Ramblings

Bijoy gives us an insight into the machines we motor-noters choose to put our own money on

SO YOU HAVE BEEN READING AUTOMOTIVE magazines and are familiar with scribes who toil hard to drive and ride all kinds of cars and motorcycles in boring places like the Nurburging and South of France so that they bring you nice enough stories. Since I have been part of this ‘working class’ breed not so long ago, I thought it would be nice to get in touch with some friends and find out what they drive and ride. In short, identify the machines that they put their hard earned money on.

Adil Jal Darukhanawala, is the most senior name of them all. I have been reading him since the days when he had a high roof Maruti Omni and a Kawasaki KB100. Till very recently he owned a Toyota Innova and a BMW 5 series diesel. He sold both these machines and bought himself a new Innova. Of course he has many cars and bikes in his garage and the one that gets me drooling is the Triumph Thruxton!

Hormazd Sorabjee had a blood red VW Scirocco during his Indian Auto and Auto India days. Today the Autocar India editor trusts his Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the BMW 325i (E30) which he inherited from Jangoo Nicholsen who used to pepper it in racing tracks.

Srinivas Krishnan whom I worked with for over a decade has put his hard earned money on the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross for its attributes. But his idea of classic car ownership is to ensure that ‘Miriam’ his bright yellow VW Bug gets moved from one garage to another year after year.

Bertrand D'Souza, editor of Overdrive says that the only time he spent his money on a car was when he bought a Mahindra Bolero for his dad. Ahem, he says it has been a great buy. But he is saving up for a fully loaded Isuzu D-Max.

Bob Rupani, Overdrive columnist, has had his share of Gypsys – he owned many of them before he put his money on a 1980’s Honda Accord with pop-up lamps. He drives it every Sunday morning and dreams of Dodge Challengers. If he has to invest his own money on a car today, it would be on a Volkswagen Polo GTI.

Which brings us to the editor of this publication. Sirish sheepishly admits that the only time he invested his own money on cars was when he wanted to go rallying. So a Mitsubishi Cedia was followed up by a VW Polo, which then saw action in rally stages across the country.

Shubhabrata Marmar (Shumi) of Overdrive started his journalism career with me at BS Motoring. He was so desperate to get his hands on a ‘big’ motorcycle that he immediately bought himself a Honda CB750 with all the money he could lay his hands on. I am glad to report that nothing has changed with Shumi… he recently became the proud owner of a Ducati Multistrada.

Ruman Devmane of Motoring World considers 4,000km motorcycle rides ‘normal’. But he stunned me with his passion for an old timer – he acquired a Premier Padmini/Fiat 1100 recently and is bent on restoring it. Rahul Ghosh of Auto Today loves his ‘original’ Maruti 800 and painstakingly restored scooters. Vikrant Singh of Car Wale is busy spending his money restoring a Suzuki GSX-R1100.

Sure there are journalists who rely on ‘long termers’ only for transport. Many of them young journalists out there may not be able to afford what they dream of yet. But what the heck, they are living their dream in any case! ⌧

What the heck, they are living their dream in any case!