Car Tale

No this is not a fairytale but then again it is a tale-- of 2 cars, The Baba ,The Momma and there 3 little princesses

Part 1- The Arrival

.Once upon a time we had a scooter. I was around 2 or 3 yrs old then .I would stand in front of Baba while Momma would be the pillion rider, holding Boo in her lap and Di would somehow sit sandwiched between Baba and Momma. We rode like that for a few months when we came to Kolkata from Kharagpur. Somehow Baba realized that it wasn’t a safe mode of travelling (especially in a city like Kolkata so one fine evening arrived home, a shiny, new FIAT car and we all fell in love with it. It was almost 25 years back and Maruti wasn’t a big hit till then. There would be those big, powerful Ambassadors or the smart sleek Fiats. Though Most of Baba's friends had Ambassadors, both my parents had this thing of being different from others so Fiat it was. It was light blue on the exterior with maroon or maybe chocolate coloured upholstery. I was very small then but i have a few fond memories of our ' Pakkhi Raaj' (The king of flying birds)-- By the way, the name was bestowed on her by our friends (will come to that part later). Baba would drive it to office and on the way drop us and 3 of our friends to school. Through the entire route, we would all fight and quarrel about who would get the window seat or the more coveted front window seat. We would feel so proud getting off the car in front of the school gates (yes big snobs we were  ) while the other school kids would just stare at our brand new, shiny blue Fiat. We owned the world.

Part 2- The Romantic drives

During my MBA days, there was (still is) this close friend of mine, Trina. She once said that if she ever had enough money after marriage, the first thing she will buy is a Fiat. To her it was the most romantic car!!! With the undivided front seat and the gear, fixed at the steering wheels, her husband could easily drive with one hand on the steering while the other arm would go around and hold her. Yes very romantic indeed and i couldn’t help smiling. I remember how on long drives, Baba would drive with his left arm resting behind Momma's back. it looked so sweet .We 3 sisters would usually be looking out of the windows waving whoever passed by. It was really a funny observation (especially as kids)-- while women would smile sweetly and at times wave back, the men mostly had this expressionless face staring right through us.This was the first difference I found between a man and a woman. The one smiling and waving is the woman and the unsmiling one would be the Man!!! Now children, especially girls never like being neglected so we changed our strategy so that these men react. We started making faces at them--ugly , distorted faces with our fingers becoming our horns and our tongues hanging out. Funnily men liked it and they would either smile or laugh or give those 'same to you' faces at us. The middle aged aunties or Dadis did not like all this and they would at times shake there heads (saying we shouldn’t be doing this) or look shocked...So the men enjoyed those distorted, ugly, devilish things while women liked those smiling waving faces --another difference you see.

Part 3 – The Pakkhi Raaj ( King of the flying Birds)

During there hey, days both Momma and Baba were the adventurous types. On one of the christmas eve parties Baba and his friends suddenly decided to spend the Christmas weekend at Digha-- the nearest sea beach.!!! the catch being that they will leave next day early morning and drive there own cars and the worst thing being that they did’nt know the route, there was’nt any proper road and it would be an almost 12hrs rough journey. Back from the party we were all excited and we spent the entire night packing. By 5 in the morning, the 4 cars--2ambassadors, one brand new Maruti 800 and our 8yr old Fiat were ready and we all took our places...with me, Boo and 3 of our friends in our own car, Di and few more friends in the new maruti (oh how I envied her-- but there were no places left) and Momma with her friends (the heavier ones) in the Ambassadors. We all had gone just half way, that our silencer broke down. Our car was sounding more like an auto so we made a stop while the rest waved or showed “ the thumbs down “sign. The mechanic said that he is seeing a Fiatfor the first time  in this kind of  stretch—(the car is not made for rough roads). Baba, who already knew it, had full confidence on his Fiat and said that he will make it. We started again in full speed but with a little more caution. Though we didn’t get to be 1st (the maruti of course was the one), we came 2nd. The huge Ambassadors were the last ones to reach (thanks to the aunties who kept shouting to slow down).But this was half of the real thing. There was the return journey too. The Digha stay is another interesting story which I will write about later.

On the day of our return journey, we started late afternoon .All of us were happy, cheerful and dead tired. We did not sleep for 2nights (if u count the party, then it must be 3). The condition of Baba and his friends were worse. So we all started together but halfway down the road, the cars lost each other. It was getting dark and you couldn’t see a thing ahead (Thank God there is a thing called headlights) and there were these huge , speeding trucks everywhere. Finally we took a break at Kolaghata which was supposed to be the meeting point. After waiting for an hour, we realized that all of them must be way ahead and we were the last ones  So we started on our final lap feeling sad and defeated (We as kids took these things rather seriously). We reached our ‘Balaka Apartments’ around mid night expecting every competitor waiting to boo at us but guess what??? The entire colony was sleeping peacefully. We reached our door only to find the lock still hanging and we all jumped! yes we won the race….the house keys were with momma and she did’nt reach yet. The car was full of us kiddies only and we all were excitedly planning how to welcome(an ugly welcome) the rest. Even Baba looked excited but at the same time was worried. Finally after 3 long hours, 2 cars returned- An Ambassdor with the Maruti tagging along with the help of a rope. Later on we learnt that

Ambassador No. 1— Broke down mid-way without any warning.
Ambassador No.2 ---- The Horn stopped working so had to take the help of the Maruti and stay
Right next to it. The occupants of Maruti (all the guys) had joked and
Jeered calling the Ambassador “ Dadu” (Old Man)
The New Maruti --- This is what we call divine justice—first the headlights stopped working
So was now “sticking with” Ambassador no.2 and finally 2 of its tyres went
Flat. So the guys had to be dropped and they were returning by local train.


Our Fiat, the strongest of the lot, was thus given the name—“ Pakkhi Raaj”

Keep watching this space.I’ll be back again posting the next parts of the “Car Tale”.