SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, PUNE

OCTOBER 8, 2017
PUNE 5

FIERCELY FOND OF FIAT

A bunch of car lovers keep their affection
Pics: Shyam Sonar

LOVED BY ALL, THEN

ƒ Founded on July 11, 1899 in
for the Fiat unwavering even in the Turin, Italy, by Giovanni Agnelli

face of pressure from family and friends
to junk the 'relic' and buy a new brand
Avijit.Chatterjee@timesgroup.com
ƒ In India, the company was
established in 1905
ƒ Fiat Automobiles signed a
licence and servicing contract
old Fiat. “Today, if you try to buy with Premier Automobiles Ltd for
an old Fiat car, you will not get it manufacturing and selling of

N
ot for them the Bu-
gatti or Bentley.
They would hap-
pily throw in their
lot with Fiat. For,
it has been their
most dependable car in every
stage in life, from being brought
home in a Fiat after birth in a hos-
pital, to being driven around town
in it while growing up and inher-
iting it as an heirloom. For some,
it has been the first car they
bought with their own money.
Whatever may be the case,
their love for Fiat has been unwa-
vering. Especially, in the face of
pressure from family and friends
who asked them to junk the old
car and buy a new brand.
“At that time, all of us were
fighting with ourselves, for we
knew Fiat was a good car,” recalls
Subhas Karmarkar, who started
the Fiat Classic Car Club of India
(FCCCI) in Pune in December 2004
“with a view to conserve herit-
age”.
It was around early 2000 that
new cars started entering the In-
dian market and the lure to go for
a fancy, electronics car increased
manifold. “But we decided that
instead of succumbing to pressure
and disposing of our cars, we will
give a new life to them,” says He-
machandra Shrotri, another mem-
ber of the club.
That is how the club was born.
“What began as a passion for
maintaining old cars soon turned
into a passion of the heart. Many
people started joining us, bound
by their love for Fiat,” he says.
As the following for Fiat grew,
people refused to part with their
old cars. Many people also started
enquiring where they could get an
easily. Very few want to sell their
old cars. There are people who ask
us where they can get an old Fiat
and join our club,” says Shrotri,
who brought a 1957 model Fiat to
join the club.
The club started informally
with people meeting and deciding
to be with their Fiats. Initially,
there were five members. Soon
word spread about them and Fiat
clubs came up in Mumbai, Banga-
lore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolka-
ta and elsewhere.
Currently, there are around 500
members in Pune. “We have a Fiat
Club community on Facebook,
which connects 7,000 members.
Some of the youngest members
are college students and the oldest
is around 85,” says Karmarkar.
“Cars are what brought us to-
gether. What drives us is our like-
mindedness. All of us have now
become one family,” says Shotri.
So what is it about Fiats that
makes them go weak at the knees?
“Fiat has always been economical
to buy, economical to run and eco-
nomical to maintain,” avers Kar-
markar. “The new cars are more
expensive, require more mainte-
nance cost, besides there are other
troubles, but Fiat cars just go on
and on. You fill the petrol, air,
check the oiling and it goes. It is a
no-maintenance car.”
What’s special about Fiat is
that it has been a part of family
legacy. “Fiat was there in almost
every home. Ambassadors were
supposed to be government cars.
Family cars happened to be Fiats.
Most generations were connected
with Fiats. Grandfathers owned
them and they passed them on to
their sons and grandsons. What
we are trying to do is to take the
1100 and 1100D Fiat Padmini cars
ƒ Premier Automobiles
manufactured Padmini at their
Kurla plant in Mumbai until they
sold a majority stake to Fiat SpA
in September 1997
ƒ The licensed vehicle was
initially manufactured as the
Fiat 1100 Delight. For model year
1972, the car was marketed as
the Premier President and
subsequently as the Premier
Padmini
ƒ The car, in its peak during the
1970s-1980s, achieved immense
popularity among women,
JUST THEIR CAR: On the third Sunday of every month, the club members meet at Grand Hotel to exchange ideas and thoughts youngsters and celebrities.
ƒ Many leading icons of the time
values of yesteryear’s generation some things that are priceless. people wave at us when they see but you don’t need to start from including Dharmendra, RD
to tomorrow’s generation through Fiat is one of them.” our car on the streets. It is head scratch,” says Shotri, a mechani- Burman, Rajinikanth,
a vehicle called Fiat, which links Club members vouch for dura- turner for sure. That makes us cal engineer. Mammootty, Aamir Khan and
all of us,” notes Karmarkar. bility and construction of Fiat. “I more enthusiastic in trying to Besides acting as a platform many others owned a Fiat during
Moreover, club members say have a 1971 model Fiat. It has not maintain it,” says Shotri. for members to exchange notes its prime years
that there is something likeable broken down even once on the Quite often, the members are about their cars and finding
about Fiat. “When you crank the road. Not even a puncture. I take requested by filmmakers for use spare parts and the right mechan- ƒ From the mid-1980s, with the
engine, you get so attuned with the car for servicing only once of their old Fiats in films. Dhanan- ic, the members initiated good for advent of more modern, cheaper
it. We have a member, Sub- in six or eight months. It joy Badamikar lent his cars for the society. and more fuel-efficient cars from
has Chandra Kulkarni, is absolutely trouble- use in films like Indu Sarkar as “We organize rallies on Repub- Maruti Suzuki, the popularity of
who says that the free,” says Arvind well as Rustom. lic Day as well as Independence the Padmini slowly began to wane
car speaks to him. We have a Fiat Kirtikar (80). Deepak Velankar lent his cars Day and visit prominent army and
That is a tune Club community on “To me, Fiat for Rustom. “I also have an old police institutions, hospitals and
that one gets is a unique car Mercedes and Skoda, but they pale educational institutes. “We have
used to with his Facebook, which as it enables into insignificance in the presence been to Queen Mary’s Technical
or her Fiat,” connects 7,000 members. you to see all of a Fiat,” he said. Institute, Army Paraplegic Centre
says Shotri. the four cor- But everything is not just and schools for the blind. We show
Adds Kar- Some are college ners. Which hunky-dory for them as they face our respect and honour them,”
marakar, “In a other car gives problems in getting the required says Karmarakar.
new car, every-
students and the you four cor- spare parts as well as trained me- Every year, the club commem-
thing is nuclear oldest is around ners?” he asks. chanics. “We get spare parts from orates the Fiat foundation day on
and is just use and This apart, Fiat Nana Peth in Pune as well as from July 11. “This year we visited Fiat
throw. Fiat is zero 85 years has a hand gear. “To- Mumbai. Today, the value of spare Ranjangaon factory,” he says.
electronics car. Every- day’s youngsters do not parts has gone up manifold. But “Passion for automobiles and
thing is as in nature. Also it is know what a hand gear is. the unique thing about Fiat is that love for living the values of life
spacious enough. In the commer- When I stop at a signal or at a fuel all the spare parts can be fitted have kept us going for the last 15
cial world, where only prosperity station, I see kids shouting, ‘Arey into any model. You may have to years since the club came into ex-
and money is celebrated, there are dekh uska hand gear hai’. Many make some alterations for fitment istence,” concludes Karmarkar.

