Twitter-o-Fobia

Riding Himalayas - a journey to world's highest motorable road

There are various reasons why an average man heads off to the Himalayas all packed-up. He thinks he will meet a sage or for that matter someone close to say; J. Krishnamurthy or Deepak Chopra who will tell him; that the journey he has undertaken to come to them would have already taught him more about life and so they do not have much to say; or something along the lines of trying to find your ‘inner self’, which frankly can be done by sitting in the bathroom for an hour. Whatever your reasons are, having been chosen to ride on the Himalayan Odyssey, I, Tanmay Shanishchara already had my head in the clouds (metaphorically and literally).

My family was the first to know and convincing my mother that it was the most adventurous place to go to with a breathtakingly beautiful landscape was easier than I thought. My dad, however, played spoilsport and introduced my mother to the land of altitude sickness, frost bite, avalanches and other such likely possibilities. So much for having a Doctor Dad! However, after taking some medical tips and suggestions from my Dad and some repetitive ones from my mom, I prepared myself to head out to the long-awaited and much-anticipated opportunity of a lifetime.

In its seventh edition now, the Himalayan Odyssey is one of the toughest and also the most prestigious rides to tackle out there. Braving varied terrains, facing changing climatic conditions and grappling with unknown challenges, we (the riders) headed off towards our destination…something that we had been waiting for so long. However, before taking off we needed to take care of a few things so that neither our own health, nor our bike’s health, would suffer during the journey.

Having taken care of that, other things needed to be sorted out which included transporting the bike to Delhi from Mumbai. Easier said than done! Filling out forms and having all the right bike documents did not necessarily mean that the transportation of the bike would automatically be taken care of. The bike had to be checked thoroughly and documents had to be signed by the right authorities. I soon realised the formula to getting one signature from any official here was a rather simple one: Requesting + Pleading + Begging x Money - Attitude = Official signature. This promptly ensured that my bike was en route to Delhi.

After arriving in Delhi, I was subjected to a fitness test that involved a tedious 5 km run at the end of which we had to demonstrate our fitness levels by doing 50 push ups. There were some riders who I suspected would never qualify but they beat my prediction and knocked me cold by completing the assigned task. Among the 62 riders present there were a few who were over 50 years old. Watching them run the five kilometres and complete the 50 push ups told me a great deal not only about their physical capabilities but also about their mental stamina.

Later in the evening, I got to know the other riders who would be riding with me through this incredible journey. There was a discussion on the kind of gear that we ought to wear. Though this information was available on the website, it was necessary to ensure that everybody on the trip was prepared. The riding gear included riding gloves, shoes that reached the ankle, knee guards, elbow guards, a riding jacket which was water resistant, rain shoes and the most important thing; so that you don’t lose your head - the helmet. The route also was explained to us. We would be riding from Delhi - Manali - Keylong - Sarchu - Leh - Khardung La - Nubra Valley - Khardung La - Leh - Rumptse - Keylong - Kaza - Kalpa - Narkanda - Parwanoo – Delhi. The plan was to cover about 200 kms per day on an average. Every morning the leaders would guide the riders about the kind of terrain they would encounter and what kind of riding style to adopt. Even Paul, the oracle-octopus would have never predicted the outcome of this eventful journey.

The trip to Keylong was a wonderful one. Keylong is surrounded by mountains and some scenic views so much so that the distracted riders forgot to pay attention to the ever dipping fuel guages. Finally, it was an Indian Oil sign board that made us all heave a sigh of relief. The ride there was dusty and we got to know that there had been an avalanche at the pass the previous day but fortunately for us, it had been cleared and we got a clean way to reach our destination which was Sarchu.

