Should POTA be brought back?

Everytime there's a terror attack in one of the Indian cities one can hear a cacaphony of voices asking for stringent anti-terror laws. This is particularly true about members from the BJP that keep arguing that POTA should be brought back. How serious is this allegation? Does our country need a draconian law like POTA to maintain law and order? Here's some more information.

POTA which stands for Prevention of Terrorism Act was passed in 2002 prior to which there was POTO which stood for Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. This act was brought into force after the attacks on our Parliament in Dec 2001. It defined terrorism and many human rights advocates would argue that the definition infringed on the freedom of speech at times. Anybody arrested under this act could be kept in police custody for a period of 180 days without having been produced in front of a judge/magistrate for a remand. The confession extracted from an accused can also be used a evidence in a court of law. POTA by it's very nature assumed that anyone arrested under it was 'guilty' and had to be proved 'innocent' by way of evidence when the case came up for hearing.

As per the Indian constitution and other criminal laws a person is 'innocent' unless proven 'guilty', this was a vital new change in POTA. Most states in India implemented this law except Lalu's Bihar and some other states. The states that used this act to the maximum were Jharkhand, Gujarat and Tamilnadu. The irony in Gujarat was that the muslims who were arrested under allegations of torching the railway coach at Godhra were charged under POTA. The riots that followed saw large scale massacres of Muslims by Hindu hardliners and the folks arrested during these riots were charged under normal criminal laws, the CM of the state said POTA was not necessary. This selective imposition of the law was seen as partial and used as per the convenience in a particular case.

POTA also was a potent weapon in the hands of zealous law enforcement agencies. A law which was meant to handle the globally witnessed phenemenon of terrorism was being used to harrass and heckle innocent citizens many at times. In Tamilnadu V.Gopalaswamy (Vaiko) was arrested by the then CM J.Jayalalitha for making speeches in support of the LTTE. He languished in jail for about 4+ months before being formally charged by the police. Such was the vigorous nature of the act and it's ramifications when used by politicians to settle political scores. The UPA government repealed this act in 2004 and rightly so, it should have followed up with modifications to the CRPC with the definitions of terrorism, terrorist to accomodate the changing global scenario but that is still in the offing.

TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities prevention act) was in force between 1985 and 1995 and was brought primarily to tackle terrorism in Punjab. This act didn't have clear definitions for terrorism and hence was misused widely because of which it was repealed in 1995.

The answer to a terror strike is not in getting draconian laws. It's in more efficient intelligence gathering, it's in sifting through volumes of gathered data and extracting meaningful information out of it. It's more about states taking complete responsibility for law and order and effective policing, it's not about blaming the central government for everything. Law and Order has always been a state subject and not a federal subject. For the sake of all the lives lost till now someone has to drive the point pretty clearly in our leaders today that the last thing they should play politics with is a human tragedy like a terror strike!

Requiem for a dream

A requiem is a grand musical composition performed in honor of a deceased person, with a title like this you sort of guess which direction this movie will head. This movie introduces us to Sara whose onlyhobby is watching TV to obsessive limits. Harry is Sara's son who is a drug addict. Harry frequently mortgages the TV to get his dose of dope. Tyron is Harry's friend and accomplice and both of them start making money in drugs. Marion is Harry's girl friend and also a junkie.

I don't want to spell out the story, some characters get lucky and redeem themselves in the end. Harry's character almost makes it to the other side but he's stuck so deep in his own doing. Sara's obsession with TV makes her want to loose weight to appear on TV and end up loosing her mind too. Marion's drug obsession makes her sell herself at times and in the closing moments of the move we see her get involved in an orgy. Requiem for a dream is a startling motion picture that shows the damage drugs can cause in such a shocking, stark and bare manner that it wrenches one's gut and churns the stomach.

I haven't been affect by any movie as much as this one till now, this is shocking cinema.

The Kalam effect

The Kalam Effect is an insider's account of the presidency of Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. PM Nair was the prinicipal secretary to the President and gives us some insight into the persona of Dr.Kalam. Don't expect startling political revelations. Don't expect controversy, this book is worth reading if one wants to know a little more about the genius we've all knows as our President.

Kuruvi

On Saturday Dharani's magnum opus Kuruvi released in Balaji theater and given the large Thamizh population in this part of Bangalore I doubted if I could manage a first day first show. That attempt failed but a first day second show was set up. Kuruvi is typical Vijay masala pot boiler sans Dharani's usual (pseudo) intelligent elements.

