[yogi]

India for Better and Worse (Asia Sentinel)

In an indication of a changing India, two lifestyle products that defined Indian middle class existence and aspiration in the 1970s and 1980s will soon cease production. The decision by respective firms to phase out Bajaj Scooters entirely from March next year and entry-level Maruti 800 cars from metropolitan areas to begin with, is purely business related -- sales have sagged.

But it also reflects a different mindset, another India and a new era that fancies faster motorcycles and bigger and better cars. In the 1970s Bajaj scooters symbolized middle-class stability, although the engine, placed on one side, made the machine unstable. By 1995, Bajaj had sold 10 million of the vehicles, sometimes hitting a million sales a year. But in the current situation of rashly driven powerful vehicles and 24-hour call center cabs, two-wheelers are very unsafe. Also Bajaj was unable or unwilling to adapt its scooters to the onslaught of sleek, fast and fashionable motorbikes imported from Japan. By 2005, the company announced it was discontinuing its biggest seller of all time, the Chetak. Now the Kristal, its last model, will soon go.

Back then, father on the wheel, mother on the pillion, younger child standing in front with head bobbing out, older sibling squeezed between mother and father, everybody with their arms around each other for balance and protection, epitomized the complete Indian family, ``hum do hamare do.'' (We two and our two)

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