It costs (big) to maintain a car !

I gave my car today for a service as the breaks started making strange noises and the effeciency had come down. Alarmed that most important breaks would give way, I rushed my vehicle to the service center. Fortunately for me it turned out to be an issue with dust accumulation and nothing serious. The service advisor indicated that there was no need for a break overhaul either. I must really appreciate Varun Motors for their sheer professionalism, which is terribly lacking with another Maruti biggie - Gem Motors. I had nightmarish experiences with those folks on an earlier occasion.

Well, not digressing much, I skimmed through my well maintained car documents from the earlier trips to Maruti Service Center. To my sheer surprise, I found out the following:




Excuse the small image above, but I hope all can read it.

Most of the expenditure has come from the new pair of tyres that I got recently - Yokohama A-Series 185/70 R14. Also the fuel efficiency in not that great (compare with Indica et al)

So, the conclusion from the above table is that to keep a Maruti Swift car for at least 5 years, you need to be committed to spending at least Rs. 6.25 / kilometer - of course this includes all the necessary maintenance and accessories. So a drive to office and back has officially claimed 24 * 6.25 = 150/-. Assuming I come to office for 22 days in a month, then we have ~ 3,300/- spent a month on travel to office by my car. 

The Karnataka Fiasco !!

Wow! What a day for Karnataka ! Whilst this time of the year is when the whole of Karnataka celebrates the joyous 9 days of Navaraatri in the lore of Lord Vishnu. But alas that the 4th day of the festivities had to see such lows and turmoil in the Karnataka assembly - a complete disgrace to the installed democracy and its basic fabric.

I was pleasantly shocked at the outcome of the no-confidence motion in which our CM Yeddy won and that too comfortably and through a voice vote. What was most descerning over the last week was the shuttling of all the MLA's from Bangalore to Goa Resort to Kochi and then to Chennai. In fact the Cong. MLAs were huddled into a resort near Pune so that they don't get horse traded.

Though I do not understand the anti-defection law very well, I am note sure how this applies to the independent MLA's who were disqualified, this meant that the house strength was reduced from 224 to 208 (16 rebel BJP and Independents) - the speaker went ahead and announced a voice vote and closed the matter in favour of Yeddy and the assembly was adjourned for the day. Heard that H D Kumarswamy the ex-CM of Karnataka offered each defecting MLA close to 50 cr to withdraw support to BJP govt - which Yeddy's men made a counter offer of 100 cr each.

It is true that Yeddy has ignored veteran politicians like Shankarlinge Gowda and others over much junior and non-incumbents - probably the reason why we are seeing such low politics in Karnataka.

H D Kumaraswamy and co headed towards the Governor's (aka Bharadwaj and close aide of the 10 Janpath) house to submit a memorandum. It was the funniest scenes I had witnessed on TV for a long time, H D Kumarswamy was in real hurry and was addressing the media personals from the bus window pane he was traveling to the Governors residence. I took a TV Grab - check it out !

Home TV Grab: Kumarswamy addressing from the Window pane of the bus - funny scenes indeed !!

Ayodhya Judgement - What a wait !

Phew! What an interesting day it way yesterday indeed. The decree by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court verdict came as a big surprise to many and of course me. It is very true that it has come as a very pleasant news to the saffron brigade given that it paves way for the construction of the grand Ram Mandir in a legally bound way. I am sure the AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board) will challenge this in the appellate apex court to seek justice. I am sure that the Hindu groups will also challenge this verdict in higher court to claim even the 1/3rd given to the Muslims.

I personally feel the courts have seriously considered and taken into account the findings of the Archeological Society of India’s (ASI) research findings that the current mosque was built on an ancient temple. The ASI ruling is not clear on how the older Hindu structure was razed, but ASI has shown significant evidence that the materials reused for building the Mosque have iconography akin to the Hindu customs and writings.  Of course ASI stops short of branding the Muslim rulers then as iconoclasts. But it is a well-known fact that the invaders then were highly suppressive and destroyed several thousands of temples in the Indian subcontinent.

The media has carefully avoided Justice Sharma's judgment, who completely ruled in favour of the Hindu’s in his separate decree. Justice Sharma said that the Ramjanmabhoomi is the sole property of the Hindus and that Muslims have no right whatsoever. We must remember that this judgment is based on sound reasoning and within the ambit of our constitution - but what makes this legal within our own fabirc of current law needs to be investigated. Unfortunately Justice Sharma is now the minority of the bench as the other two judges Justice Aggarwal and Justice Khan ruled in favour of 1/3 partition of the 2.7 acres of land.

So in summary

• Ramjanmbhoomi is actually the birthplace of Ram as per the beliefs of the Hindu religion.
• Paves way to construct a temple and continue worship of the installed idols.
• 2/3 of the 2.7 acre of land now belongs to the Hindus’ and the rest to the Muslims, where they can build a mosque.
• This will be completely challenged in the apex court.
• Definitely in favour of the Hindus, but Muslims possibility given 1/3 keeping in mind the sensitivities.

My hunch is that this will be upheld in the Apex court and maybe that it will rule that Justice Sharma was in fact right and that all decree by passed on by Justice Aggarwal and Justice Khan are null and void. Given this both parties need to approach the Apex court with at most care and caution.