For all the beginners pondering on what Tifosi is, searching it on the internet would be the best bet. I have been a dedicated Tifosi and bitten by the Scuderia bug at an early age and it just stays on from that day.
The motor sport greats like Sir Jackie Stewart, Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda, Juan Manuel Fangio, have moved on sans Michael Schumacher. From Black, Blue, Red to now back to his Black Days, his heart still is Red. Gone are the days of one team domination. The real test of character came back in the days when Damon Hill and Michael fought for the championship in 1997 or the days of the “Flying Finn” Mika Hakkinen and Schumi in the 1998/99 season before he broke his leg and was out for the rest of the season. Thanks to new rules and technology, the sport now sees a more competitive fight to the title race. For the third year in a row, the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix saw the world title being decided at the Sao Paolo circuit. Just as Kimi Raikkonen (in 2007) and Lewis Hamilton (in 2008) sealed their first F1 World Driver’s crowns at Interlagos, the 2009 Drivers’ title went to Brit Jenson Button who finally decided to put some tiger in his tank and motor hard to seal the championship he had dominated in the first half of the season and then nursed it well by cruising in the second half. Of course, knowing how capricious the sport it, credit has to be given to Jenson at the way he saw the superior portrait and wanted to win the confrontation rather than all the 17-18 battles that marked up this year’s F1 World Championship. And Jenson should know. Prior to his invigorating start to the 2009 season, he had won but one Grand Prix, the 2007 Hungarian GP, a fortuitous win at that when rain helped him luck out to the chequered flag first for his maiden GP victory. While Grand Prix wins are hard to come by (its another matter when you are Renault and have a willing driver wanting to check out the crash worthiness of retaining walls all in the hope of being generous to team-mates), a solitary World Championship is even more difficult and maybe at times Jenson was playing it far too conservatively. Heck it was almost a repeat of the last GP of 2008 when Lewis Hamilton played so cautiously that he almost got blown off for the crown for the second year running. But this time Jenson and his think tank (the know-all Mr. Brawn) re-evaluated all what he had done right at the beginning of the year and decided to get back to the intuitive driver that everyone knew him to be. No longer wanting to be ultra conservative, Jenson’s Brazilian drive was pure tempered samba, precise and never a wheel askew even when he made those kamikaze moves while diving into the first corner to carve past rivals who had qualified ahead of him. This steely drive with that true grit approach of a champion was a purists’ delight even if it meant the masses were deprived of a fight going right to the wire as it happened for the past two seasons. So a resurrected-from-the-dead team with a new name, a new engine but the same human power got the job done on its first attempt is pure music to enthusiasts who like nothing better than for someone just like Brawn to come up and shake the status quo. Maybe it would be Force India’s turn this season, who knows! If ever one wanted to see F1 in the best way possible, we had that for a measly ten minutes on the Saturday before the Brazilian GP. It was in Q3, the last flat out qualifying session for the top ten slots and you had not two or three of the title contenders slogging it out for pole, but nine of the ten who had got into Q3 putting on a dazzling display of driving as each of them went head to head against the rest and the clock and the track to try and get the best grid positions for the big race a day later. Barring Fernando Alonso, the sight and aggression, not to mention the pluck and the finesse of the likes of Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen, Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli, Sebastian Buemi, Nico Rosberg, Roberto Kubica and Kazuki Nakajima as they decimated the lap times even before one could gather it all in.
That was truly F1 at its best for 2009 and I sincerely hope that with the newer no-refueling rules for this year, new teams, new point system, new drivers, return of the most successful F1 driver and changes in point system, maybe we will have a return back to the classic art of speed with controlled aggression in 2010. Maybe it is then that the smooth fluid styles of a certain Jenson Button would come into even more sharper focus, especially with the other British Champion with him! Or could be the year we see the resurgence of the “God” again or just the Brazilian Samba with a Spanish retreat with the Prancing Horse flying high. For sure Brawn and brains did seem to Button up quite well as champions!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Bitten by Tifosi Bug
Secular Religiosity
A very curious debate, by some of the trendiest like-minded individuals, is cropping up occasionally in the world media. Religion quite unambiguously is the theme of debate. Chronological scars are put on show. That despite, such deliberations beyond a threshold never end with appeasement. Sometimes it is eradication & sometimes it is acceptance. The arguments' merit is one matter. The treacherous side is that you may infuriate more than you lessen. It's an old therapeutic argument. Check it.
