Every person desires from within to possesses a four wheeler.
When ones earnings are less and responsibilities are more one also gets
tempted to possess a four wheeler that can also fetch you some etc. amount by
plying it as a taxi.
In 1995 both my wife and me were in our eighth year of service and had
saved some amount. (Around Rs. 50,000/-) with which we were intending to
go in for a four wheeler in a year or two. We looked forward to save some
more amount in the next couple of years and purchase a second hand Ambassador
Car for 1 or 1.5 lakh without taking any loan.
One day while I was doing my correction work in the Sr. Staff Room of
DPS Korba one of my colleagues Mr PXX, called me and took me to the Economics
Classroom because the class was vacant and he wanted to talk to me alone on
some money matter.
He asked me, “Sukhwant, please suggest how can I invest money ? I don’t
want to buy land or gold. I don’t want to go in for any fixed deposits or
buy shares”.
I told him, “See, you have caught the wrong person. I have
no idea how you can invest your money.”
Saying this I had started moving out of the classroom. While
moving out just for fun sake I told, ‘Yes, if you trust me you can leave some
cash with me for about couple of years and take the same back from me as and
when you would need it.”
His immediate response was, “Take it from me whatever amount you desire
within a day or two failing which I may give away the money to someone else.” I
said, ‘Give me a days’ time. Let me talk to my wife on the issue.” He said,
“OK.”
My dream plan of owning an Ambassador Car and plying it as a taxi seemed
to come alive and closer.
That evening after my wife Rina came back from the school I had a word
with her. She didn’t like the idea of borrowing any money from Mr. PXX
but then I had prodded her and tried to convince her that we won’t have any
problem in returning the amount in time. I gave her example of Mr. H.S.
Khurana, a family friend. He had purchased an old Omini Van Maruti for
about Rs.65000/- some two years before and was plying it successfully mainly on
Jamnipali – Champa route so much so that he used to send his Van thrice a day
to Champa almost on regular basis and each trip used to fetch him a profit not
less than Rs. 200/-. Within two years time Mr. Khurana had purchased two
Ambassador Cars, one old and one from the show room. He had also
purchased a TATA Truck. And his story of success had all started from
Omini Van Maruti. So I was pretty convinced that our second hand Ambassador
Car will also help us to come over our financial constraints and I convinced
Rina into agreeing to borrow loan amount from Mr. PXX. Next morning I
confirmed Mr. PXXi that I shall take some money from him within the next
fortnight.
Meanwhile I spoke to my Dad who used to live in Jeypore Odisha along
with my Mom. I told him to make a trip to Jabalpur where we believed good
second hand cars could be procured.
My parents also initially disliked the idea but on my persuasion Dad
agreed to go to Jabalpur where my in-laws lived.
We conveyed to my in-laws also and I told Rina’s Dad to look out for a
good second hand Ambassador Car and also told him that within a week’s time my
Dad would be reaching Jabalpur.
Both our Dads spoke to a Car mechanic called Pappu who had his garage
near the Shastri Bridge in Jabalpur.
He (Pappu) took over Dads to Sehora after three days and showed them a
white coloured Ambassador Car which belonged to a Rice Mill owner. Both
Dads were pretty much pleased on seeing the Car. According to Pappu the car had
been lying in the garage at Sehora unused for the past 6 to 7 months.
Inspite of the long gap when Pappu had tried to start the Car the Car engine
had taken off with first turn of the self-key. Both Dads were pretty much
impressed and they finalized the deal with the owner. This blind trust in Pappu
later proved to give us so many sleepless nights.
24.08.2015
Over the phone it was conveyed to us that the vehicle would be costing
Rs. 1.05 lakhs and it will take another Rs. 15-20 thousand for making the Car
perfect.
So the next day I conveyed to Mr. PXX in the school that I need Rs.
75000/- from him. He said, “I was expecting you would ask for 1.5 to 2
lakhs, I said, “No dear, I would like to borrow only Rs. 75 thousand.” He
said, “OK! Come to my home in the evening. We shall go straight to the
bank and do the needful.”
