Citygritty 8212; Pune

No more nervous breakdowns!These days, you can dial for anything from the convenience of your home - pizzas, meals, advertisements, enter...

No more nervous breakdowns!
These days, you can dial for anything from the convenience of your home 8211; pizzas, meals, advertisements, entertainment, the works. But you do have to step out of the house to go for work, and what happens when you ease yourself into your comfortable car and switch on the ignition. Sometimes nothing. The engine is in too deep a sleep. You open the bonnet, poke around, still no result. Where do you find a mechanic, someone reliable who will come immediately and set it right? Is it time to panic? Not anymore, just dial Rajpal Motors.

Within minutes, depending on the distance, their trained personnel will arrive. If the problem is a minor one, they will set it right then and there. If not, they will tow your vehicle to their garage and deliver it back to your residence, fully repaired, and all this at no extra cost. You could be buzzing along the highway, and your precious car could suddenly go phut. Well, Rajpal will bail you out if you give them a call. When Nisha and Narinder Rajpal opened their new service station at Bibwevadi, they figured out that 8220;with so many successful service stations all over Pune, we had to do something different to get a good clientele. We needed a trump card. So, we opened this breakdown service.8221; Now that8217;s a good break!

Rags and a few riches
Most of us concern ourselves with garbage only to the point it leaves our houses. But were it not for the 10,000 rag-pickers working daily to sort out the mess we create, the Pune Municipal Corporation would be at its wits8217; end on how to deal with it.

Of the 800 tonnes of garbage generated daily, these people get into filthy bins to recycle 25 per cent of it. Says Purnima Chikarmane of SNDT, 8220;This recycled garbage generates business worth Rs 7 lakh daily.8221; That8217;s real big business for a lot of rubbish, but then that8217;s what recycling is all about. Not just saving the environment but also making some money.

Music of the night
Utsav 8217;98 is being held in the city to mark 50 years of Indian independence and celebrate the positive achievements of our nation. It has been organised by Ramp;DE Engrs, Alandi Road, one of the 52 laboratories under the Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO and started on August 6, going up to August 9.

An exhibition on engineering systems is displaying aerospace materials, instant bridges and masts, missile launchers, ground systems, watercraft and boats, mountaineering equipment designed by the corps and information technology. Live demonstrations at regular intervals are another highlight.

A musical nite is also being organised everyday. It began with Dil Hi To Hai on August 6, in tribute to Talat Mehmood and Shrikant Pargaonkar. On August 8, Poorvi Parekh, Alka Deo Marulkar and Pandit Arvind Parekh will perform, followed by Pandit Shreekant Deshpande, Ustad Shaheed Parvez and Pandit M.S. Gopalkrishnan, who will display their talents the next evening.