Christmas 2009

I had never imagined that the first car that I would get to drive in Ahmedabad was going to be a 20 (yes – twenty) year old Maruti 800.

Singa and me were stuck in office till late night yesterday working on Christmas over some vague shit that had dropped at the last moment. Thank you Santa. Coincidentally I happened to have put on a t-shirt that proclaimed in pink coloured bold fonts: ‘Shit happens’. I mean think about it, I had booked tickets for 8 folks for the evening show of 3 idiots but I myself couldn’t go for it. Nor could Singa. I even had to ask my driver to pack for the day because I had no clue how long the work was going to take.

Finally when work got over and I was still wondering on the logistics of my night stay, Karnavati – a colleague, came back to office after watching the movie. He told us that the first half was really good while the later half a little jhelaaoo. And then he lent me his Maruti because my guest-house was 25 kms away and there was absolutely nothing you could find to commute to that place at late hours. It was late hours. It was 11 by the time we had dined. So it was rather sweet of Karnavati to actually catch an auto back home for himself.

So yeah, I drove the 20 year old car from my office in Ahmedabad to my guest-house in Gandhinagar – a distance of about 25 kilometers, at about 11:30 in the night. The car did not have a rear view mirror by the way. The whole experience looked so fragile that in spite of running on a highway, I kept the speed somewhere between 45 to 50 kph and definitely did not exceed 60 at any point of time. Believe me, I felt like one of those 80 year old grumpy ladies whom you sometimes see driving 100 year old cars at 10kph on expressways who curse everyone that overtakes[1]. Believe me, I felt great.

PS: It’s 12:30 PM and I am off to Ahmedabad on the same car to catch the afternoon show of 3 idiots today with Singa.

[1]I know you see them only in movies but so be it.