Racing for last position.....

Only the best drivers in the world compete in Formula 1. Never have doubted that. Never will. The capabilities needed to make it to the top tier of racing drivers and drive one of those machines around a track is no mean feat and way beyond normal average humans. In this respect, all those drivers who have walked the pit lanes and burnt tyre and clutch, to fight for pole position and race victory, are heroes.

And of course, when it came time to see my compatriot, Narain Karthikeyan graduate from the feeder series to the top pedestal in the Jordan Formula 1 team, I could not be more proud. I have been a Formula 1 fan since 1997 and a fanatic since 1998 when Mika Hakkinen started his campaign en route to 2 world titles. He still remains my hero and will always be, despite the amount of brilliance to be found in today's crop of F1 drivers. In that same context, I have followed Narain's vicissitudes with great interest. He started where most drivers start, the minnow teams - Jordan and HRT - along with his affairs with IRL, A1 GP, NASCAR etc.

The thing that always fascinated me about these F1 gladiators, is their will to win. Mark Webber came from Minardi, a team known for always being bog last. Today he is a driver for Red Bull, a top flight team, that has just won the Constructors Championship for the third time running. Kimi Raikkonen came from Sauber, Michael Schumacher came from Jordan and Benetton, Mika Hakkinen came from Lotus. Basically, minnows of their times. And all of them, made it great. Made an impact on the world of racing and an enormous impression on me.

Now, I turn to a race that was as disgraceful as it was hilarious. I am referring to the 2005 USGP at Indianapolis. There were two tyre suppliers back then - Michelin and Bridgestone. All the cars running Michelin rubber  (7 teams, 14 cars) had to pull out because of a problem with the tyre construction. Which leaves 6 cars on the grid to run the race and fight for that illusion of victory. And the teams were perfectly stratified - Ferrari - Tier 1; Jordan - Tier 2; Minardi - Tier Absolute Last.

So predictably, Michael Schumacher takes the cake, Barrichello follows home in second, Tiago Monteiro came third followed by Karthikeyan. The exact running order at the start of the race. And that's my point. The un-spectacular nature of Narain Karthikeyan. He could never take the fight to his team mate at Jordan in 2005, presently in HRT or the other series he has ever raced at. True, he has taken victories and pole positions, but those have been few and far between and none in F1.

Vijay Mallya, in so many words, said this long back. When asked if Team Force India will have an Indian driver, he shot straight back saying, there was no driver good enough. And that  is the bitter truth. Karun Chandhok has not graduated to F1. And Narain Karthikeyan is mediocre. In that hallowed world of F1, he is as bland as beige and as devoid of zing as grey porridge. It is sad this. And so, I guess, "Karthikeyan comes in in the last position" is an inevitability. 

Hate Speech in India.... really.......

As long as these laws, and any such are present and valid in the Constitution, India is not going to be great. We are not destined to be a super power or anywhere near that as long as we have these tonne heavy shackles of bullshit tied to our limbs. India is a secular country, and these laws directly contradict that very quality.

India prohibits hate speech by several sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and by other laws which put limitations on the freedom of expression. Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure gives the government the right to declare certain publications “forfeited” if the “publication ... appears to the State Government to contain any matter the publication of which is punishable under Section 124A or Section 153A or Section 153B or Section 292 or Section 293 or Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code”

Section 153A of the penal code says,inter alia:

Whoever (a) by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, promotes or attempts to promote, on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, or (b) commits any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, and which disturbs or is likely to disturb the public tranquility, . . . shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.

Enacted in 1927, section 295A says:

Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of [citizens of India], [by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to [three years], or with fine, or with both.

Courtesy Wikipedia. 

Reiterating my own statement : All religions are equal. Equally worthless. 

The young sailor's enthusiasm.

Carried by the westward breeze,

On a sail of crimson, blue and sienna,

Step after step, hand in hand

Into the sinking sun, with the young sailor.

With gaiety and humor,

Animal noises and boisterous laughs.

Funny faces and a hippety hop,

Into the sinking sun, with the young sailor.

Of stories, sailing over the deep blue,

to the legends of sails and souls.

A will to live, to yearn.

Into the sinking sun, with the young sailor.

From curiosity that sparks,

As wild fire it spreads.

Never at rest, at peace.

Torment of knowing new,

what many did ignore.

A myriad of colours,

A carpet of magical hues.

Into the farthest it stretched;

And beckoned ever so strongly.

The young sailor answered

the call of the Sol.

