Sunday, September 10, 2006

New English word: Schumacher = perfection, domination, God-status

I don't know when I last felt so despondent. Michael Schumacher is retiring after this season.

An era 's ending in the history of sport. Not just F1, all sport. From the time when Ferrari was a car that had to be wrestled to the chequered flag to that sublimal 15-race dominating dream baby of 2004, Schumacher has single-handedly rewritten every single history book there ever was in F1.

He is a game changer. He is inspiration. He is supremacy. He is trying that one bit harder and beyond. He is the man that rewrote the very definition of perfection and domination.

There have been countless and there will be countless who every now and again will rise to prominence, surpass existing records and be masters of their own game. But rarely do Schumiz arise who transcend conventional boundaries of their spheres of excellence and go on to have a profound impact on human society in general. They become the benchmarks, the touchstones which the world would endeavor to equal endlessly. Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods are the only two similar names that I can recall in contemporary sport. The FedExpress and maybe Rahul Dravid are on their way there. And I am pretty sure you can't append too many more names to this clique.

The jobless HR departments of the world (that tells you my opinion of them!!) would do well to take a cue from this chap's life. Put up his poster in office instead of making all those jazzy pin-ups with big-big words in them which do anything but motivate.

He's had his detractors and his moments of madness. But you can't take away his passion, his single-minded focus on winning everytime he got behind the wheel. It takes some fire in the belly to go and slug it out fortnight after fortnight when you know that you have nothing left to prove, that you sit unchallenged at the peak, that there are light years between you and your peers. God only knows what it takes to come out and dig in for some silly zig-zagging across a round circuit when you know your mother is also counting down a vital few seconds- albeit in a hospital bed.

I, for one, will definitely shed some silent tears. Cannot comprehend F1 as F1 without him.
Michael Schumacher - The Tiffosi God, the rainmaster, the legend...the world bows in deference.

1 comment:

Venkat | Mandy said...

Cannot agree more !