"Yes ..... why? What's wrong with that?"

"Wait till you try arranging for the car insurance!!"

"I trust that the mafia does not use Red Cars as a means of identifying its members" I said a little rattled.

"It is thought that people driving red cars tend to drive them rather rashly and hence are assumed to be more prone to the accidents. Hence the insurance is higher."

So it was with considerable anxiety that I placed my first call to one of the insurance companies.

"Please press 1 for auto insurance, 2 for home insurance, 3 for reporting a stolen vehicle and 4 for reporting an accident. To speak with a representative or if you are calling from a rotary phone please press 5 or stay on the line and the operator will assist you."

I was trying to compile my program at the same time and hence missed the first few choices. Having no other alternative I pressed 5 and was greeted by a sweeter-than-honey voice of an operator.

"Hi, this is Wendy. How may I direct your call?"

"I want to get an auto insurance for my....."

She cut me off with a "Let me direct you to one of our representatives"

Several clicks later I heard another voice. "Yes. How may I help you?"

I repeated the reason why I had called.

There were a few more clicks and then came the recorded message:

"All our representatives are currently busy serving other customers. Please stay on the line and the next representative will assist you. Please note that your call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. You can also check out our website at…"

At the end of this message, a soft music kept playing at the background, then there was another click. I had put the call on the speakerphone but I picked it up at the sound of the click.

"Your call is very important to us. Thank you for staying on the line. The next representative will soon be with you."

Thinking that I might get some work done while the busy representatives served other people, I stepped into the next cubicle to talk to my colleague.

"Have you completed the.....?"

"Good Morning!! This is Harry. How are you today? Hello..... Hello....."

I rushed back to my cubicle and picked up the phone.

"Hello..... hello.....Hi"

"This is Harry. How are you today?"

"I am fine, thank you. I need to get an auto insurance for my car. It is a red....."

"How much of driving experience do you have Miss?"

"Well..... I got my license last month. But I have driven in India for 3 years"

"We only consider driving experience in this country Miss. Sorry but we don't insure first time drivers. Is there anything else that I can do for you?"

'Can you program in Java? I can't for the life of me seem to find this problem' I gulped down this acidic reply which was at the tip of my tongue. Instead of babbling about their quality assurance and high volume of calls, why could not they say that they don't serve first time drivers? It would have saved me a good half an hour.

Then suddenly I remembered the issue of my red car.

"Can you tell me if red cars have a higher insurance premium?"

"No Miss, I don't think that the color of the car is any factor in determining the insurance for the vehicle. It depends upon the type and year of the car, security facilities like alarm inside the car, the age and the driving experience of the driver."

"Is that the policy of your company or a general insurance policy?"

"It is a general policy to the best of my knowledge Miss"

I had gained at least one important piece of information at the cost of half an hour.

I then called three more insurance companies from my list. After enduring several 'All our representatives are busy at the moment' and 'Your call is very important to us' , from each of them, my writing pad was scribbled with numerous figures crisscrossed with words like "Liability" , "Comprehensive" and "Collision".

Should it be 100-50-100 or 100-100-100 or 50-100-100? Should I have insurance against non-insured drivers or not? If yes, then how much should it be? Should I pay the entire amount now or give monthly installments? Is this much of insurance sufficient? Questions, Questions and more Questions!!!! One silver lining to the cloud was that the high premium for a red car was indeed one of the Urban Legends!! Thank God at least some of them were ready to insure first time drivers.

After numerous discussions with my colleagues, I finalized the company, got the photocopies of my passport and license, faxed them over, got the insurance form, filled it up, sent it back and then waited for a week for the insurance card to arrive.

Finally the card came along. As I placed it in the glove compartment of my car, I was relieved that I had at last completed all the steps - getting license, buying a car and getting auto insurance - required in a Headache called "Having Your Own Car"!!