Sunday, August 07, 2005
Living with pride , heart of a racer..
While the F1 fraternity has taken a three weeks vacation, racing fan like me is exploring the friendly neighborhoods of KL. In wee hours of saturday morning as the crowd lazily dispersed from plaza mont kiara,I was still soaking the melodies rendered by tenor sax of Greg Lyons and I sincerely wished that the Sunrise Jazz Fest should have lasted till sunrise.
2'O clock in the morning as I waved the cab whizzing past ,the driver effortlessly braked the car on the spot and I got in the cab. A left turn on first block and we were on the main road which was still having steady traffic ( KL never sleeps in weekends), and our driver effortlessly merged in the traffic .
Within matter of seconds the cab sped past the traffic , and driver with almost maniac precision maneuvered the car , the exits to make it to myriads of flyovers the city has looked like a cake walk ,never was a need felt to use the break . judging the speed of car in front , reaching the boot of the front car ,slight steering movement to slip into the lane next to the car in front all seemed just similar to the right notes rendered on tenor sax by Greg ,for past few hours , the same fluidity ,same effortless ease .
Race junkie in me couldn’t but comment to my local Indian driver “ Big bro ever thought of racing a race car” , without taking his eyes off the traffic in front of him he shot back “Bro bit too old for that , have you seen Kimmi Raikonnen drive his car , I simply love that kid ,so focused so divine behind the wheels” , Just as I thought another race junkie “ Yes Brother , but my favorite is Montoya” I replied . “Ohh that wild guy on the circuit” pat came the response . I thought that sobriquet was reserved for one Jap called Sato , but I kept mum .
“Bro yes indeed Formula One is exciting , but my job is more exciting I feel” he continued . looking at my puzzled face in rear view mirror he responded . I just drive cab to kill time ,me and my pal do rounds in the cab whenever we are free. My regular job is with local car company, we test drive their production cars do the endurance tests, road tests. We ensure that they can face varied road conditions. “Ohh!! so you must be following rally racing as well” my naïve response.
"No bro, agreed various racing events is fun to do and watch, but you know what when I with bunch of my colleagues test our production cars ,which are all of similar specs, same tuning ,identical in all possible aspects. Its so very exciting I can’t express that in words, our hand shiver in excitement. That my rivals are driving identical equipment, my skills as driver are key element, my ability to know the limit of the machine, to get maximum out of it, with every driver I beat on those races, I reaffirm my ability to excel, my ability to extract that extra bit from machine ,is really satisfying experience".
While I was absorbing the wisdom of drive to excel and as was drawing comparison with similar philosophy by Robert Pirsig, the words “here is your apartment bro, keep my card . call me sometime one of these days when we have those endurance races of our production cars I will invite you and you will know” broke my thought chain. “What’s your name” I inquired as I paid him, Shaan he said handed his card .
I am sure the name must be something like Shanmugam which like other Indians here ,he must have abbreviated. But with him the Hindi meaning of word “Shaan” closely meaning Pride suited better , Pride of being a racer ,pride of putting maximum into you job and getting that satisfaction of giving your best !!!
I
While the F1 fraternity has taken a three weeks vacation, racing fan like me is exploring the friendly neighborhoods of KL. In wee hours of saturday morning as the crowd lazily dispersed from plaza mont kiara,I was still soaking the melodies rendered by tenor sax of Greg Lyons and I sincerely wished that the Sunrise Jazz Fest should have lasted till sunrise.
2'O clock in the morning as I waved the cab whizzing past ,the driver effortlessly braked the car on the spot and I got in the cab. A left turn on first block and we were on the main road which was still having steady traffic ( KL never sleeps in weekends), and our driver effortlessly merged in the traffic .
Within matter of seconds the cab sped past the traffic , and driver with almost maniac precision maneuvered the car , the exits to make it to myriads of flyovers the city has looked like a cake walk ,never was a need felt to use the break . judging the speed of car in front , reaching the boot of the front car ,slight steering movement to slip into the lane next to the car in front all seemed just similar to the right notes rendered on tenor sax by Greg ,for past few hours , the same fluidity ,same effortless ease .
Race junkie in me couldn’t but comment to my local Indian driver “ Big bro ever thought of racing a race car” , without taking his eyes off the traffic in front of him he shot back “Bro bit too old for that , have you seen Kimmi Raikonnen drive his car , I simply love that kid ,so focused so divine behind the wheels” , Just as I thought another race junkie “ Yes Brother , but my favorite is Montoya” I replied . “Ohh that wild guy on the circuit” pat came the response . I thought that sobriquet was reserved for one Jap called Sato , but I kept mum .
“Bro yes indeed Formula One is exciting , but my job is more exciting I feel” he continued . looking at my puzzled face in rear view mirror he responded . I just drive cab to kill time ,me and my pal do rounds in the cab whenever we are free. My regular job is with local car company, we test drive their production cars do the endurance tests, road tests. We ensure that they can face varied road conditions. “Ohh!! so you must be following rally racing as well” my naïve response.
"No bro, agreed various racing events is fun to do and watch, but you know what when I with bunch of my colleagues test our production cars ,which are all of similar specs, same tuning ,identical in all possible aspects. Its so very exciting I can’t express that in words, our hand shiver in excitement. That my rivals are driving identical equipment, my skills as driver are key element, my ability to know the limit of the machine, to get maximum out of it, with every driver I beat on those races, I reaffirm my ability to excel, my ability to extract that extra bit from machine ,is really satisfying experience".
While I was absorbing the wisdom of drive to excel and as was drawing comparison with similar philosophy by Robert Pirsig, the words “here is your apartment bro, keep my card . call me sometime one of these days when we have those endurance races of our production cars I will invite you and you will know” broke my thought chain. “What’s your name” I inquired as I paid him, Shaan he said handed his card .
I am sure the name must be something like Shanmugam which like other Indians here ,he must have abbreviated. But with him the Hindi meaning of word “Shaan” closely meaning Pride suited better , Pride of being a racer ,pride of putting maximum into you job and getting that satisfaction of giving your best !!!
I
Unsui 12:42 PM