Vehicle Purchase Muhurat

The last truck went into service on whatever day the dealer had it ready. I remember the year that followed without needing to look it up. The fourth started on a day I picked, which is not superstition to me, it is the one part of the whole purchase that was actually mine.

The milk van is a 2011 Tata and the one before it was written off on the Guntakal road with a full load in the back. This one went on the road on a morning I had chosen. Nobody has asked me to justify that, including me.

My colleagues found it funny that a man who has cycled to the department for thirty years suddenly wants a muhurat for a Maruti. It is the first thing I have owned that my father did not own before me. I was not going to let the first day of it be a dealer's month end.

First car at thirty eight, on a teacher's salary and a loan I will be paying until I am forty four. The dealer wanted delivery inside his quarter, I had the dates in writing, and the conversation lasted about a minute because there was nothing in it for him to argue with.