Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Two many 1's - F1 vs A1 !!

The latest form of an old sport has commenced. This novel idea is christened A1 Grand Prix. The A1 idea tries to take into consideration, the so-called cons of Formula 1 and market it as their plusses. Surely it makes sense to me. The motor sport has now become a country’s affair like any other major sport like cricket and I like that.

In F1, fans like me (Don’t mistake, I still will) used to side with conglomerates and our favourite car makers. One Indian in the field and our eyes were on him throughout, though keeping in mind you favourite team (surely that will not be Jordan). If just one Indian there, renewed our interest in the sport and got the people oblivious to it, watch the sport. Imagine the interest generated, if Team India was in the race. This is where A1 comes into picture. A1 gets the patriotic fever into play. Now, the fans can cheer for their country and blame the driver for his bad driving..;-).

The F1 cars need car-loads (pun intended) of dough to maintain and improve. No doubt, they are mechanical and technological marvel, fastest machines on land. This is something truly admirable but it is a race of mechanical and technical brilliance, combined with skill and aggressiveness of the driver. An understanding of basics of automobiles would increase the audiences’ interest manifold. But not many are interested in the nitty-gritty.
A1 cars on the other hand are equalised technologically and will not be as fast as F1 cars. They will need barely a tenth of the money spent on F1. This is the race of drivers, of the human skill and bravery as the official site puts it. I am sure, there will be more car-flips, crashes and it will be fun to watch. (Oh what a saddist..lol)

F1 is only for an advantage for huge conglomerates. Developing the cars or sponsoring them made, already popular companies like Ferrari, McLaren, Renault etc. a very active player in the world market. And if team XYZ are the winning team, that’s the sweetest part of the cake and XYZ is bound to get the lion’s share in the automobile market.
On the other hand, A1 is about a medium for national and international brands to endorse themselves on a global scale. This is great for brands like MRF, JK Tyres etc. to compete with Bridgestone, Michelin and Pirelli. Likewise the other sponsoring brands can vie for their place across the world.

While our F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan finished fifteenth in his Jordan in the Brazilian GP, Alonso won the first ever championship for Renault, making himself the youngest driver ever to win the GP on 25th September. Narain has reasons to lose – Not a great car and he is a rookie among experts.

Karun Chandok, our A1 driver flipped his car and ended coming 25th in 25 contestants race. He was fifteenth in the qualifiers (called Sprint Race in A1). Excellent start I must say ;-). I wish Chandok luck and hope he wins because he has no reasons to lose in A1 – all cars are the same and most of the drivers are rookies. So he better gear up!!

On the whole, I think the idea is good and we get to watch three high-speed, high-octane, adrenaline pumping grand prix (s / es….whatever the plural is) - F1, A1 and Superbikes.

See you soon. Vrooooom….


Update: My first blog to feature in Desipundit. Thanks Desipundit for the honour.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Summoned by Success

The toil you put in day & night,
sheer dedication throughout your life,
When course is clean and obstacles few,
Then Success shall summon you.

Take your chance,
get the attitude right.
Take the plunge when the time is right,
when opportunity knocks, take the cue.
Then Success shall summon you.

The storm will stop and the wind will blow,
make your destiny and life will glow.
When you fail, start anew,
Then Success shall summon you.

The key is persistence, they always say,
have a foresight to save dismay.
Find the almighty within you,
Then Success shall summon you.
Cheers

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Popeye's mom found

They have just found Popeye's mom i.e Pappy's wife. The photo was specifically released by Paramount Pictures when their intelligence team found her in one of the tobacco hideouts in Marijuana district of the Cocaine district. When asked, "Why she was hiding all along?", pat came the reply,"I yam what I yam". No wonder, that's Popeye's favourite saying.

Pappy and Popeye's joy knew no bounds and they burst into the song -

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I'm strong to the finich
Cause I eats me spinach
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man

I'm one tough gazookus
Which hates all palookas
Wot ain't on the up and square
I biffs 'em and buffs 'em
An' always outroughs 'em
An' none of 'em gets nowhere

If anyone dares to risk me fisk
It's "boff" and its "wham", un'erstand
So, keep good behavior
That's your one life saver
With Popeye the Sailor Man.

I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
I'm strong to the finich
Cause I eats me spinach
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man

Cheers for Popeye

Friday, September 16, 2005

Bangalore Woes...ToI thinks of something

There are numerous fellow bloggers talking about Bangalore’s dilapidated infrastructure on Indian Blogosphere for sometime now. There have been demonstrations by people, criticisms by who’s who, stickers on vehicles asking he CM to wake up et al. Nothing seems to have done any good.
In the article, there is no mention of conditions of roads, the overflowing buses for public transport but WOW, there is one line about traffic decongestion. I see, infrastructure is not top priority at the moment from this article.

Today’s ToI’s front page says they are “they are seeking short term executions to improve the Bangalore Infrastructure” and our ideas can be mailed to ‘peoplepowerbg AT indiatimes DOT com’. I am sure there will be hordes of mails from the bloggers. Hope this ‘short term execution’ ideas make a difference or at least throw a bucket of cold water on the authorities' face.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

A Tribute to Hinduism

Incredible research done on Ancient Hinduism. 'A Tribute to Hinduism' is one of the best sites on the net. Couldn't resist sharing it with all. Do read it.

