The stellar vehicle..

Two weeks ago, our vehicle arrived. It was parked in my husband's office for a while, almost a week actually. Firstly, its arrival to his office slipped by 4 days from its planned day of arrival and its arrival home slipped by another 6. In effect, the 10 km journey from Santa Cruz to Andheri along the western express highway took 10 whole days. (This is blog of a techie, so numbers and jargons come naturally to me)..:-)

Before you think we bought a bullock cart or something, I must clarify that the vehicle is one of the swanky, state-of-the-art, gizmo varieties and belongs to the so-called A grade cars with all the hi-tech stuff like power steering/windows, power suspension designed for Indian roads, advanced e-Tec engine and all the lingo most of which I don't understand.

It is a 2-year old Opel corsa bought from a GM of my husband's company who decided to find a new job and subsequently a new car. You know these hi-Fi GM types na. Hence the car was ready to be sold off (at a decent price to any employee of the company). My husband decided to buy it for reasons best known to him. I am not particularly fond of these Corsa, Ikon, Lancer, Esteem type cars. I think they are the most boring-looking cars ever designed. They all, first and foremost, look the same to me. I mean its really hard for me to just shoot one glance at a car speeding at 100 kmph on a highway and decide it was Honda City or Hyundai Accent or whatever else. I guess its totally a man's area of expertise to identify cars, just like they manage to identify what stupid cricket match highlights are telecast on ESPN - in which ground along with statistics like dd/mm/yy and hh:mm:ss, what would be the next shot of the batsman, which chewing gum is the bowler chewing and which umpire is going to scratch his head next or whatever. I guess, you got my drift..:-)

I like smaller cars because they are easier to handle, take less parking space (that's a secondary reason) and they give better mileage and blah blah. Power steering and all that jazz give me a headache because slight deviation of the steering wheel takes the vehicle totally out of course specially at higher speed and slight acceleration zooms the car at unimaginable speeds. But my secret love is and will always be for SUV's. They have such a magnanimous and commanding identity of their own on the roads. I cant help but gape at any such vehicle parked or on road in my vicinity.:-)

So back to my Corsa saga and its adventurous, slow journey home! It so happened that my parents-in-law were of the firm opinion that the vehicle must be bought on a 'so-called' auspicious day where all the favorable stars in the sky shone at the same position as the day you were born. ('You', here, refers to my husband). Its an 'astronomical' wonder to me how these astrologers and god-men come up with such accurate stuff that even NASA guys fail to with their hi-tech telescopes. So the GM guy, had to keep the car with him until 4 days after. On the 4th day, the driver of that GM left the car at my husband's office basement parking. The next task was to get the car home. My husband is a proxy driver with a driver's license. I was slightly better than a proxy. So it was decided that I bring the car home.

Now me, being the meticulous self and all that, declined any suggestions by my husband to get it home on a week-day. Peak traffic, night driving and the ilk were a strict no-no. I decided to bring it home on a Saturday morning before half the city (junta with half/full working day) woke up. That meant foregoing my most treasured weekend beauty sleep. But its better than wait until eternity for another cosmic alignment.

I was very jumpy at start trying to figure which were the gears and where the brakes were and where the indicators were etc. :-) But later, I was comfortable after I got on to the highway. The roads were moderately inhabited near the airport area but nothing alarming. Along the route, I encountered this fat lady who refused to budge from the middle of the road in spite of my loud honks. She finally got a slight hit on her fatter backside, more like a spank. Serves her right though. The car really got tested for all the suspension claims the ads make and I must admit it was a smooth ride over most potholes. I couldn't help enjoying the drive after that. Nonetheless, I decided that I need to polish my driving skills with a more seasoned driver next to me like a 'real driver' for a few months.

So the car sleeps yet again in the back of our apartment, waiting for yet another right stellar configuration when we find a chauffeur who works 6 days a week (maybe nights too considering our crazy working hours!), who waits on us patiently at shopping malls and busy temples (not me- my MIL), and also comes sasta-aur-tikau when it comes to salary. Its an arduous task to find one with such stringent CTQ's. Perhaps the ever-dependable, family astrologer can help here..!..:-)