F1 in the time of No-Fuel-Era

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Confused about the headline? Don't be. Just wiki 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.

2050, or thereabouts, will be a very tough time in mankind’s tenure on planet Earth. If experts are to be believed, that is the time by when the Earth’s resources will run out. By then, if we do not manage to colonise two other planets in space, then we are all apparently in for a very hard time.

Complacency, perhaps, is the biggest threat facing us. We have facts, figures and experiments done by very capable scientists everyday that helps the truth stare in our faces. And yet, here we are, standing on the sidelines, barely 40 years away from Earth-exhaustion, cheering on colossal wastes of exhaustible resources such as F1 and motor sports. An alien race looking down on us would surely think we’re daredevils of some sort. Daredevils know the risks involved. We do not.

F1 is arguably the most popular motor sport in the world today. Reportedly, a whopping 600 million people tuned in per race during last year’s F1 season. Italy and Britain are among the world’s biggest markets for F1 TV broadcasters. This year, figures are reported to have jumped up to 9 million for some races.




20 cars; 300 kilometers and nearly 225 liters of fuel spent per car. 4500 liters spent per race; 20 races in a season; hence 9000 liters of fuel spent. And this is just one among the host of motor sports that are consuming fuel at break-neck speeds.

This, is in no way the first time this argument has been posed. Responses to a call for an F1 ban have been meted with such responses as ‘footballers travel in cars too’ and ‘look what F1 has contributed to the world’.


Yes, footballers travel in cars as do cricketers and the layman. And yes, F1 has contributed several key technologies to the world that has bettered efficiency, speed and safety of many engine components. Engineering marvels have arose out of F1 that cannot be paralleled. Yet, have we forgotten to ask at what cost all this comes?

F1 as a sport is interesting, exciting and thrilling. But it’s harmful. There are two sides of the debate and there is only one possible middle ground. And that involves F1 shifting from exhaustible resource based fuel to renewable resource fuel.

But, yes, there is no such technology available today that will drive F1 cars as fast on renewable sources as it does on non-renewable ones. But, at least an effort and a sense of urgency should be induced to start work to that end. If we wait another 40 years to get work done regarding this end, we’ll end up driving electric F1 cars on the moon.





Just imagine, we'll have to share the Moon with these guys!

(Images Courtesy : 4.bp.blogspot.com, www.plu.edu)
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13 Things You Might Learn on a Pondy Trip

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1. Always travel in small groups.
2. In case you didn't, don't travel with prima donnas.
3. Especially prima donnas who'll lecture you on random bull shit if you feign the faintest bit of interest out of politeness.
4. Never go places without a camera.
5. Get job so that you can buy camera.
6. Roomies or not-roomies, some people just desert you, just like that!
7. Hot Breads make kick ass butter buns.
8. Refrigerating a soft drink costs you an extra buck in Pondy.
9. Pondy traffic cops look like they're serious people trying to dress funny.
10. Never go to Auroville without a means of transport to get around.
11. If you've bought fish fry, beware of dogs while sitting on the beach
12. Don't sleep while sitting on the foot-board of a bus.
13. After getting job, buy car as well, so that you can come back anytime you want.
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Why I Hate Diwali

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I once used to love Diwali a lot. I used to go out with my friends and dare take care of the biggest crackers around. No, wait, I din't like it all that much. It used to be a test of manhood when you were a kid. If you didn't do what everybody did, you were the freak.

We used to make fun of the obese kid who was so afraid that he used to take a full scale sheet of paper, roll it up and then use it to light the cracker.

We didn't let it show that we were as scared as everybody else. Anybody who has 'grown up' now and still says they were so brave and were so completely non-plussed by the idea of lighting one of those big ones and then throwing them over the edge of a terrace, well, apparently they haven't grown up enough yet.

Though looking back on it, Diwali meant painful headaches and boring relatives (the two might've been related). The food was small consolation, but consolation nonetheless.

