An Electric Car that works

On Friday, I drove to Springfield in Massachusetts for a meeting with an innovative VoIP company. It was a long drive of almost 2 hours each way. We broke for lunch and our hosts wanted to take us to a Mexican place. The most interesting part was the journey to lunch. To and fro. It was in a Tesla, the world's first truly usable electric car. It was my first experience in a Tesla, as even a test drive needs you to book one after paying $5,000. And then wait for over a year before you can get it.

An electric car was a dream. All of the pundits debunked it as something that is not practical. The hybrid is the closest they came to being environmentally friendly. And then along came the Tesla. An amazing story. And an amazing car. But I'll allow Tesla to tell their story as they do it it much better than I ever could. All I can say is it was an  interesting and enjoyable experience. And I do hope to own one, soon.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

A Pleasurable Shopping Experience - Thank you P C Richards

These days I do all of my shopping online. And so when I wanted to get a TV for my new home, I went online. During the previous month when I had gone grocery shopping to Costco, I had noticed and noted the prices of TV's in general. And so I had a minor shock when I realized that not only were the online offers not significantly cheaper as in most other items, they seemed to be more expensive.

And so I decided to do a combination of online and offline shopping. After extensive research which lasted a full 5 minutes, I narrowed down my offline shopping to Best Buy and Costco. The goal for today was to have a working TV. I already had the cable connection even before moving in, since I needed internet and the most cost effective package was the heavily advertised Optimum Triple Play, which consisted of the Cable and Telephone in addition to the Internet. Strangely enough even though I don't intend to use the telephone, it just works out cheaper to have it, than not to have it. Strange and stupid, but true.

We started with Best Buy and they had a huge collection of TV's. All shapes and sizes and brands. And they were quite attractively priced. We narrowed our choice to a Samsung 50". And then set off to compare with Costco. As we were driving towards Costco, we saw a shop, "PC Richards". Frank, who was with me, mentioned that maybe we should check it out. And since we had a full Sunday ahead of us, we decided that we had nothing to lose. And so I entered PC Richards for the very first time.

At the entrance, there was a 60" Panasonic TV with a sound bar system for just over $1,000. The Samsung 50" system we had liked was around $1,500. And now we were suddenly interested. We browsed some more and found several interesting deals. By now, I had started looking at the 60" TVs. Too big for my place, but I was beginning to get hooked. And the we saw the Bose sound-bar. Compared to the other music systems, it seemed to be in a class of its own. I was in love. But when we added all of the various items, including the 5 year support, it was adding up to a list price of over $7,000 and a discounted price of $5,000. My budget when I walked in was under $2,000. And so we decided to check out Costco.

At Costco, the pricing seemed to be at par with Best Buy. Interestingly what all of the retailers seemed to have done is have slightly different models from each other. And although the same brands were available, the models were different. And so it was not easy to compare exact pricing. By now, we were convinced that PC Richards was the place we were going to buy the TV.

And so back we went. We sought out the salesman Ahmed, who we had interacted with in the morning. He was very good. Knowledgeable and helpful, but not pushy. He had mentioned that once we made up our mind, he may be able to get his Manager to get a further discount. And that's when we decided to try our luck. I really liked the 60" Samsung 3D Smart TV with all of its cool features, including the camera, Skype, Netflix, ... Along with the Bose soundbar and wireless woofer. And a 3D DVD player. And 5 years warranties for each of them. And since we were getting a hi-fi system, we needed hi-fi HDMI cables. The discounted total for this was around $5,200. We asked Ahmed to see what he could do. I really did not want to spend so much money, so had decided that if it was any number that started with 4 or more, I would settle for a smaller TV and a not so awesome sound system. With a regular DVD player.

Ahmed came back with a number. It was the best he and his manager could do. It was $4,200. I was shocked. It was an unbelievably good deal. But I had drawn a line. At $4,000. And was unwilling to cross it. Ahmed said that maybe his Manager could help. So he got him. I spoke with him and was upfront about my problem. I had a line and wasn't willing to cross it. If he could help, great. Else I liked his store and so would pick something else. He sensed that we were genuine. He got on the phone. Spoke to his seniors at HQ and came up with $3,999.97. Unbelievable. But I was thrilled. And ended up spending twice as much as I had set out to.

In the meanwhile Frank, decided to present me with a Monster Power Cleaning system on which they gave him a great deal too. We walked out with the system and were thrilled with the human touch. As I walked out, I thanked Ahmed and his Manager and made a comment that I meant, "This is the first time I've visited PC Richard, but it certainly won't be the last."

