The Sane Lunatic

Alessandro Zanardi, better known as Alex Zanardi, is an Italian racing driver, born 23rd October 1966. He is a two-time CART champion, ex-F1 driver, sports car racer and Olympic gold medalist. His racing career isn't one of the most successful ones but he is one of the most inspirational racers out there today. He is also a double-amputee above the knee. This is his story as I know it from various sources. Alex began racing karts at the age of 13, building his kart from the wheels of a dustbin and pipes from his father's work. By 1988, he joined the Italian F3 series and in the following year, he took two pole positions and three podium finishes. In 1991, he partook in the Formula 3000 series, won his debut race and two others to finish second in the championship. This strong performance got him a seat in F1 with three starts for Jordan that same year. However, he remained a test and guest driver for a bunch of F1 teams over the 1992 season before getting contracted by ...

It's been a looong time since I shared some of the Sane Loon life here. The last time I opened up, things were looking pretty grim in my opinion. And three months later, not a whole lot has changed in the areas of life that I've been struggling in but a lot of other stuff has happened since then. Near the end of May, I went on a short road trip with family to a secluded coffee plantation resort in Himachal Pradesh in the newly acquired family car. It was a good drive and for the most part, it was a welcome break from the noisy bustle of the city existence. But the trip didn't end so well as I was way beyond my limit in terms of putting up with family in a small, confined space with no breaks. As such, it was weighing heavily on my mind and my attention span. Knowing that, I should have cleared my mind before I got behind the wheel to do my share of the drive back, but I didn't and through a case of poor judgment and unfortunate circumstances, found myself between ...

It has been a long time ladies and gents but the Sane Loon is back with a movie review and we're getting back into this with an all-new blockbuster action movie. Tom Cruise is back with the Mission Impossible franchise for the sixth instalment and it's up to him and his crew to stop a global disaster. Again. 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' brings Ethan Hunt & the IMF back to the fray of saving the world from those looking to bring about mass destruction to overthrow the current world order. In the previous instalment, he and his team took down the 'Sentinel', an anti-establishment organization that wanted to wreak nuclear attacks around the world irrespective of nation, religion or race. This time the nuke threat is back and after Hunt lost the radioactive materials in order to save his teammate Luther (Ving Rhames), it's on him to track them down again and put a stop to the nefarious plans of the terrorist individuals known as the Apostles. Jere...

World Cup time. Once in four years, every footballing nation reaches a fever pitch from expectations and excitement to see their country's best players compete in the FIFA World Cup finals. The top 32 nations from across the world representing every continent except Antartica play for the biggest trophy in the game over the course of a month. It's a big deal for every player and every nation involved and this year Russia was playing host. The polar opposite climate from the previous World Cup held in Brazil, but one that would benefit most players who play in Europe for different leagues and are more used to the chill than to the heat. This is also the stage for individual players to become legends, to rise up when a loss would mean elimination, to be recognized as the World's best in their time. At each World Cup there are certain players who are the world's best on a club level and have won the prestigious Ballon d'Or but for whatever reason, they underperfor...

Woah! It's almost the end of April and this is only my second post this year that isn't a movie review. Am I getting old and boring or simply more careful of what I openly express in this increasingly dangerous and intolerant social atmosphere? Or maybe just a little lazy with putting thoughts into written form. Meh. Time for a personal update from the Sane Loon and it's not a good one as you can guess from the title of this blog. I don't even know how many real people read this and how many are just page-pings from bots trawling the worldwide web, but I feel like it helps me get things off my chest here without losing much of my privacy. Getting back to the title of this post, 'Breaking Point'. I'd assume that many of you like me have come across this expression before and most probably on some news channel with a story describing the volatile state of some nation or the other. Or maybe in a novel that has some intense circumstances. Nonetheless, he...

The movie that I've been waiting for more than any Marvel flick, got delayed by two weeks in my town before finally being available to watch in IMAX 3D, this is it - Ready Player One. If you're like me and you never knew about the book it is based on by the same name (written by Ernest Cline), here are two simple incentives - it's about video games and it's directed by Steven Spielberg. The narrative is set in a semi-dystopian future of 2045 where the world is on the brink of chaos, where instead of living in the depressing reality, people have found hope and salvation in the virtual reality universe called OASIS, made by an eccentric genius of gaming technology James Halliday (Mark Rylance). In the OASIS, the only limit is one's imagination as the universe allows people to create while also harbouring an extensive range of pop culture references. With time, the OASIS grew and evolved to the extent of having real-world implications. The skills and objects in t...

Yep. The Loon watched a new Hindi movie, first since 'Trapped' and for the same pitch: it's not your typical Bollywood movie. 'October' is the work of Shoojit Sircar (director and producer) and Juhi Chaturvedi (screenplay) and is an interesting piece of film. It's a bit tricky to tell you about the movie without giving away possible plot points even though it is no murder mystery. 'October' deals with a very real circumstance, an unfortunate circumstance, that many people deal with in many different forms. The narrative revolves around Dan (Varun Dhawan) a Hotel Management course student in his final semester, undergoing work training at a *top* hotel in Dwarka and how he deals with the daily struggles alongside his friends and fellow interns. One such colleague is the younger student, Shiuli (Banita Sandhu) who appears to be everything that Dan isn't - smart, reliable, responsible and an overall good person.  It all changes when on New...