[Aksthedreamer]

When I was a child, me and my cousins used to draw sketches of automobiles(our own designs) on a4 size sheets and would take the sketches to different family members and ask them to rate them, without disclosing which sketch is made by whom.

There were frequent trips to MANGAL BAZAAR or tuesday market you may call it, with my mother. The only two reasons of me accompanying my mother to that crowded market were- first, buying an old edition of autocar and overdrive magazines at a fraction of the original price and second, buying a pack of those black colored candies in the shape of a fish. The primary reason was obviously to buy the magazines.

I would read the same magazine atleast a 100 times and would try to learn the prices, cc, bhp of cars that were mentioned at the end pages of the magazines.

Fast forward to 10th standard(2004) and dad promised that if me and my elder brother(12th standard at that time) scored good marks, he would gift us a Hero Honda Karizma which was newly launched at that time. We scored good, got a Karizma home.

Although I got to ride it only when I entered college, but still those rides with my elder brother increased my passion towards automobiles even more.

Fast forward, year 2010, I started working, dad gifted me my first car, a red Maruti Suzuki swift Zxi, a pre-owned car. It has been a love hate relationship with swift, more details later, I still own it.

Fast forward 18th Jan 2014, I fulfilled a small dream by buying my own car, a 2006 1.8 LT Chevrolet Optra.
Have been visiting team-bhp since time unknown, every night before sleeping I would open team-bhp on my tab, would read the reviews by GTO, reviews of same cars over and over again. Search through forums and just read read and read.

One day thought of registering on the forum, didnt have any idea that it would be so difficult to pass the written test that even my 12th board exams seemed to be easier After 2 failed attempts, gave it another try and every time my iphone beeped with an email, I would check the email desperately thinking it might be from team-bhp.

When there was no reply for a few days, I was disappointed thinking I have been rejected for the 3rd straight time. Then one day the unthinkable happened, while I was on a shoot, another email arrived and the subject read "Team-BHP membership APPROVED!", I was on cloud 9 and jumped in joy, like literally.

I am Akhil Kumar, a filmmaker by profession. A passionate biker since my college days, automobile enthusiast since childhood. Ever since I bought the optra, the biker in me has taken a backseat and nowadays I am more into driving my cashmere colored queen of roads.

When I am not thinking about cars and bikes, I am hooked up to my xbox 360, ps2 and psp. I also spend some time with my remote controlled cars and helicopters. There is a long list of cellphones I own, a gadget lover I am.

I am really sorry for such a long post, cant really explain in words how excited I am to be a part of team-bhp.
Trust me on this, when I bought the Optra I knew it had problems, The only thing that I told Dad was "Dad do not worry, there is team-bhp, there is not even a single problem that cant be solved over there" . This is the level of trust and faith that I have on team-bhp.

Cheers
Akhil Kumar

My Rides
Hero Honda Karizma- 2004
Maruti Suzuki Swift zxi-2005(bought in 2010)
Chevrolet Optra 1.8 LT-2006(bought in 2014)
Tata Indica dls- 2006(owned by my brother, the work horse of our house)

[ashwin.terminat]

Welcome aboard!

Enjoy your stay as you traverse the ocean of knowledge that is Team-BHP.

[IshaanIan]

Welcome! That was a nice write-up.

Looking forward to ownership threads and perhaps a little more about you.

[Aksthedreamer]

Thanks a lot guys..
Made me so excited to see somebody replying to my post
Would love to dive deep in this ocean and never come out of it..
Yes definitely ownership threads and more about me in the days to come

[mallumowgli]

Nice intro Askthedreamer. Welcome aboard and have a nice time. You an independent filmaker? Look forward to your posts

[RevvMusic]

Great to have you on board. Hope you have lots of fun in here.
And yeah, "filmmaker" brought me here to your thread. Do let us know more about that side of yours too, and about the most interesting filmmaking projects that you have handled.
Btw, I'm a music producer. We must definitely catch up

[adarsh.n]

Hi Akhil Kumar, Welcome on board! That was a nice intro. "Film maker" is what attracted me to your thread! Looking forward to the posts of a dreamer !

