Ramesh - रमेश - ரமேஷ்

Formula One...Not Just F1~~~

2007-02-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

'F1' is not only just 'F1'

F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!

F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!

F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....that's the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...

An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah that's right!!!)

At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.

To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.

In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!

The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 liter family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.

TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point.

During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.

Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.

A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.

En Iniya Pongal Vaalthukkal...!

2007-01-15T21:25:00.001-08:00

Hi Friends,

***YEN INIYA PONGAL NAL VALTHUKAL...!!!***

"PONGGALO PONGGAL"

The first day of Pongal known as 'Bhogi Pongal' is a day for family gathering and is dedicated to Lord Indra, the king of the deities and God of the Clouds and Rains. It is also the beginning of the New Year according to the Malayalam calendar and before sunrise, a huge bonfire of useless things in home is lit that is kept burning throughout the night. The houses are then cleaned till they shine and are decorated with Kolams painted using rice four. The harvest of rice, turmeric and sugarcane is brought in for next day.

The second day of Pongal known as 'Surya Pongal' is dedicated to the Sun God. The granaries are kept full on this day and Sun God with his rays are painted on a plank as he is worshipped with the birth of the new auspicious month of Thai. Since the word 'Ponga' means 'to boil' representing plentiful and excess yield, a special dish is cooked on this day in a new mud-pot that comes in innovative shapes and have artistic designs on them called 'Pongapani'. A colorful sugarcane market is also set up on this day. The special dish is called 'Sarkkarai Pongal' and is offered to Sun God with sugarcane sticks.

The third day known as 'Mattu Pongal' is dedicated to the cattle as cowherds and shepherds pay thanks to their cows and bulls, wash them, paint their horns and cover them with shining metal caps. They are fed 'pongal' and tinkling bells are tied around their neck. Cattle races are conducted and in the game called 'Manji Virattu' groups of young men chase running bulls. Bull fights called 'Jallikattu' are also arranged at some places where young men have to take the money bags tied to the horns of ferocious bulls single-handedly and without the use of arms.

The third day is celebrated as 'Kanni Pongal' when unmarried girls cooks Ponggal wishing for wedding bells soon.

Pongal, as all Indian festivals, have interesting legends attached to it. Originated as a Dravidian harvest festival, it has found no mention in Indo-Aryan Puranas. According to the popular legend, the first day of the festival known as Bhogi Pongal was once dedicated to Lord Indra. The child Krishna came to know of the pride and arrogance of Indra on being the king of the deities and that he thought himself to be the most powerful of all the beings. He conjured a plan to teach him a lesson. When, as usual, his father and other villagers who were cowherds by profession, were preparing for the festival and offerings to Indra, Krishna objected and persuaded them to worship Mt Govardhan instead, as it gave them fodder for their cattle. When Indra came to know of this, he considered it a heresy of the villagers and sent thunderous pours, storms and lightning to drown them and punish them.

However, Lord Krishna had other plans in mind and he lifted up the Govardhan mountain on his little finger to protect the cowherds and their cattle. The simpletons tried to help him by putting their own sticks in the mountain out of love. The rains continued for three days and at last Indra realized his mistake and divine power of the young boy. He promised humility and begged Krishna's forgiveness. Since then, Krishna allowed to let the Bhogi celebrations continue in honor of Indra. A beautiful depiction of the scene can be scene at Mahabalipuram where Krishna lifting Govardhan has been carved skilfully and since then the origin of the festival of Pongal came into being.

Another legend associated to the third day of Pongal known as Mattu Pongal involves Lord Shiva and his mount, Nandi the bull. It is said that once Shiva ordered Nandi to go to the Earth and deliver his message to the people that they should take oil bath every day and eat food once a month. However, the dozing Nandi could not hear the message right and told the people to eat everyday and take oil bath once a month. Shiva was furious and said that due to his folly, there will be lack of grains on the Earth and so he would have to remain on Earth to help humans plough the fields.

YEN INIYA PONGAL NAL VALTHUKAL to your Family .....

New Year Wishes

2007-01-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

Wish you & your family A Very Happy and prosperous New Year 2007.

Chennai

2006-12-25T21:37:00.001-08:00

Looks like this might just become my first full year in Chennai.

