LORD OF THE MINDS

The most loved, most hated, most admired, most controversial, most bitchy... (the list goes on... ) reality show is back with a whole new season. And this time, it promises to be a "Hell Down Under". Yes! I am talking about Roadies which enters into its Season 6. Like each time, it has a bunch of wannabes from various parts of the country vying to become the last surviving Roadie and win the final grand prize. Like each time, they have Karizma bikes to ride through their journey. Like each time, they have Rannvijay as their host. But hey, there sure seems to be something different this time.
For starters, this season all the auditions were taken up by the bald twins. So unlike earlier times, you don't have Nikhil/Rannvijay or other MTV VJs taking up any of the auditions. Some real weird characters emerged from these auditions. I remember this girl from Kolkata auditions - Paulomi. Apparently, the craziest thing she had done was try to suicide. She was branded as a Psycho by the judges. But surprisingly, she was chosen. I guess anything that is not typical is news, and news sells. And since its the contestants who are the biggest selling factor of the show, non-typical contestants are the selling factors of Roadies. Another interesting character during the auditions was Ashish from the Mumbai auditions. That guy had apparently prepared for 2 years for the audition. He had studied the earlier auditions and planned how to answer to what all questions. The guy got such a solid bamboo from the judges that he would never even dream about the auditions ever in his life.

So finally after all that, 20 Roadies were chosen by the panel of judges to take part in this season's show. Now on their first day, after meeting each other and partying around at their first location in Manesar, the first shock was revealed. Some 10 Roadies were chosen as safe by Raghu and his team and 10 others had to "Prove themselves". Their task was some series of military type drills. The team members were tied to one another by legs and arms. Before the task started, Akshay Kumar (who seems to be at every place where there is action related stuff going on) wished them luck over a video shot earlier and also informed that the team losing will be immediately eliminated.The task was tough as it involved a lot of coordination and correct decisions in terms of jumps etc. The part of climbing the rope structure and lying on the ground and cutting your way below a wire structure was dirty and difficult as they were all tied to one another. Finally eating parathas laced with mud without using hands is obviously not easy. Finally the yellow team of 5 completed it faster than the green teamand so the latter were immediately eliminated.
But it was not over for the episode. The vote out, one of the core elements of Roadies, had to be undergone. The yellow team went through the vote out in which Sufi, one of the strongest contestants in this edition, got eliminated. The politics had started and we had not even completed Episode 1. Sure, politics seems to be integral to every edition of Roadies.
Next episode, the Roadies literally start their journey on their bikes. Let's see how hellish is this Hell that Roadies 6 is billed as! But for the show's and Roadies' sake whatever happens, I sure hope the spirit and passion that is synonymous with Roadies is surely on display this time.