Small Car, Big Dream

The Natarajans bought their first car a day after Chidambram presented the budget. With a monthly income of Rs 15,000, and a joint family of...

Bijoy Singh and Anjali Basumatary/Guwahati
They had a car on their mind for two years. Chidambaram8217;s budget speech was the final push they needed to go to a Hyundai showroom. 8216;8216;The money wasn8217;t coming easily,8217;8217; said Bijoy Singh, 48, who runs a courier agency in Guwahati. But wife Anjali Basumatary, chief office superintendent at the Northeast Frontier Railways headquarters, got a loan from ICICI Bank to fulfill their long-cherished dream.

8216;8216;We had a Kinetic Honda, which was okay when the kids were small. But with Dipankar in college and Dipannwita in class IX, a car had become a necessity,8217;8217; said 45-year-old Anjali, a former athlete. Singh is a Manipuri from Haflong in Assam8217;s North Cachar district; he teamed up with son Dipankar to convince the ladies to go for a Hyundai. 8216;8216;My son feels Hyundai is a comfortable, stylish and spacious car. And we were convinced of it when we went for a test drive,8217;8217; said Anjali. The family bought the car on March 2; Basumatary will repay the loan in monthly installments of Rs 5,588 over five years.Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Dr Dharminder Singh and Prabhjot Kaur/Jalandhar
It took a decade for this 35-year-old doctor to buy his first car, a Hyundai Santro. For Singh, a specialist with the Tagore Hospital in Jalandhar, owning a four-wheeler was not a priority, although it has been a long-cherished dream. After buying an apartment and making his parents and siblings financially comfortable, the good news came. 8216;8216;For me, a car is a luxury. But this is just the right time to buy it. You never know what will happen in the next budget,8217;8217; said Singh.

After completing his MBBS in the early 8217;90s, Singh had to support his parents and siblings. He bought his own apartment8212;not ostentatious, but spacious enough for a large family8212;three years ago. A good deal of his monthly disposable income goes towards paying off his house loan. Despite their financial constraints though, Singh and his wife Prabhjot are excited about their first car because it is a gift for their children8212;four-and-a-half-year-old daughter Amritansh and one-and-a-half-year-old son Anhadjot. 8216;8216;We plan to drive them to the movies and for outings during the weekend.8217;8217; Perched on the bonnet of their Hyundai, Amritansh can8217;t stop grinning.
Anju Agnihotri

S Natarajan and family/ Lalgudi, Trichy
The 15-km stretch from Trichy to Lalgudi is a bumpy drive. The last monsoon ate away the cement road, and not much has changed in the last eight months. But S Natarajan and his family, who had been dreaming of buying a car for years, aren8217;t complaining, as they admire their new sparkling black Alto LX in the portico of their pink-walled house.

The Natarajans bought their first car a day after Chidambram presented the budget. With a monthly income of Rs 15,000, and a joint family of nine members, it was a tough decision for 64-year-old Natarajan, who retired as a security officer from the Kothari Sugars factory in Komakudi, 8 km away.

8216;8216;But we have been dreaming of it for so long. Valarmathi, my wife, is the happiest; she wants to take the family to temples and marriages in the car.8217;8217;

On March 1, Natarajan8217;s sons, Senthil and Ramesh, got on their bikes and arrived at the Maruti showroom in Trichy even before it opened its doors. After a quick bustle through the formalities, including the signing of papers for their bank loan, the car was finally theirs on March 6. While the Alto is in Ramesh8217;s name, it is being financed jointly by the family. The family8217;s first drive through the potholed Lalgudi roads was to the Samayapuram Kali temple, about 14 km away. 8216;8216;Of course, only five of us could sit comfortably with the three children. So I followed them on my bike,8217;8217; recalls Senthil.

In the backwoods of Lalgudi, a black Alto is unique. 8216;8216;Just like green is Jayalalithaa8217;s favourite colour, our family8217;s lucky colour is black,8217;8217; preens Ramesh.
Jaya Menon

Bharat and Aradhana Singh/Vadodara
Aradhana and Bharat Singh divide their time between city and country. Son of the former Thakur of Kadwal, Bharat is into floriculture and has his own nursery and farmhouse, and Aradhana is a homemaker. The sales tax exemption in this year8217;s budget for petrol cars up to 1200cc came as a blessing for the nature lovers.

Story continues below this ad

Their Maruti Zen arrived a few days after the budget. 8216;8216;A small car suits us best, but at the same time we wanted a spacious city car. Our daughter is in a boarding school in Mount Abu, so it8217;s just us who need to commute to and from the city,8217;8217; said Bharat. The Singh family has decided to shift base to hometown Kadwal, about 85 km from Vadodara, after acquiring their car. 8216;8216;I was waiting to buy a car. I have loyal clients in Vadodara and now I can come down from Kadwal any number of times in a week,8217;8217; said Bharat. The Singhs financed their purchase through a six-year loan from a nationalised bank. On Aradhana8217;s insistence, Bharat had to settle for a 8216;glorious red8217;, instead of the jet black he was hankering for. 8216;8216;We were getting a three-year loan to buy a second-hand car but the EMI was not in the range we wanted it to be. So after the budget announcement, we immediately decided to go for a new car,8217;8217; said Aradhana. And life will be a different ride now.