Fiat 1956

The number was 5754 The letters RWP for Rawalpindi.How deeply we loved our car .My sisters and I perched on it with Mother too joining us for a most memorable photograph of my life.

Complete overhaul

I remember that all the parts of this car were opened and spread out in the verandah of the house.For days the engine parts were  cleaned.There were two mechanics who were the experts. One was named Badruddin,

“Mistri” is the Urdu language word for ‘mechanic’ and I would hover around the nuts bolts pistons wheels and wires, and keep asking questions ‘what is this part called? and Badruddin would mumble something which I hardly understood then because of his answer with half a cough and half a puff. He always had a cigarette in his mouth. I remember one action that he smilingly and patiently performed and that was a rolling a pin with both hands in one of the iron pipes of the engine.I wonder what part that was. Finally one day the parts were ready and they were joined fixed and set in the body of the old Fiat.

What should be the color? My father loved Olive Green and dark Olive Green it was.The doors would open from the center and that was the best part I enjoyed. We all loved our car.

Trips to the bookshop in Saddar Bazaar and short trips outside the city were the best. We would visit Grandfather then living in the City of Jhelum along the Jhelum River as he was serving as a Senior Educationist at the King George Royal College now the Military Cadet College of Jhelum.

My fashion and style in the photographs shows me in a fairy dress. I remember the top of the frock was in light blue plain satin and the rest made in  light muslin material cut in pointed edges , knee length to show the fairy like image. I had a part to play as a fairy in the school drama and this was again a slightly cool  winter afternoon .We as a family must be enjoying the after lunch family- sitting in the sun , as the days were short.Soon the sun would start setting and everyone would move inside the house to a much cosy environment. No television but yes, a radio and a radiogram were the new inventions gaining popularity. reading books and magazines was the popular pastime and late night activity after dinner was prayer and story telling. 

Morris Major: A Frequent Visitor

This car Morris Major belonged to my fathers friend Col Shafiqur Rehman. He was also a medical Doctor and a frequent visitor to our place. Later I learnt that he was a writer . He wrote humorous articles in the Urdu language and published two books which were considered of great literary value.

We were very excited to see his car and cars were a special object of attraction. Shining black and silver Morris was a fascinating sight and being photographed in front of it, on it or by it was an honour.

This is my elder sister getting the honour here.

The other vehicles I remember were jeeps. I will write next about them.I was hardly three years old and I felt I could drive perfectly. I drove imaginary cars and travelled places.’The mind in itself is a heaven’ and ‘nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so’.Great were the days of the imagination and the wonderful world of fairies pirates elves and gnomes and mysterious dark dungeons, and travels all across the seas amidst the storms and one could hear the music of the waves and see the eternal light of the constellations.