It's a Teeny Tiny World

What’s the difference between being in at adjacent room and being on the other side of the globe? Is it the distance? Is it the time taken to send a message across? Is it the proximity or the 3000 miles that separate them? Or is it all just psychological?
With the internet around and mobile connectivity reaching the farthest nooks and crannies of the once huge world, it has virtually shrunk it to the size of, well… a mobile phone??? People know places even before visiting them. We even get back from our visits only to check them out on wikipedia! It's also so weird how people make friends over the phone and on the net more easilythan they might in person!!!
Is there a concept of home sickness? How far is far if we can speak to anyone we want to in the blink of a eye or reach any place on the earth we want to in just about 20 hours? Now, ‘so far removed’ from my family I feel no home sickness. I have not spoken to them, I have not met them but they every small thing I’ve done since I landed here in Atlanta. Not only them, the whole family and the second circle too are up-to-date as well.
With the internet, we don’t have to remember anything. There is no need to remember the Avagadro’s number. We can find out the capital of French Polynesia in a matter of seconds. And oh... the most brilliant of all you needn’t remember the thousand complicated recepies that mom taught you before sending you to the ‘ghar ke bahar’.
As I write Navin’s calling up his friend in the other room to say he’s fine after the thunderstorm. Later, he calls India to tell his mom that he’s doing fine...

Photographie

Long gone are the days where we bought new Colour Film Roll 400's before we went out on excursions. No more AA batteries. We don't have to wait for ages before we view the snaps we'd taken. All this courtesy: the power of electronics. Digital cameras have made photography available to the masses. The USP of most networking sites are their photo managers. In fact they are the very essence of portals like Orkut, Facebook and Flickr.


Photography has become so ingrained in people's lives that they now look to buy cameras that can be used as mobile phones rather than vice versa. The time spent posing for the camera has obviously increased many fold. They are great memoirs of our past actions, they record every detail, every action; good or bad. Nonetheless, there comes a point when you wonder whether posing, or acting, and sometimes missing the real event to capture it on screen is actually worth the effort. I was in this dilemma before my trip to Shimoga last weekend. Having clicked close to 7000 snaps with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5, I was beginning to loose the motivation I had when I had started off.


Hoping that my love for this hobby wouldn't end so early, on Friday I read all I could about photography,cameras, aperture controls, shutter controls, DOF (depth of field) and decided that my main intention of the trip would be to spend time experimenting, while donning the role of a shutterbug. The initial experience with manually setting up the aperture and shutter speed was a bit taxing but as I got the hang of it, came to realise that I wasn't actually doing justice to the camera all these years. It opened up a whole new range of possibilities that I could experiment with.


This tiny bit of learning has made photography so much more interesting, and has thus given me that much more motivation to learn about it. It is a very intriguing hobby. Now, this has also given me an air about myself that I am no longer junta (that I was too, till last Friday). Now, I've attained Nirvana.

Click on the pictures to see what I mean

































Notice VIBGYOR.

















































I almost overlooked the most important aspect of all. Patience. I might not have enough to catch fish, I might not have enough to crack CAT but I did have enough to wait for the right moment, and that's what made all the difference!

Failure Fallout

It's quite sometime now since India was knocked out in the first round of the Cricket World Cup '07. (If you haven't noticed by now, most of my articles are on cricket) The whole country was reeling under the tremendous pressure of loosing to Bangladesh, was it, it's so long ago my memory fails me.

There was lot of talk in the media about cricket not being given enough impetus at the 'grass root' level. All the channels, experts panels, came out with the same conclusion. The aftermath of this debacle was almost the same as any other: get bitten, analyse factors that can't be changed, chit chat on screen, analyse a little more, fill the media and newsprint, forget, and get bitten again to complete rounds of the same cycle.

Reversal of this trend needed something out of the ordinary. Kapil's polarised views with the BCCI, resulted in a rift and hence a conscious effort on it's part to regain most of it's lost players to the ICL (the breakaway group initiated by the former skipper). BCCI, with all it's monetary muscle and influential clout was able to rope in the biggest stars of the country to promote this new league. For the record, Indian cricket earns ICC 75% of it's global revenues. The SRKs, the Mallya's and even the starlet Preity Zinta have been in the news in the past few days, not for their acting skills, not tabloid controversies but for promoting a sport!!! As shocking as it may sound, they was invested more 150 Cr between them to buy, yes buy players for the teams they represent. I wonder what happened to all the controversy of the BCCI ordering King Khan against appearing for matches that India played.

