Bye-Bye You Marvelous Maniac

Viraat Paul talks about the end of the SLS
Now I have to admit that I'm one of those people who are hardcore car-bores. Whenever I watch a movie my mind plays second fiddle to the story and gives priority to the cars used in the movie. Its's always bothered me. Let's see my biggest complain has always been Christopher Nolan's Dark Night Trilogy's use of cars. When I saw the Tumbler for the first time, I was awestruck. Batman runs it through the Narrows of Gotham and when he gets out of it, the roof opens and slides coolly. He then lends it to Inspector Gordon while he flies around, punches people, saves women and be's cool. But then the next day in the morning he has to go around as Bruce Wayne and so he has a Lamborghini Murcielago which he uses for the first 2 movies. And in the 3rd movies Mr Wayne is almost bankrupt but has manged to keep a Aventador in his service which later Anne Hathaway as Cat-Women steals. Its so annoying because the character of Batman could do so much better.

Enter the SLS. A car I admit it has many faults and irritations. I know this because I had been in the 2010 version and the convertible Roadster when it was launched in 2012. The whole body was made keeping in mind the 300SL and making it modern. The bonnet was idiotically long which made judgement difficult. They thought the gullwing doors looked old fashioned and cool, yes, but they made getting in and out of the car difficult and embarrassing. It was given a 6.2 liter V8 with 563 bhp and a mountain of 650 N.m of torque. Because of the amount of torque in relation to the horse power it resulted in spinning wheels and sliding all over the place. Even a low speeds with a brand new set of tyres I remember a friend who had brought one of these was struggling whenever he went close to the accelerator. The whole back end felt unsettled and moving continuously.
But that is the end of the bad news. Because if there was any car that should have been used by Batman after fighting villains it would be this. Also mind you in it's class there was no Audi or BMW to rival it. The interior has a mad cockpit inspired design which houses the mental AMG buttons like Sport and Sport + which made it a shouting dragon with a three-point star on its nose. And thanks to a dual clutch semiautomatic transmission the 7 speed AMG SpeedShift felt brilliant. The sound made by that throaty V8 was the best in class by any front engined car. The sound was real as it the V8 in the SLS is naturally aspirated and had no exit valve nonsense from the exhaust. The sound a engine working hard.
What this car was really like, a big old American muscle car with a 3 point stat on the nose. You could almost call the whole thing crude. But it is a car that is one of the last of it's kind. It was a mad car. I remember when it was launched, Mercedes had Micheal Schumacher drive it upside down in a tunnel for a advertisement and ask "Is it still a car". Today cars are made in non polluting, hermetically sealed; multicultural factories with one eye on polar bears and other animals. The SLS is in-tune with times as a blaze in a oil refinery. It's for people who are different and don't care. It's a gigantic middle - finger to whole concept of sustainable ecology and environment. And I like that. From the outside it looks like a civilized destroyer of worlds. But inside it feels like a normal Mercedes. Surly the new AMG GT which is the SLS's replacement will be a sales success for Mercedes but I'm sure it won't have the soul of the outgoing car. And with new environmental regulations and restrictions making a car like the SLS will be difficult and impossible. And that's a real shame. It might have flaws and tiny annoyances but all in all it the best and most iconic AMG Mercedes Benz that will go on to become one of the all time greats when we look back from the future.
    

The Kind Of Homosexual I Adore

Viraat Paul talks about a movie he saw which had a homosexual in it.

Now some time ago I was visiting some sort of literary festival in Juhu in Mumbai.There were various topics on which there were many discussions going on. But there was one on Homosexuality. Now I have always actively dodged discussions on gay rights and at times gays I thought were straight. I might have a certain notions which are Anti-Gay but I have never condemned the people who...err...indulge in whatever of their homosexuality activites. But later on I was asked about what I think on the topic by a group which was peppered with a few angry lesbians who had assumed I was a straight secretly gay-hating Homophobic man. My normal practiced answer to save my self from a lesbionic fit was as always " It's none of my business. Each to his own". It's an alternate lifestyle whose norms and thinking boggles my mind. But then I was asked while leaving with a friend that if had come across a gay person who I did not find off-putting. I did not have the answer then. But now I do. 

Cumberbatch signed an open letter petitioning the U.K.
 government to give the same apology that
 Turing received to some 49,000 others who
 were similarly convicted.

I have just ended watching Benedict Cumberbatch's masterpiece "The Imitation Game" an biopic for Alan Turing and the Julia Roberts special of last year "The Normal Heart" which had brilliant performances from Mark Ruffalo and Jim Parsons. To be honest the message of the Normal Heart was quite nicely delivered about AIDS. But in the end the White House scene and the Ronald Regan mention for the Republican bashing audience coupled with all those homosexual scenes made a straight man afraid today of all pretty dressed men. So I did not like the homosexual movie from last year. Normal Heart did not know when to stop. Don't get me wrong its not a bad movie when it comes to Aids but showing of your colorful lifestyle at the same time is not going to win you a lot of support from the straight audience. So this year with those preconceived notions I sat down to watch the Imitation Game. And well, it has been a master stroke. They showed the life of an extraordinary man who is the father of modern computing. They have shown his hardwork and dedication in helping the Allies break Enigma, the German code. They have shown his childhood problems of bullying and friendship in school. And also the humiliation and injustice that he had to suffer in the end. 

After I had seen this movie I remember trying to use all angles to find some characters fault in the movie. But no. The movie that showed the great life of the man who was subjected to hormonal therapy because of his sexual orientation suddenly made me sad. Its one thing to punish and another to hurt I thought. So I thought about it for another week and said well this could be one of of the greatest visionaries and thinkers of the modern era who had been subjected to the cruelty of draconian laws. Maybe I don't like homosexuals as others or I'm not comfortable around them. But today in many fields of work and play they are at the top. And I cannot really nowadays justify being a homophobic. They are a part of our population who lets say are a bit more carefree. And we can't ignore a part of our population that's living and working with us in the 21st century.