(The article was first published in The Print on August 31, 2022)
- On the way back from my ancestral town of Hooghly, Bengal, the Eastern Railway Electric Multiple Unit crossed the massive factory in Uttarpara town where the Ambassador was built. Uttarpara was the home of Hindustan Motors where, until a decade ago, every single Hindustan Ambassador rolled off the line for almost five decades. Of course, the white Ambassador was, for years, India’s ‘power car’. From prime ministers to district magistrates, everyone had a white Ambassador, better still, a white Ambassador with a ‘lal batti’ on top…