Hidden Costs


The Skoda Octavia comes with a variety of features. Some of them include passenger intelligent airbags, Xenon headlamps, Anti-lock braking, integrated fog lamps etc. And a whole lot of features that any proud owner ( who shelled out that half a truck load of cash with a scrawl of a signature, either on the cheque book or on the loan document) would tell you.

I am here to tell you about that unique daily replacement, that you may not have factored in while computing your operating costs, when you buy a car ! The marking in the photograph is an obvious dead give away.

Yes : The stack of chillies crowned with the lemon and hung up-side down! Hmm. I have half a mind to change that sentence. But the other half stands in the way ! So there you have it: Lemon and chilly hung upside down !! I am told that they have a protective power ! I have seen it in the south and i have seen it here. So this must be widely prevalant. Hmm !

If you have more insider, nay, background information, please do share. Every traffic signal has a few sellers of them. That i have seen hanging from inside autorickshaws & outside cars. The ostensible reason is to keep off the evil spirit. That was an ‘educated’ guess.

So, if you can garner some chillies and some lime and string it together, you are part of the auto component business. Not in the vegetable selling one! All of the Czech engineering ( or for that matter Japanese, Indian, Chinese, American ) will stand no semblance of a fight before the humble Indian lime-chilly !

Infact the Indian Lime-Chilly has far better competition. Special conch shells. Strung with black threaded ropes bought from the choicest of temples and churches. These by contrast are more permanent and involve no recurring cost !

So, there you are. These are hidden costs that you may need to remember if you are in the mood of buying a car. The lime & chilly ! The impalpable insurance cover ! Engineering can sit inside the bonnet and the boot.

The lime & chilly will guide the way & save the day !

10 thoughts on “Hidden Costs

  1. Lekhni says:

    You mean people change this every day? I had always thought the only time they did it was when they bought a new car..

  2. Carnic says:

    apparently one of the car brands have given out silver conch shells for this purpose…i think it was mercedes…. carnic

  3. Shiva says:

    🙂 reminds me of that Vivek comedy

    The right place for the lime-chilli is the grill below the bonnet because that’s where you need protection and not at the rear…

  4. manuscrypts says:

    Decide! Auto components or insurance!! :p

  5. Kavi says:

    Lekhni : i know for a fact that it gets changed every week. I also know that somepeople do it everyday !

    Carnic : thats news. but for the 20 L, the last thing that they could give free was a conch shell !!

    Shiva : LOL ! Wonder why the rear end was chosen !

    Manu : tough decision !! third umpire please..

    Swatantra : Thank You !

  6. Carnic says:

    another friend confirms that he too heard the silver conch shell bit

  7. athe vetaiyadu vilayadu lime chilly combination sar! 😀

    we can make a killing if we sell car warming up package.

  8. Hmm…Just proves that wherever an Indian goes and whatever status in society he reaches he still remains an Indian!!

  9. Carnic says:

    just saw a trailer for a horror movie titled ‘phoonk’ which showed a car crushing the stack of chillies crowned with lemon…wonder what the movie is all about…

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