VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...............

(My petite Alto on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, May 2008)

(Our petite alto and fiery Indica in Madurai during our road trip from Kanyakumari to Chennai, November 2008)

Wondering what the title signifies? The sound of a car or a bike......Well, it resembles both and for that matter, any vehicle :). The SOUND OF MUSIC can enrich a million hearts (including mine), but the SOUND OF A MOTOR ENGINE (especially cars) can enrich mine more than anything else. I grew up with a passion for vehicles, be it 2-wheeler, 4-wheeler or n-wheeler. Anything that had wheels always fascinated me (including the bicycle). I used to keep (and i still do) a virtual database of all the vehicles ( N-wheelers) available in the market firmly on my mind. And right from childhood me and my twin brother keep discussing about the facts of various vehicles available in the market and our dad used to update us with unknown facts about those vehicles. Like me, my brother too has a passion for vehicles, though at present bikes fascinate him more than cars (the converse is true in my case).

During our childhood, bicycles and bikes/scooters/mopeds used to be more common than cars. And we used to scout for every new model coming out in the market on the roads. Whenever we spot a new vehicle, we used to visualize and see the different parts of the vehicle (right from headlamps to the rear-tyre) and update our virtual database in our memory. During our outings (which used to be on a weekly basis) we used to come across cars, but not of much variety, like the omnipresent Marutis, santros & Ford-Ikons. Cars fascinated me a lot but during those days there were hardly any attractive Indian Models and imported ones attracted me a lot. But those imported cars were hardly on the roads in a small city like Trichy.



During our wait at the bus-stops, we do a similar database update with buses. We knew the registration nos. of almost all the buses that used to commute in our area (Trichy, TamilNadu), the drivers who drive it and the performance of the bus (in terms of speed, comfort, etc). All this needed days of drive in those buses and our database used to be almost complete. We used to go around any NEW bus in the town checking out what is so special in that new bus (whether it has a TV inside, stereo, push-back seats, 3*2 or 2*2 seating, etc, etc). During those days (early 1990s) the buses used to be of only two makes - Tata & Ashok Leyland (unlike the Volvos which are becoming very common these days in India roads). I was (and still am) a big supporter of Ashok-Leyland simply for the reason that Ashok-Leyland engines sounded really nice (loud actually) and these buses looked very durable unlike the Tata buses.While studying at our home we used to guess the buses passing by, by listening to the sound from their silencers :). ... it used to be a wonderful, maddening, involuntary crazy feeling which I still relish till date.....I never realised how special or unique our curiosity was, but now i realise how special it is. I really miss my childhood......

Our first family vehicle was a Bajaj-Chetak (1983 model - Light green). True to its name, it galloped like a horse (Chetak was the famous, loyal & swift horse of King Maharana Pratap). I used to enjoy our drives in that scooter, with one of us seated between my mom & dad and the other standing in front with the head perched on the head-lamp. And we used to fight for the place @ front, coz we had a good look at the road :) As we grew up, my brother outpaced me in height (and weight as well), so i used to be the default choice for sitting between my parents in the chetak :(.......

The second vehicle in our family was a pair of bicycles. It was a b`day present for me & my brother (in 4th std) from my parents. One was a Hero-Hansa and the other was a BSA-SLR. I used to long for the evenings, when both of us used to take out the bicycles and race each other for an hour to come back home drained out. After 4 years of running, we had to sell of the two bicycles and by 10th std we got a brand new HERCULES MTB- CANNON BARREL bicycle. It was a lovely mountain-biking cycle with its bulky saddle bar. Its USP was its sturdiness.

Then came the first 2-wheeler exclusively for us.... a green colored TVS 50 moped for our tuitions during 12th std. Though it was just a 50cc vehicle, riding it upto 50kmph was fun as it was the first vehicle we had exclusively for us. By that time we had started driving the chetak as well...... but i was quite rugged in driving the scooter compared to my bro.

After moving to BITS I went back to old ways of using a bicycle (which was the only vehicle allowed in BITS-hostels). I was gifted an ATLAS-Tango bicycle by my dad and driving it was so much of fun especially the romantic duet drives alongside my girlfriend on her HERCULES-CAPTAIN bicycle. Soon the two bicycles became one..... one of the bicycles used to rest while the other was used, as we realised that bicycle is a 2-seater and not just a 1-seater... Ignorance is bliss :D.....



By this time back home (my brother did his college studies @ RECT from my home) they had purchased a new ALTO Lxi and a HERO HONDA Splendor. So my brother had the luxury of sampling the Splendor whenever he liked. And I used to do it whenever I go for holidays. But I must admit that my brother drove it the SPLENDOR with SPLENDID confidence unlike me who was always quite hesitant while driving the splendor. I guess the absence of sufficient practice with the bike deprived me of the confidence, unlike my brother who could drive whenever he wanted to. Once in a traffic signal, when the lights turned green, I was in such a frantic desperation that I accelerated highly without releasing the clutch. The front wheel was high up in the air (like wheeling), but luckily I did not release the clutch, else I would have barged into the guy at front. My brother at the back and my parents in the scooter next to us were perplexed as to what I was doing. It was an unforgettable, embarassing stunt though :D...

Meanwhile my craze for cars was ever on the increase with increased access to internet about all the big car information (ferrari being the foremost....). And I kept updating my knowledge through regular reading of "Auto-India" Magazine (which i later found to be an exact duplicate of the much standard "AUTOCAR" magazine.... and the ALTO Lxi that our parents bought was my choice :) So now both of us had our hands on our car after purchasing our driving licence.... And I must admit that my brother drove the car better than me, partly due to the fact that I had time to sample the car only during my holidays (away from Pilani) whereas he being at home could drive it whenever our family went out.

Then came my visit to Pune (for my last semester project) where I had our lovely Chetak at my disposal. Me and my girlfriend made full use of the horse (Chetak) going around places in Pune, leaving no stone unturned. At the end of my Pune tenure (6 months) I had to sell off our brave horse to my friend before moving to Noida.

After moving to Noida and after 3 months of tipsy-topsy turns I got married to the love of my life and after 13 days of our marriage we had the first major asset in our family.... a brand new Alto Lxi (Pearl Silver). I adorned it with the best accessories I could think of. My dream had become true... owning a car for myself and using it to the fullest :)....

Our car has stood by with us over the last four years through so many eventful trips to jaipur, agra, beawar, nainital.... and V just love our car and she loves us too :). Till date she has covered close to 35,000 kms and I can claim to have done around 22k of the mileage... Initially I used to the car fully at my disposal, then since my office had shifted far-off I had to take the company conveyance. And so, my wife learnt driving and started taking the car. I must really admit that she picked up driving very fast. And till date she is the only person (among the ones I had seen) who disproves the statement "Ah... ladies' driving? Stay away". But once she started taking the car, I hardly had time with my baby-car. But whenever I had the chance (mostly on weekends) I never forgo myself being on the wheel. So whenever you spot both of us in the car, you can be assured that I am driving it :D.....Which means that I dont have the chance to admire my wife`s driving, but on the other hand I let her relax while I enjoy the drive ;)

Lastly, before I bore you enough a small piece of info...........
I generally drive rashly fast at times on the road. And I do race on the road with other cars, who try to smoke on mine.... Till date I have not found anybody who can give me a tough competition other than my own brother. I am being a bit boastful though... but yes I am proud of my driving :D...
My brother was BORN with a driving talent...whereas I DEVELOPED it.