Whew! What a busy last couple of weeks. A new place, a new job, everything was happening so fast, thought Vik, as he gathered his stuff and stepped out of his office cubicle. But the weekend was here 🙂 and he could now go and check out the cars he had shortlisted in the last few days over Quikr Nxt.
He had flown back to Chennai and drove his dad’s old Padmini a couple of weeks back around the Valentine’s Day weekend. That and all the drama between Dee and Raj had consumed most of the following week.
The old Padmini was still a workhorse and could easily travel long distances, but the gear and clutch were costing him an arm and a leg, literally, in this hellish Bangalore traffic. It was time to get an automatic to make life easy in this bumper to bumper traffic. Vik hopped into his Padmini and started entering the address in Google Maps in the phone.
His last experience with Quickr chat had been wonderful as he bought a Microwave and an ironing stand without a hiccup, and was delivered at his doorstep. This had reinforced his confidence in looking for an automatic car on Quikr.
He logged on to the Quikr account and opened all his previous chat to brush up on his last conversation with Raju. Raju had posted his old Maruti Zen automatic, which looked good on paper, but the photos didn’t seem current. A quick chat with Raju had fixed that and he had sent current photos of the car inside and out through the chat.
Thank god, or Quikr for the chat history, I don’t have to write down everything that we agreed on, thought Vik as he started his old Padmini and left his office building. Raju had just confirmed his text on Quikr and the meeting was still on. Vik was already imagining sitting in the Yellow Zen automatic, resting his left leg, with only the accelerator and brake to worry about.
Cow! Brake. Clutch. Second. First. Release clutch. Engage clutch. Second. Release clutch. Engage clutch Third. . . . Brake. Engage Clutch. Another motorist cutting the lane. Second. Halt. First. Release Clutch. Engage clutch, Second. Release clutch. Brake. Pedestrian crossing . . . Engage clutch. Halt. First. Release clutch . . .
“Hi! Raju. Thanks for meeting me on such a short notice”, said Vik, as he climbed out of the Padmini.
“You are lucky. We don’t get cell phone signal where I work. But since we were talking on Quikr chat, you could reach me in time. You know, I have lost many potential customers because of the bad network coverage before this chat thing started.”, replied a relieved Raju.
Vik went around the car looking for dents and scratches, checked the tire condition. He then tried to push the car front down to check if the suspension seemed ok and responded to the push, and then continued his inspection of the car.
“Can we go for a test drive?” Vik asked and they both climbed into the car. It felt really small and lower compared to the spacious Padmini. But Vik was determined to let that all slide in return for the driving comfort. An automatic meant less things to worry about in the unpredictable city traffic.