Let's come to the chunk of the whole imbroglio. Dhoni: $1.5 mill, McGrath:sold at base price, Yousuf Pathan: $0.475 mill, Ponting: $0.400 mill, Manoj Tiwari: $0.675 mill (who the hell is he)............. (this has been intentionally left incomplete and is to be figured out by the reader).

Cricket is becoming more of a business than ever before. It has stretched the limits of professionalism to business. Looking back in retrospect, it doesn't seem wrong that Sachin, Dravid and Saurav were getting this money with their ad campaigns, that they were reprimanded and lambasted for. After all, why are professionals called so? To earn money. It so happens that India is so passionate about this sport that it fails to look at these people as professionals.

But in the end, this move, that I credit to Kapil Dev, has done everyone a world of good. It gives young cricketers in India a chance to play with the likes of Ponting, Lara, Pollock. It gives the oldies a chance to play the game they have so loved. The money invested helps keeps the economy going. The cricket grounds will be in better shape. The hospitality industry will improve and so will tourism. The fallouts are numerous and, I'm glad, are also positive.

Not just Another Brick in the Wall

Psychedelic Rock! What in the world is that? and Progressive Rock? Some people would think it to be more decadent than the name suggests. Then why the fan following and in fact sometimes fanaticism about this band called Pink Floyd. During thee 70's and 80's they played music that was always associated with that extra puff that would get you to understand and vibe better with them. In fact, there was a time a friend asked me in response to my liking Pink Floyd, "Do you dope?". It was only in time I learned what that statement meant and how odd a fan I was!

I have never understood their lyrics and don't think I ever will. But their music has always been a indefatigable source of inspiration for millions including my room mate, RGB. The music can take you to a high, that in my opinion, even the biggest puffs (of magic purple dragons) cannot not give you. The intoxicating guitar, the esoteric lyrics, the blinding pyrotechnics and light displays, all contributing to an enthralling performance that literally mesmerizes you.

Roger Waters had come to Mumbai as a part of his promotional world tour of Dark Side of the Moon. The concert was, well, not as flamboyant as Pulse, but that was a different story all together. That was more of a wonder for the elite than something for us, the bourgeois. Not disparaging the performance here by any means, it was awe inspiring. It wouldn't be too presumptuous for me to hint at me coming to Mumbai to work as divine intervention.

Roger Waters had come to Bangalore 4 years ago and I missed him that time, but this time I kept my date and it was worth every penny I paid. This adds on to my tally of three: Sting, Mark Knopfler and now Raaaauuuuger Waaaterssss.

The Dark Side of Roger Waters

How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

I have, since the time I was young, always wanted everything to be done at a time that I chose and and a pace I was comfortable with. I usually blew my top when there was something slow, someone slow or anything getting excessively delayed. I could convince people to do what I wanted them to. I don't know if that was something innate or something I acquired. I had my bike and I could leave home few minutes before I needed to reach the place. I had never waited. I had had it easy. All the while I thought that I could do anything I wanted but Shakespear thought otherwise. I was poor!

All of this, till I came to this place that everyone said will give me a good exposure. And Mumbai didn't disappoint. This city of large distances, right from day one thought me time and time again to wait, to have patience.

I had to travel by public transport, something I had never done before, because I never had to. In this gigantic city of unending surprises, I had to start traveling two hours to and back form work. I lost my cool. But slowly realized that, that was how a metro would be and had to live with it. Someone had moved my proverbial cheese.

In time I did keep learning how to adjust to the cheese being moved, tried to keep changing with time, trying to keep my motivation up, and each time trying new techniques to rid myself of the blues. It could be music, sport,movies, prayer, excursions... or anything.

Living outside home is not difficult if you break the problems down; can manage with the food, can keep the place clean, can wash clothes, can handle the pressures at work, can fight boredom.... but doing them all together, and moreover without the family is what is difficult. But again as I said, I have learned to move with the cheese and that has kept me enthused.

Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself,
though even there he will have to put up with himself.

