Reminds me of Tum Tum- the 8 seater rickshaw

Yawny Friday! You would say that too if you had to work this weekend like I do. So for me this week has been never ending. It started on a Monday and is progressing into yet another Monday sigh! I am suddenly noticing a lot of “Enjoy the weekend”, “Happy Friday” etc at the end of emails people are sending Grrrrr! On another note, I ran into this video of Tata Nano and simply couldn’t stop laughing watching the car.The wheels look so tiny and the fact that they have only 3 bolts makes me kinda uncomfortable. Back in India if it was a 2 seater, one could easily find 3 people merrily riding on it. Sometimes entire family of 4 would be on a scooter. Typical scene would be a little boy standing in front and a little girl in mum’s lap. A good example is the “Tum Tum”. Extremely noisy 8 people carrier. More so like a rikshaw. I have travelled in a Tum Tum only once I believe, thank god. I think it was near Pune or maybe Vidarbha I don’t remember now. What I clearly do remember is choosing a door seat coz I considered it best rather than getting squished in between people. You see Tum Tum is the last place I want to die. Anywho, I was squished against the door and I believe there were atleast 20 people in that Tum Tum if not more. I also occasionally saw a leg or a hand when I tried to look out the window. These must the people hanging on to the Tum Tum and enjoying the wind. Also I distinctly recollect getting suffocated and experiencing odors which can easily be traded for poisonous gas. I survived that journey. But I wonder if Nano would turn into modern day’s Tum Tum. And the pretty little, fragile looking car be able to take it. On a Ganpati Visharjan day when the eldest uncle in the family commands all the kids to cramp up in the car? Or someone orders all the women to get in their car with little ones? Well, we’ll just see what happens of Nano as time goes by.

On another note, did you read about the public smoking ban? Is that true? I mean if its on BBC it has to be real, right? In India my office was at a walkable distance from home. I made it a point to walk daily to my office and back. It took almost half an hour or 45 mins but still faster than driving to work or even taking a cab. Mornings usually I had no issue walking to work. Roads would be relatively empty (if I left home at 8) and it seemed as if the city is still kinda gearing up for the day. But in the evening, walking along with hordes of people and cars just added stress. I recollect the number of people who smoked in the crowd back then. Sometimes I would end up walking behind someone who would be smoking and I would have no choice but continue to walk that way till I reached home. I felt like a smoker. I would curse, grate my teeth, even say things loudly like “Kidhar se aa raha hai yeh smoke?” but would be talking to walls. Even if this ban is implemented in half of the crowded areas, I am sure thousands of non smokers will be pleased. On the other hand, I wonder what’ll happen to the poor pan valas. They won’t make much money selling meetha pan, will they?