Me, Newspaper, Radio and Contests

First of all.... here's a huge thanks for all the congrats notes for the previous post! :D

This is a random post with 4 things that happened in school that not many people know of (even most of my school friends!)

1. I have had my picture in The Hindu (Indian newspaper)
2. An RJ read my letter on his radio show and played my request
3. I have been on radio myself
4. I have won a lucky draw contest

1. I have had my picture in The Hindu (Indian newspaper)

This happened when I was in 4th or 5th standard. We had half-day school for some reason. And after classes, me and my friends were getting ready to go back home when the primary school head came to us and told us to stay back. Apparently a few people had come who wanted to take some pictures. So we stayed back for an hour or so in a class room. Our headmistress put up a map of India on the board and pretended to take a geography lesson for us, throwing questions at us and getting responses and all while the photographers clicked away. We didn't know what was going on. We all got an eclairs chocolate at the end of the photoshoot and were sent home. A few days later, we saw a very familiar face in the newspaper, in a familiar setting... it was our headmistress!! With a very stern expression, pointing at a student... and among the students, was me!!! The photo was such that only the back of the students could be seen while our teacher's face was seen properly. But it just so happened that for this pic, me and another friend of mine had chosen to look back at that precise moment and our faces came crystal clear!!! The pity of it all is that I never saved that ad.... so I have no proof! If you are wondering, why this pic came in the first place, it was for an ad... there used to be something called "readymoney shop" and in the picture of us with our "strict" teacher, there was the caption - "living on a strict budget"? :P

2. An RJ read my letter on his radio show and played my request

When I was in 8th or 9th standard (can't remember), there used to be a program on the radio every monday night from 8-9pm that I used to listen to while doing my homework. The RJ was called "Morpheus". He used to take calls or read letters and emails with requests and play a select few of them. I once just sent in an email to him... simply.... just to see what happened. I wasn't expecting anything to happen. After sending the email, in the following week I promptly forgot about it. The next monday, I tuned into the correct station and started my homework... then suddenly I hear my name (my first name only) and I sit there thinking, "Oh, looks like some other MG has sent in a request". Then he read out the email and my jaw dropped. It was the very same email that I had sent requesting him to play "Take my breath away" from the movie Top Gun!!!! And he played my song for me!!! :D

3. I have been on radio myself

This was around Christmas time. This is a pretty straightforward story (in a way :P) We got an invitation from AIR (All India Radio) to put up a play in their 4pm section for school kids. I was a part of that play so my voice was broadcasted on the radio through that play!!! There is another huge story (pretty hilarious actually). But I shall not get into that here because, well... its a huge story (duh! :P) and moreover I can't remember if I have already written about it in my earlier posts :">

4. I have won a lucky draw contest

I had stopped by a grocery shop to pick up some small item. It was the grocery store my family used to go to regularly so the people there knew me. The guy at the store passed me a contest form. The contest was sponsored by BSA cycles and Coke. There were about 4 questions (dead simple, anybody could answer them!) and one blank for a slogan on why I love BSA Trailblazer and Coke. My mom gave me the slogan... "I love BSA Trailblazer and Coke because I can be hot with trailblazer and cool with coke"!!!! I handed in the form. A week or so later, one evening I got a phone call telling me I had won the contest and that I had become the owner of a brand new BSA Ladybird cycle plus tickets to a concert by SPB!!! Well, at first we thought it was a hoax. I got a nice red cycle by the end of that week plus two tickets :)

I find it hard to believe all this myself!!! :D I didn't think much of it back then. But now I think its pretty cool ;)