The Drives of Digha!

Nowhere in the country have I seen such a vast collection of drives around town!

A small hamlet on the east coast, 200 kms south west of Kolkata is where you will unearth the mystery.
Where do I even start ? Let's take the Biggest-to-Smallest route!

1. Buses! Oddly oval shaped, precariously overloaded and very characteristic of this part of the country. They frequent Digha from all possible nearby towns with regular service to and from Calcutta.

2. Vintage Jeeps. Grown-up men do act like children. Sitting on top of a jeep and cheering howling as the mechanic peered under the hood and tried to kick-start the engine with the battery jack. Every time the engine gave a roar, you would hear a triumphant cheer a kilometer away.

3. The Last Mile Carrier! Both Mahindra and Tata are definitely creating in-roads into this domain with a decent presence of their 'Last-milers' in Tier-3 towns. Very handy rides though!

           

4. The Tuk-tuki! The crème de la crème of my Digha visit. Had heard so much about this curious little thing on wheels. With passengers sitting on either side of the bar (much like school children headed for their morning classes), and the driver sitting in an equally funny posture trying to toggle a gear shifter which would give the Audi's patented Tronic gear system a run for its money, this crazy 3-wheeler literally steals the show! When the tide is low, you'll often find unsuspecting tourists taking a fun ride up and down the Digha shoreline on the powerful ' Tuk-tuki ' .

5. The make-shift Rickshaw! For 5 bucks a hop, these transporters will get you to the innermost bylanes of both Old and New Digha. Laughter and crazy stories thrown in free! And with all the impetuous showers that keep hitting the eastern coastline, they guarantee you getting to your destination absolutely dry. Pakka promise!

Which ride should I book you on... ? 

The Cab in the 'Cab'-inet !

They are the meanest, not quite the leanest !

And if you aren’t used to break neck speeds, screeching halts, and the nastiest maneuvers on the tar, your bowels are in for some shock! Some might call this an epiphany to the Ambassadors in Calcutta. I call it a tribute to the craziest rides Ive ever had.

These yellow soldiers aren't comparable to the speedsters on the F1 circuit in raking pure numbers on the tachometer! But they were built to do things Bernie Ecclestone wouldn't even dare to!
Hindustan Motors built these Ambassadors strong. Calcutta being the largest consumer, they apparently have a factory nearby where you'll find these taxis on the assembly line.

Ive been to Calcutta twice now!

June 2010 and April 2011. The city never ceases to amaze me. The food, the sights, the river, the people, or the laidback attitude. That's the best part actually. I need to learn the I-know-I-am-lazy-but-I-don't-give-a-damn perspective! And don't get me wrong, but they do get their work done almost always.

But one thing that you can never miss are these taxis zipping by! ' Yellow colour + Huge size + Super fast maneuvering '. And they will always go by the meter.

While in the taxi, I've managed to have detailed discussions on the economics of driving a 'stone-age cab in a modern world' and the drivers have always convinced me that although a little high on maintenance, the 21st century cars don't even last a fraction of the years that these Ambassadors will. And the worst of accidents will just etch a tiny scratch somewhere on the body. These were made with hard-forged, furnace-baked Iron and Steel, not with cheaper, lighter alternatives, fitted by tender, gentile assembly line robots. Plus the super powerful engine, it roars! Make it climb mountains, make it race sedans!


Sad, that in India's capital city, you'll only see these beauties at the Railway station, the Airport or ferrying unsuspecting ministers in and out of the Parliament. They've become the exclusive rides of the neta-log and the babus! They've reached where very few manage to. Into the Cab-inet! I remember having driven my grandad's Fiat Premier Padmini when I was young. It was the time when the Ambassador was in vogue. Those were the days when the cars really had 'muscle'. And the driver needed to have a lot of' muscle' too, to be able to toggle around with the super hard mechanical steering and gear shifters.

But they would always take you to "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", if you wanted!

The Fiat Premier Padmini