Seat belt traffic fine

Just 7 days in to the rule being introduced, I paid my first fine for not wearing the seat belt.

Another blunder happened. When the cop stopped me, he also told me that there was an older fine(ticket) of Rs 100/- for a violation at Ashwath Nagar. I didn't even know where this area was and don't remember travelling there. The cop also didn't know where this area was. I also told him that i had cleared all my traffic dues 3 months ago. The cop told me that this was a 2010 violation which probably was uploaded to their server recently (in last 3 months) and hence I have to pay up. Relentlessly, i paid and came home. While looking for Ashwath Nagar on google maps, i realized that it was somewhere near Marath Halli and i have never been to that area in my car. I cross checked the receipt again and realized that the cop had mistyped the car number :( . Instead of 2450, he had typed 2550 and I landed up paying some one else's fine. I checked with another traffic cop (my neighbour) and he told me that there is no way I am going to get this money back :(

I caught the traffic cop again the next day at the same spot and asked him why he did this blunder the previous day. He laughed about it and told me that he cannot do anything about it and cannot refund. He told me that next time I violate traffic, he will let me go without collecting fine. So I asked him if he expects(wants) me to violate traffic. He wasn't expecting me to say that and told me that I shouldn't violate traffic, but if I were to, then he will let me go. I pursued that for me to go to him, I have to violate traffic only in his jurisdiction. He was clueless on how to reply to my question and wanted me out. And I did .....

Gosai Ghat and ShivanaSamudra Trip

During the October holidays, my sister and nephew were at home and we decided to go out on a one day outing. I suggested ShivanaSamudra and everyone agreed. We started from Bangalore on my car on mysore road. There are 2 approaches to shivanasamudra - first via kanakapura and the other via mysore road. I was told that the Mysore road was better for driving. We started by 9.30 am and were quickly at Ramanagar. We stopped at my favorite breakfast place - Kamath Lokruchi. After relishing on different kinds of dosas for an hour we started again. It was quite a sunny day and everyone in the car started complaining about going to ShivanaSamudra as there was no shelter there and we would be baked in the sun. My sis suggested that we go to Gosai Ghat near Mandya. I quickly called up a couple of people to find out what was in Gosai Ghat. My friends suggested that I go to that place as there was a river(kaveri) flowing there. To reach Gosai Ghat, I had to take a left turn on mysore road at Sreerangapattana. We reached the place by noon. We could see a few people taking bath in the river. There was a lot of water in the river. The place was NOT very crowded. We all got in to water and spent more than an hour there. My 10 month old son was having a great time playing in water. This is a good place for one day outing from Bangalore. The only problem is that there is no place for the ladies to change clothes. One has to take the cover of some temple shrines.
We were very hungry when we started back from there. One place I prefer to have lunch on Bangalore mysore highway is Hotel Haripriya in Mandya. After having lunch we decided to go to ShivanaSamudra. One has to take a deviation in Maddur to reach ShivanaSamudra. This road is not all that great, but you can drive on that road. One particular stretch of 4 km is quite bad near Malavalli. We reached ShivanaSamudra by 5.30 p.m. There is a beautiful water fall here. It is called the 'Gagana Chukki' falls. Close by is another falls called 'Bhara chukki' falls. But as we reached the place quite late, we didn't have the time to go to the other falls. There was a lot of water in the falls. It was a treat to watch. The weather was also cool and the sun was just setting. We enjoyed the sunset over the falls. They have even started a hotel at this place. People can stay here for the night. It is a nice getaway from Bangalore. We started from there just after sunset. Driving in the dark in the Malavalli road (bad road) could have been avoided if we had reached the place earlier. But, once on mysore road, you can reach Bangalore in an hours time.

To reach Gosai Ghat from Bangalore
Bangalore - Ramanagar - Chennapattana - Maddur - Mandya - Sreeranga Pattana - Gosai Ghat - Roughly 120 KM from Bangalore

To reach Shivana Samudra
Bangalore - Ramanagar - Chennapattana - Maddur - Malavalli - ShivanaSamudra - Roughly 110 KM from Bangalore

The beast did a 150

After doing a 140 KPH on my Baleno (read: 140 kph and going), I had tried to cross the barrier on a few occasions, but some how it had not happened. Yesterday, on an emergency, I had to go to Mysore district. I started at 5.00 am from Bangalore in a light drizzle. I cruised smoothly at around 80 as I didn't want to take a chance in the dark, that too when it was raining. After 5.30 am, the lighting condidtions improved and I hit the accelerator. Within an hour I was at Mandya (90 kms from Bangalore). We took a small 10 min coffee break. The light was good now and traffic was low. As, I started towards, Mysore, I was already back in 140s again. I crossedSrirangapattana in less than 10 min and then the BEAST Baleno crossed 150+ kph. Reached Mysore in around 1.5 hours, which is the quickest I have done

