I went to the consumer forum today, expecting nothing more than the last rites for my case, considering the notice I received. But when I was called up, the president of the forum listed the case for arguments (i.e. to be handled right at the end). I mentioned the notice, but they said that since the bench had changed, the matter would have to be heard again. (The president was the one who was present when I first appeared, and not the one who admitted my arguments. The other two members were the same.)
When I was finally called up again, the Exide guy appeared once again to say that their lawyer was unable to appear, and asked for another month. I protested that the said lawyer had not appeared for four months, but they scheduled oral arguments for a month later. No problem, it gives me some time to prepare.
As I was leaving, the Exide guy ran after me and asked for my phone number. “Why?”, I asked. “Our lawyer asked me to get it. He wants to discuss a settlement.”
Oh, does he indeed?
At my last appearance before the district consumer forum, my oral arguments were admitted and I was told to expect a judgement by registered post (I called up a few days later to find out how long it might take—a month or more).
Yesterday, I received the following:
With reference to your complaint, dated … you are hereby informed/directed as under:
i) That the complaint is not maintainable before this Forum.
ii) To appear before this Forum on 27/1/12 11.00 a.m. to complete the formalities / to reply to some querries [sic].
iii) Your complaint has been forwarded to Distt. Forum 12/12/11 for further necessary action.
I don't understand how (ii) and (iii) can go hand-in-hand, or what further action may be necessary, but the "not maintainable" part is clear enough.
Perhaps I will be told the rationale on the 27th.
Ammu is studying Newton's laws of motion this year in Physics, but she can never remember what the three laws are (partly because they don't seem to be stated clearly in her textbook).
I learned the three laws from a very old-fashioned British textbook that belonged to my great-grandfather—long before I had internet access—so it was a treat to be able to look up Newton's original formulation in the "Philosophiæ naturalis Principia Mathematica" on Gutenberg. After the preface and a series of definitions followed by explanatory notes, the laws of motion are presented in a section entitiled “Axiomata sive Leges Motus” (“Axioms; or, The Laws of Motion”).
Lex. I.
Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare.
In other words, “Every body perseveres in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless a force upon it compels it to change that state.”
Lex. II.
Mutationem motus proportionalem esse vi motrici impressæ, & fieri secundum lineam rectam qua vis illa imprimitur.
“The change in motion is proportional to the force impressed and takes place in the direction of the straight line in which that force is impressed.”
Lex. III.
Actioni contrariam semper & æqualem esse reactionem: sive corporum duorum actiones in se mutuo semper esse æquales & in partes contrarias dirigi.
“To every action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to opposite parts.”
I don't know enough Latin to follow along comfortably, but I can see what's happening just by looking at the diagrams.
For a more educated translation of the Principia Mathematica, archive.org provides a copy of Andrew Motte's 1846 translation (which includes a biography of Newton).
Last christmas, I saw a number of Richard's Pipits at Dadri. Yesterday, on a trip with Ramit and Ammu, I was pleased to make their acquaintance again. We had multiple good views of at least one bird out in the open, and saw and heard a few others in flight.
I noticed this time that, at a distance, the streaking on the back can be more obvious when the bird is running with its head down and body held parallel to the ground than when it stands upright, something that can be seen briefly in this video:
Perhaps when the bird is in its characteristic upright posture, the back feathers are pushed together, and the streaks are shifted out of alignment?
Apart from the pipits, the highlight of the morning was watching three young Peregrine Falcons hunting waders and waterfowl over the lake.
(Meanwhile, a number of Blyth's Pipits have been seen in Karnataka this year. I wonder if there are any at Sultanpur yet?)
My date for oral arguments in the case against Exide was the 10th of November (yesterday), which was a national holiday. I called the consumer forum to find the revised date, and they asked me to appear today.
Exide was represented by the same chap, with the same story: their lawyer was ill and could not attend. I had expected them to try to file written arguments, but they didn't have any. Fortunately, the two judges present were not inclined to postpone matters further. They asked me to state my case, which I did; and they put it up for judgement.
