Once in a while everything gets too hectic in life and you need to revisit things in your past
to have your joy.
And for me that outlet has always been hobbies, I collect things
to the point where I am a borderline hoarder.
I collect model cars, watches and of course
real cars but the hobby that I've always sort of left behind in the last few years is photography.
And no I don't mean taking pictures on my iPhone. So I had a look at my
calendar and decided to dedicate a weekend away to myself taking pictures of the great outdoors.
Bird spotting and no, I don't mean going to Navi Mumbai and taking some pictures of
flamingos there, we are going to a place I didn't even know existed until a few days ago, Bhigwan.
No, that wasn't a call to the gods, that would be 'bhagwaan' or 'khuda' the way I say it,
Bhigwan is a place about 220 or so kilometres from Mumbai and is one of the greatest single places in
Maharashtra to go watch birds especially flamingos and right now would be the best time to see these
but first both the Brezza and I needed a bit of a pitstop.
You know I don't think I've ever actually come into a Shell fuel station and
only paid for petrol or diesel because usually you get a cup of coffee which they make a great one of
or you get like a drink or I come into this corner this is my corner this,
are car care products and a little bit of a pet peeve of mine is keeping a car really clean
and this is what I was looking for, a wheel clean up because a clean wheel is a big deal and
these little cute little things on your dashboard, smell nice.
I need this,
right so I'm gonna spend a little bit more of my money but they do have so much to choose from.
I'm like a kid in a candy store whether it's tough to keep your exterior spick and span
or your leather on the interior clean or your wheels.
Car care products, and some tasty nuts.
You know that familiar t-shirt or shoes or a home cooked meal, that's what the Brezza is for
me. I had one on a very very long, long long term loan from Maruti Suzuki a few years ago,
and I put a fair few thousand kilometres on it and I loved it. Now that was a diesel
with its boatloads of torque but this is a petrol but that soul, that's still here.
Now with the Ford EcoSport out of the picture,
this in my opinion is the handling benchmark in the compact SUV space.
What does that mean? Well for one, it means absolute rock solid stability
on a highway like this.
But here is a dilemma that we get asked about all the time, most of its competitors or almost for
that matter, all of their competitors come with a turbo engine of some sort. The Brezza doesn't,
it gets a 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated engine that makes just 105hp. But here's the funny thing
about it, on paper it is low on power as compared to some of its peers there's no denying the fact
but, the one thing Maruti Suzuki does really really well even today is a naturally aspirated
petrol engine and this K15 is no different. It seems, it seems like it has character it buzzes,
it has a soul and when you're caning it considering the fact that it does not have a
turbocharger and does not suck up big large gulps of fuel, it's actually quite fuel efficient too.
Okay, a little bit of a confession, this sort of stuff,
gravel is my favourite driving surface, I love driving on it.
Oh, look at this,
you might not see this on camera but I can tell you that just across the lake there, there are
like 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of birds, but I think we have a bit of a problem on our hands.
We obviously can't drive this across the lake, I think this
is as far as the Brezza will go so, maybe time to change our mode of transport a little bit?
It is seldom that I am lost for words, and this was one of those moments,
but then I saw something I really wanted to take a picture of.
I mean, come on, what did you think was gonna happen today? It's still the same old me and I'm
always going to be more attracted towards a car as compared to some really, really,
really pretty birds. I mean, look at it, it's six years old now, the Brezza, six! And it's
still such a good looking car, I mean, it's understated because we do see them everywhere,
but still so handsome.