I'd like to draw the reader's attention to the scene in Gilli where Vijay is surrounded by Prakash Raj and his goons and the escape he makes with a knife held to Trisha's neck, that was (pseudo) intelligent. None of that is in Kuruvi. If this movie makes it to the 100 day mark and races to a silver jubilee then there can be only one reason for it - Vijay. Vijay has a huge mass following, he's the superhero who cares a damn about wanting to be different or meaningful.

Thamizh movies are increasingly becoming more Telugu in the way screenplay unfolds and given the fact that most directors in Thamizh work in Telugu it's no surprise either. Music by Vidyasagar is a let down, except for one song nothing else was hum worthy and most importantly are not mass songs either.

Santhosh Subramaniam

Editor Mohan's sons Raja and Ravi have always been associated with entertainers be it Jayam or M.Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi. Given this background I went to watch Santhosh Subramanian in Balaji Theater, Bangalore last week. Work was getting monotonous and I was lost in different things and the movie was meant to be an ice-breaker, was it?

Balaji theater screens Thamizh movies regularly and has a decent screen and pretty good multi-channel sound which is too loud most of the time. The theater was empty, there were only two other people in the balcony. So this almost became a solo movie experience, I should add here that this was my first solo movie outing, I always have someone to accompany me to a movie. Santhosh Subramanian can be called a Jayam Company formula movie, there's this sweet and decent guy who falls for a simple and pretty girl. Where is the problem you'd ask? The problem is his Father who controls the life of his son by making choices for him. What's so wrong about it some might ask?

How does the guy win his dame? How does he face up to his Father and speak his mind out? That's the story line in two sentences. It's a clean movie, no skin show, no item number nor is there a 'double-meaning' (as it's come to be known) one liners. This is one of those movies you can watch with the whole family (a typical Indian term for a movie that has no references to sex, seduction, lust, skin show and the like). Ravi plays the role of the burdened son pretty well, Prakash Raj enacts the Father's characters aptly. Genelia d'Souza (over)plays the innocent college girl.

F1 season start - Melbourne

The season has begun and the absence of driver aids has made it thrilling and full of suspense. A driver could be leading the pack and could loose it all out by getting onto the gravel in the last turn or a little too much speed and the attempt to control it could end the race. This year's season is going to be dependent on the driver more than the technology as we've seen in the past 5 years. Being a McLaren fan it was disappointing to see McLaren car bear numbers 23 & 24, I've never seen the car go below 10 in the last 11 yrs that I've been following F1. But, if this was a fight between the Big Daddy of FIA (read Max 'the rat' Mosley) and Ron Dennis the first round has gone to the latter. Kimi had engine problems at the end of Q3 and was barred from taking part in Q2. Massa did a splendid drive to get a position in the second row for tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton continued his top run and took pole, Kubica did an awesome drive by taking P2 despite the huge oversteer and subsequent run out of the kerbs into the last corner.

The new qualifying format allows all cars to run in Q3 (20 minutes), six slowest cars drop out at the end of Q3. The remaining 16 cars will then run in 15 minutes at the end of which the six slowest cars will drop out at the end of this session. The final session Q1 will run 1o cars and lasts for 10 minutes which will determing the positiong of the cars from 1 to 1o on the race the next day. The fuel burn in lap has been done with and cars can have as much runs as possible in any qualifying window the most important being how well a car does in Q1 if it get's through the other two sessions. The year has begun well, over to the race tomorrow. If one has to go by McLaren's form last year and the look this morning the race is theirs.

Happy New Year

I wish you all a happy, prosperous, blessed and productive New Year filled with God's blessings

Star of Bethlehem

Star of Bethlehem shining bright
bathing the world in heav'nly light,
Let the glow of your distant glory
fill us with hope this Christmas night.

Star of innocence, star of goodness
gazing out since time began,
You who've lived through endless ages
view with love the age of man.

Star of beauty hear our plea,
whisper your wisdom tenderly.
Star of Bethlehem set us free
make us a world we long to see.

Star of Bethlehem, star up high,
miracle of the midnight sky,
Let your luminous life of heaven
better our hearts and make us fly.

Star of happiness, star of wonder
you see everything from afar,
Cast your eye upon the future
make us wiser than we are.

Star of gentleness, hear our plea,
whisper your wisdom tenderly.
Star of Bethlehem set us free
make us a world we long to see.

