American Woman Follows Indian Traditions After Husband Surprises Her With Brand New Tesla: Goes Viral [Video]
There are lakhs of Indians who have moved out of the country and relocated to other countries in search of work. Even though they are settled outside India, they take time or measures to follow the rituals and customs that they used to follow in India. Whenever we buy a new car or bike, we perform religious rituals and pooja to welcome the vehicle into the family. This is mainly because most Indians consider the new vehicle a part of the family. Here, we have one such video of an Indian American family following traditional rituals after buying a Tesla.
The video has been shared by the Vernekar family on their Instagram page. In this video, we see an American woman performing pooja on her brand-new Tesla Model 3 in the driveway of her house. The exact location of the couple is not known. The husband is Indian, while the wife is American. Surprisingly, the woman (the wife) is seen performing the pooja on the car in the video.
She has a plate or tray in her hand with all the items needed for the pooja. She walks around the car with the tray, showers flowers and grains, and places lemons in front of all four wheels. Once the rituals are done, her husband picks her up, places her feet in another plate with red-colored pigment, which most Indians consider auspicious, and then she places her feet on the bonnet of the Tesla. She even draws a Swastika symbol on the bonnet.
Many users were curious after watching the video and wanted to know more about the rituals. Some of the comments under the video include: “Can you explain the ritual that you did? I’d love to know more about it.” “You made the correct swastika; even in India today, people wouldn’t know that.” “I think this is lovely and so special ? we should all be as thankful.”
We have seen people perform this ritual in India on several occasions, but this is probably the first time we have seen a foreigner do the same. After the rituals, the car is driven forward, and all the lemons placed under the wheels get squeezed. They even break a coconut in front of the car before driving it outside. We see Jessica Vernekar (the woman in the video), her husband, and their children participate in this ritual.
This is not the first time we have seen an Indian perform traditional pooja rituals on a vehicle abroad. In fact, there have been instances of Indians performing similar rituals after buying an aircraft. One such person bought a Piper Cherokee 140, a 2- to 4-seater light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft, and conducted pooja in front of the hangar.
Not just abroad, but in India, we treat our new vehicles in the same manner. There are several instances where people have taken their new rides to temples to get them blessed. We are not just talking about mass-market cars; people have even taken expensive supercars like the Lamborghini Huracan STO, several luxury SUVs, and even helicopters to temples for blessings.