A Upgraded Credit Card from ICICI Bank

Just got a upgraded credit card from ICICI bank. Infact it is co-branded card with Future Group, the Big Bazaar fame. They have upgraded me from Silver to Gold card. The process was like they send me a SMS and I reponded to that as acceptance and voila withing next ten days I receive a SMS from courier company about delivery of my new card. Things are getting simple these days, with ever reaching impact of internet and mobile communications.

Only glitch they have made is the letter accompanied talk about the card as add-on card upgrade, I didn't have any add-on card so far. Wife is happy with debit card. I have to check the repercussions about this.

As usual this one comes with lots of offers and rebates on purchases from the Future Group and allied marketeers. They are nothing but the allurements to customers to drop in at their store and get robbed over the period. Good thing is card is free for life time, and I shall try not to pay any interest or finance charges to the bank as possible by abiding to their payment rules. This takes some time to master, you have to keep your finances under control and remember the dates. Payments are done via net banking so you can schedule the payment for the last date.

Hanuman photograph. Real or fake ?

The photograph at left is of Lord Hanuman and taken by Manas Sarovar pilgrim. The story about its origin goes like

A group of people went to Manas-sarovar for a piligrimage trip. One of the person there is a Upasaka of Hanuman. He was exploring some caves and accidentally bounced upon a being looking like Lord Hanuman. All of them had cameras and this person happend to click the camera and died there for reasons not known. The other persons fished him out and the camera and here is the picture the camera showed. I do not know how much it is true but many people are believing it. It is a fact that Hanuman does exist in flesh and blood because he is a Chiranjeevi

Before believing this version, as with the Indian psyche, nobody tried to investigate and get the details about the person who took this snap and died because of it. It is not difficult to get the list of pilgrims for Manas Sarovar yatra as it should be documented in Government of India records and there will be very few are dead during the yatra.

If one looks at the picture, the image shows a old monkey like creature reading a book said to be Ramayana. If it is a real picture then I wonder the Chirinjeevi Hanuman is gettng old with age and typeface of Ramayana is very big with just six lines on a single page.

There is quite a chance that this photo is taken from hand drawn picture, as it lacks detailing.

If anybody who is reading this has any further information about this episode, please enlighten us about it. Till then enjoy the curiosity of Indian Mysticism.

Konkan Railway to ply 48 Ganapati Special trains

Good news for passengers travelling to Konkan during the Ganpati festival !... In anticipation of huge crowd of people travelling towards their native places in Konkan, KR will be running 48 special trains between Mumbai and Madgaon via Konkan Railway route w.e.f 29th August, 2008.

• Dadar– Madgaon – Dadar reserved special trains : 0105 Dn special train will run ex-Dadar from 29th August to 6th Sept, 2008 and again from 8th Sept to 14th September, 2008. The train will leave Dadar at 0035hrs & reach Madgaon at 1510 hrs.0106 Up special train will run ex-Madgaon from 29th August to 6th Sept, 2008 andagain from 8th Sept to 14th September, 2008. The train will leave from Madgaon at1540 hrs and reach Dadar at 0500 hrs the next day. 0105/0106 will halt at Thane, Panvel, Roha, Mangaon, Veer, Khed, Chiplun,Savarde, Aravali Rd, Sangameshwar, Ratnagiri, Adavali, Vilavade, Rajapur Rd,Vaibhavwadi, Nandgaon, Kankavali, Sindhudurg, Kudal, Sawantwadi Rd,Madure, Pernem, Thivim, and Karmali. The train will have 17 coaches.
• CSTM – Madgaon – CSTM Unreserved special trains : 0107 Dn special train will run ex-CSTM every alternate day from 29th August to 12th Sept and 0108 Up special train will run ex-Madgaon every alternate day from 30th August to 13th Sept, 2008. 0107 Dn will leave from CSTM at 2355 hrs and reach Madgaon at 1410 hrs nextday and 0108 Up will leave from Madgaon at 1440 hrs and reach CSTM at 0420hrs next morning. The train will have 19 coaches. 0107/0108 will halt at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Roha, Mangaon, Veer, Khed, Chiplun, Savarde, Aravali Rd, Sangameshwar, Ratnagiri, Adavali, Vilavade, Rajapur Rd, Vaibhavwadi, Nandgaon, Kankavali, Sindhudurg, Kudal, Sawantwadi Rd, Madure, Pernem, Thivim, and Karmali.
  

Detailed time table can be seen on www.konkanrailway.com .

Mumbai Local train timetable

This is for the local or suburban train travelers in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

Sindhunagar.com has a good online timetable for the routes Central line, Harbour Line and Thane-Vashi route in Navi Mumbai. It is search base timetable for time window which results the trains in a certain time windows for starting and destination railway stations.

Good thing is that it is updated regularly as soon as Railways update their timetables.

Check out the link for the timetables http://www.sindhunagar.com/railway.php

There is one more online timetable for entire suburban local trains in mumbai offered as a blog item at http://mumbainews.wordpress.com/2006/08/30/local-trains-time-table/

Honda CBF Stunner launched

Honda has launched its new bike in 125 cc segment, as per the schedule on June 30th last week.

The aggressively styled bike is targeted at youth who crave for style and please their parents with 125 cc mileage in upward going fuel prices in the country. As usual build quality and reliability are top notched as in any other Honda product.

The new launch will be direct competition to TVS Flame and soon to be launched Bajaj XCD Sprint. There will be three differently configured models with different price tags. The basic kick start drum brake version of Honda CBF Stunner would Rs. 47,070, while the self start drum brake version costs Rs. 49,820, while the top of the line disc brake version (with self start) would set you back by Rs. 51,655 (prices ex. showroom Delhi).

Technical Specification of Honda CBF Stunner

• Engine type: 4 stroke, Air cooled OHC single cylinder
• Displacement: 124.7cc
• Max power: 11bhp @ 8000rpm
• Max Torque: 11Nm @ 6500rpm
• Starting system: Kick/self
• Gear shift pattern: 1 Down - up
• Headlamp: 35/35W 12V Halogen
• Front suspension: Telescopic hydraulic fork
• Rear suspension: 3 step spring loaded hydraulic shock absorver with recangular box type swing arm
• Front tyre: 80/100-17″ 46p (tubeless)
• Rear tyre: 100/90-17 55p (tubeless)
• Front brake: 130mm drum (optional 240mm disc)
• Rear brake: 130mm drum brake
• Length: 2012mm
• Width: 734mm
• Height: 1113mm
• Wheelbase: 1271mm
• Ground Clearance: 173mm
• Fuel tank capacity: 10 liters (2 liter reserve)
• Kerb weight: 129kg

Rainy nightmares

It is the repeating phenomena, during the monsoon on each high tide, if it rains around 200 mm in 24 hours you are sure to get an deluge, halting the local train operations and consequences.

July 1st was one of such day, it started raining previous night and continued till the afternoon, Central Railway stopped functioning. The high tide around 11am in the morning added to the woes as water logged could not be drained out for a period of more than three hours affecting the day to day activities of mumbaities.

Every monsoon the situation aggravates as the infrastructure of the mumbai is pressurized by the development and ever growing population of migrants. Political circles are busy talking constitute gives right to its citizen of settling where ever they want in India, but never think about this preposition. Now municipal commissioner Mr. Jairaj Phatak wants us to live with these problems as they are beyond control of municipal corporation. Irony is last week he announced 15% water cut as rain was not sufficient in june 2008.