SHANKAR MAHADEVAN

Singer/composer

The first car I bought was a shiny red Maruti 800. The year was 1993, and I was into singing jingles for television commercials. The moment the car’s key was handed over to us — my wife and I, and our elder son who was just eight months old then — was a magical one and will forever remain etched in my memory.

Becoming the owner of a car which was bought with our hard-earned money, reaffirmed our faith in ourselves and strangely enough, I soon started getting offers for doing playback for films! Last year, I finally had to sell off the car as it started to show irreparable signs of wear and tear. The decision was really painful because we have countless sweet memories of the most enjoyable rides in that car.

Nowadays, I drive a Mercedes Benz C-Class, which is an extremely powerful machine, but somehow I still miss my old unobtrusive Maruti 800 that was there all along while my career slowly hit top gear!