In the evening I went to PXX’s house with lots of excitement. He
welcomed me and made me sit in his living room. I was expecting that he
would lend the money in cash. But instead he took his cheque book out and sat
at his table and had opened his pen to write the amount on the cheque.
While filling the cheque, he asked me to spell out my name and then while he
was filling the amount, I still remember he had said, “Sukhwant Dhaiya (2.5)
lagega.”
My response was, “Kya ? Dhaiya matlab ?” he said, “2.5% interest per
month will be charged which you need to pay in advance.”
I was pretty confused and also a bit shocked because this part I had not
calculated. But then immediately Mr. Khurana’s roaring taxi business
flashed in my mind again and provided me with strength to go ahead with the
deal. Moreover with both Dads waiting at Jabalpur with an almost
finalized deal also weighed upon me. I said to him, ‘OK, No problem.” To
this he said ‘Have you brought your cheque book ?” On my denial he said, ‘Come
let’s first go to your house. You can handover to me the first cheque of Rs.
1875/- towards the interest of Rs. 75000/-.
So we first went to my house. Rina had returned from the school. I
asked her for the cheque book and wrote the amount of Rs. 1875/- on cheque no.
xxx446 dated 18.10.1995 and handed it over to Mr. PXX as first installment of
interest for the period of October 18th to November 17th 1995.
After this both Mr. PXX and me went to the evening branch of SBI
Jamnipali. He deposited the cheque I had given him into his account and I
applied for a Demand Draft of Rs. 80000/-.
I applied for leave of 2 days and went off to Jabalpur. Our plan
was to pay the amount, get the car and return to Jamnipali as soon as possible.
Before I could reach Jabalpur an unfortunate event took place in our
family. We got the message that my sweet paternal grandmother had passed away
in Jamshedpur.
My Dad had to leave immediately for Jamshedpur by train. Our plan
of driving the car to Jamnipali got hampered.
As I had less time in my hand and the pressure of interest was also
there I desired that the car should reach Jamnipali as planned. Instead
of Dad and me driving I hired out a driver through the mechanic Pappu.
Both Dads were so happy with the looks of the car that they had not bothered to test drive
the car themselves. They believed in Pappu to a great extent. Anyway
after my Dad left for Jamshedpur Pappu delivered the car at my Father's-in-law
place (Fair Deal Apartments, Madan Mahal) and left the keys with me. He
fixed a driver for accompanying me to Jamnipali for next morning and
left. I asked the hired driver to report in the afternoon so that all my
in-laws could get a ride in the car and go to Gawri Ghat Gurudwara.
The car that we had brought was splendid in appearance. It looked
like a VIP s Car.
That afternoon my mother-in-law and father-in-law along with my
sisters-in-law and brother-in-law got ready and came out of the flat and got
into the car. Other Fair Deal Apartment residents (15 families) were also
peeping out of their flats and watching us. When the driver tried to
start the car it didn’t start. Everyone went back to the house. I
went to Pappu. He sent a mechanic. He checked the engine and said four of
the spark plugs were short. So immediately I had got the plugs replaced
at a cost of Rs. 1200/-.
With disappointment we all slept bit early that night. I was excited to
drive the car next morning through Amarkantak valley and hoped to reach
Jamnipali before 8:00 pm. Next morning the hired driver arrived at 4:30
am. I was waiting for him. My father-in-law was also awake and we
all went towards the car. Once again the car engine refused to start. So
we had to try push start.
Dad and me pushed the car out of Hathital Road and reached the main
road, i.e., Nagpur road with the engine still refused to start. Finally we
positioned the car near Mahanada and then shoved the car with all our might
down the slop. Finally the engine started off. I touched the feet
of Dad, got into the car and thankfully left Jabalpur for Jamnipali a distance
of about 450 kms with not so good roads.
After about half an hours drive I took over driving and drove all the
way to Jamnipali without any further hassles and was very happy. The
hired driver left for Bilaspur soon after parking the car in front of our house
B-654 Yamuna Vihar. The car looked very beautiful and luxurious.
