One thing that I always found myself enjoying on a automatic transmission cars was to go on a long drives .. enjoy ones solitude and nature (without having to worry about the "clutch" every now and then ), just step on the gas paddle and brake if needed... recharge one self while driving to work. Every summer in US , I had driven all across east to west coast.. I-20 , I-40 .. I-80 and from north to south on 1-95 , I-35 ... Driving was fun then.... With roads as smooth as one can imagine, driving was not just required but enjoyable ..this is what I miss the most in India. Over a decade of "spoiling" by US consumerism, has made me into a creature who only needs everything to soothe my senses..a better "consumer". Undoing this has been my biggest challenge. In fact, most of the time I feel guilty enjoying pleasures of "five-star" quality, which 95% of population almost only can imagine and crave for.
Film " Taryanche bet" in marathi made me aware of how low have I fallen in the decade I spent in US.
One astonishing fact about a country like India, with abysmal infrastructure and "roads" is that of growing number of high end cars (bigger and faster), SUVs etc.
In ,once a calm and "bicycle/two-wheeler driving" towns of Pune and Banglore , cars have created living unbearable.. clogged roads, parking ha-wok . The situation being created is almost irreversible.
Unless in future only cars like that of small Maruti cars, Tata nano etc are allowed to be bought for residential-personal use, things would be moving from bad to worse. I can understand the aspirations of "young-rich" people wanting to imitate the lifestyle that they enjoyed in US, but reality is that ...it is simply impossible to imitate that kind of lifestyle here is congested India.
A total ban on SUV like vehicle will seem anti-democratic, anti- "free market capitalism".. but something similar will have to be encouraged...
I fail to understand the logic of buying huge cars with high speeds by the rich... they can neither enjoy the luxury of having the riding pleasure of such cars nor can avail those high speeds on Indian roads. Even on express way like that between Mumbai and Pune... a speed of 100km/hr ( 70miles) is kind of max one can reach. Also , depending on a "driver" to take you in a car everywhere is more like loosing ones "right of driving ones own vehicle" ...most rich in India feel ..loosing this right is kind of gaining in stature !!! So it be for them !!
I sure am trying to undo the consumerism that I learnt during my stay in west... I only wish that India follows the path of European socialistic democracy and not that of American consumption- capitalism ( which seems the more attractive and easy path).
For me , I have now learned right hand drive, stick-shift manual gear car driving.. however must confess that have lost all my interest in enjoying driving myself for pleasure of riding.... or maybe I am yet to learn enjoying the manual transmission.. but the process has begun!
Film " Taryanche bet" in marathi made me aware of how low have I fallen in the decade I spent in US.
One astonishing fact about a country like India, with abysmal infrastructure and "roads" is that of growing number of high end cars (bigger and faster), SUVs etc.
In ,once a calm and "bicycle/two-wheeler driving" towns of Pune and Banglore , cars have created living unbearable.. clogged roads, parking ha-wok . The situation being created is almost irreversible.
Unless in future only cars like that of small Maruti cars, Tata nano etc are allowed to be bought for residential-personal use, things would be moving from bad to worse. I can understand the aspirations of "young-rich" people wanting to imitate the lifestyle that they enjoyed in US, but reality is that ...it is simply impossible to imitate that kind of lifestyle here is congested India.
A total ban on SUV like vehicle will seem anti-democratic, anti- "free market capitalism".. but something similar will have to be encouraged...
I fail to understand the logic of buying huge cars with high speeds by the rich... they can neither enjoy the luxury of having the riding pleasure of such cars nor can avail those high speeds on Indian roads. Even on express way like that between Mumbai and Pune... a speed of 100km/hr ( 70miles) is kind of max one can reach. Also , depending on a "driver" to take you in a car everywhere is more like loosing ones "right of driving ones own vehicle" ...most rich in India feel ..loosing this right is kind of gaining in stature !!! So it be for them !!
I sure am trying to undo the consumerism that I learnt during my stay in west... I only wish that India follows the path of European socialistic democracy and not that of American consumption- capitalism ( which seems the more attractive and easy path).
For me , I have now learned right hand drive, stick-shift manual gear car driving.. however must confess that have lost all my interest in enjoying driving myself for pleasure of riding.... or maybe I am yet to learn enjoying the manual transmission.. but the process has begun!
