So I finally did what I've wanted to do for a long time now, participate in a car rally! About ten hours of non stop driving and 500 kms later, I don't really know what to feel. Now that I was behind the wheels, speeding down the expressway and winding down ghats, the drive seemed doubly thrilling. When I completed the drive from Mumbai to Lavazza and back, I was ecstatic. Our cars carried big stickers on either side , with our number and a huge ad for Lavazza. But a day later, when I see the campaigns and coverage the event has received in the papers, I feel slightly guilty and highly stupid. Guilty, because I feel like I sold a little part of my soul by participating in a rally that was only ostentatiously to support the cause of Woman's cancer and was really an advertising campaign for Lavazza, the new township coming up near Pune. Stupid, because all the cultural theorizing didn't help me see through this gimmick and my excitement got the better of me.
The media has been creating quite a hype about Lavazza in the last few months. I also have a bunch of pretentious people for relatives who visited the place a few months back and couldn't stop going ga ga over it. After driving through this upcoming township nestled in between seven hills, I am only left feeling sadly overwhelmed at the absolute power man has over everything around him. The isolated five star town reminded me of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Lang In his 1927 film envisions a futuristic city of the 2026AD where man is merely automaton. Lavazza might be an engineering and architectural marvel. But it has left thousands of villagers dislocated without fair compensation and hundreds of trees have been razed off to dig swimming pools and helipads.
The ravaged rocks of the mountain out of which the township is being carved, will have a story written in stone. We'll just be to busy notice.
Musing for March: Every event organized by the TOI is usually a gimmick. It is always a profitable business venture given the velvety gloss of a pertinent social cause.
4 comments:
Don't be too hard on yourself...everything seems to be twisted for the media these days. At least you got to take part in a car rally...which is ultra cool!
It's pathetic to see farmless farmers and I simply fail to understand why fertile land has to be used for construction - too much money, mind and mafia involved, i guess!!
A car rally, however, is a cool way to keep spirited :-) Let the guilt pass by..
I guess when a car rally is involved, we can cheat a bit n our conscience :)
getting the general drift of public opinion, opts to forget the gimmick and remember the drive :)
thanks guys :)
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