Hi All,
It feels really great to be allowed admission into this community (or should I say family) of Automobile lovers.
So, as per the custom, here are a few lines about me –
I am called Amit by friends. Born in Kolkata, spent most of my childhood in Rajasthan before moving back to Kolkata. Studied B. Tech at one of the NITs. After joining IT Services industry in late 2000’s, spent a majority of my time living in Canada and US. Back in WB, India (voluntarily) since early this year as I never really liked North America. It was always my desire to explore India, specially the amazing off-beat hidden gems that are abound here! And how else do you do that, if not drive?
Debjojyoti Ray (you may know him as DJ) introduced me to this forum few years back (2013 IIRC). Since then, I have been hooked. Thanks DJ!
Me and Family have owned and operated many cars over the years in India: Premier Padmini (sold), Wagon-R 1st Gen (sold), Zen Estilo (company provided, sold), Alto K10 (60K km, going strong), SX4 (company provided, sold), Swift Dzire (Current gen, 12K km), Ciaz (company provided, 35K km), and thinking of buying the Thar in late 2021.
Have experience driving the following as well quite a bit while in North America: 2014 Honda Civic (Owned for 4+ years, driven ~50K miles), Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and Gladiator (extensively), MB C300 4MATIC V6, Jaguar F-Pace, Nissan Rogue (extensively), Nissan Armada V8, Ford Fusion Hybrid (extensively), Dodge Grand Caravan, Hyundai Tucson and Santa Fe, Ford Mustang, Mazda-3, Mazda CX5. Also drove a few other cars, but they were mostly weekend rentals.
Married, with no kids yet. When not working, thinking of and planning the road trips that I will undertake once the wife is back from her foreign deputation and the pandemic is in control ☹.
BTW, The travelogues here are truly wonderful. Kudos to all the people who not just drive, but put the experience into words and pictures for all of us. The pointers one can get from those are amazing!
Passions are Wildlife Photography, mostly Birds and Macros (yeah, Creepy Crawlies and especially Spiders excite me!), Used to visit a lot of National Parks too before the pandemic. And yes, a real Football fanatic and an occasional Football player as well. I guess that runs in the blood of most Bengalis. Chelsea FC fan since I was 10 years old, for life (KTBFFH).
BTW, Dad is a real old-school gentlemanly and sedate driver, (learnt driving when he was 10 years old, he claims) hands-on under the hood guy, which I wasn’t (mechanicals, DIY, et.al.). As you could guess from the cars we owned, he's always been a Maruti Suzuki guy. Short story here – when the clutch was changed on one of our cars while I was away abroad, Dad kept the clutch assembly to show and explain it to me when I return.
Hope to change my approach and be able to understand what I drive and love. I’m sure this new family will help me in this goal.
BTW, have started off with reading "Auto Repair for Dummies" from Google Books.
![Stupid](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Sign stupid.gif)
Any suggestions of other books/sources about car mechanicals/basics of under the hood would be much welcome.