Awesome thread Behram sir. Your writing shows the love you had for the place which was like a second home to you. You brought back the memories of me learning to drive in the Premier Padmini when i was 16 years old. My dad even today swears by this car and he even likes the smaller version of the car with the rounded boot. Since the time i was born till i was close to 18 years, I have only been driven around in a Fiat car. First it was the old Fiat with the rounded boot(sorry, dont know the exact name) which had the front doors opening in the opposite direction to the ones we have now. Then the 1967 Premier Padmini which my grandfather passed onto my dad. My dad spent close to 1lakh to get the latest leather seats and upholstery and full tinkering and repainting, got rid of the cut glass and made it resemble the marutis of that time and also got the dynamo removed and got an alternator fitted, new tyres et all. The car was with us till the odo reading was 98k kms. This was after 1lakh kms that is. So it lasted us nearly 2lakh kms. My dad was also very crazy about cars and travelling, so my mom and dad just used to take off on that long drive at the snap of a finger. Later on sold the car and my dad again went in for a Fiat Premier Padmini which is a 1990 model. That served us for nearly 60k kms, I grew up to be 6'0 tall, could not drive Fiat Premier Padmini due to constraints of not being able to adjust the seats... Finally dad got convinced and changed over to a Maruti 800 (was not very comfy to drive that as well due to my height, but was much better) From then on various cars of various brands and finally now a Tata indica and M800.
But the 18-19 years spent in a premier padmini is unforgettable. That too since that was the first car i drove and learnt to drive in as well. Thanks for bringing back the memories with this awesome thread. |