the venkaman's blog: April 2010

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Story of the underdog( i think so...)

An analysis of the rise and growth of the character of Michael Corleone from the novel “The Godfather”( here is the link for the trailer...if you have not seen the movie go watch it...!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf16Vc3iZjE)

“I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, and you made a good living. The police protected you and there were courts of law. And you didn't need a friend like me. But, uh, now you come to me, and you say: "Don Corleone, give me justice." But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask me to do murder for money.”

Vito” Don” Corleone

The Godfather

The Godfather is a fiction novel written by Italian American author Mario Puzo. It is loosely based on the “five Mafia families of New York” that were in power during the writing of the novel.

The plot

Set in the period of 1945 to 1955 it is a brutal yet well written tale of the Corleone family and their ascension to power in the New York Crime scene of that era. It captures and chronicles the transformational journey and the rise of Michael Corleone from the reluctant son who wants to choose a life of legitimacy to the ruthless mob boss attempting leave his mark on the regime.

In seeking to eke out the underdog of this story Michael Corleone we must first know and understand some of important characters that influence and ultimately pave his path to power.

Vito “Don” Corleone

The head of the Corleone family his role is seemingly brief yet very important. He is one of the most influential dons of the mob families. His role in giving rise to the true nature of the underdog comes at a terrible price he is wounded severely. It is the drama of this wounding that pushes Michael to act in a manner that changes his course of destiny.

Santino “Sonny” Corleone

He is the elder brother of Michael Corleone and becomes the head of the family when Don Corleone is injured. He was known to be brash and short tempered. In an attempt to de stabilize him during his ruling he is setup by his brother in law and members of the rival families and is killed during a drive-by shoot out.

Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo

A pivotal character, he is basically a rival Mob boss who wants to traffic heroin in New York. His attempt to enlist the aid of the Corleone Family in terms of police and street safety is turned down after the Don Corleone tells him that drugs will ruin the neighborhood and society. It is this incident and his planning that leads to the shooting of Don Corleone.

Mark Mclucksy

The body guard of The Turk he is a corrupt police Commissioner. He is murdered along with the Turk during the course of the story.

Carlo Rizzi

Married to the sister of Michael and Sonny he is involved in the plot that led to the shooting and death of Sonny.

Tom Hagen

He is the adopted son of Don Corleone and the Consigliore (advisor) of the family.

The Mafia

The mafia or “La Cosa Nostra” is a ruthless criminal organization deeply divided within into many families and clans. Due its very basic nature of being crime ridden it exists as an “every man for himself” alter- reality world, where personal interests are the only real importance. In such a world respect for a clan is only earned by its misdeeds and ability to criminalise.

It is in such an existence and plot we see consequences and events unfolding that lead to the “blooming” of the character Michael Corleone.

The evolution of Michael Corleone

The story beings with the wedding of Costanzia “Connie” Corleone, which takes place just after the end of the Second World War. Being the younger son he is always treated as the softer one and from a young age attempts to choose a path different from what his family does ultimately He returns from the war as a decorated marine (a decision which his family looked down upon).

The plot begins to unfold when “The Turk” along with the help of a rival family (Tataglia) he attempts to make a deal with Don Corleone to start trafficking Heroin in the city going along the lines of sharing profits in return for protection from the politicians and the police.

The don refuses him saying that drugs will ruin society and that such an association will jeopardize his political connections. In retaliation he orders an assassination attempt on the don which is partly successful. This is done in the hope that Sonny who will become thee next head of the family will be easier to manipulate and be convinced of the deal.

Surviving the assassination attempt the don begins to recuperate in a hospital. One night while visiting him in the Hospital Michael realizes that a second assassination attempt has been planned. He foils the attempt but is injured in the process.

After this incident the Turk calls for a meeting with the Corleone family. Realizing that he is a threat to the family Michael decides to assassinate him. In a spectacularly planned assassination Michael kills both the Turk and the Police Commissioner and then escapes to Sicily where he hides till the heat is off him. In Italy he courts and marries the daughter of a local bar owner. During the course of his stay in Italy the girl is killed when a car bomb intended for Michael explodes and kills her.