Little could we guess how much trouble was this car going to give us in the days to
come and shall prove the famous axiom, “All that glitters is not gold.”
After attending the school for a day or two I had left for Jamshedpur
along with Rina and Navleen Kaur who was less than two years old in order to
attend my grandmother’s bhog ceremony. We had left the car at Mr. Ahuja’s place
(a very close friend). Soon after returning from Jamshedpur we went to
Mr. Ahuja’s place and brought the car home.
I had already requested Mr. H.S. Khurana to extend his taxi booking to me.
That very evening he gave me a call and told me that an officer from the
Irrigation Department Darri wanted to hire the car for the next day for
Amarkantak trip and was ready to pay Rs. 800/-. When I told him that so
far we had not deployed a driver, he said that he had one to spare. Both Rina
and me were happy and agreed to send the car on its first trip to Amarkantak.
We felt pretty rejuvenated at our plan of buying the car. But when Mr. Khurana
brought the driver I was reluctant to send the car because we had seen his
driving. He used to work as a driver at Mr. Sudhir Ahuja’s place. His
driving was very rough but he assured me that he had given up rough driving and
was a safe driver now.
Reluctantly, I had agreed to send the car with that driver. Mr. Khurana
also assured me that he was a safe driver. There were two ways to reach
Amarkantak. One was a shorter one from near Ratanpur, but the shortcut was in
bad shape, and the other one was via Bilaspur. Inspite of 40 odd kms
which the car would have to travel via Bilaspur I instructed the driver not to
take the shorter route.
In the evening the driver came back with the car around 8:00 pm and to
my disappointment he told me that he had taken the shorter route.
Next morning when I had gone to clean the car and had raised the engine
hood I was further disappointed and troubled to find the presence of oil in the
radiator.
On inspecting further I noticed that the chamber of the car had got
damaged on that rough road and the oil had got leaked. When I took the
car to the mechanic he inspected and said, “Engine has to be opened and ‘head
gasket’ has to be replaced to stop the oil leakage.” I had asked him, “How much
would it cost ?” He replied, “Sir, cost of ‘head gasket’ is Rs. 150/- but
the repair cost will be Rs. 700/- plus another Rs. 250/- for cleaning the
radiator. “Altogether Rs. 150/- + Rs. 700/- + Rs. 250/- = Rs. 1100/- plus
fuel charges plus two to three days of time that it would take.”
This was for the first time that I had to sit in a mechanic’s garage to
get the vehicle repaired. Earlier to this I never had to go to a mechanic’s
garage for the scooter that we possessed. Even for getting the scooter
serviced I used to go to the scooter mechanic in Jamnipali near the vegetable
market. The mechanic used to drop me home and then take the scooter with
him. Complete the servicing and then bring it home and I used to go and
drop him back.
25.08.15
The car had to be put into the garage for necessary repairs. It took
around five days to get the car back home and it cost around Rs. 1400/-.
To our surprise the next day again oil was found in the radiator. The reason
given by the mechanic was that the ‘head gasket’ had not got stuck properly.
So the car engine had to be again put under same repair procedure and it
cost me another Rs. 1400/-. To our bad luck even this time the ‘head
gasket’ couldn’t be placed properly and oil had reached the radiator for the third time.
We decided to take the car to Korba for repair. On consulting a
mechanic in Korba he said, “Before fixing of ‘head gasket’ it is necessary to
get both sides of engine head thoroughly rubbed”. I had responded that
“Is it done with sand paper ?” The mechanic said, “No it is done with the
help of machines which are available in Raipur and it would cost Rs. 3000/- and
then another Rs. 1500/- for ‘head gasket’ and radiator job.
We were left with no alternative but to go through the whole process yet
again.
I’m talking of the times when my home take salary was around Rs. 2800/-
and Rina’s around Rs. 2000/-. We had to send some money back home, pay an
interest of Rs. 1875/- and manage our household expenses too. The
principal amount of Rs. 75000/- was also weighing upon our heads.
