A happy childhood is something that no one can ever take away from you.

Sometimes I wonder what does make me happy ? I have no answers. 

What has made me happy ?

Getting a Walkman with a 3 band graphic equaliser on my birthday so many many years ago. 

Owning an iPod touch does not match.

Getting a BSA Mach 1 in school after a BSA slr can never be matched. 

Having dad's Maruti  800, Baleno and the Wagon R all 3 put together can never add up.

Having a psp and a ps2 can never match up to the joy and happiness of a  solar powered pocket video game that costed 350 bucks when my father's salary was 1800 bucks. 

It means so much more now than all the toys that Arjun has. 

I never have to sacrifice anything to provide for my son.

All the Nike, reebok, addidas and puma that I have today can never add upto the joy of having Sumitabh's worn out pair of Nike.

All the tshirts and clothes that I can buy today without batting an eyelid at the swipe of a card can never match up to the joy of searching for that one gem of a Tshirt from the used clothes lot at the Nixon, in the company of friends, who are still friends for life.  

The world is no longer the same.   

All the watches that I can buy for myself which I never do cos all they do is tell the time or gifting them to people I still love today which I actually do once in a while with or without a reason can never match upto the happiness of having the timex digital in class XII. 

What brings happiness ? 

Is it having something , or is it longing for something and then having that something. 

Or is it the time that one can spend with things acquired over time.  

Happiness is probably a state of mind which differs at different points of times in the entire life span.  

Here today, gone tomorrow.

It's all the same.  

A happy childhood is something that no one can ever take away from you.   

12 December 2011

The last picture of the heart & lungs of Maruti 800 under the hood.

A few days  short of 15 years of care.  

1999 to 2014 AD. 

As children of parents who grew up helping in polishing the Premier padmini and the Ambassador with waxapol over the weekends --   

The Maruti 800 brought in a new world of unimaginable driving experience all together for both the generations at the same time. 

The fun and thrill of driving a white Maruti  800, wearing white t shirts and the black seat-belts in stark contrast across the chest for special effects and the naturally flat stomach will never come back.   

For all the creature comforts of the cars that we drive today, the 800 would be rated at the top of the favourite list for the simple reason that it gave us independence to be where we wanted to be from where we were. 

White t shirts and black seat belts will always be a Sumitabh Badgel original idea.  

Have driven a lot of cars with a lot of creature comforts.  But there are two intangibles in a car that come only with time.     "Trust " and a gushing flooding rush of "memories" every time you sit behind the wheel.