Greetings to everyone

nisfish · 8th November 2019, 23:57

Hello!

I'm 34 years old and from a small town in the Darjeeling hills. I completed my schooling here. I moved to Delhi for my higher education and moved back to West Bengal in 2018 after 14 years in Delhi. Since last year I have moved to Kolkata having taken up a new job.

Back in Darjeeling, my school was nearly 5 kms away from the town. Its a 1 km steep climb from the NH which goes to Darjeeling. Willys jeeps and Land Rovers would ferry kids, 12 to 15 in number usually, to school everyday. Our ride would inspire awe as well as invite ridicule in a single day. It was a blue short body soft-top Willys jeep without front doors. On a rare sunny day, the hood would come off and I'm certain every kid would want to be on it. But then it would suddenly break down without warning and the same proud, beaming and goading lot (us) would be on the street pushing the jeep while the driver would try to fire up the engine. There was no self start and some of the senior boys had gotten pretty good at using the crank handle. Needless to say, the Willys jeep was garaged permanently at the end of the academic year in 1994. In 1995 our ride was a LandRover, the ones you'll still find in Maneybhanjyang doing the Sandakphu route. Ito was a hard top and the rear served as perfect enclosure for our WWF tag team matches. The Land Rover was also discontinued shortly due to it being a guzzler and unavailability of spares. The rest of my school life was spent travelling in an Omni for which there is nothing to write about other than the fact that it would ferry 14 of us!

At the end of high school in 2003 I became the proud owner of a Pulsar 150 which I still possess. It's been with me through college and university. It has seen the construction of the Mahipalpur flyover and the burgeoning of Gurgaon and Dwarka sub-city in Delhi. Around 2012-13, a foreign student sold his used Scorpio for around 1.5 lakhs to a close friend in my university campus in Delhi. I learnt driving on the Scorpio. I found it easier to learn driving on the Scorpio than on the Alto 800 which I now understand is due to the low end torque on offer in the Scorpio. It was good year with the Scorpio till it was sold again for almost the same amount. Then another friend handed over his Mitsubishi Cedia to me for a couple of years as he preferred his RE Thunderbird. I may have driven it for 500 kms (max) and mostly within campus. I have also driven the Toyota Corolla and Mazda 3 during my stint in the US.

Although I am from the hills, my driving experience was mostly restricted to the wide and flat city streets of New Delhi. In 2017 we bought our first car - the MS Baleno (Delta, Petrol, Manual). We set out to buy an Alto K-10 but ended up jumping a segment and the Delta variant was a stretch in itself. I'm happy with that decision now and the Delta is indeed a value proposition as I am discovering now in my hunt for a second city car. More on this later.

I knew driving in the hills is a lot different from driving in the plains. There is a popular joke that only in Darjeeling, a train gets stuck in a traffic jam. The roads are narrower and failure to observe practices such as use of low beam, giving up-bound vehicles the right to way, etc. invites scorn, stare and advisories. I use the handbrake for uphill starts specially when stuck in bumper to bumper jam on an incline. I get ridiculed for it at times but I don't care much about it. Hand brake is important for me and I never miss to get it checked during my scheduled service. The Baleno has been reliable companion over these two years and we recently clocked 10000 kms. I know we haven't used it as much as we should have but that's because both me and my brother had to relocate to Kolkata last year, my brother on a transfer and me on my first posting.

The Baleno is needed more at home rather than here in Kolkata where Ola - Uber generally meets our requirements. During Puja and when it rains, is when a personal car is sorely missed. So I am now considering buying another hatch mostly for use in the city and an occasional 500 km highway trip back home to Darjeeling. I started out again with an Alto 800 in mind and was pleasantly surprised to see the S-Presso in flesh but ruled them out. I am 5'11" and couldn't find a comfortable driving position in the Alto while something just didn't feel right about the S-presso. I'm almost sold on the Grand i10 Nios Magna (petrol, manual) but the Wagon-R 1.2 VXI also makes a compelling case considering future plans. Having started with consideration to buy an Alto I am again stretching with a cap set at 6.5 L (on road). I would appreciate the thoughts of other members on my current predicament.

I came across Team BHP while I was doing my research prior to purchasing the Baleno. Although I wasn't approved for membership then, I have religiously followed forum discussions and eagerly waited for new car reviews and monthly sales figures and analysis. This is indeed the definitive Indian car website and am proud to be a member of this community. I apologize for any incoherence or lack of details in this introductory post. Thank you for your time. It feels great to be a member. Yay!

Jattitude · 9th November 2019, 15:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by nisfish

Hello!
I'm 34 years old and from a small town in the Darjeeling hills. I completed my schooling here. I moved to Delhi for my higher education and moved back to West Bengal in 2018 after 14 years in Delhi. Since last year I have moved to Kolkata having taken up a new job.