I saw the terrain change drastically. It had been a tar road all along but gradually not only had the trees disappeared, but so had the road. It was dusty, rocky and to add to it we came across water crossings as well. The roads kept winding, getting curvier and not only were we battling for air as the altitude rose, but our combat in terms of gripping the roads had also begun. Riding through water is one part of the story, but riding through ice cold water is something that neither you nor your bike is really ready for. However, the Standard 350 Enfield stood sturdy throughout. There were some who slipped, but there were no serious injuries. The bumpy roads, and the high altitude sickness had already caught up with the riders, sometimes enfeebling them, but they seemed to find respite in brandy. Finally, I can say with conviction that there is no problem that a stiff whisky or in my case a swig of brandy can’t solve (barring a mathematical one of course). That seemed to be a panacea. The next day we headed for Leh.

I had to ride 265 kms to Leh, where the roads were bad, and the climb was challenging, to say the least. The winding roads confused us a great deal. When I manoeuvred my way with the other riders and thought that I had completed roughly 5 kms, the odometer reading would show only 2 kms and remind me that I still had 263 kms more to go. Here, towards the end of a great riding day, I managed to lose my way by taking a wrong turn. I asked for directions and was relieved to find out that I wasn’t far behind and could easily catch up with the other riders.

But there was more in store. As I turned the bike, the engine stopped and when I tried to crank up the engine, it refused to start. I did the basic checks and soon realized that my phone battery too had died on me. I was without support till 7:30 pm. There were a couple of bikers who were heading to the main road from that road and they helped me tow my bike until I got some mechanical support. Soon I was with the other riders from the group. The next day was rest day and this gave me enough time to fix my bike in Leh. Another misadventure followed. In a place with hardy any human habitation, I ended up losing my wallet. That was not such a big deal because I drew solace from the fact that whoever found my wallet would have to travel nearly 200 odd kilometres, to use it.

Every single day, once the day’s journey came to an end, the riders used to spend their hours relaxing and talking about their rides. It was during these conversations that we talked about our individual experiences. Tea in the evening and brandy post dinner brought about more than just conversations. There were stories, short and some epic in magnitude but the relaxed atmosphere in which these conversations and story-telling sessions of the riders unravelled made this trip an incredibly memorable one. Even those who called themselves “introverted” spoke, perhaps, it was the brandy doing all the talking.

The next day was the biggest day of all. We were headed to Khardungla, the highest motorable pass in the world. This had been the biggest motivation to undertake the ride and this had what kept me going. Riding upto the highest point was indeed a huge achievement and everybody who had started the ride, had made it to this point. There was a sense of satisfaction and delight at having achieved this feat. One of my co-riders, Neeraj, had fallen sick due to a change in the altitude levels and the Doctor had advised him to return, but even he had managed to join us later. All of us had made it!

Like Sisyphus’ rolling stone, we headed back on the familiar road. We did not any face any problems apart from people who managed to get water into their bikes, on the way back to Keylong. We also encountered rain during our ride from Kalpa to Narkanda. A lot of leak breaks followed but we all carried on and reached our destination.

It seemed like a mere formality now to reach the other places and end the Odyssey on a good note. The next two days was just a ride past some scenic valleys, passing Shimla via Chahal and Kanda valley. Exhilarating as it was, I almost forgot about my shutter-bug and brought it out just in time to capture some unforgettable moments through the journey. On the last day, we headed for Delhi at 8 in the morning. For the first time, all the riders who started the Odyssey returned with their bikes and that too in good health (My vote still goes out to the miracle water – alcohol!)

We rode our hearts out and overcame several obstacles but at the end of each day we knew that the next day would bring something worse. My Standard 350 held fort and apart from a minor electrical failure, I did not face any other problem throughout the journey. On this trip, I made some great friends and even managed to make introverts talk. I returned with some beautiful memories and managed to pick up some phenomenal riding skills from fellow riders as well. However, the most important thing I learnt was that, man can reach great heights and is capable of enjoying the place with his head in the clouds. I was just glad I wasn’t alone at the top.

(From: Carwale.com)

Digital Media outlook report - 2009

An interesting presentation on Digital Media outlook for year 2009.Few reasons why Internet is still called 5% medium:

• Almost 60% of advertising campaign's biggest objective is to create 'Brand Awareness' - I firmly believe Digital is not a medium to create awareness... it is medium to drive engagement / interactions.
  
