Breaking News

It doesn't matter which day of the week it is - it could be a mundane Monday morning or a lazy Saturday morning, the front page of the morning newspaper is bound to have a scandal of some sort displayed on its front page in bold letters and to go along with it a sleazy picture no matter how irrelevant.

Is it just me or do you feel it too that our media, both print and electronic considers negative publicity as the way to grab eyeballs and keep them glued to the tele or paper, whichever the case may be? Sure there are scandals and need to be brought out to the public, but in between there are some 'not-so-scandalous' news which deserve attention too. For example India's foray into space with the indigenously developed Chandrayaan hardly created any ripples in the media; or for that matter how many of you recollect the names of our Olympic medalists at Beijing 2008.

Why? Simply because it does not fall into the 'Breaking News' category. But if Dhoni happens to take a haircut in Ranchi that seems to grab the headlines for a day at least. Talking of examples we could even talk at length of the 26/11 carnage, where the media became the eyes of the terrorists by airing live the positions taken by the NSG commandos!!

We keep blaming the politicians for inflaming communal tensions, which is absolutely spot on by the way. But what about the role of the media? The moment there is an incident, no matter how trivial, there would be a reporter there on the spot interviewing the victim, almost egging him/her on to malign a certain person or a community. One thing leads to another and lo behold we have a '9 PM ka tamasha' which is aired across all the news channels each trying to take credit for the 'Breaking News'.

I would rather go back to the old Doordharshan /AIR days . The lady anchors draped in silk sarees for me, thankyou :P

PS: After a long time, posted two posts within a week :)

Cheers,
toejam

Winds Of Change

The first rays of the crimson morning sun entering through the window,

through the cracks between the curtains right into your sleep-filled eyes.

You drag the curtains closer, flip over to other side, eyes shut. This is one memory that lingers whenever I think of the holidays in the good old school days.

With my last working day fast approaching - 6th May, I can look ahead to a month of masti before I am back to school :D. Yes, school, B-school, yours truly converted the call from IMT Ghaziabad. Got Marketing , the course I wanted. (Link at http://imt.edu/) . Looking forward to meet some great minds and er... pretty faces ;). That is not to say pretty faces dont have great minds :P

Anyway, its goodbye IT and good riddance too :). Its a relief I can tell you. So its now time to pack my bags and head north. Will miss my friends here. Also will miss riding with RTMC. That said there will be one last ride to Kodaikanal on 1st May. Its the MadBulls 7A ride. Will come up with travel log once I am back.

PS: The campus at IMT G has flood-lit tennis court so wont miss out on tennis ;)

Those joining IMT -G 2009 Batch please join this community http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=60677574.

Cheers,

Ride Safe

What Ails Our Society

It takes an Oscar winning movie, which delineates India's poverty, to make us sit up and take notice. The poignant scenes depicted are quite heart-rending. The point is not whether you liked or did not like the movie , the point is given an option we like to be in a self denial mode all the time. When I say self denial, I mean indifference, having a laid back attitude to life in general. It takes a jolt to stir us up. The motive behind the 1991 reforms was not so much a great vision ,as a last ditch effort to save our country from plunging into a financial crisis - we had a burgeoning fiscal deficit and were on the brink of defaulting on our international debt. Thankfully, that never came to pass, thanks to the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. Just goes to show that we are capable, but only when our backs are against the wall. On a lighter note, our cricket team over the years too seems to get its act together after a sluggish start. But why play catch up in the first place?

It must be an inherent trait we all share. I can certainly relate to it and can think of many others too. One reason lies in our upbringing. As kids we do we as we are told(to avoid being spanked), not often are we encouraged to take decisions. At best we come of age by 17-18, when I say of age, I mean in taking decisions. Compare this with an American kid. From about five or six onwards, the kid can take care of himself/herself(another kid too as a news report goes to show :D).