Religion is so confusing. Half the people who are celebrating don't even know what they're celebrating. Can't blame them though. Religion's stupid folk stories are hardly worth a dime. They might all be as well celebrating the fact that it is a holiday.

Let me be honest. I don't hate Diwali because of it's ties with religion or it's awesomely bad folk lore background.

I hate it because I love peace and quiet. I hate it because I don't want to run the risk of being burned alive just so that some kid can have his thrills. I hate it coz I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night thinking I've time traveled the Vietnam Era. I don't know if they still employ child labourers at Sivakasi, but if they do, you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Every year, there's a lot of talk about "Safe Diwalis" and "Quiet Diwalis" But some of us just can't resist can we?
Category: 6 comments

Change What?

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A majority of us have this very sad habit of falling into line with whatever the popular trend is. I used to be like that. When somebody used to say Climate Change I used to think, "Oh, that means Global Warming and Ice Melting."

Questioning things is something that we still haven't learned. Thank you religion. 

Fiction reader as I was, and Chricton fan as I definitely was, I happened to read a book called State of Fear. It ended up changing my perceptions. I was a skeptic when it came to climate change now. 

Years have passed by now. And I've moved on. I've realized that polarization never leads you to truth. Detachment gives you a start. 

Climate change has always been an issue that has had agendas and master plans behind it. It has political and economical connotations. 


The problem is that we can NEVER ever address climate change while we're still a few hundred countries with different agendas and different goals. Maybe it'll take the next World War to unite us. But I hope it does someday. Then maybe changes may happen. 

But then again, this is just one very small voice in the blogosphere talking to no one in particular. :)

Today is Blog Action Day that addresses Climate Change. I might not know the stats, but I think the climate keeps changing because we're unable to change ourselves. We're unable to let go of our agendas and motives. We're unable to look at it as a human problem. 

Want change? Try changing attitudes!

(Image Courtesy www.austinchronicle.com)
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Things I Learned in the Past 2 Weeks

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1. I like Cough Syrup
2. Medical shops in Chennai are more recharge shops than medical shops
3. Some Chennaites are outright rude to you if you don't speak Tamil
4. I still can't speak Tamil
5. Saying "Anna, whaat anna?"  gives you a reduction of at least 10 rupees from Auto-wallahs in Chennai.
6. Chennai is so big, that even auto-wallahs get lost
7. I can get lost in Chennai even with a map, an address, a train ticket and a kind auto-wallah
8. Buses in Tamil Nadu are taller than buses in Kerala ( I don't hit my head anymore)
9. Trains are the same size everywhere (my legs still dangled outside the berth)
10. Always book your own train tickets
11. People who tell you they are whizzes at booking train tickets might be lying at times
12. Such people can also screw up your ticket real bad (No pointing fingers, but I'll link to this persons FB page)
13. AC buses don't make for comfortable travel when you've fever.
14. Dan Brown's new book is heavy
15. Chennai seems hotter if you spend a couple of days in Cochin.
Category: 3 comments

The Taste of Silence

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Foreword: As part of a reporting assignment, me and my group of peers went to the village of Nandivaram near Guduvanchery, Chennai. It was supposed to be a reporting assignment centered mostly around food. Though, once we started walking around and experiencing the true spirit of the village, the theme underwent a magnanimous change. This is the article that I wrote at the end. :)

The absence of cacophony is almost disturbing. It is strangely peaceful this particular afternoon in the village of Nandivaram. No horns, no shouting and definitely no blaring TVs or radios. As we sit down for what will be a sumptuous lunch, my expectations of what awaits us on the other side of it are high; we’re going to tour the village today. And the lunch itself does not disappoint.


From dark shadows, people peer at us as our entourage walks by. They smile if you smile. They wave if you do. The children run away if you ask them for a hi-5. The late afternoon sun blinds us as we trek through the village’s dusty maze of roads.


We pause for a few seconds at a pond. It’s been months since I’ve seen a water source that actually had unpolluted water in it. The old men sitting under a tree nearby, eye us suspiciously; some crack a smile finally, with great difficulty, when a camera is trained at them.