Also At this point of time Sonny Corleone is killed after he is setup and ambushed, with the don in retirement Michael returns to America and assumes control of the family.

Taking up power he creates and executes a plan in which the heads of all the rival families as well as those who were responsible for Sonny’s death are killed. In doing so he establishes complete control of New York City becoming the new Don.

Thus we see the rise of Michael from the role of the underdog to the role of the Don after all he was made an offer he could not refuse.

my first auto expo

It was upon a chance encounter that I happened to see a full page advert for a car expo taking place near my house. As a life long vehicle enthusiast this was an opportunity that was too good to miss.

I was having an odd thought process as I entered the expo grounds on one hand it would be the first time I would be going to a vehicle exhibition in my twenty two years of existence. On the other hand this was Chennai city….as much as I loved the place it never ceased to raise my expectations and then make me throw them out of the window.

The first thing that struck me was the fact that the exhibition was really small and had more people than cars. Just outside the arena was a giant Cadillac Escalade SUV in true Indian fashion people we making funny poses standing next to the car. Imported from Dubai it was a really massive vehicle with tires the size of a small dish antenna.

Our first stop inside the arena was at the Harley Davidson stand. It had a single Motorcycle on display but that was more than enough to pull in the crowds. The Motorcycle was long and had an imposing presence, what struck me the most was that the motorcycle had a CD player and two large speakers built in, it struck me that Motorcycle In America were miles ahead of anything that we had.

The exhibition was dominated by small manufacturers showing off some heavy car accessories which in some cases were almost the cost of the car they had been put on. Right beside them were students from various regional engineering colleges displaying hand built sand buggies. Built on a small budget and with Maximum technical acumen these vehicles contrasted the accessories stand in almost perfect harmony giving us a perfect lesson “it’s not the size that matters but how you use it”.

In the center of the Arena was a spanking new Mercedes Benz complete with an “auto box” and tanned leather seats (no they were not taken from cows that spent a day in the sun!!) it was like looking at busty Brazilian woman on roller skates ( beauty on wheels ) a feast for the mind and body.

Ten minutes and a few maruti’s, Hero Honda’s, fiats and Mahindra’s later were at the end of the exhibition. I was euphorically disappointed because I had not got to see any super cars that I had always dreamt of looking at but was finally happy because I had finally got to visit a car exhibition.

Stop-start technology for automobiles

Introduction

India is slowly emerging the “next big thing” on the global scenario. In its current form and direction of development it will soon emerge as one of the new global markets for the global sales and production. One of the biggest areas to grow in this sense is the car industry.

An increase in average salaries by well over 20-25% in the last fifteen years has created a situation where a car is no longer a luxury but a necessity. This has created a situation where the Metros alone to add around one lakh cars to the road system each annually. In terms of global production we are the 9^th largest car industry globally producing up to 2.3 million vehicles annually.

Poor and short term road planning during the development days of the country has resulted in a road system of just fewer than 50% of both highways and city roadways. We have been unable to cope with the phenomenal growth that has occurred resulting in traffic jams and massive congestions country wide. Along with around a lakh of cars we are also adding almost the same number of two wheelers to the road system creating a situation of complete chaos and disorder.

These traffic jams leave large carbon foot prints by means of massive amounts of exhaust fumes. The Suspend particulate matter (SPM) in the capital city of New Delhi is almost thrice of what it was ten years ago. It is a known fact that SPM of less than ten microns has become very common. Such kind of increase causes various problems like lowering the air quality and causing respiratory problems for humans and animals

Affecting factors

Pollution is the only contributor to congested roads. Along with poor planning and excessive vehicles, our driving tests are not through enough and effective in weeding out the drivers from those legalized to murder behind the wheel.

