Navigation saves the day

Raju, Arnav and Tina finally decided to go on their getaway tour in January 2016. They had been planning it for three years now, but one of the three was busy, and they had had to cancel every time. They had planned to go to the beautiful city of Shimla and their excitement knew no bounds! However, little did they know what fate had in store for them. This is how their story unfolded:

The three of them were trekking up a hill, about ten kilometres from the city. This was their favourite thing in the whole world; they had gone on numerous hiking sessions together when they were kids. The Himalayas, however, were a new challenge altogether. They had never trekked in such cold weather before – and especially since it was the month of January, temperatures were hovering around 5 degrees Celsius for most part of the day. It was like being inside of a refrigerator. Coupled with the steep climb of the hills, this was no easy task. But that’s what made it all the more fun! The tougher the challenge, the more exciting it was. The scenery was rewarding, and they felt that it was definitely worth the hardship.

Raju had been feeling a little dizzy since morning. He didn’t have the habit of eating much anyway, and in the cold weather, it was a bit straining upon him. While they were trekking, he couldn’t keep up to pace at all with the other two.

“Raju, are you there?”, shouted Tina.
There was no reply.

“Raaaaaaaa-aaaajuuuuuu!” This time the two of them shouted in unison.
They could hear a faint muffled scream from far below. At that point, they knew something had gone wrong.

They went down quickly only to find Raju huddled up in a corner. The cold had been too much for him – he was going pale!

"Raju!" Tina yelled, dropping to her knees, next to him. "Are you alright?"

Raju could hardly answer. They knew they had to go to a hospital immediately. Arnav helped Raju up, and they somehow managed to make their way to the car they had rented.

That’s when they realized – they were in an unknown place with no person in sight. How could they possibly reach anywhere?

That’s when Arnav had an idea. “Hey, do you have navigation in your phone?”
“Y-yes, I do…”, muttered Tina.
“Then give it to me! Quick!”

Arnav googled “hospitals near me” and in a matter of time, they were able to locate their way to the nearest hospital. It wasn't anything serious at all! The doctors fixed Raju up in just a couple of hours.
And that’s the story of how navigation saved the day.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

A pleasant surprise

Tina got out of the shower, her hair dripping wet. She rubbed the ends dry with a towel, rushing to get to her phone. It had beeped; it must be a message from Arun. He'd been working late many nights in a row. To make up for it, he'd plan a magical dinner date the next night he thought he might be free, but he ended up having to deal with some last minute work again, cancelling on her. That cycle had repeated more than once in the past couple of weeks, so Tina was worried that it'd be the same tonight, when she'd heard her phone beep from inside the shower.

But what she saw puzzled her; it was a message from Arun, that had nothing except the directions to some location that seemed to be very near her house. She switched on navigation, slipped on a pair of PJ's and went outside the house, following the voice in her phone. She had stepped out of her apartment, went down the stairs, and across the street to another apartment, and -

"Please turn to your right," the woman's voice said. Tina turned right and walked three steps before the voice said, "You are now at your destination." She looked up, bewildered. There was nothing there except the watchman and a package in his hand.

"This is for you," he said, handing it to her. She took it, thanked him, and went back to her apartment, smiling to herself. This is what she loved about Arun; when it came to surprises, he went all out!

Tina went back home, ripped open the cover and opened it. There was a beautiful red dress inside. She threw it on as fast as possible and looked into the mirror. She couldn't help but let a small gasp escape her lips; she looked stunning. She busied herself with make up and accessories, waiting for Arun to turn up. But he didn't; all that she got was another beep in her phone, with new directions!

This time, the place was rather far away. Tina got into her Tata Zica, entered the coordinates and drove wherever navigation took her. She drove on for almost forty minutes, and finally, at the end of a long, straight road, she heard the words, "You are now at your destination." She breathed a sigh of relief and got out of the car.

