The Formula 1 experience

A lot of photo sharing sites including Facebook and Google photos show reminders for “this day that year”. Old photos are one of the best stimuli to refresh old memories. Today FB showed me a photo clicked before the start of the 2013 Indian GP and Google showed me a photo clicked en route to the 2012 Indian GP.

Formula 1 is a sport I started following only around 2003. My interest in the sport grew over time and in the year 2011, Formula 1 came right to our doorstep. The Buddh International Circuit near Noida was the venue of the first ever Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix. Watching the Indian GP on TV felt great. I thought to myself that it would be great to watch the race live. As luck would have it, the next year when the sale of tickets was announced, a couple of like minded friends from work expressed interest in going for the race. The rates seemed pretty reasonable. With the accommodation and travel plan sorted, we left for the national capital in the August Kranti Rajdhani express. We were received at H Nizamuddin by another friend from work. We dumped our luggage and took the shuttle bus to the circuit. The circuit was a good 38km from the nearest metro station. As we got closer to the track, the view of the enormous grand-stand took the excitement level to a crescendo. Then we were there, the Buddh International Circuit, the venue of the 2012 Indian Grand Prix

We reached the BIC with a few hours to go before the qualifying session. We enjoyed the pre-race promotional activities which included dance, musical performances etc, without venturing too far away from the Classic stand north. We did not want to miss a moment of the action on the track. The first view from our seats was simply mind-blowing. We could see the first corner, with a fast sweeping uphill turn 2 leading right up to the slowest corner on the track, the hairpin at turn 3. Panning to the left we could see the entire main straight ending at an overtaking point at turn 4. As the clock ticked close to the start of the qualifying session, the stands started filling up. The heat under the direct sunshine didn’t deter the fans from screaming their lungs out. We could hear the V8 engines being fired up in the pit lane with each grunt triggering a raucous response in the crowds

The green signal at the end of the pit lane indicated the start of the qualifying session. The first car to head out on track was a Force India. It roared through the first two corners, almost coming to a standstill at turn 3, barely 25 metres from where we were seated. It then accelerated through the main straight shifting up to top gear, before slowing down and turning into turn 4 at the end of the straight. As the cars went by, I called my dad who had started following a bit of F1 since 2004, making him hear the roar of the engines through the phone mic. The ear plugs were used a few times to shield our ear drums from the enormous 110 dB musical noise which emanated from the V8 engines of each car. The session was glorious with a Red Bull 1-2, in spite of Mark Webber sliding wide at the hairpin right before our eyes. Satisfied with the first day which was technically the 2^nd day of the race weekend, we got some shut eye to prepare for the exciting race day

We reached the track well before the start of the race. As is the case at most GP weekends, the main race was preceded by several other smaller races which had slower cars but had a more even playing field with lot of overtaking action. We were outside the main grandstand at the start of one of these junior races. We could feel the reverberating roar of the engines as all racers revved up to start the race. We thought to ourselves, “If these cars are so loud, what would the F1 cars sound like?” Time flew by as the main race start drew closer. The drivers’ parade went by with all drivers being interviewed upon an open truck. It was great to see legends of F1 like Michael Schumacher draped with Uthariyas less than 30 yards away. We then geared up for the start of the race on a clear Sunday afternoon. The warm up lap came and went, with cars swerving on the track to warm up their tyres, warming up the vocal cords of the cheering fans in the process. We could see on the giant screen as the cars took their positions with the medical car at the back

As the famous dialogue by Steve Slater was being played out on TV, “The five Red lights illuminate”, the engine note reached a feverish pitch. The race started and the flying race cars rocketed through the first two corners and they roared up the gears as they entered the main straight after the hairpin at turn 3. Car after car went by in a single file through turn 3. This was repeated lap after lap, with the gap growing through the race. As the field spread out, there was a car flying by almost every 20 seconds, with the rest of the race action visible on the giant screen. The experience was divine for a motorhead like me. The sight of the pinnacle of automotive technology flying by, with the reverberating music of the ultimate performance engines felt like attainment of Nirvana. The race was thoroughly dominated by Sebastian Vettel. There were some epic battles behind P1 though like the one between Kimi Raikonnen and Felipe Massa which went on through the entire race.