AMAN

This will be a short article as far as my words are concerned. The video, I'm sure will speak for itself.



Let me give you a small commentry about the whole video. First of all is the tuning of the engine. i.e. The initial running in. The next scene is Megh filling up the tank. After that Niranjan and I strap up the plane with rubberbands. Megh then cranks the engine and...... it finally starts. And Adarsh revs it up. [I love the sound that the engine makes] Then Anjan helps me put the parachute into the drop-box.

Aman taxies to the take off position. Aman take off! I give a small shot at flying. You can also see that the payload works.
And, last of all,

Aman Has Landed

Man or Machine (revisited)


There has been a lot of talk among our small group of friends about Michael Schumacher. And in particular - his ability (or inability) to win. He is a true champion, no doubt about it. The records speak for themselves. He won the drivers championship not only with Ferrari but with Benetton as well! He holds the records for the maximum driver's championships, maximum poles, maximum podium finishes, maximum wins in a season, maximum.......well almost everything. And in 2002 he finished every race on the podium, with 11 victories out of 17 races! He is the highest earning sportsman by more than double! Phew!

One aspect that still baffles me quite a lot is "Is it the Man or the Machine" in Formula 1. With all due respect to the winners, I am quite sure that this still is a sport where your equipment decides your success. True, your ability is tested; but that is quite meaningless if you are in a slow car. Or in an unreliable one. Eddie Irvine is a classic example. He was among the top three drivers during his time with Ferrari. But after his shift to Jaguar he slipped right down to the bottom rungs of the sport. But his skill was good enough to get him a podium finish with relatively much slower Jaguar in Monaco. But his success rate was much lower than when he was with the scarlet red Ferrari team.

Coming to the most important and popular person in motor sport, Schumi, he began his career with Jordan as a replacement driver. He performed exceedingly well in his debut. In Shumi's first two seasons with Benetton he drove to his potential but was unable to deliver because of the limitations in the car compared to the Williams and McLarens. The '94 and '95 season saw him win the drivers championship for Benetton. Some reasons for that might be: In '94 the Benetton was the fastest car on track by far. It was so fast that its raw speed fuelled thoughts among people, that the team had found a loophole or a way to violate the FIA regulations. '94 also saw F1 lose one of it's heroes Aryton Senna. Now, there was no more competition for someone of the class of Michael!

In '95 the richest company wanted the best! Michael joined Ferrari and has never contemplated leaving it since. But Scuderia, with not even one Championship win till that time, couldn't give Michael the machine he needed to win. Improvements in the car were made constantly and by '99 they had the car to show the world that they were the best. Unfortunately a brake failure saw Schumi crash, break his leg and lose out on more than half the season. By the turn of the millennium it was Schumi all the way. Schumi and Hakkinen, his only competitor, were in a different league all together. But Mika got the better of Michael. In 2002 Ferrari won 15 out of 17 races. Schumi won 11 of those. This was the time Kimi, Montoya, Alonso were getting the hang of F1 'and learning their first lessons'. Then came Ferrari's (temporary) slump. In '04 Michael managed to hold off Kimi to win the championship by one point. The car they released for 2005 was the "pits"! The tyres didn't help make things better.

2006. Things weren't looking too bright for the Ferrari - Michael combination, with Renault winning the first three races. In San Marino, the race held last weekend, Schumi drove magnificently in the middle portion of the race where the Ferrari was much slower than the Renault of Alonso. This is the best I have seen him drive in a long long time! This is why I became his fan. To hold back a faster car (moreover that of Alonso) takes some doing! And he did it with relative ease. Is this a come back. Or is this a one-off? Let's wait and watch! Alonso will give the "speedmaster" a run for his money.

Getting back to the main argument. The "Man or Machine" issue can be looked at from another perspective. That Formula 1 is a team sport and the driver is only a part of this big team. So, the "Man" and "Machine" are essentially one. Then why does the driver get all the credit? Doesn't every man doing his small part deserve a share in the glory that the driver gets, for the sleepless nights that they have put in to get their "Machine" in top form to get their "Man" to the top?

Talent is one thing, and having the car to show it off is another! If the right combination can be found, they will be invincible. Like the Ferrari - Schumi one. Another is the budding combination of Renault and Alonso!

Any guesses for the victor of 2006
GO ALONSO!