Papa you know my colleague Denis got a brand new shimmering red BMW Series 3 equipped bountifully with ten speakers, ABS ... and I got a opportunity to relish the extraveganza of his ultra luxury car this afternoon on the streets of Manhattan, New York, lucky me! My lunch time was almost entirely devoured by overjoyed Denis and the endless descriptions of the never-ending features of his BMW Series three ... ohh how jealous I felt of that guy and his BeeeeEmmmDoubluee.
But as he went on and on, surprisingly this green-eyed monster within me went down and down ... down the memory lanes of our first car, our first "second hand" Green colored Maruti800, I do not remember the numbers of my own Corolla which I drive daily here but I do remember the numbers of our Maruti800 which you never allowed me to drive. I know I too will be driving some BMW series three four or whatever someday, but this complain of not being allowed to drive your Maruti800 will always be rooted deep in my heart. Such was the ecstasy of that Maruti800 unparalleled with Denis's ruby red opulence.
Smell of our Maruti800, still so fresh somewhere within me, no other car freshener can discover the same aroma of fragrance, I bet ya! The car had no air conditioner and we drove it in the temperatures above a hundred degrees in the blisteringly hot summers of India, it had no music system, no seat covers even, it was a bare car, which could offer the only luxury of travelling little more comfortably with all the five members of our family togather. And still it was the best car I ever rode ... I couldn't stop myself from telling this to Denis.
- We get saturdays and Sundays and almost a half of Friday but this all seems less fun than one single sunday of yours Papa.
- I have witnessed five farewell parties but none of them were as grand as one and only farewell party of yours.
- All my companies were fortune500 (a big deal that I will always be proud of) but I never could build the same repo and same relation as you had in your small Aluminium Plant.
- I get a fat pay stub but I never get those sweat smells from my shirts that you always had in all the seasons after your office hours, will my kids ever believe that I had a real hectic day at office?
- I am exposed to a much larger world than yours but still I have less number of real friends.
How uncool is that Papa?
Yeah it was a bare car Papa but the FOTM is it was the best one I ever had. Me and Deniss' and lot of others like us strive here and there back in India to afford these luxuries but we often forget that the best ones were the ones that we already left behind. Big things comes in small packages, how true is that. I came to New York with some of the very demanding career and personal goals, to grow a level up from what I was before, but these levels are never ending, I achieve one goal and from the next day itself I start starving for another one, this race has no finish point and this race has no winners.
And I still keep wondering that why simplest of the things gives biggest pleasures. And still why we run after the big and more biggger pleasures leaving behind the simple and the simplest ones.