How many religions do we have in the world today? And how many are official religions? There must be an 'International Religion's Directory' at least with the UN, since the two World Wars, & most major historical wars had some sort of a religious coloration. Certainly one would be breaking an eternal law by specifying an order to the listing. For the sake of 'secularism', an over-squeezed lemon that now only oozes the pungent sweat of its peel, the order should not matter. Born in a lnad of many religions, where I belong to a Hindu family, went to a Jesuit school, later to a Hindu College & now in a foreign land, having some of the best buddies who can call themselves Islamic, Parsees, Christians, Jains, having been trained by some of the best scientific minds in the world & found that they follow Judaism, having objectively realized that no one actually forced 'religion' on me, but imparted the best they had to share professionally from their own encouragement, without naming a 'brand name', some of what we can read in the media today is so decidedly 'Old Fashioned'. One does not discuss & argue what should not be discussed & argued & yet cannot be set aside. Our parents for instance!
No God, His Son, or Prophet, descended to fight for a religion. The 'religions' came after They left. For the believers, the chronicles that have been passed on in the Holy Books, rituals, holy times, social laws, were interpreted & followed with sufficient concurrence & uniformity for generations. That became the mass, in fact the critical mass of humanity, by numbers or application & began to enforce on others such practices as they sincerely believed would lead to their salvation! Pursuing
The beginning & end of life, as one sees day in & day out in a hospital are equally joyous or pathetic, depending on the way one looks at it. The ritual of burial, cremation or any other, may keep the pundits & designated priests preoccupied. The sense of loss, or liberation, is a matter of human emotions. These may be called 'subjective', but are more human & consistent than the most objective of ceremonies as dictated by various philosophies, practices, call what you may, or call what you call as 'religion' whatever extra meaning it may give, in a particular situation, once a commonly agreed part of 'life' is over. Does it matter? Forgive me if I am wrong for I ask in full modesty, not questioning it. I have always found the coolest corner to be the one at the base of the staircase of wisdom. For there the path doesn’t rattle, & no one really is out of breath.
In school, I often liked reading John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”. He analyzed & won over the merits of an intellectual existence. To be able to relish measured reason, poetry, literature & decent company, were the 'tastes' of the evolved. He says in his "Two Sonnets on Fame"
“ HOW fever’d is the man, who cannot look Upon his mortal days with temperate blood, Who vexes all the leaves of his life’s book, And robs his fair name of its maidenhood"
But over the course of a century, human choices & understanding are different now. It's better to cheer & chase your T20 or football club. There is this Lebanese colleague who always speaks to me to make sure we have a distraction from work. After his job, we always talk of football, golf, basketball and cricket. I asked once, "Which is your club?" Gives me a disapproving look, saying "Can't you see?” I then notice his Man U wallpaper and the Old Trafford poster in his cubicle. "Rooney is my man, & Alex Ferguson is only next to God. Thirty years as a coach, is no joke". So said a close friend from school some years back, “At the moment, Messi is God” The Man United fan will not be talking to me for a month, till the EPL finals are over, & I am praying that United does well, or I'll miss the few happy, non-manipulative faces that are left around. We might get tired of all the off-the-cuff diagnoses that we can rant, but seldom do we see religion as a factor which determines how a human befriends another.
For a change, it helps to become a believer of the spontaneous & the purposeless act. Happiness is the essence of all existence. If someone asks me my religion, I would rather say, "Let's talk of something that would make both of us happy. If you have realized that, for God's sake never let that be the important thing in judging His creation".
