<p>Thejas Anand</p>.<p>The difference between evolved and non-evolved histories is often marked by the ability to engineer mobility—to move people, transport large objects, and connect distant places. Even today, how we progress from different phases of life depends largely on our ability to be <br>mobile, often globally so. In that arc, buying an automobile has often been the pinnacle of personal liberty in modern history.</p>.<p>Motoring, to me, feels like evolution in motion. And yet, there is something quietly dystopian about conversations that imagine a future entirely without internal combustion engines. I personally own an electric scooter and can vouch for its impressive efficiency and practicality. But when it comes to pleasure, I confess, I still prefer the alternative — my 650 CC Royal Enfield Classic. It is undeniably a gas guzzler. Still, the joy it delivers, the sounds it makes, and the vibrations through the handlebars as petrol furiously propels me forward create the feeling of a machine that lives and breathes. That sense of soul is something my zippy e-scooter cannot replicate.</p>.Committee constituted by D K Shivakumar on campus polls invites public opinion .<p>Motoring—and the internal combustion engine—has defined generation after generation, aspiration after aspiration, and family after family. I assume there are other motor enthusiasts lying awake at night, wondering what we are evolving to as a species and as a globally mobile society.</p>.<p>If that sounds presumptuous here, I admit it freely. The connection I have with the internal combustion engine is deep-rooted and sentimental. Whether it was a journey from A to B, air travel, or international road trips, my travels have been greatly enhanced by the soul of the internal combustion engine.</p>.<p class="bodytext">As a fact, in my youth, I would calm down after a heavy meal only in a moving vehicle. A blue Mahindra Jeep at that time. Perhaps this places me out of step with the times. Today, I see in younger generations a deeper sensitivity towards the planet and sustainable motoring, and hence a lesser nostalgia for the internal combustion engine.</p>.<p class="bodytext">So, where do we go from here—and how?</p>.<p class="bodytext">My own conclusion is that the answer must go beyond utility, whether the alternative is hydrogen-powered, hybrid or electric. Without an experience that offers equal or greater pleasure, I do not believe enthusiasm for journeys will be sustained or transcend into the next phase of global society. Any worthy successor to the internal combustion engine must remain driven by humans, not robots. Many tasks can be automated; a pleasurable drive cannot and should not be one of them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Human beings deserve to continue the establishment and purity of motoring for the fun and pleasure we derive from it. Before all is lost for good, and we are whittled down to dull A-to-B commuters, forever working on our laptops, it may be worth pausing to remember the joy we once found on the road—and to ensure that motor enthusiasts, too, have a place in the future we are building.</p>
<p>Thejas Anand</p>.<p>The difference between evolved and non-evolved histories is often marked by the ability to engineer mobility—to move people, transport large objects, and connect distant places. Even today, how we progress from different phases of life depends largely on our ability to be <br>mobile, often globally so. In that arc, buying an automobile has often been the pinnacle of personal liberty in modern history.</p>.<p>Motoring, to me, feels like evolution in motion. And yet, there is something quietly dystopian about conversations that imagine a future entirely without internal combustion engines. I personally own an electric scooter and can vouch for its impressive efficiency and practicality. But when it comes to pleasure, I confess, I still prefer the alternative — my 650 CC Royal Enfield Classic. It is undeniably a gas guzzler. Still, the joy it delivers, the sounds it makes, and the vibrations through the handlebars as petrol furiously propels me forward create the feeling of a machine that lives and breathes. That sense of soul is something my zippy e-scooter cannot replicate.</p>.Committee constituted by D K Shivakumar on campus polls invites public opinion .<p>Motoring—and the internal combustion engine—has defined generation after generation, aspiration after aspiration, and family after family. I assume there are other motor enthusiasts lying awake at night, wondering what we are evolving to as a species and as a globally mobile society.</p>.<p>If that sounds presumptuous here, I admit it freely. The connection I have with the internal combustion engine is deep-rooted and sentimental. Whether it was a journey from A to B, air travel, or international road trips, my travels have been greatly enhanced by the soul of the internal combustion engine.</p>.<p class="bodytext">As a fact, in my youth, I would calm down after a heavy meal only in a moving vehicle. A blue Mahindra Jeep at that time. Perhaps this places me out of step with the times. Today, I see in younger generations a deeper sensitivity towards the planet and sustainable motoring, and hence a lesser nostalgia for the internal combustion engine.</p>.<p class="bodytext">So, where do we go from here—and how?</p>.<p class="bodytext">My own conclusion is that the answer must go beyond utility, whether the alternative is hydrogen-powered, hybrid or electric. Without an experience that offers equal or greater pleasure, I do not believe enthusiasm for journeys will be sustained or transcend into the next phase of global society. Any worthy successor to the internal combustion engine must remain driven by humans, not robots. Many tasks can be automated; a pleasurable drive cannot and should not be one of them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Human beings deserve to continue the establishment and purity of motoring for the fun and pleasure we derive from it. Before all is lost for good, and we are whittled down to dull A-to-B commuters, forever working on our laptops, it may be worth pausing to remember the joy we once found on the road—and to ensure that motor enthusiasts, too, have a place in the future we are building.</p>