• Only 9% of advertisers wants to engage their audience - A reason for big No-No to Digital!
• Perception of medium is another problem... None of the vertical has clear idea about the know-how of medium. A big opportunity evangelists - teach marketers what digital is!
• Is mobile the next big thing? - answer is We don't know. I think industry is still waiting for a successful marketing campaign on mobile to be used as case study.
  
• Measurement Metrices - is it really helping? or it exposes something more than what it should!
  

Webchutney Digital Media Outlook Report 2009

After all, We are Gujju Bhai!!

Just imagine… you are a director of a movie. Your first scene is that of an early morning in a town of Gujarat. Now tell me, what would you select as opening shot of this movie? Well, if you are Gujju, you are probably right! You will certainly be standing at a road side 'tea and farsaan' centre with your camera and shooting steaming hot, boiling tea. People ordering 500 gms Ganthiya and eating ‘em with same amount of chutney with an expression of extreme orgasms on their face. Yes, this is Gujarat… and After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

There is this saying in Gujarati… ‘Patel, Hotel and Motel… You’ll find these three at any corner of the world’. And mind you, this is not false. Our one and only hobby is to earn money. Yes, we are money minded and that’s why Gujarat is also called land of Entrepreneurs! If you ask any Gujju Collegian about his future plans, he’ll say “mare to amerika javu che ne millionaire thavu che!” means – I want to settle down in US and become millionaire. (After all, 1 $ equals 50 Rs. boss!) Its matter of concern if no one in your family is in USA… Nobody marries their daughter in a family which doesn’t have any foreign connection. After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

Gujjus love to speak English. Even though they don’t know it… I have seen people who without any reason try to speak English and end up speaking Engrati (English + Gujarati)! In Gujarat, it is considered that – ‘It’s ok if you don’t know pure Gujarati… But you must know bad English at least’!! After all, at least 3 of our Kakas, Kakis, Mamas, Mamis live in Amerika! Tune to any radio station in Gujarat and try listening to any RJ for 5 minutes… I challenge, you’ll probably run to radio station and offer English literature tuitions for throw away price. After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

It’t not just about Amerika or English… We love foreign food too! (Prepared as per Gujju recipe and comfortably adjusted its taste as we Gujjus like it). If an Italian eats our Italian Pizza or a Chinese tastes our Chinese bhel… I’m sure he’ll faint with an attack! Few hybrid items that we have freely adopted as per our choice: Chinese Samosa, Farali Pizza, Jain Sizzler, Jain Omlette and what not! We love butter, we love oil and most importantly, we love cheese. No wonders… be it Vadapau, dosa or Dhokla… is available with cheese at all food joints. And ya, cheese must be Amul cheese in any case. Because, cheese to Amul nu j hoy ne! After all, we are Gujju Bhai!
We love going out. We love travelling. And yes, while travelling, we always carry a bag which is always kept handy and always taken utmost care of. This bag is full of Theplas, Chunda, Chevda, Mamra, Pickles, Ganthiya, Puri, Sakkar Para, Batata nu Shak, Khakhra and at least 3 types of mukhvas. Within 15 minutes of starting train or bus, youngest member of family will ask his/her mom… ‘Mammi, pela Thepla kya mukya che?’ (Mom, where have you kept those theplas?) And in next 15 minutes, whole family will eat ALL of above items one by one as if they are having last food of their life. After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

Well, I can write a lot about food… but let’s leave that topic here. Let’s discuss drinking habits of Gujju. Ahem ahem, who said ‘But Gujarat is dry state’? Boss, ketli bottle joiye?? (how many bottles you need?) All Gujjus feel proud in drinking. It’s like matter of proving to the world that we also CAN drink. All Gujjus have personal bootleggers who deliver liquor at home. And after drink, all Gujju says, “Aapdu ekdum control ma j hoy ho bapu!!” (I’m always in control!) After all, we are Gujju Bhai!
Who says Gujjus are not intellectuals? Go to any Paanwala and network with intellectual minds out there. They are think tanks of India. They know who should be playing in Indian cricket team. They knows what Obama should do to counter terrorism. They also knows why Katrina Kaif should not marry Salman khan. We can spend atleast 3 hours discussing about nothing at any paanwala. Irrespective of whether we know the person whom we are talking to or don’t. After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

