UPI LITE X: Unable to make payment.

 I have been using BHIM for quite some time and it has been excellent. Recently BHIM launched UPI LITE and i started using it. I didn't know the difference between UPI LITE and UPI LITE X as i have not been tracking the changes happening in digital payment field to such details. UPI LITE X operates even without Internet. UPI LITE needs an internet connection but only one level authentication.

It looks like my ICICI account which was linked to it was not updated in the backend after the new update of BHIM software. So my amount is now stuck in UPI LITE X account without any option to use the amount. I raised a complaint to ICICI bank and they were not able to debug. I also tried raising the issue with BHIM website. Unfortunately i couldn't raise one as it was giving error while raising compliant and not registering it. I then raised compliant through the NPCI portal and one gentlemen reached out to me. The issue started after 9th Dec 2023 and let me see how long it takes to fix it.

BHIM also allowed creation of a secondary UPI ID recently. 

Will update the post as i get to solve it. But till then be cautious with the money in UPI LITE X. Do not keep even 2000!

HSRP plate change in Electronic city

I went and changed the HSRPc(High security registration Plate) today from NEXA. In case you do not know HSRP is mandatory in Bangalore from Nov 17, 2023. So few useful tips in case you are an owner of Maruti Car and want to change the same in Electronic City Bangalore.

1. Register using bookmyhsrp.com 

2. Once details like car number, Engine number, etc are provided you will have to pay the requisite amount and you will get an SMS based on the date of appointment you have taken

3. The number plate was sent few hours before my appointment. I had taken a 4-6 PM slot at NEXA (Suraksha) showroom on Hosur Road. Please note for E-City this is the only option.

4. I missed my appointment. I could change it by calling at 884471154/ 8884442229

5. I then changed it next day morning at 9.30 AM. The NEXA showroom is the service center which is near DAMRO showroom and Honda service center (right hand side when you are going towards silk board)

6. It is better if you take the service road if you are staying in ECITY PHASE II.

7. You need to go down the ramp to the service station below the NEXA showroom. Pick the number plate from above after showing RC and then give it to the service person below. 

8. The number plate is riveted and hence after this cannot be removed. The number plate is not very sturdy and can hear some sound once in a while. Need to fix this separately.

9. They also paste a number sticker and a colour sticker on the wind shield. 

A review of hotel in Electronic City

1. Mast Marati: Nice Marati food esp pithla bakri and sorghum juice. Not a place for fine dining but better to have hot jowar roti. No parking. (Next to Printo in Ecity Phase 1)

2. Sai Vishram: Nice south Indian fine dining buffet. Good parking. (Along hosur road)

3. A2B: Nice Tamil south Indian ala-carte food. Recently serious issue with parking (near Ajmera stone park)

4. Punjabi Dhaba: Nice Punjabi food. Not a fine dine place. (Near Printo in Ecity Phase 1)

5. Ottera: High end fine dining. 

6. Kapoor's cafe: A decent punjabi food joint with some cots to sleep over after having food. Good on ambience and have valet parking. Has a small parking area below

7. Gopal Jee: Good north Indian food with a nice parking area.

A Journey in Vande Bharat

This is a dairy entry of my travel in Vande Bharat on 23 July (Sunday) from Chennai to Bangalore.

Activity Index

I reached early at 5.15 AM at Madras Central.

First is a booklet called Platform with advertisement of a Jeweller.

 Another larger Platform book one per row is provided. It didn't reach me in the last row (C7, 4). So not sure of content.

Newspapers Sunday Times and another in Tamil Dhina Thanti delivered

Dhina Thanti newspaper boy come and take pictures of people reading the newspaper. Read a news of Indian colonizing legally in UK with Ravi Ruia buying a 1200 CR mansion in UK. Hope he could have invested to buy a bigger property in India.

Train is almost full by 0540am

No more place to keep luggage in the top rack and hence passenger are getting innovative and keeping it in the place behind my seat.

Train starts at 5.50 sharp. 

Rail neer one liter bottle is delivered at 5.51. I have already a smaller water bottle. Moved it to other place.

Sadly no mobile or laptop charger in Chair Car.

Train moving at 12 Kmph at 5.53 as shown in screen just behind me. The screen shows Modi inauguration of Vande Bharat.

5.56 train still at 29kmph and ticket inspector checked the ticket SMS.