Christmas star

Distant stars, at home up in the heavens
Wonder what they see, are they watching me
Christmas Star, you spin your strands of silver
What a sight to see, are you there to guide me

Star light, shine bright
See me through the dark night
Light mine, half way
Guide me home for Christmas Day

Midnight stars, they sail the sky in silence
Hearing all they see, are they hearing me
Christmas Star, you watch the world so wisely
At my journey's end, will you be my true friend

Star light, shine bright
See me through the dark night
Light mine, half way
Guide me home for Christmas Day

Christmas Star light,
See me on my way.
Light mine, half way;
Guide me home for Christmas Day

Geo's Talkies - Om Shanti Om

I tried to find out what really was the meaning of the word 'entertainment' though I very well know what it means. I just wanted to be able to be able to express the meaning of the word 'entertainment' in a short sentence. So I'd like to agree that 'entertainment' is "a diversion that holds attention". It's side effects are joy, laughter, happiness and a myriad other things which could even be suspense if you're like me. 'Om Shanti Om' is a movie that is 'entertaining' and the reason for that is one man - Shah Rukh Khan. I have no qualms in stating this. I'd like to state for the record that I've seen most if not all of Shah Rukh's movies and I like his persona but I'm not quite a HUGE fan.

This movie is Farah Khan's second directorial outing and has she worked out a formula which tells a story and entertains at the same time? YES, that's the absolute answer. 'Om Shanti Om' is a movie that defies and embraces all genres at the same time. The movie broadly is a romance and is thrilling towards the end of the second half. The story line is very simple, it's the execution that comes up in shining colors. The movie is a story of a guy named Om, a junior artiste who is hopelessly smitten by the charms of the very beautiful leading lady of the 70's Shantipriya. Om hopes to make it to the actors league some day and is supported by an 'over the top' Kiron Kher as his Mother and Shreyas Talpade as his best buddy.

A tragedy occurs in the middle of the movie and Om reincarnates in a new avatar, the only difference is that this time he's already what he wanted to be in the previous birth. He's born in an affluent filmi family, he's a star already and he wins the Filmfare best actor award. He's got girls drooling all over him and he dictates scripts to directors and producers because that's how he works, or probably that's how it works for him. It is at this point that a chance encounter with the memories of his previous life rekindles the spirit of love and revenge in Om and when he meets a tall legged pretty nubile nymph who's startling resemblence to Shantipriya of the 70's. How does Om get the villain to confess? Does he get revenge? Is love timeless? Does Om get to unite with the love of his 'previous' life? All questions are answered in a perfectly filmi ishtyle.

Every frame has Shah Rukh stamped over it, his screen presence, excellent comic timing and passion makes this movie watch worth and repeat watch worthy. The story is pretty straight forward which is why I didn't mind disclosing most of the key plot points. There's lots in store in the movie, the lines will make one laugh heartily and the dialogues from old movies and hollywood look patched but they go well with the flow of the movie. The sets in the movie when showing the 70's are just spell binding, all credits to Sabu Cyril for the excellent work. For a movie that is loud in terms of colors used for dresses on screen, the sets stand out for their sheer authenticity and brilliance. Manikandan's camera does justice to every penny spent on the sets.

Music is the other highlight of the movie apart and the credits for this goes to Vishal / Shekar. I would like to specially mention the 'Om Shanti Om' climax song which is picturized as an opera-meets-reality-show. There's no need to mention that Farah Khan's dance choreography is excellent. SPOILER **** It's time to welcome the prettiest ghost in the history of Hindi cinema, Deepika Padukone is the prettiest face to have debuted in recent times. She's got an ethereal sense of beauty to her due to the way the shots are lit up and portrayed on screen. There's no real depth to her character but who cares, all the close up shots look gorgeous.

Sandeep Chowta has scored the background music for the movie which is apt and likeable. I'm a big fan of movies and I should also add here that I watch all sorts of movies. Yes, I do like some of the artsy ones too but I don't miss on a movie that's an entertainer. Do NOT miss this movie because if you do then you are simply missing a wholesome entertainer.

# Trivia

* Dialogues from Titanic ("king of the world") and Gone with the wind("Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn") pepper the movie at regular intervals.

* All the crew have acted in the movie too.

* Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan makes a sparkling debut on screen at the very end.

* 31 current actors from Bollywood made their appearance in the extended 'Om Shanti Om' song lighting up the screen.

Alonso moves out of McLaren - It's official!