After the race was over, we headed towards the main grand stand which was thrown open to the public. As we went up the stairs on to the stands, the sight was spellbinding. The starting grid leading to the pit garages right in front of the stands with parc ferme and the podium. It gave as our first grand prix weekend at a race track ended it kindled a dream of watching a race with the Grandstand experience.

Who knew that day that exactly 364 days from then, I would return to the same venue to experience the race from the main Grandstand, with my father. How that developed is a story for a different post 

The Ranthambore Experience

A mural of a tiger at Sawai Madhopur Railway Station

I had always wanted to visit Ranthambore in the summer months since I had read and heard about the park being a visual delight, with its raw natural beauty and man-made embellishments in the form of ruins of forts etc. For any wildlife lover, the chance to spot an elusive predator in its own backyard is a rush like no other. Things so turned out that I had to attend a friend’s engagement in Udaipur in the month of April, which took me into the state of Rajasthan. When I learnt that another old buddy too wanted to go for a safari, the stage was set. A 2 day, 3 safari trip to one of India’s most famous national parks with hopes of sighting its crown jewel, the Royal Bengal Tiger

A view of Ranthambore fort 

The night train journey left me at Sawai Madhopur at 1am where I was greeted by huge murals on the walls of the railway station depicting various aspects of its wildlife and how nature has embraced the ruins of the fort and other contributions by past rulers of the land. My friend, Siddhant reached the city later in the morning, still around 5 hours prior to the check-in time at the hotel. We decided to spend this extra time by visiting Ranthambore Fort which is perched high upon a hill overlooking the national park. The panoramic view of the tiger reserve from the Fort, with some royally built structures made the climb worth it. The Fort had a lot of devotees heading towards the Tri-Netra Ganesh temple. The food disposal/offerings by these devotees has resulted in abundant food for monkeys, rodents, birds etc. making it a great place for witnessing these common creatures in action. Another attraction close to the fort is the museum which we couldn’t visit since it is closed on Mondays

A squirrel nibbling away

A view of the lake from the fort

One of the many water carrying labourers at Ranthambore Fort

Our first safari of the trip was through zone 1 of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR). We reached a little late to collect our “boarding passes” but with a little sweet talking, pleading etc, managed to get on board a gypsy for the afternoon safari under the blazing Rajasthan sun. We were accompanied by a family from Bengaluru. 


The first thing to hit us was the raw, untouched beauty of the forest. The chirping of various birds, antelope and deer grazing, monkeys having a gala time etc left a positive impression from the start. But normally like in any safari, the star of the show is always the apex predator.

A healthy population of the apex predator of any forest is an indicator of the forest’s health as they are right on top of the food-chain. We tried following a tiger’s pug marks on the trail etc and then decided to wait near a watering hole, hoping that one of those beauties would come by to get a drink. The 45 minute wait included a lot of discussions about the famous stars of Ranthambore like Machli, Noon, Noor, etc. and various other aspects of wildlife. We also got to see a good number of birds like owls, magpies etc who stopped by for a drink. When we decided to shift location, we saw another safari gypsy waiting on the trail, with a few foreigners looking out in rapt attention. We found nothing on the ground but then saw a beautiful spotted predator perched upon a tree barely 15 feet away from us. The leopard was busy stalking some Sambhar deer, twitching its tail, strategizing its next move. Leopards are extremely hard to spot in the wild in spite of their large population. This is largely thanks to their reclusive nature, camouflage and their tendency to avoid humans in their large metallic machines. Also, leopards are much smaller than tigers and they prefer avoiding potentially life-threatening conflicts with their bigger cousins. After a while, this leopard looked at us, decided to abort and descended from the tree. Upon sighting the leopard, the deer, langurs, birds etc all started their “Predator Found” alarm call, making the entire jungle reverberate in their cacophony. The leopard crossed the trail and vanished into the bushes. I felt like I had attained Nirvana. I had seen all of India’s three big cats in the wild. After seeing Lions at Gir and Tigers at Tadoba, seeing the Leopard felt like the final piece of the “must see in the wild” bucket list. I managed to get quite a lot of good photographs. We later returned to the hotel and recharged ourselves for the final day of the trip

