French Fried Oil Change

         There are two types of men in this world. The one who get under the hood of the car and change the oil themselves and the others touch the oil when they eat French fries. People who know me, know that I'm French fries kind of guy.

         In the recent times I decided to make a change. I thought of doing oil change myself. Accordingly I  designed a four step process how to do it.

1. Research

2. Planning, 

3. Execution and 

4. The last and more important Show Off

What you are reading right now is Step 4. Some optimists like to call it communication. With that thought I would take you through the first three steps.

1. Research:

          I went to university library and I was searching for the book, "oil change for dummies". I didn't find it. I went to the sweet girl in the counter and asked for the book "Oil change for dummies". She gave me a strange and weird look, like as if I was hitting on her. I wanted to explain to that lady that "I've come here looking for a book, not a woman". I figured out that world is not supportive for a man who wants to do oil change on his own. I reluctantly got into the Internet. I decided that was my last option available.

2. Planning:

       I have high amount of distrust about the information available on the Internet. Somehow I took the information, and compartmentalized the things to do under the car, things to do under the hood, things to do inside the car. I made an extensive notes and arranged in file folders, took some photographs of my car and compared it with the diagrams on the Internet. with this much research and planning, I was ready for the mission, took my laptop, my Iphone, put them in my backpack, with hundreds of research papers and walked towards my car. I had a walk of a man who would not take a NO as an answer.

3. Execution:

        I approached my car and got under the car, it was a world of darkness. but I was excited because that was the first time I have ever gone under the car. I looked over and unscrewed the oil reservoir to get rid of the old one. kept the oil pan which I had purchased during planning stage underneath it. the oil was slowly falling down. I noticed something was going wrong here. I always remembered engine oil was dark blackish/brown in color, but the oil which was dripping was light in color something like water. then I realized I just opened the transmission fluid tank instead of oil tank. As I am the master of the perfect cover, I closed it with my hand and managed to open the oil tank. there was few drops of transmission fluid that got lost, I don't know how much does that matter to a car.

         After the successful completion of step under the car, now it was time to get under the hood. I opened the hood, and that opened a new gate of my life. I looked inside the hood, and what I saw was bliss. The sight which eluded me for so many years of my life. I located the oil reservoir, poured the oil  into the oil reservoir, I poured another liter too. after searching a little bit, I found oil filter, removed it and replaced with the new filter I had lubricated and put it back. Oh! By the way, taking out an oil filter is not an easy thing. I had to use all the 750 muscles in my body to remove it. Realistically I could have used a hammer and plopped it. Now task under the hood is completed.

         I looked around and I saw some people walking by, completely oblivious to my achievement. How Rude!! They didn't care that I have achieved such a great thing. I closed the hood with a sound that gave a bad boy image, and then got inside the car and started the ignition. Then I heard sweet music of engine saying "Thank you Aarvi for the oil change". The car started and I was going smoothly on the sweet land of satisfaction and sweet land of male ego vindication.

        On the half way thru, the dash started beeping. Beep! Beep! the message that the dash was showing was so embarrassing.

People say, "For any good story, don't spoil it with facts."

Let me tell you folks, there are two types of people, one who go under the hood of the car and change the oil and there are others who go under the hood of the car and put 2 liters of oil in transmission tank.

A Probable LIFE

        In this fast pacing world, we struggle to find little time for ourselves, where we know what is going on in other’s life but are unaware about ourselves. We try and understand the idiosyncrasy of our neighbors, our loved ones and at times we miserably fail. Someone is busy trying to impress a girl, in a few cases the so called 'girl' is replaced by a manager or Boss for that matter. Some are hoping for positive replies to love proposals and a few are waiting for negative outcomes in medical reports. Some are confused about what career to choose and some are regretting on what they have already done. Some are busy campaigning for the elections and some are busy waiting for the justice to deliver. Have we ever tried and figure out what's going right and what's not?

        At the age of 8-10, if one would ask a child “What do you want to become once you grow up?” The probable answers would be ‘a pilot’, 'an astronaut’ or some would say ‘a police man’. As and when they grow, their answers to the same questions would sound realistic, the guy now at the age of 16 would say ‘a Doctor, a Lawyer, or an Engineer’ and so on. So, the relation says as one grows up, his/her sensible thinking is inversely proportional to their age and that is probably what we call as Experience. So as per this formula of experience, at the age of 60, one would be able to say whether the decision to opt for a particular career was correct or not!

When do you feel that it’s not exactly going the way you once thought it to be?

How do you feel when people treat you as unproven theorems?

How does it feel to see your ex-love happy with someone else?

How does it feel when you realize that life is not that fancy fairy tale which you have been reading in books?

      The reality is that you are just riding the wave and going with the flow where confidence and experience are inversely proportional. This is the stage of life where one has already tasted the bitterness of above questions or just felt to realize it.

       The time after graduation, at the age of 24 -25 years is what one might find all these questions relevant. Where every single person encountering around asks you about career, future plans, marriage and what not. The real thing is you might not like facing those difficult to answer kind of questions, the right questions at a wrong time in your life. You know now love is not that blind and that friendship has its terms and conditions. But it is all fair. Probably this is called Life.

        As it is rightly said by Robert Frost ‘A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone’. It's good to be a day dreamer because if not in reality at least it is about cherishing the life you always want to live.

'Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.' – Albert Einstein.

A Question of Safety?

        We are at a point in our lives where things are easy to come by. Our economy, educations and jobs have dictated a higher, if not healthier standard of living. To our immediately senior generation, buying a car was a stuff of dreams. They used to plan for years on end just to purchase their first automobile. Mostly it would have been Maruti 800, and indeed it was a joyous and special feeling to see your first car in the flesh, at the showroom waiting for delivery.

        But all this was way back in the date, today we are spoiled for choice and the options we have are quite endless, nobody in our position buys a tiny, entry level hatchback nowadays and that's a testament to how things have improved in such a short span.

        We as a nation of engineers personally witnessed immense growth. We are one of the largest producers, consumers and exporters of vehicles in the world, not to mention an engineering powerhouse. But do we really practice what we preach, at least when it comes to purchasing a car?

        As Indians, we look for the best bargain, infact Google had even released a report recently that we Indians do a lot of research about the products we're interested in before making a buying decision. Naturally that translates that we are very well-informed lot. But the sad truth is we're not. We only look at the bargain and fail to foresee the repercussions we might face at that cost. At least this is the mindset we have while purchasing a vehicle. How many of us consider important safety features such as airbags or ABS while making a purchase decision? Why hasn't the government made these features mandatory? Why are manufacturers deliberately avoiding these features in entry-level cars?

        We all should know how important safety features are in a vehicle. Safety is not something that manufacturers oversee or apply as an afterthought. They are integral to a vehicle system and its passengers. How the government's automotive regulatory board as skipped these mandatory considerations in vehicles is beyond me, but we can make a difference. Signing petitions is a good move, all manufacturers, engineering concerns and consumers can rally for this cause which might drastically bring down fatalities, but in India and its bureaucracy there's still a long road ahead. But it's also the consumer's responsibility to make sure that the car which he/she is going to purchase next is specified with safety features like ABS and airbags. General conjecture is that one might drive properly and safely and that those features are unnecessary, but be warned; the person driving opposite/next to you might not be a very good driver. Better safe than sorry. it's not just our life that you're endangering, but also that of a loved one. Maybe it's prudent to say that you can leave the crashing and crash testing to those crash-test dummies instead of being a dummy human.

Drive/Ride Safely. Wear Seat-belt/Helmet