Veri-Car

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

now in all humility, let me acknowledge that this will at best be a partial review, and in all probability, not the only one. There are reasons for that. The review and it being the way it is.

i have not availed of the services of the company, and whatever i know about the company is from the website and what one of the founders told me. which is where i get the small bit of authority on writing this review from. Having known Jayesh, aka Jaggu for roughly the last 3 years, i can add my opinions with some legitimacy.

Now as a concept, this sounds good, and unlike good sounding concepts, makes a lot of practical sense. I mean, when it comes to used car deals, one can never be sure. after all, are you going to trust the garagewallah you barely know ? or some good friend of your neighbour who can get you a good deal ? The only pitfall though is that whicle this service exists, there will still be people who will be naive enough to get duped. (truth be told, i have no great records of deals myself and any thought of negotiating a house rent still gives me cold sweat).
So while the self congratulatory notes of having bagged the best deal may be a lil short in coming, the comforting pat on the back for not having been duped will be a plenty.

As a sustainable business model (just like every indian has a view on cricket and on politics, every MBA and her ilk of PGDxxxMs has a view on sustainability, no matter how removed she/he maybe from running a business ... and hence, like a slightly bigger cog in the wheel i must express mine) thereis a slight hitch. Every car will have to be physically inspected by experts which puts physical constraints in terms of the availability etc. The other thing will be to maintain consistency and to ensure there is no dilution in the quality of service as they expand. Believe me, since the whole issue of evaluating a fair price is subjective, there will always be a lot of questions. The buyer needs some comforting and reassurance that the price evaluated by vericar is indeed close to the fair price. (statistically, the error could be x type or y type and the validity of the assumptions would again be subject to the t-test etc for a foolproof analysis, but lets leave that to the PGP-1 kids for the time being)

and having known Jayesh, i am sure that with his expertise and knowledge of cars, his judgement is bound to be as close it gets for mortals. and having known Jayesh, i am sure, that withi his sense of fairplay, the assessment is bound to be as close to impartial as it gets for immortals. And since Krthikeya is a well known face from TV, i think the guys hwoudltn have too much of a problem convincing about their credentials.

The one problem that i foresee is reaching out to their target audience. since this is a relatively new territory, this could be a bit of a challenge. Vericar does have its "inventory" of second hand cars but again that is an area where these guys willbe up against the Maruti true value type dealerships. The one advantage that these guys will have is that there is nothing the seller stands to gain when her/his car is added to the inventory.

Finally coming to the website, its basic and simple. it tells all that these guys do and all they dont. (mind you thats just as equally important) perhaps a lil more on advisory services on which model to buy could be highlighted. One gets the feel of a simpe, transparent and no-compromise team which is very essential since the typical second hand car sale is about "mandvali" and "vyavahaar". (Note the bit on washing utensils) Though there is also a subtle hint that this might not be for all and sundry.

Having known Jayesh, this is not gonna stop here. and while i wait for them to grog big and really big, i hope my contributions in the form of the primary IM interview i gave him before he went on to get a fullscale online survey will be acknowledged in the form of a coupon that i can auction :D To take lines from Jaggu's mail, i think the weird ideas that keep these guys going will ensure that in the midst of child birth and nurture, the courtship does not get lost ;)

Here is four stars for doing something different and useful at the same time !
http://www.vericar.in

Duuurrrr ...

