Forty years later… another two ‘winners’ of the Safari
My article on the East African Safari generated many discussions and I have received extensive feedback via emails but none could beat the most interesting response from Mohan Patel. Earlier this month Mohan wrote to ‘Wahindi’ with incredible news which would definitely be of interest to Joginder Singh, whose historic win made him famous and East African Asians still remember the day when he and his brother Jaswant Singh received the prize for their splendid win after a gruelling Rally in an old model of Volvo, the PV544.
Mohan’s email is reproduced virtually unedited and he says,
“I have been reading your and Vali Jamal’s articles and was most interested to read your blog on legendary Joginder Singh. My wife Gita has been a fan of Joginder since her Nairobi days and has kept a copy of the East African Standard (newspaper) of 21st March 1969 and since she has read your blog wants to pass this newspaper to you as she thinks you deserve it. She has kept it for last 40 years hoping to pass it on to Joginder’s family but has not come round to locate them. The article is about 1969 Safari before it took place and a Don Beet, a journalist, joins them on practice run. It covers full page with three photographs.
My wife has never driven a car but whenever I am driving, it feels as I have a Safari navigator with me all the time till she falls asleep on a long journey……”
Mohan and Gita, thank you very much for such a wonderful gesture! This blog would greedily accept your offer and take the Standard newspaper off you! Who wouldn’t? But no, your perseverance has to be properly rewarded. You are the true winners. I am going to look for Joginder Singh as I have several leads that I would like to explore. Sooner or later, I would like to arrange for you both to meet with Joginder Singh and to hand over the copy of that special newspaper to Joginder Singh yourself! We will be in attendance and take a few pictures for readers.
The search for Joginder has started…
2 responses so far ↓
mohan64 // August 4, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
I see that the search for legendary Joginder is still on .We are waiting eagerly to meet him and his family. As we have waited for last 42 years few more weeks will not make much differnce. Mohan
mohan64 // August 9, 2009 at 4:20 pm |
I am not sure why The Indians do not like cats but it could be that the cats do not wag their tails as much as the dogs do.The Indians prefer their animals to show as much affection as their near and dear ones. Funny enough we also had a dog called Jimmy in Jinja. He was a German Shephard popularly known among Indians as Alsatian dogs. He lived around 11 years and was there to protect our home. Besides eating Dal/Bhat he was also fed regular meat by a neighbour from his restaurant menu. In England we acquired another dog and named him ‘Rajah’ . He was our ’son’ and best friend for next ten years. The dogs are like little chidren till they mature. Whenever I was out of the shop he used to bark customers and gave my wife a real headache until one day she got fed up with him and told me to get rid of him. A customer loved him so much that he agreed to have him and to train him as well. In the evening there was sigh of relief that there no dog… .but by 10.00 clock my customer phoned me to say that Rajah was going to die that evening if we did not have him back. I picked him that night and from that day onwards he was as good as gold as if he was a reformed characater.
Rajah was fed all kinds of food by my customers from sunday roasts to Greek as well as Indian food but never Dal/Bhat though his favourite was apples from our garden and Gujarati bhajias. Like all German Shephard dogs his legs went and we had had to let him go. We all still remember him and miss him terribly.
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