Religion however will stay put in the centre of existence for the majority. No doubts here. Some of the wisest will be seen on screens or tweets and others dividing countries and states on the basis of skin color and religion. Some might argue on how we contemplate humanity if we had left behind these religions centuries ago. Fundamentalism is genetic to a fraction of every community. Those who understand should dissuade its use for worldly alliances or disputes. Let humanity & merit be the universal yardstick. Squaring up the past never helps the present or future.
God is smart. He has no religion. But He keeps you guessing, even agreeing to hints of coming over to 'your' side. He also is accepted by His believers as the final 'Disposer'. For the atheists, perhaps they are smarter. Still no reasons to argue!
If whatever be the purpose has been conveyed & matters reasonably understood, we may not let these discussions drag too long in a country that boasts of being the largest secular country in the world with the richest historical legacy. Plans & strategies evolve for their own reasons. But conciliatory words as 'forgiveness' & 'sorry' are always helpful. Let go of the wrath. You are still on your path!
I would be surprised if Sarfaraz Ali Khan or Ashwin P Rao ever read this, but they always advised me that “You must be like a plant that can blossom anywhere planted” and believed in simplicity in the way you think of leading life. Two men I admire a lot in life for letting me get to the US with no worries in life. Sarfi Saab’s Last email had these aspects…..
The Nine Aspects of Life
Adventure of life is to learn,
Purpose of life is to grow,
Nature of life is to change,
Challenge of life is to overcome,
Essence of life is to care,
Opportunity of life is to serve,
Secrets of life is to dare,
Spice of life is to be friend,
Beauty of life is to give up...........
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Ride Your Ego
If ego can erode brotherly ties between the world's richest siblings, ruin careers and relationships, wipe away fortunes and futures, it surely is a greater force than most of us give it credit for!
Come to think of it, ego is one of the two deadliest traps you could fall into — at work, or even in your relationships. The second is purely emotion. The two forces within that could conspire to ruin you with very little help from external enemies. The enemy is within.
Ego is that blinds you to all else but a perceived slight. And emotion that blinds you to the outcome of your resultant outburst. Ego that makes an entire clan believe their honor has been hurt by a young couple's romantic liaison. And emotion that makes them kill their own child and the lover.
From the Gita to Osho to Buddhist teachings to modern Western analysis of the constructed nature of self, all religions and philosophies have attempted to define ego. Yet, ego remains almost as abused a word as "moron"! "He has a huge ego;" "Don't let ego ruin your relationship," "Ego comes in the way of success" are oft-heard phrases. And yet, how many understand what the word means?
Here are a few definitions. Ego is "a pseudo reflection of the soul" (Lord Krishna in The Gita); "a false sense of the self," (Master Sheng yen, one of the world's most respected Buddhist masters); "an emotionally charged image of self" (Otto Kernberg, pioneering psychologist); "A false centre. The reflection of what others think" (Osho).
So then should one rid oneself of all ego and emotion as religious texts prescribe? Well, so long as you wish to live in the world and not take off to the mountains in a loin skin carrying a kavandal, the better deal surely is to learn to handle ego and emotion rather than give them up!
You can either make ego and emotions your strength or your greatest weakness by allowing someone else to handle them to their advantage. If someone who knows you mildly can play you like a musical instrument, eliciting the emotions and responses they want from you, that is your biggest Achilles' heel. If your enemy knows what most angers you and so makes you lose control, undoubtedly he will be tempted to use his power over you.
In our everyday lives, we are bound to be faced with situations that hurt our ego or incite emotions. A hurt ego almost always responds emotionally. The emotion may be one of sadness, anger, revenge or aggression. Give in to it and you have walked into a trap; to walk away is to transcend on to another plane and feel thrilled with your will power and control over yourself.
People take a catlike delight in playing with those trapped by their emotions. As Deepak Chopra says, managing others begins with managing yourself first. "Business leaders who don't know themselves too well and cannot get a grip on their emotions and ego, fail miserably."
