Jai ho!

Yeah, well, it had to come some day, even though I was consciously avoiding the use of anything to do with Slumdog Millionaire and the Oscars, just to be my own sweetly contrary self. But there came a moment last night that I really felt it had to be said, and this is about that moment.


What happened? I was watching the news and the launch of the new Nano, Ratan Tata's dream which finally came true - transport for the vast population of this country that does not look to buying a car with a multi-lakh price tag. Somewhere along the way, as the little vehicles edged their way on to that large stage, their headlights and fog lamps shining through the cloud and flash-glare of the media cameras, I felt like cheering, even as I felt a strange lump in the back of my throat. It was an ambition a man who will probably never drive the car in practical reality had for the people of the country he calls home and after more trials, tribulations and traumas that any one project deserves, it all came to that one point of fruition when, in a blaze of glitz and glamour, the cars were introduced to the public. Most had seen them before, when the prototype was shown off some months ago, but this was special. It is time now for people to actually start buying...or at least to plonk down some money, a tiny amount when compared to the huge sums needed to buy any of the fancy imports now so freely available. A dream is great stuff, but when it comes to the stage when other people can share it, can touch it, can take it home and coo over it, then it makes sense, it becomes more real.

I think the most moving part of the whole event for me was the fact that after all the problems that have dogged the project, and with the global economy being what it is, and the fact that the Tata group is perhaps the most respected industrial conglomerate in India today, all added to the general positive image of the man himself, Ratan Tata, that cute little car has a big smile on its face. Like the Beetle, the hood curves in a happy arc, the headlamps almost giggle with a pleased satisfaction and the overall roundness and smallness of the whole caboodle appeals to the little bit in all of us that approves of 'cute' even as we deny it. Somewhere along the way, it also feels good that a man who was hit so hard during the development of the project by politics, and very dirty politics at that, the same man whose iconic hotel was devastated by terrorists last year...that man found a new kind of success in a place where he will be, for millions who can now afford to drive, a hero.

I have made many jokes about the Nano, including how I can get a whole stable of the little cars to match all my fashion statements. Of course, the performance of the vehicle needs to be judged over time and what it actually does to the already mad traffic of the city in particular and the country as a whole remains to be seen. But for now, for Tata Motors, for Ratan Tata and his team, for the Nano, that tiny heart-stealer with a big smile, AR Rahman and co said it wonderfully: Jai ho!