Here's the press release from McLaren which I've reproduced verbatim below. Who'll fill in his place is an interesting question. Where will he go to? Renault? Would it be a seat swap between Alonso and Kovalainen? Answers to all these questions should come in the days ahead.

Woking, 2nd November 2007: Following a meeting between Fernando Alonso and McLaren, it was agreed that it would be in the best interests of both parties to bring the relationship to an end.The mutual parting of ways has not been discussed until now, since it was felt that any such discussion could have seriously disrupted the team’s and Fernando’s 2007 Formula 1 World Championship challenge. Both parties believe that this was the right decision.

FERNANDO ALONSO: “Since I was a boy I had always wanted to drive for McLaren, but sometimes in life things do not work out. I continue to believe that McLaren is a great team. Yes, we have had our ups and downs during the season, which has made it extra-challenging for all of us, and it is not a secret that I never really felt at home. I know there have been suggestions of favouritism within the team and people say a lot of things in the heat of battle, but in the end I was always provided with an equal opportunity to win. Today’s decision allows all of us to focus on 2008, and I wish the team, Vodafone, Banco Santander, Mutua Madrileña and all the other team Partners who I have worked closely with during the year, the best for the future.”

RON DENNIS: “Everybody at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, especially McLaren’s Spanish Partners Banco Santander and Mutua Madrileña and the team’s title partner Vodafone, want to wish Fernando all the best for the future. He is a great driver but for some reason the combination of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Fernando has not really worked out, and in the end we reached a stage where none of us could find a way to move forward. We all believe that our joint decision to part company is for the best, and we will now continue to focus on our 2008 World Championship challenge.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will announce any additions to its existing driver line-up in due course.

Formula 1 season - 2007

We've reached the end of the season and it's official, Kimi Raikkonen is crown World champion. This was a surprise much to the amazement of Ferrari fans and Raikkonen drove extremely well in the final race in Brazil to steal the title from Lewis who was so close and yet so far. Murphy's law kicked in at the worst possible time in his McLaren car and Lewis ended up being tied with Alonso on the points effectively making him 2nd due after comparing finishes.

A lot of hungama is going on with the teams, Renault is yet to announce it's lineup and so does Toyota, Force India (Spyker), Honda and a host of other teams. Alonso being dropped by McLaren doesn't look like a possiblity to me, in an earlier post I'd written at length at how both Alonso and McLaren need each other. McLaren has appealed against a technical anomaly which saw two drivers from Williams and BMW not being penalized and any favourable ruling in this matter could make Lewis Hamilton the world champion.

Singapore circuit has been cleared for next years calendar and a night race should be exciting for the drivers as well as the spectators. I for one have been very lazy in updating this blog primarily because I'm stuck with no internet most of the time. Trick or treat, it's Halloween time and I hope the scares are not life threatening. I also wish all my readers a very Happy Deepawali in advance in case I end up not posting anything in the next week or so.

Christmas time is coming and the prospect of the very smell of the season is an exciting prospect, no matter how many carols you hear, no matter how many cards you send and receive, it's Christmas fever from now on and I'm going to indulge into the season. Every bit of it.

Japanese grandprix 2007 - Fuji Motor Speedway

The race at Fuji motor speedway which replaces Suzuka this year was eventful in many ways. Lewis started the race from pole with Alonso following him, Kimi and Felipe started from the second row. A delay in intimating the Ferrari team to use extreme wet weather tyres caused the Ferrari's to pit very early for a tyre change and loose grid position. Lewis was never challenged by any other driver. Alonso's first stop got him into a lot of traffic and had a tough time trying to pass cars in a race that looked more on water than tarmac.

Alonso aquaplaned into a turn and hit the wall which ended his race in Fuji. The finale saw Lewis take 1st, Heiki Kovaleinen take 2nd and Kimi take the 3rd positions. Sebastin Vettel's performance was good and at one point it looked like he'd finish 3rd by he sabotaged his as well as Mark Webber's chances by crashing into him. Heiki drove a perfect race and took a well deserved 2nd position almost giving in his position to Kimi in the penultimate lap but held up to finish ahead of the Finn.

It's just a week ahead to Shanghai and if Lewis wins here then the championship is sealed. The race was exciting in parts but was largely boring with the safety car leading the pack. I hope China sets the stage for some fine racing.