Thunder shatters the air. Strangely enough, there are no clouds. We look around, puzzled. A thick plume of dust and smoke rises up in the air some distance away. “Dynamite”, our guide says.


We walk onward to a rice paddy field. They say all that glitters is not gold. They were right; it could be rice fields in the afternoon sunlight as well. The golden stalks sway in the wind with an air of magnificence. The sight is candy for sore eyes.


We continue into the innards of the village. Faces flash by. Happy faces are few; but they always return the favour if you smile at them.
We talk to a woman outside her hut. She tells us of her daughters, herself, her life. The hut is small. Comparisons fly through my head. Another woman nearby talks of loans and debts and her sons.
As we walk through the dark streets, we stumble across 12 year old Kausalya. She’s studying while sitting on the roadside. The stark beams of the streetlight above her barely do a good enough job of shedding light on her textbook. Somebody says that this was a sad setting. I tend to disagree. I rather see it as a triumph; a triumph of the human spirit. She’s our hero of the day. As we leave, she’s blushing courtesy all the attention.
We walk on. A woman is talking about her love marriage and how it alienated her from her family and her husband’s family. I think to myself: Love stories in India exist only in movies!
We talk to a politician. We sit in his plush, comfortable house and look around. With all probability, everybody was dwelling on comparisons.
The day ends where it started. At the same place where we had lunch, with the same people serving us. I realize for once, that the food and the village have entirely contrasting personalities. The food is spicy, hot, practically exploding on tongue tips. The village meanwhile, is dormant, silent. The taste of the village is the taste of silence.

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3 Shitty Things That Can Happen to you on Your Way Back From the ACJ

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In 1 month, the folks who live at the 'off-site hostel' (cooler name would be 'the Villa') had to put up with a lot of shit. Mind you, this is excluding the time spent in college; that would be an even more kick-ass list; fruit of some jobless night far away in the future I suppose.

Here's a countdown of the 3 worst things that could happen to you on your way back:

1. Get Mugged!

I'm not kidding. The incident that was the inspiration for this post. 3 muggers, 1 lonely assailant. Lots of bruises on either sides. No arrests. One mobile phone stolen.
Like this, only minus the knife, the hood, the fake knife and the constipated look. And did I mention three of them and the fetish for mobile phones?

How did this happen? Well, you have to look at the road we are made to travel through everyday. It looks like this:


Can't see anything? Of course you can't. NEITHER CAN WE YOU ADMINISTRATIVE DIPSHITS. DELIVER THE GODDAMN FOOD!!

Anyhow, this was voted the most shittiest thing that could happen to anybody. Moving on.

2. Swimming through Mud

As well drained as Chennai is, it only takes roughly around 5 minutes of train to enable the sharks from the sea to swim up to the Mount Road (or whatever the arterial road of Chennai is)

Now, water I can take. Water you can easily step on, and it'll dry off.

See? Perfectly acceptable. As long as you're tall (which I'm) you never need worry about sinking into one of those potholes that are conspicously hidden under this calm and collected exterior. Of course, the sewage canal poses a problem, but I won't go into the details in the interests of not ruining your appetite.

But imagine the same thing, only mud instead of water. There have been incidents of people who had to be pulled out coz they got stuck. Seriously!



3. Getting Molested by Dogs (The Canine Kind)

Question: Are there more tea stalls or stray dogs in Chennai? If you're a 'rational' person, you'd say: "Like, duh, as if the two are related. ':P'' (sigh) Well, it's simple, every tea stall has at least two dogs 'working' it. Two is the bare minimum mind you.

You get the picture I hope. Depending on the amount of crunchies they were able to get from there 'joints', these adorable looking, sweet creatures may decide to chase you, hunt you, or molest you. Of course, all this will happen on that dark road, so you won't know for sure if it was the dogs or the muggers until you get back home and see what all you lost.


This is Sammy by the way (or was it Selvan) who works our college canteen. (sigh)




Category: 4 comments