Team Outing

2006-12-22T00:45:00.002-08:00

Outing

December 21, 2006

After weeks of hard work and writing chunks of software code (I mean my team mate's hard work ;-) ), it was time for relaxation. Yesterday; it was my first team outing in my new company. We had gone to Mayajaal sports village. We started at around 12:30 in the afternoon and after a drive of around an hour reached mayajaal. Of course not our vehicles, it was the manager's car. Oh god, When will I have a car of my own??????? :-( .(My inner soul laughed at me and said "First try to buy a bike, then we will think about a car. He he he he he....". I said to my self the day is not far away, I mean buying a bike. ) A welcome drink of mausambi juice in the smallest glass possible (that was the only thing bad). We directly headed to some snooker and table tennis. Everybody was so good in snooker, that includes me, that we try to hit a ball that is straight, but the cue ball goes to the left. I just tried my hand on the pool table. It was good.

Then it was lunch time, the food was good. I couldn’t stop myself and had a lot of food. I finished my food and started of a game of snooker. Even though we were new to it, we completed the game quite soon!!!!!! Of course without any points, rules, fouls and so on.......hitting at will. I tried to hit a red ball at the far end, but the ball in the middle of the table fell. But we did finish off the balls on the table.

Next it was squash. It was one of the most tiresome sports I have ever played. I didn’t even play for 10 minutes and I was about to faint. My eyes went dark and were rotating like any thing. We decided to stop. It was horrible.

Next was badminton. I didn’t know that I wasn't so bad in badminton. I did well. We were playing doubles. I played two games, with different partners. Though, we lost both the games but I was satisfied with my game. I had been playing badminton for some time when we were in Hyderabad. I want to continue it here, but the bad thing is I don’t have a good company to play here in Chennai, near my house. Even if I have company I don’t think I can play, especially after the long travel which I do every day to reach office and back. I get so much tired that I don’t even get out of the house once I come back. Then came indoor cricket, bowling and batting for some time.
At the end of all these we were really tired, every one was sweating badly. We went in, and sat in the dinning room to watch the cricket match, which was going on in the near by ground. I started off commentary in Hindi in the lines of DD (Doordarshan). Like, Gendbaj teji se daudthey hue aa rahe hai pavilion chor se, Aur blue t-shirt batting kar rahe hai(since we dont know their names, i addresed them by their dress colors), shandar shot sidhe doen the pitch boundry ki taraf, fielder ke liye koi moka nahin ball rokne ke liye. Ha ha ha ha ha ha....... Everybody started laughing heavily. The match got over and it was our tea time.
After tea, we had a team photo in the dinning hall. Then, we went in to the cricket ground for some experiments in photography. I suggested that every body stand in a circle and one guy takes a photograph by lying on the ground. I took 2 photos and Bala took 1. They came out very well. We talked for some time.

Overall this outing was good. Not that my previous outings were bad, each one is special in its own ways. This was special with our experiments in all kinds of sports. And I got a chance to know the remaining team members. We talked for some time and then it was time to leave. Every body started on their way back home. I reached home by 9:30 in the night. And went straight to the bed.
Today each every part of my body is paining like anything; Hands, Legs, Thighs, Butt.....everything, they are about to fall off. After all this I started realizing that I am growing old!!!!!!!! May be I should start jogging or may be playing badminton some where near my home, but I get so tired after returning from office, that i can't get up early in the morning to do all these.

Ambigram

2006-12-22T00:45:00.001-08:00

Ambigram

SMS's

2006-12-22T00:44:00.000-08:00

For quite some time I have been getting some very good SMS's. I thought it would be good to share them with every body, that's why they are here.

About Love:
1. There was a husband who daily sent his wife a rose, whenever he was out. One day he died because of cancer still his wife received a rose everyday. She was shocked and she asked the florist, he said that her husband had paid advance for her whole life. So love some one such that it remains for ever!!!!!!
2. This is a cute love story - A guy had cancer and he had only 1 month to live. He liked a girl working ia a CD shop very much, but didn't tell her about his love. Everyday he used to go to the CD shop and buy a CD to talk to her. After a month he died. When the girl went and asked about him, his mother told he died and took her to his room and the girl saw all the CD's unopened and the girl cried bitterly. You know why? Because she had kept letters inside the CD to let him know how much she loved him.