[guyfrmblr]

Hi Akhil, welcome and very nice intro. Good to see a console gamer here. I too play lot of games in consoles as well as in PC. Hope to see lot of updates from you in the PS3 vs XBOX thread. Enjoy your stay in this forum.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by Aksthedreamer

Would love to dive deep in this ocean and never come out of it..
Yes definitely ownership threads and more about me in the days to come

Hi Akhil,

Welcome on board. Team BHP is indeed very addictive. You cannot come out of this ocean however hard you try..
Waiting for your ownership threads.

[Aksthedreamer]

Thank you so much guys for such a heart warming welcome

Yes I am an independent film maker (lot of struggle after college), not related to bollywood in anyway. I have an international film festival winning documentary to my credit.

Sometimes I shoot corporate films as well but nowadays I am mostly a wedding filmer, creating memories for couples.
You can pm me for more details.

So yes, those of you who entered this thread reading the word film maker in the title might be disappointed.
Have two more documentaries in the pipeline, will start working on them once I get free from other commitments.

I truly believe team-bhp is an ocean of knowledge where I am already lost and would never want to come out of it..
Will definitely write ownership threads for all my rides, once I get comfortable in writing posts on the forums.
I have already violated some rules( unintentionally) of the forum and do not want GTO to warn me again

[amitoj]

Nice intro! Welcome aboard!
Looking forward to your ownership details, specially the love hate relationship with your Swift. Being a filmmaker, you know people will want to read that more than the plain jane love story with the Optra

[Aksthedreamer]

My red beauty(read swift) met with an accident on the first day of 2014, the entire passenger side door was damaged.
Till now, I have not been able to get that fixed.
As soon as its done and my red beauty is back in shape, I will share the ownership experience...

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by Aksthedreamer

I am Akhil Kumar, a filmmaker by profession.

I am really sorry for such a long post, cant really explain in words how excited I am to be a part of team-bhp.

Hi Akhil, welcome to Team BHP! Don't worry, the post really wasn't that long if you ask me. On a side note, reading your handle made me think of 90s film titles, like Daag the Fire, especially since you said you're a filmmaker

Originally Posted by Aksthedreamer

Yes I am an independent film maker (lot of struggle after college), not related to bollywood in anyway. I have an international film festival winning documentary to my credit.

Props for pursuing something off the beaten path. May I ask what the documentary's topic was?

Originally Posted by Aksthedreamer

My red beauty(read swift) met with an accident on the first day of 2014, the entire passenger side door was damaged.

Sorry to hear about the accident, hope you have many accident-free miles with the Optra. See you around!

[Aksthedreamer]

Daag the fire, hahaha that was funny but I wonder why this movie :-P

The documentary was based on the divers of yamuna near wazirabad area in delhi.There life, struggles, living conditions etc. There only source of income are the collectibles they gather when they dive underwater. Even a 10 year old kid over there is an expert swimmer.

The river water in that area is so dirty that it stinks and these people suffer from a lot of skin diseases from time to time.

In 1997, a Ludlow Castle school bus carrying more than 100 students fell from a bridge and into the river in wazirabad.These divers were the ones who saved a lot of lives and played a very important role in the rescue operation. Check on google for more information.

They were awarded for their bravery by the then chief minister of delhi, Sahib Singh Verma. He even made a lot of promises to them for improving their living conditions, providing them employment etc etc...
But like it happens most of the times in our country, those promises were never fulfilled...

Regarding my red beauty, it hurts to see her everyday in that miserable state, although she did get a new pair of trousers(read bumpers) last year in October. But still a lot of work is to be done, including a skin treatment for her.

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by Aksthedreamer

Daag the fire, hahaha that was funny but I wonder why this movie :-P

The documentary was based on the divers of Yamuna near Wazirabad area in delhi.Their life, struggles, living conditions etc.

Well, your handle is aksthedreamer, and there was a stage in Bollywood where films were ____ the ____, and this one was the most hilarious title of them all IMO, so there!

That's quite a story there, is the documentary on YouTube by any chance?