The rip-off called Vaahan Yaatra

Went for Vaahan Yaatra '05 ("South India's biggest auto show"). Turned out to be a damp squib, literally.

First, it was raining (the rain's really turning out to be a spoiler these days, especially with most Bangalore localities' propensity to get flooded).

Second, hordes of car audio stalls & big bass DO NOT an auto show make. There were more (and bigger) car audio company stalls than there were auto manufacturers! The show people seemed to have seriously got their priorities wrong. Hell, there was even a stall showcasing Lazboy couches! I mean OK, people interested in buying 1.1 crore Beemers (the 7-Series was on display) will definitely be interested in buying 40k couches, but where is this taking us ... they'll start having motorcycle stalls at consumer electronics expos next. Having said that, the car audios showcased (Blaupunkt, Rockford Fosgate, JBL, Pioneer .... India's got all them big brands now) were absolutely top class & the stall designs & installations were very imaginative. And the girls in these stalls were better than those in the 'proper' car stalls.

Third, the entry fee charged was Rs.49/- (Soumya demanded that the ticket guy return the Rs. 2/- due to us after we had paid 100 bucks for 2 tickets). This was probably because the show was meant to be fully air conditioned. But once inside, the 'air' didn't seem the least bit 'conditioned'. One could hear pedestal-fan like loud whirring, but ACs .... don't think they were working.

One thing that caught the imagination was a 40 lakh 2 seater airplane (in an auto show!) meant for private use. Years earlier, when MG & me were leafing thru 1 of the National Geographics that his sis had sent from the U.S., we'd come upon this ad for small Cessna 2/4 seater aircraft for private use. The advertisement said something like, 'own your own airplane & forget about those traffic jams'. The 2 of us were left amazed at the kind of lifestyle the Americans enjoyed. That kind of thing was unthinkable in India. And here in our very own Bangalore, I was standing at the stall of Indus Aviation in front of this small plane whose print ad said pretty much tha same thing. India's living standards are improving ... & how!