Cheers

Monday, September 12, 2005

Un-Grand finish to Grand Prix Season

Agreed, there are couple more races to finish the F1 season, but the outcome is already known. The spa circuit in Belgium gave all the answers yesterday. All Alonso needs is 6 points from either of the three forthcoming races.
Mike Schumacher – Being an avid Ferrari fan, I was disappointed this year. Yesterday’s match was nothing new. This time, as Schumi’s ill luck would have it, had to end the race for no fault of his. All he could do in his anger was to give a deserving smack on Sato’s head.
Takumo Sato – He is under investigation for his little misadventure which cost Schumacher his race.
Kimi Raikonnen – Hats off to him. An aggressive driver with a powerful machine showed no emotions on the track while beheading all the opponents. He won the race hands down and the 2 stop strategy worked really well.
Juan Pablo Montoya - Bad luck dude! A race winner for 32 laps but it wasn't his day.
Fernando Alonso – Kudos to the youngest ever Formula 1 champion! He has shown that grit and determination combined with a great car can work wonders. Michael Schumacher has been doing the same for last five years(Featured in F1
hall of fame). But the same man on podium and the same winner every time was making the sport lacklustre. Though a Ferrari guy, I welcome the change for the sport.
Narain Karthikeyan – Man, am I dejected. You bet. My joy knew no bounds when I first heard that one Indian, Narain, stepped into the high-speed world of F1. I was overjoyed to learn one Indian is at the helm of a Jordan car burning the rubber on F1 circuits. But alas! I guess this is the beginning and end of Narain’s career in F1. He did show potential in couple of the races initially and still shows his feisty form once in a while, but he has started drifting behind the pack. He may be the rookie who has completed maximum races, a record which he can claim as his own but that doesn’t hold good for his future.
I do not expect a podium finish but a decent finish and a position ahead rookie team-mate Montiero is all I ask for. The six car American GP, could have been so much better if Narain was on the podium instead of Montiero after the two Ferraris.
Next year, the Jordan team will be launching another driver, the current test driver as their main.Going by the championship points and aggressive driving, Montiero scores over Karthikeyan, which might raise Montiero to the driver’s seat in the one remaning car, God forbid.

Here’s hoping the best for Ferrari and Narain in the three forthcoming races and next season.

Cheers

Monday, September 05, 2005

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan


How could I let 5th September slip by without mentioning Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second president of India. The greatest of all teachers was born on this very day and thus we remember this day as ‘Teachers’ Day’. We usually forget these days which were made for a reason, for remembering our great heroes of the past. Day by day, the value of these "named days" (but for crap rose days, petal days etc.), thus the respect for our great leaders is diminishing. I wish the Indian blogosphere, which writes about everything under the sun, also writes about these great men once in a while and specifically on the day, which is named after the leaders of the yore. I bet there will be many who would have already thought of this. More about Dr. Radhakrishnan can be read here, and also hear his take on dharma. Just one line says what he preached about dharma – “Dharma is paropkara, adharma is parapeeda”.
Read what our now President, Dr. Abdul Kalam says on teacher's day here.
-Signing off with salutations to the great man

To swear or Not to swear....is the question?

Imagine a world without languages, I bet, u cannot. Now imagine a spoken language without derogatory words, and then think of its implications!!!

On the outset, one might argue, what the hell (pardon the pun) if there are no derogatory words, so much the better. But I disagree. Where there are humans, there is bound to be differences of opinions. Where there is mighty and there is a weak, there is bound to be oppression of the latter. As they say, “Everyone is someone else’s weirdo”, there are bound to be differences everywhere.

Now that I can safely assume, you are with me, about differences, I shall delve deeper into my thoughts about a language without offensive words. The foremost implication, I reckon, will be “violence”. As I believe in leading by example, I shall lead you into the gory world ;-) which will prevail, once the 'words' are removed from the vocabulary, with an example.

Any Indian would hate ‘India’ losing a cricket match, be it to Bangladesh or Australia, not to mention Pakistan. And every other match India is humbled. If it wasn’t for those abusive words in English and Hindi and numerous other languages in India, the opposite cricket team and a few members of our cricket team would have been man-handled and mauled par-recognition. “Holy effing shit, where did the talent the cricketers show on TV disappear when they are on the pitch?”, says the city-bred, convent-educated lad in the stadium. "Saaley kisney liya inn logon ko team mein, ‘highest paid cricketers in the world’…aur dekho kaisey kheltey hain", says another one, the local lingo-speaking guy. "&$^* &@* ko *&%$, ye saalon ko lao mere saamney, balla pakadna sikhata hoon", says the illiterate, over-enthusiastic cricket fan (If I typed in the actual words used by them, you will flag my blog for containing derogatory language ;-)).

Take this scenario and cut out the abusive words. There will surely be violence. Mild anger causes one to mouth abuses. There is an instant satisfaction of giving back, if one hurls abuses. But when the aggression gets past this and these words don’t satisfy, then violence breaks out. Thus, if we look at it from this perception, these “words” make a barrier, between the two involved parties. Erase the “words” and there you are, any difference of opinions or whiff of anger, bloodshed will be the only answer.

When I ask the people, why they use these words, rather than ‘let go’ or ‘ignore’. Some say, “Why should I let go, I give back whatever I get”. Some others wisely use a proverb and denounce violence by saying “Violence is the weapon of the incompetent”, but that answer does not justify hurling curses. The wannabe-yankees say “I ain't gonna take no shit”, that may be their reason to swear but grrrr…when are they going to learn, two negatives don’t make a positive in English.

I am greatful to the foul-mouthed, but good friend who constantly reminds me about 'how he cannot survive without swearing' led me to write this. I cannot think of any more implications currently. Leaving it here for you to ponder….

Cheers