Content contributed by an ardent follower and fan of TGDC and IIM Outdoor - Joshua Karthik!

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Also called “The Great Shopping Challenge”, as you’re all aware. 

The first truly interactive part of the selection process this far, was fun for me for one simple reason: I was transported to the mad dash between Goregaon and Linking Road and back, by the magic of twitter, the passion and enthusiasm of Team IIM Outdoor and the possibilities opened up by the GDC, all while at work in Jaipur the whole day!

Twitter works. And how. Webcasts don’t work on phones; online video viewing is frowned upon at work; even if this was broadcast live on TV, I wouldn’t be able to catch it during work hours; blogging is great to get the point across, but I don’t see the teams blogging on the road as the drive is on.

Team I/O wants to “save our souls” from the drudgery of work, and if this is how they want to do it, they have my backing! I’d much rather be “in the moment” with the team as things happen, than to just read about everything that happened hours and hours ago in a blog post at the end of the day.

Back to today. The first I got to hear of it was this morning, as I booted up twidroid (http://twidroid.com/) on my phone.

I was greeted with this:

@jumpinjehosofat: How useful is twitter? Time to find out today!
#tgdc Discovering Mumbai as Great Shoppers - catch us here or catch us live in person!about 16 hours ago from web

@namrata2211: Queen of Sheeba wishes us luck as v embark on d Gr8 Shopping Chall. Catch us@Bandra betw 11-2 pm, Live.TODAY!! Check outhttp://is.gd/21vHb

This led to a couple of quick phone calls and post confirmation, I settled into my work day, with one eye on twitter.

Tweet Count: 32

Through the four hour dash, Team I/O tweeted some 25 times, with roughly one tweet every 10 minutes (tweets with errors count too, just to show that they’re alive and kicking atleast!) and this was backed up by CediaGDC which added to the madness with 7 tweets of their own.

Photo Count: 24 (Plus 1 ducks-and-dog video)

And the on-the-spot pics were right on the money! 4 pics on twitter + TWENTY pics on flickr, all accessible via mobile phone, got me right to the action.

At the end of the four hours, I’d run through the battery of my phone by hitting refresh every minute or so but I did get to be “in the car” as they completed the task! :D

Today, for the first time, I’m guessing a lot of us followers got a taste of what the ten-day driving challenge can offer, if all the tech tools at the teams’ disposal are used well. As a fan and follower , I’m gunning for Team I/O ofcourse, but I just hope that every team that makes it to the top three will be able to “get us in the car” with them, every day of the way.

ATB to the remaining 10!
Peace.
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THANKS Joshua! Though the experiment did not work entirely as planned, lots of followers tweeted, posted on FB, called us to put in updates!

Cheers!
Joe

DRIVE the Cedia in Bombay for 3 hours, NARRATE our experiences to you through blogs, tweets and photos, and SPEND Rs.2500 to bring back something memorable!

Quite a simple and straight forward task. But what do we do with the money? We decided that since we could only pack so many clothes with us for this trip & the auditions, and we would not be staying at any place long enough to get any laundry done, we thought we might as well buy some new clothes and other essentials for the 10-day journey should we be selected of course.

Enter -> The Queen of Sheeba!

Firstly, LUNCH: Joseph & I plan to have a typical working-Mumbaikar’s lunch - vada pav, pav bhaji, grill sandwich, chinese dosa, etc. We have set aside Rs.100 for a quick bite at the famous Jay Sandwich-wallah in front of National College (Bandra).

The remaining Rs.2400 is for the GREAT SHOPPING CHALLENGE:

Each partner to spend Rs.1000 to buy 10 things for himself/herself, and Rs.200 to buy a gift for the other.

Shopping mecca: The stalls, shops, boutiques at Linking Road Bandra (the best deals for every Bombayite!)

The 11AM-2PM Time slot: We leave Aarey Milk Colony at 11 a.m. and HAVE TO be back by 2p.m!

Contingency Plan: In case we can’t make it to Bandra, we detour to another shopping heaven - Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri (West)

Where YOU can contribute: Catch us and tell us what we need to do on Twitter@jumpinjehosofat, Facebook/IIM Outdoor Page, Comment on this post!

We’ll keep YOU updated through Twitter throughout, so meet us for shopping and lunch at Jay Sandwichwallah National College, Bandra anywhere between 12-1PM!

Please send in your suggestions for the laundry list below:

Who wins? - Whoever buys the most items(ok! ok! I’ll count my scrunchies as one item! (little hair-bands uses to tie up hair, very useful during long drives, may be should get some for Gaurav too!)).

Followers, Saviors, Friends, Guardian Angels: This is YOUR time!
Twitter@jumpinjehosofat | Facebook/IIM Outdoor Page | Comment on this post!

Include a #TGDC in all your Tweets!

Wish us luck!

Joe & Nam

That’s how we spent our first complete day at the GDC auditions.

Sumptuous breakfast-> briefing session -> working on our route plan -> hugging the Mitsubishi Cedia at the official photo session -> working on route plan -> heavy lunch -> driving skills tested by the boss Mr.Adil Jal Darkhanawala himself! -> working on the route plan -> racing to meet the 6p.m. deadline, printer at the hotel isn’t very co-operative, make friends with printer, printer obliges -> rushing to the ‘Jade Hall’ to realise that Tanya Chaitanya is in the house! -> Interaction with Ms.Chaitanya (hope she reads our blog, joe’s tweets, my poem, maybe offers one of us a job @ Femina ) -> briefing for tomorrow’s task (big surprise, watch this space for more!) -> more food! -> tucking our fav Cedia (the black one) in for the night -> this post -> Gnite! catch ya’all tomorrow!

P.S. Our t-shirts, like mood rings, seem to express our mood for the day. Today Maroon = Ma’ vrooooom!
P.S. (ver 1.1) The first time I went for a spin in the Cedia! Yay! Needless to say it was legen – wait for it – dary!

Today’s quite packed with a lot of “listening” and some very important “driving” followed by a lot of “discussing”.

And of course dinner and a lot of fun!

Here’s the agenda for Day 1!

The Pizza delivery team is ready for the auditions!

Cheers!
Joe & Nam

PS from Namrata: Apologies for the torture of looking us at grinning so much - we’re just EXCITED to be here!

Cheer us on!
Joe & Nam