Stock market is our favorite time pass and major source of income too. In my family, my nephew learned how to interpret stock price tickers on CNBC at age of 6 years! All Gujjus feel sense of pride while talking about Harshad Mehta or Ketan Parekh. A chaiwala outside any office is expert of stock market and probably can give you better advise than Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. Yes, we know stock market Bijnesh. After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

The passion of Gujjus for money, the undying spirit and most importantly, the what-goes-of-my-father-attitude gives us thrust of earning money. Entrepreneurship is in blood of all Gujjus. We are optimistic, we are fururistic and we always calculate money before doing anything. We don’t give a damn to anything. That's why Gujjus are so prosperous and Gujarat is called land of opportunities. After all, we are Gujju Bhai!

The Art & Science Of Video Virals

Make Me A Viral: The Art & Science Of Video Virals

View more presentations from Mindshare.

Star Majha Junior Anchors

Mobile Journalism

Came across this nice presentation... thought to share it!

Mobile Journalism

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MeDigit News pack

MeDigit News round up:

• What's social score of your #brand? http://cli.gs/7Mjtph #socialmedia
• New Russian Investment values #facebook at $6.5B http://cli.gs/5EJ7vN
• 5 most important features of #ms-office 2010... http://cli.gs/mH9P0U
• #microsoft #bing riding on growth... sees 8% increase in unique visitors since launch.. http://cli.gs/W35H4z
• 15 year old says teens are abandoning #twitter... are u listening?? http://cli.gs/7GU0sJ
• #VAS asia 2009.. many challenges for #mobile market. http://cli.gs/zGR4z4
• Online friedns are like banner ads! only 33% of us trust them. http://cli.gs/jLEXpH
• #unitedbreaksguitar... this is how you damage brand's reputation online... http://cli.gs/HtzTnZ
• Future of media moguls... http://cli.gs/JSNn35 | #twitter #rupertmurdoch

MeDigit News Pack

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Mobile Marketing - Putting Power in hands of consumer

With more then 410 Million mobile subscribers in the country, India is riding on the wave of telecom revolution. After television, mobile has become most promising and potential tool to reach roots of Indian market. Mobile screen has attracted attention of marketers and everybody is now targeting mobile screen as potential marketing vehicle. Potential is tremendous and opportunities are unlimited; what is required now is knowledge of medium and strategy for success.

Let us understand what mobile marketing exactly means and how this new medium is becoming so promising. If you ask me what mobile marketing is, I would say: ‘mobile marketing is utilizing wireless media to provide highly targeted and personalized product information to consumer on their mobile handset which results in generating value for both consumer and marketer’. I call it highly targeted and personalized medium because of the characteristics which mobile as a vehicle offers. Mobile is very important as a marketing tool because of its capability of generating value for both consumer and marketer. Let’s see how:

Personalization
Mobile provides potential for personalization, because it carries the user’s assigned identity. If marketers employ mobile devices for their advertising activities, they can use consumer feedback to customize their messages and offerings and collect information about consumers’ preferences to improve future products and services. This provides an exceptional advantage for marketers, since it enables them to reach their potential customers in a very individual way and thus increase the relationship with the user. Users are receptive to advertising that is personalized and relevant to their lifestyle.

Interactivity
Interactions between consumer and marketer are most important for any marketing communication exercise. Mobile as a medium provides cheap, handy and personal tool for feedback and interactions. Consumers are more receptive towards communication which values their opinion. Also, mobile advertising can react very fast to customers’ feedback just like internet advertising.

Mobile is not like TV, where you have basically fixed time slots, neither is it a print medium were there are limited space selling options. The breadth of data services is remarkable and growing almost daily. Here are the biggies, and a few options of how mobile advertising can be used:

SMS
Texting is by far the most popular non-voice usage of cell phones, and for this reason many companies have started their mobile efforts there. You can use SMS in a variety of ways. Customer relationship management, Promotional offers, interactive SMS are some of these. Apart from these, marketers also use SMS to increase customer involvement by contests, votes and polls.
The possibilities are tremendous but marketers have to be sensible about it. An SMS is very intrusive. If your messages are incessant, you’ll tick people off quickly.

