Memoirs of a TrailBlazer

Indianapolis, Racing capital of the world

Hi again, Well my next trip was to Indianapolis...guess for what....For the Formula one race!!! Yeah I went to the US Grand Prix '05 on the 19th day of June of 2005.
It was 5AM all of a sudden I hears some one ringing the door bell, the next second I heard my roomate banging on the wall...after about 5 mins my roomate comes and wakes me up saying the V and K(the guys who came with us the F1 race) are waiting outside...We then realised that the alarm didnt go off when we needed it...quickly we got dressed up and then grabbed on to whatever food we cud and jumped into the car where V, K and S were waiting for us...When the car started to roll out of Sheldrake drive the clock showed the longer arm at 3 and shorter arm at 5...We headed towards Indianapolis with all the excitement and joy to watch Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikonen...Well we didnt have much to argue on who is the best driver as all five of us were the fans of Schumi...except for me...I am a schumi and Alonso fan...Once we caught the Interstate highway the racer(V) in our car was racing Mercury to touch 110 - 120 Mph...Luckily there were no cops around else we would have a ticket additional to the F1 tickets that we already possesed. With a small break at a burger king on the way, we reached the Indianapolis at around 8...
Once we reached Indianapolis we started feeling the excitement and vibration present in the air of Indianapolis...felt like joining all the Tifosi's and paint our faces red...Luckily V had booked for parking online so we did not have much trouble finding a place to park our car...

After parking the car we had a glance at the Ferari's that were kept for display and did window shopping of all the stalls that were kept there...Later we entered the gate which said "The racing capital of the world". It was great feeling to see that board. It was like a dream come true for me. This has been a thing which I wanted to do since I started following F1. Going around all over the place with excitement we landed at the official stores of different teams...with no second thought in our mind all 5 of us entered the Ferari stall. While the other 4 shopped various merchandises ranging from Cap, T-Shirt to a Ferrai bag I was confused whether I should buy a Ferrari stuff or a Renault stuff...later after taking a look at the price of Renault merchandise I realised I better go for a Ferrari Cap. By this time the other 4 had finished a big shopping from the Ferrari stall for their near and dear ones...Once out of the shop everyone changed to whatever Ferrari merchandise that they had purchased...Then we went running to the gate where the F1 drivers entered...with lot of struggled managed to see Jenson Button at a very close range...We then went to pur benches...the excitement increased even more after going there...Guess what we were just opposite to the podium and pit stop. We all had our fingers crossed thinking if Schumi will be on the podium that day...
By then it was time for the inaugaration ceremony of the race...the national flags of all the driver arranged in the order of the pole position was carried followed by a huge US flag and then massive Checked Flag this was continued by a parade of all the drivers seated in open top cars.
I waved at Alonso and Schumi...Later each car zoomed from the pit stop and got aligned at the start line...After some time the cars went for a warm up lap and atlast only six cars returned and when we were waiting for the other cars to return to the start line but the race started...everyone in the crowd were booing....later we came to know that all the cars that used Michellelin did not take part in the grand prix...I was completely disappointed...Later brought the enthu back in me cheering for Schumi and Narain Karthikeyan...After about 3 hours of racing the race came to an end and Schumi stood on the #1 platform of the podium with Barichello at #2...The party came to an end without even a victory champagne fiz...we retrned back to Chicago worrying about the flop show...at around 8:30 PM we reached an Indian Restaurant munched nicely and returned back home thinking about the the tiresome day that we had...

