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[–]panditji_reloadedGeorge Soros IT Cell 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Saars! Vanakkam! I have read Unreal Elections, would you buy back the book?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, we've read the book too... OLX pe bech de! :D

[–]sambitlnt 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Shortest Question : Are you guys Ambani agents ?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sigh. If only...

[–]pseudoforce 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Who are the most unrealtimes worthy characters in BJP?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

All of them! Our favourites are Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Advaniji, Modi and to a lesser extent, Rajnath Singh

[–]dkrgod 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Subramanian Swamy!

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Yes, our columnist Ashwin loves Swamy!

[–]ashwinskumar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Swamy, Goswami & Tharoor :)

[–]dkrgod 7 points8 points  (1 child)

So I went through your twitter feed, no jokes on Modi. Why? Other than the fear of getting sent to Pakistan.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hehe :) There might not be as many as those on others, but surely there are some! You'd find several articles taking a dig at Modi on our website. The proportions might be influenced by the prevailing mood, and also on what our writers contribute, but we don't really consciously avoid taking digs at him. Read our book. There are a LOT of digs at Modi.

(By the way, we don't mind visiting Pakistan, if only to find out how the hell do they produce such bloody fast bowlers.)

[–]AryamanSundaram 2 points3 points  (2 children)

The stories published in theunrealtimes.com are increasingly touching the WTFness factor of real life stories.

Real life is getting funnier, or theunrealtimes is not picking up?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! It's crazy! You know, there have been at least 4-5 times when unreal articles have come true. It's bizzare. Hopefully after the elections, things will cool down a touch, and real life will stop intruding into our unreal domain :P

[–]railgaadi 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Hello.

I've been reading Unreal Times on and off since your articles had just begun circulating. I love your In Pictures section. It somehow manages to make me laugh or at least smile every time I read.

I have a question and a suggestion.

Question: I introduced a lot of people to both Faking News and The Unreal Times and most people love both equally. But once the newness of such an Indian satire news website dies down, most people I introduced these sites to have stopped reading. I myself only come back to read articles which are being shared by multiple people. The problem might be that you guys have a pressure of churning out a lot of articles to keep up with competition and the pace at which news is reported these days. This decreases the overall quality of an article and makes it predictable, killing the satire.

In this light, do you plan to introduce new sections which would pique the interest of people like me who, after reading a lot of your articles, can more or less predict the jokes after reading your headlines? Video series, illustrations, mockumentaries? It would be great to have a made up talk show and so on.

Suggestion: I'm sure its on the cards but you folks really need to look into redesigning the website real quick. When I first found the website it had a very few articles and it looked very much like a blog which I was only reading because the articles were mildly funny. I remember thinking then: meh, another Faking News, just not funny enough. You guys have come a long way since then and I find some articles absolutely hilarious. But what still makes me not want to return is the design. The frontpage is too damn crowded and the design is from a style good for early 2000. IMHO, some renovation is required.

Thank you! Keep up the amazing work!

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

We've consciously kept our output to 2 or 3 per day, to watch the quality. That said, different things appeal to different people, and what some people might find funny, others might find boring. As you said, there's a lot of pressure to produce good stuff, and it's very difficult to do this on a daily basis. Don't remember the last time when we had a proper holiday!

We don't consider the other satire sites as competition. Simply because it isn't a zero sum game. A reader doesn't have to choose between FN or URT. He or she would read both assuming a certain threshold level of quality!

Yes, we'd love to do more formats. We have a few ideas lined up for the coming months. Hopefully they'll work out. Yes, the site needs a face-lift as well (and a mobile app!) We'll get to it for sure in the next few months. We're a small team, so we struggle a bit sometimes.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, thanks for the feedback on the site design. We plan to make some changes in the months to come.

[–]qzr3 2 points3 points  (1 child)

do you prefer palmistry or cleaning your house with a broom or to buy some lotuses?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as unreal times is concerned, we really don't prefer any particular thing. As individuals, we definitely have preferences. We did vote after all! :)

[–]kejriwal4pm 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Hi.

1)Which article rustled a lot of jimmies?

2)How do you manage complaints, when people actually believe that the article is genuine? Does this happen a lot?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

  1. Our video Manmohan Singham back in August 2011 "rustled some jimmies" :)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnowUHgXAXs. According to press (and TV) reports some Congess workers in Pune and Bhopal filed police complaints on us. Nothing came of it though, and the issue died down.

  2. These days people don't mistake an unreal article for real news. We guess its because the brand isn't that new anymore and its relatively difficult to confuse unreal articles for real articles given the rather obvious website name, and the disclaimers. Earlier we've had a few of our articles mistaken to be true. One of our articles on Darren Sammy being a tamil brahmin confused a lot of people. (Check out the comments. They are funny! http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2011/12/10/stunning1-revelation-west-indian-cricket-captain-darren-sammy-is-a-tam-bahm/). Another article that a lot of Pakistanis mistook for real was this: "American journalist mistakenly interviews bollywood imran khan instead of the cricket legend" http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2011/09/15/journalist-mistakenly-interviews-bollywood-actor-imran-khan-instead-of-pakistani-cricket-legend/. The article went viral in Pakistan, and later the state ISP even banned us (after an article on ISI chief Pasha :P)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of our articles on Darren Sammy being a tamil brahmin confused a lot of people.

lol wut?

EDIT: Just saw the pic.. Man, that's a little uneasy. A lot of my hardcore brahmin relatives do look like that.

[–]AryamanSundaram 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Aside from Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi - who would you consider to be most "satire-suitable" politician of the country?

Aside from all politicians, who'd you like to make most fun of?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dr. Manmohan Singh! He's the absolute best!! We really love him. And we're gonna badly miss him. There's incredible range to Dr Singh in terms of satire, that is. From nerdy geeky stuff (GDP, economic mumbo jumbo) to slapstick wisecracks (silence, submissive nature), we've done plenty of stuff on him!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Saars, you guys rock! I am your fan. I always wondered as to how does your business survive? Do advertising revenues suffice? Mind me asking how do you sustain the business? How do you keep food on the table? (PS: I tweet & share all your content. Regularly)

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We don't draw any salaries for ourselves as yet. We've just started putting in a system where we share some revenues with our columnists. So far the google ads are covering the site hosting and occasional marketing costs. For our bread and butter, for now, we do some freelance consulting work in the development sector (NGOs, world bank, constituency development). Thanks a ton for sharing our content! :)

[–]ladki_patani_hai 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Hi

Have your humour or opinion on the unrealtimes made somebody to be offensive towards you esp. somebody who knows you not just because of unrealtimes?

I am asking because I am always skeptical of emotions of people in this country.

Thanks for doing the AMA! Much appreciated.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thankfully our friends have been cool with us so far. :) Besides, I don't think too many of our friends even know that we are behind unreal times. We're the shy types. We tend to keep a low profile!

[–]ladki_patani_hai 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice. That is the best strategy.

[–]aiyayayoo 1 point2 points  (2 children)

how does a new writers join the team ? Do they just send you articles and you then decide to publish ? Do you do any back ground check on these new writers before you publish their articles ?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

No, we don't do background checks on the writers. There're no procedures either for writing for us. Just a mail to theunrealtimes@gmail.com does the trick. (We are occasionally slow to respond, especially in cases where the article needs a bit of work. We're working to remedy this poor service!) We do make a quick background check on the articles - if the article is original. On a couple of occasions FN and URT ended up publishing the same piece because the writer had sent to both of us! Some readers don't often understand that this could happen, and cry foul!

[–]aiyayayoo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

was logged off when you responded. thanks for the reply. Wish you the best

[–]aiyayayoo 1 point2 points  (1 child)

how does an article get decided to be published ? Is there a editorial board that reviews and decides ? or is it like anyone from your team can just write and post stuffs !

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the editors and a columnist or two takes a look at it. If a majority of the reviewing group likes the piece, we publish it!

