Well, the Viswanath family is all set to take a road trip, so I thought I might pay homage to all the road trips we took in childhood days in our family vehicles. Most of our family owned scooters (vespa) in those days, but there were some cars with amazing load carrying capacities too! So I list them out in award format..
1. The car that could carry the most load
My Periappa had the Duker Fiat (more popularly known as "Dukker Fiat" (Dukker actually means Pig in Marathi, why this car was pronunced as Dukker is beyond me, because as far as I know, pigs find it difficult to carry their own loads, forget that of others). Aaaanyywaays, the Duker model has front doors that open from right to left, instead of the left to right, and the back doors open the usual way, left to right. This car while seemingly innocent and rather old man looking (because of the top, which resembled an old man's bald head), could carry upto 12 people alongwith another 3-4 bags of luggage while the actual capacity was only 5!! This was our default car for picnics when the whole family got together in summer hols. Could fit 3 well grown, heavyweight adults in front and another 4 adults in the back. Each adult would have a kid or a bag on their lap, so one can imagine the load here. And it would chug up the Maheshwari udayan flyover with ease, I think all of us howling Mannubhai Motorchali Pom-Pom-Pom at the top of our off key voices was motivation for the engine to get to the destination faster!! Periappa was great with the car of course, very good and patient with all of us and drove the car like a seasoned pro.
2. Yeh dosi hum nahi todenge...hamara sidecar scooter
Vijay super Max 2..that was our first scooter. Appa bought it in Pune and it had a sidecar which resembled a rocket!! The scooter was a big hit, though I really wonder how Appa managed to balance the thing. Every kid in the family wanted to be in the sidecar!! Some memorable moments include being chased at midnight on Dockyard road by stray dogs who rivalled the scooters speed...Dad drove as fast as possible and Shilpu and I were huddling in the scooters mouth area as far as possible to get away from the dogs! My fright was that it would seperate like it did in Sholay and the dogs would get us...but of course, the scooter was more powerful than that and we managed to get away without a scratch. The fear of stray dogs still remains....
Another memory is riding through Aarey colony to Picnic spot, all of us kids Vidya, Sandhya, Archu, Shilpu and me in the Sidecar scooter, Virmani mama and Rajan Mama following in their respective single scooters. We kept scaring Vidya about leopards and panthers and finally she got off and went to Rajan mama;s scooter. Archu, of course wanted to wrestle with the panther!
3. Most entertaining driver
Rajan mama gets this award, unanimously I think. Most of my childhood, I remember him cursing freely at errant truck drivers and BEST bus guys. His language was funny though, none of the ugly cuss words, but weird ones like "Haajam". He's also got Manni's sense of humor, so its damn interesting when he drives. One outstanding memory was recent, only 2 years old, when he kept up a steady banter with Anandan chittappa so that Chittappa would not doze off in the front seat (Chittappa could sleep anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE - sitting, standing, lying down, watching tv, travelling in a local train...). Also remember him muttering to a boy and girl getting cozy in the middle of the road on a scooter that perhaps the rising prices and lack of Udipi restaurants are making them hang out in the middle of the road, blocking other drivers O_O. And yes, I cannot forget him giving nasty looks to a car which pulled up a centimetre before his in the signal and it turned out to be someone they knew from VG :-D
4. Safest driver award
Periappa, Vinod,Virmani Mama. All 3 get this award. You know your in safe hands esp with Vinod because he won't look at any place but the road while driving. Periappa and Mama are more seasoned, so they look here and there but handle crowded vehicles with aplomb!
5. Heart in your mouth driver
Any guesses who this would be?
6. Special mention for the ladies
Yes we have women who drive too. Mahalakshmi mami who is one of the first ladies of our family to handle the wheel and manual gears in big bad Mumbai, Sandy who has been driving in Bangalore (I swear you deserve a spl award for this), Shilpu who has been driving in the United States with Anagha in tow (i know what its like to drive with a screeching kid in the car seat).
My own car driving memories are far and few, I caused more accidents I think. Like when Appa and the driver who was teaching me kept yelling "brake brake" when we were nearing the signal and I hit the accelerator instead! Or when I knocked off the car's front headlight grille and stuck it back with fevicol so Appa wouldn't know (it fell off when he knocked the car against the gate later, much later, that's when I realised fevicol ka jod really majboot hai). Later in the US, driving was easy, till Saurav came, then I had to keep pulling over, initially because he would howl, later because he would unhook himself from the carseat and come in front...
