Shahzad Sheikh Diary, Family, Life, Opinion

I got COVID-19

No, God no! How can pizza taste so horrid?

We leave letters lying on the floor mat for a couple of days before touching them. Coming back from shopping involves up to an hour of anti-bac wiping and washing, right down to the last piece of fruit and vegetable. Outside: face masks on, sanitisers on standby, and proximity alert wound up to maximum – ‘hey, back off buddy!’ shouts my imaginary proxy self upon infringement, deliberate or otherwise, of my immediate two-metre surround space. In reality I usually just turn away and step back.

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Shahzad Sheikh Automotive, Diary, Life, Media, Opinion

BrownCarGuy – Is It Racist?

In my latest Bulletin piece I tackle institutional racism in my own industry

Racism – I tell you what it is, how it’s done and where you can get some. Plus how to install it in your car. Actually none of that is true…. well most of it’s not true. But there will be a bit of race in this discourse, and I don’t mean on the track… or the road for that matter.

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Shahzad Sheikh Automotive, Diary, Life, Media, Opinion, Politics

From LJK Setright to BrownCarGuy

Via Car Magazine and Motoring Middle East – beating the odds

A few days ago, Motoring Middle East, which is an automotive news media channel across YouTube and social media platforms, but based in Dubai, celebrated its 9th birthday. Why is that significant? Because in 2011, along with Imthishan Giado, I co-founded ‘MME’, as we came to call it.

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Shahzad Sheikh Automotive, Culture, Diary, Interview, Life

Neville Darukhanawalla – from Scooter Boy to Ram Head

The Amazing Journey from selling old mags in India to PR for FCA in Dubai

In this episode I chat to my good buddy, Neville Darukhanawalla. A self-confessed automotive buff, Neville Jal Darukhanawalla has been associated with cars and bikes since his school days in the late 1980s. A two-time national champion, racing scooters in his native India, he has raced in different forms of motorcycle sport – road racing, motocross, rallies, flat track, trials and what have you. A massive fan of Formula One and MotoGP – in fact, of all forms on motor racing, he believes that racing improves the breed.

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Shahzad Sheikh Culture, Diary, Life, Opinion

5 things I’ve learned in Lockdown. No, a new language isn’t one of them

Epiphanic Lockdown Revelations: we’re all idiots, we’re all amazing and… no, we’re all still just idiots

Have you gained superior wisdomfrom this virus experience, even though it’s not quite over and everyone’s utterly confused right now? Why the confusion? What tabloid have you been on? Read on…

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Shahzad Sheikh Life, Opinion, Politics

Was the virtual blackout enough?

#BlackOutTuesday was phenomenal, but it’s hardly adequate when #BlackLivesMatter

There was a blackout on the web yesterday – around 30 million black squares posted on #BlackOutTuesday to saturate social media with one crucial message: #BlackLivesMatter.

It was surreal and heart-warming,  and sent out a much-needed message of solidarity that was unprecedented in its scope and sentiment.

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Shahzad Sheikh Automotive, Culture, Diary, Life, Media, Opinion

This may be the last thing I ever write

That headline though. A bit much? Morosely melodramatic? Potentially true?!

I’ve often said I’ll never retire; I’ll just keep making content until I drop dead. Trouble is that that might happen sooner than I had anticipated. There I go again with the drama! But after reading the next paragraph, you may find my sympathy-trolling justified.

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Shahzad Sheikh Automotive, Culture, Diary, Life, Media

It’s Not Easy being a Brown Car Guy!

Very special and hilarious episode about the trauma, trials & tribulations of being a #BrownCarGuy

A very special, and hilarious, episode in which I talk about the unique challenges, particularly for me, in being a car guy as a brown or Asian person, and then on top of that, to actually (through blind determination and ignoring all the naysayers) choose to forge a career in automotive and motoring media and journalism, and still be struggling with that choice to the present day. I reveal funny episodes involving a Ferrari F40 and Samosas and ponder what I’d look like in other professions.

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Shahzad Sheikh Automotive, Interview, Life, Motoring Middle East

I drove Ferrari F40 for Jeremy Clarkson’s Motorworld & hated it!

Latest Brown Car Guy Update 30042020 #BCGDaily – BrownCarGuy & Buddies

Continuing the series – ‘BrownCarGuy & Buddies’ in this episode I chat with Fraser Martin – a Scotsman who’s lived in the Gulf for over four decades and has been involved in just about every aspect of automotive and motoring in the Middle East, from instructing, to testing, to car development and motoring journalism.

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