I was among those people who thought that this was never going to happen. And even if it was, it would at best be a soapbox-on-wheels. But no, hat’s off to Tata, they pulled off a gem.

Now I am in two minds. Again like a lot of others. It is a big deal, not by any means a minor achievement. But the environmentalists come out and say it is going to damage our Earth. That can’t be good right? But I would like to think in a different manner. If what Tata claims is true (I hope to dear god, it is at least half-true!), the car will have total emissions less than that of a standard motorcycle. If the Nano’s can achieve its said goal of replacing the 2-wheelers on the road, well then this can only be a good thing right. And the number of cars in India (.007 cars per person) are still too less compared to USA (.478 cars per person) or Germany (.508 cars per person). I think the whole hue and cry is a little too much.

But one point I agree on is that the Nano is going to severely choke the already congested Indian roads. Tata and other giants should actively invest in infrastructure projects beneficial for the general public and not just for their factories. I think all the hue and cry must be for this, lets not solve the wrong problem first.

And hey, I was reading some western reactions to the whole thing. While most of them ranged from faint sarcasm to slight appreciation, I noticed something interesting at many places. They were all saying we are going down the wrong path, all about green house gases and stuff. Yes that is important, but so is the development of our country (no, I am not just talking about Nano). The west created this whole mess, all the while enjoying all the goodies and when we are finally capable to doing all that, what right do they have tell us – ‘No, you cant do that. Its too late and we can’t clean up the mess we created.’.. Think about it people!

The point is that there needs to be a balance. We cannot afford to slow down too much on development, but we cannot totally forget about the environment either. The success of India depends on how well ‘we’ (no not just our politicians) strike the balance.

Ok, I love driving… and I love driving fast. Autobahns in Germany are perfect for that – no speed limits! :)

Here are two of my fastest drives, my chance to brag!

1. 243 km/hr on Mercedes C230. This was somewhere in between Luxembourg and Kaiserslautern, Germany en route Frankfurt. Fastest I have ever driven!! :D

Videography by Sandeep

2. 229 km/hr on Toyota Avensis. Somewhere in between Berlin and Magdeburg in erstwhile East Germany.

Videography by Ginu

WARNING: Dont try this at home – only on the autobahns. And no, not all stretches of the autobahn are speed limit free. Proof of that is the 62 euro fine when I was driving on 122 on a 100 limit! :( The bad side of the autobahns! :D

It was a dream come true for me. Ever since I started watching Formula One, since around 10 years ago, I had always wanted to be there.. to watch and hear the power of those machines, and finally I did that.. and wow! It was an amazing experience.

9 of us met at the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof on Friday ready for the grand adventure. And boy there was excitement even before we started the journey. One of my friends forgot to take his tickets for the race and he announced that minutes before our train was scheduled to leave. Well.. we had no choice, but to continue.. We weren’t going to miss the race because of a minor memory lapse! We send him packing asking him to take the next train and meet us somewhere on the way. The initial part of the trip was thus spent on speculating whether or not he will make it in time. He did eventually and we all had a good laugh about it.

That settled, we continued our journey in the night. It was really an adventure reaching the place. We had to switch 7 trains in the night and didn’t get more that 15 minutes of continuous sleep that night, despite which we were all in high spirits till reaching the Mayen Ost station, the nearest that the German railways would take us to the circuit. Then came the surprise. To our shock there was no bus or no other easy way to reach one of the biggest international sporting events in Germany! We struggled to find a taxi and finally when we got one we had to pay dearly for a 25km ride. No option, we had to take it or miss the qualifying. We reached on time and the taxi guy atleast left us within walking distance of our stand. All that was soon forgotten. As soon as we heard the engines of each of those amazing machines roar we forgot all that struggle and all that tiredness. It was crazy! The noise was defeaning as we enjoyed every second of it all. We even had a glimpse of the crash of Lewis Hamilton just around the corner where we were located. But all this was just a demo of what was awaiting us at the race next day.

After a struggle to get back, we finally made it to Cologne where we had to spend our night. It was a pity that we couldn’t explore the nightlife in the city thanks to our tired selves. It seems to be a wonderful city and I’m definitely going back to visit. But now our focus was on F1 and we needed to get a good sleep if we were to enjoy ourselves at the race on Sunday.

Next day we reached on time, all set for the race. It started. It was the kind of excitement you would never get watching a race on TV. The atmosphere was truly wonderful! And lo.. just as the race started, it started raining.. and it rained heavily. We had not been prepared for the rain and got totally drenched but no one really bothered. All we were interested in was the race. And after a few crashes and mistakes the race got stopped! It was a pity since an unknown Markus Winkelhock was leading by nearly 20 seconds at that point that too in his first race! But the restart spoiled everything for him and it was back to the same old story. Ferrari and McLaren chasing each other. And towards the end, a brilliant drive by Alonso saw him overtake Massa and win the race. We joined the celebrations with all the fans there witness to a great race.

After the race too there was plenty to do. There were some stalls set up by the teams and it allowed us to see some F1 cars close up and also see some stunts. We had a lot of freebies to take home too.. from photos with the F1 chicks to team posters. Wanting even more we did a bit of souvenir hunting and I controlled myself to grab just a model car and an authentic team cap – needless to say, both were of Renault. It was a pity that Renault were no where near their world championship class of a year ago. I am sure I would have enjoyed the race even more last year when they made everybody else look like minnows. But nevertheless it was a great experience. I wouldn’t say once in a life time, because I am sure that this is not my last race!

I had booked the tickets long before I even left India and needless to say this was going to be one of the highlights of my visit. And it was. I am not sure if anything can beat this experience. It was worth every single Euro I spent (and it was a lot!). Finally even I can declare – I was there. I saw it live. :)