I bought my first car, a parrot-green Maruti 800, in 1994, when I was a marketing manager for Energizer batteries in Delhi. I loved the freedom and driving around the city. I became a much better driver, mainly on account of the numerous trips I took in the car. Driving in Delhi in the 1990s was much more comfortable; the traffic was not this bad and the roads were nicer.
One of my fondest memories about the car was meeting my future wife, going out to the cinema and eating food from joints like Rajinder Da Dhaba. We used to go for long drives to nearby tourist spots in the car. I enjoyed driving it even in the hottest Delhi summers, because it was one of the few air-conditioned models of the time. I was very proud of the vehicle, since it was the first major purchase I had made with my own money. I took good care of it and it didn’t give me much trouble.
Times have changed now: I write books alongside my regular job and I trust my driver to take me places. I own two cars and am very fond of my Suzuki SUV, though I don’t drive it much. I am not a huge fan of driving in traffic. Driving it is not the same as the old Maruti, and I still miss it. It remains a reminder of a simpler time when life was not very complicated and materialistic.
As told to Nikhil Varma
