42 YEARS AGO - CHAPTER 2.

Triloki and I had only three months in England and a few weeks had already flown past in trying to familiarise ourselves with the ethos of the place.

In Cheltenham we walked to all the places, as we lived in the centre of the town and loved walking. The first time that we travelled out of town, we had taken a Red bus to Gloucester. That was of course the cheapest form of public transport. That was also the time when I had excitedly exclaimed, "It is just like a Picture Post card." In hind sight I know picture postcards are always made with real photographs of actual places, so there was no need for that excited exclamation. But then need is need and what comes from the heart is excitement.

I have always been very fond of books. My biggest joy is to  visit a book shop and spend unlimited time looking at the rows and rows of books from top to bottom. In those days I could only look as money was always in short supply and books were a luxury. Looking at the book, turning the pages and smelling the new pages was free. I had therefore made it a rule to buy at least one book every month, which rule I followed quite sincerely for a number of years.  I had actually devoured the books of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, A J Cronin and Thomas Hardy who based their stories in Britain. I loved to visualise the British countryside by reading the poetry of Wordsworth. In my world of imagination, England was what these authors had shown me through their writings.  The British countryside, small towns and the royal city of London with its Dukes and Duchess and Kings and Queens and lesser nobility fascinated me no end. As a child after reading "Dick Whittington and his cat", I had visualised the streets of London as being paved with gold. Having reached the country which I knew so well theoretically, I  had this great desire to explore all the high and low lands, the little villages and towns, the meadows and inns, the rivers and glens and see everything with my own eyes. 

For seeing all these places one needed to be mobile. No, no not the mobile phone as of now, we needed to "be" mobile as in have a vehicle to move about in. See how with the changing times the usage of words also changes! What meant a vehicle at one time now mainly means a phone.

BOOKLET WITH MAP OF NORTH WALES

Coming back to my story, it was decided that we would first explore the areas nearest to Cheltenham. A colleague of Triloki's from Dowty Rotol, Roy Boston gifted him a booklet with a map of North Wales and South England. We covered the booklet with a covering paper and preserved it so well, that I still have it. 

BOOKLET OF MAPS

We zeroed in on Bath as our first destination. Bath had a fascinating name, great history, old world charm and beautiful old buildings.

We had decided to share a car with some others who wanted to travel and explore Britain. We wanted to travel in a  car for convenience, comfort, comradery and  carefree travel.  We needed to share the car so that the economics would also work out. Triloki knew how to drive a car and had an Indian car Driving License. The License had been issued in Kanpur and was in Hindi. In those good old days paper was not too scarce and plastic was not rampant. The Driving License was on a very large sheet of paper, which would get folded and get enclosed inside two pieces of cloth bound paper. It used to look like a little booklet. The size was quite  large and would not fit inside a shirt pocket. Before leaving India, Triloki had not thought about getting an International Driving License, so we looked for a friend who had a valid International Driving License. Puri who had been posted to UK for a year had the foresight to obtain an International Driving License before leaving Lucknow and he was also wanting to explore England.

CAR RENTAL IN 1973.

It was decided that Francis, his wife Sushma, Puri, Triloki and I would go together to Bath. On a lovely Saturday morning, Puri and Triloki left for the car hire place to select a car and fetch it home. When they reached the car hire place, the paper work was completed, insurance details were filled in and a beautiful grey coloured Morris minor car was selected. You didn't wonder why Morris Minor, did you? Yes indeed, that was the cheapest car. 

RATES OF SELF DRIVE CARS

So after collecting the keys both these gentlemen walked towards the garage to drive out with the car.  At the garage when Triloki went towards the driver's seat, the owner of the garage said that the person with whom the agreement was made would have to drive the car and no one else would be authorised to drive the car. 

We with our "chalta hai" attitude could not have imagined that the British Garage owner would be such a stickler for rules. The interesting point was that Puri had an International Driving License but he did not actually know how to drive a car! Does the song, "This happens only in India"come to your mind? Well, so now the question was how would Puri drive out with the car?

 Triloki and Puri kept talking and requesting and trying to persuade the owner to allow Triloki to drive the car away as Puri was not feeling too well, but the owner was simply not willing to budge. His no was a firm no. It was not "let me see", nor "what can I do".

It was now a clash of two cultures. It was a match between our team which was used to saying,"bhai sahib, jane dijiye na", "arre bhai, kya farak padta hai, hum toh saath saath hain" and George the garage owner who was firm with his righteousness and rigidity to follow rules. How truly Rudyard Kipling had said, " East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet"

This was now  turning out to be a major crisis. 

 Triloki started giving Puri lessons in Hindi on how to engage the clutch and put the car in first gear and how to release the clutch slowly, so that Puri would just move the car out and once outside the premises, Triloki would take over.  The release of the clutch and engaging of the engine refused to work, and the car refused to move. All this was happening in the presence of the owner who was watching with apprehension.

Now, Triloki is a very determined person. If he wants to do something he leaves no stone unturned to achieve his goal. For him "if there is a will there is a way". All the maxims started working now. 

"The will is mightier than rules". Oh oh! Ok, agreed there is no such maxim, I just made that up! The collective will of Puri and Triloki started working. It reminds me of a dialogue in the movie "Om Shanti Om" where Shahrukh Khan says, "Itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai, ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saajish ki hai",  the essence of the dialogue is that if you really desire something then the whole universe starts working towards getting your wish fulfilled.

So the "whole universe" came to the rescue of these two desperate people. There was a shout from inside the garage that there was a telephone call for George. Wasn't it very convenient that in those days there were no mobile phones? George had no option but to walk back in to the office to take his phone call. Grabbing this opportunity, in James Bond style, Triloki quickly dashed into the driver's seat, Puri jumped on  to the passenger's seat and off these two drove lock stock and barrel, that I guess should read limo, steering and bonnet. The "juggad" of the East always succeeds.

These two reached home, we piled into the car and soon left for Bath via Bristol, with both of them singing,"We shall overcome...hum honge kaamyaab"

 Sushma and I couldn't stop laughing after hearing about this escapade  from the garage. We kept imagining the look on the face of the garage owner. Soon the excitement of driving on the roads of England took over. The beauty of the countryside, the orderliness of traffic transported us to another world. We enjoyed our journey southward until hunger pangs struck us. 

THE MOBILE EATERY EN ROUTE

We looked for a small joint where we could eat, but found nothing to our liking, until we saw a small wayside eatery where we got hot dogs and coffee. 
 In the photograph above you would notice that Triloki is wearing a suit with tie and I am in a saree.  Yes, in those days even when going for a holiday one dressed in formals! So, after this small break we drove on towards Bristol. Bristol was a big city and we were looking forward to see urban England. Before we could be delighted with the sights of the beautiful bridge on the river Avon, we saw unexpected snow falling. Our excitement knew no bounds and we, who had never seen  snow fall before, stopped the car and jumped out. That happened to be just a stray fall and the snowfall stopped as abruptly as it had started. Nevertheless our day was made and the memory of seeing the first snowfall was stored in our memory bank forever.

IN FRONT OF A CHURCH

What happened after we reached Bath will be my next story. I promise you that you will find that story interesting too. As the incidents are unfolding in my mind, I am surprised that memory still stands me in good stead. That's it for now.

Adieu mon amie,  Auf wiedersehen, so long, phir milte hain aage ki kahani ke liye!