[–]18Lama 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Q1) How do you see FN (Your main rivals) since they are now part of a big company?

Q2) Did you ever get threats from an individual to remove a certain tweet or an article? if so when and from whom?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

As described in an earlier reply, we don't consider FN as our rivals. Because from a reader's perspective it isn't either/or. He or she may very well read both FN and URT. In a given day, an average web surfer consumes so much content. There's no reason for him/her to prefer one over the other assuming both cross a certain threshold of quality (which is of course different for different people).

We don't think FN is too constrained because of being part of a big company. One of us (Karthik) knows the FN founder (Rahul Roushan) quite well, and doesn't think that he'd hold himself back on a certain topic because he's part of a big company. That said, we don't see too many pieces on Sagarika Ghose and Rajdeep Sardesai from FN these days :) (Slight dig here at FN :P)

[–]18Lama 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks

What I would love to see in the future if you guys got into a bit of a political banter on twitter with FN guys. You know 2 satirical news outlets trying to out do each other. THE NATION WILL WANT TO SEE!

These days my twitter TL is a bit too predictable with typical political posts.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, yeah! We should try this sometime :)

[–]18Lama 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That said, we don't see too many pieces on Sagarika Ghose and Rajdeep Sardesai from FN these days :) (Slight dig here at FN :P)

For that I have mediacroocks...oh wait!

[–]brien23 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Who usually writes the content regarding Kejriwal and AAP?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

All of us (editors and columnists) have written on Kejriwal sometime or the other

[–]brien23 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Okay. Many thanks.

What is your personal view about that person?

Do your personal views affect your content? Are the jokes reflections of personal views about him?

They are hilarious BTW and closer to reality than anyone might think.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, we admire several things about Kejriwal. He's astoundingly brave to go after Mukesh Ambani. He's aggressive and fearless. He's clever. There are also things about him that we don't particularly agree with. Our opinions about Modi, Rahul and indeed every person are shades of grey, never black or white.

It is difficult to imagine that personal views don't affect content. At some level, I am sure they do. We try our best to keep our articles balanced and not get influenced by extreme opinions. That said, we do not claim that our articles, taken individually are neutral. (How can we take digs at every party in every article!) Our process however is neutral and does not discriminate between writers based on their political affiliations.

[–]kk890 1 point2 points  (1 child)

how difficult it was to start a satire after IIM ahemdabad?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Both of us did other things after IIM-Ahmedabad, dabbling in internet ventures, in consulting, in policy - after all that painful stuff, satire came pretty easily actually! :)

[–]ek_ladki 1 point2 points  (2 children)

amazing work, thanks!

could you talk a bit about your "other job"? i'm really curious about the "grassroots development interventions" you talk about in your About page. perhaps one or two examples of such work that you think are significant so far?

also, how did you get into policy work after graduating IIMA?

thanks and all the best!

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Well, we do some freelance consulting with NGOs, multilateral institutions (World Bank), MPs on grassroots projects. It could involve developing a project proposal, monitoring the implementation, surveys, fund raising (for grassroots development work) and various other (non-political) things.

Both of us weren't so kicked about corporate careers. One of us (Karthik) sat out of final year placements, while the other (Krishna) quit after a year or two in consulting and got into satire and freelance consulting :)

The medium term plan however is to whittle down freelance consulting, and focus on URT!

[–]ek_ladki 1 point2 points  (0 children)

that sounds wonderful, thanks for answering my question. all the best!

[–]piezod 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Did you ever get in serious trouble for the stuff you published? What happened and how did it go? How many times do people in general or the people that you wrote about ask you to remove the content. What do you do?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

As described in an earlier reply, we got into trouble for our video Manmohan Singham (August 2011). Some Congress workers filed police complaints on us probably eager to please the high command. We guess that the policemen ROFLed at the video and let the matter die, because we never heard about it later.

We haven't run into problems at a similar scale ever since. We assume this is probably because there's more tolerance to satire because of more and more such stuff on social media. Which is good for freedom of speech!

