{"id":19259,"date":"2015-06-30T06:33:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T06:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/?p=19259"},"modified":"2015-06-30T06:36:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T06:36:51","slug":"standing-tall-with-the-passage-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/?p=19259","title":{"rendered":"Standing tall with the passage of time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CitroenBF30jun2015\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She looks like a toy car. Yet, she is just like the present-day automobiles. The \u2018queen\u2019 who once graced the French roads, she remained a competitive car for a long time because of her front wheel drive and fuel efficiency. The 1973 Citroen Dyane 6, she is the prized possession and a \u2018member\u2019 of Steven Rebello\u2019s family.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a second generation car in our family. It all started with my dad Ronald Rebello, who was a car afficionado. I lost my parents early in life but I have terrific memories associated with them. The same holds true for the car. Whatever was close to my father is very precious to me,\u201d says Steven.<\/p>\n

His passion is an inherited one as \u201cthe only talk in his house would be about cars, gear boxes and power steering.\u201d<\/p>\n

A small but strong car, she came all the way from Delhi to Bengaluru. \u201cIt was in 1975 that my dad learnt about this car, which was in\u2008Delhi then. An adventurer, he took my mother and my infant brother to Delhi. He bought this little car and started his journey to Bengaluru. It took him three days in that sweltering heat to reach but the car did not give any problem,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

It was after this journey that Ronald fell in love with Citroen and from here began Steven\u2019s passion for these unmatched machines as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis car looked very funny when we saw it the first time. But then, they were far ahead in terms of technology. She has travelled the rough terrains of Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga and she is perfect till date,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A 600 cc air-cooled engine, this car has a canvas roof, radial tyres, high clearance, synchromesh gearbox and is one of the first cars to have a front wheel drive.\u2008While it is the mechanism of these cars that holds great value to Steven, it is also the priceless memories attached to it that makes it a part of his family. \u201cWe have spent our childhood popping our heads out from its roof and waving at people. It has a bouncy suspension, which is why the villagers would start shouting \u2018kappe car\u2019 (froggy car), whenever they saw her on the estate roads,\u201d he reminisces and laughs.<\/p>\n

As the saying goes, \u2018history repeats itself\u2019, Steven\u2019s daughters, Keya and Fiona, treasure the beautiful car. \u201cIt has been great having this car,\u201d says Keya. The story does not end here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been a lover of Citroens. As a teenager, I had seen another Citroen in Shivamogga that was owned by two Catholic nuns and was used as an ambulance. I admired it back then and moved on. But after 20 years, when I had the money, I went looking for this van.\u201d He made a sketch of the van, which was a 1974 Citroen AK\u2008400, and went to all the garages of Shivamogga.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nuns still had it and one of the mechanics told me the rank of the nuns and where it was available. It wasn\u2019t an easy task as I had to beg them for it,\u201d he explains. As the van needed restoration, Steven restored it with a touch of creativity by combining two of his passions \u2014\u2008Citroen and coffee. \u201cI am into the coffee business,\u2008so I converted the Citroen van into a mobile cafe,\u201d he says. As the coffee was brewed and cookies were baked, the van surely \u201csteered up all his five senses\u201d and his love for the Citroen grew multifold. His wife Anjali too has a soft corner for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile dating her,\u2008I used to pick her up in this car and it has been a part of our lives. These cars have a mind and soul,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

source: http:\/\/www.deccanherald.com \/ Deccan Herald \/ Home> Supplements> MetroLife \/ by Prajna GR \/ DHNS – June 30th, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She looks like a toy car. Yet, she is just like the present-day automobiles. The \u2018queen\u2019 who once graced the French roads, she remained a competitive car for a long time because of her front wheel drive and fuel efficiency. The 1973 Citroen Dyane 6, she is the prized possession and a \u2018member\u2019 of Steven … Continue reading Standing tall with the passage of time<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,246,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture-entertainment","category-historical-links-pre-independence","category-records-all"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19259"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19262,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19259\/revisions\/19262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}