Ferrari Magic India Discovery Drive

Cars have always been a fantasy and I’m still a little kid. I’ll still go groggy eyed if there’s so much as some German automotive flying on the road. When I got the invite to attend Ferrari’s press conference for flagging off their Magic India Discovery tour, I thought it was some kind of a practical joke. But when I confirmed it, I couldn’t get over it. I didn’t sleep the night before the launch. ‘I’ll get to see Ferrari’s’, the little Tifosi in me thought.

The event was Ferrari’s Magic India Discovery which was an ambitious run in 2 specially painted Ferrari 612 Scagilietti’s across 15,200 kms of Indian roads. Ferrari had done such a similar event in China 2 years ago and succeeded in running the 2 cars over 15,000 miles. Back to India, now.

I went to the Taj(the venue for the event), bang on time, raced my ass upto the roof, collected my press kit and settled down for the press conference. Davide Kluzer, the PR man for Ferrari, presided over it and patiently answered all the questions we hapless Indian scribes asked.

I myself got to ask him 2 questions.

Me : When will Ferrari officially launch in India?

Davide Kluzer : We are looking at India very keenly. It does seem to be a very interesting market for us. Worldwide, Ferrari has a big waiting list for its cars. Thats not uncommon because we build the cars with a certain passion. All of our cars are hand built to customers’ specification, so that does take some time.

At Ferrari, we want to ensure that the relationship with the customer continues long after the car leaves the showroom. We want to offer the customer as much as we can in terms of service and support.

Like our boss Montezemelo said, Ferrari cars are like good women. They are rare to come by. It may be ‘tomorrow, next week, next month’ or whatever. But it will come and the wait will be worth the while.

Me : Any modifications done to the car, so that it handles the Indian roads?

Davide Kluzer : Not much really, we’ve just increased the ride height a bit. Apart from that, the Ferrari’s you shall see are exactly the same as anywhere in the world. They will offer the same level of driver involvement and will be similar to drive as any Ferrari, anywhere in the world.

Then the press were asked to eat, and I hogged on Taj’s brillaint cullinary. The desserts particularly kicked some butt and then we were led to the place where the cars would be cordoned off.

You see, I’d be the one you’d like to call “Shorty” and was hardly able to see over the tidal wave of photographers before me. So, I was looking for some chinks in the armour and spotted the Chamber room which was some sort of a bridge between 2 buildings and clicked some pictures from there. I got on to the parapet and got some neat shots. Sigh, the things I do, for you.  :twisted:

Ok, now the things I did not quite like.
1) Why werent the journos given a ride in the car?

2) The elephant logo they created for India looks like it hasn’t slept in the last 10 days and is staying awake on bucketloads of coffee.

3) The t-shirt they gave had the aformentioned sleepless elephant (and a big one), at the back. Woe is me..

4) A cap and key chain would have done just fine in the press kit

First 2 pictures, courtesy Ferrari and the rest by, Yours Truly.

Tata SKY DTH TV service review

Get 2 months of free viewing on Tata Sky!
Just use these coupon codes and call the helpline

(MTNL & BSNL call 18600 425 6633/ North call 0172 6600 6633/ East and South call 040 6600 6633/
West call 020 6600 6633)

• WB6532D701
• WB6534C701
• WB6536B701
• WB6538A701
• WB6539E701

I’ll keep updating this post to include which ones are available.

There are lots of bloated things about India. Go ahead, label me an unpatriotic buffoon, pessimist and what have you, but even you will agree when we get talking about India’s cable TV distribution system. For those not in the know, its a big mafia in itself. Each area is controlled by a goon or a similar equivalent and anyone making the slightest of noises is “taken care of”. Thats an exaggeration of course, but you get the picture.

Even if you can live with that, you can certainly not be living with the quality of the signal or the choice of channels Mr. Cable Gangsta offers. And no Siree, no explanation offered for frequent outages and distorted signals. If you’re lucky enough (and Mr. Gangsta and Co are in the mood…) they might, at best, give you a “kaam chaloo hai“ reply or something to that effect.

We had had enough of the nonsense and Daddy dearest lost his cool when Mr. Gangsta distorted his favorite, CNBC. You know, that channel, wherein people watch some lifeless graphs all day and routinely skip 2 (or more) heartbeats in co-relation with the percentage change in stock price.