It can be argued that with India opening up to liberalisation, the younger generation of today is more independent with exposure to better standards of living. True, parents enrolling their kids in swimming or guitar lessons is not uncommon anymore. But this phenomenon applies only to the upper echelons of our society. We are still not a liberalised society. How else can we explain the several bandhs that hold the nation to ransom or the histrionics of the Ram Sena and Raj Thackeray! No, far from being a liberalised society,we have become a polarised society, with each side feeding off the other and thereby growing farther apart. Raj Thackeray , by swearing to weed out the competition emanating from north Indian states, has brought out anti-Maharastra sentiments in the youth from the North. The shooting case involving the youth from Bihar is testimony to this fact. Such incidents have political undertones and in no time the situation gets exacerbated, inflaming passions in our society and further fragmenting it.

With all this hoo-haa, does it mean we have finally woken up from our deep slumber? Yes and No. Yes because tolerance as a forte has been replaced with a sheer contempt for differing views. No because when it comes to real issues be it from fighting terrorism to development agendas, we are still dormant.

Here is a great chance with looming global financial crisis and deteriorating political system, to push for reforms - labour reforms, police reforms, judicial reforms, health, education - you name it, for the country needs it badly.

Its 1991 revisited again!

IMT-G Interview : A knotty Experience :)

Venue : BIT, Bangalore

Date : 15th Feb, 12 30 slot

CAT 97.43(DI - 89.45, Quant - 93.9, Verbal - 95.22)

X: 89.4

XII: 86.1

BE(Electronics and Communication): 73.27

Decent extra circulars

Work Ex in IT(19 months - Accenture)

1030 hrs: me and a fellow puy(now a good friend) take a cab to BIT.

1115 hrs : Reach venue.

1200 hrs: Have a quick coffee knowing that registerations will take a while

1345 hrs: Registerations finally done. Told GDs would start from 1415hrs.

1450 hrs: My name called for GD.

************************************************

TOPIC : Consumer is God in today's market.

Group: 14 guys and a pretty lady :P (turned out that many of us , correction all of us :), let her speak even in the close-to-fish-market GD that followed; )

Ground Rules: 5 mins to think. 8 mins to discuss and 1 min for an oral summary from each in random order. '2 min'(for sure it was less than 80 secs) to write down summary before the papers were submitted.

Overall GD Quality: 4/10(lots of good points, but too noisy to hear them )

Moi: 5/10 (came in three times with examples)

********************************************

1530: GD over. Wait for PI begins.

1645: My name called for interview.

G1-gentleman1

L-Lady

G2-gentleman2(not so gentle as i found out!)

G1: Gestures at me to enter.

L: Sit down(stares down at my imt form for a good min . Now i start feeling like a criminal applying for a parole )

L: So you did engineering from Hyderabad?

me: Yes(kuch galat kar diya kya!)

G1: Which entrance exam?

me: told AP state board's EAMCET.

G1: So why not MBA right after engg?

me: answered, G1 seemed satisfied.

G2: But you did waste two years in IT then!

me: Countered that statement with some gyan about exposure to corporate culture....being a team player...blah blah

G2: Whats your job profile?

me: Told.

G2: Asked me a ques about a customer having multiple credit cards, in different banks. How would I handle the data operations for our client( my profile being data transferring)

me: Told something about customer having one account in our bank and multiple credit card numbers associated with the same account and only one of which is active. Gave some funda of front end and back end and how data moves from the customer to database and vice versa. Mission accomplished !! got G2 confused or was he?

G1: (looking at my form) So you are a son of a Brigadier. Army ah! How has that impacted your life?

me: (jumped with joy hearing this..was waiting to talk about this..) Told abt my schooling across ten diff schools all over India. Got in some well choosen words adaptable, versatile ...blah blah

L: So bullet is your hobby? (she thought i was into guns, lol)

me:I own an Enfield Bullet and enjoy going on long group rides...

