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2009-11-27T20:29:00.000+05:30

Why the first gen politicians fail.

2009-05-23T14:11:00.008+05:30

In almost all elections some brave people completely new to politics try their luck in elections and in most cases they fail. In these elections many newbies tried their luck. Some of these include Captain. Gopinath (Founder of Deccan airlines, now part of kingfisher), Sarath Babu (IIM graduate and Entrepreneur).

Why they failed?
Are they not smart. Definitely not. They are competitive people and are hugely successful in their ventures. They are extremely driven people. I have listened to Sarath babu's speeches and they were quite inspiring. He was from a really humble background and worked his way the hard way. My guess is that they failed because they were half hearted in their efforts and their campaigns. They failed to utilise the new media. They don't have a mentor or guide. It must have been hard for them to get the right contacts.

The Indian median age being somewhere around 25, these people could have easily grabbed the attention of young people. If they have contacted some universities they would be more than happy to allow them make a speech. These people have a Mr.Clean image. Yes their campaign budgets maynot be big. But they had cheaper and more effective ways to advertise. Do you think a college student like me will prefer a corrupt politician to people who represent new India. Absolutely no.

Maybe my analysis could be wrong. The corrupt politicians could have used underhand methods, forged ballots and things only those in the know how know. But these things apart they deserved a better defeat. Even Lok Paritran which created buzz failed miserably. So when will we see triumph of true people??????

Lawn maintenance Everest College

How low can politicians stoop.

2009-05-23T13:46:00.002+05:30

Election results have been announced and the cabinet is formed. The last month or so parties were campaigning actively. They resorted to some cheap tricks. I will share with you some of the tricks politicians used in my state.

In our state (Tamil Nadu) we had daily power cuts ranging from 2 to 6 hours. Electricity minister was saying that he was doing his best to resolve this and created an image as though he was negotiating with power producers big time. But he was scamming big time. Industrial production in some cases were reduced to half. People were subject to difficulties. It seemed they have tried all methods but failed. But suddenly 15 days before the elections there were no power cuts. It seems everything was right. If someone cannot find a solution for a problem in three months how come he solved it just before the elections.

Ok, one may say these are the usual tactics followed and nothing new. But read the following. M.K. Azhagiri, DMK candidate for Madurai district and son of chief minister Karunanidhi was flat out bribing every voter 500 rs. This bribery was not performed secretly. No effort was made to hide this. The money was distribiuted door to door. The election comission detected this only after he distributed money to over half the constituency. No wonder he won by more than 1 lakh votes. Actually he was confident of winning by a margin of three lakh votes. Had the election commission ignorant he would have won by the margin he was confident of. Since he distributed money only to half the constituency he got half the margin he was hoping for.

Another really lame tactic was reducing bus fare a month before elections. Most Tamilians no that there is no uniform pricing of bus fares. For the same class of travel and the same distance the fares were varied. If someone questions he will be laughed at by the conductor and abused. They always had reasons like point-to-point and the like. I don't know what magic happened, one month before elections bus fares were reduced and made uniform. The change was not publicised much and was hugely unnoticed.

I sincerely hope someone puts an end to all this cheap tactics.

LTTE chief Prabhakaran killed

2009-05-18T17:14:00.002+05:30

Vellupillai Prabhakaran chief of the banned terrorist organisation LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam) has reportedly commited suicide along with 300 or so tigers. Though there is no official news on this Sri Lankan television are full of this. It is also said that he commited suicide before his son did. Though he is disliked by many he is a sort of hero to Tamilians. My mobile is being bombarded with messages portraying him as an hero.

Since the last three months the LTTE was suffering severe setbacks as the Sri Lankan army was advancing rapidly with the aid form many foreign countries including India. The fate of the civilians who were trapped in the no fire zone is not fully known yet. It is believed that thousands have died.

A brief history:
Vellupillai Prabhakaran was born in Thanjavur a central district in Tamil Nadu, India. He was unhappy over the plight of Tamilians in Sri Lanka and decided to fight for their cause. He eliminated all those who were fighting for the same cause so that the effort and energy will be concentrated at a single place. Though his cause may seem noble his ways were not noble. He is the chief accussed in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. It is also said that the Gandhi Family went all out in aiding Sri lanka eliminate LTTE beacuse of this.

My new love Yamaha FZ 16 Last Part.

2009-05-06T15:53:00.002+05:30

This will be my last post revolving around Yamaha Fz16. In this post I will be sharing with you my experiences with the dealers and the problems that I had with the bike.

After a week or so after the purchase of my bike I got a followup call from Yamaha, Delhi thanking me for my choice and enquiring about the dealer experience and such. The guy who called me spoke fluent Tamil. It showed me the effort put by Yamaha to ensure great customer service. Whenever I gave my bike for service I got a message from Yamaha asking for my feedback. This is the first time I am seeing followups from a automobile major. They were occassionally messaging
about how the bike is doing and the award won by it which is quite a few.

