car ... car ... car ...

People's love for automobiles is variegated. The so called purists, love a car for its design. The miserly love a car for its mileage. The lazy love a car for its ease of maintenance. The lazy and miserly have all the more to celebrate, now! Then there are the hopeless romantics, who love a car for no apparent reason ... sometimes not even knowing what's cool about the car they love.

I am a hopeless romantic, when it comes to cars. Since childhood, I've been amazed by the gorgeous curves of those two Italian ladies ... nope, I ain't talking about Sophia Loren and Monica Vitti ... I am talkin' about the Ferrari and the Lamborghini. The vrroom...vroom sound, the claims about top speed, the raw power ... just the plain layman attractions of these cars made me drool over them.

When I was old enough to have my own motor vehicle, my parents chose the Maruti 800 that was lying around, than a motorbike, hoping that I'll be safer in that one ;-) Well, when your friends ride bikes at top speeds, you can't really be a sitting duck, can you? ;-) So, I was soon famous in college for how "well" I sped my car. Some infamous anecdotes include a midnight race of mine in the car with a friend on a bike in Bangalore's narrow residential roads and the famous one of my aunt chanting Vishnu Sahasranama in the back seat of the car, even as I beat the clock to drop her off where she wanted to get and get to my tuitions in time. Needless to say, there were numerous funny incidents such as running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere and flat tires at critical junctures et.al. But the end result of all these experiences in the car was that, by the time I left for the US, the car was sounding like a truck and the mechanic asked my dad how could I have driven the car when the engine was barely mounted ... yeehaw!!

When I started my job in the US, it was time to buy a car. I had various choices. I could save money and buy a used car. Something that I didn't want to do, obviously. I somehow felt that my first car must be a nice, brand new car. OK! The next piece of advise that was floated around for me, from well meaning long-time resident desis, was to buy a Honda or a Toyota for its nice mileage and ease of maintenance. I wasn't sure about this, but at the same time, the deluge of advise was overwhelming. Respite came in the form of a good friend of mine, who owned a BMW and told me that I should get something "hatke" like a BMW. Now, that was something beyond my affordability. So, the next available options were Volkswagen Jetta, one of the Mazda cars and the Nissan Altima. The first place I went shopping was to the Nissan store, to do a testdrive. I just loved the rev of the engine and I walked out with my Nissan Altima in tow (remember, I am a hopeless romantic when it comes to cars) ... some quick shopping, eh? That was on 20th August 2001.

The Altima has been like a close pal since then. I've driven the car on some of the coolest rides in and around the area. When my friends were still in school and since I was one of the few who owned a car, it was a very welcome luxury among them. Everytime I went to LA to meet them, it was always a very wonderful time that we had. It was our 'ratha' to go to late night pizza dinners in the 'dark den' and then drive over to Santa Monica beach at 2 am to have a duel with the raging waves to see if we could keep the waves away from us! Even the drive to LA was memorable many a times because of the exhilirating thrill I got out of taking my car to the peak speed possible of 120 MPH and then spend the next chilling 5-10 seconds as the speed came down to 70-odd MPH. Of course, I ensured there were no cops around, enjoying my crazy stunts! On a trip to Yosemite, with the LA gang, the moon roof came very useful, as people took turns to put their head out into the chilling night as we zipped past the valley. The most recent fabulous trip on the car was a 3000 mile roatrip with my sweetheart wife. It was a wondeful trip for many reasons including the moments spent with my wife ... not to forget the memorable but scary drives through snow country in Colorado and Utah.

That reminds me how, my car has saved me despite my rashness in driving. I have had the misfortune of rear-ending my car two times. Though the car did suffer some damage, I was never injured! After this, I had to really re-evaluate my driving habits. I realized that though I had the cocky attitude that I was a safe driver, there was this sense of negligence towards the other drivers on the road and a lack of respect for their safety. Needless to say, my driving is safer now :-)

So my dear friend, teacher and trusted servant ... Nissan Altima ... here's saluting you on seeing me through 100,000 miles of service. Here's hoping a longer time together.