A view of the fort from RTR Zone 2

Day 2 started with an early morning walk to the booking office from where we took the gypsy for a safari through zone 2 of RTR. We were accompanied this time by 2 Americans and 2 Australians. Before we could enter the safari zone, we had already halted 5-6 times since our American friends were enchanted by the beauty of the peafowl which were seen every 50-100m. After a lot of persuasion and with a really pissed off driver, we reduced the number of halts. We were trying to spot tigers before they felt that the day was too hot and decided to rest. The route through zone 2 was tortuous but extremely picturesque, with steep slopes abutting narrow ravines next to the trail. We saw a wide variety of birds like the Honey Buzzard, Vultures, Owls, Cranes, etc., scores of peafowl, Tree-pies, Woodpeckers, etc. and the usual variety of herbivores but still no tiger. Then right at the end, there was a lot of commotion at the dichotomy between zones 2 and 3. A tiger had just walked on the trail, into zone 3 which is the zone of lakes of the reserve. We got a glimpse of the backside of a young tigress that we couldn’t identify. Though it wasn’t a headshot, we did see a tiger which was quite a rush to conclude the thoroughly entertaining second safari

An Oriental Honey Buzzard

A flame back woodpecker

We checked out of the hotel and reached the booking office early to ensure that we got a canter ride in Zone 4 of RTR since canter safaris were done in Zone 3 only on weekends. We had booked a canter safari in Zone 3 and got shifted to Zone 4. Zone 4 is another zone containing a lake. I had read that a lake in a dry deciduous forest like Ranthambore, is like an oasis in a vast desert and I was eagerly looking forward to witness the beauty of the lake in summer. Zone 4 had the most entertaining route by far, with steep and bumpy inclines which were made bumpier by the suspension of the canter. After quite a long ride from the entrance to the zone, we finally reached the lake.

The sight of the lake was divine. Shades of dry brown and yellow, turning green closer to the water, dried up tree stumps standing tall in the water near the bank of the lake. There were a lot of herbivores on the banks, busy trying to quench their thirst and cold blooded creatures like crocodiles and turtles sunbathing. The water itself was resplendently reflecting the blazing sun and had shades of green and red owing to the algae just under its surface. The first thought on seeing this paradise was, “Wow!!! This looks like the perfect hunting ground for a tiger!!!”

We went further into the zone, till we reached the checkpoint. When we reached the lake on our way back, all the herbivores had vanished, giving the lake an eerie aura of silence. It gave us a hunch that a tiger was on the prowl close by. A few 100m away there was another dried up water body surrounded by tall dry grass having a golden hue. Along the edge of the little water which was remaining, we could see a statuesque tiger quenching her thirst. Though she was far, we could see her in her natural habitat, drinking water and cooling off before going on a hunt. She was not bothered by the attention she was getting from us humans. She was probably used to it. After a while, she then got up and majestically walked towards the grass perhaps to start hunting for an evening snack. She effortlessly blended into her surroundings, with the matching golden coloured grass making her almost impossible to spot. It was difficult to spot the tiger in spite of knowing exactly where she was. She almost literally vanished into thin air

With such a great sighting of a tiger disappearing into its surroundings, we concluded a great trip which gave us a great experience of witnessing some sights of nature which we rarely get to see unfolding before our eyes.

