The Curious Case

A serious change needs to develop within us if we’re to accept the newest Mini.

- Raunak Ajinkya 

Minis have been on sale in India for a while now, but I’m still left a little surprised when I see them on the road every now and then. That said, I’m even more surprised when I don’t see them on the road. The thing I don’t understand is that day after day, people keep buying Audis and BMWs and Mercedes’, and while I don’t condemn those fine folk — quite the contrary, actually. Good on you! — it puzzles the living daylights out of me that they don’t consider something as fantastically exceptional as a Mini.

Is it the fact that it stands out too much? Has the lure of a secluded life in a land teeming with people in cars of every imaginable shape and bloated size numbed your need for individualism? As far as I can tell, the need for exclusivity is directly proportional to the number of eyeballs around you. Or is it that Minis are not conventionally conventional? Do they not fit in to the definition of a car? It has seats, a steering, some wheels and it can get you to places without blowing up colossally along the way. I think that merits jotting it down into the broad definition of a ‘car’, honestly. What gives, then? It can’t be the price. I’ve seen yobbos spend a lot more for a lot less with an alarming frequency, so that’s not it, either.