We almost missed Nano in Nano time !
Say u went to a place for a purpose, latter to discover it is sliping out of hands !!
It was a sensation in the news channels – The TATA’s NANO. Right from BBC to NDTV to Sun News had nothing else as interesting as the world’s cheapest car. It was launched in the Delhi auto show 2008, when we had camped in the capital for our project.
It was a day when we had nothing to do after our usual session at the training establishment of AIR/DD (Ministry of I & B). We luckily happened to find a ticket center in the premises of Delhi university metro rail station, where they sold the entrance for the Auto show. With time constraints that the exhibition will be open only till 7:00PM, We had to rush to Pragati Maidaan (where the show happened). We threw open an invitation to Sunil, who was busy in his toilet (diarrhea) at his home, he declined the offer and “preferred to stay back watching the same old discovery and rather be bored at the show”.
We sped our steps and reached the destination around 5:30 – 6:00 PM. We entered through the main entrance crossing all the vendors who appeared to sell the worlds most delicacies – we were Damn Hungry!! . The ticket collector let us in – we felt relieved that we could make to the entrance before the gates closed (which we believed will happen at 7:00 PM). We entered the main hall where there were numerous stalls of world renowned companies and many Indian manufacturers as well. Right from the small nuts and bolt manufacturing company to the Giant Hydraulic systems, there were stalls of all possible kind of Auto and Mechanical gadget one can imagine. There were stalls of next generation speedometers made of special Colored display devices by Pricol which boasted that it designs the display units for even Mercedes.
I had been to lots of exhibitions before in my life, never ever I had seen in an exhibition an escalator. We went to the first floor latter to discover that this hall was a permanent structure, on scanning the floor from here we could find no science of Tata’s nano or any other big car/s they showed in the television. I felt for a minute if the entrance was too expensive (150/-) for just seeing the parts that made these cars and not those cars as such (which we had hoped). We spent quite a time on this main hall and were told by a watch man that there was lot more to see beyond this hall. We exited through a wooden bridge to a place where a Ford sports car was on display; right opposite to it was the Suzuki House.
We walked into the Suzuki house, which felt like entering a disco, there were lights and music, loud enough to pull anyone into it. We walked in, to discover the New Concept Car – much awaited as well, the “SUZUKI – A Star”. This car looked like a blend of Swift and conventional sedan. There were quite a few models posing for the car, we pitied their state; they just had to smile at the audience who never seemed to take eye from them, if not the car.
There were few more cars on the display – a few sports cars in which people tried to sit and pose for the photo, biggies was on display which looked stunning. Then there was a surprise, a dance group started their performance right when we had passed their counter (well we were VIPs u see). We enjoyed the dance, which was breathtaking with music blowing our ears. We then came out of that house and marched towards the Tata’s hall.
On the way to Tatas we found the Volks Wagon (a German company) which appeared appealing. I told my partner Arindom to visit this first and gave him idea of covering the rest as it comes after the hall, so that we need not walk back again to see these halls, my ultimate plan was not to miss any of the companies on display. We went inside and were wondering on what all is possible with four wheels; there were a few lush and sleek designs. We had almost done with this hall and were about to find our way to NANO – We heard an alarm/ a siren and then people asking us to vacate the hall.
We were puzzled; the time was sharp 7:00PM and had least expected that they will be so strict, and another thing is that we thought the entrance (from outside) will close at 7:00 and they will permit us within the halls inside the campus as long as we wish. We then hurried, and were seeing our way out, I went running towards the exit and my partner was right behind, they stopped him and wanted him to exit through the longer route, latter he allowed us both through the way which was closer to Tata’s entrance. We tried to rush through the back entrance, but the guards were not showing any mercy, they directed us to the main entrance. We ran towards the direction and found lots of people stranded and wanting to get into the Tata’s hall like us, they had shut the door, even people with valid identity cards found it difficult to enter.
Arindom had a serious Stare at me, he was very angry and I was as usual apologizing for my mistake/s. Then I told him why not try to peep into the hall and at least see the car from far. He was not sure of the guards letting us even have a look at it and disappointedly shouted at me to get back to house. I literally dragged him towards the entrance from where we were driven some time ago by the guard/s who showed the way for main entrance.
We went closer to the door to hear a roar from somebody asking us not to enter. We told them that we will just peep in and not go inside. Looking at us one of them said that we were students and had come so expectedly hence we go. I couldn’t believe what he said for a moment and we both were more than joyful we thanked them more than once before entering the hall.
There was the machine, that was most talked about. We made a complete review of the new Tata Nano Prototype. Something that we saw only in TV channels was at live. We saw the car for quite some time till we got bored, and tried to capture the car in my camera which was broken then, (though functioned) till the battery fully drained. We had a look at other models, The Sumo Grande which was again a debut and tata’s AC bus to compete with Volvo and a weird car with a boat(don’t know what that is called, a thin catamaran like boat, Olympics can tell u what it is) over the roof- (probably the next generation water sport car at least to India).
Thanks to the guard who understood us, especially ME. Else back at home I could not imagine my state (Arindom would have eaten me alive – well if he was in my state, I would have). I forgot to mention one thing, we had a hall full of OLD / classy cars as well, those 1900 and 1800 cars, that was fun to watch. We could not see a lot of other models also. One advice, incase u have plans for auto show or anything of that sort, make sure u land there well before time, I mean real well before time, one can spend even a full day and find it insufficient to cover all the halls.