Ringtones, Wallpaper, and other mobile games
Ringtones and Wallpapers are very efficient tools. These options are likely to interest most of consumers as they are actively seeking for such services. It gives a platform for brand experience for the product or services you are marketing.
Games can also be very profitable, though a key challenge here is developing a game that works on a broad swath of handsets. Mobile games appear to be an excellent tool for targeting youngsters.

Mobile Search
Mobile search works much the same way as web search, placing prominent paid search listings. Mobile search is an ideal option for retailers because targeted mobile search campaign will surely give more return on marketing investments as mobile searchers are more likely to be ready to buy than someone using a PC. They are out and ready to walk in your door.

Mobile Banners
Mobile banners are graphical ads, just like web banners. They are usually purchased by CPM or CPC. There are many mobile ad networks out there which provide effective targeting options. Targeting on mobile world includes: Contextual targeting, Demographic targeting, Behavioral targeting and Geographic targeting.
Another thing to think about when you consider banners is what action you are trying to drive. Actions that you can drive are more promising and effective than those on webs banner. Some of the key options are:

1. Click through to a mobile site
2. Click to call, i.e. when the user clicks on the banner, they automatically initiate a voice call from their device to the number. This will likely improve response rates versus communicating a telephone number that the user will have to enter into their phone
3. Email capture
4. Ability to send an SMS (text) message or (less common) an MMS graphical message

Measurement metrics are impressions delivered, click through rates (CTR), click to call rates, Email capture rates, and the like.

Full Screen Graphical Ads
With technological innovations, mobile now offers options for lots of add on games and applications. Sponsoring such applications and games can become another option for your brand.
Sponsored game or application will entitle you a full screen graphical presence on pre- or post-application usage. These within applications can drive users to other sponsored pages in the application, click to email capture, click to call, or click to send MMS or SMS.
Because phone sets have different screen sizes, such full page sponsorships will likely require you to make more than one creative size for your message.

Own Applications
With iPhone opening doors for application developers and Nokia jointly with Symbian working on doing the same in near future; days are not far when marketers will have easy access to application developers. A variety of developers will help you create an application specifically for your brand. Consumer receptivity to such an app will depend upon its utility.
One of the key marketing strengths of building an app is the opportunity to create a persistent consumer relationship versus fielding impressions. User can use a good app on his phone again and again and which will offer hundreds – even thousands of brand interactions which marketers can leverage to build your consumer connection.

Mobile Widgets
Widgets have grown tremendously in popularity, and a subgroup of mobile widgets is growing strongly as well. While widgets are applications, they deserve a separate discussion because they tend to be easier to develop and because new standards are making it still easier to create compelling mobile widget experiences. Some of widgets offered by service providers are:

1. Local Search
2. Email
3. Photos
4. News
5. Sports
6. Finance
7. Entertainment
8. Weather
9. Cell Phone Coupon

A detailed discussion on mobile widgets on some other day….

Yeah, He is in to Technology!

Who do you think this person could be??

Please Vote!

Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.

This time, use your vote to liberate yourself
from
Those 'hand' which stop your growth
Those 'flower' which doesn't allow you to flourish

Choose right candidate.
VOTE FOR INDIA

The Twouble with Twitter

Intellegent Video. Will let you think how fool we twitter users are!

HCP calling entrepreneurs

Highland capital partners (HCP), a VC firm from US is seeking potential student entrepreneurs to partner with. This is their 3rd annual summer entrepreneurship programme. Company's vision is to tap entrepreneurs at early stage. Nurturing young talent and making successful entrepreneurs.

