Everybody has a jeep story, I too have one and it is dedicated to my dad 'Mr Chander.N.Bathija' who loved and supported me forever and ever.
It happened by chance one day when I was having a discussion with my wife as to buying a suv..it was just a discussion coz we had no money and we don’t believe in taking loans, so it was only a discussion..
Now that gave me a topic that I could search on line, and that would keep me excited for a few days..i went through loads of cars, suvs on loads of websites, n somewhere I saw a Thar or a jeep that we have seen in old movies, never thought they were still made..Then I learnt that Mahindra and Mahindra had just brought about the first jeep (’Thar’) in production in 2010 (man was I really excited)..
I love to watch old movies that’s like black and white era of Shammi kapoor, Dev anand..as a kid sumhow these movies with their sweet songs always fascinated me, that’s were I had seen jeeps and probably that’s were my love for them must have begun..so now I wanted to watch all those movies again.. now I had more research and more fun on my hands..i remembered Dev Anand and Asha Parekh's movie ‘Jab pyaar kisi se hota hai’ and remembered Pran and his jeep ..So the next thing I knew, I was on Amazon.in purchasing a Dvd of the above movie. Now that movie would take a couple of days to reach me..Till then I decided to continue with my research on Thar.
This was in beginning 2011 and Thar was launched sometime in 2010, so all inputs were around a year old..Reviews by Topgear, Overdrive, Team-BHP and many others almost said the same thing about Thar:
"A tough macho exterior with military grade construction, Turbocharged intercooled 2500 cc NEF Crde diesel engine churning out 105 horse power and 240Nm of torque with a 4 wheel drive (Advanced Borg Warner transfer case) which could climb a wall and costing around 7.5 lakhs on road".
The Thar which really fascinated me was this..
Somewhere on an offroading forum, I also came across a pic of Mr Behram Dhabhar (The Founder and Father of Thar).. That’s when I first read about him, a Parsee, a gentleman, a genius, an adventurer and a man of steel.
On further surfing I found a video of Mr Behram Dhabhar launching the Thar.
Note the Thar was launched without an Ac, but I was sure somewhere down the line a lot of improvements would take place...This was the end of my research and probably the beginning of a Dream..
Life continued thereafter and I became busy with my own work..
On one very miserable day of Oct 2011, Dad suddenly passed away due to a heart attack, he left his life in my arms. He had immense love for me and my wife. He always said ‘God bless you beta’ when we would touch his feet, and these were also his last words...
All of a sudden there was no one who would support us and bless us. All of a sudden the world seemed a very scary place to live in.. We had nothing in our name, no house, no money, no support.. Dads departure broke us completely..if it wasn’t for my dads two sisters, I don’t know where we would have been…
Days passed by, but our emotional level kept dropping..we would shed tears at the drop of a pin..i would weep endlessly in front of Lord 'Shiv Shankar' saying "Wish you could feel how miserable we are without dad".
Me and my wife were residing in my grandfathers place where we had started a small indoor clinic, we being doctors by profession..one day a lady from Orissa was admitted in my clinic for some gynaec reason and by Gods grace she improved very soon. On her discharge my wife requested her for some prasad of Lord Jagannath (Lord Krishna), as she resided in Puri, Orissa..
A few days later we received a small courier from Orissa.obviously we thought our patient had sent us some Prasad..at night some time after dinner I thought of opening the box and having Prasad..and as I opened the box, I realized that there were no eatables but 3 small wooden dolls.
With shivering hands I laid them on the table and called my wife..she came , she saw, she trembled and then she cried..and I still didn’t know what was happening..The 3 wooden dolls were Lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram, hardly 5 inches tall and yet with power that governs the universe..That episode changed our lives forever.
LORD BALARAM MOTHER SUBHADRA LORD JAGANNATH
Five years and a many miracles later, today when I am typing this story, I own a huge house, a 10 bed hospital and 6 other properties...And you would ask me if I did all that with my hard work? With tears in my eyes, I would fold my hands, point towards Lord Jagannath and say ‘They did it”.