Since, last year Tata Nano has been hailed by many as the biggest leap forward since the invention of automobiles. Now, if these people are right, it’s probably more important than the invention of electricity, or beer.
I disagree. The only reason people hail Tata Nano is because of its low price. But come to think of it, any country (and by that I mean China) can make a cheap car if it is built in a factory made entirely out of tin sheet roofs where workers are paid pennies as compared to employees of General Motors or Ford who make hefty salaries. [break]
Workers have to put in more than 16 hours a day to ‘enhance’ productivity, and the state is so poor that taxes are determined by the company, and not the government. Also, if the car in question didn’t have to adhere to any of the safety requirements and emission tests that makes the other cars expensive. Tata Nano is expected to be available in Nepal for about 700,000. I have to admit the price is impressive. But for a car with no boot, no top speed and a petrol tank under the passenger seat-I’m not really sure I would want to drive around in it. Hell, my VW Beetle is safer in comparison. After all, it’s only caught fire thrice in the last 41 years!!!
Of course, small cars are still better for driving around the city rather than those god forbidden electric bikes. My friends who have tested the car in India tell me it’s a better bargain than the electric cars that have been around for some time now. Electric cars? That’s like saying aids is better than pancreatic cancer. However, I hope and believe a lot of my fellow drivers buy the Tata Nano. Partly because in Nepal, anything sells. How else would you explain the Hummer on the streets that can fit 2 Maruti 800s? Also because I kind of like Ratan Tata. I like the crisp hair, the dark suits and the fact that he is probably the richest and the oldest bachelor, the latter a testimony that he’s probably had more fun in his life than I’ve ever had. Or you. Or you and I combined. Therefore, I hope he makes a lot of money, because its success will encourage other car companies to come up with vehicles within the same price range. After all, it’s only fair that our much-adored politicians should be able to own more than one car without having to worry about the repercussions as soon as they lose their coveted positions in the government.
But, as and when I can, would I ever buy a Nano? No thanks, because I prefer dining at a restaurant to eating at a roadside stall on the weekends. I prefer drinking at a bar, rather than buying two bottles of beer from the wine section at Bhatbhateni and drinking it alone at home. Because while such things are cheap, they are not the real deal. The same policy applies to cars as well. Because along with a new car, you are also buying the smell of brand new interiors and the registration number that starts with a ‘Ba 8’ which is more often than not enough to impress the neighbors and the over-jealous relatives, ones you run into once a year, mostly during Dashain. With the Nano however, this feat is unachievable primarily because the car is just so tiny.
I have to admit though that the Nano or any other small car is a better means of getting about in the mad traffic. But getting about is only a tiny part of what a car must possess to win the driver’s heart. It must be pretty and cool. And the Nano isn’t. It must excite you even at six in the morning. I can guarantee you the Nano won’t.
And this is where I’ll end with a simple observation. Unlike the ‘People’s Car’, Adolf Hitler did not yearn for a Tata Nano. Unlike the ‘Model-T’, Henry Ford didn’t design it either. And as far as I can tell, no one did. But then again, some cheap guy probably did. And if you agree, you’re cheap too, then I can’t stand you.
I cannot stand cheap people. I get annoyed when someone says to me ‘when are you going to pay back the 1,000 bucks you borrowed?’ or the ‘1,500 bucks that I paid for you at the bar last Friday?’ Man, quit being so cheap.
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