Yesterday we said goodbye to our Rajdoot two-wheeler- we followed what India has done this year – it said goodbye to Ambassador car- a car that always had an extra space for a kid or a person- in fact everything that is `extra’ needed to say goodbye- communities staying in Jungles are extra, they needed to vanish, extra (female) child has to be aborted, extra dish of vegetable doesn’t exist anymore, extra space and time for freinds has gone, everything that is `extra’ has to vanish- but human beings can’t live in vacuum, so `extra’ is getting replaced. Extra communities from jungles are replaced by JBC machines, extra space giving car is replaced by new car, extra ounce of flesh on human body is replaced by extra ornament/extra pair of clothes, extra people believing in `extra’ religion are replaced by followers of a Baba, native extras from Hindi films are replaced by white-skin women and dark-skin muscular men- white skin as angles and dark skin as goondas or villain, thus anything that is `extra’ by tradition is either made to vanish or replaced. OK, back to Rajdoot – many of my generation remember this two-wheeler that dominated Indian roads between mid 1970s to mid 1990s. Rajdoot has two models- one ordinary and second was called baby Rajdoot- remember Dharmendra the Heman of 1980s, sailing Rajdoot – or remember Bunker Roy – a 6 feeter, well built and well bred person driving a baby Rajdoot – and people at traffic light giving strange looks – a person like Bunker Roy was suppose to drive Royal Enfield, but he kept on driving his Baby Rajdoot till it was stolen. But our Rajdoot had funny story- In early 1980s, Ford Foundation was supporting Nada Sahib and Sukhu Majari water conservation projects and for the visitors from Foundation they had a guest room in Chandigarh. I usually would visit this on my way to Delhi – in those days I had to take a 4 pm bus from Jagjit Nagar for Chandigarh, if I wanted to go to Delhi and would take a midnight bus for Delhi – so in between I would visit this Guest room – the first thing that I would do is to take a `good shower bath’ (in those days taking a bath at Youth Hostel of Jagjit Nagar was a luxury – as we had to fetch water from 200 feet below and carry it to the Youth Hostel, put up a Hamam and take bath- this would consume not less than 2 hours (if weather is good) – so taking a shower bath at Guestroom was a real luxury – by the time I finish my bath, Mr Mukharjee (unfortunately he is no more) and / or Madhu Sarin with her big German Shepherd dog in her Fiat car would arrive at the Guest House and then we would have a drink, good warm food and then usually Madhu or Mukharjee would drop me at ISBT Chandigarh. One evening when I was visiting this Guest room, I found Deep Joshi there and we chated. He asked me whether we would like to have a Rajdoot two-wheeler that was bought a year earlier but had run only 12 Kms (from the dealers shop to Guest room) – as SUTRA had no vehicle in those days, I immediately agreed. Deep said Foundation cannot donate the vehicle, SUTRA needs to buy it- I was little shocked – those were the days when OXFAM was donating Land rovers across the country and here is a rich Foundation that was refusing to donate a Indian made two wheeler (costing a fraction of Land Rover) – Deep explained me the rules of Foundation and then asked me how much maximum I can afford to pay. I said Rs 100/- to Rs 150. Deep said he would get back to me after talking with vehicle in-charge at Office. After a week or so, when I visited foundation’s Office, Deep said, the final price of the Rajdoot is Rs 250/- and left with no option – that was Deep’s style of functioning. I agreed and paid. None of us knew how to drive a two wheeler in those days. Long back, I was barred from driving any auto-vehicle so that people on road can walk safely. Incidentally we had someone from Tilonia and he agreed to drive it to Jagjit Nagar. This person (sorry I forgot his name) stayed for extra week and taught Amar Singh – and everyone from SUTRA learned driving two wheeler- Rajdoot became a Trainers vehicle – later on we received 4 Royal Enfields from OXFAM and thus we had large number of drivers ready. But amongst all of my male colleagues, it was Kuldeep who loved driving on Rajdoot, he never liked Royal Enfield. As male staff at SUTRA started getting reduced, the use of motorbikes also got reduced- so we donated all our Royal Enfield to sister organizations, but I refused to `see off’ my Rajdoot- my first two wheeler. But over a period it started getting age-related disabilities – and genuine parts for replacements were not available. So it stayed in inner corridor like an useless old cow lying in faroff cowshed, making no demands on us for last 10-12 years. Ultimately Raju brought a scarp dealer and decided to sale this useless `extra’. The scrap dealer offered Rs 2000/- but I insisted he pays Rs 2,500/- (atleast 10 times more than what we had paid). So the Rajdoot was lifted and put into pick-up like a dead bull or cow is put up for its last journey – tears in eyes, I said goodbye to my Rajdoot.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 06:05:25 +0000
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