Beast of Burden

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

1.IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY?' YOU SAY :-
I'd Die for You (Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet)

2.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Stiff Upper Lip (AC/DC - Stiff Upper Lip)

3.WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Dear Prudence (The Beatles - The White Album)

4.HOW DO YOU FEEL ?
Up the Downstair (Porcupine Tree - Coma Divine)

5.WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
The Real Me (The Who - Quadrophenia)

6.WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Dream On (Aerosmith - Aerosmith)

8.WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Every Little Thing (The Beatles - Beatles for Sale)

9.WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Sometimes I Feel like Screaming (Deep Purple - Purpendicular)

10.WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Disappear (Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence)

11.WHAT IS 2+2 ?
Zero the Hero (Black Sabbath - Born Again)

12.WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA)

13.WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
I am the Highway (Audioslave - Audioslave)

14.WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Kiss - Skit (Eminem - The Eminem Show)

15.WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
The Song Remains the Same (Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy)

16.WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Shedding Skin (Pantera - Far Beyond Driven)

17.WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
You're Crazy (Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction)

18.WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
One Wild Night (Bon Jovi - Crush)

19.WHAT WILL YOU PUBLISH THIS AS?
Beast of Burden (Rolling Stones - The Best of the Rolling Stones)

You know that this is something that's doing the rounds on the 'Notes' application of people's Facebook profiles these days. You also know that only retarded, jobless and hopeless people do this, for their life is so, so very meaningless.

But I know that this is the next thing you'll be doing.

So, this is what they ask you to do:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT MAY SOUND.
4. Tag your friends
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing.
6. Enjoy

The last three steps are irrelevant if, like me, you do not have the testicular fortitude(or whatever it is that makes you courageous) to post this as a note on Facebook.

I also know whoever is reading this is going, "Et tu, Raunaq!!"

Yes. This is what happens when you run a huge, HUGE risk of cocking up the exam that's on the next day. Throw in an alarming lack of creativity as well.

So be it.



PS: Now you also know why this post's titled 'Beast of Burden'.

Earworm-ation

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Something’s happened to me, and for some incomprehensible reason. I’ve been listening to one particular song repeatedly for the last 3 days now. And going by the way I just can’t have enough of it, I think I’m going to listen to it for another 3 days at least.

This is something I didn’t know about – there is actually a term for describing this condition. It hasn't been scientifically authenticated yet, but it looks like its usage is fairly common.

As Wikipedia says:

'Earworm, a calque of the German Ohrwurm, is a term for a portion of a song or other musical material that repeats compulsively within one's mind, known colloquially as "music being stuck in one's head". Use of the English translation was popularized by James Kellaris and Daniel Levitin. Kellaris' studies demonstrated that different people have varying susceptibilities to earworms, but that almost everybody has been afflicted with one at some time or another. This usually happens when a person sings the song or hums the tune once and then repeats it in his or her mind." However, this information is not supported by any scientifically published information and was presented only as a guess of an unknown author.'

‘Rabbit Run’ is the song in question. I’m muttering that song under my breath all the time – out of bed(rather late) in the morning, while brushing my teeth, walking into class, loafing around on campus, heck, even while doing the unmentionables.

I have developed this weird tendency of picking up my deodorant can, holding it to my mouth and repeatedly singing the lines from random parts of the song. Especially:

"Some days I just wanna up and call it quits
I feel like I'm surrounded by a wall of bricks
Every time I go to get up I just fall in pits
My life's like one great big ball of shit
If I could just, put it all into all I spit
Instead of always tryin to swallow it..

This is it, last straw, that's all, that's it
I ain't dealin with another fuckin politic
I'm like a skillet bubblin until it filters up
I'm about to kill it, I can feel it buildin up
Blow this buildin up, I've been sealed enough
My cup, runneth over, I done filled it up

The pen explodes and busts, ink spills my guts
You think, all I do is stand here and feel my nuts?
Well I'ma show you what, you gon' feel my rush
You don't feel it, then it must be too real to touch

Peal the dutch, I'm about to tear shit up
Goosebumps yea, I'ma make your hair sit up
Yea sit up, I'ma tell you who I be
I'ma make you hate me, cause you ain't me
You wait, it ain't too late to finally see
what you closed-minded f***s were too blind to see
Whoever finds me is gonna get a finder's fee
out this world, ain't no one out their mind as me
You need piece of mind? Here's a piece of mine
All I need's a line

I'm fizzlin now, thought I figured it out
Ball's in my court, but I'm scared to dribble it out
I'm afraid, but why am I afraid?
Why am I a slave to this trade?
Cyanide I spit to the grave
Real enough to rile you up
Want me to flip it I can rip it any style you want
I'm a switch hitter bitch, Jimmy Smith ain't a quitter
I'ma sit until I get enough in me to finally hit a
f****n boilin point, put some oil in your joints
Flip the coin bitch, come get destroyed

I'll be back baby, I just gotta beat this clock
F*** this clock, I'ma make 'em eat this watch
Don't believe me watch, I'ma win this race
And I'ma come back and rub my shit in your face, bitch
I found my nitch, you gon' hear my voice
'Til you sick of it, you ain't gonna have a choice
If I gotta scream 'til I have half a lung
If I had half a chance I'd grab it - Rabbit, run."


