When mach is what remains of macho

The young boys riding their sports mobikes at high speed outside girls’ colleges running on a heady cocktail of adrenaline and gasoline now face a bigger threat to their self-indulgent machismo than the police: the low decibel levels of the fast-emerging electric two-wheelers would make them look less a ‘Hero’ and more zero(-emission). Cults have, indeed, been built on as much the performance of sports cars and bikes as the roar from their silencers – never mind the appellation. (At more than 100 decibels, the growl of some internal-combustion-engine cars can drown out a rock concert.) Royal Enfield actually featured the thunderous sound of its evergreen Bullet motorcycle in a TV ad back in the 1980s after a (short-lived) new competitor, the Escorts Yamaha RD350, debuted along with Jackie Shroff in the 1983 movie ‘Hero’.

Now, the gentle hum of electric vehicles, especially running at low speeds, can be dangerous as pedestrians may not notice them. So, according to a new law, Indian four(-and-more)-wheelers running on batteries will soon have to emit a hearable sound when cruising, with wind resistance and tyres anyway making them louder at higher speeds. With the wheel having turned a full circle, it’s time to can the pre-reforms derisive joke on Indian engineering that every part of an India-made vehicle, except its horn, makes a sound.