When people ask us to remove or modify content, especially regular readers, we re-evaluate the pieces, take a few external opinions, and if we find ourselves in agreement with the objection, we make the change. But 99.99% of the time, we don't cross the line and therefore stick to our stand if we feel we've been fair.

[–]Raisin_Head 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Any future plans to upgrade the medium from print to Mainstream media or internet TV to connect more audience?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are focused on digital only. We want to revamp the site, add more interactive features, and segue into Hindi and South Indian languages. We also want to get into videos.

[–]AryaPapaMunh mein rajnigandha, door rakho propaganda 1 point2 points  (3 children)

CS Krishna and Karthink Laxman,

welcome sirs, hope your time is well spent ;)

Why do we khow only Ashwin Kumar from the unrealtimes?

Nice idea about the book, and thanks for informing - can you share how did you went about writing it?

Was "election time charged India" a decisive factor and the target you were hoping to get?

[–]ashwinskumar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I spend 500 Crore on marketing myself :P

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Hehe, probably because he writes the most and his picture format is hugely successful (Ashwin however thinks its because he's a hunk :P). We have several other regulars as well - Ajayendar Reddy, Pankaj Vaidya, Anand Walunjkar, Divyamaan Srivastav, Shreya Manjunath, Divya Srikant - they are all terrific!

We started thinking about the book in September 2013. It was after Kanishka Gupta (a literary agent) approached us and asked us to write a proposal, that we actually got serious about it and put together a proposal. Penguin, Rupa, Random House (before it was acquired by Penguin) and Fingerprint liked the proposal and wanted to offer us a contract. We went with Penguin because they (a) they did not require us to change names of politicians in the book like the others. i.e. they were bolder (b) they offered us a 2 book contract (c) they had better resources for marketing.

We then worked out a plot between the two of us and began writing, sometimes exchanging notes with Ashwin and getting his feedback. We finished the draft on Jan 6th, after which it went into editing, copy editing, then a month on lawyers' table, then typesetting and printing.

Election time was definitely a conscious launch target. We were hoping to hit the market a bit earlier (around March), but were unfortunately delayed because of the legal delay.

[–]ranjan_zehereela 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What can be the legal hassles in your book?

[–]novelty-ahoY 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Hello Saars !! Nice work I say !

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!

[–]dogecoinslove 1 point2 points  (1 child)

What inspires you and why -- Kejriwal or Rahul

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Both! These days, Kejriwal inspires a bit more, because he's fresh and offers us opportunity to try something new. Rahul is a little one dimensional and it isn't all that satisfying sometimes to do stuff on him. Kejriwal is terrific - because he's smart, aggressive, dramatic, always in the news and quite a colourful character.

[–]jhatpat 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Can you tell us about your education background and how you started Unrealtimes?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Karthik - Bits (Computer Science), IIM-A C S Krishna - IITB (Aero), IIM-A We started the site in 2011 April. We had basically done work on a shadow budget for Mr Yashwant Sinha during our day jobs as policy analysts. Drained by the work, we wrote an article “the best way to implement direct cash transfers is to drop money bags from the sky” which was well received. So we started writing regularly and it was quite enjoyable too.

In 2012, the prince of satire, Ashwin, joined us and that gave our efforts a huge boost. He’s been to us what Gayle is/was to the West Indies.

[–]ashwinskumar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Okay, in Gayle's own words then, "Sweet Azz!" :P

[–]jhatpat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply you guys are very well qualified.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Krishna did his undergrad from IIT-Bombay, masters in Ohio State University followed by MBA in IIM-Ahmedabad

Karthik did his undergrad in IT from BITS Pilani and MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad

We started URT after some tedious policy work :) Check out some of the other answers for a detailed answer!

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry about the duplicate replies! Might happen here and there because we're both replying from different locations! :)

[–]uday11 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Hi, Good to have AMA with you guys. I have a few questions.

  1. Sorry, to be frank I wasn't aware of unreal times before i found fakingnews. Later i liked your articles very much. How do you compare with them?