L: Do you read books

Me:Used to read sometime back

L: Read newspapers?

me: every now and then

L(smiling and for some reason looking at my tie): Which brand is your tie?

me:(you cant be serious....arre yaar tie mere dost ki hai...brand tho maine dheka nahi !)

me: smile back and say I dont know, feeling foolish

L(smiling): Ok you can leave. Send the next guy after 30 secs.

edit : Converted this call. Got PGDM-FT the course i wanted :gm:

Rider Mania 09 RTMC Ishstyle - An Unforgettable Experience

The much awaited RM 09 RTMC Ishtlye is now finally over. For those who are not aware, Rider Mania is an annual get-together of Bulleters from all over the country. This year, RTMC(Rolling Thunder Motorcycle club) had taken the mantle to host the gala event. The venue chosen was Sterling Fern Hill, Ooty.



The overwhelming response in terms of sheer numbers( 600 plus), meant that the event bookings were closed inside a week- yes a week(to think a day or two late and i would have missed out on the booking!). The organisers from RTMC had worked their backsides off to ensure this mega event took off. From roping in sponsors - Castrol, Kingfisher, Lee, Cramster and several others ,to arranging the logistics, be it accommodation or food or parking or security for six hundred fifty hungry bikers to running the whole show single handedly( i mean just as a bunch of individuals without any help from the self-patronising Royal Enfield)
deserves nothing short of a standing ovation.


Coming back to the Rider Mania, for once I will not talk about the ride to Ooty. This being my first RM, it was one kick ass experience or a get off ur ass experience as one of our sponsors would like to put it (no pun intended). I could write on and on about the beautiful landscape around the venue or the invigorating ,cool mountain air. I will just quickly list the down the things I liked about the event -

1. As mentioned above ,the choice of venue. I ,for one, have a fetish for the hills .The weather was great, not too cold, not too hot, just right. The accommodation was great. Great view from the window overlooking the valley.


2. Participating in the bikers' parade was one of the highlights of the event for me. 600 plus bikes thumping up and down the valley was a sight to behold ! The memory will remain etched in my mind for years together.


3. Got an opportunity to make new friends and also to catch up with some old ones.


4. To sum up , it was the indomitable spirit of the Riders that made the event a smash hit that it was.

< RM participants, please feel free to add/edit points >

Again hats off to all the Riders, organizers , sponsors and everyone for making the event possible.

Cheers,

Atmdeo

PS: Deluge of snaps and videos below :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilmil/3233806108/in/set-72157613036825927/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilmil/3233806240/in/set-72157613036825927/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naveenroy/sets/72157613060330078/

http://picasaweb.google.com/sushil.siddesh/RiderMania09?authkey=VTmpEFDGHDo&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/prateek.sadhukhan/RM09?authkey=D2FXB1Iv_gk#

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70642088@N00/sets/72157613038047570/ http://picasaweb/. google.com/ sushesh/RM09RTMC Ishtyle# http://picasaweb.google.com/manan.sureka/RM09#http://picasaweb.google.com/arunn316/RM09?feat=directlink#http://picasaweb.google.com/jishnu.c/20090124RTMCISHTYLERIDERMANIA09
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixHTWZAyrUE&feature=email

2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iNc2mWJgmk&feature=email

3)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5cBmObhZw&feature=email4)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q89XYu5v4Q&feature=email5)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xXwwm97-NU&feature=email
1) TV9 interviews Saamanhttp://in.youtube.com/watch?v=G4tone7ohis

2) Saaman as a doodwalahttp://in.youtube.com/watch?v=12LAYljbB9k

3) Inddiethumpers "make an impression"http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=CSZNaS0UO9o

TV Show:http://www.worldsgreatestbusinessmind.com/20090128-RM%20%2709%20RTMC%20Ishtyle-Organ~~risers-create.html&WT.mc_id=WGBM%7CCreate

Bangalore-Ooty Ride

This was second longish ride for me. We started off from at Bangalore University at 7AM. Six bikes -Deep on his TB ,me on my Std, Gokul R15,Prasad TB, Kalyan with Phani Electra and ofcourse Jay on his LB 500, (he got rechristened to Bindu Rani will come to that later :). Jishnu and Nai Roast were going to starting late. So was Manas and Adrian.



