Vajra Volvos ROCK!!

Had been in two BMTC Volvos today...from BSK III Stage to Jayanagar 9th Block. I've made it a point that if I have to travel more than 20 minutes in a bus, it'll be a Volvo, reason being they're much more comfortable and much faster than the usual Ashok Leyland/Tata/Eicher buses.

Got a KA01FA1679 Volvo running on route 500K, the fare was just Rs.13, compared to a normal fare of Rs.9. And it was worth it. The driver was maybe a race driver who got fired or something, I don't know, but his driving was just awesome. Ok I know city bus drivers aren't supposed to drive like that, but still..the way he drove it like a bike and managed to squeeze into almost-impossible spots at traffic lights was just superb; this was the first time I saw a Volvo driver using all the 6 mirrors and the rearview camera. He even beat all two wheelers at a couple of traffic signal-to-traffic signal drag races :D. And even though the driving was very spirited, it was never rash or risky. He even let people board the bus wherever they wanted. You're on the other side of the road, desperate to cross it and board the Volvo coming (very) quickly? No problem. Wave wildly at the bus and this driver will stop by the side of the road, open the appropriate doors and wait for you! :) He drove so mind-blowingly(scaringly, for some) fast that I reached my destination in a mere 20 minutes, during which time a normal BMTC would have covered only half the distance.

On the return journey, however, it was a slightly different story. I boarded a KA01FA1538 Volvo running on route 600K and the first thing that drew my attention was the driver himself. 'Ferrari' jacket, bald head + cap, driving glasses and a smile on his face! He kind of looked like a rapper or hip-hop singer :D To prove the point, there was 91.9FM Radio Indigo playing BEP's Boom Boom Pow. This was the first time, in my 38 Volvo rides( Yes. I've counted) that I found a driver playing English songs. Anyway..another thing that I noticed that this bus was cool, literally. All Volvos here are invariably cool, but this one was really very very cool. In fact, the Volvo's dashboard indicated the outside temperature as 27 degrees C, and the inside temperature, wait for it, 19 degrees C! Now THAT's what I call cool. And the air-con blower was running on full tilt, which made it very 'windy' :) Even though some passengers told the driver to increase the temperature setting, he flatly refused. And though this one was no slouch, it still took 35 minutes to reach my stop. Not bad, considering normal buses take about 45 minutes.

So there you have it. Same type of bus, totally different experiences. The longest distance in the two routes I travelled, i.e., 500K and 600K, both going from Vijayanagar to ITPL and back is Rs.55-60, which is way cheaper than going in a car, or a bike even(think of the traffic, the pollution, the noise etc., etc.). So if you need a fast and efficient mode of public transport, this is it. And it doesn't eat into your purse, either. In short, these Volvo B7RLEs are one the best things that BMTC has done for the commuters of Bangalore.〄

Where's the Practical Knowledge?

I just finished my third year exams, and I can't help but wonder, what use are these exams to us when the emphasis is on marks and not on what knowledge has gone into our heads?

I mean, what use are our marks and percentages and what not, going to be when we finish our degree and step into the real world? Yeah we'll get a job based on what we have 'studied' for four years; but, does anyone wonder why, unlike other countries, Indian education emphasises theoretical education (most of the time) and not practical? Yes, we do have practicals and laboratory things and stuff. My question is, how many students get to know the actual reason for these experiments that we do in our labs? Very very few. Most of us would go, conduct the experiment according to instructions given by the lab in-charge/attender, note down some values and put them in some formulae, get the answer and leave - all this being done in the shortest possible while. So, did we learn anything there? No. Why is he experiment conducted? Dunno. What is its significance? Ho-hum..who cares? This is the attitude of many students (sometimes me too), and the teachers don't bother either. Their opinion is 'If the students want, they'll ask. Why should we put the effort?'. I'm sure most teachers are like this. There are some, of course, who'll take the time to explain everything(while some or most students will be yawning).

Foreign universities, on the other hand, put more emphasis on practical aspects, and the method of teaching employed by them forces the student to study on his/her own, rather than rely on the lecturer to provide the notes and other things. Here it's the opposite. Even though some colleges' teaching method forces the students to do some serious self-study, most colleges don't. So is there a solution?

