Saturday, August 23, 2008

Nano-logy 1


Everyone has something to say about the Nano. I too want to join the cacophony! Please!
If the i-phone is lovingly, and cheekily, called the ‘Jesus’ phone, the Nano certainly deserves to be called the 'Jesus' car!
You have a problem with Jesus?
Okay we’ll settle for 'Hanuman' or the 'Ram' car! Little Nano has brought out the Che Guevara in us all.
Nano will not let you fence sit – even if you are on ‘dharna’ at Singur- you are either for it or…. (damn you!), against it.
Mr. Tata has cast a wondrous spell on us and we all seem to be smug in our dream that soon we’ll be zipping around town in our own little wunderkind automobile!
"Take that Maruti!"
" Take that Hyundai!"
"Take that Fiat, GM et all!" Peoples’ car is passé. Nano is a poor peoples’ car! Two and a half cars for the price of one. Two and a half litres of fuel for the price of one……? Oh oh , therein lies the pain in the wrong place my fellow dreamers! That’s where the carnival comes to a screeeeching stop!. Every time you drive the Nano into a petrol pump and have to fish out 500 bucks, that old, stinking, rich-poor divide will slam home!
I pity Buddhadev Bhattacharya, a dyed in the wool commie having to fight for the ultimate bourgeoise status symbol - a car!.
Caught between the radical left, the ultra chic left, the neo left, the mothballed left, the -left -of centre- left, the rightist left, the feeling-left-out-left(RSP, FB….etc) on the one flank and the spectre of Wont-Take-No-For-An-Answer- Mamata- Banerjee on the other, he decidedly looks lost. No wonder Buddha is not smilin' no more!.
If he fires a few bullets in the air, Aparna Sen, and her shades, will be out on Red Road with Rituporno Ghosh, shades precariously stuck on his shaved pate, and Pallav Kirtania and Sanoli Mitra also in tow, marching in protest. (I am told that the candle makers are already on overdrive and the candle lobby clamouring for a price revision- but I think it’s a rumour!) Ms Sen may even skip her birthday celebrations as she did after the Nandigram shooting (by policemen, that is, and not film makers). That’s what she said on TV with a straight face, anyway.
If he doesn’t fire bullets, or atleast the water cannons,(what a photo-op for the lensmen!) and the Tatas say ta ta or goodbye, if not outright f*** you, he and we the people of Bengal, will become the laughing stock of the country(if we are not already). Quo Vadis Bengal? What says Das Kapital? What says the adda brigade at 'Kaloda', or 'Khokonda', or 'Bechada's' tea stall?

Post E=mc2 ,Nano must surely be is the biggest brain-twister for us Bongs. Is it good, is it bad?(it is certainly not ugly!). It is decidedly bad for the environment( where are we going to park those cars?) and probably good for the economy. If we destroy the environment who do we build the economy for? Good question, don’t you think?
uday

No comments: