ignition switch....
Dipak:I don't think so.
Anil: Then what are you thinking the problem could be?
Dipak: These machines are a problem. We are relying on them so much they are ruling our lives and governing our behavior.
Anil: That's all very well but we must be arriving at Chandrapore before dark.
Dipak: You see? If we were not having a machine we would not have been setting out for Chandrapore.
Anil: I am beginning to see what you are saying. And if we did not have to go to Chandrapore we would not have to be relying on this machine.
Dipak: Life was simpler when we walked everywhere.
____________
Voiceover
It is not only Dipak and Anil’s names which identify them as Indian. Their use of the present continuous (“What are you thinking…?”) where other speakers of English would be more likely to use the present simple (“What do you think…?”) also gives them away. David Crystal has suggested that since the number of Indian speakers of English outnumbers all native speakers of English, the present continuous might be displacing the present simple in global English.
The other issue touched on by Dipak and Anil here is that of circular reasoning. If they were not having a motorcycle, they would not have been going to Chandrapore, and if they hadn’t been setting out for Chandrapore they would not have been relying on an unreliable machine.
It is not only Dipak and Anil who becme ensnared by circular reasoning. When Descartes wrote, “I think, therefore I am,” he was employing a circular reasoning because by saying, “I think…” he was already declaring that he existed.
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