What would you do if traditional media gives false information

I had talked about bloggers not being trusted source of information. But its not just the bloggers or the new media which needs trust of its readers. The traditional media too needs it. But the traditional media has to its advantage belief of its reader set to trust mode. But there are several newspapers who are losing their trust each day some readers at a time. The latest one being Mid Day. I am sure that if not anyone else, it has lost my trust. All for this one article which was published on 14th August 2007 on page A21 and A23 in Mid Day, Mumbai.
I being a ex-employee of Tata Elxsi know that this whole article is a fairy tale. The fact of the matter is that all the photos are nothing but a shoot just like for some movie. Tata Elxsi does not promote anything that was quoted in the article. It just seems to have come out of fantasy of the writer Priyadarshini Nandy. I having the first hand knowledge and I know the culture and the environment in which people work there. That itself being one of the primary reasons for me to look out for other opportunities. I am sure that I am not the only one who did so. There would be many. I would request anyone with similar experience to add a comment or a traceback link for the post they might have written. I actually did not plan to comment on Tata Elxsi as such but this article has made me think otherwise. So here it is point wise.
Fist fights are common here and cheating is more than welcome.
Sure they are, as common as snow fall in Thar desert.
“So, we freak out in the bus too,” says Deepak. “Our latest game is rather interesting — people have to balance in the aisle without holding anything, for as long as possible. No one’s gone very far yet!”
Sure I have never seen that happen. I know when we started playing dumb charades in bus, the first opposition came from none other than the HRs themselves. Next we heard from the admin that people dance in the bus. I hardly could understand with the buses bouncing all the time over the potholes of Bangalore, how could anyone stand, leave alone dance. Now I hear this new game. Hmm good imagination at work.
Everyone gets together in the cafeteria, ready to dive at the cake, and rip gifts open.
Rip the gifts open. Dude in my 2 years in Tata Elxsi I never ever saw that happening in cafeteria. May be in those two year I never had a birthday coming(No I am not born on 29th Feb by any chance ). Sure loads of imagination at work at Mid Day.
“At last year’s New Year bash, we organised a contest where employees had to decorate their bay according to the state they came from,” says HR manager, Gurmeet Dugal.
Wow, we have a new meaning to the word bash. A new year bash. I must have been really deeply involved in work to not realize that there was a New Year Bash. I remember decorating, not just my bay but the entire floor, based on the theme chosen by certain individuals. But New Year Bash. Come on. Nothing like a bash exists in the releams of Tata Elxsi.

Now let me come to the pictures in the first page. All the pictures have been taken as a Mid Day exclusives. So are most of the pics in the following page. The pictures which are captioned as competition are actually performances by different people. There goes all the Mid Day credibility.

My only take on this is. DO NOT TRUST MID DAY ON ANY REPORT. Yes thats in caps for obvious reasons. I know for sure that what it reported was wrong. I am very sure that other stories too will be figments of imagination. So if you want some masaledar stories, sure read Mid Day. But if you want information, sure you can look at any other alternatives.

Confrontation:
http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-as-blogger-has-affected-someone.html
Finally a confession:
http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/08/game-set-match-won.html

Comments

Amrit Pal Singh said…
As an ex-employee of TATA Elxsi I feel whatever Saurabh has written is absolutely true.

There is no fun activity at all, rather unnecessary pressure of work.

Don't believe mid-day.
Anonymous said…
Hmmm... Enlightening artice, but I must ad, do I work at the same tata elxsi that they're talking about? :P

Surely the people at midday should cut down on the extasy/lsd/*insert your personal favorite hallucinogen here*
100rabh™ said…
@Rakesh
Its not just LSD or something, well the people at Tata Elxsi are sure good at showing dreams may be.....I think I too was carried away when I got offer from it...But a newspaper spreading incorrect information is unpardonable.
100rabh™ said…
@ Amrit

You told the truth in just around 10 words
Anonymous said…
the article is probably true but with a typo. It should have been some other company and not TATA Elxsi. It's been years since I've heard the words FUN, Entertainment and any words that are closely and loosely related :(. Mostly heard word is DEAD-line. We, when spent working past midnight, never got even our dinner sponsored which is our basic need and also cabs are arranged only after 11 p.m; if the employee is really lucky, will get a cab at 11 and then not to forget Bangalore site-seeing at 11 as at least 3 people are taken together. I have loads to tell, well hope Subbu has more to write as only he is Ex and not me !! come on Subbu, write more. Let things come out :)
100rabh™ said…
@Anonynmous
I dont know if you got that impression but this post was in no way meant as a means of venting my anger. Rather it was written to highlight the fact that not all newspapers are always reporting the truth. Probably this mid day article was a sponsored one for some kind of image building exercise and nothing else. I just wanted truth to prevails and be known to everyone
Anonymous said…
PS : It is understandable that Midday dosent have a huge subscriberbase and also Elxsi can surely pump money to market itself rather than put it to employee betterment. Need I say more. :)
Going by the mantra of today --- print wat sells. Midday got soldout to elxsi..
cestlavie said…
Its simple guys, its an image building exercise from Tata Elxsi and money making exercise as far as midday is concerned.
100rabh™ said…
Thats the point...can you trust the sold out guys to give you facts about anything at all???
Anonymous said…
I dont know how priya judged that much about TEL in just 2-3 hours of her interaction with TEL people. At the same point of time, I wanted add some point ....she can never prove wrong for the people who has seen TEL for past 2-3 years.
cestlavie said…
....
@ anonymous ...