And there he was, the most handsome man in the world as she knew it.
"Arun!" she said, getting out of the car. "This place is absolutely beautiful!"
They were standing at the side of a lake, with a small stage set up for them, and a dinner table on it with a candle on top. There was also what looked like a lovely meal!
"Tina," Arun said, going down on one knee. "Will you marry me?"
He was holding out the most beautiful ring she'd ever seen in her life.
"Oh, my!" Tina said, too shocked for words. She paused a few seconds before she could reply.
"Yes. Yes! Yes, oh my God!" She exclaimed, letting him slip the ring on to her finger and enveloping him in a hug.

What a wonderful way navigation was to surprise someone!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

The time when we were lost

It was a bright, sunny morning in the summer of 2015. We were all getting ready to go to watch Khaleja. I was a big fan of Mahesh Babu and so were my friends. We were a gang of seven, so we decided to take two cars; three in one car and four in another. We had planned to reach the hall within half an hour; however, the story unfolded very differently.

The car which I was in led the way, and we only assumed that the second car was following us. That was true for a while, but in some time, we turned around to see that we had lost them. We went on with trying to find our way to the theatre anyway; they would ask someone along the way to guide them and make it there as well. There's no dearth of people walking on the road to ask directions from in India, anyway. Only after twenty minutes did we realize that they weren't the ones we had to be worried about. We were lost!

We tried asking the pedestrians for directions but none of them could explain the way with clarity and we kept getting into narrower lanes. At one point I felt like we were just going around in circles, until we finally hit a dead end. It was then that a kind old stranger offered to guide us back to the main road. He rode on his two wheeler and we followed him, breathing a sigh of relief at the first wide road that we hit. We thanked him and then went our way. With the help of another two or three people, we finally managed to reach the cinema hall just in time.

But alas! The tickets were sold out. We called our friends to inform them that there were no tickets and they could turn around and go back home no matter where they were. But to our surprise they were sitting in the cinema hall and munching popcorn! They had taken tickets for us too, and told us the seat numbers and asked us to come as soon as possible, since the trailers were almost over.

After we finally settled in our seats, we got around to talking about how they had found their way and managed to reach the cinema hall so quickly.
"Nisha, how did you figure out the route to get here? I thought you guys were lost!"
"What?" Nisha laughed. "It was actually pretty simple, Sameera!"
"How? We got lost in some crazy maze of roads," I told her, only to hear some more laughing.
"Didn't you use navigation?" Nisha asked. And that's when I realized how unfortunate it was not to have inbuilt navigation in our car.
"Well, no," I told her. "We don't have a Tata Zica now, do we?"

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Little Tom gets kidnapped

Little Tom's muffled screams were audible outside the van that was taking him away. Amarnath was a strong and able business man, and for the first time in his career, a tiff at work lead to interference in his personal life. His arch rival had hired goons to kidnap his son, take him to his farm house in Nellore, and demand ransom.

Tommy was frightened, even more than when his playschool teacher threatened to hit him with a long, iron scale. This was the scariest time of his life. The big men around him weren't treating him nicely at all, and he was doing all that he could; screaming with all his might, even though his mouth was covered by someone's hand. The hand was partly suffocating him. He couldn't stop squirming around, which annoyed the goons even more.

Tommy wasn't too worried, though. He'd seen his father's car following them, a little while ago, in the distance. Daddy was out to get these bad men, and when he did, they would all be pulverized to death.

...

A little behind the van was Amarnath, driving his car, with a high rank police officer sitting next to him. The police van was on it's way, but further behind.

"Did we lose them?" The officer asked.

"Oh no, don't say that," Amarnath said, frowning. But he was right; there was no car ahead of them. Nevertheless, he kept driving on the straight road.

Amarnath did know that Srinath, his rival had a farm house in Nellore, one that he was rumoured to carry out illegal businesses. He was rumoured to be guilty of six kidnaps and four murders since the start of his career, and those numbers were the reason for Amarnath's worry.

...

"Get out," the leader of the gang ordered his subordinate. "Get out and flip that boards."