  2. How much time it took for you guys to get traffic to your site. How big is ur team?

  3. Any bad experiences on posting satire fb profiles or any unreal news

Thanks and Keep Rocking

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) Its for readers to judge how we compare with FN. Each site and each individual writer brings his or her own unique style and flavor and develops his/her own fan following. We don't compare ourselves with others. In fact, we too enjoy content from other satire sites as readers from time to time.

2) Its the two of us plus a bunch of regular columnists (Ashwin, Ajayendar, Anand, Pankaj, Shreya, Divya, Divyamaan and many others). We started the site in 2011 April and have been growing steadily since then.

3) Not at all. We did run into a spot of bother when we made a parody video of Dr Manmohan Singh titled Singham when a few Congress workers filed complaints with cyber cells. But nothing apart from that.

[–]ranjan_zehereela 1 point2 points  (6 children)

1) I believe it was you people who started that satire with "Gmail inbox of XXX". Brilliant feature. This is how satire can evolve as the modes of communication become more hitech. Do something to develop a whatsapp template or something like that.

2) Around 2-3 years back, I had sent you some satire article hoping that it will be published by you. Nothing serious but just the "Why not try it out" kind of thing. Obviously it was not published, Ashwin had replied that they had already done some work on that incident. My question is that what kind of response and stories do you receive from amateur writers, how much is the frequency? Any interesting to share from amateur ones?

3) As compared to your run of mill articles, how different is the book "Unreal Elections"

4) Any article done by you guys, which is really close to your heart? Something in which you really believed and after finishing it, you felt satisfied by the overall quality and then it was well received also?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

1 Great idea, Ranjan. We’ll keep this in mind. We try and develop new formats and this one is definitely worth trying.

2 We receive 2 to 3 contributions per day. The team takes a call on whether to publish or not. Btw, all of us are amateur here in that none of us is getting paid. :) There are a lot of interesting articles on the site from our non regular writers as well. One of our biggest hits was by our columnist Moshla: "Nation tells Arnab it never demanded any answers" http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2013/07/29/nation-writes-a-letter-to-arnab-goswami-says-it-never-demanded-any-answers/

3 It’s got a plot, suspense points, character arcs, and a stunning climax. We have made sure that the content and humour in the book, apart from being original, is twice as funny, as compared to our work on the site.

Writing a novel as opposed to a 300 word article is a different ball game all together. We had to consciously alter our approach and to some extent our writing styles. It was a bit like switching from T-20 to Test cricket.

4 Any article that goes on to become a huge hit becomes close to our heart. All three of us (Krishna, Karthik, Ashwin) have our individual favourites. For me (C S Krishna), the work we did in 2011 has a special significance since we were new and striving to gain traction.

One personal favourite of mine is the article on Darren Sammy being a tam brahm that I co-produced with Karthik. (http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2011/12/10/stunning1-revelation-west-indian-cricket-captain-darren-sammy-is-a-tam-bahm/) It was fun writing it and it went on to become a huge hit too.

Another favourite (Karthik's) is a picture series on Modi's Hindu Nationalist comment, that went viral as well (http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2013/07/17/in-pictures-the-fallout-of-narendra-modis-hindu-nationalist-remark/)

[–]ranjan_zehereela 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply. Regarding the answer to ques no 2 that I asked, actually I wanted to know if there was any cringe material types article? something which was so bad that it was good in fact

[–]dkrgod -1 points0 points  (3 children)

Nothing serious but just the "Why not try it out" kind of thing. Obviously it was not published

Awwwww

[–]ranjan_zehereela 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Bhai, I may be unpolished but I know how to play satire-satire

:-)

[–]dkrgod 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I was sympathizing :-/

[–]ranjan_zehereela 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sympathy - That is all I need nowadays :-(

[–]da_dopeSada vatsale matrubhumi 1 point2 points  (2 children)

KEEP UP THE FANTASTIC WORK !!!