And into its fleeting wake,

Ran, chasing a dream.

Chasing into the bright unknown,

To catch the setting sun.

A Nightmare to Remember.....

I do not know if it is the wine talking, but let the words have their way regardless. I think the pain will never go away. Only the throbs of it keep getting milder, a bit more bearable, if you might. Tears rolled down when I heard the song live, in the memory of somebody who I can no longer share it with. But the memory will live on, especially every time the song plays.

I left the tears behind, when the song unraveled in front of me. When amidst the whirlwind of musical notes, any and all cries were lost in the sound. After stepping out of the door, it felt like closure. An assurance, that I would remember the great memories and be able to live with the darker ones, for "....If I die tomorrow, I'll be alright, because I believe, that after its gone........the spirit carries on."

Oh My God....

Just saw the movie. The first sensible movie that Akshay Kumar has done in ages. Paresh Rawal has played the role of Kanji Mehta to perfection. And the theme of the movie is where the strength is. Apart from the slight cowardice at the end. Instead of going the full monty and saying that all religion and every god is a fairy tale and be treated as such, the movie still keeps the concept of divine faith alive. Nevertheless, logic, common sense and human ethics are far older than religion and that every god survives on the nutrition named fear has been reinforced and that is great.

In a hopelessly religious country like India, it is a good start. Do watch this movie. Ratings not required. Thought is. 

Divine outpouring, my arse!

An uber profane rant about God and his stupidity. You read and are disturbed, then you are a twat.


"Jab Uparwala deta hai, to chappar faad ke deta hai!" - This is in Hindi, when roughly translated into English means "As and when God wills, it doesn't rain, it pours!"

By the dint of hard work, perseverance on my part and a lot of sacrifice, strength and support on the part of my family and friends, I have hit a bit of purple patch in life right now. But a number times now, from multiple mouths, I have heard the above mentioned adage. Now I do not care much about religion and God and all the perfumed-up bullshit. But this time, I think it has gone a tad too far.

I am a little miffed at friends and family who used this adage to describe the arrival of good times. I mean, I would be happier giving them the credit. They do deserve it. Everybody worked hard for some considerable length of time to make it happen. And I, sure as the sun, am not a cunt, for not giving out much deserved props.

But now, thanks to that adage, I am supposed to thank the bearded cunt in the clouds for everything. So , all this fucking time, when I was struggling and depressed and my near and dear ones were working hard and helping and supporting me, this faggoty God was in a deep fucking slumber and then all of a sudden he wakes up,shakes off his fucking daze and with a fucking flourish of his shitty hand, makes everything right? What an absolute cunt.

Ergo, please, if you have played a role in me being a little more successful, please claim the praise and credit. Lets revel in the genuine joy of being optimistic, hard working and loving humans. And leave that divine asshole out of this.

Intertwined problems of an independent nation

""Is it Muslims only who have feelings? What about Hindus? When Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur were arrested, did anyone think of feelings of Hindus?" Thackeray questioned."

The above excerpt is taken from this article here. And I think it represents the kind of entanglement of problems that India is finding itself in, all of them at once.

First for some background and context. Thackeray is Bal Thackeray, leader of the Shiv Sena, a regional political party with a strong foothold in Maharashtra. And the backdrop for these comments are the recent riots in Mumbai, much better told about in the article and related.

Following is what I find wrong with the outtake :

1. "Is it Muslims only who have feelings?"
Objectively or otherwise, No. Everybody has feelings. But a country cannot be run on feelings. When you call a country secular, you have rules and a Constitution that is based on that very secular thread. Unfortunately, the Constitution of India is not very accurate when being judged on the secular parameter, which is where the problems begin. Ironically, the definition and outline of what secular means in the context of India has been clearly outlined in the Constitution.

2. Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur

Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi is a Hindu seer, read more about him here. The main thing to establish context here is, the seer was arrested on November 11, 2004 and charged by Tamil Nadu state prosecutors with being a conspirator in the murder of a temple manager, Sankararaman. So, he being a Hindu and a seer does not have anything to do with anything. He was being charged and treated as a criminal being accused of murder. If you feel bad for an alleged murderer, please try to be objective and not a cunt.

Sadvi Pragya Singh Thakur a long-time Sangh Parivar worker and believer in its core ideology of "Hindu rashtra (nation)". She has been arrested and awaiting trial for orchestrating the Malegaon bomb blasts. The charge sheet for the crime has not yet been filed, holding up trial, indicating something fishy being afoot.Though for the purposes of this write up,objectively speaking, she is a terrorist. And that should be the end of that.

