Riding in Style...........

this is an article which i wrote for my college mag,it's still hasn't been published so dis is sorta like a sneak preview.....

Shristi: What is thy purpose? I believe it’s to inform and entertain. So I never seem to understand the logic of writing about dead literarians, painters, artists and their compositions etc, but in spite of that I don’t seem to have any idea of what to write about. So as I cursed my seniors for putting me through this grind and cracked my brain on new years day at 12.30 a.m. (curses to that dumb cold and fever which left me under siege at home on new year’s eve) the loud thump of music from a passing car hit me and ignited an idea in my brain faster than a spark ignitioned engine. Eureka!! I screamed, resulting in the neighbours confirming their suspicions about me…

Cars have long gone from being just a mode of transportation to something that you can relate to or be synonymous with. Sort of like your alter ego. But even then in today’s mass market all tin boxes are beginning to look similar (not surprising considering the number of mergers happening) and dull and dreary without any character.

In came the tuner scene and with PC games like Need For Speed Underground, Most wanted, Gran Turismo etc. selling like hot cakes tuning has became hep and happening with everyone wanting their Marutis to look like Mini coopers or Golf GTi’s. You may ask what is the point of spending a few lakhs or so to make your dingy old Ambassador (amby) look like an Aston martin, it’ll never be as good as the original. But reality aside, every layman can now feel like James bond in his Amby (and who knows he might even impress that/those chick(s) that he might have been eyeing for some time!!!).

Infact a recent survey concluded that though young Indian women (aged 18-30) like small red cars like Marutis, a guy who has a cool looking SUV or sedan stands a much better chance of impressing that lady. So with so many factors, isn’t it about time to differentiate yourself from the crowd by modifying your ride(read ‘ride’ as car or bike: modifying your public transport accounts to vandalism and the penalty would be getting driven over by your ’friendly’ bus driver)to get that extra oomph factor? I don’t necessarily mean going to the lengths of the so many insomniacs in town who drive in crazy looking outrageously coloured contraptions that look like some sort of misplaced article from some nuclear war zone. Visual modification is an art. Getting the right bits at the right place is extremely important else your car may end up looking like it had plastic surgery that went wrong, but simple subtle touches can change the whole personality of your car and the driver.

Some extreme modifiers go to the extent of fitting fire thrower kits to their exhausts which then spew fire balls up to a distance of a few metres, I don’t see any purpose in it beyond the fact that it could fry the cops behind incase they give chase when one is literarily flying on the highway or you could try some sort of bond stunt with it. Some nutters fit loud free flow exhausts which scream out their presence on the road such that every person on the road immediately looks up searching for that elusive aircraft (Pity his soul when he discovers to his fright that it’s actually a road rocket on the loose).

Yet it’s undeniable that in spite of the fact that you will earn the wrath of every road user and elderly when you drive past them on your fully modified ride, the pleasure achieved from those exhaust tones, the power, the handling and the admiring looks from dozens of kids and young girls(speculative statement) alike can never be equalled.Adios my friends as I make my way to the tuner’s and join the underground gang of insomniacs….