Back home, we setup everything and watched our first movie, "Casino Royale", and were fast asleep before 007 could use his license to kill.

Incredible India

I just got back from India early today. And it was a short visit of under a week. Since I had not been to India for over 7 months, I had missed it. After all, home is where the heart is.

One of the interesting things that happened was that I came across a few people who were visiting India. As tourists. And on the way back, a couple who were returning after a trip. The way they described the country is something I hadn't thought about. Its culture. Its beauty. Its people.

And that's when it struck me that I have no idea about India, as a country. My complete outlook is based on the little I had seen and lived. And that is an insignificant part of India. The visitors knew so much more.

And so the next time I have a break, I'm taking a holiday to the one place I've never visited with open eyes. Even though I may have lived there, virtually all my life.

In the meanwhile I suggest you can enjoy some of what Incredible India has to offer. Virtually. Until you too can experience the real thing.

A Driving License - at 16

In India a milestone is the 18th birthday. In the US its the 16th. And coincidentally whilst Freia in India celebrated her 18th, Reia who's here is celebrating her 16th. Interestingly one of the main incentives for Reia to join me in the US was the fact that you could get a driving permit at 16. And she saw this as her opportunity to do something ahead of her sister who by virtue of being 2 years elder got to do everything before her.

And so a couple of months before her birthday she started finding things she needed to do to get her permit on her 16th birthday. She asked me to get the papers needed and she also got her school to give her a certified copy of her results, which was one of the acceptable forms of identification. She also did something she had never bothered for her school exams. She spoke to a few friends about what was needed to be done for the driving exams and found an app that could help her prepare. She bought the app, her first app purchase.

She used the app and prepared more than I've seen her prepare for her school exams. Which is not much, but relatively speaking quite a lot. On the eve of her birthday, she started getting a little nervous. Especially when I showed her the sample papers on the DMV site where she wasn't able to get the required  percentage of questions correct easily. She was torn between the joy of getting the permit and the sorrow of attempting and not getting it, on her birthday. She finally decided to be brave and attempt it.

On her birthday, April 2nd, I picked her up from school. And we went to the DMV. There was a long line, which is normal and we had to wait for about 45 minutes. The lady at the counter was nice, went through the papers and wanted to see Reia's marriage certificate. On realizing her faux pas, she apologized but not before pointing out that it was a long day, she was tired and that teenage marriages was not uncommon. Reia had a good laugh. Some think she's in middle school. And others think she's married. Finding the paperwork in order We were given a token number.

We had to wait for our turn and that came in another 20 odd minutes. Once again the papers were examined, the forms checked and on finding all okay, the payments received and asked to wait for the exams. The lady at the counter noticed it was her 16th birthday and wished her "Happy Birthday and Best of luck". Reia was happy. We sat just outside where the test were being conducted and waited for Reia's turn. We saw several teenagers go in for their exams. There was a mother daughter waiting too. Unlike us, they were busy. The mother was applying make-up to her daughter and the daughter too was applying makeup to herself. It was straight out of a Hollywood movie set where the makeup artist is getting the star ready for her shoot. In this case, I assume the shoot was the photo for the license.

The made up star was called. She took her vision test and color test and passed. In the meanwhile 5 teenagers who had gone came out. Some of them in tears. Others with sad faces, yet others with a grin but a negative shake of the head. They had all not made it. Reia was now scared. She started thinking of what her reaction should be after failing. Strangely enough she was now no longer nervous. Failing was the norm and so not a big deal. Whilst this happened the made up star was out. In under 3 minutes. She probably managed to get all of her first 5 questions wrong. And in true star style she had tears rolling down her eyes, and her makeup dripping across her face. I was glad I did not have to handle running makeup.

Reia was called. She too quickly cleared her vision and color test. And was taken to the dreaded computer test. 5 minutes went by. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. No sign of Reia. Others who had gone after her were coming out. Unsuccessful. 20 minutes later. Still no Reia. Finally I see Reia coming out. And the smile from cheek to cheek, lighting up the DMV told the story.

We then had to again stand in line, pay for the permit, stand in line, get the photo taken, stand in line and finally collect the license. And during all of this, which must have taken around 30 minutes, Reia couldn't stop smiling. I was relieved. I was desperate that she have a happy birthday. And it was. Probably the Happiest Birthday ever.