Today morning when they ruthlessly towed my 1992 born Crown Victoria to a junk yard, I found it very difficult to plan the rest of the day amidst 4 years of memories that the car carried with it or rather within it. I remembered the day when I bought it from a Tech student. Longer than the cars around, with all the space in the world inside it, the car was a little awkward buy for anyone who is buying it for the first time. To add to my this not-so-welcome feelings, the car, on its very first day, did not even start. It was enough reason for me to worry as I had written a check of 1500 dollars to my seller who was leaving Tech for good on the very night he sold the car to me. I rushed to call my man before he packed his bags and said bye-bye Tech. Thanks to my always-low-but-sometimes-not-so-very-bad luck, the man was still in the town. When he came as a messiah to show me that because of the headlights being not switched off properly, the battery ran out on the car; I immediately realized about the hard path the car was going to ride on. Not so much on the account of path under it but on the account of the car itself!But irrespective of its battery problems, unpleasant maroon leather interiors, and an unwieldy long shape, my grudges were immediately driven away the moment I picked up that steering. The ride was so smooth for any car which already had a run of 90000 miles. Precisely put by Sanjog, the driving was literally"makkhan." And then car never looked back, specially so when Andy drove it :). Within few days, it became popular among all our friends. As a president of the Indian Students Association, I used it on numerous occasions to transport people and thus it became the presidential car! Because of the number of people it carried or more so because of the regular destinations it reached, it then became the bus of Houghton! On an average, 7 people comfortably sat in it discussing about where they wanted to accommodate the 8th one. Very soon it became something more than just a car. A family valued object!
It stood besides us when we camped. We rested on it when we looked at the sky lit with northern lights from the top of UP mountains. We rode it towards copper harbor n number of times through heavenly fall colors. We released the paddle a little when we took it on the mystic covered road. We drove it through foggy roads of Twin Lakes. We sang songs in it while driving. We missed the roads and traveled madly through darkness in it. We passed the driving tests on it. We failed driving tests on it. We saw mysterious creatures through its windows. We stood on its top to remove snow from it. We talked stories in it. We discussed futures in it. And we parked it in the lot number 134. And this "we" inside the car kept changing with all the friends that kep t on adding to the family. The car survived us for four beautiful years.
But for the last four months, it was counting its last breaths. It was in a virtual comma. It had its time. After a permanently dead oil pump, torn floor panel, and elevated fetal battery issues, the car stayed in the parking lot motionless dumped under unimaginable snow levels....like a warrior who is virtually dead but lingering to see the war come to an end. And as Smarty smartly put, it was too much for it after kaka sat on its trunk for a photo shoot. It could not take it any more. But as a crazy child I turned the key once in a while.. during thundering storms or or fresh sunny days to see if my dear Victoria springs back to life, but indeed in vain alas. Like the fist love, it was my first car! How could I let it go? But finally, with heavy heart, I took the decision! Chalti ka naam gadi! and so is true for zindagi!
Did I junk it?..Yes, the metal, may be. But how can I junk so many memories that are and were intact with it? I had bought it for 1500 dollars. I got 150 dollars when I junked it. Probably I lost one zero in the deal. But I lost something more than that. So when I stood with a dollar 150 check in my hand in front of an empty parking lot number 134, I felt it little more emptier than otherwise when the car was usually out and running.
Shanonymous