Feel free to comment here on any stories you would have about your family cars or scooters or bikes or...you get the point...vehicles..
1. The car that could carry the most load
My Periappa had the Duker Fiat (more popularly known as "Dukker Fiat" (Dukker actually means Pig in Marathi, why this car was pronunced as Dukker is beyond me, because as far as I know, pigs find it difficult to carry their own loads, forget that of others). Aaaanyywaays, the Duker model has front doors that open from right to left, instead of the left to right, and the back doors open the usual way, left to right. This car while seemingly innocent and rather old man looking (because of the top, which resembled an old man's bald head), could carry upto 12 people alongwith another 3-4 bags of luggage while the actual capacity was only 5!! This was our default car for picnics when the whole family got together in summer hols. Could fit 3 well grown, heavyweight adults in front and another 4 adults in the back. Each adult would have a kid or a bag on their lap, so one can imagine the load here. And it would chug up the Maheshwari udayan flyover with ease, I think all of us howling Mannubhai Motorchali Pom-Pom-Pom at the top of our off key voices was motivation for the engine to get to the destination faster!! Periappa was great with the car of course, very good and patient with all of us and drove the car like a seasoned pro.
2. Yeh dosi hum nahi todenge...hamara sidecar scooter
Vijay super Max 2..that was our first scooter. Appa bought it in Pune and it had a sidecar which resembled a rocket!! The scooter was a big hit, though I really wonder how Appa managed to balance the thing. Every kid in the family wanted to be in the sidecar!! Some memorable moments include being chased at midnight on Dockyard road by stray dogs who rivalled the scooters speed...Dad drove as fast as possible and Shilpu and I were huddling in the scooters mouth area as far as possible to get away from the dogs! My fright was that it would seperate like it did in Sholay and the dogs would get us...but of course, the scooter was more powerful than that and we managed to get away without a scratch. The fear of stray dogs still remains....
Another memory is riding through Aarey colony to Picnic spot, all of us kids Vidya, Sandhya, Archu, Shilpu and me in the Sidecar scooter, Virmani mama and Rajan Mama following in their respective single scooters. We kept scaring Vidya about leopards and panthers and finally she got off and went to Rajan mama;s scooter. Archu, of course wanted to wrestle with the panther!
3. Most entertaining driver
Rajan mama gets this award, unanimously I think. Most of my childhood, I remember him cursing freely at errant truck drivers and BEST bus guys. His language was funny though, none of the ugly cuss words, but weird ones like "Haajam". He's also got Manni's sense of humor, so its damn interesting when he drives. One outstanding memory was recent, only 2 years old, when he kept up a steady banter with Anandan chittappa so that Chittappa would not doze off in the front seat (Chittappa could sleep anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE - sitting, standing, lying down, watching tv, travelling in a local train...). Also remember him muttering to a boy and girl getting cozy in the middle of the road on a scooter that perhaps the rising prices and lack of Udipi restaurants are making them hang out in the middle of the road, blocking other drivers O_O. And yes, I cannot forget him giving nasty looks to a car which pulled up a centimetre before his in the signal and it turned out to be someone they knew from VG :-D
4. Safest driver award
Periappa, Vinod,Virmani Mama. All 3 get this award. You know your in safe hands esp with Vinod because he won't look at any place but the road while driving. Periappa and Mama are more seasoned, so they look here and there but handle crowded vehicles with aplomb!
5. Heart in your mouth driver
Any guesses who this would be?
6. Special mention for the ladies
Yes we have women who drive too. Mahalakshmi mami who is one of the first ladies of our family to handle the wheel and manual gears in big bad Mumbai, Sandy who has been driving in Bangalore (I swear you deserve a spl award for this), Shilpu who has been driving in the United States with Anagha in tow (i know what its like to drive with a screeching kid in the car seat).
My own car driving memories are far and few, I caused more accidents I think. Like when Appa and the driver who was teaching me kept yelling "brake brake" when we were nearing the signal and I hit the accelerator instead! Or when I knocked off the car's front headlight grille and stuck it back with fevicol so Appa wouldn't know (it fell off when he knocked the car against the gate later, much later, that's when I realised fevicol ka jod really majboot hai). Later in the US, driving was easy, till Saurav came, then I had to keep pulling over, initially because he would howl, later because he would unhook himself from the carseat and come in front...
Feel free to comment here on any stories you would have about your family cars or scooters or bikes or...you get the point...vehicles..