About Peace:
3. I asked god "I Want Peace", God replied, "Remove the 'I', that is Ego; Remove the 'Want' that is desire & 'Peace' will be automatically yours."

About Attitude:
4. People laugh because I am different, and I laugh because they are all the same. That's called "Attitude". - Swami Vivekananda.

About Life:
5. You are not responsible for what people think about you. But you are responsible for what you give them to think about you. That's life.
6. Life is different than a teacher. A teacher teaches lesson and then keeps the exam. But LIFE keeps the exam first and then teaches the lesson.

About Happiness:
7. Happiness always looks small if you hold it in your hands. But when you learn to share it, you will realize how big and precious it is. Be always happy, it costs nothing.

Abut Friendship:
8. The moon said to me yesterday night, “If your friend is not messaging you why don’t you leave your friend”. I looked back to the moon and said “Does you sky ever leave you, when you don’t shine”.
9. God apun se pucha, kidar jana mangtha hai? HEAVEN ya HELL? Apun bola HELL ! Apun ko malum, tum salah dost log udhar ich milenga. Bole tho jidhar tum, woich apun ka heaven.

2006-12-22T00:43:00.000-08:00

A Ride on the ECR

Yesterday (It was a Sunday) we went on a drive on the ECR till Mahabalipuram. The original plan was to go to Mayajaal for a movie but once we reached mayajaal we dropped the plan and decided to go driving till mahabalipuram.

There were lot of people driving, and almost all of them had a girl sitting behind and hugging them tightly, you see girls are afraid of riding on a bike.(I am sure some day, some one will tease us like this.) I mean......well forget it. And I had koti behind. Wow!!!!!! What a lucky guy I am......ha ha ha.......just kidding....... Anil had his friend i guess his name is reddy, whom he never introduced to me the whole day. But this is how we are, we like roaming like this and it was really great.

Though I was new to driving on the highway, it was great to drive. I suddenly saw the speedometer and then realized that I was going at 80km/hr. That was the first time i had done so. I didn’t even feel that I was going so fast. We were on a pulsar. The bike is awesome; you don’t even feel like you are riding a bike.

Anil was on a splendor, he too was driving fast. With the physical structure of his I never expected him to drive so well, especially after the short stint with his health problems. It was difficult for him to carry his own body weight, but he was driving the bike too good.

On the way we stopped at a so called dhaba, I don’t know what every body has got with anil but the waiter there dropped every thing he was carrying after cleaning a table, on anil. You should see his face then. They served some thing called Butter Chicken Masala, of course with no butter. The egg fried rice was ok with only one egg for a full plate of friend rice. Finally came the bill, which we never ordered for, and had amount for what we had not eaten.

We reached mahabalipuram, where we learnt how people are earning. As soon as you enter mahabalipuram, there are some guys simply sitting on chairs and collecting Rs. 10/- for each vehicle entering the place. Simply sitting and earning. Great. In the same way where ever you park your vehicle Rs. 3/- for parking, I mean not for taking care of it, but just for keeping you vehicle there. Great again. And to visit the world heritage monuments Rs. 10/- per head. I don’t know where all this money goes to.

We bought some so called stone carving for Rs. 25/-. I don’t think they are worth that much amount. But foreigners buy them for more than Rs. 500/- I guess.

We started at 6:00 PM on our way back, I was driving and anil was flying. We didn’t stop anywhere, except for a minute at one place for loo. Koti droped my in Guindy and 7:30 and I reached my home (Ambattur) at 8:30. It took me 2 and a half hour to reach my home from mahabalipuram. And on a normal day it would take me minimum of 1 and a half hour to reach my home from Guindy.

It was a good trip; the best part of it was the ride from chennai to mahabalipuram and back.

2006-12-22T00:42:00.000-08:00

In shridi with friends

2006-12-22T00:41:00.000-08:00

In Office.....

2006-12-22T00:39:00.000-08:00

Check this out.....

2006-12-22T00:35:00.000-08:00

Just back from tirupathi.