About a happy place

Lights out Alice!

Time and again I have questioned myself as to why I have felt so attracted to motorsports/ automobiles/ machines in general. Is it the complexity? Is it the ingenuity that is intrinsically required to improve efficiency? Is the fact that in the end the greatest source of inspiration for all mechanistic movements is human motion or nature, the irony that in an effort to remove limitation of speed and efficiency imposed by humans, we got there and mimic nature and natural bionic movements?

To be fair, I don't know. I am sure the equation runs deeper than that and definitely there must be some emotional, trauma bonding or aspirational angle to it as well. But I still go back to Capeta in my head as to what a dream scenario would be like. Anytime I want, I can hear the opening credits of the show as well as the episode wherein he is about to start his first race in F4 in an international circuit. The roar of the engines as they warm up on the grid, the diminutiveness of the entire paddock as compared to the venue, all leading up to a panning shot as to how the entire atmosphere felt so large yet so minuscule in relation to the arena it was taking place in.  

A recent addition to my happy place has been driving. No, I do not have a car yet (my parents' car) and Zoomcar has gotten crazy expensive to the point wherein I can no longer stretch any argument to justify the expenditure. When I visualize it, it is as simple as me approaching a tight downhill right hander starting off with both hands on the steering wheel at a decent rate of speed, nothing too insensible. I take my left hand off the steering wheel and start moving it towards the gear stick while I start decelerating through a gently increasing application of the brakes. A clean jerk of the clutch in between to shift down from fourth to third which is extremely satisfying when the revs match and the car just catches the sweet spot of the rev range around 3000, which may be too high for some eco-maniacs, but I like using the entire rev range. The downshift, if done right, gives me such a high. Then gently peeling off the brake as I line up the turn. The turn in, while again selecting between second and third to see which would ensure that I have good power out of the corner.

Simple really. This moment, the entire sequence, is my happy place for now. Maybe things change, actually they definitely will. Nothing ever stays the same. I will fall down and I might never be this happy again. But I will thank my lucky stars for this moment and all that I have gotten recently.

Lights out Alice!