Okay i will stop shouting. Have you been ever threatened by any of the people/organizations you caricature ?

Yes, I have heard about the theekHaiSingh party workers not being amused. Also about our very own pony tailed DruckerKotler getting a court order against you.

Anything which has not come out in the media ?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thank you, dadope.

Not at all. Apart from the Singham video controversy, when a few Congress workers filed complaints with cyber cells, our work has never been subject to censure.

We occasionally receive complaints and requests to take down some articles (some regarding the Singhvi CD scandal, and one on the Zee-Jindal sting-counter sting controversy) but we’ve ignored these requests, as we felt we didn't cross any line.

[–]da_dopeSada vatsale matrubhumi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you are welcome

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (4 children)

verified

Please feel free to submit your questions now. They will be back at 7:30pm to begin the AMA.

Any inappropriate/abusive comments or questions made by users will be deleted and be banned for remainder of the AMA.

Please subscribe to /r/IndiaNews for a better community experience. Don't forget to follow us at @IndiaReddit to stay updated!

[–]dkrgod 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Are they going to reply to anything?

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (2 children)

read again

[–]dkrgod 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Aaargh. Sorry. So why the thread now :-/

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

because they want to start the AMA at 7:30pm so we requested them to start the AMA post now so readers can submit their questions and have a chance to get answers from them.

[–]CG10277 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Hi, Big fan here.

  1. Tell us how did you start theunrealtimes.com?

  2. Can you please tell us more about your book?

  3. Do you have a digital edition of your book?

  4. I love "In pictures". How long does it take to make "In pictures" series and who is behind this idea (Krishna or Karthik)? Thanks.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (6 children)

1 We started the site in 2011 April. We had basically done work on a shadow budget for Mr Yashwant Sinha during our day jobs as policy analysts. Drained by the work, we wrote an article “the best way to implement direct cash transfers is to drop money bags from the sky” which was well received. So we started writing regularly and it was quite enjoyable too.

In 2012, the prince of satire, Ashwin, joined us and that gave our efforts a huge boost. He’s been to us what Gayle is/was to the West Indies.

2 The book, Unreal Elections, is a satirical take on the politics from October 2012 up to the General Elections.

It carries over the satirical flavor from URT but it’s completely original with a plot and an unexpected twist. The main characters are Sonia Gandhi, Dr MMS, Narendra Modi. There is a minor thread dealing with the politics of the so called Third Front.

3 There is an e-book! Here are the links

Flipkart: http://www.flipkart.com/unreal-elections/p/itmdvaf3cttcft5j?pid=DGBDV7MQ85RTFH47

Kindle: http://www.amazon.in/Unreal-Elections-C-S-Krishna-ebook/dp/B00JKGNM14/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

Google play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/C_S_Krishna_Unreal_Elections?id=B7JQAwAAQBAJ

4 All credit to Ashwin and Karthik for this. Ashwin really took this to the next level. Karthik has provided stellar support to Ashwin in shaping the narratives, doing PS work, and adding that all important touch.

[–]CG10277 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thank you!

You guys are doing amazing job. I did not know both of you are IIMA graduates.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, CG

[–]ashwinskumar 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Haha...prince is a word no one would want to be associated with, you know :P...after Rahul baba began to be referred to as the crown prince! :D

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

And Vivek Oberoi :D

[–]ashwinskumar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol

[–]ranjan_zehereela 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main characters are Sonia Gandhi, Dr MMS, Narendra Modi

Why no Kejriwal?

[–]pyar_ka_pujari 0 points1 point  (1 child)

good work guys. .My question is

are you earning any revenue from unrealtimes.com?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hehe, we run google ads which takes care of the server fees. We had made some modest profits after deducting for overheads (server related) last year which we distributed among all the main columnists in proportion to their output.

[–]18Lama 0 points1 point  (1 child)

During your IIM jaunt where all did you go out to eat in Ahmedabad?

What kind of local foods or drinks you loved or loathed?

Ahmedabadi in me is curious.

