Gujarat family gives ‘lucky’ car a sendoff samadhi

Gujarat family gives ‘lucky’ car a sendoff samadhi 

Dilip Jiruka TNN 08.11.2024

Amreli : As epitaphs go, “Born a car, loved like a favourite child” would be an apt one for a memorial to GJ05 CD7924. 

Sanjay Polra and his family, residents of Padarshinga in Lathi taluka of Gujarat’s Amreli, gave their beloved lucky charm a ceremonial send-off to car heaven on Thursday in the presence of the entire village and other invitees. The rituals, complete with a priest reciting Sanskrit shlokas in front of the family deity, were the culmination of a procession with the flower-bedecked hatchback from Polra’s home till the “samadhi” site at his farm. A JCB backhoe was requisitioned to cover the car’s final resting place with earth once it had been lowered there.

 “This car has been like a family member since we drove it out of a showroom in 2006. It brought us for tune. We gained prosperity, and our stature in society went up several notches. We want this car stored in our memories forever,” Polra wrote in the fourpage invitation sent out to 2,000-odd guests. The invitees were served a spread of puri, chapati, subji, and laddoos. Polra said he intended to plant trees around the memorial to his silver hatchback. “I wanted to do something different, so I settled on this send-off. 

We will assemble here on Nov 7 each year to reminisce about all the journeys we took in our favourite car.” Vipul Sojitra, a villager who was witness to the ceremony, said he initially found it amusing that someone would organise a samadhi for a car. “Sanjaybhai is a childhood friend. His family wanted to do something out of the box for their beloved car, and that’s why they held this event,” he said.