Lahore in the 1990s was different in many ways. There used to be a few good restaurants along M.M. Alam Road, some good shops where one could buy things from the freshest tobacco to artistic candelabras, and a few latest model cars on the roads sufficed the aesthetic vision then. Today, the deluge of cars of various types and kinds, new and shining, has been a major factor in promoting the sense of technological wrong that Lahore has experienced in the last few years.
It is hard to defy the benefits accruing because of various car-financing schemes that are extremely popular nowadays. Generally, those in the age bracket of 21-25, permanently employed with corporate business for at least two years, and earning Rs25,000 a month can fix the entire term of lease up to five years. If you have all these qualities, you can get hold of any car that either inspires you or has become a compulsion of some kind. As a bonus, you get insurance service free.
A bank gives surety on your behalf to the car dealer. The dealer gets the money from the bank and all you have to do is pay your now-manageable instalments on a monthly basis. If you get hold of some extra bucks, you can drop the hanging albatross around your neck by paying all that is due. It all depends on your income and savings. Naturally, businesspersons use this service the most. One bank here deals with 50 or more car-buyers every month, where businesspersons constitute 50 per cent of the total deals on an average, followed by persons belonging to other fields making around 30pc of the total. Companies and organizations also use this facility to provide their employees with conveyance and comprise the rest of the 20pc.
So what is the whole idea of getting a car for, say, Rs200,000 extra? It is the availability of time that is costly — the freedom to pay in five long years. After all, it is only smart to pay in small amounts for a luxury that you otherwise could never boast of in this lifetime. Who would not want to keep up with the Joneses? Any ordinary citizen can reach this service depending upon how much he can save for the instalments. Paying extra is one thing, but the social compulsions and the resulting harm is quite another. There has to be a method in the madness behind the technological facilities. The gremlin let loose on the streets of Lahore is the other side of the story.
The desire to possess all that holds some importance in a particular group, milieu, society or a city for that matter is universal, if not natural. This equality sometimes leads to acquiring things that are beyond one’s control. It is not easy to keep an elephant just because your child wants it. Still, if your neighbour can keep it, why can’t you. You would rather keep a mammoth. This social compulsion is not only natural, but also the very essence of growth in the present era of capitalism. Money counts, if truth be told. A large percentage of these extra cars rummaging everywhere are those that your better half or your progeny had always dreamt of driving. A sub-social compulsion of some sort.
It is obligatory that the standard of living improve and the services reach everyone. In our country, it has improved and there has been an impressive economic growth lately, but something is missing. A manager might call it control, a poet may call it restraint and a simpleton calls it temperance. A lot is to be desired from politicians, military and pubic servants, but the citizens need to do the most. A melee of men, with reasonable possessions, are eager to relish what life can offer them but they fail to control the pull here and there. I think it is ridiculous if you drive your new car only 10 metres from your place to get some yogurt for breakfast. Equally insane when your driver does the same.
The unnecessary use of vehicles has caused a tremendous increase in traffic. It is ironic that cars, otherwise meant for saving time, are the only cause of these frequent traffic jams. A lot of time is wasted daily and the increase in the number of cars has promoted irresponsibility. The more amateurs drive such cars, the greater the frequency of reckless accidents. The exhaust and noise is just our fad to get absorbed in the times we are living in — completely oblivious of what we leave for those who will replace us tomorrow.
Technological prisms do disperse colours, but they look fine as long as they make a rainbow. It is balance, design and equilibrium that sustain everything. Inexplicable commotion reduces everything on roads to metals of various shapes and colours nowadays. The glory of driving in Lahore in the ‘90s has fled. It is time to accept the new change with unforeseen disadvantages. Simple living and high thinking, they say, is the essence of grace. It is time we stopped building more houses and started thinking why we need more houses. Why do we need more and more cars? It is time we control the unjust use of the leasing facility to fill our porches and realize that this is not the way. It is development with dignity that we must seek or this social myxamatosis shall leave us blind and virtually listless. Let us shun the shallow pursuits, let us disperse the mushroom cloud before it is too late. Let us keep Lahore as it was: pleasant, beautiful, and, most of all, impressive.
Lahore in the 1990s was different in many ways. There used to be a few good restaurants along M.M. Alam Road, some good shops where one could buy things from the freshest tobacco to artistic candelabras, and a few latest model cars on the roads sufficed the aesthetic vision then. Today, the deluge of cars of various types and kinds, new and shining, has been a major factor in promoting the sense of technological wrong that Lahore has experienced in the last few years.
