Nano under the neem tree

Off the neglected, serpentine roads of Nakhrola village in Gurgaon district sits Satish Kumar's home. Around it lie his five acres of lush fields sown with til (sesame), arhar (lentils) and bajra (millets).

His two cows and their calves, tied to a post behind his house, yawn occasionally as they chomp on a pile of straw. And beneath the old neem tree in Satish Kumar's compound rests his gleaming silver Nano, the first to hit the road in north India.

In Nakhrola, Kumar is known simply as 'the man with the Nano'. On July 18, the day his Nano was delivered, it was celebration all the way.

"There were drums and dancing all around, all night long," remembers Kumar's wife Saroj (33). His mother Indira Devi (55) tells of how the rest of the village collected outside their home and everyone wanted to drive the car.

In a district where 33 per cent of the population is illiterate, Kumar became a celebrity overnight. Journalists from India and abroad descended on Nakhrola, followed the family all the way from the car showroom and spent the day with them.

Some Japanese reporters even camped for two days in his two-bedroom house. And, says Saroj, "When we drove to our temple in Manesar, the whole village followed us.

" But he does let his friends borrow the car. "Every day, someone or the other comes and asks for the keys," he says.

"Everyone here loves the Nano.".