“I travel
not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is
to move on.” Robert Louis Stevenson
I
feel restless every time I come home; there is a constant yearning to be on the
move. It is as if the Swift has become my home. Also, I feel a great sense of
emotional attachment to the Swift, whose languid grace and ‘enthusiasm’ makes
me believe that it has a ‘thirsty soul’ – a soul that thirsts to travel. When I
drive her within the city I can feel a restraint on the accelerator, as it
were; as if she holds back on the speed to meet the requirements of city
regulations. However, the accelerator 'releases' quite dramatically as I ease
behind the wheel to go on a long drive – I call it the glee of the fleeing
accelerator. Additionally, I feel that when we are on an expedition the car
generates a lot of positive energy.
Thus, over the past 14 months I have a symbiotic relationship going with
my 'Swift' car. She knows that I know nothing about automobile mechanics, or
for that matter, even to change the wheel.
Therefore, she knows that if she breaks down there is going to be no
help at all from me and, I suspect, she does not want to be stranded
either. Since the April of 2012 she and
I have been comrades in arms, so to say. Together we have set four arduous
records in a year, all of them with a single driver – that's me. It was a fortuitous coming together – my
Swift and I.
I
had booked the new model Swift in March 2011 when I was working with a firm
near Bellary, Karnataka. However, I
canceled my booking in June when I left my employment in the firm. My brother bought the new model Swift in
October 2011. I loved the styling and
the features. I yearned to possess one,
but the waiting period was said to be over six months, exacerbated by strikes
in the Maruti plant. I was planning a
drive between Kanyakumari and Leh in July 2012 and I trusted only the Swift to
keep me company; I needed a Swift swiftly.
As luck, or providence, would have it an opportunity presented itself in
March 2012 when I was in a dentist's chair attended to by my cousin, Abraham
James. He told me that one of his
friends was intending to cancel the booking of a Swift after the allotment had
been made in Popular Motors, Ernakulam.
Siby Edayadi, the original allottee, agreed to transfer the allotment in
my favor as long as I reimbursed him all the costs he had incurred, to which I
readily agreed. Pioneer Motors told me that the Pearl White Swift would be
available in the third week of April. I
told them to get it ready for delivery on 23 April – I deemed it a gift to my
parents (who were deceased) on their wedding anniversary. The white beauty was ready as appointed and
since then we have been inseparable. We
shaved 33% off the existing Limca Book Kanyakumari-Leh record (July 2012),
became the first to do the Coast-to-Coast (January 2013) and East-to-West
(January 2013) expeditions solo and better the record for the Golden
Quadrilateral (June 2013) – all in 12 months. Astounding! More so, when you
factor in that not once did the vehicle break down or show any signs of fatigue
or nerve! I did not even have to attend
to the tyres on the four tough expeditions.
Even after 54,000 kilometers the tyres have their treads intact and
expert opinion is that they are good for another 10,000. I may have misgivings about the expeditions
when I set out, but the Swift is ever ready and raring to take on any
adventure. So this blog is dedicated to
the Champion Car – KL 07 BU 1397 - the champion without whom these records
could not have been rewritten or set.
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