Tuesday, July 26, 2005

German GP: Its all over

The close up on Schumi’s tyres around lap 40 summed up Ferrari's season. Even after 67 laps it would be hard to find a Michelin that worn out. The stupid commentators kept saying the King's super-charged Qualifying lap and the difference between Rubino's lap and his was mainly due to less fuel load. I wish I was next to those 'B*******' when Schumi pitted on the same lap as Alonso, just 2 laps in front of Rubino. I can’t imagine how you can call yourself a fan if you can tell a 'Schumacher Special' when you see one. This by no means is due to Rubino's inability to work the car; the car is built for the Champion so Rubino is always going to slower or any 2nd driver for that matter. I wish Rubino gets a drive at BAR or BMW because he deserves No 1 Status and I personally would like to see what he can do given a top car and a No 1 Status.

McLaren are flying, their new front wing looked so cool and seemed to make the difference on the day, Kimi clearly outpaced Alonso. Those consecutive fastest laps (lap 21-24) would have taken any McLaren fan to the moon and beyond. Their machinery seems to make even crap drivers go from 20 to 2nd! Seriously speaking, I hate to do this but I do salute Mr. "Bad to not so bad' Montoya for his 2nd place finish after starting from the last. I was very impressed that with the way he took his time when he found himself behind the Schumi/Button battle, the Montoya we knew would have got stuck in immediately and most probably taken atleast one out.

As for this season, its Alonso's or atleast it’s his to lose. I don’t see Renault going off the boil that drastically and few more podium finishes should see him being crowned as the 'Youngest' F1 World Champion, a far cry from his Minardi days! Congratulations to him, he was slightly lucky but then he still had to be there at 2nd and was consistently quicker than the rest of the pack (His fastest lap was a good half second faster than Montoya's).

Returning to the King, I feel really sorry for him and the team. I am sure if it was anything to do with the car itself he would be at it by now, but unfortunately it’s the tyres and armed with feedback from only 3 teams (Out of which 2 are Jordan and Minardi), Bridgestone cannot be blamed for not matching Michelin. All these irritatinly recurrent calls for him to retire should be from people who dont understand the sport, the King still has not lost anything and is actually compensating for the poor package he is on. Him keeping his 2nd place all the way till the 40th lap deserves special praise, the whole team I am sure are very proud people and all this hurt will be channeled to bounce back next year. Remember it not about falling but about how fast you can get back up. Ferrari will return and it will be this team who will do it.

Does God need our defence, are we really that full of ourselves?

I used to be an atheist, used to love the arguments that provoked in class with friends, teachers and my parents. A close friend, just before my 'O' levels took personal interest in my studies to show the kind of marks that I was capable of scoring and set my path right. When someone does that for you, that person deserves your respect and he used that to get me to the temple. More than the respect I had for him, it was his constant reminder that I can improve with god's influence and that selfishness in me that got me to the temple for the first time by myself. That is how my spiritual journey started. Hand on heart not many people ask God for something without a selfish motivation, its how small most of us are. We first need to acknowledge that. The religion that we are born into is a decision made by our forefathers and passed on to us, so only GOD is the only universal truth. People armed with education, time and money come up with new religions and faiths, showing that religion/faith are man-made paths towards the supreme power and there is no right or wrong.

The term 'Spiritual Journey', just refers walking a path towards God. It by no means should be confused with ‘Spiritual growth’, Spiritual growth is honed and perfected only practice, subjecting oneself to the strict discipline of what has been advised i.e. prayer, meditation or good deeds. No faith or religion advices killing or bloodshed as the path towards God, then why take it? It’s quite amazing that every religion has a group which has opted for violence to defend itself. I am sure not many belonging to these groups can answer the question ‘What/Who are you defending against?’ Taking people along with us on our spiritual journey is not a must and harming people who chose a different path is downright stupid.

My friend forwarded a few mails a few days ago. One questioned the secularity of India and preaching of Hinduism in quite an offensive tone. There was one person’s defence of both India and Hinduism and another mail discussing Islam in the same tone as the first mail. When all our faiths are so vast with so much to know that not many have mastered them, I wonder how we can assume to know so much about another religion to question it? With it being so difficult to cultivate the discipline necessary to follow our own religion that most of us do compromise, are we worthy enough to question something we know very little of and never have practiced. By closing your eyes for 24 hrs, you can never experience a blind man’s life, similarly reading a book is no way to ‘know’ a religion.

