Fast Car...
Fast Car
“You got a fast car,
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal,
May be together we can get somewhere……
I have always, always, loved Audi; especially since watching cricketer Ravi Shastri sealing his victory lap with an Audi 100 Sedan spin, at Melbourne Cricket Ground 1985, it’s perched up as my dream, dream car.
After acing PLAB exams only on my 3rd attempt (!) in 1995, I did buy into three prerogatives of my then teenaged life; Hifi; CAMERA and a CAR. Nissan Bluebird was my first, AIWA and Samsung joined the bandwagon later.
The number was, F551 PVL and was bought in Scunthorpe, Sheffield, which was my then abode in UK, September 1995. I was a junior doctor then in Scunthorpe General Hospital, and had already passed my driving test and a matter of fact, the only exam, I passed at first attempt ever in UK. The car costed me £2700 and already clocked 77,000 miles. This was around 1, 30,000 km, blimey! For that matter, I would be very desperate to know if cars in India would be still alive at those miles and also sold from a decent garage, with three months’ warranty. Quite Unlikely, right?
The fateful scenario, which catapulted me to buy a car, was something of an evening stroll along Chennai marina beach with my sister and a female friend of mine from Medical school in 1988. I was in Year three at Stanley Medical; the conversation went something like this; my sister, jokingly, uttered, possibly to begin a conversation with my friend, mentioned that one day or even within next five years or so, Suren (that’s me) might buy and drive his own car; nothing bad in this causal utterance isn’t it? However, to which, my Sri Lankan friend snapped with a bouncer, blink less, and said very sarcastically in Tamil, “Akka, are you joking”? This was also in 1988, when Tracy Chapman belted out “Fast Car”, one of my favourites, to win few Grammy's; and I bought my first car 7 years later.
Neither my friend nor Sister, for their part, am sure, really meant what they were uttering and muttering about; however, it dawned on me, on that day, I was taken for a ride and no sooner, was jerked off , crushing my already dwarfed self-esteem with a big bang! The stroll of my life, hence knowingly or unknowingly played along subconscious and pushed a sweet, corner shop boy, towards PLAB, UK and guided a similar stroll in Scunthorpe, on a flashy afternoon, cajoling him into buying Nissan Blue bird, is, of no joke!
Blue bird lasted four eventful years, until one day, I decided to dump it for a better looking black beauty called Nissan Primera; lasted for few years until 2006; swapped for a Vauxhall 7 seater (mostly used as a 10 seater!). Valluvar aptly says, “Vakuthaan vakutha vagaiyallal kodi, Thokuthaarkkum thuythal arithu,”meaning, “we amass wealth in abundance but can enjoy it, only as destined”.
Agree?
My better half was happily steering away a new Fiat Punto and later a Toyota Yaris during these times, before we hesitantly embarked upon a forward journey in 2013, to Singapore for better pastures. We are happy to brag, since , owned no automobile of any sort ,thankful to a fleet of nearly 20000 cars waiting to port us anywhere, any nook and corner of this grand city state and at any time for a decent fare.
“May be together we can get somewhere,
Any place is better,
Starting from zero got nothing to lose,
May be we’ll make something,
Me, Myself, I got nothing to prove”
- Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”- 1988.
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