3. The Hindu-Muslim problem. 

Now, this will directly date back to the time when India was first attacked by rulers from Central Asia and I think the bad taste for what India had to suffer at the hands of Muslim invaders and rulers over a number of years has remained. Fast forward to pre-Independence India, the riots leading up to the Partition of India and the aftermath did not help at all. The formation of Pakistan, a Muslim majority state, the Kashmir insurgency problem, wars with Pakistan did not help. Then came the Shah Bano case and twisting of secular laws in the Constitution and laid down by the Supreme Court, demolition of the Babri Masjid and the riots that followed that and the tension that has remained ever since in one way or another. Be it the Godhra train burning incident and riots that followed in its wake, 26/11 terrorist attacks, Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad or the recent spates of violence that erupted in the North East. 

As a secular country, India should not let religion dictate the politics. Even though the word secular was added in the preamble only in 1976, the country has always been secular in spirit. But right from the moment India became free and wrote her own Constitution, religion has never stayed out. It has become part and parcel of the way we think about the idea of India's existence, which is stupid because so many religions have their fingerprint in this land and have basically co-existed in peace for so many years.Even though 65% of India's population is Hindu, we take pride in calling ourselves secular. 

And that is how it should be. A spade should be called a spade. Two wrongs cannot make a right and tit for tat can never be the foundation for a sane ideal. A crime should be treated as such without being viewed through the tinge of religion, caste or creed. We need to be better Indians, to make a better India, not religious douchebags to create an unstable State. Objectivity and common sense need to be restored in the system to make that happen. This will take time. But India does not have another way out. 


Thanks to additional comments and inputs by Swayambhoo Jain and Balaji Sridharan on this write up.

Fast unto fret....

Had my weekly chat with my parents back in India and my Mom happened to mention that one of my cousins had completed a 4-day fast. Now, for some background, I was raised a Jain. My parents still believe in Jainism, as do most of my relatives, including this cousin we are talking about. And Jains are sado-masochistically anal about the religious duties that are to be performed during their 8 day Paryushan festival. A lot of them have 8-day or less fasts, eat only boiled stuff, stay away from onions and other roots etc etc. And when it comes to fasts, it isn't like moving your normal diet to fruits and milk. Oh no, Jain fasts mean you live only on water, consumed between sunrise and sunset. Nothing before and after, respectively.

Now, this seems hugely impressive, and it is. Fasting like that for 8 days on trot. My elder brother did 11 and everybody is the family celebrated the second coming. Now, as any sane doctor or dietitian will tell you, losing 50 pounds in 8 days cannot be healthy and will have its repercussions. But that isn't what blew my top.

So, coming back to the Skype chat, my Mom mentions my cousin doing this 4 day marathon of consuming and committing nothing and consequently Mother beloved has to go to Mumbai for the formal meet and greet celebrating this human stupidity. As if this was not enough, Mom said that if I were to do something similar, she would visit me in the US. AND NOT OTHERWISE, BECAUSE IT WOULD COST A LOT OF MONEY FOR NO REASON!! And she wasn't kidding too. I asked her thrice again as to what she meant, and she meant exactly the thing stated above.

The only way I can represent my anger through words here is that I wanted to burn every single Jain temple down to the ground. It is exactly this kind of insanity in religion that justifies something that is totally unnecessary and yet denies something that is so simple and needed. Fuckin hate religion. And now, even more so.

This 15th of August....

Saare jahan se achcha, Hindustan hamara....   - No. Not really. It might be optimistic to say this, if we were really addling/crawling to some semblance of progress. Maybe there is progress. For who, I have no clue. Numbers on some paper does not reflect in real life.When that happens, I will add the Happy in front of Independence Day. Till then, we have a lot of work to do.

The Curtain Falls .....

The final day, and Sushil Kumar wins the Silver medal in men's wrestling to bring the Indian tally to the best ever figure of 6. No golds this time. But here's hoping for better things at Rio. Till then, we celebrate the 6 stalwarts who got us the precious metal. Much love and gratitude along with a sense of personal debt and national pride.

From Left to Right :
Subedar Vijay Kumar - Shooting.
Sushil Kumar - Wrestling.
Saina Nehwal - Badminton.
Gagan Narang - Shooting.
Yogeshwar Dutt - Wrestling.
MC Mary Kom - Boxing.

Kudos!