#maximum city

It is a crowded city, used to living with crowds.

A recent magazine ad for an ambassador car, the sturdy workhorse of the Indian roads, illustrates what I mean. The ad copy doesn't devote the usual lascivious attention to leather seat covers, digital dashboards, electronic fuel injection, or the trim lines of the car's design. The Ambassador is actively ugly but lovable the way elephants are, with a jaunty visor and a wide grin.

Instead, there is a snatch of dialogue from within the car. Three people can be seen squashed together in the front bench seat. A man crosses in front of the ungainly pachyderm, holding a briefcase over his head to ward off the downpour.

"Arre... isn't that Joshi?"

"Yes. Let's take him too."

"But we are so many."

"Have a heart, we can always adjust."

Car ads in most countries focus on the luxurious cocoon that awaits you, the driver, once you step inside. The Ambassador ad isn't really touting the virtues of space. It's saying that the kind of people likely to drive an Ambassador will always /make/ more room.