I remember an old joke that went like this :
NASA Space scientists were trying to launch a rocket but the damned thing would not fire even after several attempts. Apna desi scientist then proposed a brilliant idea. He suggested tilting the rocket to 45 degrees and then try again. And voila ! it was successful. On being asked about his sudden brainwave , the desi scientist replied , that he didn’t know but his scooter back home had to be started the same way.

The scooter he was referring to was obviously Bajaj who recently announced that their production line for scooters will close and they would concentrate on motorcycles alone. I don’t know why but the news really did hit me with a huge pang of nostalgia. My Dad had owned a Bajaj Chetak in the late eighties and all through the nineties. And that too after having waited for it for well over two years after placing an order. I have some really fond memories with a mini me standing in front near the odometer riding through the bylanes of Surat. The song for the old Bajaj ad is perhaps one of the most celebrated jingles in Indian advertising history. The “buland Bharat ki buland tasveer” was an absolute masterstroke at a time when India was undergoing economic liberalization. So much so that the word scooter was synonymous with Bajaj just like Xerox with photocopying.

Sadly Bajaj has to close down due to plunging sales which stems from their lack of innovation, a case very similar to another Indian symbol –Premier automobiles. Consumer tastes have also changed over the past decade. Competition from Honda had all but killed them almost a decade ago and a certain loyalty helped them to drag on for this long.

Now they have set their goals to become the top motorcycle manufacturer in India, not an easy task given that Honda is the top dog in this segment as well. But hopefully they will not repeat the same mistakes they made with the scooter and go “distinctly ahead” of competition.

Long live the scooter. It is the end of an era.