I am 45 now, and as the winter chill settles in, a simple act—oiling my head after a shower—triggered a cascade of memories spanning three decades. When I was a boy in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, the ritual of a weekly, sometimes daily, head massage with oil was as common as breathing. My favorite was the potent, earthy scent of mustard oil . I remember visiting our local vaid ji (traditional practitioner), who stressed the importance of this practice, lamenting even then that fewer people were keeping it up. Fast forward to adulthood, and my simple habit met the sharp reality of changing cultural norms. My wife, from a different background, and her circle found the idea of oiled hair "un-stylish." Even when I switched to the fragrant, dark luster of amla oil, the gentle teasing and continuous pressure to conform chipped away at my resolve. Now, my cherished ritual is relegated to an occasional, quick application, washed out within hours. Where Did the Oil Go? As I drov...
The place I work is on the second floor and my workstation is right beside a window which opens to the parking lot of sector 8 of Chandigarh. My location gives me the chance to view numerous cars. Looking at these cars from the top is a pleasing distraction. At times when I am out of ideas on what to write then I start looking outside at these cars coming and going.
Of late, I noticed that sunroof has become quite common in cars. Anyone having a car above 15 lakh or so prefers to have a sunroof. Then came the thought of the purpose of having a sunroof in cars in a country like India.
In our beloved country, I am talking about plains here like UP, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, etc.It is bright and sunny most part of the year. Thanks to uncontrolled cutting of trees, increasing population, rapid construction all around, the winter season has been reduced to just two to three months in a year. Days in which our God sun is not seen is not more than a month.
In the major part of the year, that is during five to six months in a year, we are running away from the sun. If we happen to stand outside we look for a place where there is shade away from the sun. Most of us tend to avoid being in sunlight for most part of the year.
When we have a habit to move away from the sun, then what is the logic behind having a car with a sunroof? Here I am not talking about the thousands of people going through mechanical hardships, for they are most likely not able to afford a car with a sunroof. Not at all in the Indian scenario.
All those who are able to afford a sunroof car are rich gentry, that is they are business persons, high level managers or executives. Meaning the majority of the time they are living in an air conditioned environment, working in an air-conditioned office.
These high class people always run away from direct sunlight. Having a sunroof is nothing more than a status symbol and an opportunity for car manufacturers to earn more profit. A car with a sunroof costs 2 - 3 lakhs more than the one without it.
Origin of Sunroof Cars
I have not done any search and I am not going to display any wiki page to show from where these sunroof cars originated. By commonsense, these sunroofs in cars must have been designed by someone living in a cold country, where it is freezing cold for most part of the year.
The fact that sunbathing is the thing of white people and not of us Indians. It is their physical requirement since their body is covered in multiple layers of clothes so during summer they want sun to touch their skin. In a country like India, particularly in plain areas, there is ample sunlight throughout the year, and possibly more than we ever require. We Indians get ample opportunity to bathe in the sun, so we actually do not need the provision of having sun rays passing through the ceiling of the car.
Actually, we Indians are the dumbest people on the planet. Everyone will come killing me, but this is the harsh reality. In the name of luxury we can be sold anything, it doesn’t matter if it is of actual use to us or not.
And talking about luxury things, anything created by white people is luxury to us. Blindfolded, no questions asked. With double full-stop. I am speaking English because it is the language of white people, so speaking English is a luxury to me. What luxury means to us is a big topic to be discussed and I will write a new article on it.
The Crux
We, in India, have ample amount of sunlight throughout the year. Most of the time we run away from the sun, and prefer to keep ourselves in the shade. Yet we want to own a car that has a sunroof. I mean the car manufacturers must be laughing at us.
And why we are doing it is because white people are doing it. Even though shitting in an Indian commode is healthier for us, we prefer to have English commode because it is from the white people.
We, Indians, have a unique quality. We like to copy and live the life of white western giving little thought to the purpose. The majority of the things that are being copied are because it is associated with status, rather than solving any purpose.
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