Cars of the Era

They have forever lured men and women alike, these slick machines, with their grandeur and promises of luxury and comfort. Afterall my grandfather never had one in his lifetime and he was quite content with his legs and DTC buses, delayed and rickety as they might have been. My father never shared this emotion. His first car, a Maruti 800, was not a tough choice to make for the working class those days. Although in almost 15 years, he has managed to buy a new one, I have noticed a flood of new entrants in the neighbourhood. Every household has one for it, some even have as many as four, and this is just my neighbourhood.

So what is this love for cars that we all succumb to? Let me dish it out for you. They are fast, can carry at least four passengers safely at a time, they are tremendously glossy and most importantly: ‘Public transport? Who me? No Way!’ Add to this the visually stunning advertisements that you get to watch whenever Bhajji drops a catch... Yes, Cars are a mighty temptation to resist. And data suggests that we have given in. There were around 21 lakhs cars produced in India in 2009 alone.

But they run on fossil fuels that are non-renewable, they emit noxious gases that cause pollution and greenhouse effect, they cause noise pollution as their engine creates decibel levels which can only be outmatched by jets, some of them are yellow in colour and I don’t like it...the list goes on. A major chunk of knowledge on this can be found in our 8^th standard school text books, and I am not here to preach.

I am here to give you some free advice for your future purchases and believe me, I am no sales personnel for some upstanding automobile company. The Union Budget this year said a lot, and we all know that the governments of all nations have increasingly high pressure on them on the environmental front. The Indian Govt. has decided to make up for this neglect and lowered the taxes imposed on green technologies and manufacturing hybrid cars. We are going to witness big names such Toyota, with its spanking new model Prius, and Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, all clashing in the market with the hybrid models of their best-selling cars. These cars are being hailed as the cars of the future as they can run on electricity and hydrogen, which are much cleaner than making them run on conventional fuels such as diesel and petrol.

I think it is time to gear up for an automobile revolution in India now that these futuristic machines are lining up in the showrooms with slashed prices. It’s a win-win situation for all of us...except for Jairam perhaps...that’s because he doesn’t get to debate much. But he won’t mind that, would he.

- Green Lantern