GOING BY THE BOOK

HM's - A WAY TO INDIA is perhaps the only coffee table book in the country to be dedicated to a single model. The latest addition to this list is Royal Enfield's - The Legend Rides On which celebrates the brand's golden jubilee run.

Automotive coffee table books aren't new in the West but in India they are still few and far between. Mostly commemorative by nature, these books offer a glimpse of a brand's heritage and DAN and help position it in the current context. ET Auto Mania brings you a selection of the best coffee table books that automobile companies have published in India. Check out the roster.

From the ancient civilizations to modern art, coffee table books span just about every subject colourful enough to lend itself to sensitive lens. But coffee table books on cars and bikes. Yep, Motown has its own share of coffee table books, some commemorative, other simply a chronicle of the brand's history and heritage. And like their counterpart in the West, Indian automotive coffee table books pack in everything from heritage to happenstance. Among the most lavishly produced coffee table book in Motown was the Hyundai Motor India sponsored The Automobiles of the Maharajas, written by Sharada Dwivedi and Manverandra Singh Barwani, the book brought back India's royal heritagein strictly automotive terms. The book chronicles the gasoline heritage of India's 565 princely states many of which were ruled by men of incredible wealth and incredible interest in all things automotive. Those were the days when special cars and contoured bodies were fabricated to be the best marques in Motown as India became the biggest market for luxury badges like Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Benteley etc.

Many of these cars were custom built for the men who owned them and a large number were built to royal quirks. Hyundai sponsored the book around three years ago and gifted a 1000 copies but it is undoubtedly the most coveted coffee table cover in Motown to this day.

Others like Hindustan Motors - A Way to India has also become an automotive collector's item. In 1999, well known photographer Raghubir Singh shot the redoubtable Ambassador in what can only be called a quirky journey through India. Singh believed that the Amby is the true symbol of India and christened the photo-essay - A way Into India.

Today he is no more but the HM coffee table book is there to show a new generation what the Ambassador meant to India once upon a time. A way to India is the only Asian car coffee table book to be displayed at the Smithsonian Institute of Exhibition in Washington DC. HM published some 1000 copies of this photo-essay and uses it as its official corporate gift today.

Tata Motors too published its own set of commemorative books. The company's commercial vehicles division brought out a coffee table book some time ago as did the passenger vehicles division, although indirectly. The passenger vehicles division subscribed to a joint CII initiative when a coffee table book was brought out for the India Asean rally', said a Tata Motors' source. The latest brand to hit the coffee table circuit is Royal Enfield. Compiled by Gordon G. May, Royal Enfield , the legend rides on is an interesting collage of pictures packing in everything from history to present day brand image and a touch of personalized positioning for good measure. Among the most interesting pictures in this compilation were those that chronicle how Royal Enfield was born from the earliest V-Twins to the latest 350 cc Bullet Electra 5S.

The photo gallery also includes rare pictures of the original Redditch made machines. And Yes, it does include a photograph of the specially built bike that Eicher scion Siddhartha Lal was gifted just before his wedding. He rode the bike to his wedding and drove out his bride after the ceremony, complete with floral embellishments and a 'just married' tag.

The book packs in interview from a cross section of Royal Enfield customers , from businessmen to college students, from the friendly neighborhood milkman to the rough and ready farmer. India's only cult bike brand is not about snooty heritage. As Lal's introductory note in the book where he describes Royal Enfield bikes as “bikes that are exciting even at a normal running speeds, bikes that put everyone under their spell and bikes that demand to be ridden all the time”. The 162-page book tracks the brand's beginnings when it started making bikes for the army to the time when the parent company in England closed down while the Indian Enfield started its new journey in a new avatar.

Automotive books in India aren't a well-developed niche yet. Unlike the West, where corporate history particularly automotive history, is extremely well-chronicled. India's gasoline heritage isn't quite so well documented. But coffee table books like these help focus a brand's heritage and DNA in the current context. It may not be very long before India has its own set of best sellers on the hottest automotive deals in the region and the cloak-and-dagger tactics that are part of the industry's survival and deal making instincts. But till they do, these coffee table books offer some appetizing hours-doeuvres before the main course comes along.