Chennai

I am writing this from a conference room in Chennai, the one city that as much as I try to warm up to, it seems impossible.

Guffaws for the city seem to forever be longer than anything charming about it, but at least today the people were warm and not wanting to shred me to pieces, am meeting a bunch of people, from army majors, generals, some car rallies, the personal driver of adbul kalam, car ralliest and even the brave women of tamil nadu have decided to brave themselves for this one event

the event being very simple, if ambassador was to make a comeback, what is the shape and size that it should adopt for the car to be a success, a simple question that has me moving from city to city, balancing stress levels of people whose careers hang on this one question and of those who are passionate about this topic

As i travel i meet people, as i meet people i am amazed at how such a seemingly inconsequential question can arouse such emotions.
Cars and emotions. A connect that is strong, though to me was non evident

Take for example this one person i met in Delhi. His grandmothers vintage car was sold. He was upset. It was 2000. He decided to become a heritage keeper. In a span of 10 years, he opened a car museum, bought over  80 vintage cars, got into a whole new world of obtaining knowledge about who sells what, loves the chase of buying them, resorting them etc etc and all this while managing a full blown career!!!!!

He is not alone, there are several little such driven men sitting across the nation. 225 members of vintage cars alone. Maybe, just maybe it is making a sense to me why Rajas and Maharajas of the world went hunting, or why an athlete pushes himself to train at crazy hours, or a musician practices for a years in a back room for 30 min on stage

its a heady cocktail of being lifted beyond the mundaneness limited life, thinking free for those select 30 minutes, the adulation, the records and feeling the HIGH where there is nothing else interrupting your thoughts, no past no future no taxes, just the moment

Felt like that on the Quad bikes i got to ride on my birthday
But how did i get here from Chennai

Well for todays session, all these super buzy people are braving traffic and coming in to spend 2 hours for a session they know nothing or little about. it is for a car! makes me feel humble and jealous. Jealous - from absence of a desire to have that feeling of contentment.