NANO Ya Na NANO

08:35:52, 08:35:51, 08:35:50….These are the first few seconds of my today morning when I logged on to a website as part of the early morning ritual. My eyes were caught at an unusual sight of a digital clock hanging on the top right side of the home page. I immediately swung my eyes to my wrist watch for the time which was way off the one displayed.

Upon a little deliberation, it occurred to my prematurely worn-out and hence slowed down brain to be a countdown to an eagerly awaited event being touted as a gigantic achievement of modern India. An epochal act of engineering excellence marking India’s big leap towards the snooty coterie of the world’s leading Automobile manufacturers.

Another vindication of the maxim, all small things come in a small package, and a complete antithesis to its name, Nano is one enormous testimony to the rising power of Indian Industrial Ingenuity and its coming of age.

However, in this fervour and loud trumpeting of celebration has drowned a waning yelp of cry from the crippling infrastructure which is even insufficient to handle the current lot of machines plying on our roads and accommodate the ever inflating number of cars in its scantily available parking space.

This gift by TATA to an aspiring Indian middle class could turn out to be a time bomb in the making, waiting to blast into a never ending caravan of cars, dotting already over crowded Indian roads capturing every little inch left.

Not only the never ending anaconda like snarl ups , an acute mismatch between the parking space available and the number of vehicles further throws a spanner on the joy of owning the car. Add to this chaos the toxic gases these mean machines will vomit and it becomes a perfect recipe for a disaster.
I feel that the answer to the rising needs and aspiration of Indian middle class is not a Nano , but a world class public transport system which provides them with the comfort, safety and reliability of a personal four wheeler , even if it comes at a premium. But like always, our government’s intentions have lagged way behind the abilities and vision of our entrepreneurs. Many projects meant to change the landscape of Indian Public transport system are running terrible behind their schedules or caught up in the warp zone of beaureacracy.

My apprehension about Nano however does not mean to take anything away from the admiration that Ratan Tata and his team merits for making millions of people realize their dream of owning a car.
My fear stems from a feeling that Nano is product that due to lack of supporting infrastructure(Wide Roads, Flyovers and Parking space) is a little ahead of its time and portends a pandemonium which will do more harm than good.