A Legacy of Inheritance

Pankaj Motreja

My association with the KVCCC precedes my joining date by many years.

Let me explain.

As the middle child of a middle class family in a mid-size city like Mysore, the only thing larger than life in my childhood was the annual Dasara festivities.

Once a year the lazy town would shrug off it's cobwebs and wake up to a celebration of such grandeur, that a sea of humanity would take to the streets to witness it.

I remember hanging off the terrace of my cousin's home to witness the Dasara procession.

I remember being pushed and jostled as neighbours, distant relatives and others who we would meet only once a year, on that very terrace, would vie for a view of the parade below.

Much to the confusion of my family, the only time I would vociferously insist on an uninterrupted view, was when these strange old jalopies from Bangalore would pass by.

All of them sporting a now all too familiar circular logo with a big red 'V' !

Soon after, I got a job, moved to Bangalore, and purchased a classic vehicle with my first pay check.

Little did I know then, that I would one day be entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the KVCCC's digital archive, and would come face-to-face with photographs from those very events !

An inexplicably surreal experience for sure, looking at the crowds (me) in the photographs from the perspective of those driving the vehicles (them, or should I rather now say, us ?)

An old man connected to our hobby, who I met early in my journey once told me, "The best case scenario in this hobby, if you do everything right, is that your classic vehicle outlives you. Part of your duty towards your vehicle, as well as to this hobby is to find the right custodian, and infect them with the same enthusiasm that you have; for that will ensure that the vehicle lives on for another generation."

Truer words were never said, and KVCCC has played and continues to play it's part in 'infecting' the next generation of enthusiasts to care for the vehicles in our custody.

Picture credit : K P Subbaiah, Kersi Bastawalla, T R Raghunandan