Car.... Becar?

10

My camera assistant, on the first day of the AutoExpo asked me "yeh jo ek laakh ke gaadi aayi hai, woh petrol ya deisel may launch hui hai?" (he was early by a day). Just the day before, our office librarian quizzed me about "the car". He said he was seriously looking at purchasing one and hoping to cut his petrol bill by half! (Never mind that he already owns a set of wheels). On our way back from a shoot, our cab driver painstakingly laid out the logic: many people in villages and small towns buy the Bullet, that's around 80 thousand rupees a bike, surely they'd want to buy Tata's 1 lakh car? Three stray conversations, and I realise that as d-day draws near just about everyone - not just scoop-crazed journalists - is waiting for the actual launch of this 'miracle' vehicle. Ever since....