6/25/08

The Culinary Wars

Food fights are only the beginning. A theory prophesying a dark future, postulated over lunch tables by a group of researchers with nothing else to do, has arisen. So has a voice, a war cry of a soldier on the winning side. I know. I was part of the "study". I'll be part of the quenching of the rebellion.

I'm just surprised this hasn't shown up in The Times of India yet. [more on that later too]

Anyway, give this a read to know more.
http://supercritter.blogspot.com/2008/06/pulling-veggie-on-vegan.html
You won't regret it.



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Now playing: Dark Tranquility - Edenspring
via FoxyTunes

6/23/08

So, the Yamaha R15

Why hasn't anyone heard of this bike?
Where in the world is the advertising? [Here's one, but it's only on Yamaha's website, not on TV.]


The bike's out. It's out with India in mind. It's the perfect performance bike for this country and apart from the P220 and possibly the upcoming fuel injected version of the Apache 160 RTR, it's the only performance bike here. Looking at the bike and the ad, I know that Yamaha is finally treating India with the same respect as the rest of the world and not just ignoring us and chucking mopeds in our general direction. Knowing that feels good.

For the un-initiated, here are the features.. I know these so well now that I can't help but rattle em all off in a single breath.

A liquid cooled, fuel injected, four valve engine. [First in India (except for the fuel injection)]
A six-speed gearbox [Another first]
Fully faired [Looks like "those Dhoom bikes"]
A delta-box frame and forged pistons [Other firsts, whatever they mean]
Kerb weight of 125kg.

All these together are what ought to make you ignore the fact that the engine is a single-cylinder 150cc one that produces just 17PS of power. Coz, the technology that's gone into this takes it across a quarter mile .4 secs quicker than the nearest competitor and go upto 15kmph more on the top speed.* And what's more, it's handling is as sharp as its looks are. So, for those of you who still don't get it, I'll put it simply:

This bike can whoop the P220's ass... with ease.

But here's the problem. If Yamaha doesn't ramp up its marketing campaign - make that its awareness campaign - it's not gonna sell. Their marketing is good. They had a Launch Day/Race Day/Track Day, whatever you wanna call it, in Chennai on a track, where people who'd booked R15's would get a chance to have a go around the track. Wonder if they'll make that a regular thing. That'd be neat.
Anyway, the turnout wasn't bad, but I didn't hear about it till a day before it happened. Now I know I don't religiously follow news channels [more on that, later], but I keep track of car/bike news in the country. And no, that doesn't include the number of times that John Abraham had a bike crash [I've got enough to count between myself n aXay] or which bike Dhoni is buying..
Now, this event might've been promoted in Chennai, and I get that it didn't need promotion here in B'lore, but the launch at least should've had some hoopla around it. I mean there have to be people like me out there whose dream come true would look like the R15. So, if Yamaha decides to make it possible to realize those dreams, couldn't they let 'em know 'bout it as well?

Now onto how I had a hand in the design and conception of the bike. The story goes as such:

These 2 girls came to my college around a coupla years back. They claimed to be from IMRB - Market research Bureau or somethin in Delhi. They were looking for people who owned Pulsars or Karizmas [which can be interpreted as owners of high-end bikes], for their opinions on a few TVCs they'd show. And for it they's give each willing person a sum of one thousand rupees.

Me n a coupla my friends signed up, although we were skeptical about the whole deal. We expected it to be a prank or something. Who'd just give away 1K for some opinions, right? But we were proven wrong the next day.

But in our time of distrust, we did some snooping around. They'd called us using a landline to inform us of the time and place [Pizza Hut, hehe]. One of my friends called back later to find out more about them. It was a hotel at which they were staying. The person he talked to said that those people were from Yamaha.[besides tellin him that they weren't in their room at that time] So,.. convinced that we weren't heading towards a spot on MTV Bakra, we went to the meet.