The top performing companies are usually those whose CEOs' names you wouldn't know. They have an ego and arrogance associated with a CEO that has taken them there. That's because "these people were not into themselves; their goal was not adulation or power, but to create a great company." Their companies would do well even after they leave, which is more than what can be said for Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.
The aim should be to develop a high level of emotional intelligence and self-respect, which enables you to think through your emotions intelligently, to use your emotions to help you think more intelligently. Respect people the way they respect you and don’t waste time on people who know not how to respect others. An individual always represents the way he/she is brought up. It is important to stay in touch with who you are as a human being, because that is who you will be in every sphere of life, be it work or relationships.
To that end, ego or an awareness of self is important. Who you think you are is an integral part of who you become.
Darwin was a Genius
The following is purely non-fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely intentional and not coincidental.
Charles Darwin once coined the phrase "Survival of the fittest". Little did he know the magnitude of what he was referring to? To start things off, I'm not talking about natural selection or evolution of species... I'm talking about evolution of a different kind. Human survival!!
This is not about air, water, food or shelter. The basic nature of adaptability is something always been pondering about. How people change over a period of time and how they resist change.
All of us go through major life changes every once a while. To name a few, New school, new job, new places and new friends. Not everything is perfect in these new things that come into our lives. What do people do when they don’t seem to find company or detest the surroundings for some reason?
One of 2 things, either leave their prejudices behind or go talk to the people around. If they aren't exactly their "type" they just change their idea of "type" entirely and go with the flow. Sure they feel rather uncomfortable for a few days but then they get used to it and start having fun. If it’s the surroundings that bother them they try changing it or at least find some positive aspect about it.
Then others on the other hand don't mingle at all for a long time... Or mingle very minimally and constantly crib about the surroundings and rant about how much better things used to be or could have been.
Over a lifetime, we meet both sets of people. The 2nd sort are happy to begin with preferring to be alone than to be in "wrong" company. Or derive some weird satisfaction by telling every soul in hearing distance how perfectly horrid everything is. But as the days go by they get depressed and a vicious cycle starts there. The end result is a dull boring life and poor performance at work or school.
The other set find it a little exhausting at first trying to understand these new people around and manage with whatever they can get. But in some time they are happy and positive and lead comparatively active lives.
But people are not strictly black or white.. Everyone eventually moves on and gets accustomed but not without leaving that bitter taste behind. It all just depends on the individual's ego and the time which they take to 'crossover'.
The human ego is probably the biggest hurdle to happiness. So if you can’t beat them, what are you waiting for..?? Go join them!! :)
Itching
Vertigo
Dizziness
Tingling in extremities
Loss of balance or coordination
Slurred speech
Temporary blindness
Profuse sweating
Heart palpitations
Monday, December 28, 2009
3 Idiots
The one question that I always think of is, “Why did we end up in engineering?” I for one simply went by the overriding family profession and respect coupled by the fact that my Class 12th marks allowed me a free seat at a good college in Bangalore. Some Farhans gave in to parental pressure, others like Raju figured an engineering graduate fresh out of college would get a job easier than an arts, science or commerce graduate, still others decided the four-year long engineering course would complete the 16 yrs of education required to be eligible for the GRE, just a precious few Ranchos came because Mechanical Engineering is what they could visualize doing for the rest of their lives.
If we discovered through first year that this isn't what we were cut out for, opting out would mean sacrificing a year. Not too many of us had the courage, so we just carried on. Conversely, friends of mine who did their undergrad abroad were asked to take all the courses that were not related to their majors in the first semester, so they'd have tasted everything before they decided on what they wanted to do.
As we settled in, we discovered the dreaded ’s’ word in all engineering colleges - submissions. So we got about writing file after file, assignment after assignment, drawing graph after graph. Sure we understood that the observations, inferences and graphs would differ every time the experiment was done, but why we need to hand write the procedure that had remained the same for the past 20 years is still unanswerable? But 'photocopy' was taboo. And the worst part, thanks to some apparatus not functioning properly, or not functioning at all, we actually copied the one thing we shouldn't have - the actual findings, from reports handed down by our seniors!
