Bumping into each other

2009-04-18T09:25:00.004+05:30

Bumpers Yes, the great car bumper! Hailed as a necessity in the 19th and adopted in the 21st century for the sake of novelty. Bumpers were introduced for protecting the prized possession, the four-wheeled people carrier kind. Soon they became a standard feature in cars worldwide. Their purpose was simple, protect the frontal features of the vehicle in a slow impact with another. Nothing noteworthy some may say; there are some who assume it protects the car and its passengers in a high/low speed impact with any obstacle, tree, wall or any other non-living or living thing. In reality it is not so. To turn the general assumption into reality, enormous bumpers with huge pads/blocks of rubber would have to be designed.
If you grew up in the 80's, you would have seen the steel bumper encrusted with a couple of aesthetically designed rubber blocks. Rest in peace is all we can say now. We now have the oh so aesthetically pleasing, all integrating, body-colored avatar of the good old bumper. So has the phenomena of the now mythological low-speed impact become a rarity? I would say not entirely as I have been witnessing all around me. Even in the absence of bumper-to-bumper traffic, we manage to scrape a few ends here and there. Thanks to the considerate design some car-makers still ensure that the bumper remains the most outward point-of-contact. Of course the Japanese car-makers unanimously say a resounding no to the crudely styled rubber strips on their cars! They use plastic-resin, and the owners just adopt rubbing strips on the edges for their peace of mind. If not other four-wheeled cousins they do scrape walls, poles and motorcyclists from time to time.
Why do we bump into each other? This can be a psychologically and philosophically obtuse question to answer. Not hanging onto the air from centuries gone past. A Google search for the keywords car bumper reveals a startling fact. Car bumper protection? Yes, you read that right; we now have car bumper protection. On the contrary there is nothing to be startled about. Mankind has created protection for its every body part and imaginable activity, why not for the car? Apologies, for the car bumper. The fact that we are now engrossed in protecting a car-part designed to protect the car is hilarious. What can come next? Airbag protectors? You can see the latest form of bumper protection, this is the non-driving kind.

Reckless? Abandon?

2009-03-14T23:54:00.003+05:30

Yes, reckless abandon is certainly an art in itself. I shall try and perfect it as life whizzes past me with its intense serendipitous effect.

Not too shabby I believe, for my first post in almost 4 years...

Reckless Abandon

Bumping into each other

Reckless? Abandon?