Joys of the past

An amazing thing happened today.

I drove my ‘Sunny Zip’ today.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this vehicle – the Bajaj Sunny was India’ first scooterette. It has a 60cc engine, which takes it to a maximum speed of 50kph, and it weighs around 60 kgs. In 1996, my father bought this Sunny Zip for me when I topped my 6th standard final exams in Jalandhar Army School. I was, to say the least, ecstatic when I got my Sunny. I the youngest kid in the entire neighborhood to boast of a vehicle that you didn’t have to pedal around, and that translated into instant stardom among my 12-year old peers. Suddenly, everyone in school knew me and wanted to be a friend. Kids would beg for a ride, sometimes even dare to ask if they could get a test ride. Good ol’ days!

However, like all new and shiny things, I soon decided that the Sunny Zip I had treasured for so many years was no longer a suitable ride for me. I had grown up to be an adamant teenager (to be fair, I was a pretty adamant kid too!) and I needed a bigger and cooler ride. Yet today, after almost 10 years of declaring that I no longer needed this tiny scooty, I was surprisingly happy to drive it today. My father is especially attached to the Sunny since it was my first ride and he was quite proud that I managed to drive it around on my first attempt. I owe all my driving skills to him and this was my first step. Hence he has doggedly ignored all our attempts to convince him to sell off the vehicle.

I admit that I didn’t understand why he couldn’t give up this article that had no use left. But maybe I get it a little bit today. When I got back home after the drive, I was wondering how many happy memories from my past have I just forgotten about. Maybe I was just moving on, to better things and memories, but I guess that doesn’t require me to forget all that was good about the past. I have endlessly complained and stressed about all that didn’t work out, and I think today gives me a good reason to stop doing that. Here’s to an awesome future and big thanks for the past. It’s been good!