Baleno review

To write about Baleno
I think it is value for money car. Before it was discontinued, it was available at 6.1 lakhs on road (with 70,000 corporate discount) value for money. It is a race machine with a top speed of 175. It is one of the fastest cars in the segment (1.5-1.6 ltr) which can do 0-100 in 10-11 seconds ( though I never tried it, many of the forums say that it is faster than a Honda city)
Also I get a very good mileage of 11-12 within the city with AC and 15-16 on the highway while cruising between 100-140 with 5 people in the car. Not many cars in the segment have this good mileage. The gear ratio is very good. It goes at low speeds even at high gears. I don't have to change gears too often in the city traffic. I can pull through in 3rd gear even with 5 people.
Baleno has got one of the best ACs and the best sound proofing. I recently sat in a Honda city and could every conversation outside.
It does not have all those great interiors as the Verna, but has everything you can ask for in a car. It has got very comfortable bucket seats, 3 cup holder, 2 ashtrays (for front and back seats), Arm rests for both front and rear seats, power mirrors, steering height adjustment, cigarette lighter,central locking with auto cop, etc
The boot is quite spacious (though not as big as the new Honda city) and serves most my purpose.
Few things I think that the Baleno misses are the air bags, Rear window wiper and rear window defogger ( vxi has this - of course you can't give everything in Lxi).
Does not have the elegant looks of an Ikon or an Accent, but got a beasty look which I kind of like (may be because I own it). The rear design could have been better like that of a Honda city. The rear is what gives it the beasty look.

What I am most unhappy with Baleno is its headlight power. It should have been better. Night driving is not very easy especially on a highway, as the throw is not very far and not very bright. I am planning to put a higher wattage bulb

The Lxi and Vxi differences are mostly cosmetic which include rear spoiler, alloy wheels, Power antenna, automatic climate control, front seat driver seat height adjustment.

Overall, I am very happy with this car.

140 KPH and going ....

Speed is the name of the game. As I always say, there is only one way and that is the 'High way'. The highway could not elude me for long and I had to hit it on my Baleno. The destination too had eluded me for long, which was none other than the famous ChitraDurga fort.
People generally ask me for places to visit around Bangalore. ChitraDurga is an ideal place for a one day outing, as it is only 200 KMs from Bangalore. Approach to this place is excellent. One can start in the early morning and return back to Bangalore on the same day. ( See also Places to visit around bangalore )
I had wanted to visit this place for a long time and finally the time had come. I had to get a few enthusiasts who could join me during the trip. It was hard finding people who would not mind waking up at 4.30 a.m. on a Sunday and start the journey. After making a lot of phone calls, finally I could convince 2 of my cousins (vijay and Nanda) and 2 of my engineering class mates (guru and chaitanya) to come with me.
After picking up everyone, we reached the outskirts of Bangalore by 6.15 AM. We set out on Tumkur road, and there was already a fair amount of traffic at that time. We reached Tumkur by 7.00 AM and stopped for break fast. Then we continued on the NH4 to ChitraDurga. This particular stretch of road between Tumkur and ChitraDurga is really very very good. It just reminded me of the free ways in the USA, with the only difference being that there were no entry and exits. But otherwise, the road is one of the best roads I have traveled in India. One can really test the Max speeds of the car on this stretch and I was trying the same on my Baleno.
There are a lot of wind mills all along the route. This is the only place in karnataka where wind energy is utilized. We reached ChitraDurga by around 9.30 a.m. And headed straight to the fort where we hired a guide to show us around the fort. They have a lot of things to tell us about the history of the fort. The famous song from kannada movie 'NagaraHaavu' explains the history of this place very nicely. 'Obavvana Kindi' is the most popular spots inside the fort, from where, the soldiers from the army of Hyder Ali tried to enter the fort, during their war against the 'Madakari Naayaka', the ruler of ChitraDurga. To our surprise, there was a Kannada film being shot inside the fort and we saw none other than the famous kannada film actor/director Upendra shooting for his film 'ParoDi'.
There are a couple of good hotels in ChitraDurga where one can go for lunch. After lunch we went to 'ChandravaLLi thoTa'. There is a small lake and an underground cave at this place. We did the mistake of entering the cave without a torch and that's probably the reason why we had more fun. There is pitch darkness inside the cave and luckily we had a cell phone with a torch without which it would have been impossible to take a single step. We got lost multiple times inside the cave and started going in circles. Finding the way out was quite fun as each time we took a different route, we would land back in the same place we had started from. We saw many groups like ours looking for the proper exit out of the cave. Outside the cave there are some beautiful and magnificent rocks. October to February is the best time to visit this place as this is a dry region and the rocks would be extremely hot during other times.
On the way back, if one has time, can go to a 'Jogi Matti' which I have heard is famous for high speed winds. Due to shortage of time, we did not go to this place. On the way back, near hiriyur, we took a deviation of around 20 kms from NH4 to reach the 'Vanivilas sagar' dam. This place is also popularly called 'Maari kaNive'. We reached this place by 4.00 p.m. The weather was ideal. We took a walk on the dam from where we could see a lot of wind mills on all the surrounding hills. We took a coracle ride in the dam waters with the cool evening breeze hitting our face. This is place not to be missed when one goes to ChitraDurga. After spending around 45 min. at the dam, we headed back to Bangalore, stopping in between at Tumkur for some refreshments.

Place: ChitraDurga
Distance: 200 km from Bangalore
How to reach: Excellent roads from Bangalore.
Time: 3 - 4 hours by road
Best time to visit: Sept. to Feb.
Places of interest : Jogi Matti, VaniVilas sagar Dam

More pictures here

- Nagendra HK

My first car

I finally fulfilled one of my big dreams. I bought my first car on 29th sept, 2006. The wait had been long, but I think it was worth it. I bought a Maruti Baleno.



Now the highway is just waiting for me. There is only one way and that is the high way.










Some of my good friends had come to visit me to wish me on my new car. It was a day off for everyone as there was a strike in the city. So everyone landed at home and we had a small get-together with some snacks.










Thats my house and car in the frame along with my close friends.