Mottled Wood Owl Flies Three men ignite young minds

From Darkness To Light with small piece of technology .
Aditya Waikul
Peth. Their parents work odd
CRAZY ABOUT THE NUTS AND BOLTS
Aditi.Sharma@timesgroup.com
jobs. Most fathers are au-

Shiladitya.Pandit@timesgroup.com ON A MISSION: Satish Pande
(second from the left) and
T
he benches have
been pushed to
the corner of
the sunlit room.
There will be no
need for them
for the next couple of hours at
least.
In groups of four, the stu-
dents sit on the floor, huddled
over what looks like a circuit.
At one end, Shoaib Hafiz Dar
stands close to the blackboard
holding the stub of a chalk
and switching between Hindi
and English as he instructs
the ‘class’.
Just as Shoaib is done ex-
plaining a concept, his col-
league Jaskaran Singh is
ready to take over the next
section. Meanwhile, another
partner Sanjay Shenoy sits
torickshaw drivers or work
at local beedi factories while
their mothers stay at home
or find employment as house
help.
Only a few of the students
have ever handled a smart-
phone. The few times students
access a computer is at the
school. Clearly, it’s quite a big
deal for these children to talk
of algorithms and sensors
without batting an eyelid.
This is the youngest batch
of students for whom Pi Jam,
founded by Shoaib, Jaskaran
and Sanjay, has held work-
shops. Usually, they interact
with students of Classes VII
to IX since the basic concept
is to develop analytical think-
ing. According to the team,
the fact that the students do
UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS
P i Jam derives its name from the
Raspberry Pi processor, which was
developed in the United Kingdom and
is used to teach basic computer
science in schools. Shoaib points out
that the processor is quite bare bones
and, priced between Rs2,500 and
Rs3,000, is pretty cheap too. With eight
processors in their kitty, the group can
cater to about 32 students during a
single session
TAKING PRIDE IN THE PROJECTS
Pi Jam helps students understand how they can use and apply the circuits to solve day-to-day
problems and students have developed some interesting ideas
ƒ 17-year-old Shankar ƒ At the Mundhwa community ƒ At Kasturba Gandhi
Sangam has created a cane, centre, children have come English Medium School
equipped with a distance together to create a motion sensor in Koregaon Park, the
sensor, for the visually- that turns on the tubelights in a students are currently
impaired. A hooter attached room on sensing movement. They working on creating an

