Seven decades ago, in May 1954, a Morris Minor car brought newborn Valerian Miranda and his mother home from the hospital in Madras (Chennai). Cut to February 2025. The 1952-model car, purchased by Valerian’s father from Addison Motors, Chennai, in June 1952, was shipped to Houston, USA, to be with Valerian once again, as there was no one in India to take care of his beloved ‘family member.
’ Interestingly, the cost (over Rs 13 lakh) of shipping the old, unusable car was over five times the present valuation of the car. In an era when the affluent change their cars every few years to make a style statement with bigger and more luxurious models, Valerian stands out as someone who honours his parents’ wish that the old car be treasured. A LOYAL COMPANION Retired architect Valerian recalls, “My father was the first owner of this new imported made-in-England car, a black one with the number MEQ 8136.
It travelled with him to whichever city he was posted to. Apart from its being my father’s loyal companion, it was also my friend and I drove it occasionally, especially during my college days. After my father passed away in 1988, we found that our driver had changed and sold some rare parts of the car on the pretext of ‘repair.
’ It was last driven on the roads in 1990, after which it was kept in our home garage in Bengaluru. However, after my sister’s demise in 2022, we sold the house and the car was kept at a friend’s premises in Whitefield. There was no covered .