They were at crossroads. There was a pole placed at the center, with arrows that directed travellers to their destination. Nellore was to the right, and Badvel to the left; the leader's idea was to reverse the directions and mislead Amarnath and the police.

One of the goons in the backseat got out, and managed to dig up, reverse the pole, and bury it back in the mud, leaving it looking like it hadn't ever been touched.

"Let's drink chai," the gang leader said, in the van. "Let's celebrate!" He laughed, proud of his idea to mislead the police. Now they didn't have to hurry.

...

"Damn it," Amaranth cursed. Poor Tommy must be so scared, he thought.

They approached a junction.

"To the left," the policeman said.

"Are you sure?" Amarnath asked.

"Yeah, look there," he said pointing at the signboard. "It says Nellore to the left."

"My navigation says Nellore to the right," Amarnath frowned, pointing at the small screen in his car.

"Okay I guess that's more reliable," the police officer agreed. They took a right, and continued searching for the van.

They found it parked outside a small dhaba. Soon enough, the police van behind them caught up as well. The police arrested the goons and Amarnath went to the Van to hug his son.

 "Daddy! I knew you would come," Tommy said, running into his father's arms.

"Yes, son. I am your saviour, and Navigation is mine. Thank god we have inbuilt navigation in our Tata Zica!"

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Shruti's journey - Part 3

This is the third part of a series. Click here to read Part 2.

“Bhargav, do you know where we are?” Anil asked.

“Idiot, you said you wouldn't get us lost.” Bhargav said.

“We're not lost. We just have to ask someone how to get to Ergin hotels. I'm sure it's famous, and it looks like a pretty small town.”

“I thought we were using navigation,” Shruti piped up. She was awful at directions as it was, and the thought of her deep rooted fear of getting lost in a new and unknown land frightened her.

“No dude, my phone doesn't have network. Anil’s phone lost service ages ago, too. Do any of yours have service?” Bhargav asked.

Everyone checked their phones.

“No.”

“Nope”

“No..” came the replies. 

“It's alright dude. I think I remember the way. I zoomed in and tried to memorise the map before, so I think we're good.”

“You sure?” Pallak asked.

“Well I'll keep going, and we'll ask the first person we find on the road.” That sounded like a plan.

Anil kept going, and it seemed quite like he knew where they were headed. The rest of the car slowly drifted off to sleep, but Shruti and Anil stayed awake, searching for a board that would lead them to their hotel, or a person to ask for directions. But there was none; it was quite late into the night, and it wasn't a time for people to be out on the streets in a small town like this one.

“Hey there's a light in that shop,” Shruti exclaimed, pointing. Anil drove closer, and Shruti put her hand on the handle of her door to get down and ask.

“You crazy or what?” Anil said, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He got off went down to the shop instead, and came back with a rather embarrassed expression. “They're utterly drunk in there. Good thing you didn't go,” he told Shruti.

A little more time had the seven friends completely lost, to the extent that their car was on a kaccha road, surrounded by nothing except trees and bushes. All of them were awake now, aware that they were in the middle of nowhere.

“I need some air,” Rishika said. “It's kind of suffocating in here.”

“Let's just stop here,” Bhargav said, patting Rishika’s back. She was asthmatic, so he was worried for her. “The pucca road isn't so far from here, I'm sure it's safe.”

So Anil pulled over, and soon they were having a typical bonfire night, just like in the movies. Everyone was sitting around the fire, on logs or rocks that they found nearby. Shruti watched as each person drifted off to sleep, Anil being the first. He hadn't slept in over thirty hours, so that was expected. Rihaan and Harsh fell asleep on each other. Shruti didn't forget to take a picture of their “bromance” after she was done quietly giggling to herself. Kalyan reclined on his conveniently L-shaped log and let his head fall back as he snored. Rishika fell asleep with her head in Bhargav’s lap, holding his hands for their warmth. The smile on Shruti’s face vanished.