5.58 Basin bridge station. Speed again at 15 Kmph. Water delivery to all seats not yet completed. Next stop katpadi is being announced which is 125 km away

6 am Unibic biscuit and Instant coffee premix(Chaizup Premium). 

604 am Hot water and glass came. Speed 127 Kmph

608 126 Kmph vibration is there. May be slightly less. Not whole lot lower. Also being near the door I get to hear the sound.

620 it was 127kmph but now down to 106

625 speed is 29 Kmph. Screen showing next station as Katpadi and will reach at 7.13 am

627 accelerating to 80 kmph now, 102 kmph, 113 kmph, 120 kmph, 

6.28 128 kmph

6.32 47 kmph

6.35 a train passby. Now accelerating to 104 kmph, 66 km to next stop

6.36 101-104 kmph

6.45 tried restroom. Quite helpful people who are serving food and water. It's clean. Flush is aircraft type. There are disposable cover for use in commode. Train accelerated back to 122 kmph.

6.48 127 kmph. Noticed some seats are free. Maybe because it's a Sunday or they may board from next station. 40 km to next station.

6.54 another train passed by but the speed remained at 127kmph.

7.18 started from Katpadi after a 5 min stop. Slowly accelerating. One more seat near me for occupied.

7.19 Breakfast being served.

7.21 127kmph. Acceleration seems to be smooth and fast. Next station 226 km and is KSR/Majestic Bangalore station.

7.25. Got my breakfast on a nice tray. apple juice. Tissue paper, 3 idli, Vada, 4 murukku, sambar, chutney, kesari bath. 

7 37 i finished my breakfast.

7.43 Tea being delivered. Skipped it as breakfast was very heavy.

7.47 73 kmph. 176 km to KSR.

8.04 Found charger under the seat. Speed 120 kmph

8.08 Snickers and juices for sale. Executive class has 2+2 seats with Sofa type seats.

8.11 Jolarpet station. Trains slows to 14 kmph 

8.59 JCB being transported on train speed 43 kmph. Noodles coming for sale. Snickers seems to have been sold in sufficient nos. Rs 60 per Snickers.

9.01 am 19 kmph. 75 km to KSR Bangalore. Found there is Vandebharat WIFI and a in-train entertainment system. Vandebharat.myinfotain.com

9.39 109 kmph 22 km to KSR. someone came to clean the train. Maybe getting ready to welcome Bangalore to Mysore travellers with a fresh smell. 

9.42 100 kmph. All the old newspaper was collected by one person smartly dressed in blue. 

9.44 50 Kmph. just 14 km away from KSR. All the coaches are connected including Executive class. Executive class is in the middle. Crossing KR Puram station. 

9.47: Stopped for a minute in KR Puram but as per schedule no stop here. 13 km to actual stop. Another person came with garbage bag to collect the garbage. All routine looks very similar to the one in a flight.

9.50 12 km to KSR, SPEED: 7 KMPH.

9.52 35 KMPH

9.54 62 kmph 10 km more. Tracks are being expanded.

9.56 BLR EAST crossed. 84 kmph.

10.01 4 km 26 Kmph 

10.04 2 km 50 kmph

10.07 14 kmph 1 km

10.09 reached KSR. Quite a large crowd for travel to Mysore. 

Pleasent journey in 20607.

Pediatric hospitals in Electronic City

 Electronic City Bangalore has some good pediatricians/hosptals:

1. Cloud Nine: Sanjeev

2. Springleaf: Anuradha

3. Kauvery

Happy to hear more. Its time we identify and call out good doctors outside the Practo and Google Rating.

Samsung M30 and Airtel VoWiFi

Samsung M30 comes with VoWiFi a very useful feature for Indoor voice calls. This can be enabled by enabling at Settings->Connection->WiFi calling. I have tested it with Airtel and i know from friend that it works with Reliance Jio. It seamlessly hands off call between VoLTE and VoWiFi. So if you step out of your home then you will get connected to VoLTE. VoWiFi is indicated by a phone receiver symbol along with WiFi symbol on the top of your phone. It works with SIM 1 and SIM2.

After enabling there are few bugs which are there:

1. If one use bluetooth, the VoWiFi does not work (My VoWiFi provider is Airtel. Not sure whose problem is it). So switch off the bluetooth to enable VoWiFi.