Memories of one of the greatest teachers I have known

Great people always leave an everlasting impression on the minds of everyone they directly or indirectly interact with. Prof P.V. Sreehari was one such person. He left this world in 2014 but had left an indelible mark on the hearts of a lot of people especially those of whom he called his students. Today on his birthday, I felt a strong urge to recount a few memories of my interactions with him through the years that I have known him

 

We were all quite clueless on our first day at Fr. Conceiçao Rodrigues College of Engineering, at the start of a 4 year roller coaster ride called Engineering. We learnt from our time-table that our class teacher for the first semester was a person called P.V. Sreehari. Around the lunch break on a cloudy August afternoon, we met him for the first time in the drawing hall on the third floor. A tall, lean, dark skinned gentleman with a deep baritone, he introduced himself to us as our class teacher and told us that we were free for the day but that the semester would be challenging. The next working day, he addressed us in our class and was pretty meticulous with the attendance. He was to teach us mechanics, a subject which struck terror into the hearts of most FEs. From the first minute that he started teaching, the subject seemed to flow effortlessly through him. He seemed to enjoy the activity of teaching and that enjoyment rubbed off onto most of us. This was the shortest semester we had and we had a good amount of syllabus to complete in all subjects. That led to a lot of lecturer battles for extra lectures which used to be fun for us to witness, with the most memorable battles for CP and then CS in Semester 2

He had initially nominated me to be the first CR of FE Elex, but being a democracy, we put it to vote. Since our elected CR fell victim to a mosquito borne disease, I spent a lot of time as the “acting CR” through the first semester which led to a lot of regular interactions with him. He had the amazing ability to remember every student’s name. It served as an inspiration for people like me who have always struggled with names. His lectures almost always had 100% attendance. Not once did he belittle anyone even if they approached him with what many would call silly doubts. He would always be there for his students and would ensure that he gave them all, the best he could. I had once read outside a church, “Give your best to the world and the world will give back the best it can”. The results most of us got in Mechanics and ED seemed like a fitting tribute to his efforts to teach us

We witnessed his anger for the first time when we were pulled up for making too much noise holding a rugby match outside one of our many Semester 1 classes during the lunch break. Just a minute after the blasting, he was joking around with us. On a similar note, when we had our cricket tournament in January, I received a few bazooka blasts since I had called him once to update him about our match result but we ended up inadvertently mass bunking his lecture because of the next match. Sensing the fear in our behaviour, he told us, “Don’t worry. That is all in the past. It is not going to affect the rest of our interactions”. Such a sense of forgiveness though hard to cultivate, is something every single person needs to try and emulate as he showed that life is too short to hold grudges against anyone.

 

In Semester 2 he was still our class teacher, teaching us the subject Engineering Drawing. As always, it was both interesting and fun to learn. When our results for Semester 1 were declared, I was ill with chicken pox. He was one of the first persons to call me and convey my results to me and enquired about my health. He also told me about the surprises in the results and shared his reactions about the same. Such a tiny gesture, made me feel so much better. Later, during our cultural fest Euphoria, we got an idea that he was a singer and a violinist. We didn’t get to hear him sing that year though. Thus understanding his passion for music, we gifted him a flute that year for his birthday. I am not sure if he learnt how to play it though

 Since he was part of the Production Engineering department, he didn’t teach us in our future semesters. He still would drop into our class from time to time and have some small talk with us etc. All conversations with him would always be nice, warm and fun. Even folks from the diploma section who never attended his lectures found him really endearing and said that he was “awesome”. I heard him sing for the first time when we forced him to do so during our Formal day in Third Year. It was a beautiful ode to Goddess Saraswati and we could feel the years he had dedicated towards learning the intricacies of Carnatic Music. It was simply magical to hear him sing. How I wish we could hear him more often. Once he had made a surprise appearance during the orchestra night auditions but we failed to get him to sing that evening. He would say, “Mai aisa sab gaana nahi gaata hai..You people enjoy yourselves…”

