CantthinkofanameforthisbloG

Like most relationships, this one had its ups and downs.. We had our good runs, we had our breakdowns.. I would not call her high maintenance, but she did demand quite a bit of attention. Most of my friends did not approve of our ‘relationship’. They just could not understand why I did not go in for a younger, up-and-coming model. You see boys and girls, my Padmini and I had been together even since I was two years old. Now she may have past her prime but she still has that old world charm coupled with contemporary looks. Sometimes I feel I’m the only one who can tolerate her tantrums. My girlfriend, who is far from possessive, gets really irritated by the amount of time/money I spend on my Padmini and often tells me to get rid of her. I do understand why she feels that way as my Padmini had ‘inconvenienced’ the girlfriend on many an occasion.

In spite of all her shortcomings she still is a beautiful beast. Let me give you an overview of her vital statistics:-

Webber Carburetor; Headers; Free-Flow Sports Exhaust; Radials; Alloys; Racing Steering; Bucket Seats; Racing Flow-shift;  Power Windows; Tachometer; Super King Blower; Custom Grill and a few more bells and whistles. Yes she goes by many names: the Ferrari, the Beast, Desi-Hot-Rod, Roadster, pile-of-steel, rust bucket, etc. Some names were flattering while others plain insulting. To the masses however she was known as the premier padmini a.k.a. the Fiat.

The car was an absolute pleasure to drive. It has brilliant all round visibility, decent handling (with improved tires of course), a monstrous grunt (read- exhaust note) and the best part – unlike every other car on our roads, it was unique.

Now for the bad…  the car was plagued by electrical issues and these were heightened when it rained.  It also used to get crazy-hot (and not in a sexy way) in the cabin often causing the driver to suffer from bouts of dehydration and thermal shock. It had low mileage, limited top speed and a bad suspension. The brakes were as reliable as your average politician and the headlights had a unique ability to blind oncoming traffic and simultaneously provide practically no road visibility to the driver. How it can emit so much light and still be completely useless is a question that will probably baffle the scientific community for many years. All in all it was a pain to drive in traffic, it was a potential health hazard to drive at night and nearly suicidal to drive during the rains. Hmmmm i'm begining to understand the girlfriend's semi-dislike towards my horse-less carrage...  

To make the ride a bit better I put in a new AC. The AC which I had installed put too much load on the battery. This forced me to buy a bigger, more powerful battery. Now the alternator (which was salvaged from an old maruti 800) was not powerful enough to charge the bigger battery. The end result was to upgrade to a more powerful alternator.  And so on and so forth... 

Now I think you can begin to grasp the essence of this ‘love-hate’ relationship with this magnificent wild horse that, even though past her prime, is raring to go, on that one last ride into the sunset..

If you managed to get this far in the post without falling asleep you might as well have a look at a few snaps of the  ....