Petrol Bunk fraud... watch out!

I had heard about this kind of fraud before, but witnessed it today FIRST HAND!

My cousin, nephew and me were headed somewhere, and we wanted to put some petrol in his car. So, he pulled into a petrol bunk (the one near ICICI bank on Sardhar Patel Road) and asked for Rs. 500 worth of premium petrol. I was seated in the front passenger seat, my cousin was driving and my 12 year old nephew was seated at the back. While the pump was filling in 500 bucks worth of fuel, one of the attendants leans into the car and asks my cousin if we were interested in some new petrol card promo they are offering. While this was happening, the attendant at the pump shuts the petrol off.. walked up to the display and types in 500! So, when we turned back and looked at the display, it showed Rs. 500 and so we thought that its all done. We were just about to leave, when my nephew told us that we were getting cheated. He had seen what had happened!

People, PLEASE beware of these kind of frauds. The attendant will purposefully make you park your car ahead just so that you cannot lean back and look at the pump itself very easily. Don't let them do it. And, if you do not see the number of liters of petrol pumped in, at the end of the transaction, along with the value in rupees, it means that they have manually entered the number in there, over-riding what the display was showing. Way to check it, is to get out of the car, and manually go hit the silver push switch where the pump handle will rest when replaced at the dock.

I-Fix..

The 2nd I-Fix initiative is on. You can read more about it on Kiruba's blog, and in the original I-Fix wiki.

Last one was kind of impromptu! We fixed a few potholes. Nothing big. In fact, most of the potholes we fixed didn't last even 15 days, and they went back to original state. So, now we know that we have to vary our fix mixture. We're learning!
This one hopefully we'll do more!

EDIT:
p.s. Yes.. thats me in that picture.. and yeah, you can see my bald spot! Now get on with it wise crack!

Mega Tsunamis..

If you thought that Tsunami's are bad.. think again. They reach max heights of about 10m. There is evidence of something called a Mega Tsunami occurring in the past. These things go over a 450m (1500ft)! I had remembered watching a BBC documentary about it long ago. A must watch! Each of the clipping below is 10 min.

Tsunami revisited

Today there was a Tsunami warning issued because of a 7.9 scale quake at Indonesia. However, unlike the 2004 Tsunami which was supposed to have generated 8 foot waves (I think), this one was supposed to generate only 3 foot waves. One of my friends asked me so what's the big deal. We are taller than those waves for sure!

Well, its not so much about the height of the wave, as it is about the volume of water displaced. Here is a video shot during the 2004 tsunami. The first 30 seconds show how far back the water had receeded before the Tsunami hit. At about 2min 40 seconds, when the Tsunami hits the shore, there is a close up of a guy sitting on the beach trying to run away and the water just sweeping past him and beyond. Gruesome scene. The video also captures the destruction post the Tsunami towards the end! Be informed.. Be safe. A Tsunami is very powerful. Be it even 3 feet!



EDIT: My previous post on "People Tsunami" had nothing to do with this. I swear! I had no idea there would be a quake!

People Tsunami!

That's what I call what happened this weekend!

Saturday morning
5.05 am: Alarm rings.. bloody hell, is it morning already? Snooze it!
5.07 am: Alarm rings again! Damn it! I wake up groggily and brush my teeth
5.20 am: Picking up my towel, Frisbees and camera to head to the beach for Ultimate
5.21 am: Phone rings, KK calling. "Mxxx, where are you?? We're all waiting for you! There are already some 20-30 people here". Now, I'm surprised. I'm wondering what the heck happened! Usually we get about 20-22 people by 6.00am. Never anything like that by 5.20! I figured Mama hasn't reached either, so I'm the nearest guy with a Frisbee! Alright.. time to rush to my car!
5.29 am: I'm driving by the Besant Nagar bus stand, there are about 60-70 people nicely dressed up waiting for a bus. "Hmm.. that's a lot of people for 5.30 in the morning. Wonder where they are headed!"
5.30 am: I'm at the road leading to the beach and suddenly there are about 200-300 people walking away from there. "Hmm.. did I just miss a phenomenon on the beach? Was there some meteor shower or something? (that was the last time I remember so many people at the beach so early in the morning). But that still doesn't explain everyone being nicely dressed"
5.31 am: I turn into the beach and stopped in shock! THERE WAS A SEA OF PEOPLE! I could not see one inch of the sand on the beach. I look at my watch and figure it's still 5.31am only. What the heck are 10,000 people doing on the beach at this hour? There are people sleeping all over the beach. There are cars/buses/bikes all over the road. I could barely drive through them to reach our regular parking spot. I found KK and some 5 other people from the Frisbee gang there grinning! I was in shock! Apparently there was some late night/early morning mass at the Velankani church which is at the beach corner! People just stayed over at the beach after that!
6.00 am: We finally packed up and moved to the Thiruvanmiyur/Valmiki Nagar beach a few kilometers down the coast and played there.

I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of the Tsunami of People that had swept the Beasant Nagar beach that morning! We grumbled about having to move! But, well, all wasn't that bad. I managed to get a couple of pictures at the new location that made my trip there totally worth it! (Click on the pictures for a better view)





This morning (Sunday) we again got together, at the Beasant Nagar beach. We finally assessed the damage. There was litter ALL OVER THE PLACE! It was just like a beach in the aftermath of a Tsunami! There wasn't a foot of space on the beach that wasn't littered with papers, bottles, etc. Once again we packed up and moved down south to the Thiruvanmiyur beach.

p.s. What ever happened to people's civic sense? The beach can be such a beautiful place kept clean!