Finally to those who think defending God is their purpose of life, I have only one to day – ‘by suggesting that God/Faith/Religion needs the defence of a worthless mortal like you - you are insulting the very God/Faith/Religion that you are trying to glorify’. God is almighty and God does not need your help, so change your agenda and do what God wants you to do (practice the preaching with utmost discipline) instead of pretending to add a purpose to your life by plucking at thin air.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things - –- Henry Miller

We all should live the life of a traveler, even if for a short while. From ancient times, it has always been a man’s desire to find out what is over the next hill, and that very same feeling has never deserted anyone of us, but the fear of leaving the comfort of the familiar is what that prevents those of us from not exploring. At the mention of a place, no matter where we are, a mental picture appears in our mind describing the place. The picture is defined by what we have seen if we have already been there. For most places, where we would not have seen it ourselves, the picture is defined by what we have studied, heard or read and sometimes its funny to see how far from truth that picture is.

The magic of travel is that you leave your own home secure in your own knowledge and identity but once you are off and the world in all its richness and surprises intervenes. We meet people that we cannot invent, see scenes that we cannot imagine, life that no education can show, and experience cultures that we cannot define. As we open ourselves to the world totally different to our own, we can realize that our own life which was so large to consume our life thus far is actually such a small dot in space and time and we will become a different person, for the better.

It’s a pity when some of us don’t want to be travelers but be tourists. Tourists just pass through the surface of other’s people lives without actually leaving their own, most often, rather sadly and painfully try to bring their world with them wherever they go or when desperate will try and recreate the world that they left. Tourist will never risk the security of their own understanding and never realize how small and limited their experiences really are. True travelers become the fabric of the local’s everyday lives, embrace them without judging them.

While we should acknowledge the curse of travel - that we may end up being runners, running away from our lives, its twists of fate, our problems and complications and thus ending up complicating the lives of people around and us and punishing them by abandoning them at their time of need, I personally believe that when tragedies or great changes in life occurs, if we are well traveled, we will understand that there are million ways to live and we will be able to move to new and worthy things.


"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." -- St. Augustine

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

ManU Away Kit 05/06



Personally I am sad that they are taking the black one away, but the new one looks good. I especially like the red trims. Brilliant, its been refreshing since moving to Nike, the kits are far better. More class!

Sunday, July 10, 2005

To Taiwan and Back

Back to the mundane and boring life, landed back in Singapore @7.30 PM, was back home in time for Dinner (fish curry and veggie), something I had missed badly. Over the last week, we did a lot of walking and even a short and unexpected trek so I cant wait to get to the gym and see if I have lost any weight! I did eat a lot on the trip, so am slightly worried if that would have negated all the walking and climbing, hopefully it did not! To summarize, it is a very beautiful country and we had a magnificent time. I am not sure why they have not told the world about what they have! Whoever I had talked to before my trip told me about the shopping and the food there (my friends did nothing but confirm it), but its a shallow thought. The country is all about its beautiful mountains and its vast coastline. Its mountains right through the country so there is not way to cross the country but to go one whole round along the coastline to get from the east to the west and you have to experience it to realize the beauty of it. The highlights of the trip were Alishan and the Sun Moon Lake.

If you were to call Taiwan, Chinese State of America, you would not be that far wrong. Its amazing how you can feel the American influence right from the time you set foot in the country, they call their highways. 'freeways', left hand drive, second hand car showrooms, neon streetlights, Time Square like setup at the Shilin Night Market, even their long distance buses are of the same colour as of the Greyhound and is designed exactly the same! The people are quite updated in fashion and talk nothing except Chinese, it took a good 4 days before I heard someone speak English, they are slightly rude or not that friendly, although I would be the first to mention that they were a few exceptions.