It…just charges me up. Eminem’s energy is just too frickin’ contagious. It just courses through as an invisible, overpowering force. I spit those lines out all the time. I reply to my own self when in doubt, “I don’t know it’s just the way I am”.

Even the background music for this track is haunting me in the moments when I have a little peace and quiet around me. What’s going on? It’s just…inexplicable!

By the way, I just noticed that towards the end of the Wiki article on earworms, there's this line that goes:

“Medications that are used to treat Obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety can alleviate the symptoms of earworms.”

Uh oh.

Disappointment

Tuesday, April 14, 2009


I sometimes wonder whether I should call this blog a ‘Motoring Blog’ or a ‘Motorsport Blog’ – after all, that’s the only topic I keep on writing about, with a few posts of random nothingness here and there.


But there is a small issue:

My employers are not called ‘F1 Racing Magazine’, ‘Autosport’ or, even ‘Auto India’. Which means nobody’s going to give a monkey about my views on ‘Should Renault devote more finances to developing wheel nuts that convert atmospheric CO2 into oxygen?



But I am slightly miffed by what happened yesterday in the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix. I have always worshipped Valentino ‘The Doctor’ Rossi, but he did something completely unexpected last night.


Yes, he didn’t win – now that he’s made winning such a habit, one might be forgiven for expecting him to win every other race. Yamaha weren’t in as good shape as the Bolognese powerhouse – Ducati and Stoner were raping (there is no other word for it) everyone else on the track with the Desmosedici GP7. The gap between Stoner and the second placed Rossi never fell below 0.45 of a second a lap. Now that, in motor racing terms is the equivalent of a year. Stoner sure looked unbeatable.


As the lights went out, Rossi had a poor start, fell back to fourth, even as Stoner turned up the heat at the head of the pack. But as Rossi has so often done, he chipped away at the advantage that Lorenzo and Capirossi had and passed them both. He managed to close the gap between him and Stoner to a little under 2 seconds, and then faded away and eventually settled for second place. All of this is fine. He probably had worn out his tyres while trying to play catch up. He was probably having too many vibrations from the front wheel which made it next to impossible to stay on the limit all the time. His Yamaha’s set-up was probably not quite up to the task. The Yamaha was probably not quick enough. PROBABLY.


But this was what the Doctor had to say after the race:

"But after that I was making up the gap, and maybe I could have caught him, but after yesterday's rain the asphalt became a bit more aggressive, and I had some small problems with the front tyre, so at one point I had to decide whether I should crash or give up."
"So I thought a bit, and since we knew we were a bit on the limit, I gave up. Well done to Stoner, he was quick and he deserved the win. In any case we're second, we've demonstrated that we can go quick, so see you at Motegi."


So he admitted it. Remove the word probably from all those sentences. He wasn’t quick enough. He didn’t go balls-out, for he realized there was no point in it. Stoner was unbeatable last night in Losail. That’s the heart-breaking part. I would like to believe he could have done it. He would have found a way. Like that magical debut race for Yamaha in 2005 in Welkom, South Africa. That was a Rossi masterclass. That was when the rider had proved that he was bigger than the machine itself. He had taken the M1 to the dizzying limits and beyond, walking a tightrope for the entire duration of the race.


See you at Motegi, then.

What is it about June?

Monday, April 6, 2009

Juan Manuel Fangio was born on the 24th of June, 1911. He was nicknamed ‘El Maestro’ (‘The Master’). He won five Formula One World Driver's Championships - a record which stood for 46 years eventually beaten by Michael Schumacher - with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati), a feat that has not been repeated since. He is considered by many to be the greatest driver of all time.


Sir John Young ‘Jackie’ Stewart was born on the 11th of June 1939. He is better known as Jackie, and nicknamed ‘The Flying Scot’. He won the F1 World Championship thrice.


Kevin Schwantz, former Motorcycle Grand Prix World Champion, was born on the 19th of June, in Houston, Texas. He was renowned for his aggressive, all-or-nothing riding style.


Giacomo Agostini was born on the 16th of June, 1942 in Brescia, Lombardy. He’s an Italian multi-time Motorcycle Grand Prix World Champion. Nicknamed ‘Ago’, he is the all-time leader in victories in motorcycle Grand Prix history.


Michael ‘Mick’ Sydney Doohan was born on the 4th of June 1965 in Brisbane, Australia. He’s a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racing World Champion, who won five consecutive 500 cc World Championships, second only to Giacomo Agostini. He’s considered to be one of the greatest exponents of motorcycling racing of all time.


‘Turbo’ Tommi Antero Mäkinen was born in Puuppola, Finland near Jyväskylä on the 26th of June 1964. Mäkinen is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, having been a 4-time World Rally Champion.


Raunaq ‘Hopeless’ Sahu was born on the 22nd of June in Raniganj, West Bengal to Oriya parents. He writes this shady blog and likes to believe that he is a hard-core motor-racing fan. He hasn’t achieved much in real life, though. He has driven a Toyota Landcruiser and was quite intimidated by it. Sadly, it was an automatic, so he couldn’t pretend to be a proper driver (“Only yummy mummies drive automatics” - Jeremy Clarkson). He had once driven a Maruti 800 3 years back when he’d driven into a hedge as he was standing on the clutch and wondering why the darn car wasn’t stopping.


At least he was born in June.