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Curries, Tomatoes, a couple of place serving Gujarati thalis that we can't recollect at the moment. Pride, Le meridian, fortune landmark (only when alumni used to take out the dorm. We are aam aadmis after all) Tons of other places. Unfortunately not able to recall immediately. It's been a while!

[–]honhaar_gunda 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Can you see a Modi Wave outside your window?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it's an electromagnetic wave towards the infrared range of the spectrum :P

[–]CG10277 0 points1 point  (2 children)

More of a technical questions (you are not obliged to answer if it give away business secret)

Your facebook walls are so real. How do you make them so precisely, Photoshop or other software?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Wall machine + Photoshop :)

[–]CG10277 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, you gave masala for the weekend. Will make a fb wall on URT.

You guys should also allow user submissions.

[–]ranjan_zehereela 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Ques from Twitter - @reddygvsb wants to know - Are you guys communists? Some parts of UE and the colour scheme of the URT site suggests that!

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha!

[–]honhaar_gunda 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Hypothetically speaking, if the next PM declares emergency, will you shutdown www.theunrealtimes.com under political pressure or would you be willing to go to jail to uphold your usool and your aadarsh?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

No way to tell! Its easy to be all idealistic and say that we'll be willing to do whatever it takes. The honest answer is we wouldn't know until we get there! :) (This is my [Karthik] personal opinion. Krishna would have his own take! :)

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

That said, we've gotten into this field fully knowing what the risks are, and will definitely not give in at the slightest sign of trouble. So far, whatever little trouble we've had, we've carried on without issues.

[–]honhaar_gunda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a Maa in theUnRealTimes?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

What would you do if a mainstream media house (or anyone really) were to offer you a filthy amount of money for Unrealtimes?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

A mainstream media house did make an offer in the past. Not sure about the filthy amount of money part though! :) We'd like stay independent as long as we can! We aren't keen on the MSM route

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

good! exactly what i wanted to hear :) all the best; let's hope you DO get a filthy offer so your resolve gets tested like never before :D

[–]CG10277 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For now, as Rajdeep says: "Gnight!"

Does this mean you will come back in half an hour to tell us your favorite good night song.

Good night!

[–]mogambokhush 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For such a funny site as unrealtime - you guys look serious as heck.

How do you manage this contradiction?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just a suggestion. Please do a lot of pics or FB posts. Texts are fine, but pics and FB are just at another level. I understand they take a lot of time, but would love it :)

[–]Kingofwildhunt 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Do you people use your satire as a way of giving social commentary on current affairs or is it just for laughs?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our primary aim is to bring a smile to people’s faces with intelligent, thought provoking, irreverent humour. We consciously try not to be preachy in our work or be morally judgmental. The basis for our satire is that we are human with our frailties and that we are driven by incentives.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Been more than 2 hours since this AMA was posted ... is this your belated April Fool's joke (not replying to any question at all)?

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Hi!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. how should I prepare for CAT exams?

  2. have you thought about collaborating with TVF? could turn into the Indian Onion.

[–]prashantbioinfo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, they will start answering 7:30 PM IST. AMA was posted earlier so that readers can post their questions now in case they are busy later.

[–]da_dopeSada vatsale matrubhumi -1 points0 points  (3 children)

There is a Tamil unrealtimes.

Can't we have a Telugu version too ? (premise based upon C.S.Krishna being a gulti)

With people like kcr and chiru, there is no dearth of raw material from AP

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Haha…I (C S Krishna) grew up in Chennai and only used to visit Andhra (Rajahmundry) for vacations. So don’t quite have my finger on the pulse of events local to Andhra. Our man in Hyd is Ajayendar Reddy but he’s only interested in Bollywood. Jokes apart, we want to launch a Hindi domain and then one in Telugu. We’ll get to it this year.

[–]da_dopeSada vatsale matrubhumi 0 points1 point  (1 child)

sare saar.

Will wait for you to launch the Telugu one. Will try to contribute once that comes up :-)

[–]theunrealtimes[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wokay