McLaren - Stepneygate - Constructors championship

Ferrari has finally gotten what it always wanted, the Constructors crown for the year 2007. I wouldn't want to debate if stripping McLaren of the points was fair or not, want to wait for the FIA report which should have the reasons for this drastic step. McLaren's performance this year was mercurial and this step by FIA (read Max Mosley) appears to be harsh and detrimental to the interests of the sport. The team that has some of the finest and highest paying sponsors had to take a beating from the FIA (read Max Mosley) for obvious reasons. My heart goes out to Ron Dennis and I hope they appeal against this decision when the FIA report is out. What a farce the constructors title has been reduced to be!

PRESS INFORMATION - STATEMENT FROM RON DENNIS - 13 March 2007

Paris, France, Thursday 13th September 2007

“The most important thing is that we will be going motor racing this weekend, the rest of the season and every season. This means that our drivers can continue to compete for the World Championship. However having been at the hearing today I do not accept that we deserved to be penalised in this way.”

“Today’s evidence given to the FIA by our drivers, engineers and staff clearly demonstrated that we did not use any leaked information to gain a competitive advantage.”

“Much has been made in the press and at the hearing today of emails and text messages to and from our drivers. The World Motorsport Council 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 had not passed any confidential data to the team.”

“The entire engineering team in excess of 140 people provided statements to the FIA affirming that they had never received or used the Ferrari information.”“We have never denied that the information from Ferrari was in the personal possession of one of our employees at his home. The issue is: was this information used by McLaren? This is not the case and has not been proven today.”

“We are also continually asked if McLaren didn’t use the information, what was the reason for Stepney and Coughlan collecting all this data about Ferrari? We can only speculate as neither Coughlan nor Stepney gave evidence at today’s hearing, but we do know that they were both seeking employment with other teams, as already confirmed by both Honda and Toyota.”

“There will be no issue for the 2008 season as we have not at any stage used any intellectual property of any other team.”

“We have got the best drivers and the best car and we intend to win the World Championship.”

Monza - A low downforce circuit ... now what is that?

Monza is the fastest circuit in the Formula 1 calender and the reason for that is that it demands a low downforce setup from the cars to be able to extract maximum speed from the track. It's really important to make up those milliseconds in each chicane and corner to be able to carry maximum speed into a straight and build on it. The maximum speeds recorded by all cars running the race yesterday would have shown that something more has been done to the car to extract the speed from it with a little compromise on traction. Consider this - Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both hit maximum speeds of 350 kph in Monza while in Hungaroring Lewis managed to hit 296 kph while Fernando managed 299 kph. What do the race engineers and drivers do the extract this sort of performance from their cars? We know for sure that the engine specification remain same for the full year and the rpm is limited at 18000/minute. What exactly changes in the setup that helps drivers hit such high speeds?

Let's attempt to answer this question using the two pictures below. Picture 1 is Lewis Hamilton's car running in the Italian Grand Prix while picture 2 is Lewis' car running in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Let's first look at the section marked as A. This is the rear wing and in Monza it sported a flat profile which is evident in the way 'vodaphone' looks on it, it's facing the sky. This helps in reducting drag to get higher straight line speeds. The drawback to this is the reduced downforce in curves which don't make too much of a difference in a track like Monza where you don't have hairpin bends and too many tight turns. Look at section marked as A in Picture 2 and you will see the double profile rear wing which is slightly tilted to that extra bit of downforce for better traction and the difference is markedly evident in the way the letters 'vodaphone' appears to the front. It's tilted a little and not as straight as we've seen in Monza.

Turn 1 in Monza is the a tight turn which can take a car off it's line or cause a skid and depending on how much speed is carried into the turn a lot of nasty things can happen. All other turns are less tight. We can observe drivers attacking the kerbs with ferocity to turn as little as possible because of the reduced traction available and the less effort required to get in and out of a chicane/turn. Alonso did this to perfection during qualifying and all through the race to take the first place. In the section highlighted as B in Picture 1 we can see the absence of the the upper profile in the front wing. The front wing has two smaller flaps connecting the nose and wing which gives just the bare minimum amount of downforce required for this circuit. Compare this to the section marked as B in Picture 2 and you'll see that the double profile front wing could have hampered the front end aerodynamics of the car and shaved off those milliseconds that could have added up to a longer lap time.

Aerodynamics .... my oh my .... how much of a factor they are in a Formula1 car!

