It was a few minutes past midnight. There was a cool breeze coming from the window next to me and I was all cozy inside my blanket. I shut my eyes, awaiting the night’s sleep but to no avail. The loud rustle of leaves from that big old tree just behind my house hardly helped. I lay slightly awake and the next second I was sitting straight up. I leaned sideways to reach for my laptop, then opened up Google and was on eBay within a minute. “UK Top Gear Magazine”, I typed into the search field, and then scrolled through the results, opening each and every listing in a new tab. This is the typical behavior of a person who has the mind set on having multiple items in their shopping cart. I closed the main listing and went through each tab. There was something very specific I was looking for in each magazine and for a very specific reason.
I’ve been reading automotive literature for many years now and currently have a modest collection of various magazines like Autocar, Evo, Car, but the one that takes the crown is Top Gear from BBC. Even writing about it now brings back memories of the first Top Gear mag that I ever bought, back in India.
It was the winter of 2010, and of that spectacular winter, it was one of the spectacular nights. I was on board the Howrah Rajdhani Express, traveling from Calcutta to Gaya with family to meet my grandparents. Being on the Rajdhani Express has always been one of the most joyful experiences of my life. A lot of my childhood journeys have been in those 2nd AC berths, most of them on the window side. My eldest uncle who works at the Indian Railways in Calcutta always managed to get us a private cabin with all the berths reserved for us. And to this day he accompanies on the journey just to make sure we have fun and stay safe. Sometimes our cousins would travel with us too and spend the holidays together and the journey would reach new levels of amusement. I can’t forget all those times when we climbed on the top berth and annoyed the train vendors by showing them we can take the candy and ships from their baskets without them noticing, or fighting for the window seats, or making tea while trying not to spill it, or having the train food, watching movies, making fun of some funny passenger’s voice, banging on the cabin wall to make the people on the other side lower their volume… sigh. Sometimes we would tease my cousin saying that Rajdhani sucks and airplanes rock and she would flip out! I still remember my cousin passionately arguing in defense of the Rajdhani Express, its facilities and demonstrating to us the features of its cabin. That was when we were kids. Those times were lovely, and that night was no different.
When the train approached the station, the coach doors flung open and you could see heads of the passengers appearing there trying to spot their relatives as the platform neared. I looked out too and saw my uncle running on the platform alongside our coach as it slowed down, yelling out to us with happiness while trying to catch every glimpse of our arrival. We climbed down from the train and were enveloped in his arms.
It was a chilly night in Gaya Junction, without no trace of wind. We took our luggage and walked towards the exit but before we got out, we stopped at a convenience shop and had some sizzling hot Indian coffee. There was a book shop nearby, called ‘Wheeler’s’. They’re famous there. Rumor has it that the guy started out by selling books and magazines on wheeled carts, hence the name. He would move the car near the area with most people. That business grew so well that now they have small shops on every platform of the Gaya Junction. I went there with my sister. She bought comics like she usually does, and I asked the seller which car magazines he had and he laid all of them on the top. There was Autocar, Motoring, Top Gear and one other that I can’t remember.
Back then I didn’t know about the show called Top Gear. So I didn’t immediately pick its magazine from the lot. I flipped through each of the issues and finally chose TG. When I reached home I went through it and saw a middle aged gentleman’s picture placed very prominently in the biggest column that the magazine had. ‘Jeremy Clarkson’, the name read. There wasn’t any picture of cars so I skipped it and went on to the next car review. That was how I came to know him.
“PRESENTED BY CLARKSON”
Later I came to know about the show and I was hooked. I also came to know Richard Hammond and James May and I started reading their columns in every TG mag that I bought from that point on. It’s their writing that got into the habit of reading about topics other than cars. It showed me how beautiful and interesting a piece of non-fiction writing can be. The way they wrote just echoed with my mind’s thoughts. And even when it didn’t, it was bloody fun to read. That changed on March of 2015.
Ever since Jeremy Clarkson got fired from BBC, my perfect world of automotive journalism and abstract literature crashed. I tried to look for it everywhere but nobody’s writing worked for me. It wasn’t about cars. It wasn’t about bad writing on others’ part. It was just loss of familiarity. Suddenly my favorite magazine didn’t have my favorite people in the column. Suddenly it lacked the flavor I looked for. And the thing called ‘flair’ was missing.
Now I know they won’t be back to Top Gear ever again. And it’s due to this that I placed order for 10 used old Top Gear mags. It’s in those issues that you will find the true essence of the perfect, intact, Top Gear world. Some of them are the same as the ones I had in my childhood but gave away upon finishing high school to my younger batch mates who liked cars, to inspire them. And here I am buying some of the same issues again and you know what, I couldn’t be more glad.