Article 152 of the International Sporting Code states that drive-through penalties are “not susceptible to appeal”.

But why the fuck would the F.I.A wait for two weeks, schedule a hearing for an appeal, go ahead with it and THEN rule that the appeal is inadmissible because the original penalty was ineligible for an appeal?

Oh wait. Don’t we all know that the F in FIA stands for a certain competitor’s of McLaren (who shall remain un-named) and A stands for ass-lickers? Now it all makes sense!

Jokes apart, wouldn’t this rule mean that any drive-through penalty that the race stewards hand out cannot be overturned later to adjust final standings? Considering how it affected the final race standings, is this motor racing’s version of the NFL’s inadvertent whistle rule that killed the Chargers against the Broncos last week?

a. flying to the US in the next few weeks…

(or)

b. flying to India (preferably to Chennai) in the next few weeks…

(and)

… would be willing to carry a 26 inch long plastic/cardboard tube (click here or see below for contents) with them.

Yes, yes, yes! I know it’s trivial, but just indulge me!

I realized that I was closing in upon a milestone. By the time this post is online, it will be 5 years since I started blabbering. My first post was posted on Blogger on the 10th of February, 2003. And barring a few months early on and around 100 days in late ’04 and early ’05, I have been posting rather regularly.

Looking at Lekhni’s tag, I realized that she had given me a good chance to take a retrospective look and to reminisce upon these five years gone by. But the problem with my blog is that, as my erstwhile tagline (( I have an ever-changing tagline now, courtesy Twitter?)) goes, it is the record of an egoist’s road trip through life with cricket, music, books, cars and movies for company.

Which means that this blog is about me and me alone. So, as the days go by, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember the odd posts that one has “written” relating to some of the keywords of this tag. Also, the difficulty is compounded by the fact that I took an oath, with myself as witness, that I wouldn’t post anything personal here. So the odd heartbreak has almost never found an outlet here, even if some friends (both online and IRL) have heard me obsess over it.

I have come to a conclusion that wherever I think I won’t be able to fit within the confines of the tag, I will bend the boundaries to my whims and fancies. Hey, this is MY blog and I do what I think is right. Also, my ego prevents me from sticking to the “1 post per keyword” rule of this tag. I will hence go ahead and regurgitate multiple links wherever possible. But let me just make the basic rules clearer to everyone.

The rules of the tag are: Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like). Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.

Family: As far as family is concerned, my mom offers the single largest (potential) inspiration for posts on this blog, but I haven’t posted much in this regard. Anyways, as much as I denied it then, this post had its genesis in a phone conversation with my mom.

Friends: I think I will use this keyword as a chance to link to a couple of 55 word shorts. This short is about a short lived friendship. Here is another I wrote about what will intrigue some of my vetti friends.

Yourself: The majority of this blog is about me and my overblown ego. I am tempted to link to some of my “infamous” posts here (tulips/volcano, anyone? Or the silly photo meme?). But I have other plans.

Two years ago, I put up an “accomodation wanted post” that the aforementioned vetti friends hijacked and converted into a post that screamed “Looking for a Significant Other” post. Occupied as I was in my worries about finding an apartment and settling into a new job, I edited that post to make it sound less frivolous. But later, seeing where they were coming from and the fact that it did sound like a matrimonial ad, I recovered the post and put it into a private vault, not wanting to lose anything I wrote.

Until today, that is. So here it is – in an unedited, “directors cut” format, my appeal for shared accommodation in the Parsippany / Rockaway area.

Your Love: I don’t know if people realized this. But I started blogging because of cricket and the fact that Rediff and Cricinfo stopped accepting pieces from guest authors. My posts as a guest author/columnist in these portals were perhaps my earliest attempts at putting my thoughts into paper, barring a few emails that I sent to friends from time to time.

So without my ado, here are my earliest Cricinfo contributions to the Writer in You section -

1. About the continued exclusion of Sadagopan Ramesh in March ’02

2. About the test match at Lords in August ’02

3. Thoughts about the first day of India West Indies test match at Bourda in April ’02.

And my contribution to Rediff as a guest author -

1. Musings about the win at Port of Spain in April ’02.

Apart from these, I’m going to link to a pair of long posts about my favorite cricketing pet peeve – The BCCI. These posts (part 1 and part 2), though a couple of years old ring true even now. I also believe that India needs to look at a core competency model for its selection policies, though positive changes seem to have come through in these past couple of years. And lastly this post about playing cricket with a scientific calculator.

Anything I like: I am romantically challenged, but even then I have a soft corner for this post of mine, a what-if tale of romance, from the perspective of a member of the vehiculum futbolus genetrix family. As I do for this one – about PTC/MTC buses in Chennai.

