Passion rules the Game

So its me again. coz I am the only one doing nthng as of now. sunny is in pune, living his dream at bajaj auto. Rohan has also strted with his job, looking pretty decent as of now. So tat leaves me and Junaid as we say always bekaar, lukkha and what not.....

Most of these days have been spent by me doing nthng, sitting and just dreaming of big things, lots of money, lots of places to go to, lots of lists already exist in my mind of "to do things"....

Life has been on a roller coaster ride in the past few days. From good news tat I am still being considered for automation department to the news tat I cannot be absorbed into process control. Then came a super shock, when a candid chat in the canteen turned out to b an interview.....what is the freq vs current response of a rlc series circuit.....total bouncer....still managed to crack it.....all because of those basics tat are considered trivial.....anyways...managed to crack it somehow..

Then came the hardest part....waiting ...waiting...waiting for a reply....mentally preparing myself for the worst news and the good one as well.....was almost drained out of all energy waiting for a reply.....what if they say NO....every assurance I gave to myself and got from friends and mom....had that end....what if NO...being so close still if I dont make it....it will b harder to go to tech mahindra than before....back then there were no options and all thru the final year I somehow prepared myself to go to TM for a year or so....

Finally the news came...drives and motion control dept....was happy...but was kind of prepared for that news...so not surprised.....but mom was very tensed and I saw her crying after a long time when the news came in....the feeling was just awesome...kind of the same when i got the news of getting electronics engg at RAIT....and I knew now the time has come....its upto me now....I make it or break it....and I know I will make it the way I want it to be....

And in the past days I saw a documentary on Mclaren Mercedes F1 team....extensive footages and interviews of Mclaren drivers Alonso and Hamilton and boss Ron Dennis..was so moved by the whole story of Lewis Hamilton....when a 8 year kid goes to a ceo(Ron Dennis) on stage and pulls his pants and tells him..." i have just won the british junior championship....and one day i would like to drive your car"....and what a journey it has been since then for him...he is 22 now and has been racing for the past 13 years....and i am 22 now and driving INDICA occasionally.....well srry, no over ambitious comparisons

He and his father saw a dream, one day lewis will drive a F1 car....and they saw it when lewis was 6.....and there has been no black driver in motoracing's 50 years of existence....and they worked towards it...It was a pact....lewis will pursue his dream but not let studies suffer and dad will work two jobs, one for the household and one for his son's dream....to build him go karts....

Ron Dennis gave him his chance when he was 9.....he won, they paid for his studies and racing.....Ron dennis says " when i met him as a child....he spoke more thru his eyes than his mouth....they said it all" ....the most striking line in the whole documentary was when Ron says for Lewis" he is confidence devoid of arrogance".....

All this comes down to one thing....a tear in lewis's fathers eye when his son was on podium in his first ever F1 race....the dream accomplished....and what a way they did it.....

As for me, the chase towards the dream begins shortly....standing on a formula 1 podium as a team engineer....but the Q remains...who will be the one shedding a tear??????

3 Kings and a Jack

Formula 1 could well be rated the most glamorous sport in present day world. With other sports catching up on this speed extravaganza, F1 might still manage to be a shade superior. The billions of pounds pumped in stand as a testimony. I am not saying that its pay cheques or the research figures in the ‘business’ but it is by far the most engineered sport. Passion revs up at 20000 rpm on the straights and enthusiasm propels life at 5 times gravity on the trickiest of chicanes. Though the FIA is infallibly trying to make the sport safer, year after year records have been broken. With the onset of yet another season, though it still stands about more than two months of painstaking testing, it surely promises a lot more than it has done in the past.

“I don’t support any racer or team, it is the game I live for” well that has always been my getaway statement each time I have been asked whether I was pro-schumi or the other way. I have loved every bit of the excitement; to a list a few:

It talks about 3 Kings of the Trade and a JACK …

Fernendo Alonso:

Better known as: Youngest F1 Champion

I like him for: ENTHUSIASM. That comes with keenness and a fantasy to win. The way he challenged Michael Schumacher, I respect him for the COURAGE.

I hate him for: TREACHARY. Ditched Renault and left for Mclaren. Can’t wait to see a previously overshadowed Fissichela beat the hell out of him in the Renault.

Michael Schumacher:

Also known as: Greatest F1 racer EVER – Legend – Laps of God

I like him for: SPEED. Others took three pit stops, he took two and won. Did it the other way, and still won. Spun, started from 20^th position and won again. A recap of all in the last race again – If there was ever a God for Racing, he drove a FERRARI.

