a Harley Davidson Iron 883 before and I still remember that I literally shivered when I first felt its power. I didn't have that issue this time but the surge of power was so smooth on this bike that it made me fall in love with it instantly. As soon as I opened the throttle the bike just shot through the streets and almost did a wheelie. The showroom guy behind me must've had his heart in his mouth when I was driving it.

It was a relatively short ride I took but I still could feel the weight of the bike and also the heat it produced. I wonder how hot it might get in the Hyderabad bumper to bumper traffic. Im still not at a stage where I could give a comprehensive review but I will surely test this bike a few more times before finally taking a call on whether to buy it or not.

All in all, it did leave a great first impression and Im really looking forward to familiarizing myself with the bike a little more over the next few days.

Keep watching this space for more.

A new post every day???

I actually started this blog hoping to add content on a daily basis, but I'm beginning to realize that its not as easy as it sounds. You either need to be a rock star with something interesting happening every single day or you need to be Casey Niestat who can make every single mundane thing interesting. You should check out his vlogs. They are actually addictive. 😉

Anyways, its a weekend and thanks to some really unfortunate (nothing serious) events, I had to cancel an amazing trip and all I did was sit home and sulk. Did that help? Not one bit. My sulking and my long face just messed up my mood, but people around me who were supposed to get it, didn't get it and eventually who turned out to be the looser? ME!! Yes me.

So saturday went down the drain and I thought I'll make Sunday at least interesting. I ran into a friend of mine yesterday who told me that there was going to be a Distinguished Gentleman's bike ride today morning. I love clicking pictures and so I thought it would be a great opportunity to get the cobwebs off my cam and go click some pics. I woke up in the morning and was at my friends place at 6:30am sharp as was decided yesterday but there was no sign of him. His maid told me that he had gotten back to sleep after opening the door for her. I thought to myself meh, lets not disturb him and went ahead to the venue.

There were hardly any people at the starting point. Another running event was taking place, so I just drove further on to see if I can find anything interesting to click. I went further on and found this amazing dog meet place and I just loved it. There was so many breeds of dogs there, some of which I didn't even know and they were just socializing. It was so much fun to see these beautiful thorough bred dogs just running around, exploring, making new friends and all that. I clicked some good pics, here are a few of them.

I found them extremely adorable and after spending about half an hour here, I went back to the bike ride venue. Luckily, there were a lot of bikes this time. I was kinda hoping that it would be a bigger event with a lot of interesting bikes, but it wasn't the case. All of them were regular bikes, a lot of Royal Enfields, a Kawasaki Ninja 300, a Harley Davidson Street 750, and loads of bike we see almost every day . There were some classics like a Jawa and a few old royal enfields but other than that, except the Triumph Tiger, nothing else was interesting. I clicked very few pics and left the place.

All in all, it was a fairly uneventful day. Hopefully next week will turn out to be more interesting.