DTH was the only viable option in sight. DTH or Direct-To-Home is defined as the receiving of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual home. DTH happens to be far more superior than cable television, simply because it is beamed as a digital signal and not as an analog one. This allows for far more bandwidth, which translates into better picture and sound.

India caught up on the DTH bandwagon in early 2006 and now we have 2 contenders in that very space (2 more on the way, Reliance and Airtel, but thats still some time away, I presume) . Zee Corp. owned DishTV and TATA Sky. Today we’ll be taking a look at the latter. (because I brought it, hee hee)

Installation

Its a right breeze, you don’t have to worry about one damn thing apart from the fact that you have the necessary permissions from your residential committee.( I have heard of more than one case, wherein the customer brought the set-top-box from the dealer, but wasn’t allowed to fix the dish. So, watch it). The equipment which was brought to affix the dish was really cool. There was a really nifty spirit level which allowed the smart sods from Tata Sky to check whether the setup was absolutely in place. There was a lot more uber-cool equipment, which certainly sent the geek in me into a tizzy.

The whole thing will take a maximum of 2 hours, from fixing to calibration. You are surely going to be in for a surprise, when they finish doing their job.

Video

Oh, Tata Sky, where hath you been before? Seriously, its that kinda reaction when you first switch on the idiot box after the installation. The colors are vivid, bright and just like what they were intended to be anyway. This thing deserves as big a TV you can afford.

Even the news presenters look that much more better(the fairer sex, I mean), even whilst delivering the same old “Breaking News”. I am also having a gala time watching all the kids channels. Cartoon Network, Pogo and their ilk. “Mom, I want that pack of chips, its got something free inside it!!” Hee, hee, I love being kid!

Audio

The audio, too, is nothing short of amazing. All the frequencies are reproduced quite brilliantly, and the better the speaker system you have, the better your experience. Speech, music, thunder and rain everything sounds quite lively. Well, more livelier than cable TV in any case.

What more is new?

Showcase

Tata gives you the option of watching certain movies of their choice and a lot of times of the day. You select, pay 75 bucks through phone or SMS, get the popcorn and watch the whole movie with just a single ad break. Neat, I say.

Active Content

This is the real fun part and what makes Tata Sky better than the competition. Active Content, is their way of offering a range of interactive content and keeping everyone happy.

You’ve got games, stories and learning sections for the kids (look at the marketing genius, they know todays kids have enormous influence over parents buying decisions… smart), cooking and newsroom (4 major news channels in one screen) for mom and pop, astrology for the future paranoid and what have you.

They also have Active Sports, which is a bit too optimized for cricket. You can’t really blame Tata for this. India is a cricket crazy nation and that won’t change for quite a while. Only thing is that they have taken the “Select camera angle” feature out. Should have kept it, really. Indians would love to know everything about cricket from every god damned angle Tata had to offer.

The pricing

Tata offers four packages in the range of Rs 250/- to 350/-. You can take a look at them over here.

We used to pay the cable guy 150 bucks and he was to increase it to 200 or something very soon. We seriously don’t mind paying a bit more for really watching some TV rather than all the worldly noises being picked up the silly analog cable. There’s enough disturbance in my life already, thank you very much.

Verdict

DTH is nothing short of an eye-opening experience and Tata Sky makes it all the more better. If you’re still stuck with cable TV, you’re genuinely missing something. No, a lot more, actually. Go, get it, quick!! The idiot box is dead, the smart box is here.
SatishSays dot Com rating 9/10

I’ll try to do a comparison article between Tata Sky and DishTV soon. Do stay tuned

Do share your experiences with DTH and how it changed your viewing patterns.

Resolution time…

2007’s gone and a new year begins… and for the first time in my life, i’m actually going to make resolutions on the 1st of Jan..

For this blog

• I intend to increase my posting frequency to 2-3 posts a week as opposed to the 1 post a week earlier.
• Get a new custom theme and logo
• Try to maximise revenue to around $2000 in the whole year from all sources.
• Try to get to 500 RSS readers
• Get into the top 100k in Alexa and improve Google PageRank

On a personal front

• Lose weight!! I’ve become nice and round, what with exams going on and virtually no other activities at all!
• Devote more time for practising rhythms on the guitar, and stop doing experimental nonsense on it.
• Practise vocal scales on a daily basis, Bruce Dickinson, here I come!
• Improve reading habits…havent touched a good book since almost 3-4months!
• Get on stage GODDAMMIT!

What are your resolutions? Do post it in the comments section.