Another interest of mine is movies, so here are a couple – this post about one of my favorite movies, and this one about the general state of Bollywood. I have also pontificated in the past about dancing my heart out – Here and here. Lastly, I dont think this tag will not be complete without this cooking type post.

But before I leave, I have to apparently tag 5 bloggers whose blogs I love to read. Seems like two of them have to be new acquaintaces. Hmmm, let’s see.

In keeping with the trend on this post, I will cheat and tag 7 bloggers instead. I will tag – Smugbug, Arun, Pri, Megha, DoZ, Missus Em and Max Da Vinci.

A couple of these people haven’t posted recently and that’s never good. So I believe this retrospective look will spur them on. Particularly, Megha, whose latest anniversary post was such a cop out! Yo, Can we get a real post now? And DoZ, if you want, I will look away if you include your posts from Stochastica as well.

There, DONE!

Whew, five years is such a long time. But I am not done yet. Keep coming back and please do leave a comment or two everytime. Thanks to Lekhni for this opportunity. Came at the right time and I can’t think of a better way to usher in a new blogging year.A new template would have perhaps been perfect icing to this cake.But thanks to a brain freeze by yours truly, it was not to be. Ah well. Life’s not perfect, either.

And in other news, I seem to have been tagged again. Guruprasad’s tagged me to write about “non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself”. Now that is quite an impossible task because the blog does not have anything else apart from non-important things/habits/quirks about me and 480 odd posts is a large number to wade through.

In fact I think that this blog’s the single biggest reason that I am still single, because so much dirt on me can be got with a simple google search. So I have decided that I won’t muddy the waters any more. Can you excuse me, Sir?

Before that, let’s see what the WMSC’s official statement said, viz. the drivers:

(However) due to the exceptional circumstances in which the FIA gave the team’s drivers an immunity in return for providing evidence, there is no penalty in regards to drivers’ points.

To get some individual reactions, let’s first go to Max Mosley first, who says,

“For the drivers we have made an exception because they have supplied evidence”

Later, Ron Dennis had this to say,

“The WMSC received statements from Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Pedro de la Rosa stating categorically that no Ferrari information had been used by McLaren, and that they have not passed any confidential data to the team”

And, the world (minus the millions of Ferrari toadies) waits for an explanation.

Funny, but interesting ad, considering how the McLaren drivers’ working relationship has panned out IRL. Watch out for a special appearance at the end. The Europeans surely put the “F” in the word funny.

You know, I have missed you, darling. I had not realized that until I saw you that day. And since then my thoughts have been full of you and you alone. Memories of that week-long road trip – they still haunt my dreams. Pleasant though, because I don’t think anything about you can ever be unpleasant. We had a good time and I am sure that even in the surliest of moods, you would agree.

The first leg of that trip, to Athens (Ohio), brought back to me to a lot of memories, for it has been home away from home for the most part of the last 6 years or so. But the second leg, when we drove to New England and back, that was the first time that we were really by ourselves. New memories were created and bonds forged. And, since we bade our goodbyes, I have been to the Northeast more than once, hoping to recreate those pristine moments. But sadly, those trips have been fruitless. Who was I kidding? Those memories that I went searching for – those were of you and not of Mystic (Connecticut).

But I know you are pretending. I know you saw me that day. And I know you were irked by the fact that I was with someone else. You should understand that I did not go looking for her. Her company was forced upon me. We were brought together by chance and by need. That sounds cheap, but it is the truth. And now, I loathe her.

I admit I was initially smitten, but not for long. By the time I came home with her, I saw her true colors and boy, was I disappointed. Clad, even as she was in the most eye catching of attire, she never could measure up to you. She was loud, flashy and attention hungry. She turned heads every minute of the way and I did not like it. Every time she stretched her legs, heads turned and horns hooted. And every time she paused in her step, breaths were held and brows seemed to turn sweaty.

No, jealousy has nothing to do with it. You know I am better than that, darling. She was just too flashy for me. You know how I’d like to put my juvenile past behind me, those days when I thought a fluorescent green tennis hat or an orange shirt was haute-couture. She reminded me of those days and made me cringe. But that was not all.

I could swear she smirked and rolled her eyes when I was driving her those 10 miles through bumper to bumper traffic, shifting uncomfortably, unable to even move my legs without feeling my balls. And once we got to the rest area, I was even afraid to walk the 100 feet from the parking lot to the mens room lest the full bladder explode. And I could swear she was mocking me behind my back then. That definitely did not amuse me.

Every minute I spent with her over the last weekend made me realize how good it had been with you and how stupid I had been not to pursue you with the interest that I should have had. And now, having thought about you and the time we spent, I have come to the conclusion that I should reach out to you and see if you still have any feelings for me. I honest to god wish, that you and I are meant to be.

