From the Journal of an Automotive Enthusiast…

Infrastructure and Road Development: A different perspective

This Union budget has been received with mixed reviews and varied criticism… As is every budget more or less. There’s talk of a boost to the infrastructure and highest ever spend on infra included in this year’s budget. I completely agree that a lot of this covers a broad range and not just the roads. For a crazy automobile lover (read fanatic) like me, however, this means yet another ray of hope to get some decent roads.

I would sincerely want to appeal to any important or relevant person that’s listening, “Have you ever seen the condition of most of our roads? The quality of our best roads is below that of any average country road in Europe or any developed country. The quality of roads is so abysmal that even with my modest Honda Civic, I need to take extreme care while deciding to take it for any tour. The biggest fear is that of scraping its underbelly. Are there really any rules of making a speed-bump or a speed breaker? I don’t know if there are any, and the people who make the ghastly speed breakers most certainly don’t.”

I’m not even talking about the potholes yet. Some of the better roads in our state, like the Mumbai-Pune road, continuing onward till Kolhapur and then finally leading into Karnataka, are also dotted with such mind numbing and car-scraping jumbo bumps. Imagine someone who’s bought a recently launched 2017 Nissan GT-R or a Ford Mustang GT enthusiastically taking it for a drive on this road and then scraping its mouth (Lower part of its front bumper) in approach and its underbelly to such idiotic monstrous bumps.

Earlier, I used to wonder why the best automotive masterpieces were never seen anywhere in India? The only answer is this. We don’t deserve them. Honestly, we don’t deserve such cars as the deservingly overhyped Porsche 911 R or a Bugatti Chiron. No wonder I don’t see many of such cars here despite there being at least 1000 such people present who can afford to buy it on the very 1^st day of its launch. My complaint to the relevant authorities is very simple: Why can’t there be any standard whatsoever in making any kind of speed bumps on any road?

Ok. This is about only the luxury cars or supercars, you may say. But then there’s another astonishing logic about our roads which concerns almost every moving vehicle on our roads. Use of paver blocks in repairing a damaged road (or worse, in making a new road). This is one thing which makes me go mad. It makes the blood in my veins rush at the speed of a racing 919 Hybrid. I have a genuine question: Whose brilliant idea was it to use the paver blocks (which even suggested clearly by their name are to be used for making pavements) for repairing damaged roads? I did some research and some of the reasoning that I could find, given by our genius authorities, is something like this: They’re the fastest way to repair a busy damaged road. They’re effective in bearing the load (lol). They being made of concrete and with interlocking pattern are effective in holding together. All of these are completely false and/or unreasonable. If you guys are saying they’re the fastest way to repair a busy damaged road, what about the constant inconvenience we’re all faced with almost all the delayed construction projects? Where does your concern go when you take more than 7 years to build a small bridge over a railway line which is supposed to be done in a few months? Shame on the people who give such illogical reasons and shame on us who tolerate all such nonsense. These paver blocks are clearly to make more money repairing the same road multiple times, which shouldn’t have been damaged so soon in the 1^st place, had good quality material been used in making it.

Another such funny observation which I’ve made is that of the great NH17 (Mumbai-Goa Highway). The patch from Vadkhal till around Mahad/Poladpur has always frustrated almost all of us. I’ve travelled on that road for last 10 years and invariably seen the making of a 4-lane road there. Every time, there are countless diversions with bulldozers and cranes doing something. I wonder what they’ve been doing for so long, since I’m yet to get even a single kilometer of a decent 4-lane divided road in the last 10 years. Reasons are unknown to me but no reason would or should be justifiable for such a long delay. We simply accept the bullshit, curse the unknown culprits and move on. We’ve sort of given up on any hopes to see fast development in our country.

Our cities are also a great example of how planning shouldn’t be. Unauthorized constructions are allowed 1^st and then after years of inconvenience and waiting for a non-corrupt officer we get some cleaning which shows us the real width of roads we should’ve got years ago. Isn’t it funny? For ensuring good, fast locomotion; we already have all that it takes. It’s just carelessness mixed with protection of vested interests that leaves us taxpayers with infrastructure that we don’t deserve.

For an avid fan of speedy and sporty vehicles like me, it’s immensely frustrating to see our great country lack what many other lesser developed countries already have. There are countless examples of countries which have developed their roads within a much shorter period of time. Companies like Porsche (my all time favourite by the way), Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. still have reservations launching their latest and most technologically advanced vehicles in India. Is there a dearth of enough customers? Definitely not. What’s stopping them (and in turn us) from having powerful and most modern automobiles plying on our roads is this very reason. The pathetic state of our roads.

There are many other points worth mentioning such as the benefits of a better road network which we would have given the government and concerned authorities do what’s easily possible; such as faster transportation of goods, faster reach for emergency services, decreased road accidents etc. But who’ll care about it when bad roads are feeding corrupt officials and rich infrastructure vendors?