The initial stretch was the Mysore highway SH17. Long four lane straights meant we could have clipped at 80+ but the cross winds made the going a little tricky. Deep did a good job of keeping the group together. After riding 70 odd kms, we stopped at Inderdhanush for Poori Sabji breakfast. It was decided that Deep would point and Bindu Rani(correction he was still Jaygay then) would sweep.



On reaching Mysore we took the bypass to Ooty. Close to Bandipur , there was 15 km stretch where the roads were littered with potholes. We enjoyed the bumpy ride, atleast I did- woke me up from the morning slumber :). We stopped for lunch at PugMark restaurant. Adrian on his RD350 was already there. Wonder how long it took it him to get there- Probably a couple of hours for 200 kms :). We had Manas, Jishnu and Nai Roast joining us there.



After a sumptuous lunch of phulkas, sabji and chicken we were on the road again. Twenty kms on and we were going through Madumalai forest. This section had some nice curves(no pun intended, what do you except in a jungle afterall amdist a horde of elephants:)). Finally after crossing the jungle, it was the hairpin bends. As we made the ascent, the temperature dropped gradually and before you knew it was the mountain air atlast. There is just something about the hills, probably its to do with the altitude and the greenery around, which is so refreshing. Been a while since I last took to the hills. Had done my class 1 in Wellington, 1990 it was. Brought a lot of nice memories gushing back. Wellington is a few kms from Conoor- swell place I must say.

Ooty was just a few kms now.Deep had organized our stay some 4kms off Ooty. The view was just something else. Do have a squint at the photographs if you can. We reached the place around 3 30. It was about 310 kms from Bangalore from my odometer. The weather was great. The spitting rain gave way to some sunshine and we had a beautiful evening ahead of us, the chilly air notwithstanding.

Must say the arrangements were great. Around eight, there was a bonfire lit where we all congregated. Jay was given the name Bindu Rani as he kept saying 'bindu' in his kannada for -thats the point. Then we had snacks followed by dinner. Great food rounded off the day.

I hit the sack early as I had to reach Bangalore in the afternoon, for which I had to make an early start the next day. Next morning at 8 we were off- Kalyan and Phani too joined in. The descent was a little tricky, given the light drizzle made the roads slippery at some places. Consequently, we went slow downhill, stopping in between to give the heated-up brakes some much needed break.

The ride back was uneventful as far as breakdowns go, thankfully. We maintained a decent pace after breakfast at Pugmark. We hit Mysore by noon. Here we split up. Was nice riding with Kalyan and Phani on the way back.

From Mysore it was steady riding, uneventful except for getting chased by the rain. Managed to elude the rain till the outskirts of Bangalore. Was back home by 4: 10 ish, a little damp, but content.

The ride was just out of this world. Great gang to ride along with. Thanks Deep and everyone else for making the ride happen. Had a blast.

PS: Snaps at http://picasaweb.google.com/atmdeo
Videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/atmdeo

The Ten Commandments of A Bulleteer

1. The heartbeat of a Bulleteer lies in the beat of the bull.
2. Riding is NOT meant to just traverse places. Its the sheer delight in riding that keeps us going for more and more. Would like to draw an analogy here -as they say for sailors its the wind in their sails,that keeps them going, for us its the thump at the back that drives us on :)
3. When it comes to taking decisions, a Bulleteer is more inclined to listen to the heart than use his grey cells ,albeit sometimes with disastrous consequences :)
4. One of the hobbies is collecting fuses and spark plugs :)
5. A Bulleteer stops by to help a stranded Bulleteer, or for that matter anyone (in this case its more out of of sympathy than empathy :)
6. A Bulleteer ALWAYS enjoys a good laugh, at times even if he/she has a flat tyre :).
7. 'Ate' nine and ten :D (couldnt think of the last four, will edit when i do)

Any suggestions for the last four slots??

PS: Today happens to be my lil bro's Birthday! Bhai if you are reading this, have a blast!
This post was long overdue. All going well have a ride to Rameshwaram coming up this weekend. Will update when i get back. Cheers!