Made in Italy

I got a call from Srikar yesterday that his new Linea was in. Though I’ve seen enough pictures and ads of it, I couldn’t wait to see the real thing. A jam session was the perfect excuse to feel the new leather in the car and of course I was desperate for a jam session too.. Finally today, the black thing rolled into my street, maybe one of the first few in Hyderabad, and my first sighting. I wanted to peep at it from the 4^th floor itself, but I held myself till I got to the bottom. The first look was from the rear as he drove it into a tiny lane opposite my apartment. When I saw the rear lamps, I knew I was blown away. The amp that I was carrying nearly slipped from my hands. I just couldn’t take in the size of it. The real thing is always the real thing. No substitutes can take its place. All I could see was the huge logo and stylish tail lamps. He opened the boot and I was blown away once again. Clearly one of the largest boots among the cars around, we fit in all our equipment, four guitars, 2 amps and a few covers, and it still had like place for a whole person to sleep in. Maybe one can host a party in that boot. Once the guitars were in, it was time to check out the rest of the car. I moved to the front of the car, and for a brief moment I thought I lost my vision. My brain shut off for a nano second and restarted. All I could register was, “Drive me, or else I’ll slit your throat”. It was just like Srikar mentioned. It reminded me of the famous Mafia stories from Italy. The superb grill reminded me a lot of Maserati and the nose was jutting out beautifully finishing that slow taper from rear to front. Finally it was time to step in.

 

Once I got in, I was in another world. I didn’t know when he started the engine, or whether the engine was on all the time, I just couldn’t feel it. While he backed, I still couldn’t make out whether the engine was on. Finally when he revved it up a bit, I could hear a faint sound, the sound that comes when my Zen is just on and not running, and vibration? What’s vibration, there’s no such word in the Linea Dictionary, not at low nor higher speeds. Yeah I read a lot that it’s slower and underpowered compared to other cars, but in a city where the average speed meanders around 15 Kmph, even an F1 car can lose to a cyclist. The ride for our new Jamming Place was simply awesome. I just didn’t feel like we traveled 20 odd kilometers though Srikar drove extremely cautiously and it took a good 45 min to get there. Meantime he made a few calls with his car’s voice-detection feature that connects to the phone and makes the calls. And the music was a good experience too. There were so many customizable stuff that I couldn’t count. I wonder what car gets so many features for such pricing. The jam session was a disaster with the power department cutting us out exactly at a time when we were getting into the groove. We left almost as silently as we left, not before a splash at McD’s. The car was parked next to a ‘Beamer’ as we call it, and I felt the Italy vs. Germany game was won by the Linea. The traffic was as crazy as ever, and I observed a new thing today. The pillon riders of almost 90% of the bikes turned around atleast once for a look at the car. Finally when we reached home and I reluctantly got out, a few guys stepped over and started asking questions about the car. “Excuse me, what’s the mileage of this car?” “What is the cost?” “What is this?” “What is that?”. I was too busy unloading the guitars while Srikar had to go through that grueling ‘interview’. And he left. Happily tucked away inside the Linea… I could last see it’s rear ‘eyes’ saying, “I’ll come tomorrow too”. A mafia don with a soft heart, Made in Italy.