Now I have to wait for the judgement to reach me by post.
I learned how to type by trial and error on my mother's green Olivetti typewriter, and after a few years of using computers, my four-fingered technique served me well enough that I didn't think about learning how to touch-type "properly".
Over the past few months, however, I've tried to use more fingers efficiently, so that I don't have to move my hands as much. I adopted the conventional finger positions for a week, found they didn't suit my big hands (reaching non-alphanumeric keys on the keyboard was painful). Now I've found a more comfortable position, and I can type accurately and reasonably fast (though not as fast as before) without hurting my hands.
Unfortunately, the price I paid was in losing the ability to fall back to my earlier technique, and the loss of speed—though not an impediment in practice—has rankled.
Today I discovered the perfect cure: ztype
This is a "Space Invaders"-style game where you have to type falling words to eliminate them before they reach you. It has a few annoying bugs (sometimes the word you're typing is hidden behind others), but it's extremely addictive nevertheless.
A letter arrived by email today addressed to "Dear Advisory Boar" and asking for advice about working a freelance job while learning how to program.
The boar felt oddly pleased, and duly rendered the advice sought.
Today's hearing at the district consumer forum in my complaint against Exide was for oral arguments. Unfortunately, only one judge out of three showed up, and no quorum was possible while hearing arguments, so they decided to adjourn all arguments to early November.
(Exide didn't show up to today's hearing, at least not by the time I left. So they don't know the date of the next hearing.)
Today's The Hindu—not for the first time—had an extra front page devoted to an advertisement from IIPM, complete with gushing top-half copy masquerading as news reporting. Over the past year or so, Arindam Chaudhuri's snake-oil salesman grin has been a frequent visitor to the back page of The Hindu, and many an innocent exclamation mark has been sacrificed to extol the virtues of IIPM. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of money that must change hands for this kind of coverage.
I'm not sure if it's more depressing that IIPM has accumulated such vast quantities of money by selling snake-oil, or that The Hindu is happy to soak it up and print acres of whatever drivel is sent its way.
(For those who are wondering, IIPM is the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, an unaccredited business school that is in the habit of suing anyone who points out that their advertisements are full of lies.)
I traded in my 2005 Maruti Swift VXi for a 2011 Swift ZXi a month ago. There are some things about the new car that are nicer—the rear wipers and alloy wheels are especially welcome, and the height-adjustable seat belts are a nice touch. Mostly, though, this car is just the same as the old one.
The only dramatic change is the new K-series engine, which is supposed to be lighter, and have better fuel efficiency and lower emissions. Its 1197cc capacity is slightly less than the old engine, but the peak power and torque figures (85PS@6000rpm and 113Nm@4500rpm) are quite similar. The engines perform very differently, however, as I have learned over nearly two thousand kilometres of driving in varied conditions. (It's too early to say anything about fuel efficiency, though.)
(Aside: the official Maruti Swift web site—which should have been able to give me the specifications for engines both old and new—has been given over to a stupid "hold your breath" splash page for the new Swift to be introduced later this year.)
The new engine is louder and higher-pitched (annoyingly so) with the throttle open. The power curve has been shifted to the left, resulting in noticeably more low-end torque (which makes city and hill driving easier). The disappointing corollary is that highway performance is compromised by the loss of power at the high end.
Given a good road, my old car seemed eager to go up to 140kmph, and it accelerated nicely past 100kmph even in fifth gear. The new car begins to feel reluctant at 100kmph, and needs a lot of coaxing to move up to 120kmph. I had to keep shifting down to fourth or even third gear while overtaking cars on the highway. The old car also felt perfectly stable at 120kmph, while the new one feels a tiny bit flaky beyond that speed.
I know that conditions in India are rarely such that one can drive at 120kmph for any length of time, and one can take advantage of extra low-end torque more often, but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed.
I wanted a Swift, dammit, not an unladen swallow!