माय इंडियन कार

MY INDIAN CAR

I'm not especially a car person but the car I had in India I was particularly fond of. It was a brand new jet black Suzuki Zen Estilo Lxi and gleamed in the sun.

On one of my dozens of visits to the Kiran Niketan School in Zuari Nagar, I parked in the playground as usual and then went inside to do a singalong session. After the singalong I came out and drove home.

As I got out of the car at home I noticed the mother of all scratches across the drivers door; on closer inspection it seemed to be someone's name!!

I immediately rang Sister Lygia, the School Head, and spelled out the name scratched on my door, demanding to meet the little fellow at the earliest opportunity. Sure enough they apprehended the culprit and I shot off to the school to confront him.

I was sitting in the School Heads office working out how to put the fear of Jesus into the boy when in walked the culprit....... a little girl! Not just a little girl but the tiniest little girl in the school.

After a serious interrogation by the nuns it seemed the little girl had not wanted me to leave after the singalong session and felt by scratching her name on my car a part of her would be always with me.

It seemed that the little girl was so ashamed after being spoken to by the nuns that she kept her head facing the floor. She knew she had done wrong and had said sorry so there was nothing more to be said. All I could do was smile. My reward was her raising her head and smiling back at me. Priceless.

I never did have her name polished off the door.