Welcome back to Idle at the Lights. I am Saeed Al Mazrouei and today we are in Al Quoz in Dubai, in the workshop of Thomas Varghese, who came here from Kerala in 1994 and bought a used Mercedes W123 in his first year. He still drives it to work every morning. It has 640,000 kilometres on the clock and it sounds better than my Land Cruiser, which I find a little upsetting. Thomas is going to tell us how it has stayed alive for 30 years: the parts that still arrive from his cousin's shop in Kochi, the engine he rebuilt over eleven weekends, and the family conversation about who gets it next. He gives short answers, so I will try not to talk over him. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.