“I can’t keep long nails because I have to fix cars,” Jannati tells me, showing me her shortly manicured fingers.
Jannati Hossain owns a car modifying shop in Dhaka called Velocity. With a love of cars since childhood, she has kicked her passion into fifth gear.
This North South University student is also the editor of Torque magazine, which launched on December 31. It is the first automobile magazine in Bangladesh that deals with all kinds of vehicles, from bicycles to sports cars.
In our patriarchal society, where female drivers are still viewed as aliens on wheels, Jannati has good reason to feel like a celebrity. With her vast knowledge about interiors, exteriors and engines, she knows exactly what needs to be done to turn a mediocre-looking car into a “super car.”
The first thing this car enthusiast recommends for a car of any model is an engine swap. This, she says, is the smartest way to improve a machine’s performance. It can even increase the longevity of an automobile.
“I’d say those who take care of their car engines are the smartest drivers. Good performing engines are the in-thing for car modification this year,” Jannati says.
When it comes to “pimping your ride,” Velocity offers a wide range of body kits that can transform an ordinary vehicle, making it look like a sports car.
Jannati recalls a customer with a sedan who wanted to surprise his wife. His only specification was: “I want my Starlet not to look like a Starlet.” When he came back a few days later, after Velocity had done its work, the customer could not even recognise his car. “Imagine how surprised his wife must have been,” Jannati laughed.
Currently Velocity offers a wide range of car modification services, which include “making car doors open like Lamborghini doors or butterflies, and anything that can be done in Bangladesh.”
They also specialise in interior car modifications, such as swapping out seats with different styles.
However, Jannati does not want to do anything to a car that is unsafe or obscene – which includes inappropriate stickers – by Bangladeshi standards.
Jannati and her friend Raymen Mohammad Siddique, the chief operating officer, opened the shop two years ago, and they currently have a team of five employees. Raymen has extensive experience in modifying cars, and he has been tinkering with his car since he was in school.
It was not until last year that profits actually started coming in. “I invested all my personal savings into the company after our silent partner left. This company is my baby,” Jannati said in a possessive tone.
They have a contract with a garage in Uttara where they send cars to complete heavy tasks; the rest they are able to do in their own workshops, one located in the same neighborhood and the other in Bashundhara.
A speaker of seven languages including French, German and Chinese, the undergraduate English student at NSU has a vision to expand her business into the countries whose languages she speaks.
Growing up with two brothers, Jannati always longed for toy cars, which nobody ever bought for her. But she would slyly influence her brothers to break open their cars to bring out the inside parts. With those parts, she would then build prototypes of other cars, or sometimes even ships. She pointed to an advertisement of Need for Speed, the famous computer car game, and told me that she loved playing this in her childhood.
My 22-year old interviewee is a keen observer of her clients: “Most of my customers are males. The very few females who come in actually don’t care about much beyond the exterior. Because women wear heels, I think they want their cars to look smart when they step out of its doors.”
Her knowledge about cars has also been enriched through reading.
“Given the backlash against being a girl and the environment here, I have to be very well read.” To that end, Jannati reads many articles on the internet, and is inspired by works in the US and UK.
About her own magazine Torque, Jannati said: “We don’t mind talking about anything that runs on wheels, even skateboards, given that they are cool enough.” She told me that her team is currently working on the latest technology for cyclists in Bangladesh for a future edition.
As I browsed the very first issue of Torque, laid out on the coffee table in the cafe where we met, I came across an article on Paul Walker. The actor has recently been in news for his death in a tragic car accident.
I asked if she was a fan of this Fast and Furious heartthrob. “Well, he was the sweetheart of the movie, with his blue eyes. He used to remind me of my brother who also had a car accident recently, but was saved by a miracle,” she said.
She pointed to the page and switched to professional gear: “This article talks about how the scarlet 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, in which Walker died, might not have had the Porsche Stability Management System (PSMS) usually installed during manufacturing. This device warns the driver when the car goes out of control or when there are any other abnormal signals, and is mandatory in all cars of the brand. Who knows – it could have saved his life.”
Being CEO and editor does not stop Jannati from getting her hands dirty in the tinkering activities when needed.
Jannati went under a car dressed in a long T-shirt and jeans, her work clothes, to fix something.
She described the feeling as “empowering.”