Welcome, fellow Newbie! The write-up is exhaustive and excellent. Esp. details of your tryst with the 2 vehicles during your childhood was very well written.

8th November 2019, 23:57	#1
nisfish BHPian Join Date: Nov 2019 Location: Kolkata Posts: 26 Thanked: 34 Times	Greetings to everyone Hello! I'm 34 years old and from a small town in the Darjeeling hills. I completed my schooling here. I moved to Delhi for my higher education and moved back to West Bengal in 2018 after 14 years in Delhi. Since last year I have moved to Kolkata having taken up a new job. Back in Darjeeling, my school was nearly 5 kms away from the town. Its a 1 km steep climb from the NH which goes to Darjeeling. Willys jeeps and Land Rovers would ferry kids, 12 to 15 in number usually, to school everyday. Our ride would inspire awe as well as invite ridicule in a single day. It was a blue short body soft-top Willys jeep without front doors. On a rare sunny day, the hood would come off and I'm certain every kid would want to be on it. But then it would suddenly break down without warning and the same proud, beaming and goading lot (us) would be on the street pushing the jeep while the driver would try to fire up the engine. There was no self start and some of the senior boys had gotten pretty good at using the crank handle. Needless to say, the Willys jeep was garaged permanently at the end of the academic year in 1994. In 1995 our ride was a LandRover, the ones you'll still find in Maneybhanjyang doing the Sandakphu route. Ito was a hard top and the rear served as perfect enclosure for our WWF tag team matches. The Land Rover was also discontinued shortly due to it being a guzzler and unavailability of spares. The rest of my school life was spent travelling in an Omni for which there is nothing to write about other than the fact that it would ferry 14 of us! At the end of high school in 2003 I became the proud owner of a Pulsar 150 which I still possess. It's been with me through college and university. It has seen the construction of the Mahipalpur flyover and the burgeoning of Gurgaon and Dwarka sub-city in Delhi. Around 2012-13, a foreign student sold his used Scorpio for around 1.5 lakhs to a close friend in my university campus in Delhi. I learnt driving on the Scorpio. I found it easier to learn driving on the Scorpio than on the Alto 800 which I now understand is due to the low end torque on offer in the Scorpio. It was good year with the Scorpio till it was sold again for almost the same amount. Then another friend handed over his Mitsubishi Cedia to me for a couple of years as he preferred his RE Thunderbird. I may have driven it for 500 kms (max) and mostly within campus. I have also driven the Toyota Corolla and Mazda 3 during my stint in the US. Although I am from the hills, my driving experience was mostly restricted to the wide and flat city streets of New Delhi. In 2017 we bought our first car - the MS Baleno (Delta, Petrol, Manual). We set out to buy an Alto K-10 but ended up jumping a segment and the Delta variant was a stretch in itself. I'm happy with that decision now and the Delta is indeed a value proposition as I am discovering now in my hunt for a second city car. More on this later. I knew driving in the hills is a lot different from driving in the plains. There is a popular joke that only in Darjeeling, a train gets stuck in a traffic jam. The roads are narrower and failure to observe practices such as use of low beam, giving up-bound vehicles the right to way, etc. invites scorn, stare and advisories. I use the handbrake for uphill starts specially when stuck in bumper to bumper jam on an incline. I get ridiculed for it at times but I don't care much about it. Hand brake is important for me and I never miss to get it checked during my scheduled service. The Baleno has been reliable companion over these two years and we recently clocked 10000 kms. I know we haven't used it as much as we should have but that's because both me and my brother had to relocate to Kolkata last year, my brother on a transfer and me on my first posting. The Baleno is needed more at home rather than here in Kolkata where Ola - Uber generally meets our requirements. During Puja and when it rains, is when a personal car is sorely missed. So I am now considering buying another hatch mostly for use in the city and an occasional 500 km highway trip back home to Darjeeling. I started out again with an Alto 800 in mind and was pleasantly surprised to see the S-Presso in flesh but ruled them out. I am 5'11" and couldn't find a comfortable driving position in the Alto while something just didn't feel right about the S-presso. I'm almost sold on the Grand i10 Nios Magna (petrol, manual) but the Wagon-R 1.2 VXI also makes a compelling case considering future plans. Having started with consideration to buy an Alto I am again stretching with a cap set at 6.5 L (on road). I would appreciate the thoughts of other members on my current predicament. I came across Team BHP while I was doing my research prior to purchasing the Baleno. Although I wasn't approved for membership then, I have religiously followed forum discussions and eagerly waited for new car reviews and monthly sales figures and analysis. This is indeed the definitive Indian car website and am proud to be a member of this community. I apologize for any incoherence or lack of details in this introductory post. Thank you for your time. It feels great to be a member. Yay!
	(6) Thanks