Sunday, May 29, 2005

nothing else matters

Q: Recently, many pundits have labelled you the second best driver on the grid after Michael Schumacher. What do you make of such comparisons?
KR: I should probably stop racing if I thought about myself as being second best.

source:
www.formula1.com/race/news/3087/738.html

Sunday, May 22, 2005

to kimi

was all excited and really really happy with kimi's consummate performance at the monaco grand prix.
the trafic jam that brought in the saftey car disturbed me so much when i learnt tht alonso had finished his 1st pit stop during tht time and kimi hadn't and one needs around 30 secs for a pit stop. i just didn't know what to expect...
all we knew was that we needed a gap of around 30 secs between kimi and alonso.
our ice man set up a gap of 34 secs (34 SECS!!) before he went to the pit stop and emerged out as the race leader again! that was a great drive. this post is dedicated to the man and that drive!

his words...
"This is great. To win is always fantastic, but Monaco is a special challenge. We have been strong throughout the weekend and I was able to pretty much control the race. I was able to push and open up a considerable gap, and when the time was right I simply came into the pits, refuel and still rejoin the race in the lead. After that I could take it a bit easier and look after the car and the Michelin tyres. Once again thank you to the entire team and everybody at Michelin. We have worked hard, and I think we have the best package out there at the moment. Our World Championship battle has gained momentum today. We will take one race at a time and continue to do our best."

Monday, May 16, 2005

k c a b y a l p

i haven't written about playback theatre in this blog...i think i have a reason to write about it now -sunday's performance at "asha nikethan", a home for mentally challenged people.

just to give an idea, playback is an interactive form of theatre where in the experiences of the audience received in the form of responses to the simple questions posed by the conductor (who is going to be one of the payback performance group) are played back to them as a theatrical performance.

to know more,
www.playbacknet.org/iptn/index.htm
www.theatrecapital.com

i was introduced to playback by a friend, dhi, and i completed my workshop sometime in 2004. the workshop concluded with a performance of which i was a part, along with my batch mates susan, ujwal and vinay (we called this group of 5, the 4 of us and our instructor umesh as "connections"), after this i can say i lost touch with playback.

but i wanted to do playback because i liked it.
i liked the very idea of acting out the experiences of the audience to them within a matter of a few seconds.
i liked it more when i realized that it makes a significant difference to them at the end of it.
i liked the people associated with it, they are not like the usual theatre crowd at all.

so, i joined them again sometime in feb 2005, have been a part of 3 of the performances till now.
the first one was at "bosco yuva kendra", home for the youth
that was a very joyous performance with the boys responding amazing well.

the second one was at "ashirwad", a spiritual place where the leaders from various religions meet up and hold meetings on equality, peace and things like that.
i was quite hesitant during that show as i was not able to relate to the audience well, i wasn't sure how they would take things and all. so, can say i didn't enjoy that one very much.

the third one was on last sunday at "asha nikethan", this one made all the difference.
though we didn't know what to expect from this performance, it turned out to be such a nice thing. the fact that we could actually act out the responses, thoughts that were shared by the mentally challenged persons is so unparalleled. and the fact that they responded so well to our acting is such a blessing. i feel they could respond, react and enjoy this show because, it was a playback performance, we acted out their own stories, their own experiences. we could see the smiles on their faces when we acted out what they had just said. i am glad to be a part of playback theatre.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

the man

it's kimi raikkonnen, as his fans say...a flying finn!
truly brilliant performance from this man at the spanish grand prix..
started off with no mistake, established a comfortable lead, and was absolutely flying, with unbelievable number of fastest laps...he kept getting them all in a row.
he was leading the spanish driver alonso by around 23 seconds when he went for his first pit stop, then joined the race track as the leader again! he lapped up the drivers till 7th place, including his own team mate montoya. he realsied he could take it easy as there was no possible threat from any one around, it was his race :-)
it was a brilliant run from start to finish from the finnish driver.
was quite glad to see him on the top step...looked like it was the beginning.
happy for kimi, his team and myself.