S
atish Pande, a city-
based ornitholo-
gist, thinks that if
owls are to be
saved, whose num-
bers are dwin-
dling, rural and tribal com-
munities must be part of the
conservation efforts.
“We often go into rural
areas to get people involved
in awareness and conserva-
tion of owls. Very few people
in urban areas have ever seen
an owl, but rural and tribal
communities are much more
aware of where these birds
can be sighted. For example,
owls cannot digest bones, and
they spit the bones out as pel-
lets after picking apart the
meat. A lot of these people
know about owl sighting by
identifying the pellets,” Pan-
de, who also heads the city-
based Ela Foundation, said.
Pande with his wife Su-
ruchi, who has researched
owls in Indian culture, start-
ed the Ela Foundation in
2001, to educate people about
the conservation of owls, and
to protect them from traffick-
ing. The foundation also pro-
duces a journal in collabora-
tion with the state forest de-
partment, and has published
a book about owls in English.
It also coordinates with
law enforcement agencies to
stop trafficking in wildlife,
something, they say, sets
them apart from similar
NGOs in other countries.
Last month, the couple
went to Evora in Portugal to
participate in the once-in-a-
decade World Owl Confer-
ence as some of India’s rep-
resentatives, among around
100-odd other nations. They
NIGHT BIRDS: Superstitions
were also a part of a workshop,
specifically about the place of
the owl in Indian culture
presented a paper on the Mot-
tled Wood Owl, known to be-
ing endemic and found till
date only in India.
“We presented it in the
form of a pictographic tour
to the species of owls found
in India, and we also brought
out a picture guide for people
to look at some of them.
While presenting, we also
spoke to the other delegates
about the myths around owls
in India,” Pande said.
India’s wildlife laws are
very strict, he added. “What
I found during interactions
with other conference mem-
bers was that those countries
could show the audience an
actual owl while having a
discussion about its conser-
vation. Our laws do not allow
that. Few people have seen
them, except barn owls. It
has contributed to myths and
superstitions — their sight
being unlucky, or owl's hoot-
ing may cause death. We have
tried to explain the behav-
iour of owls, ” he said.
Suruchi Pande (fourth from the
right) with other owl lovers
The superstitions and
myths have contributed to
the illegal trade in birds in
India, as well-known bird re-
searcher Abrar Ahmed found
in a 2010 report for the World
Wildlife Fund/IUCN. Body
parts of owls are frequently
used in so-called “black mag-
ic” rituals, mainly among
tribal communities. Their
meat is also consumed for
supposed healing properties,
although none have been ob-
served in any credible study.
Traf ficking was also
found to be common due to
the “Hedwig effect” — the
demand for barn owls as pets
due to the popularity of the
fictional character Harry
Potter’s pet, Hedwig.
“Abrar’s report talks of
trafficking of owls, including
spotted owls and Mottled
Wood Owls. About the latter
species, not much is known
about their numbers as well,
because they are so rare,”
Pande remarked.
Superstitions were also a
part of a workshop, specifi-
cally about the place of the
owl in Indian culture. And
there, they argued, cultural
references can save owls in
India. “Cave paintings with
owls are common, so are ref-
erences in Vedic culture.
Many cultural references
have been used to conserve
other species, like eagles,
where the character of Jat-
ayu has been invoked. So if
we can find a way to marry
culture and science, more
people will be motivated to
save owls,” he observed.
down with some students to
help them with the nitty-grit-
ties of the job at hand.
Together, the students and
their instructors are building
a sensor to check the level of
water in a storage tank, there-
by preventing wastage.
At their last session with
the students of Classes V and
VI, the instructors are confi-
dent that the participants will
easily grasp the concepts be-
ing put forward. When they
do stumble, Batman comes to
their rescue!
Jaskaran asks the class,
“What does Batman do to
solve a problem?” A hand
jumps up and the eager stu-
dent blurts, “He beats up the
villain.” Not entirely satis-
f i e d w i t h t h e a n sw e r,
Jaskaran patiently probes, he
wants to know what Batman
does before beating up the vil-
lain. A murmur rises through
the room before another stu-
dent shouts out the answer,
“Tools! He gathers his tools
and weapons.” The teacher
approves and a smug smile
lights up the student’s face.
Like Batman, Jaskaran
wants the students to be pre-
pared, get the tools together
and understand the concept
required to create a circuit
for the moisture sensor that
will tell the computer to set
off the alarm when there is
enough water in the tank so
the supply can be shut off.
Water wastage is a crucial
issue for these students. Most
of the young girls and boys at
Sardar Kanhoji English Me-
dium School in Shukrawar
Peth come from lower middle
class families residing in
nearby areas – Lohiyanagar,