Italian Grand Prix - Monza - Alonza

What a finale to the Italian grand prix? High drama at the start and a couple of laps behind the safety car and McLaren finished in the positions they started - Alonso first and Hamilton second. McLaren dominated the race with blistering speed and a superb suspension which took all the pounding from hitting the kerbs, Alonso did this the best. Massa retired prematurely due to a suspension problem and a clever Ferrari one stop strategy for Raikkonen gave hope to a scarlet finish which wasn't meant to happen. A top class overtaking move by Hamilton outbraking Raikkonen who had taken 2nd place after Hamilton's 2nd pit stop. McLaren delivered a slap on the face of Ferrari and amidst all the noise and commotion over the spy scandal saga, this was a 'let the work do the talking' statement. On another note, Vijay Mallya is all set to launch a full fledged F1 team after taking over Spyker. It's high time Kingfisher branched out into a team, enough of piggy backing on Toyota. Hail Mallya!

Italian Grand Prix qualifying

Fernando Alonso takes pole in the race tomorrow in Monza by doing a flyer of a lap in 1:21.997 followed by Lewis Hamilton who took 1:22.034 to qualify. The third position is occupied by Felipe Massa followed by Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikonnen. I expect a McLaren one-two and an exciting race tomorrow unless McLaren do something really bad with the pit stops. Amidst the new allegations of email exchanges between Pedro DeLaRosa and Fernando Alonso about Ferrari's tyre setup leaked by Nigel Stepney to Mike Couglan, a victory tomorrow should provide some solace temporarily to the stressed out team.

Turkish GP 2007 - qualifying

Felipe Massa took pole by blistering through the last couple of seconds with a fine lap in 1:27.329 secs shaving a little over 0:00.040 secs of Lewis Hamilton's timings relegating him to 2nd on the grid. Kimi and Alonso take third and fourth places respectively. Fernando Alonso set the fastest time if one was to look at the qualifying session as a whole with a 1.26.841 in Q2. He was running the softer compound tyres then and could have been on lower fuel loads and he tried Q3 with the harder compound tyres. Lewis and Felipe were about 0:00.200 quicker than Kimi and Fernando probably because they went into Q3 with lower fuel loads.

I am betting my money on the McLaren's and Fernando in particular after seeing the way he drove in Istanbul yesterday and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up finishing 1st.

Fernando Alonso v/s Lewis Hamilton - McLaren at war after more than a decade

Do a search on either of these drivers and one will be bombarded with opinions, edits and blogs all over the internet about the recent problems and how the drivers have been reacting to it. I'd like to stay away from those topics and try to look at some other areas which is normally not highlighted. Alonso came to McLaren hoping to become it's blue eyed boy, a reasonable wish one could say for a double world champion. McLaren signed him at the end of his first world championship itself, this is a point to note. The Spainard would have been surprised to see a more democratic atmosphere where the team doesn't pamper one driver over another in terms of resources available and personnel.

McLaren has a policy of equality between drivers and this would certainly have come as a shock to Alonso. Ron Dennis is a good man, he's got a balanced outlook and keep his team well organized not to speak of his excellent talent in drawing sponsors to his team. But if there's one area he's lacking in then it's the lack of bravado on the track. He's not the boss on can drink a beer with, he's more understated and likes to talk less (apart from ronspeak which is a legend unto itself). Apart from Mika Hakkinen, we've never seen Ron hug a driver on Parc Ferme or even backslap the driver. This bond could be unique and can be linked to the devastating crash Mika had in Australia which took him out of action for a couple of months and impaired hearing on one side.

It also can be attributed to Mika's receptive nature, despite being a good driver and a hard man at swallowing pressure, Mika's lost his composure a couple of time, the most notable being Monza 1999 where a wrong shift of gear took Mika into the gravel throwing away his race lead where he bitterly sobbed in the sides of the race track. But overall Mika proved to be a man of character, he was the gentleman on the grid and was even branded unfit towards the end of his F1 tenure being branded 'too-good' for the race track. But even then Mika set the records straight by demonstrating excellent car control and capability in 2001, case in point - Silverstone and Indianopolis.

Back to Alonso now. McLaren needs Alonso as much as Alonso needs McLaren. There aren't too many options for the double world champion. The only place that would look like a promotion is Ferrari but Italians and Spainards are not good bedfellows. Alonso will not go from McLaren, I'm sticking my neck out on this one. Simply because the McLaren car this year is a rock solid package, it has completed every race it has started and except for just two failures during qualifying - Alonso's engine block and Hamilton's tyre, the car has performed incredibly well. I'm doubly sure that the research and development effort of McLaren is immensely being benefitted by Alonso's experience.

