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Originally Posted by Stanher Incidentally, it seems as though every car your family had owned was with you for only like 3-4 years? If I might ask, was it due to circumstances, ie. moving on frequent transfers etc.? |
Not really Shyam. In the list here only the '71 Fiat, Standard Super 10, Lamby and RD 350 were sold early, although not all of these in 3-4 years either. But we've had the others for very long - the Hillman was with us for almost three decades, same with the '61/62 Amby. The Vauxhall was there for almost five decades (that wasn't sold;
I was conned off her!). Since we moved around on father's postings, the older vehicles (bought for/by my father) normally were kept in the hometown and would occasionally join up at one of the stations. Since one couldn't afford to keep them all, one had to occasionally move on, and the newer ones would obviously fetch a better value, which could be one of the considerations for deciding on which to let go.
There're vehicles with us for a very long time, before and after the mentioned vintages, that are still with us hence not iterated here. And then there are some that have been sold, and I'm either aware of their current whereabouts or couldn't really much care for them, hence not listed also. My father lost one eye and also got a stiff neck (yeah, I know that reads funny
) in 1960 but managed to keep driving himself rather well till about 1990. So he never bought another car after that. Boy. are we talking cars or am I going all Eric Claptonish here with my father's eyes...sorry, for going OT.
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Originally Posted by Stanher Interesting to know about this bike. I imagine it to look like some monkey-bike if not moped? |
The KTM50 was quite a proper scrambler, although smaller in size. Ask Mr. Google for pictures, na?
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Originally Posted by Stanher So did you have the fiat at the time? Incidentally, I was told (and you might've noticed) that Sec'bad (especially Tirumalgiri, Sainikpuri etc.) used to be full of Heralds/Standards back in the yars you mention (even until the early/mid 90s. If only I'd grown up then.....sigh!) |
Yes, the Fiat was with us in Sec'bad. There were many Heralds as well as other Standards (including Vanguards, Companions, etc.) in the cantonment area there, which was the case all over India actually. Talking of Sec'bad cantt though, a friend of the family also had a very nice 1942-44 Ford/Willys Jeep that my brother and the other 'big boys' would go hunting wild boars in (I was not 'big' enough to join them although wild enough to be hunted!). They've settled down in Sec'bad and
Biswajitda (same surname as mine) runs a big insurance brokerage company of his own there now. Dunno if they retain the GP still.
Wasif, I'll request for details of the Singer Le Mans for you from the Sharma brothers next time I meet them. If an AP connection emerges, I'll try to put you in direct touch with them. Maybe, some other member here, who's reading this and is in touch with them can do the same as well.
Karl, regarding the sharply reverse-raked C-pillar Ford Anglia in Poona, yes I remember it well. Only, now I'm in a bit of a bind regarding the colour red. Because I think there was a red one in Delhi also that I would see regularly till the 90s, so am not sure if I saw a red in Poona or in Delhi - the two reds are blurring my memory, maybe I'd see a red Anglia in both the cities! But I distinctly remember a beautifully maintained sky blue-coloured one in Poona in the early 80s. This car used to be in a charitable organisation's building in Kirkee, on the road from BEG to Vishrantwadi - mid-way there on the left, somewhere near the main Yerwada Jail/Airport turn-off road. Btw, there were also a white and a white with a red stripe (between the beadings on the side flaring up near the tail, like in some of the Cortinas also) in Delhi, to be spotted till even the early 2000s. There was also a badly-painted blue Anglia, but regularly driven by a Buddhist monk that I last saw here in the early Y2Ks. A fellow t-bhp member had also put up a station-wagon Anglia in the classifieds here some time ago. Oh yeah, just remembered that I had seen a white one outside a workshop in Munirka (Delhi) just a few months ago. So the tough little Anglias are survivors. A Harry Potter movie had one too!