DINKY: OUR FOUR-WHEELED FAMILY HEIRLOOM

It all began one lazy afternoon in 1993. While clearing out old boxes, I offhandedly asked my mother about the little pedal car we kids once ruled the garden with—our mighty steed that carried not just one or two, but four of us at once (two perched on the seat, and two hanging onto the footboards like little daredevils).

“Oh, that thing?” she replied. “It’s probably lying in the garage with the metal scrap, waiting for the raddiwala.”

Her words stopped me cold. Waiting for the raddiwala? That wasn’t just a toy—it was a time machine, a piece of my childhood.

Anand, who had patiently heard my many tales of the car with the clicking door handle, jumped in. “Let’s save it,” he said. “We’ll rebuild it—piece by piece.” And so, that rusted ‘tin ka dabba’ was packed into a box and hoisted onto the roof of an overnight bus from Secunderabad to Bangalore.

In those pre-Google, pre-ChatGPT days, we dived into dusty photo albums and combed through secondhand bookshops for anything about vintage toy cars.

Thankfully, the basic chassis, mudguards, and pedals had survived. Only one hubcap remained, but a friendly lathe worker recreated it for us, even fabricating a new front fender grill. A skilled carpenter restored the footboards, while our architect friend Sangeeta painstakingly sketched the badge from a grainy old photo—her drawing was cast in brass and chrome-plated to perfection.

The badge

After a professional paint job and a hand-stitched leather seat, our little car gleamed once more—reborn after nearly two years of loving labour. Anand even added working headlights that switched on with a clap—our friends had a blast setting them off with enthusiastic applause!

We named her Dinky.

Pedal car by Tri-ang, Lines Brothers Ltd., Great Britain

During our research, we stumbled upon an old book showing a pedal car with the exact same number plate—LB 3067. Suddenly, Dinky wasn’t just special to us; she was rare, possibly one of only a handful left in the world.

From what we’ve pieced together, she most closely resembles a 1930s Buick Regal, originally priced at a mere $4–$6. But Dinky’s value goes far beyond numbers.

She was first gifted to my father by my grandfather when he was a boy of about five or six. The ship carrying the toy sank during WWII, but Lines Brothers replaced it—free of charge. Can you imagine such a thing today?

In 1996, we had the joy of watching my father, Harsha, climb back into his childhood, grinning from ear to ear as he took Dinky for a nostalgic ride.

Dad, reliving his boyhood in 1996

From a dusty garage corner to centre stage in our family story, Dinky isn’t just a toy. She’s legacy on wheels