'Went From Village To Village': Gujarati Singer's Family's Scooter Memorial

In an extraordinary display of attachment to a vehicle, popular Gujarati singer Jignesh Kaviraj's family has decided to build a memorial for an old scooter. The singer shared on Instagram a photograph of his father, Hasmukh Barot, and the scooter, recounting the two-wheeler's role in his journey to fame and success.

"This is my father's scooter, on which he and I used to go from village to village for programmes in the early days of my career. We have given this scooter a memorial in front of our house," he said in a post in Gujarati.

The memorial for the scooter has come up near the singer's ancestral house at Kheralu village in Gujarat's Mehsana district. Visuals shared by the family showed them performing a puja for the Bajaj Super scooter, a must-have for middle-class homes in the 80s and 90s. In pre-liberalisation India, owning a car was a distant dream for most middle-class families. The two-stroke scooter, therefore, was a prized possession for most homes. With time, as salaries rose and faster and more fuel-efficient motorcycles dominated the two-wheeler market, these scooters lost the race. Bajaj Super was discontinued in 2006.

The Barot family's scooter is now in a state of disrepair. Hasmukh Barot is seen putting a tika on the two-wheeler, a garland around its handlebars and then wrapping a shawl around it, in a surprising, but heartening show of affection for the vehicle that witnessed the family's journey.

An emotional Hasmukh Barot said the scooter is a part of his family and they could not bring themselves to sell it as scrap. "This scooter was my life, so I built a memorial for it. I will tell my children that this scooter brought joy to our lives. They must light lamps before this memorial during Diwali. When parents grow old, it is not right to send them away to an old-age home. In the same way, this scooter, which has served me for life, I could not bring myself to sell it as scrap," Mr Barot said.

Inputs by Mahendra Prasad