I, like every other mediocre Indian, am planning to buy a car in the near future. For my reader friends abroad, owning a car in India is a luxury and not a necessity - So dont get surprised. Also, this is due to the climatic situation here, and not because India is poor - so dont be judgmental.
Currently, I am browsing for different cars, loan arrangements and emi schemes - And to be honest with you, taking test drives is really an enjoyable way to spend time. However, something happened this sunday that triggered my thought process in quite a different way.
I am sure many of us have already thought about this, but I would still like to pen it down - for documentation sake. And for all you know, it may even make a difference in someone's thinking.
On Sunday afternoon, some friends and I were enjoying a nice Fountain Soda (A'bad specialty) at a fairly posh locality of town. In the middle of our lil soda party, one of my friends literally dragged me to the other side of the road to see something which was of great interest for him. This object that seemed more important than a Blue Berry Soda to my friend was a product from one of the largest bankruptcy filer company - General Motors - A Hummer H2.
Now I admit shamelessly that I am no car-freak. I like to know about automobiles, have read "The toyota way", "LEAN technique", etc. Have also read about legendary tales of Ferrari and Mercedes and a few others. Also like to watch Formula 1 and read automobile mags at the barbers'. But thats it. I have never kept wall papers of Lamborghini on my cell or laptop; or drooled over Fast and Furious vids; or fantasized about getting out of a Bentley Mulsanne or something of that sort.
So, this H2 had a Mumbai passing - knowing which my Automobile literate pal calculated that it would have cost this hummer fellow about 8 grands for fuel to have come from Mumbai to A'bad. And the most interesting part, price of Hummer H2 in India - Rs. 7 crores and 20 lacs on road after duty and everything!
I know I am behaving typically middle class here - but maaaaaaaaaan... I feel like becoming a communist after listening to this. I am thinking about joining this NGO which organizes sunday classes for less privileged children; who cant afford regular school fees and education (about Rs. 4000 a year!!!) - and at the same time what I see is people can afford to buy cars worth 7 crores and fuel them up for 20 grands every damn weekend!
Plus, I write about saving electricity and fuel and about the evil of plastic bags, I genuinely try to save fuel by doing things like turn off my bike's engine at traffic signals (though my bike gives a 50+ mileage), etc. I take interest in knowing about cities like Melbourne running majorly on non-conventional energy sources - And here is this H2 fellow - feeding a liter of petrol for every 3-4 kilometers to this gigantic show off!!!
I mean, dont rich people have any common sense or any sense of responsibility??? I am sorry if I am offending anyone who is rich - or for all you know any hummer owners, but c'mon guys, have some noble purpose in life. Its great to earn money - And I aspire the same - Health, Wealth and Prosperity in life. But there should be some sort of a cause involved in it too.
The energy resources on this planet are depleting anyway. I genuinely feel that the government should ban these kind of luxury vehicles. This is nothing but a WEAPON devised my human race to kill its own future. At this stage, we cannot afford to be so careless about where we are utilizing our energy sources.
I think middle class people are more concerned about saving electricity and fuel then the rich strata of this society. If someone has the money to spend, he should buy a Civic Hybrid or a BMW X6 - At least these cars will save fuel since they run partially on electricity.
Please people, stop wasting financial and natural resources. There are people out there who dream of owning a second hand bajaj scooter; cooking on a gas stove rather than chulhas made of mud and bricks using wooden branches and cow dung as fuel; and also people not buying air conditioners just to avoid their electricity bills. Your personal luxury may be costing someone else a great deal of compromise in his life.
Let us try to eradicate this mammothic divide between the rich and poor. Let us try to make this world a better place, to make a better today, a better tomorrow - for everyone!
God bless (even the hummer owners)!
This reminds me some such sorts of memories I am recalling especially of one of my friend who recently got a BMW (thank God its 3 series only). Before he got this, he imported a Mazda (don know the model) which was ordered from Japan by one of his relatives from Tokyo.
ReplyDeleteOne fine morning my dear friend called me to attend a Bhajiya (* Indian snacks-boiled or fried vegetables covered with gram flour and fried again to have it with green sauce and raw sliced papaya) party in front of the lake. My poor bike had some disorders and I was picked-up by him and had to reach there in my friend's Mazda. In the way he faced some problem with the car as it was not starting. We have to push it some long to get it started. When we reached the Bhajiya shop my friend decided to keep the car engine on only to avoid the issue of the engine once again. He was not ready to be seen by anyone else with a car which is not being ignitioned and we are pushing it which was likely to happen. It was one and half hours the car was on and vrooming and I was not able to make him shut that off with my all logical and illogical arguments. He is very generous and we are friends from last five years and I won’t say he is just showing off. He got a lot of money and its okie with him if he is spending 2000 bucks a day just for fuel. I find him not being serious about the fact that WE ARE RUNNING SHORT OF ENERGY AND SOON WE MAY HAVE TO PURCHASE PETRO PRODUCTS FROM GOLDSMITH IF WE DONOT HAVE SUFFICIENT SUBSTITUTES. Like him I have seen a lot of friends who will say they are paying for the fuel and they have every right to use it as per their wish. But the problem is it’s a NATURE’s GIFT which is coming to an end and these sorts of usage are actually WASTAGE.
Thanks Maulik for talking about it. Let’s follow these steps everyday which will take of 2/3 minutes of your life of 24 hours but it will be a step towards saving some electricity.
1) The heat is not that high now; let’s reduce the usage fan and air-conditioners.
2) Before you are out of the lift please switch off the fan, do you know it runs all the day and nobody is sitting there constantly?
3) In most of our houses we have sunlight at least for some time and we don’t need to keep the lights on 24/7. Lets enjoy the sun light at home though for an hour or for some minutes?
4) Plan a day (24 hours) to be at home to help your mom/wife to prepare some nice food and don’t go out that day for a drive/ride. At least you have weekends/holidays
you have been to Kolkata, have you gone to villages in bihar, orissa, west bengal, andhra ? people in delhi are worried about naxals problems - i am not surprised - bcoz rich and poor division is so great - you have rightly concluded - "Let us try to eradicate this mammoth divide between the rich and poor. Let us try to make this world a better place, to make a better today, a better tomorrow - for everyone!" primary education is the 1st step.. and as Modi CM says devote 100 hrs in this year for social work .. probably in primary education to poor?
ReplyDeleteVery true Shareef, Mamu... Appreciate your thoughts...
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to volunteering with this Bopal based NGO called Visamokids... They have been running a very effective campaign since last few years for educating less privileged children of A'bad... Their term is starting in mid June.
Would post about my experience there once I start up...
Also, I dont know the exact demands of the Naxalites, but I know for sure that violence cannot be a solution for any problem in this world. I am trying to contribute from my end - to eradicate this divide.
And I am positive, that if all of us put our little shares, together we can definitely make a huge difference!