Karma Camry

The non-resident Indian gatherings (NRI) whether it is in USA, UK, Australia or for that matter, anywhere in the world is easily recognisable, a fleet of Toyota Camry cars will be parked outside. There is an inexplicable attraction between the Indians abroad and this Japanese icon, the Toyota Camry. Recently Toyota has emerged as the world’s second largest carmaker and I cannot rule out the NRI conspiracy in this.

The NRI attraction is not for the brand Toyota, but it is limited to the model Camry. It is a mouthful to utter the word Camry, does not have the melody of a Corolla, the environmental connotation of an Echo or the imagery of a Land-cruiser, but for the NRIs it is music on the road. Indians for whom names have meanings, usually profound and of Sanskrit in origin, have no qualms about meaningless Camry for their cars. But in any case what is in a name, can a great Legend (Honda) sooth the pain in the hip pocket?

A program on SBS (Australia) recently shows an Indian immigrant (you guessed it, a computer programmer) walking through a car yard with his newly arrived wife. The happy and excited Mr. Kumar declares, we can buy any of these cars, gets into a Honda Accord, brushes past a Mitsubishi Magna, a Mazda 626 but could not unshackle the karmic union and settles for a Toyota Camry.

One can always find non-karmic explanations for the Camry obsession, for example consider the 1800litres boot space offered in the new Camry’s, and Toyotas claim that it is the largest in the midsize family car is precisely what the NRI wives are looking for. That should provide ample luggage space when the in-laws and out-laws drop in with masalas and pickles to last several rebirths.

Then of course is the legendary Toyota reliability which gets tagged on to Camry as well. Never having touched a spanner in the non-menial work traditions of the educated Indians, not knowing the difference between a dip-stick and a pogo-stick can mean a few thousand dollars saved in repair bills, by sticking with the Camry.

Last time while in Sydney, I was told that the Diwali get-together was in a convention centre on Hume Highway. There are more than a dozen convention centres on that highway, but it needed not much detective work to spot the right one. A sea of Camry’s all of them in various shades of grey to brown was louder than the Diwali firecrackers. There were no pure colours, no red or blue, each and every one with a tinge of brown added to emulate the land from the Gangetic plains to the shores of Kanyakumari.

The last two years have witnessed large NRI get-together in India, The Pravasi Bharatiya Mela, and the day is not far off when a Toyota Camry painted in tricolour is adopted as the NRI logo, a common modern unifying identity, with the Asoka Stupa replacing the Toyota logo, the four lions representing the four corners of the world where people of Indian origin have spread, but still linked together by the Camry karma.

The classic NRI Camry will have no fog lights, no spoilers, no Alpine sound system, no Ricaro seats, in fact no options at all, always stock standard. Well, the roof rack to pile on the large suitcases and clothes wrapped in durries when the cousins drop in is now-a-days standard free fitment with Toyota dealers of NRI preference.

In the complex web of roads abroad, the life of Indians are safely guided to their karmic destiny by the trusting wheels of Toyota Camry.