And a car to match…

(The Indian media is all excitement about the new 'people's car' that represents a dream that industrialist Ratan Tata had. The Nano has finally been unveiled and will be available in a few months. Until then, there is one aspect of it that is not being talked about....)

After all the hype and with lots of hoopla, the new Tata small car is finally here. Well, not quite here, but by the end of the year it should be. And it will be a very good thing when it does get here, since it is perhaps the one accessory that my rather extensive fashion statement was so sorely missing. After all, it is small, neat, rounded, portable, with nice proportions of glass to paintwork, an ideal shape and size to tote around town on the occasional jaunt to look for new carpets or an artist to interview. Best of all, from my point of view, it comes in a nice range of hues, which means I can colour-coordinate my automobile to my shoes to my dress to my earrings.

This is not a new need for me. In fact, my family knows it well. Many years ago, when I was a mere child, the story goes (albeit perhaps apocryphally), I refused to ride in the car belonging to a family friend since it did not match with my sandals, which would have been a vivid red. Many years later, as a grown up who was gainfully employed in another city, I drove a car that was a nicely elegant pale gold, a colour that went so well with the gold-brown of the Indian skin, I explained to someone who wanted to know why I had not chosen my favourite red. And for our new family car, hopefully to be acquired this year, I fondly hope that it will be available in the delicate champagne (a lovely gilded peach-rose) that is the perfect offset for both wardrobe and complexion.

But this need to be matched has nothing to do with style; more with genetics. My mother, bless her chic soul, always wore accessories that toned with her clothes – from sandals to bangles to bindis, she made sure it presented a total harmonic picture. And she taught me to be that way too, making sure I had footwear in every possible colour to coordinate with the vast wardrobe that she accumulated for me. It is now an automatic response, almost a duty, for me to make sure that I – and Father with his socks and even Small Cat with her collars – am as properly turned out without her help.

So the Nano is just another feather in my cap…or accessory in my closet. I can ask for the car of whatever colour that matches with my slippers of whatever colour that match with my watchstrap of whatever colour for that particular day. And I can have the whole spectrum of those colours in my garage, since it will all be so affordable, easy to run, eco-friendly and, fabulously, easy to access.