This 3rd annual "Summer@Highland" programme is scheduled for 10 weeks. Budding entrepreneurs will get a chance to work on their business plans and they will be paid stipend. There will be an opportunity of receiving VC funding if your idea is proving results. And the best part is, you are under no obligation after summer.Teams can have up to 4 people and will be given the option of working in the VC firm’s Menlo Park, CA or Lexington, MA offices. Stipend amounts range from $7,500 to $15,000, depending on how many people are part of the team.

Follow these links for details:

HCP's site: http://www.hcp.com
Summer internship programme: http://www.hcp.com/summer
Apply here: http://www.hcp.com/summer/apply.php

Android powered HTC Magic to be launched by April

A tipster points out to Phandroid that the Vodafone website confirms the Android-powered HTC Magic, recently announced, is arriving in April.

More...

Flock ditches Firefox, moves to Chrome

Flock, a social focused web browser is one of most popular social web browser in open source firefox browser. As per news coming from TechCrunch, next flock will be built on Google's Chrome platform. Flock has achieved 6 Million number of downloads and USD 30 Mn funding within 3 years of operations. Popularity of Flock as a browser is very low and it doesn't have significant market share; even lesser than netscape.

The reasons speculated for this migration are: lesser attention by Mozilla to develop this browser any further and ease of operations with Google. However, recent comments from Flock CEO Shawn Hardin reads like this on Tech Crunch:

I was responding to your email from only a few hours ago when I saw your article. It’s important to clarify a couple of things. We haven’t ceased development efforts on the Mozilla platform. Our upcoming release of Flock 2.1 is built on the Mozilla platform. Having said that, the browser space is heating up, and we’ve seen a variety of exciting technologies emerge over the last several months that are appealing.

We always have and will continue to make architectural decisions that balance what’s best for our users and what’s best for Flock as a business. This has resulted in a healthy, growing user base and business for Flock, and we expect this to continue in 2009. In fact, with over seven million downloads almost entirely from word of mouth, Flock enjoys a highly satisfied user base with consistently over 92% customer satisfaction, very strong net promoter scores, and an average of four hours of usage per day.

With a continuing focus on user-centered browser innovation, our team is in active research and development on a range of exciting new enhancements to Flock. It is still far too early to comment on anything specific, but we are very excited about this design phase…

Microsoft launches AdNetwork in India

Microsoft launched its online ad network, DrivePM in India. DrivePM has already tied up with 25 indian websites and running 28 campaigns.

It is interesting to see many global giants entering online advertising market in India as the market is maturing. Online ads occupy very less share of advertising spend pie in India. Typical ratio is around 3-5.5 % compare to 10-20 % in matured countries.

http://www.alootechie.com/content/microsoft-launches-its-online-ad-network-drivepm-india

New Push SMS Services

After MyToday and SMS Gupshup, many new service providers are joining the crew by adding bulk push SMS services to their portfolio.
Aletrix, free SMS alert service from Spot On Media, a subsidiary of ValueFirst offers alerts on Career Tips, Cricket Trivia, Health / Fitness Tips and Inspiring Thoughts.

ibibo sms+, allows small businesses to send SMS at cost as low as 0.10 Rs. ibibo's rate card here.

SMS is generating revenues and also provides good setup for small, targeted and engaging advertising. I hope to see many other players in this arena soon!

Reliance to offer mobile stock trading

Volantis, wipro, reliance and religre have tied up to offer stock trading application via mobile. Stock trading will see new avatar as mobile stock trading is new for india. With 3G knocking the doors and stock trading becmoming prominant in India, this will bring radical shift in stock trading.

To download the application, you need to send MARKETS to 56636. Or else you can download this application using GPRS. RMoney.moby as they call this application will allow all reliance money users to directly login and trade through mobile. Though, this service is not active currently, people are waiting for it eagerly, says medianama.

Good news for indian music Bands

MyBand.co.in, website operated by nediaplus offers online community exclusively for Indian Music Bands. You can upload, share and sell music. You can announce events, interact with people and promote your band here! So, dear music lovers what are you waiting for??

This is second phase of social networking. What happens when one market saturates? Marketers tend to find a niche and design product around specific attributes. This is exactly what MyBand.co.in offers.