A turnaround...

Sometimes, when you see something and decide that you want it, no matter how hard you have to try.
It was same feeling I had when I saw the magazine Auto India for the first time in my life.
I was and always an automobile freak. I used to ask my dad to cut out the automobile ads I see in the news paper, and i used to take them to school to tell my friends about them.
And I still vividly remember asking my dad to get me a Swaraj Mazda pickup if i top the class. :-)

That day I was traveling with my grand mother and we where waiting in a bus stand to catch bus to our village. to pass time, I went to the book stall to ogle at the hot females on film magazine covers and there I saw a magazine which made my heart skip a beat - AutoIndia. At that time, pocket money was a concept unheard of for me, so I couldn’t do nothing but just ogle till our bus came.

Next year I joined college and I was adamant that I had to buy the magazine every month. But without pocket money, that was a distant dream but then I found out another way to get my hands on them - the second hand book sellers. I used to save 1 rupee here and 1 rupee there and used to buy the old copy for 5 rupee every weekend when I go to Thrissur for my entrance coaching class. Then I found a way to get my hands on the new issue - save money by skipping food. Dad used to give me money to have a late evening snack since i was going to Thrissur - a town about 50 km from my home - for entrance tuition. By kipping food and saving a penny here and there, I always used to manage to buy the magazine - and it was the best auto magazine at that time. There where couple of other magazines such as Car&Bike international, Indian Auto, Motoring etc, but my pick was Auto India.

When I joined for my Bachelors, the story changed - I used to get more money, and a new shiny magazine got launched - Autocar India. The magazine was launched by the erstwhile editor of Auto India, and lot of talented guys from Auto India came over to ACI, and the quality of Auto India went down the drains. From the very first issue, I converted to a ACI fan, and stopped buying AutoIndia. Lot of water went under the bridge - and I changed and then changed. But one thing never changed was my habit of buying ACI (and any other auto mags which I can afford) every month. In between, i got a 1 year free subscription of Auto India, but it never got my enthusiasm running to grab a copy as soon as it hits the stand.

But now times are changing. Last month, I picked the magazine upon the recommendation of my friend Sooraj and man - they have done a 180 degree turn in quality. The magazine is slowly climbing back to the spot it enjoyed long time back. Way to go, man. I sure want them to see on top again, and from this month, I have started buying it regularly...