The bikes top speed is 111kmph (thanks to the digital speedo) with a really heavy pillion. (of course the slightly overweight me). So with a lighter rider and no pillion it would cross 115kmph. The bikes fuel efficiency is around 40-45. I know this is no big deal but who cares. The bike has the biggest rear wheel and handles perfectly just as any other Yamaha. Till date the bike gave me no problems and everything is working right.

The bike's self starter needs some tuning. It takes two to three stasts to get it right. Maybe this is because the bike's headlight and indicator lamps run fully on battery unlike some of it's competitors. The bike's pillion seat is really small and it would difficult to take it for really long ride's. Again I don't care. Once I experienced a problem which went like this, whenever I crossed 60kmph the bike struggled due to lack of adequate fuel supply(I thought so). When I took it to the dealer he opened the seat took the papers I kept underneath the seat and told me not to keep them under the seat.

The actual problem was that the air intake was affected by the papers. Silly me, had I read the manual more throughly. That's it folks I hope I have not bored you a lot with these stuff. I will try to come with somethings more interesting next time.

My new love Yamaha FZ 16 Part 3.

2009-05-04T14:40:00.003+05:30

While I was enjoying my time with my bike it was hard not to rev the bike to the max. The manual instructed me not to cross 4500 rpm for the first 500kms and keep it below 6500rpm for the first 1000 meaning not to exceed 60 kmph for the first 500 and 80kmph for the first 1000kmph. I would like to add something here. Many believe that they should maintain the speed and not exceed it for the first 1000 kms which is wrong. It is the rpm that they should maintain. If you go at 30kmph and you are in first gear you are busted.
One more common misconception among Indians is that one should nit use the right or the front brake which is not correct. While it is dangerous to use only the right or front brake at high speeds it is absolutely necessary to use both the brakes for optimum braking. If this is false then why manufacturers give importance to right disk brakes over the left. Ok now over to my personal ramblings.
I was determined to do the first 1000kms as fast as I could. So I went on long rides every weekend and within a month I completed the first 1000kmps. Oh I forgot to mention I couldn't resist my temptation and exceeded the rpm limit once.
I have crashed three times since I purchased the bike.

First crash:
I was riding at about 60kmph and this bicycle guy came from nowhere and while I tried to avoid crashing him my bike skidded and I landed pretty badly with my brand new Arrow shirt and Lee jeans torn. The bike had a broken footpeg and I was thankful that nothing worse happened to me or my bike. As usual there was a small commotion after the crash with people giving advices they never follow.

Second crash:
It happened in my college. I was about to return home after college when one of my friends asked me to drop him some blocks away, well being the nice guy I complied and while coming back another guy who is a total auto freak asked for a ride and again I complied. He was riding the bike and I was the pillion. He became excited and was riding like mad and right in the second corner we crashed right into concrete slabs with the bikes front wheel caught in a hole. I was really mad at that guy but controlled my anger as he was injured. I escaped without suffering any injuries save some bruises. The repair costed 700 odd bucks which included small paint job and replacing the handlebar. The paint job was so damn fantastic that I couldn't tell the difference. I was happy.

Third crash:
This is the most severe of all three crashes and I ended up injuring my leg pretty badly. My friend and I were riding our way to college at about 90kmph and I misjudged the road and went crashing from one side of the road to the other end. Our trousers were torn , yikes. The bike to my surprise suffered no damage save a twisted gear lever repairing which did not cost a buck. We crashed near a village and the people out there were really helpful. They offered us cool drinks, first aid and what not. We called up a friend who bought us fresh pants and we were on our way to college. Really the helmets that we were wearing saved us that day. The injuries took more than a month to heal.
To be continued.......

My new love Yamaha FZ 16 Part2.

2009-05-02T22:25:00.004+05:30

Though the dealers were ready to deliver I was not ready to take it. I was having my final exams. It took me TWO WHOLE days to get hold of them. I was excited as usual and dying to ride it. But rain played spoilsport. All streets were inundated with water and I was not ready to make a water scooter out of it. Finally after a week I was able to take it for a ride.
It was really really worth the wait. The tyres especially the rear tyres were awesome. It is the biggest tyre on any Indian bike ever made. It was fatter than the bullet and eliminator. It looked really solid and I was in love with it. And It was India's first bike with adjustable mono shock.
Though the unicorn had one it did not have a adjustable mono. My parents were shocked by the looks of the bike and my mother was complaining that the pillion seat is too small and far from comfortable. The bike did not have a full front light and the looks of it were odd for many. Some of my friends commented that the bike looked as though it was half finished.
But do you think I cared. Hell no. It put my previous love apache to shame and the apache looked like a kid next to it. I got numerous stares and in signals people asked for the bike's price, performance and specs which I was happy to answer but when they asked for it's mileage as all my fellow countrymen do, I was not exactly excited. And most of of the time this was the only question they asked. Well I have a few words for them. If you are so concerned about mileage get yourself a splendour or the infamous centra.