Is there anything I can do to make you forgive me for last weekend’s jaunt with her? Can you give me another chance, pretty please?

I am liveblogging the 24 Hours of Le Mans as two factory Audi R10 TDIs finish 1 and 3 overall. If you are an auto racing fan like me, you will know that this is a monumental event. The 24 Heures du Mans is probably the most historic of auto races in the current racing calendar. This is the 74th edition and so this is possibly the oldest race in motor sports that still races in its original format.

If you are fan of the Mercedes Benz racing teams, like I am, its interesting to note that the a horrific accident at Le Mans in 1955 that killed 77 spectators caused Benz to withdraw from all racing till they came back in 1987. And Le Mans is also the scene of the famous trio of back flips that the Mercedes CLRs (one of the most beautiful cars ever, if you ask me) performed in on their Le Mans debut in 1999 along the Mulsanne straight, one of them during practice by current F1 driver Mark Webber (he had another during the actual race at virtually the same point on the track!) which has caused Mercedes Benz to stay away from from Le Mans since then (click here to see a Google video, which btw, has a funny description of what happened).

Now Audi powered cars have been winning first overall in this race for the last 7 years (six by the R8 cars and one win by a Audi powered Bentley in 2003) in a row. This year has been even more special. After being virtually unchallenged since the turn of the millenium, Audi decided to make things challenging by getting a completely new 5.5 litre diesel engine this year and the car became officially known as the Audi R10 TDI. And a few minutes ago, just as I started typing, the R10 became the first diesel powered car to win the 24 hours race.

It has been a weekend of racing coincidences. Last Sunday, I came back to find that my latest Netflix DVD had arrived. It was the one Steve McQueen movie that I had been hunting for a long time – Le Mans. With the last 10 days being as tiring as they did (will post on that sometime), I never got a chance to open the DVD. Yesterday I did and having some problems in my DVD player setup I put it off and turned on Speed Channel to find catch the start of this year’s 24 hours race at Le Sarthe.

Since Speed cut off coverage after a hour to switch to a Nascar show, I decided to go and watch a movie. And the only movie that was beginning when I got there was Cars. And the lead character voiced by Owen Wilson was called – Lightning McQueen ( a nod to Steve McQueen)!
While I knew last week about the Cars connection, I did not realize that this was the Le Man’s weekend because for some reason I was thought that the 24 Hours was always during the first weekend of July.

Once I came back late at night after the movie, I caught another hour of the race as Speed was switching back and forth. And this morning, I again caught snatches as the cars raced closer and closer to the finish. In the end, the C06 Corvettes, always strong performers in the American Le Mans series (of which the 24 hours is the flagship race), ran a very good race too and one of the them finished 4th overall. The C06 won the GT1 class along the way after one of the Aston Martin DBR9s that was leading for most of the way with a one lap advantage fried a clutch prompting a pitstop with less than 4 hours left. The Aston Martins finally finished 2nd (sixth overall) and fifth in their class. The GT2 class was won by one of the Panoz Esperantes, a fitting acheivement since this year marks a decade of their participation in ALMS.

For all the trivia enthusiasts out there, Steve McQueen was a budding American Le Mans series racer himself (Paul Newman is another, I think) who drove a Porsche 908 at the 12 hours of Sebring race in 1970 while preparing for the Le Mans movie, finishing second overall (and first in class) behind the winning Ferrari of Mario Andretti. Another interesting peice of trivia is that McQueen holds¹ US patent #D219584 (click picture to enlarge) for something that millions of people use everyday while driving – the bucket seat! Talking about multi-dimensional movie stars, for Steve Mcqueen, racing WAS life.

Another Le Mans trivia nugget – every car manufacturer makes left hand drive cars with the ignition key on the right hand side of the steering wheel. Well, every manufacturer except Porsche! This is a direct nod to their Le Mans winning heritage².

In the old days (till 1970, a year after seat belts were made mandatory), the start of Le Mans, like Formula One, used to be stationary (now it’s a race with a rolling start, like NASCAR). The drivers had to run to their cars from the opposite side of the track from the pitwall and start their cars and drive off. Having the ignition on the left helped since the drivers could save a few seconds by starting the engine with left hand while engaging the 1st gear with the right hand, depressing the clutch with left foot and stepping on the gas with right foot simultaneously thus allowing the Porsche to get off the starting line more quickly than other race cars. And so it is perhaps no surprise that Porsche have been perennial winners (16 top overall finishes) at Le Mans.

[1] Source: The First Steve McQueen Site

[2] Source: Wikipedia