Shukrawar Peth and Ganesh
not have preconceived ideas
to the cane begins to
about technology actually
helps them imbibe and retain beep when there is an
concepts better. obstacle at a particular
Shoaib shares, “Through distance. The cane also has a
about five sessions, we de- moisture sensor to tell the
mystify the computer. We user if they’re about to step
explain to them that it isn’t into water
just a box, or a CPU, it’s eve-
rywhere – your smartphone, PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
your refrigerator. It’s basi-
cally a simple tool to solve
problem. That’s important O ver the next couple of
months, Pi Jam aims to
conduct workshops at private
because in a kid’s mind it be-
comes a device that they can schools as well. Shoaib explains,
control. At the start of the “When we do these sessions at
sessions, we ask them to turn private schools, we hope to push
a light on and off using a sen- it to a higher academic level in
sor in order to show them terms of outcome and take up
how they can control the more complex projects.
tool.” However, the basic idea is to
For Team Pi Jam, the jour- introduce students to
ney began four months ago in bare bones technology.”
May. The first workshop was
held at Kasturba Gandhi Eng-
lish Medium School in Kore- nect between what is taught in
gaon Park, where Shoaib had computer labs at schools and
taught as a Teach for India what the professional world
fellow. The success of the first requires. Not that access to a
workshop led to more ses- computer is universal but,
sions at community Shoaib says, even at
centers in Mund- most government
hwa, Wadgaon
Together, s ch o o l s t h at lives,” says Shoiab.
Sheri and Ideal the students and have comput-
English Me- their instructors are er labs, chil-
dium School dren are only
in Hadapsar. building a sensor to taught how
At this check the level of water to send an ple of years, these kids will
point, the email or cre-
team is look- in a storage tank, ate Power-
ing to take the thereby preventing point presen-
workshops to tations. “At pri-
about 10 schools
wastage vate schools, the
across the city. The focus is on really ex-
plan for the future also in- pensive things like robots
cludes holding interactive ses- and artificial intelligence but
sions for private schools where not practical engagement. On
the availability of infrastruc- the other hand, we just capital-
ture would change the dynam- ize on the best open source
ics drastically. resources and develop a cur-
The founders of Pi Jam are riculum around it. Our exper-
acutely aware of the discon- tise is with pedagogy and edu-
have also set up a temperature and
moisture sensor at the centre.
Since an area near the centre tends
to get quite dark at night the
children have created a motion
sensor that switches on light
automatically to ensure security
VOICES
Since our students
are very new to
computers we wanted them
to get first-hand knowledge
of how technology works. I
saw Pi Jam’s workshop as a
platform for kids to use their
knowledge and learn better
with hands-on experience
— Jhilmil Garg | ACADEMIC
CO-ORDINATOR, SARDAR KANHOJI
ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOL
cation. Therefore, we took the
technology and structured it
in such a way that it helps the
child’s problem-solving and
creative thinking abilities.
These are skills they are going
to need throughout their
The 26-year-old is passion-
ate about practical education
that would help a student
grasp a higher goal. “In a cou-
be out of school, but without
any real computer-related
knowledge. The roots have to
be somewhere deeper in our
education system. However,
during the formative years,
we don’t push a student to
think in constructive ways.
So, basically a person ends up
with an engineering degree
but s/he doesn’t think criti-
cally and isn’t able to contrib-
ute to the creative economy.
Even now, it is our service
automated box garden
that can grow plants on
its own. The project
helps the children learn
about moisture,
temperature, sunlight,
and so on
“We want to open up
avenues for these
students so that they can
consider computer-related
careers that aren’t restricted
to data entry or secretarial
jobs. In fact, we’re so glad that
girl students take to our
sessions with as much
enthusiasm as the boys,
— Shoaib Hafiz Dar | ONE OF THE
FOUNDERS OF PI JAM
sector that provides most
jobs,” Shoaib explains.
Thus, Pi Jam aims to help
students gain a level of com-
fort with technology, navigate
a computer and develop pro-
gramming ability. With this
in mind, the instructors focus
on teaching students about
algorithms instead of re-
stricting them to a particular
programming language.
“We want to open up ave-
nues for these students so
that they can consider com-
puter-related careers that
aren’t restricted to data entry
or secretarial jobs. In fact,
we’re so glad that girl stu-
dents take to our sessions
with as much enthusiasm as
the boys,” smiles Shoaib.
Shoaib, Jaskaran and San-
jay are in the process of reg-
istering Pi Jam as an NGO
and hope to attract funding
for their many plans.