The Blue Eyed Boy has come home – my new Wagon-R

Last Thursday, the 27th of May 2010, I drove home my new Wagon-R. This is Suzuki's revamped Wagon-R model, which is seeing changes in the interiors, the exteriors and also the mechanicals. Yet, it still retains enough identity to be recognized as a Wagon-R, thanks to its height, which is supposedly the tallest in its class.

Maruti Suzuki has launched this car in April 2010 with the tag line "The Blue Eyed Boy" and have gone ahead and placed a small blue colored glass above the new and bold headlamps, giving the image of an eyebrow above the eye. I bought the top-end VXi model and it has left me lighter in the bank balance by around INR 4.28 Lakhs. For other details on the car, you can visit Maruti Suzuki's website.

While we were waiting for the car to be registered and in fact, for the car to reach the dealer, we went through the usual routine of identifying an auspicious day. We requested the salesperson to ensure that the car was registered only on the day we indicated. However, due to some issues in the shipment, there was a delay by 2 days and we were left with a situation of having to postpone the registration by almost a week. That would have also meant an additional cost of 8K INR, because the TN government had passed a bill to hike the registration cost of new vehicles by 2% effective 1st June.

So, after much breaking of head, we finally decided to take delivery of the car on Thursday, the 27th of May and then get it registered the next day. But luckily, the dealer was able to get even the registration done on the 27th itself. So, that evening, I went to pick up the car, along with my father.

As part of handing over the car, the guys at the dealer actually do a poojai first and then hand over the keys to you. They put a garland, apply sandal-kungumam spots at various strategic locations on the glass and do a full-fledged karpooram lighting. We are then asked to drive out by squeezing out lemons placed in front of each wheel.

But, this above poojai was by the dealer. The car owners also have to do a poojai at the temple of their choice. Ours, was the Varasiddhi Vinayagar temple. I went and parked the car there and one of the priests who was right at the entrance, came forward. We told him that we wanted to do the car poojai and he said in the most nonchalant manner possible, "pannalaamae".

He then asked me to pop the hood. I went back and started feeling the usual place where the hood release is available. But I just couldn't locate it. A frantic search, accompanied by attempts to throw some light from my mobile phone in the area, was launched, but to no avail. The priest seeing my predicament, asked me to step aside. And in a matter of barely 1.63 seconds, he located the lever to release the trunk. The worst part after this was the "smirky" look he gave me. I don't think I have felt so much shame in the recent past.

He then went about his duty doing all the archanais at the various sannidhis and also came up and did the karpoora aaradhanai in and around the car. I finally came home by 8 PM in the new car.

I haven't driven much in the last 5 days that it has come here. I went out with my parents to the local temples on Saturday and I met up with few friends on Sunday evening. But I find the car to be quite good in the 40 odd Kms that I have driven so far.

2 months after we bought our first car, I went off to the US for 3 years. Barely 2 weeks after the second car was bought, I was shuttled out to Zurich for 2 weeks and in the following year, I was packed off to Bangalore and Melbourne for almost 6 months. Let's wait and see if that "luck" would continue with this one as well.