What Does Nano Want

"Human beings could begin as free men, be turned into slaves and then rise in politics to become advisors to kings or great charismatic leaders. And Marcel Duchamp showed us that today's urinal can become tomorrow's found object, in the right artistic hands, " he added.

"I believe that the Nano, once it is in widespread use, as it surely will be, will speak for itself, but it will also speak for the approximately 20 percent  of the Indian population," he continued, "who can imagine themselves as owning a car, or as owning a car in the near or middle-term."

"India is not a land which thrives on bigness, in the proverbial American, or Texan manner," he continued.

"It is a SOCIETY AND A CULTURE WHICH THRIVES ON DENSITY, INTRICACY AND MANOEUVRABILITY. Nor, like Japan, is it a culture which makes a cult out of miniaturization, of smallness for its own sake, of sheer shrinkage or reduction or subtraction as an aesthetic."

"Indians are not maximalists, but they are not minimalists either. In India, small is better not because of a hidden Bauhaus sensibility, and less in India is not really more. India is ABOUT MAKING AS MANY ACCOMMODATIONS TO DENSITY, INTRICACY AND SMALLNESS AS A PARTICULAR SCALE WILL ALLOW."

"INDIANS LIKE THE IDEA OF MORE IN LESS."

In a remark which was received with many understanding nods and good amount of laughter, he said: "Any American who has asked for any private space or time in an Indian household which he or she is visiting, knows the look of puzzlement and slight hurt that crosses his host's face when this suggestion is made. INDIANS ARE ACCUSTOMED TO SOCIALITY ON THE ROCKS, UNCUT BY SILENCES, BODILY DISTANCE, OR PRIVATE SPACES."

"What they demand is that this sociality be well designed, obedient to the needs of ritual, the rhythms of the calendar and the needs and roles of kinsmen and friends. The Nano has the potential to spark the Indian taste for packing more into less, not because all Indians are ascetics, or Bauhasians or green philosophers, but because they like the intricacy and the intensity of sociality."

"Take the average second-class sleeper train compartment for the Indian middle-classes," Appadurai said. "What are its features? It is small, it is crowded, it is well-designed, it is cheap and it is taking you somewhere with your companions on your journey, some of whom are family or kinsmen, while others are strangers at the outset."

"Or take any religious procession in any Indian city or village. What are these processions? They are festive self-organising modules of celebration, sociality and density. Or we can strip down this example and think of queues in Indian society, which are ubiquitous. Indian queues are a great lens into the subtlety of non-linear and self-organising social processes, chaotic but not lacking in purpose, norms and outcomes, even while they are irritating, noisy and sometimes fractious."

"Indians know how to get somewhere in the company of others and they appreciate any technology which PUTS SIZE AND PRICE ABOVE SIZE AND SMOOTHNESS."