I just hope that if and when I’ll be able to afford a Porsche 918 Spyder or a Rolls Royce Phantom, there would be roads on which I’d be able to drive it. The sad part is the likelihood of me buying such a car is equally improbable as the realization of my dream about our roads!!!

-          Sarang Tilak

Generation ‘R’ – The REST-LESS Generation

Generation ‘R’ – The REST-LESS Generation

            Watching a video on Facebook, shared by one of my friends the other day, I started wondering about ourselves. The video, by Simon Sinek, quite aptly describes what’s wrong with the millenials.

            After watching the video (which was quite an eye-opener for myself), I started reflecting on everything that’s happening nowadays.

            We all have heard the term ‘Generation X’. It came around the same time when the Y2K problem had sprung up. In 2000s, we had a new term – the ‘Generation Y’. A generation that doesn’t take anything as sacrosanct. A generation that questions anything they come across, challenge it, and accept it only if it passes their own set of tests.

            Reflecting on what’s going on today, I would call today’s generation the ‘Generation R’ – the REST-LESS generation. Everyone seems to be so restless that they don’t have time for absolutely anything. The attention span has narrowed so much that nothing is worth more than a few seconds, or minutes, at the most. Just think about it – Gone are the days when people watched long musical plays that lasted sometimes the whole night. Gone are the usual 3-3.5 hour movies. Gone are the 5-6 minute songs. Why? Simply because the producers know the psyche of today’s generation. Even the traditional plays are not more than 2.5-3 hours long, nowadays. The movies are rarely over 150 minutes. Even the songs are as long as 3-3.5 minutes, tops.

            (This is also the reason why I’ve kept my scribble short, too ;))

            You would come and say, “What’s new in what you’re saying? I know it all, dude!” But what I am concerned about are the grave long term effects of all this.

            I’ve already started to get irritated by anyone who disturbs my ‘Cell phone Meditation’. I’m extremely reluctant to let go of my phone even while visiting the washroom. I feel Samsung can regain their original market share if they launch a Smartphone built like the ‘G Shock’ watch. People would  absolutely love a Smartphone they can keep with them even while bathing, bungee jumping, rock climbing or while doing any other activity that generally prohibits carrying delicate devices that today’s cell phones are.

            Coming back to the gravity of the issue, what I feel concerns me is the low attention span. I seriously doubt if any philosophers would come out of today’s generation. For any broad or meaningful thought, you need to sit on it for a considerable amount of time; a commodity which has become extremely rare. If you closely watch the inclination of today’s content; may it be movies, shows or anything else; it’s tilting towards the same desperation that the generation is showing in everyday life.

            Relationships have become shallower. Gone are the days when children used to stay with parents almost forever. I accept the practical difficulties and individualistic realities which have developed over time. What I’m worried about, however, are the strained relationships that everyone seems to have nowadays. Children are trying to get away from their parents more and more because they want to spend more time with their friends/girlfriend-boyfriend. Whether these newer relationships; for which they’re going away from the older ones; are stronger? Now that’s debatable. The “FRIENDS” that today’s youth seems to have, seem more like “acquaintances with benefits”. The depth of friendship is somewhere slackening. The concept of FUN today means long drives, clubbing, boozing or gaming together. We have countless ‘WhatsApp groups’ that everyone seems to be a member of. Half of them are named ‘BFF’, ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’, ‘Friends Forever’ or something of that sort. Are they really deserving of the names they get? I doubt. The issue is precisely this – People have become more and more concerned about how they’re connected to others in the form of a “VISIBLE Bond”. It may be ‘friendship’ on Facebook, membership of a WhatsApp group or something else on some other social media tool. What they’re forgetting, however, is that they’re not worrying about the bonding they actually develop.

            Words such as ‘trust’, ‘bond’, ‘meaningful relationship’ are all that take time, attention and a lot of effort. All of this is missing in today’s relationships. It is thus not surprising that we have short-lived marriages, relationships, friendships and anything else that was earlier truly long term.

            It seems difficult to overcome these challenges unless the society as a whole realises the demons it is creating. The viciousness of this ‘RESTLESS’ cycle is in the fundamental nature of the lifestyle. When or how would a ‘Generation R’ guy or a girl realise all this when he/she is so busy shuffling between the windows on his/her cell phone? How would one realise something that’s likely to happen a few months or years down the line if everyone’s thinking about ‘Right here, Right now’ or ‘Posting Live’ on Facebook? How would one enjoy any moment if they’re more worried about how the photograph of that moment would look on Instagram?

            The solution to all this, I realise, is (in today’s language) A REBOOT. A BLACK OUT. A POWER OFF.

            Take a “POWERful OFF” from all this once in a while. Sit down doing nothing. Go cycling without phone or any other device and sit by a lake staring at nothing. Go camping with your ‘FRIEND’ to a location where there would be no network (although it’s difficult to find such a place nowadays). The point is, unplug yourself from all this virtual reality and sit and reflect about what TRULY matters to you!

Now I won’t go ahead and be over particular about what to do further. After all, we all are SMART phone users!

-          Sarang Tilak