Getting Hypothecation Revoked

I went through a process of getting Hypothecation revoked from my RC in Bangalore. It turned out to be a long process to find the right process (mostly because i thought i will do it myself). The process is as follows:

1. You can download Form 35 from this site.
2. Get this filled in duplicate from the bank to which your vehicle was hypothecated.
3. Also they have to give a covering letter which mentions all the dues are cleared.
4. You have to take a copy of emission and insurance certificate.
5. Submit all of this at RTO (which can cost you Rs 100-150) or go through an agent if you do not want to go through the hassle.(to whom i paid 450)

The RTO is so crammed that my first there made it clear that it is better to go through an agent even though it was more than 60% cheaper to do it directly.

BSNL 3G review on Nokia N78

BSNL caught me by surprise when i loaded the BSNL SIM (which i was using in another mobile) onto N78. It was showing that it is connected on 3G. So i just tried browsing, then it told me that i am using a wrong access point and that if u need the new access point i need to send an SMS as NOKIA N78 to 58355. The SMS came after few minutes. I got a configuration message and accepted the same. I am on BSNL 3G now. Cool to see BSNL becoming so easy to operate. Then i tried doing youtube using 3G.

As soon as i connected my youtube application it was showing some 3.5G and started seeing Apollo in Moon Video. It was a very good experience with no buffering issues which i used to see in case of WiFi (over BSNL DSL connection) for the same video. Full marks for BSNL. I had consumed 2.4 Mb and it charged me Rs 2/-. looks neat for a prepaid connection.

I tried to speedtest.net but sadly N78 does not support java and flash to run the speedtest. From a QoE perspective 10/10.

215BM and 500BM Bus timing

Other Volvo or Vajra services being operated by BMTC, Bangalore timings can be found at Vajra site.

Review of Bangalore Taxi

I am a regular user of taxi to get to the nearest boarding point to reach airport. I have been using the cellcabs (080-60609090) to do it for now more than an year. I am seeing a perceptible drop in quality recently. I used their service as they had a database of the user location and i need to say from my home to so and so location. They used to send an SMS well in advance giving the details of the driver. They also used to provide printed bills and only drawback was payment with cash.

Recently, for last 2-3 trips i am not getting the advance SMS and last min i have to call them and find out an alternate cab. Alternate cab driver mostly do not pick up calls and then u are in a hurry to find an alternate means of transportation. I heard similar complaints from my friend as well. I hence would recommend people who are booking cellcabs to be doubly sure well in advance of the travel about the arrangement. Avoid using their service or keep a large buffer along with a last minute alternate option. Also u cannot book merucabs or other service as they have a 1 hr notice period to book.

Hope you do not have to go through last minute pain through this advice.

Monitoring BSNL Dataone Home 500C

One of the very useful addon to firefox for BSNL limited plan is Datafox. In case you are a BSNL broadband user do the following:

• Install Datafox from this site
• Once it is installed a graph like icon would come in the status bar
• Click on it and key in the login and password and click the remember password option
  
• Use the override option
• From the pull down menu select the data.bsnl.in

Once you are logged in it will show the usage beside the graph icon. So use all the 1.5G of home 500C but never breach the threshold :)

Tata Photon + in J P Nagar 7th Phase Bangalore

Review of Tata Photon + in J P Nagar 7th Phase Bangalore

Test: Speedtest.net from Colombo, Srilanka server (Recommended by Speedtest)
Avg Download Speed: 0.96 Mbps
Avg Upload speed: 0.25 Mbps
Ping time: 288ms

Test: Speedtest.net from San Francisco, CA, USA
Avg Download Speed: 0.86 Mbps
Avg Upload speed: 0.32 Mbps
Ping time: 369ms

Applying Passport : What you should not do?

I went through a really long process of three months to get my passport reissued. To get passport follow the process verbatim as specified in the RPO website. Here i list some small set of steps which can help you a lot:

• Check the police station in which your building falls: This was my basic mistake. I wrote the nearest police station to my home but actually it was some other station. If it goes to the wrong station, it is sent back to commissioner office before reaching your actual station. this is a long and tedious process which may not happen automatically. this can delay the whole process my a month or two.
• Check in the police station with 2-3 days of submitting your application: The application is sent very soon. so check with your police station about the application so that you can speed up the process if it has gone to a wrong police station.
• In case it is commissioner's office, you can go there between 3-5 PM with a copy of the passport receipt and a written letter and submit it. They will inform you where the Police Verification (PV) file is.
• See the site regularly and keep track of status. In case it is going slow then you can convert it into a tatkal. For this you have to go and get application from the RPO (this is in koramangala in case of Bangalore). If you go early better. It is open from 9.30 to 12.30 and usually has a long queue.
• If it is dispatched it reaches your post office in a day or two. So check with the local postman. If you do not collect the passport in 7 days it is sent back to the RPO.
• And lastly, if you need it urgently just apply for tatkal as the normal process does not happen in less than 2-3 months though the passport office claim they do it in one month.
• Also if possible do not change the address, then no police verification is needed. this is the most time consuming operation.
  

Last week the process is now outsourced to TCS in Bangalore. So may be the above learning may not be relevant now. Hope no one have to suffer so much to get the passport reissued.

TVS King review

Recently a new auto rickshaw got launched in the otherwise boring segment. This auto TVS King seems to be a 200cc vehicle but in ground seems to be really powerful with respect to the old bajaj. It is quite comfortable while travelling with the seat solidly fixed onto the pedestal. Shock absorber may be slightly better than the old Bajaj ones. And what really bowled me off was that it covered my travel from palakkad railway station to my home in same time as the car travel. So may be if u get a choice, try going for a TVS auto. Hope over time the drivers in this vehicle also become less arrogant compared to the present auto drivers in Bangalore.

Intercom from BSNL

I had taken an intercom from BSNL with is integrated to the apartment EPBX in Brigade Millennium. When they shifted it everything was working fine with no issues seen in broadband or the land line connectivity. One needed to press "0" to connect to local call. The STD by default got blocked. To enable it I needed to set a password for access. The procedure for which is as follows:

1. Press 123 xxxx xxxx (where xxxx is your password)
2. Press 124 xxxx 0 to open the STD facility
   
3. Press 124 xxxx 1 to close the STD facility

I also tried a new facility for informing BSNL of landline fault. One were to send LLF to 56xxxx (I forgot!!). This works perfectly well.