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was playing loudly on the screen. The A/C in the cinema hall was turned up unnecessarily high. It was chilly, but Raghav’s comfortably large hand was the store of heat that Shruti needed. She held his hand, and lifted it up to her face and pressed her cheek against it, smiling. She would be able to survive Alaska if she was with him.

And suddenly Shruti remembered another time.

They were alone, in Raghav’s room, fighting as they'd been doing all the time they had together these days.

“Well what do you want from me Raghav!” Shruti screeched.

“You know what I want, you bitch,” he yelled, advancing towards her. It was instinct; Shruti got out of her seat and darted across the room. But she wasn't fast enough-

Shruti felt a hand on her shoulder that made her jump.

“Shruti, are you alright?” It was Anil.

“Are you okay?” He asked again. Shruti nodded rapidly, blinking back her tears.

“Are you sure? You're shivering,” he said.

“I'm okay,” she said, trying to laugh it off. “Just a little cold.”

“Here,” Anil said, pushing a rather large stone closer to the fire for her. Shruti shifted onto the rock, and put her arms down behind her on Anil’s log. Soon enough, she put her head down, too, and slept.

She was woken up a few hours later, by a -”Hey! I've got signal!”

“Quick, switch on navigation and take close up screenshots,” Kalyan said.

And that's how they finally found their way to the hotel.

to be continued....

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Never lose your way again!

Are you one of those people who have a particularly poor sense of direction? Do you feel lost quite often when you’re travelling to a place – sometimes even if you’ve visited the same place many times before? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you might have something to relate to in this post.

I am one of those people who tend to lose themselves very often. Sometimes, even if I’ve been visiting the same place quite regularly (say, once every two months) for years, I am still at a complete loss when it comes to figuring out the directions all by myself. A fine example of this would be the way to Balanagar in my city, a place where I have lived till around 5^th standard and have visited innumerable times after that. The road to that place from the centre of the city is pretty straightforward (they say), and yet, to this day I am not completely sure which road to take! Another place I have lived in for more than five years is Safilguda, where I did a significant part of my schooling, and yet I still have a bit of trouble finding out the way. On numerous instances, my friends have got quite annoyed at me too since I can’t figure out the route each time I go to their house, and I definitely don’t blame them for that. :D

In times like these, the GPS navigation system has been a real boon to me. It has saved my skin on many occasions where I just couldn’t figure out which way to go. And nowadays they come with real-time traffic updates as well, so it has become enormously easier to choose a particular route and proceed forth. Though I might add, many times it has so occurred that my phone battery just isn’t enough to suffice GPS navigation for the entire journey; especially for me, since I often forget to charge it the previous night. In times like those, it would be very handy indeed to have turn-by-turn navigation built in the car itself, thus eliminating the need to have the GPS functionality in the phone running continuously. And the Tata Zica has got just that! It is undoubtedly a blessing for those who face problems similar to mine.  Tata has clearly thought out its customers’ needs well and tailored the features in their new car to suit the needs  of the public.

There is also that odd occasion where the maps application simply doesn’t know the exact destination that I want to reach. In such a moment, one can always rely on our very own desi GPS, which simply means, park the car somewhere and ask the local pan-wala or the nearest auto-wala. :D

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

The power of navigation

Back in the 20th century:

Sam, Nathan and Emmanuel wanted to give Raj a bachelor party. The four of them lived in Orange county, and they decided to drive up to Las Vegas for the time of their lives. They set off, with a handy map to show them the way. They were on the right track, till the sun began to set. They had reached a particularly empty stretch, so Emmanuel, who was driving, sped up and zoomed through the road. As a result of the speed, the map, which Sam had folded and kept to his side, flew away. Sam called out to Emmanuel to drive after the map, and that's what he did. They could see the map being blown away, and they drove behind it, off the road. After a while they realised they were surrounded by nothing but trees and mud, and there wasn't a person in sight. They could hear a wolf howl somewhere in the distance. Nathan shuddered. "Dude this is scary. Let's turn back around and get back," he said. "Yeah," Raj agreed. "Priya will be happy to know we couldn't get to Las Vegas," he laughed.