There were those 2 girls and another PYT - their senior. We were made comfortable and eventually shown about 20 TV Commercials. 12 of 'em bike ads, 7 car ads and one Kwality cornetto ad. We were told to write our opinions on them on a set of sheets. Three Yamaha ads were thrown in at random.

When we probed as to who they worked for, all we got was that they were working mainly on 2-wheeler market research and were associated with one company in the market. The one we knew about, of course.

All throughout the session, i was subtly trying to give em the idea that I'd be the 1st one to ditch my current Bike for a new Yam 250 as soon as it came out.. When the Yam corporate ad was shown, i expressed my dislike of the fact that they show John Abraham talkin bout big bikes, they show the R1, but in the end all that we're offered to ride are 125cc mopeds. Then a talk started which eventually lead to Xbhp.com where th PYT had read someone say "Yamaha cheated India". I told her that i agreed. Then all subtlety was put aside when I told her that I was one of th people eagerly waitin for th Fazer250. They took that into account and we parted ways, me with a cool grand in hand.

A coupla months later, we got calls from those same girls again and this time, when we got there, there was Sanjay Tripathi [Dept. Head, Product Planning & Strategy - Yamaha India] [Of course I didn't know his position then], and with him were a bunch of Japanese businessmen who didn't talk much. We were shown designs of bikes and asked to pick the better ones, asked about our riding lives (how much we ride, whether we tour on our bikes, how long we intended to ride bikes, etc.) and told to assign priorities to aspects like power, styling, price and mileage (that was my order). And once again we left happily, being a thousand bucks richer.

Months passed by and I started cursing Yamaha 'coz I thought all they'd achieved with that activity involving us was try to make a raunchy ad like the Cornetto ad they showed us earlier [which we liked]. The Alba ad. Don't even get me started about anything to do with that bike.

But here are the actual results of that market research. I'm glad they tried just asking potential buyers what they want. And I'm proud that I helped them create this wonder of a bike. And I'm gonna go on record to say that though I'd much rather have the Fazer 250, this is my next bike, come what may.

There, now they've got celebrity endorsement too. What more do you need Yamaha?



* As per an official release by Yamaha.**
** As heard in the review on the Overdrive show on CNN IBN:



Did i mention i got free pizza too? on both occasions..


EDIT: So I finally did see the ad on TV, but it still lacks information like Yamaha having renovated most of its service centers, the availability of the bike in most cities.. Heck, they make it look like they're making some bullshit promises again. They need to use a simple clear message saying, "It's here."
But I guess that's just me.

6/22/08

On a lighter note...

Q: What would Gary Coleman say while reading about Tom Bombadil in Lord of The Rings?

A: What'chu Tolkein 'bout JRR?


[the following is better heard than read, but still]


Q: Have you ever heard of Madam Yudef?

A: Of course you haven't. 'coz main dumb, you deaf!



Disclaimer [Dis is lamer]: I do not take any responsibility for your brain overloading due to the incredible stupidity of the above "jokes"

6/17/08

Father's Day

I know I'm late for that, but when am I not late? And I'll be damned if I didn't let the world know how cool my dad is. And what better day to miss doing that (by just two days, mind you) than the day that someone decided to call Father's Day with a whole bunch of people (probably his kids, among others) agreeing with him.
Allow me to explain this mood I'm in. Gave an exam today. It didn't go as well as I'd planned. Add to that a dash of your own friends not really listening to you, a drop of having missed seeing a crow prey on a squirrel in your college's parking lot, with a pinch of having heard a new album of an old artist only to find that it sucks (except for the one song shown below) and you get a crappy mood of the kind you haven't seen me in for ages. And nobody except my mom even found out. And I had to tell my mom. Damn, now I'm certainly not the dark, brooding lone-wolf I always wanted to be.
But what's all this got to do with writing a blog post about my dad? Well, a high speed ride home on my bike, listening to good music and watching a Seinfeld rerun couldn't do what a good long conversation with my dad did. It cheered me up. Now we discussed the all new Yamaha R15 and how I played a part in its design and conception (more on that later), my career, football and more of my career. But what actually cheered me up was my dad's response when he found out that my monitor was giving troubles [It takes a random number of presses of the switch before it goes off]. I told him it's only a minor problem and it didn't need any attention from him, partly 'coz I could need a laptop in the near future and if I did get one, getting a new, good, TFT monitor for the desktop was unnecessary and getting a new CRT monitor,... well, I didn't have to explain the stupidity of that idea to him and I'm not gonna explain it to you. He said that regardless of whether I get a laptop or not, the PC at home should have a decent monitor, and he'd been thinkin of buying a good one for a while now.
Here I am, being all frugal and planning my purchases well, while my dad in his typical fashion, is thinking that life is meant to be lived and lived to the fullest. Hmm, that's more full than I was thinking..

