My little blue car

It was the summer of 1991 and I had just landed myself a job which I thought would do justice to my education and give me a chance to fend for myself. Most people in office then had bikes to take them places and this being a sales job it required a lot of local travel. I had never owned a vehicle no did I have dreams of owning one so I used public transport or just depended on my reliable legs to get me places. Not for long. Efficiency suffered and I was forced to get a vehicle of some kind and thus my first scooter happened . It had to be financed by a loan and was all cloak and dagger. Never having ridden a cycle even, I was at a loss as to how I was to get places. Resourceful as I am I soon found a local boy who was charmed into giving me lessons and soon I was on my way. For some ten years from them I rode that scooter of mine to every nook and corner of this city. It was a battle scared scooter. Six months after buying it,I met with a mother of all crashes which left me with concussion and the bike in a sad state of repair. But the good old scooter saw me through thick and thin. It was famous in it's own way. The mechanic who repaired it for me never knew my name but if ever I was stranded with my scooter not starting I only had to call him and mention the number and he would be there to take care of it. It was with a lot of sadness that I gave it up for a car. Not being able to afford one I had to wait a few years to get enough money and manage to pay the loan off but buying my first car was a big deal for me. It represented my ability to look after myself ,earn enough to buy the things I wanted and with not a penny from the parents. It was with a great deal of pride that I took it home to show my parents that I had done it. The parents not the kind to shower praise didn't say much but the pride in their eyes was enough reward for me. A year into the car and a bus bashed me up from behind and there I was in a mangled car furious with myself and the bus driver (who got away with it) and the police for not helping. It shook me a little and my confidence suffered a bit but I pulled myself up and then went on to become a pretty decent driver.  It was time to trade in the car for another new one . My parents had by then aged a lot by then and getting in and out of a low car was a big issue for them. My next car was decided taking into consideration the needs of my parents. After all the only or perhaps the main reason I learnt to drive was to take them around on hospital visits and general shopping tours. This time I took a tall boy car and the parents were delighted. For the next ten years this car was a second home. I changed jobs did a lot of office work parked in some car bay. Travelled the length and breadth of the city in it and in my dad final days the hospital visits became more frequent. The parents needed more looking after. Six months after the car arrived,I was shuttling one parent from hospital,while trying to look after the other at home. It was a stressful time and as luck would have it,the city which never gets any rain,had a cyclone. Water filled the streets. Two old sick parents and my car parked on the road in case of emergencies. The rain came down and the floods went up and like the old children's song,my car drowned. I watched in disbelief as the water rose and submerged my car. Helpless and lost I waited till the rain subsided and got it repaired. That little car took my dad on his last journey to the hospital. It took me to his funeral. It is a storehouse of memories,some very sad,some happy but all in all a big part of my life was lived in that car. It saw my tears and my joys. It had my clothes .shoes phone glasses etc all lying around in it. It was to me a second home. Unfortunately they don't make cars to last so ten years later today I had to give it up. Call me sentimental but I cried seeing it go for the last time out of my life. I have never cried over a car but this one was a lot more than a car. To me it was a well of all my memories and in it's passing a long chaper in my life closed. The new car is here but I am yet to give it my heart for the moment  a bit of my heart is in a little blue car which was my constant companion for ten long years....