Thats me, now!

Autograph !

Kids @ School

Top Row -> Shwetha, Koushik, Tarun, Ganesh Ranjan, Yashpal, Yadav, Mridul, ??, Sushma
Row 2 -> Srinivas, Shyam Sundar, Rajesh, Archana, Dinesh, Anita, ??,Anish, ??,??
Sitting -> Deeptha, Srini, Ganesh Ram, Arvind, Nisha,Andal Ma'am, Monisha, Kaushik, Deepak, Vipin, Sudha.

Not bad, considering I havent seen most of them since 1988 :-)

The Englishman

He woke up when the first rays of the fine English sun filtered through the stained glass windows. The large stained glass image of "Madonna of the rocks" was imprinted on this fine glass, imported from Southern France, tracing its origins to the gothic era. He glanced at the large bracket mantel clock that was quite the only wall-hanging in his room. It was a little over six in the morning. It made him proud to glance at the same clock that an Earl or a Prince might have glanced at once. He had always liked to be petulant and precise about his house, something that his friends said ran in the blood of Englishmen. He got up from the four poster chest-nut bed and headed for the rest room.

The figure was one of an old man, a frail figure of sixty-four. His hair was white and longish, and he sported white stubble, something that he used to hide the sagging skin. He looked amazingly different now, perhaps not even his father would recognise him if he were to see him now. His face was locked in a careless smile as he splashed water on his face.

Like the proverbial Englishman, he spoke with all his body. He walked down the road, complete with the Saxony Jacket, Moleskin pants, felt hat and stirling silver walking stick. Not that he needed the walking stick, but since the time he had retired from the Bank of England two years earlier, he had always felt like carrying one. And in England, each man is an island, doing what he likes and consulting only his own convenience. He almost walked in the opposite direction out of practice. After all, he had taken the same route for almost forty years, from his house to the gates of Sir John Soane's massive curtain walls that enclosed the three-acre island. The island that was home to the oldest bank in the world, the Bank of England. He chuckled and changed directions. Five minutes later, he entered the church where he had been attending morning service since time immemorial.

As usual, he was one of the earliest. He went to the pew, as if to take an up close and personal look at the lord. He then went back to his seat, the seventh seat on the fifth row, a place he had been occupying since, well, time immemorial. He was well versed in the 'litugry' or method of prayer. The prayer started, and ended as usual. His prayer was intent, never wandering from the sermons that the preacher delivered. He prayed for his family who were now scattered, and he prayed for himself.

Just as he was about to leave the church, the unthinkable happened. A woman, perhaps fifty years old came up to him.

She said, "I was seated next to you in the church, if you had noticed". He had not. Never does an Englishman let another meet his eye. It was almost an affront to see another in the eye when introductions had not been made. Shocked, he said "Err.."

"Never mind", she continued. He was shocked, shocked that a ritual that he had carried out for years had been shattered. In his mind's eye, he said, 'How on earth can people talk to those who have not been introduced to each other? And that too in such a fine, polished country like mine!'

"I saw you praying. You were so deep in your prayers that perhaps you did not notice me." In his mind he thought "What do you want!"

"Just curious, you know". An English man is not curious, neither does he show his unbecoming emotions. Silently, he looked on, waiting for his 'offender' to finish.

"Do you belong to the church of England?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Thats wonderful. How do you find my country?"

The question echoed from the walls of the church, and from the deepest echelons of his heart. Rajith 'Ron' Ramasekharan's world had just been shattered.

'...my country' mutterd the Englishman as he walked back.

And now, a CDG wing in the works

What you see here gentlemen, is not a mug shot of Ralf Schumacher's car taken after his spectacular crash into the famous Oval Bank at Indianapolis but Max and his minions at work, in an attempt to reduce air turbulence and thereby help increase overtaking. And this, as a result of Max Mosley, the famed monkey from Monaco conducting a survey and being surprised of the outcome - that racing fans wanted to see more overtaking! And so, in his attempt to cater to this, he appoints a couple of his minions and some geeks from a chip manufacturing company to help design a new wing that would effectively reduce the already scarce advertising real-estate available on F1 cars. And ofcourse, Max is so extremely short sighted that he does not see important sponsorship money being placed in jeopardy by this new "radical" design.

Some questions about the "Centreline Downwash Generating Wing" ::

A novice at aerodynamics, but I would still like to see and know if there are two areas of turbulence (over the two smaller wings). The FIA does not talk of this, nor has it given images other than along the vertical plane along the center line.

Even to the naked eye, it seems as though the wings are too close to the rear tyres. (EvenGiles Villeneuve's Ferrari had two wings, but they were way above.) So, did the FIA take into consideration the amount of debris that would be flying on the track if a tyre flattens out and manages to make contact with one of these wings?

Was any top F1 team involved with AMD while it conducted the computational fluid dynamic tests? Or was it just grandpa Max lovingly accpeting the play-car model that his minions have doled out?

Does AMD own a wind-tunnel? Does FIA own one? I am sure that neither Todt (Ferrari) or he Ronster(McLaren) would allow Max's minions to set foot inside the sanctum sanctorum's of F1 technology - a state of the art wind-tunnel.

Does AMD have any previous experience of having designed aerodynamic packages? Don't come up with "NASCAR" - those are bulky 3000 pound tractors that dole out 750 horsepower as against the 950 hp wrung out by a 1300 pound F1 rocketship.

The CDG Wing - reminds me of Williams' (an astounding 16 time WCC) who have come up with awful yet innovative and money-guzzling aero packages time and again - LMAO!