Bibhas Debnath iambibhas

Since MS launched S-Presso in Indian market in 2020 there has been much ridicule about this tiny little car because MS sent it for GNCAP testing and it came out with a 0 star rating.

Sadly people remember headlines very well, and MS has shown no effort in correcting this.

But interestingly, in 2022, the version of S-Presso that MS sells in African market, got 3 star GNCAP rating! Guess what, both the Indian version and the version that was sold in South Africa are manufactured in India, and both cars are structurally the same. So what’s going on here?

Lol. this is a very late blog post. But I wanted to document my desktop config. Otherwise I forget every single time if somebody asks me.

2021 September, I bought myself a fresh new desktop. I had been using the desktop I got from Sathya since November 2019. It’s still a great machine. And works perfectly. But I wanted a better and faster machine. So I got one.

I went to Ankit Infotech at SP Road and bought and configured everything on the spot. Thought of buying all the parts and assembling myself. But didn’t have the mental energy to do it. It was an expensive purchase and I just wanted to get it working. So I let the experts handle it. I dont assemble PC that often so have doubts here and there.

We stayed in HSR Layout, Bangalore for 2.5 years until recently. For the final 6 months or so, everyday evening after 6:30-7, after it was dark, I used to hear this bird’s call. It used to fly by our house why making this loud call, a call I’ve never heard in life, and I couldn’t see it of course in the dark. So even if I wanted to know what bird it is, I couldn’t. And it used to bother me everyday.

A couple friend of Ayanti’s and us decided to go for a road trip on the Easter Friday long weekend. Both families have a kid. They have a 1.5 years old, and our kiddo is 4 months old. But we really wanted to go on a long drive and see how our baby M can handle it. And the shortest yet not so short trip we could think of is to Mysore.

What we did in 2022 -

2022 Wrap-up collages

5 new items added to shared album

Google Photos

1. Bought our first ever car in January - a Maruti Suzuki S-Presso top end automatic. We got a pretty good deal from Spinny and the car was in near mint condition. No regret. We’ve been using it to it’s limit. Drove about 6.5k kilometer this year. Which includes a 800km road trip. Very happy with the purchase. We named it Bilbo. Because it’s short and stacked, and loves adventure. 😊
2. Completed 6 years being married to A. And about 11 years since we met each other. We’re very proud of each other for where we are right now. And our life is just starting. Lot more to do and look forward to.
3. Visited Pyramid valley in February. Wanted to visit for a long time. The car kind of gave us wings.
4. Got my dad’s cataract surgeries done from Sankara Eye Hospital in Marathalli. Really good experience. Costed around 25k for each eyes. He can see lot better now, writing this on 1st January 2023. Mom also got an instant laser procedure done that improved her vision. We consulted Dr Meena. Recommend her and Sankara hospital for any glaucoma and eye related issues as well.
5. Had the first tyre puncture.
6. Bought a telephoto lens for my Fuji XT-100.
7. The lens purchase was in preparation for our first long road trip, just the 2 of us. We covered 800km. Bangalore - Srirangapatna - Gonikoppa - Kushalnagar - Hassan - Mysore - Bangalore. It was top notch fun and the car performed beautifully.
8. April is also the month when we got to know that we were expecting. Thus started our year long journey of anticipation and preparation.
9. Ayanti’s parents visited us in May. 4 of us siblings went and watched Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (MoM), which was also mostly about motherhood.
10. In June, we visited IKEA in Bangalore on it’s first day, Our first visit to a IKEA. We had fun. Nice road trip through NICE road. After this I visited IKEA 3 more times I think.
11. By June last week I got done with the visa application for my trip to Sweden in August.
12. Got my visa in July.
13. Attended India FOSS in July as well. Had fun. Met so many friends after so long.
14. 12-31st August was the Sweden trip. So much happened. Have about 1500+ photos of the whole trip. Need to print some and keep. Video of what we did - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0exy4SCBdI
15. In September, we made some big purchase in anticipation of the upcoming new person. A huge bed from Wakefit and a Samsung front load washing machine.
16. In September, I went for a photowalk after ages with Rustik Travel in KR Market, Bangalore.
17. Durga puja started in September. My parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece all came to Bangalore and we had a lovely time. Went to few pandals. Couldn’t go to too many of them because A wasn’t supposed to move around a lot.
18. 5th October we had the baby shower. My whole family and A’s whole family were in Bangalore. Sharath, Sneha, Sounava and Shreya also joined. We had great fun.
19. 5th November was Barcamp Bangalore. First time I helped organize BCB. Learned a lot. And also met a lot of friends.
20. By November, we started buying baby stuff. This was the last leg of the journey. So we became ultra cautious and started preparing for the new member’s arrival.
21. 30th November A’s mom cooked meals for A. Bidisha, Deep, Arna, Arpita, and Adhrit came to visit.
22. At last, 9th December early morning we left for the hospital. And soon after the admission, the delivery happened. And baby M arrived in our lives. This probably merits a completely separate post. About what we experienced in the whole journey and how we felt. Should write it down before we forget.

