Phasing out of the Ambassador is the end of an era: Mark Tully

"A lot of my journalistic life was spent in Ambassadors and I still think it is a very good-looking car and is part of India's history. Don't forget a year or two ago Top Gear called it the best taxi in the world," says the journalist and writer.

In 2002, the year of the Gujarat riots, I was asked by the BBC to make a radio programme about driving from Kolkata to Delhi in an Ambassador. So I hired an Amby in Kolkata. The driver was a Sikh gentleman.

If you've travelled by the car, you must be familiar with the fact that the Amby can be very noisy at times. Each time we drove over a pothole, I would tell Mr Singh, who was a lovely man, that something was wrong. He would respond by saying, "No problem," every time.

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Mark Tully once drove from Kolkata to Delhi in an Amby (Photo: Raj K Raj)

In those days, whenever I went out for a story, I found myself ending up in an Ambassador. I have done thousands of such journeys and we would often stop at a roadside mechanic since anybody could fix it in India those days: It was the only car of note!

I love the Ambassador. I am sentimental and a traditionalist. I like old things such as steam engines. I don't like change. More than anything else, the Ambassador also reminds me of a time when there was not much traffic in the city. We were very privileged to drive the Ambassador in those times. We would never have trusted a Fiat or a Triumph for a long drive, the way we could trust the Amby. It was sturdy, reliable and comfortable. No wonder top bureaucrats and politicians preferred to be driven in an Ambassador.

The phasing out of the Ambassador is indeed the end of an era. A lot of my journalistic life was spent in Ambassadors and I still think it is a very good-looking car and is part of India's history. Don't forget a year or two ago Top Gear called it the best taxi in the world.

- Mark Tully is a journalist and writer