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| The two magazines which I picked up from the store |
I was holidaying with my wife at
the time of the incident and it has been just two days since we are back to our routine. A lot has been written and said in the media about his health;
I am not sure what to read and what to believe. I stopped reading.
We are back to our routine and part
of that involves shopping for groceries or as a last minute rush, one buys a
thing or two from the local shop next to the train station. I have always been
amassed with the collection of magazines they have - reminds me of India and those
multi-purpose stalls where magazines of all possible genre adorn the sides of those
tiny shops. I could notice about ten magazines in a jiffy; all had Michael
Schumacher on its cover. Each magazine had at least 4-5 pages of coverage on
his health, family, opinions from several experts, encouraging messages and
many more. It was in German and I browsed through all of them before buying
these two magazines.
Looking at them, I was
transported back to the time when I started watching F1 and how a certain red
car driven by Michael Schumacher got me hooked onto these fast cars of Formula One. I
am trying to recollect all the memories that I have and how the idolism of Michael
Schumacher made me fall in love with F1 - its history, evolution and just about
everything associated with the sport.
A world made up of billions of
people - it is interesting to note the kind of impact individuals tend to have
on masses. There would be plenty who took to F1 because of Michael and if not
seriously, at least the sport has benefitted with his presence for more than
two decades. I would like to share some of them.
More than his victories, the two
seasons with Ferrari towards the end of his first term in 2005 and 2006 was a
lesson in itself - personally. There have been several instances where I was
inspired by the way he handled personal and team setbacks in those two years;
the manner in which he fought back reducing the deficit of 34 points in 2006 to
zero before his engine blew in the penultimate race at Suzuka (for the record,
his last engine failure prior to Suzuka 2006 was at French Grand Prix 2000). He
lost the championship to Alonso, but went down fighting. Not to forget the way he came back from his leg injury in 1999 - after which he enjoyed the most successful phase of his career.
By the time I was a corporate,
Schumacher had retired and my first race live on track did not feature him. Till
date, I have dreamt of that day where I would shake hands with Michael; sitting
together at some place discussing Formula One and him having a look at my
personal collection of his photographs pasted and others (from different
magazines) I collected as a student. What a thrill it is for a fan when that
day comes true!
In 2009, Geneva Auto show
featured several cars and in that magnificent spread of trendy cars - there
were few collections from the world of Formula One. In a corner there was a
tiny F1 car (compared to today's standard size) with 7UP advertised all over
it. It was the same car in which Michael Schumacher had made his debut with
Jordan, back in 1991 at the Belgian Grand Prix - the only time he raced
officially in that car. Boy, was I excited!
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| Jordan Ford - Schumey's debut F1 car |
When Mercedes announced its
intention to participate in the F1 arena as a constructor, Ross Brawn called
out for Michael Schumacher. He immediately agreed and returned to the team
where he began his racing career in the late 1980's.
In his second term at Mercedes,
he put his laurels at stake for the sake of driving. He was contracted for
three years and it yielded him no victories. The Chinese Grand Prix win in 2006
remains his last triumph. Did he ruin his legacy? For the sake of numbers, he
did; for the joy of doing what he loves - hats off to him. Not many have the guts to pursue what one loves irrespective of what critics have to say.
Personally, I would
have loved to see him drive a competitive car; securing pole positions;
shattering the time sheets with fastest laps; spraying champagne all over after
winning the race. A lot of us didn't get to see that and I have no qualms about
it.
Over the past decade and a half,
I have read a lot of books written on him, absorbed a lot of words scribbled by
various writers on varying aspects of his life - on and off track. Let's just
say, he is no saint - but he is as human as anyone could be. Though heavily
talented, he was prone to driving errors, learnt from his mistakes of the past,
something we are all inclined to do - improved immensely and became the
multiple world champion he is.
When he announced his retirement
for the second time and for good this time, I was fortunate to be in India at
that time. I did not hesitate once and immediately booked the tickets for the
Indian Grand Prix 2012 along with the travel tickets. It was expensive, no doubt!
every penny was worth it. After all, this was once in a lifetime experience I
didn't want to miss.
At the circuit, all I could see was his car zooming past me during the practice sessions and qualifying; struggling on the race day.
Amongst all this, I did manage to spot him sans the helmet and the
racing gear, waving his hands - a sort of goodbye to all his fans on the driver's
parade.
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| Schumey waving at his fans - Driver's parade Indian GP 2012 |
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| Schumacher in action at Indian Grand Prix 2012 |
Be it a local café or a Bäckerei - all knew their most favourite son. With our limited knowledge of Deutsch, we somehow managed to located his carting track - a haven for budding drivers. We walked around the circuit, scanned possibly every item in the memorabilia store and did not return empty-handed.
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| Collage of Michael Schumacher's Kart Center at Kerpen |
Till that time - I wish him a
speedy recovery from the injury!
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