So what's with the little white car?

So what's with the little white car? I've been asked this question many times! :)
Well, the little white car is actually a Hindustan Ambassador and, over the years, it's been a part of my travel experience of India. It evokes happy memories for me.
The first time that i visited India, it was with my father Matthew in 1983 when I was 20. One of the first things we noticed when arriving at the airport in Madras were the Ambassador cars ... they were everywhere! In fact, there only seemed to be one type of car - the Ambassador ... and they were all black. It was a strange thing to see, kind of like being in a time warp. The vinyl seats were bench style and had springs, squeaky springs. The windscreen was small. The door handles retracted in your hand and the door clicked as you shut it. And on the doors, there were little triangular windows which you swung around at an angle. It was fun being in an Ambassador.

We spent a while in Madras (Chennai) exploring the area where my father and mother had grown up, where she had worked at an engineering company and where he had studied Medicine. Next, it was on to Bangalore where my cousins lived, and finally to Coorg to visit a friend's cardomom plantation. All in all, we spent quite a lot of time driving around in Ambassadors. We didn't drive them ourselves, there was always a hired driver. I recall one driver, who had a particularly flashy Ambassador, which he lovingly cleaned and polished every day, demonstrating the features of his car to us - it could reach a speed of 80km per hour but the fastest we ever seemed to reach was about 50km out on the highway in the middle of nowhere. But, to be fair, that was just a guess because the speedo didn't actually work, come to think of it, nor did the indicators, or the windshield wipers, or the fuel gauge, and all the mirrors were missing. The driver said that he didn't need those things in India ... that was just for places like Australia, besides, he drove like a tiger, so everything would be fine. So, we hung on for dear life - oh, did i mention that there weren't seat belts? ah, yes, well, you get the picture anyway. That said, we managed to survive the month ... and we loved every minute of it :)
When i returned home to Australia, i found that many travellers had happy stories about Ambassadors and they seemed to regard the cars with fondness in the same way that i did.
Twenty years later, i returned to India. This time, with my sisters and my husband. On the flight over, i had wondered if there would still be any Ambassadors around, and to my delight there were! This time around though, we hardly saw any black ones at all, they were mainly white, and sage green. A few other cars were making an appearance but i reckon that at least half of the cars i saw in Mumbai were still Ambassadors. So keen were we to have an Ambassador, that my sister had arranged from Australia, to book a driver with a white car for a few days ... it was great! I'll never forget it! :) This time, the car had seatbelts in the front, and a speedo and our driver was proud to be the owner of an Ambassador.

When i returned to Rajasthan, India in 2007, i was struggling to find any Ambassadors at all - the Tata cars had taken over. Still, our wonderful driver Raj who hailed from Kashmir but worked in Delhi for 6 months of each year, said that he was saving up to buy an Ambassador.

During my 2008 trip, there were even less Ambassadors to be seen around. I saw them now and then but i wasn't able to find a single driver (for hire) who had one. And I wondered if Raj was still saving up for one?
I suppose the Ambassador car days are coming to end but I am sure that there are many people who still love them as I do. And so you see, they live on in my memory and in my paintings :)

Whenever an Ambassador car appears in my paintings, you will usually find it bouncing along in an odd situation - driving on lily pads across a lake; driving over treetops; driving across a garland of marigolds; driving along a lady's arm whilst carrying a wrapped present on top of the car; and even being born from a flower. So, for me, the car is happy, pretty, humorous, a little bit ridiculous, fun, adventurous and loved. So far, the Ambassador has appeared in six of my paintings and I hope that we shall see it many more to come.

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Funny Ambassador Advertisement ... :)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuP79_txcPg