Our new baby comes home!

The old girl and I went to the Maruti dealer at Bistupur, Jamshedpur and took delivery of our factory fresh Swift VDi this evening. The dealer had put some red ribbons (complete with a bow!) and our new car was looking cute.

I have observed one funny thing about my feelings for all my wheels -- I might see hundreds of identical cars (including those of the same colour) on the road, but my OWN car somehow looks extra special! When we travelled from Vizag to Delhi to take delivery of our first car (Maruti 800) in 1988, we did not get any of our colour choices and had to settle for a bright blue (called 'Racing Blue' by Maruti) colour which was a big flop in the market and therefore only a few thousand Maruti 800's of that colour were ever made. But all 4 of us fell in love with it anyway and genuinely thought it was a great looking car. Just like if your newborn baby turns out to be not so pretty, you still love it more than any other baby in the world.

The old girl was probably more excited than me and had both of us posing in front of our new baby.

Since the Tata Main Hospital was on our way and one of my father's closest friends (Dr. HP Sinha) who also happens to be my father-in-law's classmate from medical college is admitted there, we stopped there and spent some time cheering up Sinha uncle. There I received a call from Dr. Biman Malakar, one of my Hallmates from LLR Hall IIT Kgp, informing me that he was visiting Jamshedpur. So we picked him up en route and brought him home. Later we dropped him back in the car. Bimanda is the first person in our circle of friends / relatives to see our new car and take a ride in it.

When I told Bimanda that it was diesel car, he just could not believe it because there was no 'diesel-like' noise or vibration. I was driving quite slowly throughout because the roads were crowded with Puja revellers and also because it'll take me some time to get used to the feel of my new car. Probably I did not even exceed 1500 RPM. But I never felt the engine to be sluggish or behaving differently as compared to a petrol engine. The suspension felt good and overall feel was solid. The power steering feels very responsive and so do the brakes.

All in all, a good beginning to a love affair which should last for many years, inshallah. I haven't removed the ribbons yet. But I got the polythene covers removed from the seats at the showroom itself. I hate them and can't understand how some people keep driving for months with these covers.

One last thing -- the smell of a new car is so unique and intoxicating! If someone could bottle it and market it, he is sure to become a billionnaire. I hope my 'new car smell' lasts for a few weeks -- I'm keeping the car windows tightly shut. My 'car shed' is just outside my room in our house and I can get the distictive smell even as I write this. Heady stuff!