He left CRCE to join DJ Sanghvi sometime during our final year. I still remember having visited him in DJ Sanghvi with a box full of Tirunelveli halwa, which I had got from my native place, just before I started working. That day’s conversation included a lot of points mentioned above like the extra lecture battle with Kalpana mam, Raina mam etc. He enquired about almost all my classmates, especially “Chottu” who was one of the most famous rebels in his lectures. I was fortunate to accidentally bump into him a few times when I visited some sites near DJ Sanghvi. He would always grace our alumni meetings and would always be one of the star persons everyone who learnt from, would want to meet. He was conspicuous in his absence in the 2014 meet after which we learnt that he was battling cancer. It was shocking to hear this news. Unfortunately our prayers couldn’t stop the inevitable and he lost his battle with the disease at a young age of 43. The world lost a gem of a person who moulded a lot of future diamonds from CRCE

Sreehari sir, thank you for being a part of our lives. Your memories shall live on forever…

Water, water, water...

Over the last few days, there have been a lot of talks about the ipl being shifted out of Maharashtra because of the unavailability of water for our fathers. The volume of water mentioned is mind boggling. But will shifting the IPL matches out if the state really help? There are issues related to both availability of water and the water reaching the ones who need it. Solving just one won't solve the other. We need to ensure that we work to solve both.


There definitely is a lot of water being used for maintenance of cricket grounds. Does shifting the IPL matches out mean that the grounds will be left to dry up? Does it mean that all the water which can hypothetically be saved, can be used by the farmers who need it? There are a couple of observations regarding the misuse of water we see in our cities

Every morning, one might find a trail of wet truck tyres on the roads next to most grassy dividers. The area around washed cars might have enough water for feral dogs etc to drink. The two activities mentioned above  probably consume a good deal of water on a daily basis. It might add up to 70 lakh litres on a monthly basis which is the volume of water which exists say shall be used for maintaining the grounds for the IPL. They are the kind of actions which genuinely WASTE water. 

I'm certain a huge part of the 70 lakh litres of water which will supposedly be consumed during the IPL, can be saved by using the water judiciously. By judicious use of water for daily activities, we can save much more. I'm not saying that a person should not wash his/her car or not bathe daily, but it needs to be done with optimal usage of water. This can probably happen only if everyone gets sensitive about optional usage of our resources

Even the gardener of a posh Mumbai residential colony needs to be sensitive about the use of ground water, since the conservation of ground water in one place can save potable water somewhere else which would finally result in more water available for those who really need it and don't get it. 

I hope we don't take the resources we have at our disposal for granted. I'm certain the number of litres of water being supplied to the citizens of our national capital for free, are not NEEDED by them. Unfortunately the access to such resources is considered by many as a right and gets abused to a point where the ones who really need it get driven to the point of suicide. 

Let us all not get taken away by the crocodile tears shed by people who portray they are trying to shoo away major consumers of water like the IPL venues. Let us be the change and use water judiciously so that we may contribute our bit towards conserving this precious resource. I'm certain that our little contributions can go a long way towards 

Marathon musings-firsthand experience

I have finally taken the plunge into the world of blogging.  As I was running the Mumbai Marathon (half marathon) last weekend, I realised that the clarity of thoughts while on a run could help me get started with something which I had been wanting to start for a very long time. So here goes my first person description of this highly memorable experience called the Mumbai Marathon

The day had finally arrived. The hugely anticipated Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2016 was here. After having participated once back in 2007 to just be a part of a mega event, this was an opportunity to be a part of an annual phenomenon which had kindled running as a lifestyle among millions of Indians. A gap of 9 years and a new found love for running made this my “First Half marathon”. After getting the pre-requisites of the timing certificates sorted out through 2015, after going through 3 pairs of running shoes, I was ready to run, rearing to push myself to run longer and better than before

As expected, the excitement for the event made it difficult to get hold of sleep. The thoughts of the amazing route encompassing the sea link, Worli sea face, Peddar Road and Marine drive flooded my mind as they might have done with many of the other 10000+ half marathoners. I still managed to be up before my alarm and leave following a light breakfast. The trains in the morning were full of people wearing SCMM running bibs, heading to Lower Parel or Churchgate. The holding area for the Half marathon was the Worli dairy premises. The holding area was enormous with baggage vans, mobile toilets/urinals etc. all in order to facilitate a smooth and structured start to the half marathon. 