Posted by KK at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments

Crossing the sea's

Atlast I put my foot on Uncle Sam's land. After a long wait of about 4 years...After running around CCD, HR and other divisions in Blore DC and after some resposible work by Mangalore HRD I started with a bang by missing my flight from Bangalore to Chennai. My petition papers did not reach Bangalore on time and I had to miss my flight. later I rebooked a ticket for Chennai in the night flight. Slowly the petition papers reached the kec block after I sent back the Taxi that I had booked for going to the airport. Collected the petition papers and got the remaining documents from HR went back to the room and enjoyed the last few hours in room #107 of staff hostel after a long stint of stay for nearly 2 months.Then the time had come when the same taxi came back to drop me at the airport. Estimating that there is a large posibility of traffic jam in blore I left Infosys campus at 7.00 PM itself for a flight at 10.30 PM. But to my surprise I was not caught anywhere on the way to the airport. Waited patiently with a capucino in my hand which costed thrice that of in Mangala food court CCD outlet and calling everyone whom I thought I missed out sending a mail.When the clock struck 22:17 I boarded my maiden flight. I boarded the flight with a special kind of hapiness and excitement inside myself. i was welcomed with a warm smile from the air hostess. I then went and and sat in my seat next to a window. To my suprise I was next to the right wing of Jet Airways. But I was not happy with the amount of leg room in the flight. Later when the flight started it was great to watch the things moved in the wing, reminded me of the Gas Dynamics and Jet propultion that I studied during my graduation. It was a great sight with the wings close by at the same size and the back ground becoming small slowly. Wish I could take some snaps. Then I was served some veg snack which was nothing other than a croissant and they served butter milk. Had my dinner slowly and I finished munching and I heard an announcement that we have reached Chennai, never thought I was so close to home that it just takes a meal's time to reach home. Reached home at 00:00 hours and had dinner again and went to bed.Woke the next day early expecting it to be a hectic day. Started to unpack the luggage that I had carried from Bangalore and started to pack my bags with quite a lot of expert suggestions from my dad and sister. Once that reached some shape, started to go around for shoping, which went on till 19:30 and then got ready for leaving.At 21:30 when i was about to leave for the airport, it started to rain in Chennai, yeah you didnt read it wrong, it did rain in chennai. The general belief is if some rare event thing happens it rains and so it did!Reached the airport, checked in my luggages and came back to my parents who had come to send me off. Then when it became 23:30 I had to say bye to my parents and proceed to the customs check and security check. After a long wait, boarded the flight bound to Frankfurt. I got the 3rd seat from last but a window seat again. The flight was mostly filled with old parents going to US and other counties to meet their kith and kins. Since I did missed my sleep for many days I was really tired and I slept for a long time. Thus I did not feel the journey that boring. When I woke up it was morning around 06:30 Frankfurt time. When I was given an option of Asian Veg and Omlet, I chose Omlet. Later I realised that Asian veg had pongal sambar, boy! I missed a chance to eat pongal...My omlet roll filled with chicken satisfied me. Later they played Ayutha yezhuthu(Yuva) so was watching that and soon after that came to an end we reached Frankfurt airport. Then walked a long strech to reach gate 65 from where I had to board my second leg flight to Chicago.After about an hour and half I boarded the flight to Chicago and I was sandwiched between an Indian and a American lady. The man next to me was gulping white wine one after another...Then shortly after the flight was started the lunch was served, I opted for some thing just because I heard Turkey in the name. Taste wise it was good but looking at the man and woman next to me I felt very uncomfortable with the way I was handling the fork and knife. Then they played Hitch watched the movie and slept in between. Then later played A good company, saw that one as it was bugging in the flight. Later they served another meal again, this time againt they said some turkey and veg pizza, I was not intrested in turkey this time so took veg pizza which was very good.Later reached O'hare Chicago. Went throught US Immigration. After that got releaved and went and collected my luggages from the carousal. Thinking I have to manage the Custom guys, I went towards the customs, but was just told to go straight down where I went to the place where people were waiting to receive people. I was doubtful if i was supposed to come out or not. Then i searched for bhargav and called his mobile and he came along with his wife to recive me. Later we searched for his car for about 30 mins in the parking lot and then reached home.
Alas!!!
Later in the evening went to wal mart and sam's club. Next day went to office and got introduced to many people and passed my time there till evening. Today there were a lot of garage sale so we went for some of them and got some important stuffs that we need for the house.

Posted by KK at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments