Many people are interested in knowing what their future is, where they are heading in life, will they be successful. Many friends of mine where interested in knowing especially if they make any foreign trips or even settle there. Somewhere in my mind I too wanted to know what’s my future is, but who knows what’s ahead of you and who can tell it? I believe we have to take life as it comes and there will be no element of surprise if we know everything ahead. I never thought anything about work, whenever or whatever I thought was to explore as many places and meet different people in the world. Today I have been drifted by winds of life and ended working for an American company in U.S.
Like any other first generation immigrants memories from home always linger around with whatever we do. I guess for that matter, you needn’t come to different country to have that feeling even at a different place within the same country you can feel it. Here it’s the distance and the fact what we put it in our mind that ‘we will not go back till next year’ make the feeling even more strong. There are many instances which happen on a daily basis, but few moments are worth mentioning. One such moment is ‘My First Car’ experience.
Back in Bangalore India, I and my brother did some detailed review and test drive of different cars in our budget and decided to buy Tata Indica Vista Aura model. It was just released a month ago or so and had some cool features. All the auto magazines had their share of review with pros and cons and most of them agreed it’s the best value car of the day in its segment. Being an indigenous car and good reviews, we decided this has to be our First Car. We looked for the nearest auspicious day and booked for a red color car. I don’t know the real reason, its production was less or had to come from Haryana plant or red color cars had to wait its turn to come on assembly line or whatever, our car was ready for deliver almost after 50 days :) With all excitement, I and my brother went to take delivery. We printed out the delivery inspection check list downloaded from net and other things and went there by 4pm or so. Like us there were few more people who came to take delivery of their cars. It was almost dark when we finally got deliver of our car. The sales guy was nice enough to explain everything and had decorated with balloons. The perfume of car freshener was so gentle. There was priest in the showroom to perform pooja to delivered cars. He came and did a quick pooja and we were all set to go. My brother started driving towards the main gate and there was a line of other salesmen and security guards applauding and cheering us safe drive :)
Like any other first generation immigrants memories from home always linger around with whatever we do. I guess for that matter, you needn’t come to different country to have that feeling even at a different place within the same country you can feel it. Here it’s the distance and the fact what we put it in our mind that ‘we will not go back till next year’ make the feeling even more strong. There are many instances which happen on a daily basis, but few moments are worth mentioning. One such moment is ‘My First Car’ experience.
Back in Bangalore India, I and my brother did some detailed review and test drive of different cars in our budget and decided to buy Tata Indica Vista Aura model. It was just released a month ago or so and had some cool features. All the auto magazines had their share of review with pros and cons and most of them agreed it’s the best value car of the day in its segment. Being an indigenous car and good reviews, we decided this has to be our First Car. We looked for the nearest auspicious day and booked for a red color car. I don’t know the real reason, its production was less or had to come from Haryana plant or red color cars had to wait its turn to come on assembly line or whatever, our car was ready for deliver almost after 50 days :) With all excitement, I and my brother went to take delivery. We printed out the delivery inspection check list downloaded from net and other things and went there by 4pm or so. Like us there were few more people who came to take delivery of their cars. It was almost dark when we finally got deliver of our car. The sales guy was nice enough to explain everything and had decorated with balloons. The perfume of car freshener was so gentle. There was priest in the showroom to perform pooja to delivered cars. He came and did a quick pooja and we were all set to go. My brother started driving towards the main gate and there was a line of other salesmen and security guards applauding and cheering us safe drive :)
By the time we reached home it was completely dark and the power cut added to it. Anna was standing near the gate and Amma had kept pooja items ready. So we drove further to Ganesha temple and they joined us there by the time we parked. The priest performed pooja again and we cleared some of those extra balloons to make way for our parents to sit. Then we went for a small ride around the temple and parked near our house. While driving around we were wounding why the lights didn't turn off even when moving the car and later realized one of the door wasn't locked properly. It was a new model and hardly very few on road, so our neighbors gathered around looking at it and inquiring about its features, how it works, what's new, comparing it with other cars, how much it cost and so on........ We distributed sweets to some of them and it was my turn to go for a small drive. We visited our uncle’s house nearby and the excitement of new car was for more than a month showing it to friends and relatives.
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My first car experience here is totally different. Did the same kind of search on net to compare but I was more biased towards Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic because these are considered to be among luxury cars or big cars in India. May be that's the reason most Indians (referred as Desis among Indian community in US) buy these cars. After knowing new Toyota vehicles are called back for Gas pedal problem I didn't want to try my luck. Honda was bit over priced than my budget and I wasn't sure how long I will be in this country so decided to go for pre owned cars. After narrowing my search I found one 2007 Sandy gold Toyota Corolla in my budget and went to see it. It was a certified used car, some how didn't like it. I liked one more used car, 2007 Nissan Altima which had run almost 35k miles. It was really very nice but over budget, so didn't materialize. Next day I saw one more Corolla a 2008 model which had run just 8k miles and a certified used car. I went and took a test drive and felt it was good enough for us and quite neatly maintained. The deal was finalized for $14.4K including comprehensive warranty. I think its a good deal!! Made payments and signed documents. I had to take insurance on my own so checked on internet quickly and got a policy. By that time my new car was given a quick wash and was parked near entrance. The salesmen gave me the key and other documents and showed where my car was parked from window and wished "Happy driving....Good Luck". Everything was done in less than an hour I guess, if I had got insurance the whole transaction might have got over in 30 min.
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My first car experience here is totally different. Did the same kind of search on net to compare but I was more biased towards Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic because these are considered to be among luxury cars or big cars in India. May be that's the reason most Indians (referred as Desis among Indian community in US) buy these cars. After knowing new Toyota vehicles are called back for Gas pedal problem I didn't want to try my luck. Honda was bit over priced than my budget and I wasn't sure how long I will be in this country so decided to go for pre owned cars. After narrowing my search I found one 2007 Sandy gold Toyota Corolla in my budget and went to see it. It was a certified used car, some how didn't like it. I liked one more used car, 2007 Nissan Altima which had run almost 35k miles. It was really very nice but over budget, so didn't materialize. Next day I saw one more Corolla a 2008 model which had run just 8k miles and a certified used car. I went and took a test drive and felt it was good enough for us and quite neatly maintained. The deal was finalized for $14.4K including comprehensive warranty. I think its a good deal!! Made payments and signed documents. I had to take insurance on my own so checked on internet quickly and got a policy. By that time my new car was given a quick wash and was parked near entrance. The salesmen gave me the key and other documents and showed where my car was parked from window and wished "Happy driving....Good Luck". Everything was done in less than an hour I guess, if I had got insurance the whole transaction might have got over in 30 min.
I drove my supposed to be new car back home which is around 2 miles away. It was evening when I and my wife did Pooja to car whatever we can and went for a small ride in our apartment community. By night one of our neighbors from India came home to look at the car. We did some shavige paysa and shared with them.
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