In spite of starting in block E, I crossed the starting line in less than 3 minutes. It was great to hear the wide concrete road of the Worli sea face being pounded by the rhythmic strides of runners. Turning onto the Bandra Worli Sea link for the first time while not in a car was exciting. The hype about running on the Sea link just turned to a kind of mental calmness. The gentle sea breeze seemed to be welcoming us, asking us to experience the joy of running on one of Mumbai’s if not India’s most iconic structures. The only drawback seemed to be that the moisture rich ambiance caused a lot of perspiration in spite of the relatively low temperature. A u-turn on the sea link at the Bandra end took back towards Worli. It was liberating to motor through the Sea link on my own muscle power instead of fossil fuels. The kilometer markers just seemed to go by with everything flowing in a beautiful rhythm driven by the cadence of my steps

The next leg took us through Worli sea face, where people had started gathering to cheer us on. This was where I saw the first scary bit of the marathon. A person had collapsed on the side of the road and was being attended to be medical personnel. It served as a reminder that whatever one may say, distance running is a physically demanding sport where mind over matter doesn’t always work. The mind needs to be in sync with the body, not pushing it beyond its breaking point. With that in mind, I continued, realizing that I had run the first 10km faster than any of my previous 10km runs, in approximately 56 minutes. The stretch leading to Haji Ali was quite magical. As soon as we reached NSCI, it was as though we were hit by a sudden wall of cool air which seemed to say, “Peddar Road is up ahead. Stay cool and fresh while tackling it.” Every year, people living in the areas through which the marathon routes pass, tend to cheer on and refresh the runners with fruits, chocolates, biscuits etc. One such group was distributing Cadbury’s dairy milks to runners at Cadbury junction. It dished up a nice little sugar rush to handle the steepest incline on the route, Peddar Road. I had once tried to get a feel for Peddar Road by running from Cadbury junction to Babulnath in 11 minutes. But running 13 kms prior to such a slope kill your ego making you realize that you need to respect the route. The relatively slow climb up Peddar road led to a flat stretch where one could pick up some momentum before Kemp’s corner flyover, the last incline on the route.

The climb up Kemp’s corner flyover was fine, but as I was coming down the slope and heading to the Babulnath turning, I realized that something was amiss. My legs started screaming with pain as cramps started to set in. I had run continuously farther than ever before and was looking good to complete the half marathon in under 2 hours 10 minutes. But the cramps hit me like stone wall raising doubts if I could complete the race. I stopped at Wilson College, tried to stretch my legs before trying to jog. The scorching pain came and went as I moved forward, taking me to the verge of tears. I started saying my prayers in my mind with the hope that some divine intervention would carry me forward till the end. That’s when I managed to get some Relispray on my legs. My mind was way too cluttered to realise that my legs felt a little better after the spray. As I ambled on, at a distance I saw an open bus heading in the opposite direction, followed by a car with a timing display. Right behind it was a group of Elite African athletes, who seemed to be sprinting effortlessly. Watching masters at work can do miracles. The pain seemed to go away enabling me to go on. Perhaps that’s why masters like Sachin are called Gods of their sports. I alternated between walking and jogging through Marine Drive, not going too slowly but nowhere close to the pace which I managed for the first 14km.

The live performances by bands playing a variety of motivational, patriotic and other songs helped divert the mind from the pain which had made things pretty difficult. I had initially planned to run the last kilometer from Flora Fountain to the finish line. But like in life, one needs to adapt plans as per the circumstances. I alternated between brisk walks and running, cheering the champions with disability in the adjoining lane. One of the best ways to motivate oneself is to motivate others. That line definitely proved itself as I managed to muster the strength to put in a 100m sprint to the finishing line which was probably the fastest my body would have allowed at that point. The only word I could think of after completing the half marathon was “Ecstasy”. Perhaps this is what is referred to as the runners’ high. I’m certain this is not going to be the last Half Marathon I run, be it the Mumbai marathon or any other event.