Nano Indians?

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What will the next generation of the upwardly mobile upper-lower classes and the middle classes be called? The Nano Indians?

I might be outrightly naive, I might be poking my eye with my own finger, but still I am going to safely stand by my prediction. The way this Tata’s Nano story of birth is turning out to be resilient in the face of the various internal and external strife that it encountered, I am impressed, hopeful that this is going to be a new chapter in the country’s way ahead.

The economic crisis, the oscillating global prices and even Mayawati have failed to deter its path towards salvation!

Well now into the serious matter of Tata Nano and the serious environmental implications that this might be holding for India in particular and the world, also in particular! Don’t get me wrong I believe myself to be passionate about the environmental issues, but somehow I just cannot get myself to make Nano the burning effigy for all the internal rage that I might be building due to the global warming.

See the numbers…….gosh, I couldn’t get my hands on any of the numbers!

Well leave the numbers, one thing that you will accept is going to increase the vehicle population drastically and so increase the greenhouse gases and thus further fuel global warming until the planet melts off.

But we are in India, let us start fine-tuning this doomsday prediction to make it insync with the reality that is India!

1. The lack of proper roads, and the already congested roads (thanks to all the auto bhai’s and rickshaw pullers ou there, and then there are the private bus, semi-bus, big truck plyers). Enter Nano, 100 Nanos, 1000 Nanos, 1 million Nanos……….now, don’t you see that something smells wrong here, people will get over the new car syndrome when they take the car out for every small chore! Something’s gotta give, either the roads or the Tata guys, who need to make adjustments so that the Nano can start flying and stop depending on these clogged arteries which identify themselves as roads. So the number of car users cannot keep on sweeling indefinitely, there will come a time when owning a is neither a luxury, nor a necessity, but is a headache!
2. Yes, now that we put in some reality-check as to the swelling numbers, now with the increased car numbers. This will start putting pressure on the government and the people. On the government to set up a more reliable, stable and comfortable public transport infrastructure. On the people to first start egging the government to establish this infrastructure (it might even become a big electoral issue in the coming years…..the need for infrastructure development) and then to use the public transport and seeing the car as a means for only occasional family trips or likewise!
3. But when we are making all these assumptions, we just cannot forget about the alternative fuels for whose RnD, billions of dollars, rupees, yen, pesos, euros etcetera are being poured into. We might just get that dream car for an environmentalist or not. At the very least, we might hope for cars with much improved mileage.

But for now look at the accidents that can be avoided because of the Nano. Look at the hope it feels into the lives of the people offering them safer means to travel instead of those 4-seater-2-wheeler vehicles which are plying on the road. We need someting like the Nano, if not the Nano, and for now thats all we have got!

Epilogue: Like a friend of mine likes quoting all the time, Change is constant and we all have to change, we have to change in what we expect from the government, we just can’t throttle innovation at every step but rather keep on fighting all the ill-effects that are threatening to choke our society, the country and the world!

Just pray for a stronger government which can stand tall on the promises that it makes to the people! A dialogue from Swades comes to my mind, where the farmer Haridas says to Mohan:”Sapne mat dikhaiye Mohan babu”

Well though my signing off statement is just going to be:”In a democracy, the Government can only be as good as its people!”.

Sapne Mat Dikhaiye Mohanbabu!

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