MY FIRST VROooM

MY FIRST CAR

I do not know when was the whole idea settled in me that a car could be part of the family,i had an relationship with cars from the moment i must have been old enough to speak.
I think my first ever car ride was on an huge one, i do not recollect the name of the car but it was as big as it could get, our neighbour in Ernakulam had the car and we used to get rides on it. I was so scared to sit in the back seat that i used to make it a point to jump to the second row to be with my mother.
Then came the Amby phobia, we were on a family trip to a temple and mid way we had stopped for a cup of tea, completing that ritual we sat in the car and as usual i occupied the front seat and was on my fathers lap!!!SLAM!!! the door was shut and the next thing i realise, i could not feel my wrist and only then did i see that my fingers were wedged between the door and the body of the car.
Thankfully it was nothing serious, though i still carry the scar on my finger which has stayed on as an memorial of that incident.

Many years later my dad decided to buy a car since we all were trying really hard to fit into an old scooter and were inviting many a sneer from onlookers. One day dad announced "its an Omni" we decided to buy this car as it was HUGE and could accommodate a lot of people, well basically two over grown kids my dad and mom and two other kids one of whom was trying to eat his way into happiness and the other was happy staying hungry, you could guess the first one was me.
Another thing that prompted us to buy this car was our trip to OOTY, i was the one who as sitting next to the driver and enjoying the view, i had declared then "jaj I love this CAR" :-), jaja, being my dad was more than keen to buy this car, so there it was newly painted in pearl white and fresh seats gleaming under the afternoon sun. I could not hold back my excitement,i still remember spending an entire evening inside the car bearing the heat and the mosquitoes, honking and practicing my driving on my imaginary roads with an old stereo belting out BABA SEHGAL songs which was a gift from the old owner.
I was never more happier and almost always dreamed of taking the beauty for a drive through some hilly roads looking out through the window,i knew there that i was a natural at it,i mean driving a car, but it made my mother more and more anxious as i was spending more of my time inside the car than the house. Even spending my time studying for my final exams inside it was what totally freaked her out.
We did go for some amazing trips in it, the most memorable being the ooty trip which was like a trip back down a few years where we had decided that OMNI would be our first car.

Today when i see an omini on the road it takes me back to those old days where, for me a car was more of a member of a family than just a machine,we sold the Omni after much thought for another and have gone further through out INDIA than we would have imagined when we first brought our Omni. I never learnt to drive from any driving school, for me those imaginary vroom-vrooms were all that was required, for me it was much more than just a car, i still miss my Omni.
I bet everyone does miss their first car, their first vroom-vroom, their Omnis

a train journey

its been long...really long.i am glad that i still remember my login to this account....
i have traveled a lot and by lot i mean crossed continents a couple of times and it has been an eventful year, did complete my Masters in Law, a thing which i thought was reserved to the extra brilliant and legal eagles of my batch... to live in United Kingdom was one of my dreams i did fulfill it..had an amazing time and it would be one of the best years in my life as i completed a course which was really tough shifting from a relaxed study atmosphere to an competitive international study circle and i am really happy that i came out without any bad memories and only with good friends and better still an LLM.

This is not what i actually wanted to say today, this post relates to an experience which i had a few days back on my way to Cochin from Warangal after attending my beloved friends shivacharan's wedding, we were lucky enough to catch the train back home, we got onto our coach and settled down onto the seats allocated to us besides the four of us we had another two men, one was a north Indian which i could figure out of the way in which he talked to us and the other from kerala, they both never spoke anything. The person from kerala was were weird in the way he carried himself through the one and a half day journey and the only words spoken to us by him were "guntur is a big station ". the four of us were enjoying ourselves with jokes from college life and other incidents just to kill time and also commenting and making fun of each other, even though the north indian 'babu' was never interested and slept as if he had some important dream to finish, the other 'chetan' was not so amused at our jokes nor was he interested in the game of cards that we were playing our anything else that was happening around the coach. we all thought it was a bit weird and was kinda abnormal to see a person just staring out of the window into the empty darkness.

The next morning was more joyful for us as were coming to the end of our journey and we all get to be back home for good food and a good sleep, the train was fast approaching Trichur when the malayalee 'chetan' receives a call, i was surprised to hear this phone ring and him talk as this was the second time he had opened his mouth the whole time we were in the coach, as till then he never wished me back for my polite but inquisitive good morning..which i thought would unlock his mouth and we would have a conversation...what happened next surprised me even more, i had to listen to what he was saying as he was sitting just opposite to me and all he said was..." yes i saw the paper...i saw it there,i hope to reach soon..hope keep it till then" and the phone was cut and he continued the stare into the yonder as i thought 'there he goes again' i realized that there was a tear rolling down his cheek and he could not hold back the tear that was threatening to break his strength...this was something that i had never imagined and was shaken by the whole situation and i was ashamed on myself that i had been stupid enough to call him weird, this reminded me about the short film in kerala cafe a movie were mammooty is seen a rude traveler..but that day i thought everyone travel but the purpose of it can vary from person to person.....our enjoyment should not be something that should bother any other fellow traveler...it is something that i would remember from now on....as i got down at Ernakulam,i had a glance at him he was still looking out through the window...may he find his peace may...the train moves on and so does life, people are but mere travellers