McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 car

Few days back on 26th June, I got a chance to see a Formula1 car firsthand. Formula1 is still to set foot in India. Its for sometime that the top bosses of F1 have been contemplating a street race in India, most probably in Rajpath, New Delhi. However, the fan following of Formula1 is still prevalent only among the classes. So, in an attempt to take the interest for F1 down to the masses, Vodafone, the official sponsor of McLaren Mercedes Formula1 team, had put up the MP4-24 car on display in Pal Heights, Bhubaneswar. So, I and a friend Pramit, went there to check out the car first hand and managed to catch quite an eyeful.

Here are the pics for all of you F1 enthusiasts.

The end of a musical era

Michael Jackson is no more among us. On 25th June 2009, Michael Jackson, one of the biggest pop icons in modern history, passed away at the age of 50. Despite my inclinations towards hard rock and heavy metal, it was the music of pop stars like MJ that I grew upto listening during my schooldays. I still remember Bad, my first English cassette(I got from one of my friends), it was wayback in 1997 when I was in standard 7th in school. Seasoned to the Bollywood song and dance sequences, the first impression I had of Bad was like wow. This was followed by Ricky Martin's Cup of Life a few months later in the 1998 Fifa World Cup season and I was instantly hooked up both to football and Pop music. I knew, a welcome cultural onslaught on me had started.

Although Jackson’s music career hit its peak in the 80’s, his influence on music, and especially music videos, has persisted throughout. The Y2K era saw the advent of audio and video CDs and I still do remmeber my friends begging for and willing to tradeoff anything in return for MJ's CDs with songs like Bad, Heal the World, Thriller etc. I also remember the day when I almost cried after watching the Earth Song. Later I was hooked on to the guitar solos in Beat It(by Eddie Van Halen) and Black or White(by Slash of Guns n Roses) as well as MJ's amazing dance moves which he brought on stage and in his videos. His songs like Heal The World, Earth Song, Black or White, Beat It etc were really thoughtful and built on social issues.

As a kid I had no idea that MJ was a Black American, neither did I know anything about the racial divide in the USA. Infact, Michael Jackson was the man who forced MTV to reconsider its decision to not air Black music on its channel, after phenomenal public demand for Billie Jean forced MTV to put it on air in the 70s. Later, Black or White hit the nail bang on the target. In todays world where we see religious/communal hatred and terrorism and insensitivity all over, its all the more vital for us to find our solace in music and make the world a better place for you and for me.

Michael, hope you moonwalk your way to heaven. You will live on forever in our hearts.

RIP MJ

Heal the world video

Earth Song video

Inauguration Blog :)

void main()

{
Another blog starts yet again. I get the time to continue this for a while. This is supposed to be the most active blog after my earlier blog http://dreamzonfire.blogspot.com/ which was most active after my first time blog http://rajivmohapatra.blogspot.com/

Technically speaking this is my blog version 2.0 ;

Will be writing almost anything occuring to my mind every now n then;

}

exit;