Against the earning of Rs. 800/- from Amarkantak’s trip we had to spend
around Rs. 8000/- on car’s repair. Due to my school work I was not able
to spare time to attend car’s repair. I remember I used to go to Korba garage
on our scooter. I used to carry Test Copies along with me, sit there and
correct them.
As the whole process was disturbing my professional life I called by Dad
and explained to him the whole situation and requested him to take the car away
with him to Jeypore and ply it there as a taxi. He agreed for the same and came
down to Jamnipali and took the car to Jeypore.
We had remained pretty tensed till we got a call from Jeypore that he
had reached safely without any problems and the car was in good
condition. He also said that whosoever was seeing the car was highly
appreciating it. We hoped that at least now the car would start providing us
good earning. But we were again to be proved wrong very soon.
At Jeypore Dad sent the car on its first trip to Rayagada which is at a
distance of 110 kms. The road is full of ghats. The driver while driving
on one of the ghats dashed the car from the left side on to a road side.
The trip fetched Dad Rs. 700/- and he had to spend Rs. 1500/- on denting and
painting of the car.
Soon Dad took the car to Vishakhapatnam for his personal work. There he
showed it to Captain Sharan uncle who was a close family
friend. He was to retire soon from Indian Navy and intended to shift to his
native place in Himachal Pradesh. When he saw the car he was highly
impressed and requested Dad to sell it off to him. He and his family
members drove the car in Vishakhapatnam for about 3-4 days. After being thoroughly
satisfied he offered Dad 1.5 lakh for the car. He told Dad that he should take
the car back to Jeypore and after few days he will visit along with his whole
family by train and while returning will take the car with him.
Dad called me from Vishakhapatnam and asked me what should be
done. By then we had almost spent about 1.35 lakh on the car. We
had not bought the car for selling it but the way we were troubled I gave my
green signal to Dad to sell it off to Sharan uncle. But things were not going to
be so easy.
With no steady income from the car Rina and me had started feeling the
suffocation. We were having sleepless nights. Interest installment of Rs.
1875/- had started pinching us to a great deal. More that the interest
now we had started worrying about the principal loan amount of Rs. 75000/-
We all started looking forward to Sharan uncle’s visit.
It had so happened that after having met Sharan uncle in Vishakhapatnam
when Dad was returning to Jeypore one of the front wheels of the car had gone
loose. Dad said, “While driving the car over Salur ghat all of a sudden I saw
something rolling in front of the car. I applied the brakes as soon as I
realized that it was one of the front wheels.”
He was fortunate that the car had not toppled off.
He had to go back to Vishakhapatnam by taking lift, get the mechanic
from there along with necessary tools and spares and had got the wheel placed
properly which had cost him more than Rs. 4000/-.
(04.09.2015)
We
all know that life is a cycle of both happiness and sadness. Right attitude is not to feel over joyed when
happy moments are prevailing and to maintain our selves well during difficult
times. However it is easier to
philosophies such theories than to face them practically.
After
the talks with Saran uncle we all were feeling happy that after few months the
problems will get over.
We
had taken a wiser decision of not plying
the car as taxi anymore while Dad was at Vishakapatnam itself.
But
then this wheel becoming free gave a further reason to worry.
Somehow
we consoled ourselves that inspite of the front wheel becoming free the car had
not toppled over. After reaching Jeypore the car was safely parked in Chaijis
house in her garage.
Saran
uncle’s arrival was a much awaited event by all of us.
For
the next 4 to 5 months we all just waited eagerly for the information of his
arrival. One day my parents got the call from him that he will be arriving at
Jeypore along with his parents, wife and both of his sons and requested Dad to
receive them, at Jeypore Railway Station and also told him to keep the car in
readiness so that he could take it along with him. He had also told that he would be coming along
with a Demand Draft of Rs.1.5 lakh. He
had taken the bank details of my Dad for the same. My Dad went to the station
on the appointed day in the car. My Mom had stayed back at home in order to
cook for all the guests who were arriving.