Alonso's experience on the track on various cars the best of them being the Renault is a testimony to the fact that he know a hell a lot about setting them up. McLaren's engineers could be benefitting immensely from this aspect of his relationship and this could be indirectly benefitting Hamilton too who is a rookie in F1 and surely wouldn't be able to fine tune the setup at the level he currently is in. Alonso also gives some Spanish sponsors visibility the most notable being Santander, his departure could raise questions on that.

Hamilton on the other hand has been a revelation. He's the classic case of being too sweet to spit and too bitter to swallow - a catch 22[only in the context of the Hungarian GP, Lewis's behaviour has been impeccable in all other races]. Ron Dennis would certainly not expected his protege to do so well in his debut. That is where the hitch lies in. Compare Hamilton's pay with Alonso and he should be grumbling inside at the disparity. The fact that he other is a double world champion means nothing to the rookie. As far as he can see, he's outperforming the champion in every race and qualifying session and he demands to be equalled in all aspects - sponsors, technicians, resources, money.

Hamilton is an incredibly straight and talented driver too. He's got the thirst to win every race he starts in and he doesn't seem to pound the car in the circuit like a JP Montoya. He knows his limits when pushing and knows when he needs to back off and simply complete the race. Nobody expected Hamilton to do so well, let's face it that's the answer to the problems McLaren is facing. Ron was not prepared otherwise he'd have found out better ways to synergize the two and get them focussed. Remember when Mika rejoined racing after the accident David was the guy with more experience and chances to win but Mika ended up being double world champion and the Mika/David combination went all the way till 2001 till Mika bid goodbye to Formula1.

This is the longest serving pair of drivers in the history of Formula 1 no doubts about it and neither Mika nor David nor Ron have shown scorn or disgust at the team like we've seen recently. That says that no matter how much you accuse Ron Dennis of not being able to communicate clearly he's done some things in fact a lot of things right in this case. Let's give the man some credit when it's due, Prost and Senna were like petrol, they can fire up anytime. Mika and David were competing against each other but not at the cost of the team. Mika's first Formula1 victory in Jerez is a testimony to the gentleman that David Coulthard is.

The three week break before the Turkish GP is bound to heal some of the wounds and will get the two drivers back to talking terms. Unless the FIA decides to play spoilsport, which increasingly looks like a possibility looking at Ferrari's media interactions, McLaren are going to finish this season right on top. At the end of the year anything can happen and I'd be very glad if the developments end up making a seat vacant for Nick Heidfeld to fit in, until then let's just enjoy the spectacle one race at a time. Over to the Turkish grand prix of 2007.

Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

Formula1 is getting more and more exciting these days, reason - Drivers. After Felipe Massa not making it into the final cut and settling down for 14th position on the grid it was Kimi Raikkonen's turn to take the fight down to the last couple of seconds in Q3 of qualifying and he did albeit for a brief moment until Lewis Hamilton came across the start/finish line to take up pole from Alonso who had ousted Kimi from P1. Alonso pitted for tyres and this time he was coming out with the hard compound tyres and one could see Lewis already waiting in the pitlane for Alonso to drive into the track. The fact that Alonso was waiting could have been because his race engineer waiting for a empty slot to give Alonso a free run or it could have been a fuel burn out strategy like Ron Dennis alleges or it simply could have been team rivalry with Alonso wanting to deny Lewis the final go at bettering his time which put him on P1.

I'd rather that the first would have been a plausible strategy but pray why hold up the pit crew, Alonso can drive upto the pit lane exit and wait and that's not in violation of any regulations unless he ends up holding another car that is attempting to exit into the track. The qualifying was over, Lewis was denied a final chance at giving another shot to better his timings thought he came out with the softer compound tyres and Alonso took pole relegating Lewis to P2. Right after the qualifying session was over Ron Dennis looked distraught and was seen animatedly talking to his colleague in McLaren trying to find more about what could have happened. One thing was obvious, harsh words were exchanged over the radio.

This morning it's been announced that McLaren won't earn any constructors points in this grand prix because the marshalls feel they have violated the sporting code and have pushed Alonso down to 6th position. McLaren have appealed against the decision but any favourable ruling could only help with the points, there's no way they'll allow Alonso to take pole. After Nurburgring it's turning out to be high drama in another Formula1 race this year, it sure makes the sport all the more interesting.