That day, we were all waiting for our new guest to arrive. Yes, a guest that would soon become our family member. My son and my husband were so passionate about cars that they would treat them nothing less than our family members. My son, who was a teenager then, would romance with vehicles rather than with girls which indeed gave me real peace of mind!
Now coming to our new guest, finally, the long-awaited beauty arrived, and it was the Premier NE-118. This was a used car and we got it for about Rs.30,00/-. Let me tell you this was a lot of money for a middle-class family in the mid-’90s. My son took it immediately to the roads and seemed to be very much satisfied and looked very excited. I took a ride and was a little disappointed as it looked old and dirty. Wish, the first owner delivered the car to us clean, to say the least.
At that time, we did not have much choice for vehicles in India. We had to choose between Fiat or an Ambassador. And we were the fans of Fiat. Based on the Fiat 124, I am told that this car was adjudged as the car of the year in the late ’60s in its original avatar. It was indeed spacious & luxurious when compared to our erstwhile Premier Padmini and had Air Conditioning too. Such a luxury in those days!
My husband always spent disproportionate money on cars. This car was no different. The newly acquired old car was sent to the garage to enhance the cosmetic looks. Though it meant burning a hole in our pockets, we changed the whole upholstery and the wheels, and my son enjoyed the most while choosing the most fanciful wheel caps for the new set of new radial tires. After getting a final face-lift with painting, polishing, and all the new accessories, the beauty got its glamour back and looked really royal. The white big vehicle looked like the divine chariot of Lord Venkateshwara on which the deity is taken round in Tirupati. I named it ‘Hansa vahana.’
As we loved to travel by road, we made many trips to coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We had joyful & memorable trips because, unlike our older Premier Padmini, the NE-118 was smooth trouble-free with lots of legroom and a bigger boot to carry our extra luggage. We kept this vehicle for many years and continued doing road trips to places like Chitrakut waterfalls, Dantewada Danteswari temple, etc. in Chhattisgarh as well.
The time & the memories spent with my husband and son road-tripping in our ‘Hansa Vahana’ are unforgettable. That life perhaps will never ever return.
With Love-
The Traveling Granny