Go Karting!!!

You have to let it all go....
Fear,doubt and disbelief. Free Your Mind.
-- The Matrix

I had a first hand experience of this when i went for Go karting . This was the third time i was going to drive the kart. The stakes were high. With competition from my office colleagues. But forget external competition. There's a greater internal battle to be won. With your own mind.

We have put own pre determined limits to the mind. To the way it thinks. To what can be done . To what cannot be. This cage does not allow us to go beyond. Unless we are really ready to free it.....

The track was a small 440 meters track, with lots U turns and turns. Making it quite interesting to race on. If you are driving a kart for the first time, it will be really first of its kind experience. Coz you do not know what you can do, neither are you sure about Kart's limits. The breaks, the turns would be done with utmost care . The speed might be slower than that of a bicycle. You would end up bumping on the side-walls most of the times. Had a great time watching few of the first timers.

I did not know how i was going to drive. One thing that always troubled me was that the last time i drove, my manager (good 15 years older than me) had easily lapped me many times in a four lap race. Gosh!! That was Runway 9 @ Hyd. I admired his driving,(he had quite an experience in go karting) , and wanted to improve my performance.

I started driving. The first few turns went good. To my disbelief, it was possible to make turns without releasing the accelerator. The breaks had to be applied hard.And not for too long. I gained confidence. The accelerator was pushed to its limits. I reminded myself of the famous matrix dialog, italicized above. It was time to put them to action, not letting them to remain just status message. It felt good. Things seemed to be in control. Or just in control. The kart skidded few times, without too much harm. Some of the turns left me with zero speed coz of too hard breaking. I tried to reduce my mistakes. The adrenaline was flowing big time.

I was driving behind the race leader. I had to take chances. There is no silver medal. Either you win, or you dont.

I did not win. One of my teammate, referrred to my attempt as aggressive and sometimes a bit too aggressive. May be i was.