Way back in the eighties, I think my elder brother bought a Toyota car. Corolla maybe. And my sons here in India were excited. I had never even heard of this company and model. But these kids somehow keep themselves abreast. They were so excited that someone in the family owned a Toyota. My brother lives in New York, and there it costs more to pay for parking than to pay for a car. So, he disposed of it in fairly quick time. And the boys were so sad.

My elder son’s first car was a Mazda Coupe Model, I think. A two-seater. Right from a young age, even as a kid, he was fond of cars. Car toys were his favorites. He would fidget around with broken cars, repair them, and make them move. So no wonder his search and choice of cars were special.

Just before our first visit to the U.S., he was forced to exchange his car for a proper sedan since now we will be four of us. And we had never heard of the model he bought. It was Subaru. Very Indian-sounding name. With our own internet age having begun, we browsed around and read about the car and were surprised these models had participated even in rallies.

It was a beautiful car with a mesmerizing yellow

 color. It was so new that he would ask us to keep our footwear clean before getting into it. Prized possession, right? Having been used to only Marutis, Ambassadors, and occasional Santros, this was a new experience. The comfort, speed, ease of navigating roads, centralized controls—all were new to us.

Since our daughter-in-law had learned driving, he had to get another one. She was just starting, so he decided to go in for a second-hand one. After a lot of search and view, we settled on a Toyota Corolla. It was old but could do the job. The very first day she drove her car, my wife was sitting in the front. Out of fear, not knowing how her driving would be, my wife almost balled herself into a corner of the seat. Once, we took this car to the Microsoft Campus, which was almost deserted. And both my wife and I tried our hand at driving for really a few minutes. When I did, the car was moving like a snake. My car driving career ended there and then. After a couple of years, she got an Acura car—a graceful car.

My second son’s preference was Volkswagen Jetta. I did write about this earlier, where he had taken pictures standing beside the car when he had just gotten it, the same way he had taken a picture with his first cycle. And what was his next one?

Continued in 289. Moving Models - Part 4