Like most boys in their early teens, my ambition too was to become a truck driver. But mine was slightly different. I wanted to become the driver of a tanker lorry.
SPMS (Sree Parabrahmam Motor Service), HHYS (Haji Hassan Yakoob Sait), KCT (Kerala Co-operative Transport, Nelson motors etc were some of the buses I used to travel during my school days. Benz (now TATA) or Leyland were then very few in number. Most of the buses were of the Bedford and Fargo make. I often recall this Pachu and Kovalan cartoon. One day Kovalan asked Pachu the meaning of "Bhargo Devasya Dhimahim". And the omniscient Mr Pachu translated it as: "Devasyachante Fargo Vandi Mahi enna sthalathu vachu 'dheem' enna sabda-thode vedi theernnu"!!! The Gayathri mantram cannot further be simplified. Anyway this Fargo make was very common those days.
Rajaram Motors
Rajaram motors was a bus plying in the Ochira-Pandalam route. Of all the buses I have traveled in, Rajaram Motors has a special place in my memory. (In a previous post, Kunj Bihari Khandelwal, I wrote that seemingly insignificant, small little things and persons are too .big for me to forget)
Usually the Kili stands on the foot board. In the small little "Itta Vattom" of the foot board, the Kili performs all kinds of acrobatics. Unlike his counterparts elsewhere, the Kili of Rajaram motors was given an honourable place behind the driver. While the driver sat on the hot seat, the Kili had to stand behind him. The Kili of Rajaram Motors had a very special duty to perform. No acrobatics, no somersaults, no pyrotechnics. There was just this unique duty to be performed with ascetic concentration of the body and the mind.
In buses, the gear is behind the engine/bonnet , behind and a little to the left of the driver. Sort of 'first slip' position for the left handed batsman. Now the story. The gear of the Rajaram Motors had the problem of slipping,ie, if the driver goes to the 4th gear and leaves it, it will fall into neutral gear any time. See, necessity is the mother of invention. And the driver invented a new role for the Kili. Like the "On Your Mark, Get, Set, Go", here the gear goes from 1st, 2nd, 3rd. The driver puts the gear to the 4th and the Kili takes hold of it and keeps it in that position. This is a 'highly sophisticated' technology. If the Kili is late by a wink in accepting the gear from the driver, the bus will run in neutral gear. Similarly if the driver wants to bring down the gear, the Kili will have to let it go into the drivers hand with great synchronization. The Kili had become a part of the gear box allowing no slips.
Without having to go anywhere in the Pandalam route, I had traveled by the Rajaram motors many times just to watch the driver-kili combine in action.
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