2. It sometimes hang esp if use medium/maximum power saving or adaptive power saving. If you have used any of this and you do not see VoWiFi symbol you will need to restart the phone to get VoWiFi.

Enjoy VoWiFi and always buy a phone with VoWiFi going forward. This will ensure you have lesser call drop problem.

Getting Hypothecation Termination in Bangalore

In case you are looking to get the "Hypothecation Termination" for your vehicle in Bangalore, Karnataka (Electronic city KA51 is being mentioned here specifically) it has become quite simple even if you approach directly rather than through an agent (Agent charge Rs 1000/- and claims to deliver in flat 2 days).

Few things which you need to take care:

1. Form 35, filled by the financer (has to be submitted within 3 months of getting it from the financier), insurance copy, pollution control copy, RC xerox copy, aadhar or any ID proof copy and original RC  in a small plastic cover (which you can get at the Xerox shop near by).
2. You need to carry a self-addressed envelope (45 Rs stamp) for speed post to send back the RC.
3. The Xerox person will help you to put all in one bundle in a particular order.
4. Submit it at RTO frontdesk (Opp to where RTO sits) to check the submission and then pay the Rs 200/- fee.
5. After the payment, you need to get the signature from the RTO and submit back at the desk near the cashier or opposite where the RTO sits. Get an acknowledgement slip.
6. You can know the status of application here. In case it is stuck please get phone number of the personal and track to closure. The whole process may take a month. This happens automatically in case you go through an agent.
7. Once its verified, one should get the RC in a week's time to your home address.

Hope it helps someone to do it the proper way.

Buying apartment in Bangalore: A contrarian view

Buying apartment using a loan in  Bangalore is a bad idea. There are enough article on it. Simple logic for that if you pay 11% interest and the appreciation of property in bangalore is max 7% it just does not make sense. The rental return is 3-4%, hence even assuming rental income the return is not worth to invest in real estate and even a simple FD does a better return. Bangalore unlike Mumbai and Chennai can grow in concentric circles and as the outskirts develop the rate of buying a new apartment will turn out to be cheaper than buying an existing apartment in a well developed area.

Buying apartment for emotional reason is what drives most of the investment. Emotional reason can include reason of "settling down near the kids school", "proclivity to spend and hence the associated inability to save in anything other than real estate" and so on.    Assuming you have to made a decision to invest in an apartment
, is there a better fashion to invest so that it at least ensures that we do not lose the capital corrected for inflation when we want to exit.

The key here is to invest in apartment during the construction phase. In this phase you need to pick up a builder who usually deliver and does not cheat. The builder should be picking up only reasonable projects at a time and should not be stretching thin. The builder is not known to complete the structure fast and spend disproportionate time in the final stages before delivery. In this scenario you would have paid 90% of your payment as per the structure construction schedule and you will be in a double whammy situation of paying the rent and interest/EMI which squeeze your quality of life till you get the delivery of apartment. So having found a builder who is reasonable, pick a builder who spends more time on structure (this means you can pay the part payment from your saving rather than your loan) and lesser during the completion phase. This will ensure your interest outgo later will be minimized and can go directly to your bottomline. Now if you can find a builder whose part payment schedule matches with your savings profile, you can own an apartment without spending much on the interest. This means you can still end up with a return of 3-4% from rental (in case you plan to rent it out)+ 7% appreciation which is better than FDs if not better than large cap equity mutual fund. Assuming even 5% inflation, we will still be doing a better return than FD.

Another aspect is Bangalore is that there are pockets of high sqft cost  area and relative low cost area. Pick a low cost area if that is where you saving profile matches rather than stretching to buy in a costly area. Worst case you can rent the apartment in the area you bought and rent it in the area near office/school. This will ensure you are covered for the worst case scenario of sudden rental increase. The rental difference between any two area in bangalore is hardly 10% which from return perspective will take a max 1% hit on your capital. The rough cost of construction for a high quality construction in Bangalore (for a low rise) is 2800-3000 per sqft in bangalore (electronic city area at least). So any addition to it is for the premium for land and all the facilities. So keep your cost of acquiring the property near it. And the right pick is one where you get the max value for money.

The third aspect is buy slightly higher sqft house if your budget allows and if you are willing to stretch. This will ensure that you do not find yourself crammed the day you move in to the new house and you think of then buying a even bigger and newer house.

Having said this contrarian view, it still makes sense to rent and stay unless you are driven by emotional reasons.