As a kid, I was always fascinated by how a motor vehicle works. Not the science or scientist aspect of it but the functional and convenience aspect of it. Whenever we used commute to school in a public transport (bus) in Chennai (and we commuted for many years in a bus cumulatively), my brother and I used to stand near the engine and driver area in the bus. Remember the Ashok Leyland and TATA diesel buses of the 1990s? We used to watch the drivers drive these heavy buses. How they change gears, what they do before changing gears, how they brake and accelerate.

One fine day, we see our father driving a brand new Maruti car to our house. Remember when I told you that my father was very talented. Whenever my father quit his job, we were broke for a few years but once he got his next job, it would be a higher posting and better pay. This time, my father got an office sponsored vehicle also along with his salary and promotion (as a Regional Sales Manager) in an MNC. This company dealt with industrial adhesives. This company also used to sponsor the global F1 Races in the 90’s and 2000’s, I realized this aspect much later in my life, ha. So the point is that my father had finally arrived (for a few years, that is).

My brother and I had no clue that our father was arriving in a car. We were in in our 6th grade back then. This was a brand new Maruti Suzuki (Maruti 800). It was white in color. I loved it. It was almost like in the movie Pushpa where he decides to surprise his mother driving a brand new car. We lost it. We were blown away. More so because the apartment that we were living in at that point of time was a lower middle class type apartment. But who cares, we were elated.

Our father loved long drives. He said we are going to Tirupati temple in the CAR!!

Wohoo. We had a lot of fun with that car. Our father would drop us to school in that car too sometimes when he was free in the morning. Or, he would pick us up post school some days too. The best part was when he would offer some of our best friends also a drop home. Life was great. But it had an expiry date. Ha! 3 years. Then everything goes off. No car, no furniture, no locality, no 2 bedroom house.

2 years and many hardships later, our father joins a CCTV sales dealership company. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, India was still waking up to the CCTV culture. But there was considerable awareness and my father was a good salesman. Even in this job, he got a better post and higher pay and guess what, a company allocated vehicle too. Again a Maruti 800, latest model relevant to those times. We used to watch movies in the drive in theater while that car was present. But this time around, my fascination towards a four wheeler was less nuanced compared what I felt 6 years ago. Maybe I was growing older and wiser. A lesson again that material things won’t stay with us forever.

Fast forward to 2007. All this while I never make an attempt to buy a car. I did however buy a car on my own but that was upon my father’s request and it was only for my father to commute to his workplace/ college. I took care of the EMI since I bought it after I started working and also because this time no one would take the car away from him. He used that car for 15 years and we scrapped it in 2023 because of the government recommended policy to scrap petrol cars older than 15 years too. This car was with us till the end.

Now in 2024, when we were expecting Neo, having a four wheeler would be highly useful to take Neo’s mom around to hospitals because we can control the speed of the car and speed breaker impacts unlike an uber/ ola where we had to request the drivers repeatedly to go slow deliberately. Many times they would also agree to go slow but forget it too. So remind them again. This did not seem to be improving. So I finally decided against all my material loss memories and signed up for a car.

This car was delivered almost 6 months before Neo’s arrival. Now came the biggest problem. I did not have a four wheeler driving license. I never tried applying for it or even learning how to drive a car. My father did teach us how to drive a car from time to time and I did drive it but only on highways. I know the concept of changing gears, accelerating smoothly etc. but never wanted to get a car for myself or even drive it either. My brother was a master in driving by now. He got his license a few months after he turned 18. But I did not. The memories of car coming and going away in my childhood and teenage was impacting this decision. I lost the urge too.

But now that Neo was arriving and I had already bought a car, I decided to learn and get the license too. Thankfully, this car is a top end electric vehicle and its automatic transmission too. I appointed a driver and asked him to teach me driving. After 45 days of driving with L board, I gave the driving test a couple of times and cleared it too in the final chance (everyone gets 3 chances to clear it).

That’s how I got my Driving License for a four wheeler. Now I take Neo and his mom around on weekends and I commute to work everyday on it.

Looking back on my decision not to buy a car for myself or not to learn driving maybe justified for that phase of my life. But for this phase of my life, this also feels justified now.

During the time when I chose not to buy a car for myself, I did buy a Royal Enfield though. Two wheelers no problem at all. The heavier, even better too. Ha!