Its clear from Priyadashini's blog that this is what was conveyed to her... possibly a defending act by her.... but any which ways... its proved that it was a makrteing gimmick by TEL, even to someone unknown to this debate.... thanks priya... :)

......amareesh..
Anonymous said…
The final word from Priyadarshini :

http://sputnikstar.blogspot.com/2007/08/rather-interesting-or-not.html

Finally she agrees.
Ravan said…
Well Said 100rabh
I was out of India for the past few months
When i first was the Paper i thought TEL is changed.....but

................................
how come its possible ..i haven't seen them changing in the last two-three years....how can they suddenly change them self in few months.....
;-)
Ravan
Debujan25 said…
heyy..saurabh...i have been recruited by the Elxsi's..
i am an MBA aspirant.. and m afraid...that..joining elxsi will leave me exhausted so dat wud leave me wid 0 hrs of prep time..
i just want to have a prior idea.. of the working environment,pressure and culture of the company..
pls let me knw.. to the earliest..
on my id: debangshee@gmail.com
else..i mite need to take up another job offer..
100rabh™ said…
I am not sure if I can help you as I am not with that organisation any more. You can get info from ppl in the orkut community.
Anonymous said…
@saurabh
I think i know you man...

@ALL

My tata elxsi story

1. Well I am from CS 'n' got into DSP (happens domain change was not allowed)

2. Did not get the promised training for the first 4 months.(got only 1)

3. I was deported under a tyrant after only 1 month of initial training (basic)and then my life was doomed.

4. The tyrant thought he was a genius well i personally think he was moron who knew not much.

5. The three other months of training was under this tyrant who gave assignments at 5 pm in the evening and made sure I stayed back unnecessarily tiill night at least 8 pm that is.

6. when refused to stay back ..he troubled me more..(more assignments...learn the dsp book in 5 days stuff...) and tried to explain that it is for my good and that i will get used to the office atmosphere... THAT SUX MAN

7. finally the three months under the tyrant was over and was relieved...(hit list = 1)

8. then i got a new client project...but fate had its own way to do it I fell sick and could not come to the office regularly...
so I only got validation modules and got my name entered in the "managers bad engineers book"

9. next project I had a quarrel with a PL over a module. I completed a module(non- technical of course) in 5 days which other PL and managers could not complete in almost 30 working days.....I got ridiculed by my PL for taking that long ....SO had a fight (verbal)

10. I was then sent to client's place for a validation project...
here i learnt that there are more than one who suffered the same fate as me...and to my surprise all were 3+ years exp (mili bhagat of the PL ,PM and domain head) (hit list = 4)

11. all the people in the client's project were unhappy with the treatment and the onsite allowance...(a mere 1500 bucks per month) (hit list = 5)

12. well the project got doomed and then we were back to tata elxsi ..then for some other projects and it went on.....same way....

13. By this time I had got used to this and my appraisals were wqually bad....even though i was on client project each time and had contributed more than the other engineers

well that is my story...
now that i have left tata elxsi it matters me no more to me....

-----------
other info
-----------
tata elxsi has transport...but beware if you climb the bus and accidently do no carry your padd...your pass will be checked and a fine of 50/- on spot with recipt .....

has a tea break system...
10 am morning break... by 10:15 tea and coffee gets over.... :( ....
same story with the 3 pm tea break

has very badly organised cab facility which takes bangalore rounds...with 3 other co passengers

lunch break .....hungry...... but i am sure that poison would taste beter than the lunch

no cultural activities...sports...games....entertainment...nothing at nothing at all...

the intranet has not been updated for years....you would fnd out the very old phone numbers in the VOIP directory

the same engineers who lick their bosses a** get onsite again and again

you are appraised by how well you lick the bosses a** and for how long you spend your time (at night )in the office

man...I am happy now...had a lot lot lot to say...and I said it all ....

A good piece of advice to all freshers or people joining tata elxsi ....or even thinking even about doing the joining thing....
BETTER SIT IDLE THAN JOIN TEL
Anonymous said…
yeh lo aur elxsi ke mare
Anonymous said…
True in all sense.. All that midday published n Mumbai were from Bangalore office. An orchestrated fun event. You can see the same people in all the pictures. Thought this will just improve the image of the company at least among the public if not the employees.
With 5+ yrs there, i know more than i shud about this so called IT firm. I heard that Elxsi paid 60% to the share holders last year of its earnings(may be true) and screwd the employees with silly hikes of 6% - 15% average.
This is due to no funds they delayed the salary payments i heard. And to keep the blue TATA Logo they are paying lakhs each month to the TATAs. Simply idiotic and senseless.
Anyway, someone wud've sued Midday for publishing wrong information which violated the ethics of journalism. Responsible journalism is a myth I guess.
The HR manager, he thinks hes the boss of the company. When one of my frnds left, he came for HR talks as last rites to the employee. Then he asked the employee to stay and take back his resignation. Then my frnd asked whats the cost of negotiation(sal, onsite or promotion). The so called HR manager says we are not here for any negotiations. Simply means he wanted my frnd to stay just for no reason sensible...;) I dont undertsand how the company is still surviving by still screwing the customers, emlpoyees and all others with no sense of responsibility.

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