So Emmanuel turned the car around and they began to head back to the road. But after they went forward a bit, the fuel ran out and now the car wouldn't budge. It seemed like a dangerous place, so the four men got out of the car, and decided to walk back to the road and come get the car in the morning. But since they didn't have a map, they walked on and on, pointlessly and endlessly, and never found the road. They each had never felt as much repentance as they did that night when their stomachs growled. But they weren't the only hungry ones; they heard a hungry bear roar behind them. The hungry bear signalled to a group of hungry bears nearby, who feasted on the four hungry men. Raj never went back to his wedding, and Priya was devastated to lose him. Emmanuel's mother cried herself to sleep every night forever after; he was the only one in the world she called her own. Sam's kids had a father no more. Nathan was a teacher, and the replacement they hired wasn't half as good. Nathan's second grade missed him more than anything.

Now here's how this story would have gone, if it was today:

Sam, Nathan and Emmanuel wanted to give Raj a bachelor party. The four of them lived in Orange county, and they decided to drive up to Las Vegas for the time of their lives. They set off, soon. Emmanuel's car had inbuilt Navigation, so there was hardly any need for a map. They were on the right track, all the way till Las Vegas. They partied hard and returned in time for Raj's wedding, which was beautiful. Sam's kids looked dazzling in suits and dresses, sized down to fit them. Emmanuel's mother had come too, since she was the caterer they'd hired. Everyone had nothing but compliments for the food served. Nathan fell in love with a girl who came to the wedding, and married her, three years later.

Navigation saves your life. When you buy a new car, make sure it's got Navigation, like Tata Zica.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Navigating our way through

What happens when you were sure you wanted something really badly? So dead sure of it that you were ready to sprint all the way to the end of the race, and you do, outrunning all the others who you know are your competition, whacking, pushing and stepping on everything that comes your way, keeping yourself focused on the goal, in track with the strong navigation that comes to you from within. And then one day, you're hands and legs begin to feel exhausted, giving you enough break from your hardcore determination to look behind you and see how far you've come. To your dismay, you're hardly a tenth of the way to go. You then look ahead of you and see how much of the journey is left,  and the most dangerous question enters your mind - Is this worth it? You're tired already, but you still keep going, of course with a subdued speed. You watch as others pick themselves up and you watch as they outrun you. And then you stop.

Where do you go? Navigation, which was so clear before, now is nowhere to be seen; how does navigation help when you've got no idea of the destination?

This is the point where I really start missing my childhood, because especially here in India, as kids, our parents navigated us to wherever they thought best for us. You never messed up so much as a kid, because you didn't have the pressure of making your own decisions, and therefore, of second guessing yourself.

There are two realms to life; one of action, and the other of thought. The ones who can perfectly plan, and execute a combination of the two, are probably the happiest ones out there. The ones who are dominated by action do pretty okay, too, because there isn't much space for thought; hence they don't often repeatedly question themselves if what they're doing is right. For them, life is not good or bad, it just is.

The most dangerous type to be is the one that lives their life in the realm of thought. Always planning, never executing. Failing all deadlines, achieving nothing. Always trying to navigate their life in the correct path, with so much conflict that they always get stuck at crossroads. And when they do fix their mind on something, they give up on it halfway. These kind of people end up unhappy, because even when they achieve something, they think of a better way that it could have been done - they try to improvise on the navigation they've already executed. Maybe what's important isn't to be on the right path. In fact, maybe every path is just as good as the next one. But what's important is to just keep going, without thinking about the finish line. To accept the way of life that you take up to slowly complete your mission, and stick to it, and at all times, stay confident of your choice, even if it seems a bit senseless sometimes. Any target achieved makes you proud; so maybe wasting your time on the decision making process is the only bad choice!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.