To fix or reduce such a problem we require long term solution which must involve careful planning and distribution by the government and private players. This long term solution generally involving the control of production vehicles and re designing of roads and may take more than fifty years to be planned and put into action.

For the current time the issue that are faced by the road makers and managers must be tackled with short term and quick solutions. One of the fastest and most effective ways to reduce pollution from mobile and immobile vehicles is to cut down tailpipe emissions. The most obvious solutions to these are vehicular developments like the Toyota Prius which is a hybrid car employing a small petrol engine and Lithium Ion battery electric motor, alternative fuel vehicles like the Tesla and the Chevrolet Volt which use electricity.

Employing a more efficient design for the vehicle so that it can make use of aero dynamics to overcome what has been lost in horsepower. The solution seemingly obvious has one major draw back that is it costs too much. Each of the above mentioned vehicles sell for nothing less than $20,000 which when brought to a country like ours will turn out be way more than the average man can afford.

Stop-start technology

In such a situation a change in the systems we use is much cheaper and more effective. The stop-start system is one such technology. In its most basic form it controls the ignition of the engine after a specified time period. This is useful in long traffic stops where the engine consumes huge amounts of fuel without moving the car.

The generic term for this type of vehicle is known as a Mild Hybrid or in India as a Micro hybrid. In a Hybrid vehicle the car comes with two separate engines one electric and one petrol/diesel powered. The electric motor is used to run the car for most of the time while the fuel powered engine serves to act as a backup or generator for the electric.

In a mild hybrid the vehicle is classified and put into the category of a regular internal combustion model. The electric motor simply acts as an assist but cannot propel the engine on its own. When the vehicle is moving at a constant speed, or has stopped for a long period (generally kept to be over thirty seconds) the electric engine steps in and runs the car. Nowadays it also makes use of regenerative braking whereby when the brakes are applied the energy from the process of braking is converted into electricity and stored in a battery.

This kind of system though not fully efficient is very effective because it gives a saving of around 10-15%. Such vehicles also cost less than conventional hybrids because they are cheaper to produce and maintain. It is not one single system that works but rather a combination of smaller system, which in the larger picture allows for a good fuel saving. The vehicle basically has an economy mode. In this mode all the various smaller components work at their highest efficiency. The electric motor is anywhere between 30-40 volts and helps in running other electric components like the lights stereo and AC.

History

One of the first vehicles to employ this kind of technology was the Volkswagen polo in 1984. This was a system in its most basic form and did not do much to improve the car’s running efficiency. Deemed to be too expensive for its time it was not very successful. The entire system came to play in the year 2006 when Citroen introduced the ISG (integrated starter generator) technology into its cars the Citroen C1 and C2. This form of system basically combined the starter and alternator into unit making it more compact and efficient.

Latest Development

Japanese auto maker Mazda one of the latest entrants into this field has introduced a system in collaboration with Bosch of Germany. It employs a combination piston and clutch positioning for maximum efficiency. This system known as SISS (Smart idle stop system) or I-stop in foreign models has proved in testing conditions that it will save up to 15% of fuel for the car.

In India Mahindra has introduced this system on its Scorpio Model calling it the “M-Eagle system” it works along the similar lines of the micro hybrid system.

Drawbacks

Such a system is not without its drawbacks. Emerging at the top of the list is the fact that though it costs lesser than a regular hybrid or alternate fuel cell car it still cots more than the regular model of the car that it has been placed on.

With the current cost of petrol and diesel worldwide, the actual saving on the vehicle may turn out to be quite small. The extra weight of the hybrid train generally increases the drag coefficient of the vehicle.

For the future

In the larger picture this system will become effective if it is applied to a larger number of vehicles like buses, autos which are notoriously fuel inefficient but need to exist because they are basic forms of public transportation. The existing models can be fitted with such systems, which are available independently, if the fitting is subsidized by the government. A little bit of effort from everyone will take the nations car using population a long way towards greener, cleaner and safer roads.