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

what journeys to lesser known places would bring is probably the one thing that has kept mankind going for ages.
what drove me there was sheer headonism. and without the least bit of guilt this narrative begins on Christmas day, 2006. Jerin Raja left for his hometown Coimbatore leaving behind the keys to Pushkar's bike and with a plan in place for catching a movie at Crown, Vijay, Ashley, Srinidhi, Madhu, and after a certain while Rajesh paaji and urs truly set off towards Calicut city. The intention was to catch a movie, check out the Taj mahotsav and wind up the day with a nice dinner. After stopping for a while at the local Church we finally reached our destination - the city hall where a singing competition was in progress. Though most of the songs were in Malayalam, they were still very likable because of the distinct style lent by influences of Carnatic music. You dont get to hear tht quite often in the north, just like you dont get to hear a participant singing Md Rafi's "Ehsaan tera hoga dil pe" :) Oh, i forgot to mention, the next screening of "Kabul Express" was to take place nearly 30 min after we arrived and hence we changed course to the city hall right next to Crown. The seating arrangement was quite vasic with he wooden and iron benches that reminded me of seventh standard classroom benches but then in a communist state where the public transport is still ridiculously cheap and the 25p coin is still v much in circulation this was quite a luxury. The hall had photographs of well known people from Kozhikode hanging from the walls and veryone seemed quite happy in those B&W photographs. Did the oldies know something abot staying happy that we didnt know ?
Well, the show must go on and so must the audience ... so we proceded to have some authentic Sharjah shake, window shopping books and watching kids tumble accross the nearby ground ina giant ball. This apparently was a part of the Malabar Mahotsavam, which was a North Kerala tourism promotion carnival. The movie was also quite nice.. with some parts being very touching. Wonder when would someone make a sensitive movie about Kashmir or North East like this. I also unearthed a hidden talent for directing movies with a perfect prediction of the last scene .. some platonic relationship this :DD
The giant tumble-roll ride apart, the main draw was the bungee jump being organised at the beach with the rest of the attractions. I do not know whether in my lifetime, time travel will be possible but what i do know is that long walk along the beach from the parking lot to the bungee jumping stall transformed me into a 5 yr old who knocked down almost half the enclosure wall when got a chance to drive his first toy car, who gaped wide mouthed an yr later watching the giant columbus ride at Appu Ghar. (those were the pre-Essel world days remember !). I do not know if i clutched on to Rajesh paaji's finger just to make sure i didnt get lost. Anyways, got a medical chekc up done, signed up papers saying the organisers wouldnt be held responsible for anything that happened to me and got all strapped up waiting to be taken to the vantage point. And thats when they sent up a promo joker (or was it someone dressed like Santa Claus ?) and then they sent up a non-promo joker. The bloke who had been before me in the queue was the all too macho stud, who kept cribbing why the height had been set at 120 ft instead of the max 120 possible and why the chords were so adjusted as to ensure that the distance between the jumper and the ground didnt go less than 15 ft. and when he went up there, he stalled for 5 times. Finally the half hour hooter went off signalling that if he didnt jump then, he would have to come down and forego his chance completely ! bugger jumped with his eyes closed !! And finally it was me :)) Yyyyiiippppeeee :))
i wonder if it adds to the sense of excitement if you do something that has been forbidden by your parents :D I would still have been just as excited had they been watching me take that lift. The view from the top was absolutely stunning. The whole city on one side, the vast expanse of the sea on the other, a wonderful breeze blowing, and the komrades cheering from somewhere within the crowd. My friend Ram Bux once told me a touching story of how the taste of a particular Halwa stayed with him for an entire lifetime. It was a similar kind of an expereince i had that day. While memories fade away with time, this one just got sharper. The subconscious mind kind of edited and enhanced the images formed without my glasses :) And then came the big leap. It was 1...2....3..Jump ! the whole world that looked so small suddenly kept getting larger. the fear that suddenly clouded my senses and almost overpowered my will to jump was beginning to disappear. It sort of drew back to mind the deliberations i had had a few days back ... you know you are secured by a chord but then what if the chord breaks. and as i was jumping, the ground semed to be getting closer, and then the doubts resurfaced, did i place too much trust on the chord ? and the chord kicked in. the next few seconds were something that i had never expreienced before and have not experienced since. When they talkin about living for the moment, they probably talk about a bungee jumper. Each milli,micro,nano,pico, atto-second was unique in itself. There are very few moemnts in life when you forget who yo are, where you are, what you are doing. your senses shutdown. your voluntary muscles become involuntary. all the neurons in the body are only focussed on taking in as much of that feeling as possible. this was one of those. weclome back to earth could have been, what the guy who finally caught me as my mid air swinging drew to a close, said. i was finally liberated. its like this - winning your independence is a big thing but then the day you become a sovereign socialist democratic republic is just as big if not bigger. for me this was my realisation of my independence. i was liberated.
On we went to Paragon, a pucca malabari food joint where Puttus with fish moily felt like ambrosia. a very spicy ambrosia. I had been there once with Vishal Bondwal and Atul Nair. and i had decided that i would be back one day. and here we were. luck by chance ? maybe :) Unfortunately i would never have any photographs to remember that day by. But what i do remember, will be more than a camera can ever expect to capture. my memories may not remain as consistent through the days, but then, no living thing ever does !
.....