I hate him for: POPULARITY. It is his popularity that’s got him all the accusations to be a cheater and a spoilt sport.

Kimi Raikkonnen:

Also Known as: The Iceman

I like him for: AGGRESSION and he is a FIN. Love to see his anxiety to get ahead of the leader on the first lap itself.

I hate him for: TOO AGGRESSIVE. The Mclaren didn’t respond well. Try it on the Ferrari – He’ll win for sure.

Jaques Villeneuve:

Also known as: Captain Bonkers – Jack Attack – Son of the legendary racer Giles Villeneuve

I like him for: Extremely UNPREDICTABLE moves on the field that has stunned racers and most significantly Steve Slater (the christener of all the above mentioned names). Today he stands not more than a badly paid champion from an acme of being the world champion (year 1997).

I hate him for: NOTHING. Who hates entertainment? If F1 was entertainment, he is my choice.

KEEP CHECKING THIS SPACE FOR MORE F1 Related BLOGGING.

AT LAST IT'S OVER

Caught up with the vivas, this is the first time i couldnt find time to reflect on my passion.....ya thats FORMULA 1.

The last week will remain etched in every formula 1 fans memory for as long as the love for the sport prevails. The reason being a very obvious one , the retirement of the most successful driver EVER, MICHAEL SCHUMACHER.

Well to start with i guess i always hated Michael Schumacher, not because i loved Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen, but just because it was boring to support the already successful guy, so its better to support an underdog, fighting to establish supremacy.

Also i have time and again argued that Michaels successs was a lot coz of his luck. He has been extremely lucky at times, if formula 1 fans remember the occassions, there have been plenty when the hand of GOD literraly dropped victory in Michaels lap:)

But since the last few races when real bad luck has doged schumi , when he least needed it, i have strted thnking is it really true that we pay for our bad deeds here itself on this earth. The dialog from jhankaar beats keeps ringing into my ears "duniya gol hai aur har paap ka double role hai".

Well that being the lighter side of the whole matter, but technically speaking i dont thnk we remember ferrari blowing an engine since 2001, ferrari facing fuel pressure problems ever since i have strted watching formula 1, ferrari's tyre bursting with just a slight contact(even that still remains a controversy whether it was actually a contact with fisichela). Can anyone really imagine ferrari technical director saying that it was difficult to turn MICHAEL's car in time.

All these thngs dont seem normal at such a time when the best team in the world is running for its lost glory to a 20 smthng kid, fresh on the calender. I really cudnt believe my eyes when i saw ferrari's engine blowing off, the greatest shock of my life. Normally i feel extremely happy when thngs go wrong with ferrari or michael, dunno why but i just feel happy that others are making their mark.

But this day was exceptional, i felt actually sad, dejected and really filled with emotions unable to say in words, all the past years were like standing and staring in front, all the good days, all the clean sweeps made by michael were looking like they were being done not by michael, not by ferrari, but by some divine intervention. And today HE decided to pay back to michael, suddenly the 1500 men slogging for years day in and out were mere spectators when HE decided to intervene to deliver DIVINE JUSTICE.

Same was the experience when i saw the last race, brazil, it was again as if it was payback time for michael. the newspapers next day said ' THE FLAWED GENIUS'. I really felt sad that more than 10 years of exceptional success has earned michael this title ' the flawed genius'.

This made me realise how cynical we have grown in our attitude, all we cud see of him was his 2 mistakes made, maybe some others as well, not so significant. Why cudnt we write about the way he raced despite his brother just gng through a 350 km/hr accident directly into a wall, lying unmoved in his car on the US race track. He still raced. i dont thnk it will be easy for any human to do that. Why cant we remember that he raced when his mother was counting her last breaths in a hospital, he could have easily asked ferrari to go with a sub driver.

There have been many examples where he has shown sportsman ship that is difficult to find. But we dont care to remember and respect them, and this we includes me as well. Be it michael schumacher or anyone else, dont we have the same attitude towards everythng.

At the end of it all i was convinced that there exists GOD, and maybe it was schumi to his fans, for me it was his spirit which reflected GOD, at times it wavered, but at the end it was intact.

The most touching words to read of that day were after race when schumi hugged his father his father said " at last its over ". thats all one can say after being there and done that, its over.

I hope we see another schumacher in the making in the next few years, coz without him i guess we wont enjoy formula one as we did with him

As Sunny Makkar hopefully says
For the face of aggression whose machine always let down his performance, on the last few laps this season he drove wheel to wheel with GOD himself. There was a momentary contact and the legacy was passed. Go Kimi, scuderia ferrari and 2007 awaits you.