Tuesday, March 21, 2006

My experiments with car

I always drove a car in child-hood with a steel plates as a steering wheel; some times sitting on the top the gate post and using the fence bush branch as a clutch. Those days are past. Finally I decided to buy the car. But financial condition was not that great that I will afford to buy a car. Well , I managed some money and started hunting for car in net, a best place to find. After a month search, finally narrowed down on a car in Chembur which is the nearest suburb to us in Mumbai. We met a car dealer Mr Perriera with a French beard and he showed us a Maruthi Zen ; one of the most popular model ever to hit Indian road.It was looking very dull. He used all his marketing skill and finally convinced us to buy that. After two days of deliberation we finally paid him two thousand rupees as token advance and he promised by 2 days he will give a call, but he never turned up and later he paid back money saying that the car owner is not willing to sell the car.So our dream is shattered more than me my wife Pammi's face was like a dry tomato. Well, I was also disoppointed , I always saw all Zen, in particular white cars ( the color of the car which we were supposed to buy) I imagined my car would be like this !! Once again we were at zero and search continued. Ravi one of my friend's brother told me there is a zen just outside the gate of our campus. I was excited ,"that is great we will go and see it" The same day evening both of us went and saw the car . The car owner's husband said it must be 98 model and repainted and in good condition. And estimated price of 1lakh. I came home and told pammi ( my wife) , she said we will buy it !! By this time our patinence was at limit and we were ready to buy anything shown to us!!! Finally deal was struck at Rs.90 000/- and we bought it.There are many small details in-between, like how we showed to mechanic , how I marveled at his Mumbaia Hindi, how I took all 80, 000 cash from one bank and put it into another and fear in the stomach when we wihtdrew 90 000 cash, how I formatted different letters which would legalized sale( Most of the letters I did not use and they are still laying in my bag) and I paid money to the car owner all these are the part of the big story finally most funniest thing is that I myself don't know driving . I took one of my friend who drove the car from it's old owner's place to my apartment and parked it in-front of our building. I went up in the lift to my flat in 6th floor. From balcony I bent and saw my new ----old car which is happily or gingerly standing (parked) infront of the building. I had many things to do. I have to transfer the car to my name.Iwent to a person called Vicky in Govandi. His office was inside a gully. I handed over all the papers of the car and signed blindly on all the places he showed me with great confindence.Later two days there was no phone from him !! Now I am in fix I said to myself how foolish I am, blindly believing the people. It was may be because of my laziness I have to pay heavy price. All possible bad thoughts passed over the mind. Nothing that bad happened he transfered the car on my name and gave it on third day afte i handed over him all ht documents. Wow now RC-book has my name as the owner of the car.
During all these time , I was still driving illiterate!!!. I joined Balaji driving school. They charged me 2500/- for license and driving lessons. I gave some ten copies of my photos and money they asked me to come in the next week. I went for the first class. I was sent towards a golden colored car ( model Maruti 800 ). One man in his fifties with black and white mustache with typical south Indian outshirt was standing next to car. He asked me get into the car. I sat on the driving seat and was horrified to see the road ahead of me. All the road has been dug up by the municipality and there was a terrible traffic chaos. I told to him I can't take car on the first day through this mess. He said nothing doing you have to drive through this. After a while he said OK . He took the wheel and drove into relatively empty road. He parked the car on the road side and introduced himself. I am Sanjeev Master!!. HE asked me whether I know any driving? I said no .He explained every thing clutch break accelerator gear etc. Eventhough I knew and even I drove a bit in village i didnot show my little knowledge. He always said petrol for accelerator.Here is a sample class. As soon as you enter the class I mean car.... Seat belt, seat ( u have to adjust seat according to your leg space) first gear.... petrol ...........clutch ...... petrol ...... clutch choddo (leave the clucth) petrol oaur petrol ( bit more petrol ), left....... Second .... clutch.... petrol ......cum petrol ( less petrol) never gave more petrol , in 20 classes I never drove that car beyond 20km/h !!!now he will take to different roads of the Mumbai suburb. To give you cofidence, he will take you to the roads which are filled with heavy traffic or small roads which are busting with life, all the U-turns , circles , difficult signals ( bekhar signals) , and also he taught me how to get started in up using the clutch and petrol. At the end of the classes he gave all the possible hints about Guru dhakshina ( teacher fee ) and he said you need to take care of your teacher , Well I did it with 100 rupees!!!.
As all these things were going on I tried all possible things with my own car. Second day after I bought the car , all of us were planning to go to Ganesha temple. Now I have to take the car. I was just one day old in car driving , with all courage I got into the car..( during that time I was not even aware of how to open the door lock) I and pammi are accompanied by our great friends Sachin , Shruti and Bhibuti. Now all of us sat in the car , sahcin sat besides me , he is the navigator. I managed to reverse the car and took onto the road , with great difficulty car went to first gear. Our great journey around our campus started. We have a long way to reach the temple it is almost one km. Now we have reached the main road at each turning I used whole road, sahcin constantly navigated how much I should turn the steering wheel . Finally we managed to reach the temple.The priest did all the pooja and he made me to reverse the car and put into east west direction; with all friends constant cheer and guidance after 10min I managed it the priest did all the pooja and sprayed some flowers and sreegnada on car . We turned back and our journey towards home started. All of them decided to visit Sahyog's ( one more friend's home , who is at that time was on his Honey moon). place. His home is located bit interior from main road , a small road connects to his house. Now I have to turn the car in that narrow road. I was nervous , all in back seat suggested against it. I managed it with Sachin's brilliant navigation there our journey started again towards my place. Now I cant reverse the car in that road. So I took a complete round of the building to reach the main road , from there with out much fuss we reached home.
Story of the window. One window glass was gone down in between the door the glass moving mechanism was broken. I took a driver , since my driving was still in infancy!!! I replaced it in a local garage , well that was my first experience with car garage he charged me just Rs.500 /-
After that till today I am finding new things on the dash board, like parking light on the back of the steering wheel , and KM count down below the speedometer!!!! many more things'
let me stop here.