I learnt to drive when I was 21 on an Ambassador. In fact, my elder brother Shivanna (Shiva Rajkumar) and I learnt driving together.
My father was passionate about cars. In fact, he would wipe the dust off his vehicle with his dhoti. I remember the Italian Fiat. My brother and I would sneak out with our father’s car at night, stealthily push it out on to the road and then start it. My brother would draw all the curtains in the house so that our parents would not know what we were up to. One night, we hit the car and the vehicle was damaged. We gave it to a garage for repair and told our father that the car was sent out on some errand. We managed like this for two days and finally the car was repaired and brought home. The elders had no idea about what had happened. I still remember how we paid for it. We borrowed money from friends and picked a little from our mother’s purse! We felt this was better than being yelled at. The other reason we hid these instances from our parents was also the fear that they would not let us touch the car ever again.
My own first car was a Maruti 800, gifted to me by my father. He chose a brown-coloured car for me. I changed cars every year. I did not want any vehicle to go under repair. After the Maruti 800, I had the Maruti Van. Next came the Contessa. After that I have had many cars.
My favourite is the BMW which my father used. I still have that car. My father’s favourite car was the Santro. He had knee pain and felt this car had the most comfortable seats. ‘I feel like I am sitting on a sofa at home’, he would say.
I still have that car too and use that the most these days. I also plan to use that very car to work every day, during the shooting of my second innings in films — Ammana Mane. When I started driving, there were very few cars and car companies. Today, there are so many brands and cars out there. With this, one also sees an increase in traffic signals and speed breakers on the road. There was a time when we would drive home from Windsor Manor and we never applied the brakes on that drive at all. I would brake only when I reached home. Today, that seems like a dream: driving through the same road you have to brake at least a 100 times. This increase has not been sudden, but a gradual process. So we have adapted ourselves to this scenario too.
As told to Shilpa
Sebastian R
