A train of Errors

The Rickshaw did not even halt fully when i find myself jumping out of it and running across the road. I knew i was very late and that the chances of my missing the pick up van and ending up late in office were high .I walk the entire strtch of the overbridge clutching my handbag ,scarf , hanky , mobile (all in one hand!!!) and the ticket in the other hand ( this hand is usually kept free to defend the self from assaults (pushing) of fellow commuters (all of them seem to have been sumo wrestlers ) ). Just towards the end i see the Ticket checker when i realised that i forgot to punch my ticket .Very grudgingly i went back , punched it and ran towards the platform (by this time i too had become a sumo wrestler "in the making" ).Just as i set foot on the platform the train starts ..Bad luck !! Cursing the train i wait for the next train and the wait seems to be everlasting.

Finally a slow train comes crawling and it seems to be on a slow motion sight seeing ride ( My BP shoots and i curse myself this time for boarding this bullock cart).There i am clinging on to some rod sticking out of somewhere, doing a balancing act , standing on one foot .. and here i see two girls happily leaning on me and chatting away to glory . In the midst of this torture , i become spectator to two women picking up a quarrel and hurling at each other the finest of "gaaliyan" just because one stepped over the others foot!!! (here everyone would be happy if they get a place to keep just one foot on the floor and ... ) . Amidst this commotion a little girl comes selling trinkets at throw away prices and i see all the ladies forgetting their balancing act and rush towards the girl (God some breathing space atlast )...By the time i reach Goregaon am drenched in sweat (Havent even reached office ).But even as the train slows down i find myself being pushed out and there i land on the platform. Picking myself up and thanking God for being alive , i walk towards the bus stop.
Realising that i still could make it to the pick up , i start running towards the stop. But just as luck would have it , the pick up leaves in front of my sight , me being late by a few seconds .This time ,cursing the driver,i take an auto and finally reach the office towers , only to realise that i left my access card at home .............
......... And thus i ended up as a fitting finale to the run up of errors , sporting a big visitor sticker (so big just to tell everyone . "hey look at me , i am the one who forgot to get THE access card " )and tagging behind an "escort" the entire day.

Where small is lucrative

The mind is so filled with clutter that it becomes so difficult tomake a simple decision. The decision was to zero down on a topic to write about (Why is it that the most simple of decisions are the toughest to make ? like suddenly somebody asks u tell a joke/ story ... and you are struggling to pull one out of your mental clutter !!! ). Anyways i finally decided to write on one of my passions .. (God now this is really simple .. but again what will i write on when i am done with all my favourites !!! )

Finally the world (automotive ) is waking up to the fact that small can be powerful, beautiful and of course lucrative .It all started with the ambitious project of the Nano and then within a year we have almost all the top players competing to launch their own versions of a car in the small segment.Toyota , which never wanted to step out of the luxury car segment also wants to desperately launch a small car.

Inspite of the recent slump in the automobiles segment , it did not deter these makers from setting to launch their cars in 09- 10 . The segment has become lucrative because of

1. Number wise :A rise in the upper middle class population ( largely due to white collar employees )

2.Buying power wise :The recent pay revision, lucrative salaries (corporate sector )

3. Cars wise :Attractive Variety and style in the new models / versions not compromising on quality

4.Behaviour wise :These new upper class consumers have always dreamt of owning a car ( when they were in the lower middle class ; and jump at an early opportunity to fulfill this dream )

Moving further ,the new launches lined up for the next 10 months are refreshing and attractive . Take a look

1. The JAZZ by Honda

2. The RITZ by Maruti

3. The NANO by Tata

4.The BEETLE by Volkswagen in the small cars segment .