Bus travel, IPL etc

I don't enjoy bus travel and tend to go for it only as a last option. I took a ride after a gap of almost 3 years when I went to Chennai to drop Nisha at her grandparent's place. Even though we took the KPN Volvo service, which is supposed to be much better than the regular service (it is) and the roads were extremely smooth, I found it to be cramped and uncomfortable and just could not get a sound sleep. What made it doubly worse was that I returned back the same night and had two nights of bad sleep in a row. Nothing beats our Indian Railways for comfortable and affordable travel. Now, if only they could get rid of the smell...

If you're anywhere in India, you could not have missed the start of the IPL tournament. It's had the kind of opening that Lalit Modi and co could have only dreamt of. I won't deny that I had wanted the IPL experiment to fail badly, just to teach the idiots at BCCI a lesson. But, I have changed my view now. With a format that generates non-stop thrills and some of the best players in the world, it has all the makings of a blockbuster. We've had 5 matches and three of them have been thrillers and have produced unbelievable batting performances,
especially from McCullum and Hussey. Yesterday, one of my favourite players, Jayasuriya looked set to match them before he was cruelly run out. So far, it seems like the foreign players and the relatively unknown Indian players have done much better than the superstars, who really have to pull up their socks to show that their mind-boggling valuations are justified.

One thing that every expert under the sun seems to be talking about is the impact this is going to have on the traditional forms of the game. Contrary to what people think, I feel that one dayers are going to be more affected than the test matches. Let's face it, Test cricket is already dead commercially, no one actually watches it. But, it is a holy cow that will be protected by the establishment even if there are only five people watching it. However, one day cricket will not be as lucky. When you can pack the same amount of excitement in a 3 hour game, why waste an entire day on it? It's also going to be a lot easier on the players, as the wear and tear on their bodies is going to be a lot less
in 20 overs than in 50.

I'm betting on Kolkota and Chennai to be the top two teams, followed by Hyderabad, Delhi and Mohali. I have Bangalore, Mumbai and Jaipur as the bottom three, and despite Jaipur beating Mohali yesterday, I don't see reason to change that.

Diesel engines

I've never been a fan of diesel engines. Having traveled quite a bit in my friend's Tata Indica, I found the noise and vibration to be terrible, especially compared with the new generation of petrol engines, which are so silent that you have to really strain to hear them. Plus, it was slow as hell and used to take forever to accelerate.

Over the past few days, however, I've changed my view especially when it comes to performance. My friends and I have test driven three diesel cars over the past few days, the Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Verna and the Maruti Dzire. The Fiesta was refined, had fantastic handling and was responsive, but was way too overpriced at close to 8.5 lakhs. The Hyundai was an explosion of power. It was exhilarating to ride the torque curve, I was constantly letting the revs drop to below 1000 and
then flooring the accelerator. Initially nothing happens, but when it crosses 2000 rpm and the turbo kicks in, the power comes on in a violent manner and the car surges forward. Very soon, you're doing some serious speed indeed. Still, it was way too overpriced at almost 9.5 lakhs OTR and it doesn't even have airbags!!!

Yesterday, I test drove the Maruti Suzuki Dzire. I didn't like the looks and it was a bit cramped, especially compared to the Verna, but the engine was a revelation. Sitting inside, we couldn't believe that it was a diesel, it was so silent and free of vibrations. The power does not come on like the Verna as it is just 75 bhp instead of the 110 bhp, but it is still fairly fun to drive. The top end model is 7.65 lakhs OTR and its surely going to be a huge success.

It's still not all advantage diesel. The fact is that modern petrol engines are even more refined and silent, and they still have the edge when it comes to all out performance. The clincher is the fact that they're priced significantly lower than the diesel version (blame the Indian obsession with fuel costs and greedy manufacturers). So, if at all, I decide to buy another car, I still think I'll go with petrol.