Day-1 at the Auto Expo, vignettes from the inside, aimed at those who fit the shoe, no holds barred!

The traffic jam as we get closer is prophetic. This happens every time, and will get worse as days roll by, thanks to the rather silly habit in Delhi of diverting buses at the least provocation! We walk the last 2 kilometres to the Pragati maidan grounds accompanied by a Dutch husband-wife journalist team. As we slice our way through the not going anywhere traffic solidly log-jammed outside the Old Fort, one of Delhi's finest yuppie-puppy leans out of his car and says to them, see, what a great country we are, we can afford to have cars and not go anywhere in them!

That about sums up the Auto Expo. We are a great country, and like all greatness, tend to repeat ourselves in the hope that we will perpetuate ourselves. The organisers of this fair are no different, they continue with the same mistakes as last time, which includes back up toilets on day-1 itself. CII (the Confederation of Indian Industries) has obviously decided that they are in show business, and event management is what it is about. As a matter of fact, as events go, the Auto Expo is fairly well co-ordinated, but what is incorrect is the ongoing assumption that this is an industry voice exposition. That it is not. It is simply a place to display your wares, not to barrack us with your philosophies.

In a bizzarre case of apparent hatred for the Internet media, the CII media in-charge, one Ms. Jayashree, snatches the press pass from our correspondent Prasad Kaushik and tears it up. She then follows it up with having him evicted. The reason is, apparently, that she feels we are fakes. Real fakes, an oxymoron if ever there was one, float around giving her due salutations and probably more, meanwhile. We protest, and then she tries to snatch my pass and have me evicted too. It is only when industry leaders like Venu Srinivasan and Subodh Bhargava intervene that she suddenly starts apologising profusely and issues a fresh pass. Even her boss Ajay Khanna starts apologising.

This is something about petty authority in the hands of obvious bullies in India. The Jayashree-Ajay Khanna combine first got rough, then used foul language. When confronted with a few home truths, they turn around and start saying, "Oh Mr. Malik you know how it is, and so on and so forth, we are sorry."

The reason, as it turns out later on, is that this Jayashree expects media to beg and plead for passes, as it entitles people with such passes to bags full of gifts. There is possibly some quid-pro-quo here, is what we are told, which is why all sorts of people are happily given press passes. We, on the other hand, make it very clear that all we need is access and information, and our letter states it.

This sours the start-up of our day, as one hour or so is spent threatening us, and then another hour is spent cajoling us! What a waste. The CII and Auto Expo need to get their press PR in order, and fast. There is a brave new media out there, it is called the Internet, and it plays by different rules based on personal ethics of a very high nature. And one of them is mutual respect. Sorry, CII, you do not tear up passes isued just like that, the colonials left 52 years ago.

This feeling of deja vu, seen it before, stays with us as we wander around the fair. The main attraction, the car stalls, have what seems like re-runs. Exceptions are the all-wheel drive Suzuki Kei small car, the Ford Ikon sports versions, the Toyota Kijang family vehicles, and a few variations on themes from car designers. The two-wheeler stalls look better in terms of products and proto-types, especially the Bajaj and the TVS-Suzuki stall. Mercedes-Benz as usual, draws the crowds, as does Hyundai. We have seen Skoda here for the past few exhibition, and they are back again. Otherwise, it is the same cars you see on the roads.

It is, however, at the components and accesories where we sense a positive feeling. Just looked in, in passing, and we'll give a full report on that in a few days. For tommorrow, we got a "whirl girls and toy boys of the Auto Expo" special planned, on special request, the shorter the skirt and tighter the crotch, the bigger the crowd, apparently.

Events of the day include a speech by Rajiv Bajaj on what they hope to do at Bajaj Auto Ltd. Sounds good, this is one company which is bouncing back with a variety of products and technologies. More on that soon. Another speech by the Italians at Fiat which nobody can hear because the village music from the Maruti stall below is enought to drown buffaloes, forget Palios being announced. Then a speech by Mr. Firodia of Bajaj Tempo, which is again inaudible. Must have said something. And finally, a very crowded launch of a new super-car from Tata called the Tata Magna, which is a very lovely car we'll show you as soon as we get the scanner going! There is another open roadster which aspires to an Audi TT Quattro kind of shape, nick-named the Tata Aria with an interesting sequential shift gear up there on the dash board, like in the Hansa Tempo 3-wheeler. Mr. Ratan Tata also utters a lot of brave words, about how they will take the competition on.

Everybody is headed for the Toyota Qualis, the only really new "car" in this exhibition. Very mixed bag, straw poll says the engine is bound to be good, so a lot else will be forgiven. I have my own reservation on how the RTOs of our country will take to permitting free and easy registration of diesel powered commercial vehicles. Will Tata Sumo do the Toyota Qualis what the Tata-407 and 609 did to the DCM Toyota? Watch this space!

Veeresh Malik and Shailesh Khanolkar at the show