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Peepul Kothi's wheels of fortune

Peepul Kothi holds the secret of how to maintain a vintage car. There are other secrets too, says R.V. SMITH

Peepul Kothi harbours a secret. Peepul Kothi is not a landmark. You get down at the bus stop and tell the rickshaw-puller to take you there and he will give you a blank stare. It's a ramshackle building now, much like Firoze Tughlak's mahal which houses a school. Mahipalpur is said to have been founded by Mahipal Tomar. He was named after the grandson of the great Raja Bhoj to whom the Tomars paid annual tribute. Over the centuries, what was once the seat of a powerful principality has become a village. Firoze built a masonry dam and near it a hunting lodge from which he could hunt animals that came to the bundh. The bundh still exists, but the only animals one finds are cats, dogs and an occasional jackal or rabbit. Now on to Peepul Kothi.

Once it had a bagh in which grew flowers and vegetables and tall trees. There was a Sayyid's grave in the centre surrounded by belgiri trees and beyond them the tamarind tree whose red fruit gave it the name of khooni imli. This tree marked the western limits of the bagh and was the haunt of the sturdiest of boys because of the yarns associated with it and the house of the Chaudhran that loomed above, and from which the occasional screams of a big ferocious woman were heard to warn off intruders. On the southern side grew the sarcandas or reed grass and nearby was the tall peepul below, which was the dwelling of Janalia, the gardener's assistant who forbade the boys from going towards the garages.

In these garages, the Rao Sahib's phaeton used to be parked. If you walked across the length of the bagh and descended a staircase, which used to be lit up at night by a lamp of 19th Century vintage, you came to the new garages where a lorry and a Rolls Royce were parked when the Rao Sahib and his entourage were not out on shikhar or sightseeing upcountry.

New occupant

Now after 60 years, the bagh has disappeared. But what used to be the zenana apartment is occupied by a Kunwar Sahib, who is also a great a lover of cars and shikhar. If you want to see how an old car is to be maintained, you have to enter via the eastern gate of the kothi, walk past the house of the washerwoman (the dhoban is dead but her son and daughter-in-law are still around) and enter the zenana through the northern gate. An old keeper opens the gate and in a stern voice wants to know the purpose of your visit. You mention the Kunwar Sahib's pet name, Raja, and he is all smiles, leading you to the porch where the scion of an old Rajput family is seated on a maunda. Right in front of him is parked a Chevrolet, with all the care one could lavish on a vehicle. It is of pre-1940 make but looks as though it came out of the factory just a year or two ago.

The Kunwar has other vehicles, a jeep among them, in which he goes to his farm and elsewhere, but the Chevrolet is for short familiar drives. Considering the time Raja is away on his farm, such drives are few indeed, which means that most of the time the Chevrolet is parked in the porch. Maybe it has a history, but the Kunwar would rather not divulge it. So many years have gone, by but that car has never taken part in a vintage car rally.

And the reason, which one learnt by chance from the old gatekeeper, is that the Kunwar's nephew died mysteriously in it while on a shikar trip. Ever since, the Chevrolet is never used on any joyous occasion — not even a wedding. But the Kunwar Sahib prefers to keep the secret to himself.

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