And the award goes to....

Market survey was in full swing. For a car. Six years after having bought-technically speaking-my first car, there were enough tell-tale signs that the dear Indica VLS needed to be bade a fond farewell. Difficult though the decision was, it had to be taken, as there were frequent irritants, in the form of the self giving trouble, or the battery getting discharged, or some other part giving way…and one by one, I had to get them replaced. Slowly but steadily, my mind was reaching a conclusion-I had to start looking around for a new car.

I hadn’t quite envisaged how tough this would be-this ‘looking around.’ Not half as simple a process as walking into a showroom and buying the car of your choice. ‘Cos that is where the major hurdle came in-the word choice. The market is now flooded with cars in the small segment (the segment I was looking at) and there was a surfeit of choice. What should one look at? Fuel efficiency or sleek looks or plush interiors/accessories or simply the brand name? For me, there was a fifth dimension: I wanted a new model automobile and not a run-of-the-mill car that has got added by the thousands in recent years. Plus of course, there was a stringent budget.

As far as brand name went, Maruti seemed to win hands down and I had all but set my heart on A-Star, a fairly recent addition. The after-sales and service of Maruti, its tried and tested credentials plus the stylish look of the car had helped me cast my vote in its favour. Neck to neck in the race was another new, equally stylish product-Chevrolet’s shining Beat with smart carriers! Two trips to the latter’s show room and I emerged disillusioned about Beat-its inside space seemed too small.

A Maruti showroom was my next destination: the K 10 and the Estilo were among the cars examined before I headed towards the waiting A-Star. The moment I heard the magic words ‘music system’ as being part of the accessories, my mind was all but made up. Looks, price, brand name, value for money, within the budget…all criteria were being admirably met. Visions of driving this sophisticated car, swaying gently to the music wafting from its system floated before the rapturous eyes. But that’s when sonny boy, who had accompanied me on the jaunt to facilitate the process of decision-making, threw the proverbial spanner in the works. He opened the boot of the car, took one look and exclaimed that it was too small by half. Why, it wouldn’t even accommodate his luggage on a week’s trip home and that was saying something!! (The fellow goes off on international trips of 2-3 months’ duration, carrying a rucksack, a bag and his laptop!! And to think that I have always taken pride in being a light traveler-he beats me hollow!!) Oh we’d manage by putting stuff on the back seat, I demurred but he wouldn’t budge from his stance. I suggested that I'd measure the suitcase at home and return to measure the boot, to take a well-informed decision, but the usually mild fellow stood his ground firmly. This space wouldn’t do and neither would the car. I could see my dream go out the window……but some small voice within me kept telling me he was right.

The next couple of days were uneventful-as the young man was busy catching up with sleep, and how! So market survey sort of took a backseat. Till Janmashtami, a holiday, saw me at the Hyundai show room, the spouse and son in tow. It was actually on the better half’s insistence-and a result of his scandalized question as to how one could even contemplate buying a car without looking at the best option?-that we were there. I had to admit that the i10 met practically every point on my checklist, except that its interior had a plastic-ish finish and it was pretty much the most common car to have hit the roads in recent times. Perhaps a testimony to its quality, but not motivation enough for me. What about Ritz, he quipped- had we looked at that car? Admitting that we hadn’t, we retraced our steps to the Maruti showroom, this time to scrutinize Ritz. The spouse gave it an immediate green signal-this was it and I was trying to swallow the steep price when the chirpy lad again showed veto power. It looked kind of funny, he said: a sort of battered posterior, as if an unfriendly truck had bashed it with a vengeance. Once that note of niggling uncertainty had been struck, even I began feeling that it wasn’t so great to look at. Not for the price we would have to cough up. We wound our way to another showroom down the same road for greater choice but it was closed.

So back we were to square 1, the old car showing no signs of getting sold, the new one no nearer to being zeroed-in on. I kept commuting to and from office on the old faithful, mentally promising to check out that one last model in the show room that had been shut or sealing the deal with i10 or Ritz. Because I had set a target for myself and time was slipping by. I wanted my new car to be driven home by young Saagar and his ticket to more exotic climes-albeit with educational objectives- were booked for barely a week later. Finally, on a Monday, the impossible feat was accomplished and sonny boy and I found ourselves in the Ford show room. Unlike any of the other places, we were immediately shown to a table and a uniformed executive promptly came to our assistance. “Very courteous and professional”, I murmured sotto voce to the laddie, as we began our inspection of the one car that had eluded our examination in the past few weeks. A super sleek look, impressive, spacious interiors with a black and steel finish, a very spacious boot with remote buttons, apart from the usual features (remote & central locking, power steering, automatic front windows) and hold your breath! a built-in music system. Look no further said a voice inside me and I expressed my feelings out loud-much to the amusement of my son (who insisted, quite mistakenly, that the music system had swung the deal in its favour)

The rest, as they say, is history. Everything seemed to fall into place in a jiffy after that. The colour we were emphatic about getting-and which we were told wasn’t available then-became available: just one car or we’d have had to wait a fortnight. We found a customer for the old car, which otherwise would’ve gone into dis-use, and to cut a long story short, my dream of driving home, Sonny at the wheels (as opposed to the spouse last time) as he skillfully maneuvered the gleaming new car to its new home, was realised on Thursday.

So, with the blessings of the Almighty, our sea-grey Figo - a car launched barely 6 months ago - now stands proudly in the parking lot downstairs.