Screw-deria Ferrari

My opinion on Ferrari on its 2009 Championship season till now! Here.

Shame on you Media…

On May 16th 2008, the Breakfast show woke the country with the news of a murder of 14 year old Aarushi from Noida, the day which incidentally was her birthday. The press and TV were on their tows trying to gather every bit of the information they could muster so that the news comes first on their news channels.

The first reaction to the incident was a shock, a shock at gruesome murder of a child who had great dreams of her birthday, a girl whose aspirations were never to be fulfilled. But the second shock was on the irresponsible behavior of the media, especially the TV.

Aarushi Talwar was no more, Hemraj, in-house servant of the Talwars was found dead too, Aarushi’s father Dr Rajesh Talwar became the prime accused. The family was barely coming to terms with these horrifying incidents, by then the media goes on pumping stories relentlessly. From alleging that Rajesh had an extra marital affair with another woman, to hideous claims of Aarushi of having a clandestine relationship with their house servant. Pulling a distressed family to roads and striping them of its dignity is unethical and absolutely uncalled far.

Now, things have gone way too far, every channel is taking turns with her mother Dr Nupur Talwar.
It is really agonizing to see the media repeatedly pocking her wounds by asking her accounts of what happened on the night of the murder, how she reacted on seeing her daughter lie dead, what was her thoughts on her husband’s alleged affair, what relationship she shared with her daughter. As if Nupur has a short memory of the events, the anchors will contantly remind her with statements like “Now that Aarushi is dead….” etc, grow up folks, For god’s sake, she’s the mother.

I appeal to the media to kindly have some consideration, please spare the wounded hearts. Probing into news is your job, but pocking your nose beyond a point makes it ugly. What pleasure do you derive by seeing a terror stuck mother chock in sorrow? There are many ways to improve TRP ratings, please, please, please, have some mercy, please act responsibly.

Strangely, in this episode till now, the media has cared little about Hemraj’s death, why media, was going to Nepal not all that interesting??

Ps: I am not putting any links. The net is already flooding with information.

Force India Laps a McLaren

This was the headline I was expecting after watching the highly eventful 2008 Monaco Grand Prix. In a race clouded by clouds, rain, skids, slides, near misses and wall kisses, in a race where, Kimi, Massa, Hamilton and many others went on to make mistakes, if there was one person who drove sensibly, it was Adrian Sutil of team Force India.

Sutil kept his cool all over, just driving on the race line with a calm mind when chaos was prevailing all around him. The myth of Monaco as race where mind rules the heart was beginning to become apparent as the drivers with higher impulse began making mistakes. Once by one most of the front runners had to get into the pits, and a seamless Sutil moved from as low as 18th to 4th place having only Lewis, Kubica and Massa ahead of him. The highlight of the evening was when Sutil lapped Hekki, unbelievable!!! My hair stood straight when the mighty McLarens were lapped by the usual “backmarker” - Force India. Sutil went on to trade Fastest Laps and at the moment locked like it was not all luck. The turning point was when Rosberg crashed heavily bringing the safety car out. The significant gap between him and Kimi was reduced to peanuts. Sutil was now sandwiched between the Ferraris, Massa in the front on 3rd and Kimi behind on 5th. It was quite expected that Kimi would fight hard to move forward, and given the fact that Monaco offers very little space for overtaking, its was up to Kimi to find a way past Sutil. And then it happened, a charging Kimi lost control of his F2008 and banged straight onto the back of the unsuspecting Sutil. I missed a beat, probably more. Sutil’s brave run came to a grinding halt and understandably, Sutil remained inconsolable.

Monaco is known to spring in surprises. Today it was Sutil’s turn to experience what it takes being in the top and becoming a flop.

I don’t want to blame it on Kimi, although I wish he were a little calmer.

In a sport where it’s usually the car-driver combination that wins races, Monaco has the ability to distinguish between the great drivers and the good ones (if you are in F1, you’d better be good).
Adrian, you are absolutely sensational. I am sure this will make you and the Force India team stronger than before.

Ranganathan Street

Indian Economy is growing at 8% a year but looks like human traffic in Ranganathan Street grows at 8% every month...

There is not an inch of space left to move... Proof that deframentation technique was invented in India ;)

What a way!

I saw this board in PizzaHut, Radhakrishna Salai.
What a way to politely say "No Smoking!" :)

Impulsive Shopping - Part II

The Credit card woes I highlighted in Impulsive Shopping earlier is still haunting us,

“All Cards accepted, minimum bill values 200”

Many at times when I read this, I would think, what is their problem? Why don’t they simply accept cards for lesser amounts? They are loosing out potential revenue. I’ll blame it on poor business strategy and walk away.

And one fine day, I acknowledged that it was indeed a great strategy.
Last Friday, after a long day’s work I was on my way back and felt very hungry. I wasn’t sure what was available at home and didn’t want to risk disappointing my hungry stomach.

I parked my bike outside Trinetra, a big Retail store near my house and went in for some purchase.

As I was wandering the aisles picking junk food, I realized I only had 50 bucks in my wallet, I read the board, “All Cards accepted, minimum bill values 200”, but I’d already picked stuff worth 70 bucks. Keeping them back was never an option, so I went on to buy some stuffs hear and there, some wanted and some not so wanted, and finally the bill came to around 400 bucks.

I happily swiped the card, ignored the 700% increase in bill value and walked away!

Spend Vs Invest

We’ve read/heard many instances like
“Please spend some time learning something new”
Or “Spend time doing something worthwhile”.
Although Spend seems to convey the message, it could well be undermining the potential of the English language to express the point.

Today, 21st June, incidentally, World Music day, I was listening to Big92.7FM, where Speed Dheena was doing a program with playback Singer Sujatha. On her final words for the listeners, she was advising young and aspiring singers to “Invest” sometime everyday practicing their music. This statement just took the wind out of me!
How true, commoditizing time makes our work accountable to us. It tells us to wisely use every little time we have and reap its benefits. However subtle the statement may look, it wraps within, millions of words that says how determined one must be.

Ennaku Pull arichidu!