More to come.

My new love Yamaha FZ 16.

2009-05-01T23:48:00.003+05:30

This is the first of the series of posts that are to come revolving around my search for a bike and my experiences with it.

If you see my previous post you would have noticed that I waited for quite some time for the RTR FI. I was ecstatic when It was released and couldn't wait to lay my hands on it and I made frantic calls to dealers in my city and Chennai. The response was that It is yet to be relaesed and that if I book it today they will deliver it to me next month. I was confused. I saw people riding the bike and TVS was splurging on media advertising. I thought the dealers were upto something and called TVS hosur and thier chennai corporate office and was surprised when they insisted that the bike is yet to be released.
So I decided to wait. I waited for a month or so and called the dealers once again only to hear the same response all over again, "book today and it will be delivered to you the next month". I was seriously pissed. I was so excited by the RTR FI that I decided once again to wait. After 15 days or so I saw an advert for the FZ16 and was hooked. I was simply amazed by the looks and sheer prescence of it. Though it's performance was nowhere near the FI I decided to go for it. I called the dealers and booked the bike. I tried to get a discount pretty hard and they were reluctant to give me one. I have to wait for a month as their order book was overflowing and they were blown over by the demand and interest. I later learned that their production capacity was too low to meet the current demand and they are ramping the capacity.
I called the dealer after a fortnight and reminded him about the promised delivery date and offered to pay the full amount hoping that it will tempt him to deliver soon. But he (actually it is she) said that many customers were offering to pay full cost as advance and that they are not accepting it as they will be under huge pressure to deliver it quickly. Finally they called me on 24 th of november saying that I can get hold of my bike.
Hurrayyyy!!
More on next post.

Taliban punishes a girl cruelly for misbehaviour

2009-04-04T23:17:00.003+05:30

Talibans punish a girl for coming out of her house with a man who was not her husband. The video is shot on a mobile phone and supplied by Samar Minallah, a Pashtun documentary maker and anthropologist who lived in Swat for two years in the late 1990's . The girl is flogged 37 times mercilessly inspite of her pleadings. If you think humans are still human think again. (atleast in some parts of the world)
Two men hold her tight while another whips her. The girl pleads "Kill me now or leave me" in pashto language. This incident has sparked protests in Pakistan its neighbour.

2008-08-02T21:56:00.003+05:30

After months of waiting for the rtr fi it is finally here.But the cliche is they are available only in select cities.In tamilnadu for example it is available only in chennai.Even then you cannot have immediate delivery.You pay your advance and wait for a month with your fingers crossed.Though we are assured that the bike will be delivered within a month,expect a delay.The price is 73k inclusive of all(insurance,lifetime road tax).only two colours are available yellow,red.

PULSAR 220 AND RTRFI:

Now coming to the bike it is bliss and nothing else.When the RTR carb was launched pulsar's,cbz's and others realised they are mere mortals.Now with fuel injection maybe its time even for pulsar 22o to realise that he is afterall just another bike down the lane.If you race 220 and rtrfi inside city traffic 220 must be contended with the second place.Believe me the RTR with its small turning radius and superb handling(which is not the case with pulsar) will win anyday.But in highways the same cannot be said but the RTR will surely give a close chase.

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL:

Great pieces come in small packages.The apache is small(no second thoughts).But you ride a bike both you and the bike should be admired.RTR is a real stunner and it makes you feel and look big.There are no words to describe the sporty seating.The bike inspires a lot of confidence.Actually you dont realise the speed you are riding.I was riding alongside a pulsar200 and was easily leading even when it was in full throttle.Turning is quick and the bike is agile.The discs have a very good bite.Thus the bike is the best in performance and handling in its class and maybe more.

The bikes response is quick and the engine smoother(than carb).The ride is more or less the similar.It still has a tendency to vibrate at higher speeds.But then this bike is no commuter.The digital display is awesome even better than the carb version.And the clock in the speedo is really cool.The chequered flag type stickers near the keyhole is a cool touch.I love this one.

MILEAGE:

As indians our definite faq about a bike is mileage.This bike betters the carb by a cool 10kpl.Expect the fuel efficiency to be 60kmpl.This is simply awesome considering the performance of the bike and the delight it provides.The conventional wisdom that fuel efficiency and performance are inversely proportional fails badly.

This bike will surely change the image of TVS for the better.It has created a brand among youth.This will ensure brand loyalty and give the riders a sense of pride.The TVs bikers will try to emulate the accomplishments of the company in tracks in street races.Now others bikes should be ready to lose the signal drag.

REALLY ITS NOW OR NEVER.

For specificatons visit the link:

http://www.tvsapache.com/thebike.aspx