Senna

Watched a movie on a flight after a long time last week. The cover of the movie guide enticed me into it. The movie was 'Senna', a documentary on the life of Aryton Senna, the Brazilian F-1 champion. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424432/
When i lived in Brazil, i used to hear a lot of people say how they loved Senna. I could never really understand why, afterall he had been dead for almost 15 years then. Yes sure, Senna was a three time world champion, incredibly good looking, and Brazilian. Some people speculated about his being gay; most others said they cared two hoots about it; in short, Senna was worshiped, almost as God.
The movie gave a perspective , and also enhanced my understanding about the way he gave a lot of pride and joy to Brazilians. This was late 80s, early 90s. Almost everything that could be wrond with a country was wrong with Brazil. Commonly used words to describe the country were Unemployment, hyper inflation, rogue government and corruption.
And worse, they had not won the Football world cup for two decades.
Senna, through his heroics on the F-1 track, and through his proud display of partiotism, was just the hero that Brazil was looking for.

Even after being the world champion, Senna had not won the Brazilian Grand prix. The way he drove, despite a technical fault in his car, battling severe pain and cramps, through the sheer power of will, to win at Sao Paulo was one of the most emotional moments i have seen in any sport. Everyone at the track, from the supposed-to-be-neutral support staff to the team technicains, was hugging each other when Aryton crossed the finish line. It was more than a race. More than a Grand Prix. It was an event which reaffirmed Brazil's faith in itself. In its ability to overcome the limitations imposed upon itself by others.

Senna fought for the things he felt close to his heart. Very high on that list was the concern he had for the safety of F-1 drivers. The tension on his face, when he was about to start off on what turned out to be the last race of his life, almost reflected an inevitable, forebearing sense of destiny. Senna died in May 1994, and all of Brazil plunged into despair. The roads from Guarulhous International Airport were all choked with teary eyed, shell shocked Brazilians as his coffin was driven through. People cramped for any available space that would give them a last glimpse of the hero, who had provided them with joy and a sense of pride in being Brazilian.
Perhaps, it was the Senna effect which then inspired Brazil to win its first football world cup in 24 years a few months later. And perhaps it was also the Senna effect which brought together a disparate nation to start taking concrete steps to rebuild itself. To move away from being a country of the future that it was always destined to be to a country whose time had come.

Thank you Asif Kapadia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asif_Kapadia ) for bringing Senna's story alive