KOLKATA: When the 1921 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost rolled out of Cotton Street in Burrabazar, making its way to Babughat on Friday, most who stopped to make way for the grand vehicle decked with flowers did not know there was reason for a second look — this car was first owned by Rudyard Kipling before being sold to the current owner’s grandfather.
The car, with chassis number # 6UE, was bought by Kipling much after he had returned to England from India. He used the car for six years before selling it to Kumar Ganga Dhar Bagla in London in 1927. Bagla transported it back to his estates in Kolkata the same year. Since then, the car has remained in the possession of the family as part of its “Debottar” estate that was founded by the grand sire, Raja Raibahadur Shew Bux Bagla, in 1884. The estate has a number of Satyanarayan temples built across the country, including Bengal, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Keeping the chassis and engine intact, the car’s body has now been remodelled into a chariot with a throne in which the family takes its Lord Krishna for a ride twice a year — once before Holi and then on the 18th day after his “birth” on Janmashtami, which usually falls in Bhadra. Friday happened to be that second day and coincided with Vishwakarma Puja.
“The car turned 100 this year,” said owner Lalit Bagla (80). The family also has pictures of how the car looked at the time of sale and one where Kipling is seen in it. Vintage car collector and restorer Shrivardhan Kanoria said Rolls Royce maintains the names of owners against chassis numbers in its records. “It is a Hooper limousine. Rolls makes the chassis, engine and dashboard and then collaborates with body makers like Hooper,” said Kanoria, the founder president of Eastern India Motoring Group, a city-based vintage car owners’ group.
