F-one >> Ra-one.

 (Before the F1 journey.. Michael learns to Rock!)



It was around 1975-76 at KV104.

Some teachers got the bright idea that the students should read out the daily news at the morning assembly.

Yours truly also got into the act to find out what was happening around the world, and share the wisdom with about a few hundred fellow goats who endured the assembly with silent dignity.

 Newspapers were for the rich.

We owned an ancient radio that had an assortment of bulbs, which lit up randomly like the high-tech comunication equipment in Ajit's den, from where he plotted destruction of India's sovereignity, wearing a blonde wig.

Just to clarify, India's sovereignty did not wear a blonde wig, Ajit did.

I heard over the cackling of static and subsequently read out how Niki Lauda, the indomitable Austrian, brought his Ferrari home against all odds.

Then, he almost died of burns in a horrific accident in Nurburgring.

He was written off as - finito-caput.

Then, miraculously, six weeks later he was back on track and lost the world championship by a single point that season due to his decision to sit out a race in protest of the unsafe conditions.

Niki and Ferrari won a life long fan in a plump, tall country bumpkin who till then had not touched a car in his life.

As luck would have it, almost 35 years later, I was at the inaugural F1 race at the Ferrari stall!

Oh what a proud moment to hear the National anthem play before the engines roared!

Just for the curious, Ferrari and Niki had a tempestuous relationship... but, what the heck, that is what the romance of racing is all about!!