Nostalgia

by Josy
(Santa Clara, CA, USA)

I was 13 when my father used to work as a site engineer for the state electricity board in India. The vehicle allocated to all engineers was the Mahindra Jeep.

Thinking back it was fun, with scores of engineers all living in the same colony, in identical residential quarters, with Jeeps parked all over the place.

My dad used to have a yellow one and I learnt to drive on that one. Although he never let me take it out he would let me park it when he came back from work.

It was a three speed diesel. My dad would push the accelerator all the way to the floor and it would do 60 km/h, maybe 70 on downward slopes.

On school days, someone would load up like 10 kids in the back of the Jeep (the jeeps had three bench seats, one in front and two at the back facing each other). A lot of my good childhood memories are associated with those jeeps.

During rains school trips would be in Jeeps which had the hard tops because the other Jeeps started leaking as soon as the sky got dark :)

I remember the hard tops used to be white with a logo that looked like a capital R.