My lovely girl, my Maruti 800. She was a beauty, nifty and perky. Easy to drive, park and own. It was a long aspiration, to own a car. Years before, me and my friend, college kids idling around Fort Kochi parade ground riding doubles on a rickety bicycle, wondered if we ever would get to drive one.

I found my fulfillment through my Maruti 800, 5 gear. Silver-grey. Never had I to worry about mileage or servicing costs – it was cool as taking care of a bike. The day we bought it (I could not drive it then and had no license. Had to resort to the service of a friend to drive us home in it), it stalled and stopped just a meter from the showroom. Nothing we did would start it. We had to call the showroom people who spent a good half hour wondering what the problem was till they discovered that there was no fuel! Months later, I learned to drive on this car and took my license test with it.

In the early days, I would challenge bigger, much powerful cars and SUVs on the highway from Palakkad to Kochi. They could outrun me with speed on the open highway but I would catch up with them at traffic junctions, wriggle in through the gaps and get in the front. After Kalamassery, it would become my territory, zigging and zagging through the traffic, beating the competition by a mile till I reached Edapally. Over the years, I settled down to drive much slow, especially with family and learned to enjoy the drive and sights around.

Never has my Maruti 800 broken down on any route. My entire family, friends have rode on it sometimes 8-9 people crowding in. After 10 years, when we sold it, it had hardly a scratch. Not a single rupee spent from the insurance. The only problems were that the driver’s seat was worn off, the AC was not as cool and the front electronics panel needed changing. I gave a classified ad and over 300 people responded. The first one to come to my home early in the morning clutching the newspaper bought it at the price I demanded.

My wife and son cried the whole day. I put on a brave face. For weeks we wondered where and how our little girl was. Even now after nearly 3 years when we see a silver-grey Maruti 800, we think of it fondly.