Sunday, April 09, 2006

I understand LOVE

For a long time I couldn't understand why people could just flip backwards just because they have fallen in love with a person. They change ideas, the corner stones around which their lives are built are moved or worse demolished...They move heaven & Earth just for tryin to agree upon others ideals & you probably would know the stuff that comes next....
I have just found out why it happens and its so weird because I found it out by fallin in love ... I just fellin love wid an ANTIQUE BIKE if i may call it an antique or a derelict doesn't matter I just fell in love (looks don't matter right)...Its an Enfield Explorer not its macho sibling the Bullet...Before driving that bike i quite couldn't understand people drivin antique cars and people changin for women....Now I can proclaim to the world I DO.... I REALLY DO....Its just that they have that character whatever it is that the others don't....
The bike has a remaarkable character if you have watched the movie Gone in 60 seconds circa 2000 you would understand by what i mean by cajoling the bike to move....( No don't do this to me ..... no start .....start....) You would have to cajole her to move.... And when you are off you cannot be in a state of chutzpah that you have got her goin she would throw tantrums at you at the most inappropriate time....For example when you are pullin a calculated risk overatakin manoeuvre you cannot assume that she would shift seamlessly from gear to gear....The clutch would start to slip , the carbs will start sputterin for air or fuel as the mood maybe....When you try to kick the starter up without that specific touch she will start throwin up petrol in oodles all you have to do to remedy the cause is to cajole her to start...Once she has started no more throwin up she would be able to hold her drink...Will she go around corners ?? ya she will but you have to know an old bike means not so structurally strong as the presnt day bikes ,means she will flex... Its gratifyin that she is flexin everythin for you and that she might buckle or bend over just for you.....You will havwe to care for her, you can let her in the shine or in the rain for too long a time.... You will have to care for her like a baby or your girlfriend...The one main thing is that bike had never let me down when i had needed her the most she had always been ther for me....
So what is that that makes me ride around the town in a rickety rackety bike its that feelin that she's gotta mind of her own and will not like it bein bossed around...The other bikes are more disconnected ,the down to earth feelin that this bike has is completely missed.... You can almost do anything wid them and they would oblige just like a dunderhead who wouldn't want to try anything new....But i tell you guys this girl i.e. is if i can call her a girl has a mind of her own....She will do things you never thought you could given the right amount of cajolin...After all that I have told you you might have decided that nothing can be done wid this bike but believe me you can pop wheelies (the capacity of the engine being a mere 50cc for those its got the same capacity as that off a TVS 50 try poppin a wheelie wid that)...
This bike is more of a mistress than a wife she will do wicked things, throw tantrums you could never imagine and the worst she could ditch you just about anytime but that streak of character that unpredictability that has me on my knees....And I don't feel bad about it ....

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Ayrton Senna - The Rain Master


Ayrton (pronounced Ayeerton rather than airton) Desilva aka Ayrton Senna, he was recommended to change his name just because 'Desilva' was a very common name in Brazil ,Senna being his mothers maiden name. When I was hittin my 3rd garde my uncle was a keen follower of F1 races so I would always watch races with him. There was this guy who burst his rear tyre in a race instead of stoppin the car he was drivin on 3 wheels, though this happen quite often I saw him do it first .. And i was like wow this guy is awesome.My uncle was also praisin him like, nobody has got the reflex time as he is and that he was really awesome in the wet weather condition.. I started hero worshipping Ayrton Senna Desilva . In 1994 May 01 he died in a race in San marino at a curve called Tamburello which was a lightning shaped very fast corner...Then I started collecting information about Ayrton Senna..
Born in Sao paulo in Brazil he started his racing career in the form most drivers do Karting he never won a karting championship which was his major grousing but that didn't stop him from trying he it seems would take time off from his more advanced levels of racing like Formula 1,3 just to get the world championship... What attracted most about him is his sense of kinship and his win at all costs attitude..Sid Watkins a very close friend of Senna and the neuro surgeon of F1 used to say that At one time he and Senna were travelling by car in ythe city and the doctor had been at the wheel during the course of the drive he had aske how he was driving to ,which Ayrton had replied that he was driving very carefully but he was very very slow ..The doctor not wanting to keep the master away from his duty asked Ayrtoon to drive during which he was confirmed that he had actually experienced the phrase heart in mouth
Senna it seems could be seen in Belgian Grand prix jumping out of his car helping Erik Comas, who had crashed heavily he stopped his car ran on the track hit the engine kill switch before the car started to burn. He was also seen helpin Alex Zanardi at the same place the next year when he had crashe and he could be seen helpin him out of the car When Ralf crashed in 2004 at Indianapolis we didn't see Michael running to see him let alone help him, when everybody thought he had had a very bad shunt and he wasn't even moving..
In the season 1990 in the championship deciding race between him and Alain Prost ,Senna requested the offricials to change the side of the track because he was at a disadvantage officilas didn't agree, during the race when Prost made a move on him at the same particular place he bumped him and won the championship while both the racers were out of the race... This nature of his was criticized as video game behaviour .. I was attracted to it...
He was asked on the day before the accident to quit F1 as it was getting very dangerous then by Sid Watkins ... He told him That he had started on it and would finish it...He started a driver safety committee off the track instead...Senna is known for his peculiar yellow coloured helmet it became synonymous with him..He still holds the record for the highest no. of pole positions 65 which Michael has managed to equal just now... He also has the record for the max no. of wins at a circuit 7.... When williams team with which he drove was completely on the backfoot with a badly performoing car and a young driver with a near perfect Bennetton ,Michael Schumacher was setting the race track on fire Senna had pole positions ... A particular writer put it very well "It would seem as though he had a covenant with God...From where he summoned those pole postions remains a secret between them"...He was the fastest driver during the qualifying runs...
It has been found that the safety car period had lowered the pressure in the tyre thereby losing downforce ... His car bottomed at the Tamburello curve which made a drastic loss in downforce or grip which Senna corrected by turning his steering, it seems he might have lived but for this mistake , his quick reflexes had cost him his life...
Am ending this article on Senna with the most famous and marvellous words of his "On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit and you go for this limit and you touch this limit and you think, ok, this is the limit. As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you realise that you can suddenly go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and your experience as well, you can fly very high."