We were in Bangalore at the beginning of second decade of the millennium. The city was probably breathing its last few days as one of the coolest and greenest cities in India enjoying the title of IT capital of the country. Those were the days before the length and breadth of Bangalore underwent multiple surgeries to accommodate metro transport service. It was when staying and commuting in Bangalore was not as horrendous as what is experienced today. A haven indeed it was and working there felt like you were on a year-long vacation with an envious weather a few other cities in India could boast of.
It was around that time, Ruby
and I decided to buy our first car. Since we were a single income household with
minimal savings, we decided to go for one of the best small cars then, a
Hyundai i10, a hatchback. Those were the times when the CEO of my company, was
commuting in a Toyota Corolla which was considered a premium segment car.
As destiny would have its
way, even before we could proceed with booking of the car, life took a
different turn. After a few rounds of gruelling interviews, I landed in Dubai
as a consultant for Emirates, one of the best-known brands in aviation. Shortly
we also got the good news that we were to enjoy parenthood. This and many other
factors required us to buy a car in Dubai.
I must say we were quite
blessed to have a few friends in Dubai who took the pain to show us around some
of the car showrooms so that we could take a decision. Dubai as you may know is
a paradise for automobiles. Every possible brand ever made in this world finds
itself a home in various showrooms in Dubai. We also observed that options for small
cars like the one we were thinking in India were quite limited. Instead, sedans
and SUVs were having a competition on Dubai roads about who is predominant. It
is not an exaggeration if I said SUVs do have an upper hand in this city.
We weighed all our options.
The distance between a Hyundai i10 and an SUV was alarming, both financially
and emotionally. Truly speaking, we were not mentally ready for a shift from a
hatchback to even a sedan, forget about the SUVs, which was a league altogether
different. At least this is what we thought then.
Since the options for
hatchback were quite limited and considering the safety implications we finally
zeroed in on a sedan, the one that made us equivalent to the CEO of my previous
organization, at least in terms of transportation. Yes, we did buy a Toyota
Corolla finally!
If you happen to visit Dubai,
one of the first things, you will realize is, sedans like Corolla are nowhere
near the boundaries of luxury in this city. This is a place where luxury gets
redefined almost every day. A Corolla will probably make its cut as a
mid-segment car among the sedans. Though this is the fact related to the status
of the car we bought in Dubai, the news was probably not how it was perceived
by a few folks. For them we made a jump from not having a car in Bangalore to
driving a car that is driven by some CEOs of companies in India. A life of
luxury indeed!
This story is not really an exception
to the norm. In fact, each one of us need to ask the question, are we really
the proverbial frog in the well when it comes to perceptions? Can we see the
beyond by expanding our understanding of this world? We all tend to compare
ourselves to those who seem to be living in perceived luxury. While this indeed
is a human nature, we need to remind ourselves that a constant approach such as
this will only ignite the inferior personality among us. We’ll end up feeling
depressed and worst case is even becoming hostile in our attitude to others.
On the contrary, learn to
appreciate the goodness in our life. Live in the present and appreciate what
you have been blessed with than looking up to your never ending wants and feel
sad about it.
Keep repeating yourself this
mantra: Life is finite, enjoy every beautiful moment you have now!
