2963

It was May 2006 and I had just bought myself a beautiful Yellow Wagon R (YWR). This was my first car and I hardly knew to drive it around. In my various sojourns I was generously helped by my friend Imtiaz bhai. They told me that I had to bring my car to a Maruti Service Station to get it serviced for the first time. This was part of the free service package. Besides this the Maruti Dealer had to give me a permanent number plate as I had already registered my car. The Service Station was at Somajiguda and I had never driven that far. Imtiaz bhai was my rescue idea.

After waiting for an hour at the Somajiguda office of Saboo motors I was told that since it was a Saturday, servicing the car here would be difficult and I would have to drive it to the Nampalli Service Station. With my limited driving skills this would have been impossible. Imtiaz bhai was also reluctant to drive further. So I was real angry with Saboo motors for having called me this far and not directed me to Nampalli directly when I had called in the morning.

To pacify me the sales man told me I would any which way have had to come here as my number plate had to be fixed and RC book/ card collected. I was still a little pissed off.

After another wait of around 15 to 20 mins what was being fixed on my car first surprised me, then shocked me and later flabbergasted me, but till today intrigues me as a mystery.

Long years ago when I was a little boy, my mother had told me stories about her father (my Nana) having various cars. She told me many stories about many cars but only one of them I remember till today. It was about a Morris Minor that my Nana owned somewhere between 1950 to 1965. I was only born in 1975 so I had not even seen this car. The story told so many times over the years had no plot as such but remained in my mind as the “ two nine khichdi” story. You guessed it right... Nana had a Morris Minor that had a registration number 2963. My Mamu named Chotu could not pronounce a term as difficult as “Six Three” when he was young and so called it “ two nine khichdi.”

The Registration number of my car too is 2963.

Nana I love You...