Taking a tour package meant that we spent most of our time on the bus, there was this once that we had lunch, took a long ride, close to 7 hours and went straight for dinner. The journey and the beauty of what we saw from the bus made up for that disappointment. The Taiwanese have a very impressive train network, and it was disappointing that the tour guides don’t use them, it will help to plan more activities for their clients. We had a puncture at the Tarako Gorge, the bus driver tried a three point turn over the curbs and the burst both the left rear tyres. We even had a breakdown, gear problem I guess and had to change buses. The replacement bus was a far better one and left us wondering why the bus had not broken down on the first day instead of the last day.

The tour guide strictly spoke Mandarin alone and said he would die if asked to speak English, so obviously we did not push it. He thought I was a black guy from America and kept calling me ang-moh. It only shows that these guys dont get to see much dark skin all their lives :) The fella did schedule in enough marketing stops, and Joy amazing spent handsomely at every stop, as I told him, he is a marketing man's dream. At the Sun Moon lake, the guide even resorted to playing the charity card, they explained about the earthquake that shook Taiwan and these tribes needed the money to rebuild, while I dont doubt that, I don’t think paying these shopkeepers was the best avenue to channel charity funds to people who needed it. I saw a BMW 3 and Nissan Cefiro just opposite the shop

I did get to go 'free & easy' truly. Tian Guan and myself went to explore Keelung all by ourselves. While the gang left to Bjetou for experiencing hot springs, we both left for Keelung. This decision to split was taken over coffee at Taipei 101, still am not sure how or why it came about, but the chance to see Taiwan the way I wanted to just feel on my lap and I did not want to ask many questions. We took directions from staff at Taipei 101, went to Sangshuan Station and bought tickets to Keelung. Tian Guan got chatty with few aunties on the train. Once we got to Keelung we saw a Star Cruise getting ready to set sail and took a walk towards it, followed a few road signs to get to a temple and a night market, searched for Tian Guan's snack but I ended up buying a shirt for myself and my friend! Took the Taiwanese Greyhound back to Taipei and met up the gang back at Shilin for Dinner, followed that up with more shopping and supper before we called it a day.

The last day was a silent affair, started with hunting for breakfast and President's Biscuits and we took a van, arranged by our tour guide to get to the airport. I thought I had only 300 over on me so spent in on getting a couple of bracelets for my cousins. The ride was uncomfortably silent, Ade and Tian Guan did manage to start a few topics but the rest did not seem interested, I was looking to them to take the gloom away from me, but felt more for Joy who had to return alone, but maybe he kept himself busy with more shopping. After getting to the airport we found out that the flight was delayed by half an hour, so I called my Sis and Dad. Upon clearing the rubbish in my pocket, I found 200 NT$, spent in on a book and got the gang to scribble some thoughts....opted out of lunch as none of us felt hungry. The flight back was not that eventful, they were a few pretty girls on board and three of them were seated just behind us, so it was better than many a recent trip.

Finally, 8 days of pure fun, another country visited, poorer in terms on money, richer in terms of memories. Just like the any other previous trip with my friends, enjoyed this enormously. I would like to thank each one of them for their translations; putting up with me and helping me see a country I would not have survived on my own. I owe this lot for too many things they have done for me and the list just got longer...........


Friday, July 01, 2005

On a trip to Taiwan.....

Will be on tour to Taiwan for the next week....even the boss excused me off an assignment today so that I can travel peacefully and come back to slog. The colleagues warned that its not the most renowned for its hygiene but has a lot of good things to eat....I know there are lot of things to eat and see, but makes me wonder if I would like them....anyway, there is no backing out now

Why Taiwan, everybody asks me this, well I enjoyed my last trip with these guys, so was interested in doing another, and Taiwan was the popular choice. Anyway the way I see it, I may never be able to do this trip alone, so why not make use of this oppurtunity because my friends can atleast help to overcome the language barrier! I would like to do Beijing and Shanghai too, maybe the Chinese GP in October will be a good oppurtunity ;)

The places I look forward to - Tarako Gorge at Hualien, the 101 building and Chiayi. Unfortunately the 101 building is not covered by the package so thats an additional cost. I was keen on going free and easy but the some were not that keen on lugging their baggage around, even worse, not all of those who complained are girls :(

For the next one week, I will take notes daily so that you can see the country through my eyes and my camera lens. Will update the blog next Sunday, it should be a long one!