I think there is. What we need is a system where practical knowledge is given at least as much

importance as theoretical knowledge, if not more; this will mean that students, when they finally come out from their colleges with a degree certificate in their hand, should have an idea of what awaits them when they get a job. They should not be like a pen-drive filled with a lot of data but not able to do anything else other than reproduce that data somewhere else. Most importantly though, we need a single authority on higher education, that controls all the colleges in the country very strictly, and maybe some tie-ups with foreign universities to enable knowledge exchange and an idea on what is going on in other colleges around the world.

I just hope that my juniors will get a better practical knowledge than I have got, instead of having their brains filled up with lots of theory, with no idea on how to implement it practically.〄

Tata Nano - A Revolution or Just a 4-wheeled Autorikshaw?

It’s finally here! After almost 3 years of speculation and waiting, the much talked-about 1 lakh car made its first public appearance. On January 10, 2008, with the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” playing in the background, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors drove the small white car onto Tata Motors’ show stage where it joined two others. The applause was such that one might have imagined that a movie star had come on stage! “They are not concept cars, they are not prototypes,” Mr. Tata announced when he got out of the car. “They are the production cars that will roll out of the Singur plant later this year.” The base price for the Nano will be 1,20,000 rupees, including road tax and delivery. Higher level models will cost more and come with air-conditioning. 

With the launch of the “People’s Car”, Ratan Tata has silenced his critics yet again, just like he did with the Tata Indica, which, in 1998, was India's first indigenously designed, developed and manufactured car. People said it could not be done, but he proved them wrong. Now he has done it again. And what’s more, he has also kept his word that the car would cost just 1 lakh rupees. He has even proved other manufacturers wrong, who said that developing such a low-cost car was practically impossible. Now, why did Mr. Tata decide to build this car? To put it in his words, this is how he was inspired to develop the 1 lakh car-“Three or four family members on a scooter, the kid standing in the front, the guy driving the scooter and the wife sitting side saddle holding a little kid.”- and he did what he had promised. The one sentence that had the greatest impact on the audience was -“A promise is a promise”- which he said while revealing the actual base price of the car. This ensured that they would keep their silence for some time. “Today, we indeed have a People’s Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, and to be fuel efficient and spacious enough for a small family,” Mr. Tata added. “We are happy to present the People’s Car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility.”

Many critics laughed at the idea of such a small, cheap car. They said it would be like an autorickshaw with four wheels. But that is not what Mr. Tata had in mind. So, the four-door, four-seater Nano is a little over 10 feet long and nearly 5 feet wide. It is powered by a 623cc two-cylinder, four-stroke engine that is located at the back of the car and drives the rear wheels. With 35bhp of power and 48Nm of torque, the Nano is capable of a (electronically limited)top speed of about 105kmph and is claimed to give an efficiency of around 23.5kmpl. Its four small wheels are at the absolute corners to improve handling and increase interior space. There is a small boot at the front, big enough for a couple of small bags. Surprisingly, though the Nano is 8% smaller than the Maruti Suzuki 800 (its intended competitor) on the exterior, its interiors are 21% more spacious than the latter, with four people able to sit comfortably and five making it a bit of a squeeze.

Once the initial excitement faded away, the critics opened their mouths again. Some said that the Nano will put a lot of stress on the already-crumbling infrastructure of India. Well, there will be a lot of stress initially, but this is exactly the thing that will wake up the government and make them do what they have been putting off all these years, that is to improve the conditions of roads and also improve public transport in cities. The government will then have to improve regulations such as emission norms and make safety features such as ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) compulsory in new cars. Others said the car was unsafe and would not meet emission norms. Mr. Tata silenced these people by saying that the Nano would come equipped with the required safety features including crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat-belts, strong seats and anchorages, ABS and tubeless tyres and that the car would also conform to Euro III/IV and Bharat Stage III/IV emission norms. However, what most critics complained about the Nano was that it would lead to unimaginable levels of congestion.

But hey, the Nano is not a car made just for cities, people from rural areas and small towns will buy it too, and there is no question of congestion in such places. In cities, the notorious autorickshaw, which costs more, could be replaced by the Nano, and passengers would be safe too, unlike the utterly unsafe autorickshaw, in which there is virtually nothing to protect the passengers during an accident. The Nano will also create more jobs. New factories will have to be set up for its assembly, for which lots of manpower is needed. It will be exported to, and sold in other countries, whose economies will improve as a result. As some people are saying, the Nano will do to India what the Volkswagen Beetle, the original “people’s car” did to Germany after the Second World War. The Tata Nano is not just another car; it’s a revolution in the world of automobiles. It’s the most awaited car. And it’s here.〄