It was tense moment for Sugata Bose as he got behind the wheel of a four-door sedan last Friday. Prof. Bose – a member of Parliament and a professor of history at Harvard University – was tense because for many decades no one had ignited the engine of the vehicle, manufactured in the early 1930s by Auto Union, then a venture of four German auto majors and now owned by Audi.
“We knew we would be able to do a full optical restoration of the sedan as we have the original catalogue, but was not sure if we could get the engine running well,” said Prof. Bose, standing on the same driveway where Subhas Chandra Bose or Netaji had boarded the car in the guise of a north Indian Muslim, evaded the British police and set off on his ‘Great Escape’ to Germany.
“My father Dr. Sisir Kumar Bose [son of elder brother of Netaji] was at the driver’s seat. Netaji came out of the rear staircase and got into the car on the rear seat on the left. My father started the engine immediately, took a right on the Elgin Road and another right to Allenby Road [now Dr Sisir Kumar Bose road] and went further north. It was past 1.35 am, January 16-17, 1941,” said Prof. Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji. Sisir Bose and Netaji reached Gomoh station (now in Jharkhand) late on January 17.
“My father watched Netaji walk across the over-bridge to the other side to board the Delhi-Kalka Mail,” he said.
President Pranab Mukherjee is set to unveil the car on Wednesday.
The 1937 sedan, brand named Wanderer, thus set off Netaji’s journey which finally culminated in the formation of Indian National Army in South East Asia. The challenge to restore the car with such a history but an inactive engine thus gave few tense moments to Prof Bose.
“But after restoration, I’m happy to say that the engine is now running well as I drove it on Friday,” said Prof. Bose. The car was bought in 1937 by his grand father and Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose. Later Sisir Bose registered the Auto Union (company now belongs to German automobile manufacturer Audi) sedan in his name.
In 2016, on the 75 Anniversary of the ‘Great Escape’, when the family decided to restore the sedan, Audi offered to take the car to Germany – an offer the family rejected. However, Audi Kolkata managed to locate one of the rare professionals – a vintage car restorer, Pallab Roy, for the job. He got about six months to return the car to its original pristine condition.
“Normally we need about one year for such restoration,” said Mr Roy, winner of two Statesman Vintage Car Rally awards. The scion of a royal family, Mr. Roy restored his grand father Raja Kamalaranjan Roy’s 1928 Studebaker President Eight Limousine and a 1967 Mercedes Benz 230S from “from complete junk to pristine condition.”
“But the real challenge was to fabricate many parts of the car which were damaged or missing. The doors, chests, ashtrays, pilot lamps, dashboards, the engine – we had to reconstruct many parts,” Mr. Roy said. Explaining how difficult the process was to return the car to its original form, Mr. Roy cited an example.
“The car had a unique colour and to understand the nature of the colour we opened the catalogue in the sunlight. Not morning or evening sun, as the colour changes, but afternoon sun and matched the colour visually in the paint shop,” he said. A touch of yellow, magenta, red and green was mixed with two shades of blue to match the catalogue’s colour. Similar attention was given to nearly all the body parts and two items – the door screw and tyres – which were imported from US and Germany respectively.
In de-industrialised Bengal, Mr. Roy and his son Saurav, managed to put together a team 12 mechanics to restore a truly “vintage” saloon. Cars rolled out before 1940 are considered vintage.
“Some worked with engine, some with doors or interiors – the artistry is amazing,” he said. Netaji Bhawan will honour “the artists” on Netaji’s birthday, January 23, Bose said. But before that Prof Bose would like the President to sit in the car as he arrives in Netaji Bhawan on Wednesday to unveil the restored car.
“I would like to show it to him,” Bose said.
Following the ceremony, Prof Bose will drive the Wanderer along the driveway from the makeshift garage in the backyard to the glass case near the front entrance, where the Wanderer was housed for many decades.
