Almost a repeat of last Thursday took place yesterday. Funny thing is it was absolutely bone dry for most of the day. In fact as the sun set, a bunch of us from Hinjewadi even dared dream of a mini-meet- some quick calls were exchanged and it became a dinner-with-family plan before we knew it.
We didn't know of course, that the rain Gods were listening in and chuckling gently. The heavens opened up just as we started leaving our offices after 6 pm.
Chances of a meet were dashed. The missus called and ordered me in to GHQ pronto. Suspect Swanand and the others received similar orders since there was not much demur when I announced that I was going straight home. I resigned myself to another boring wet slow drive.
This time I had some company. A young man from the BPO section asked for a lift to Wakad and I was glad to oblige. In one of those quirky coincidences that happen now and then, he turned out to be a petrolhead: a former Honda SA who now provides online help to an earthmoving company's customers.
I asked him what his favourite car was: pat come the reply- Bugatti Veyron.
How about something I will drive in this lifetime? I suggested and he laughed. Tell me what's the best car you've driven?
A pause for thought: the Accord 3.0 AT V6.
Nice.
I told him about how I lusted after the Superb 3.6 V6 myself. Talk shifted to Skoda's horrible after-service and then he told me about a couple of funny incidents back from his Honda service days: how a customer refused to allow him to even sit in the car for fear of ruining the interiors, and so forth.
I asked him how they handled complex pieces of imported machinery like the V6 i the shop. Honda trained us, he said with a fair bit of pride. They identified 2-3 of us and trained us intensively till we knew the engine inside out.
Wow- that sounds exciting.
Yeah. And then a little sheepishly- well, it's all mostly playing with the ECM these days.
Asked him what other cool cars he got to play with: the Civic hybrid, he says brightly.
Civic sold a hybrid in India?
Apparently they did, at a shocking 28 lacs OTR no less. That's double what the regular Civic costs!
Yeah- and it gave a helluva lots of trouble too, he says sadly. Not for Indian roads at all.
Like what?
Like the mechanical to electrical crossover wouldn't happen at times. And some owners complained that they didn't get enough pickup after it kicked in.
That's bad. How's the Prius doing, I ask him.
He seems surprised that the Prius is launched in India. I assure him it has. Obscenely priced, but it has.
Have traded calls with Swanand and he's advised me to take the right turn towards Wipro Phase 1 and then join the crowd at HJW chowk. I take this advice and shave some 10 minutes off the commute.
There is a cop soaking wet in a not-at-all-adequate yellow jumper directing traffic at the chowk and I wonder, not for the first time, why we revile and abuse these public servants so much. This poor guy was doing his job, well at that, and was getting pi**ed on by Mother Nature. No fair.
Jani (that's my companion's name) ruefully confesses that he was supposed to catch a train to Hyderabad tonight but his manager scheduled him to fly to Bangalore on Monday so the trip was cancelled. His friends are probably stuck on the way to the station now, he says a little gleefully. They haven't called at all.
Good for me.
He admires my AT shift and points out that the display FE is showing 3.4 kmpl.
Oh that's for this trip, I say and switch to trip 2. It shows 4.3.
A moment's pause then we both burst out laughing. I remember that I've only tanked up this morning on the way to work and reset the tripmeter.
Time passes quickly. The flyover has knee-deep water like the other day but somehow we plough through quicker. I take anilisanil's left turn after flyover and merge with the bypass, dropping off my new friend on the way.
Took a few trip stats pics this time:
Distance to home: 16 km
Average speed: 10 kmph
Total travel time: 1h44m
Oh yeah- fuel economy- what's that?
It's gonna be a long wet monsoon in Pune!