Always, he's been on my side and always, contrary to my expectation. HE was the one who suggested the Sony Playstation 2 to me. I was hesitant at first. But he said he was okay with it and I'm now a game addict and loving it.
When I was gonna get a bike, he suggested I get a second-hand one, so I could upgrade more easily to a future release of a better bike. He understood me. Glee.
A year or so ago, he asked me about pen drives. I told him that quite a few of my friends had one. He told me off for not asking him for one. Here I was, thinking he'd say no or "What's the need?" or something to that effect. And he got me one the next day.
He gave me a new k800i when I was willing to settle for his year old k750i instead. The fact that he got himself an iPhone soon after is another matter. [He did let me take the gadget geek's Holy Grail to college for a day though.]

He never opposed my guitar obsession. In fact, when he found out that I spent a significant amount of my savings on a new effects processor, he asked me what the exact amount was, and handed me that money to return to my savings.
When I started growing my hair long and when he knew I intended to grow 'em at least to shoulder length, all he said was that he did it when he was my age and his dad couldn't stop him. So how could he? [Damn right]
He didn't react in any major way to me getting two backs in my 6th sem.
When I told him I'd be riding over 30 kms on my bike with my friends just to go to an amusement park, all he said was, "Be careful". When I told him that I was going on another ride, only 60+ kms this time, he said, "This is the age to do it. Go ahead."

Now he's getting me what I've been waiting to start earning to buy, to pamper myself. [Y'know, the monitor] Is he spoiling me silly? I certainly don't think so. I just think that he's one of the coolest dads in the world. I know people who're terrified of their dads, even though they're 22, Some are embarrassed by their dads. Some have dads who don't really know their kids, leave alone understand em.. I have none of those issues. I'm proud of my dad: his attitude, his cooking and his sense of humour, which is what makes me funny [if I'm funny at all]. I owe him more than I could ever repay. And what's more, he recently quit smoking.

What more could I ask for?

Well, that'll be a whole separate blog post, I think.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day, Dad.



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Now playing: Liquid Tension Experiment - Biaxident
via FoxyTunes

6/9/08

Bart Rules!

Ok, no, he doesn't. I'll just say that he doesn't suck now.
So anyway, Bart n Lisa find this mound with ancient relics [*cough*plotdevice*cough*] which would be their little secret or something.
Next Scene:-
Lisa: The Mound Builders worshipped turtles as well as badgers, snakes and other animals.
Bart: Thank god we've come to our senses and worship a carpenter who lived two thousand years ago.

Now, the Simpsons has always been an above average show for me. And I never saw Bart as as much a bad-ass as Eric Cartman. [Dont argue with me on this till you've seen at least the episodes Imaginationland or Scott Tenorman Must Die] But this line alone brings this show to a "comparable to South Park" level.

P.S. Family Guy fans, I pity you people.

EDIT: [After having missed a great match between the Holes and the Italics in Euro '08]
P.P.S. Did Football ruin my engineering life, or did engineering ruin my football/music/gaming life?