An Ode to Gasoline

Photo by sergio souza: https://www.pexels.com/photo/an-empty-gas-station-3602009/

Now that the world has agreed that gasoline powered car engines need to go and be replaced by electric ones, it is perhaps time to start feeling a little bit (a lot) nostalgic about the reign of gas or petrol as it is also called. It has had a glorious run and what a time it was! Don't get me wrong. I am a strong advocate of the phasing out of all fossil fuels in order to save the world from environmental catastrophe, but let us also consider for a moment what the gasoline revolution achieved for mankind, before fossil fuel over use started wrecking the world.

It made rapid global mobility a realty- something that led to people travelling longer distances with ease and interacting with a far wider world than they did in the era of the horse drawn carriages. It led to a boom in education, trade, commerce, tourism, agriculture and so much else. Then there was the perennial love affair with cars. Ask any petrol head and they will tear up talking about their favourite set of wheels, the special features of the latest sports cars from the houses of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

Most of us fondly remember the first car we ever sat in or drove. Then there are the memories associated with buying the first car, taking in its new car smell and getting the car serviced and learning about how the car actually ran and the components that went into its running smoothly. There is so much history associated with gasoline-the oil tycoons, the legendary automobile makers- Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes,  BMW, Lada, Fiat and one could go on and on.

Fast cars in movies, very fast cars taking part in Grand Prix events around the world, iconic car rallies like the Paris-Dakar one, little kids collecting Dinky cars, the contest between petrol and diesel driven cars, drive-in movie theatres and a million other memories associated with the world of gasoline have become an indelible part of most of our psyches. The change to electric cars will no doubt come about, just like the change from the heavily polluting steam locomotives to diesel and electric ones came about. But we did get nostalgic about them and till today there are many steam locomotives running on certain routes around the word as heritage runs. Heck, we still have horse drawn coaches plying in some parts!

I am going to hold on to my dear petrol driven car for a while longer till the time electric cars become affordable for folks like me and love every moment of it. Bring out the hankies people, its time for some big time gasoline nostalgia.