My
Mom recalls the days often and says “I was busy cooking food and I had kept the
house in all readiness for the guests and was getting impatient as they were
not arriving much beyond the scheduled time of the trains arrival. My ears were
waiting to hear car’s horn sound. After
much waiting I saw three rickshaws stopping at our door step. The maid came in to call me. When I went out I saw Mrs. Saran alighting
from the one of the rickshaws along with her younger son. The elder son got down from the second one
along with his grand father and from the third one Mr. Saran’s mother got
down. After all of them got down I asked
them, “What happened ? Didn’t Sardarji (my father) meet you at the station ?”
Mrs. Saran replied, “Please let us get inside the house. Please bring water for us, then I’ll let you
know what happened.”
My
mother made them all seated comfortably and then served them with water
followed by Rooafja. Then again she repeated her question, “What happened ?
Didn’t Sardarji reach the station to receive you all ? Where is Mr. Saran ?”
My
mother says that Mrs. Saran took a deep long breath and said, “Sardarji did
reach the station in time to receive us. The train had reached well in time. We
all were glad to meet after a long time.
We all got ourselves fit in the car somehow and started from Umri
towards Jeypore a journey of about 4-5 kms.
We were extremely happy to see the car.
Just while we were crossing the bus stand one of the front side wheels
rolled ahead of the car (this time the other side one). Somehow Sardarji
managed to stop the car safely. We all
got down from the car and hired rickshaws and have come home. My husband and Sardarji will come after
reaching the car in the garage for repair.”
After
this rolling of the wheel (for the second time) no one had spoken or even
mentioned anything about selling or purchasing of the car.
Saran
uncle and his family stayed in Jeypore for 4 days. Ironically during their stay Dad had hired a
taxi and had taken Saran uncle’s family to nearby sight seeing spots like
Gupteshwar, Upper Kolab, Chitrakut Waterfalls and Tirathgarh Waterfalls.
After
the car was thoroughly repaired we desperately started looking out for someone
to purchase it. Meanwhile we were paying the interest amount. With no income
from the car our extra earning plans had totally gone off track. The principal amount was raising its demonic
head every now and then and was giving us sleepless nights.
Most
of my colleagues started advising me to stop paying the interest to Mr. PXX and
also used to suggest that I should not bother about paying the principal amount
as the money that Mr. PXX was using for lending such loans was not his hard
earned one. But I refused to listen to
all such advise and suggestions. For me
what mattered was the fact that I had asked for the amount myself. So I had to
pay back. Few used to try to convince me
by saying that Mr. PXX had tried to trap me into borrowing from him. Still I refused to listen to any such thing.
We
sincerely looked forward to repaying the principal amount as early as possible.
My
parents had procured a small piece of land (40 x 60 feet) in Simliguda around
1986. They sold that land for Rs. 30,000/- and sent us Rs. 20,000/-. Exactly after a years time on 17th
Oct. 1996 I had paid an amount of Rs. 20,000/- vide cheque no.0xx101 to Mr. PXX
towards part payment of the principal amount.
The whole family had to suffer the ordeal of bearing the pain of paying the
interest on regular basis and also to bear the pressure of how to repay the
remaining principal amount of Rs. 55,000/-.
Finally
the ordeal came to an end when my parents were able to dispose the car to a
willing buyer (a business man) in Jeypore itself. We sold the car for Rs.
75,000/- Dad sent Rs. 65000/- to me immediately.
On
25th Oct 1997 we paid the remaining principal amount of Rs. 55000/-
to Mr. PXX vide cheque no. 0XX552. By this time we had paid an amount of Rs.
39375/- as interest towards having borrowed the loan of Rs. 75000/- for just two years.
The
best part of the whole story of our second hand Ambassador Car is that the
business man, who had purchased the car had done so as he had to go to and fro
to Raipur, as distance of 384 kms almost every week and the car has been doing
excellent. He had met my Dad during his last visit to Jeypore in 2014 and had
stopped the car and had come out of it and had shaken hands with him and had
said, “Sardarji purchasing this car has been one of the best deals that I have ever
made. Till date the car has not given us
any trouble.”
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