As I write this, baby M is 3 weeks old. Can’t believe it’s already been 3 weeks. But we’re still here and we’re thriving. In 2023, we have a ton of plans. Let’s hope for the best. If you’re reading this. send us all your best wishes. Hope that your year is awesome and full of new experiences as well. Enjoy.

Taking a leaf from Thej’s book, I’m gonna try posting weekly updates about what I’m doing, as a journal. I don’t do a lot of significant things. But this could be a good way to remember bits and pieces. Let’s go.

• This week was spent mostly recovering from last week. The week before brother in law got hospitalized for dengue. Parents were with us in Bangalore and my sister was alone with niece handling everything alone. So had to send parents home. Had to drive to the airport twice. It was exhausting.
• Cover photo is from last Friday when I went to the airport to drop dad. Went to the back side of the airport where the runway ends and flights take off from. Really nice spot to just sit and chill for a while. With flights taking off every 5 minutes or so.
• Did a lot of cooking this week. Ayanti can’t stand around for long time now. So it’s mostly on me to keep the house and food scene in order.
• We’ve entered the last month. So it’s getting a little tense. Spending a lot of energy to keep the peace of mind.
• Barcamp Bangalore is tomorrow. It was my responsibility to get the banners and sticklers etc printed. Gave for printing yesterday. Collected them today. They came out really well. I didn’t know that flex banners are banned now. They’ve substituted it with a cloth like material. Lightweight. Hopefully better for environment. Thinking about that is also a bit of a moot point. sigh.
• Didn’t get much sleep last night because upstair neighbours were playing loud music at 3AM. Have to drive to the RV University tomorrow early morning. Need to get some proper sleep tonight.
• Been a while since I helped organize an event. A bit nervous.
• Found a shop in HSR that sells refurbished laptops, macbooks, iPads etc. I need a personal laptop as I’ve been doing personal stuff on work laptop and I want to stop that. Asked them to let me know if they get a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. They called me after a day. But I couldn’t find time to go see it. Maybe next week. Also a bit cautious about spending that kind of money right now. Going to need cash next month.
• will update if I remember anything else.

Every year I try to make a map of all the pujas in Bangalore to help my friends, those who are looking to go pandal hopping, and more importantly myself. Couldn’t make it last couple of years for obvious reasons. But did it this year. I went through my old maps and tracked down as many pujas as I could. Some of them moved to different venue, some of them aren’t seem to be there anymore, and there are new ones around. Sharing the map with everyone here so that you can all enjoy this puja. Happy Durga Puja 2022.

I got a 50-230mm lens for my Fuji X-T100 few days back. Right before we went on our first road trip in the new car. So I thought I’ll make some good use of the lens and capture some birds. Till now even if I saw a bird, I’d never be able to know what it is because I couldn’t take a photo of them as they’re usually very far away, and also I wouldn’t even remember that I saw them by the time I get to home. Not anymore.. So here are some of the different species of birds we saw during our 4 day long road trip (a blog post about it is coming soon).

March 18-19-20 was a long weekend. While couldn’t go somewhere out of town for couple of days, because we already had some other plans, we decided to go for a day trip. None of us ever visited Dodda Alada Mara. And it’s not that far. So decided to go there. Sounava decided to join us in his newly bought car.

Initially our plan was to not stop anywhere for too long, have quick lunch and touch these 4 points in blue marker towards Magadi road.

After 2 weeks of downtime since the Gulakamale Lake trip, we found a Sunday with nice and cool weather. So in a plan made in half an hour, we head out to explore one of the places I always wanted to go check. It’s a Pyramid at the outskirt of Bangalore.

Pyramid Valley International is a serene place on Kanakpura Road, with a vast area full of greenery, and in between all that, a pretty big Pyramid.