Then comes the even more fearful oral examinations or vivas as they're popularly called. Having an external examiner come and question you about topics that the internal never covered and put you in a pool of uncertainty. During the written examinations, if you got the right answer but didn't get it in the requisite number of 'steps', chances are your marks would be cut. So we all prayed to the God of memory rather than the God of logic.
Some things came as a whiff of fresh air in this monotonous monochrome, prime amongst those, our third and final year projects. The smell of solder metal in the air, the familiar pricks of foundry and forging, turbines and IC Engines, the excitement of designing and building a concept model and seeing it work - moments I felt truly alive. They were few and far between.
When we finally stepped out of the four-year whirlwind, not one of us was equipped to even read a salary slip, and most of us lacked any communication skills whatsoever - the fallouts of a unilateral, not to mention outdated, syllabus.
I have great expectations from the current HRD minister, who's at least shown some gumption in revamping the school system. From reducing the marks system to Grading system in CBSE, whether he'll ever make higher education more flexible is questionable, but the real point is, that the onus isn't purely on the government. It's on society at large, parents who don't bother to ask their child what their hearts calling is, teachers who don't bother counseling students, professors who insist on memory rather than knowledge, recruiters who go purely by grades and peers who make competition an evil word.
Until we realize that, you could pat your heart a thousand times and convince it that all izz well, which we get along fine with the current system, that restructuring is a distant goal but not an urgent need, but try telling that to the families and friends of the 8000 students who commit suicide in India every year.
warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and may be ignored. No animals were harmed while writing this blog, although the yorkshire terrier next door is living on
borrowed time, let me tell you. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards, so
just ignore that Alert Notice from Microsoft: However, by pouring a complete circle of salt around yourself and your computer you can ensure that no harm befalls you and your pets. If you have
rad this blog in error, please add some nutmeg and egg whites and place it in a warm oven for 40 minutes.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Man behind the "Punch Dialogues"
As happens with all celebrity, he also has his own set jokes…!!! I had this in my email for a very long time. I am sure most of you’ll would have heard or read most of it, but I just wanted to share them for the pun of it
· Rajnikanth makes onions cry.
· Rajnikanth can delete the Recycling Bin.
· Bill Gates lives in constant fear that Rajnikanth PC will crash.
· Ghosts are actually caused by Rajnikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
· Rajnikanth can build a snowman….. Out of rain
· Rajnikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
· Rajnikanth can drown a fish.
· Rajnikanth can play the violin…… …with a piano.
· When Rajnikanth enters a room, he doesn’t turn the lights on, he turns the dark off.
· Rajnikanth once had a heart attack…… ……… his heart lost.
· When Rajnikanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough to get in between Rajnikanth and Rajnikanth.
· Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajnikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
· The last digit of pi is Rajnikanth. He is the end of all things.
· Rajnikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
· Bullets dodge Rajnikanth.
· A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Rajnikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
· Rajnikanth calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajnikanth.
· If you spell Rajnikanth wrong on Google it doesn’t say, “Did you mean Rajnikanth ?” It simply replies, “Run while you still have the chance.”
· Rajnikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
· Once a cobra bit Rajnikanth leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
· When Rajnikanth gives you the finger, he’s telling you how many seconds you have left to live.
· Rajnikanth can kill two stones with one bird.
· Rajnikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
· Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajnikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
· There is no such thing as global warming. Rajnikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
· Rajnikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
· Rajnikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life, unless it gets in his way.
· It takes Rajnikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
· Rajnikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, “Bang!”
· In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajnikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
· Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajnikanth.
· Rajnikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajnikanth only recognizes the element of surprise.
· Rajnikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.
· With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajnikanth is beginning to worry about his drinking habit.
· The square root of Rajnikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajnikanth, the result is death.
· When you say “no one’s perfect”, Rajnikanth takes this as a personal insult.