HINDUSTAN CONTESSA
He is the man who enthralled generations of Indians with his incisive reportage.
But there’s a rather dispassionate side — he detests motor cars, reveals P Tharyan.

“I’m a horse-racing man but quite fond of my Contessa.”

This one’s for all the petrolheads who dream and write about cars in India. I ask Sir Mark Tully how he would react if he was given an all-expenses-paid package to view a Formula One race in any part of the world. “I wouldn’t go,” he replies. Now that’s outright blasphemy in the motoring world.
But then, Sir Mark Tully was never known for his reckless fusillade of words. One of the finest journalists the world has ever seen, he bridged the information highway for millions of Indians through his BBC broadcasts on radio at a time when press censorship was rampant and cable television was many years away. Such was his credibility and aura that whenever a sensational story broke, people preferred to tune in to the BBC than to All India Radio.
I met the former BBC Bureau Chief at his home in Delhi. As he stands tall at the doorway, his handsome Labrador welcomes us with incessant barking. The dog quietens down and Tully talks. “There are a whole lot of reasons why I dislike motor cars. I love railways and ships. It is motor cars and aeroplanes that have taken over. So I regard the motor car as the enemy of the railways. The motor car has come to rule our lives, rather than us controlling it,” he says. “There’s a lot of social fabric that the motor car has undermined,” he explains, telling us how important it is to improve the capital’s public transport system instead. I agree.
Sir Mark owns a second-hand Contessa. “I need a car in Delhi, unfortunately. I like the Ambassador. I like a car which I have for a long time. I never ever get into the business of having a car for two years, and then the latest model comes out and so you replace it. The last car I had was a Contessa, which I bought for Rs 60,000 in 1993. It lasted me seven years; now, I have a Contessa that I bought for a lakh of rupees. That again is one of my principles. I don’t want to support the motor industry, but since I have to have a car, I buy the cheapest second-hand one,” he says.
In his four decades of living in India (he was born in India but educated in England), Sir Mark has been tempted by many things in life, but “one thing I do not get tempted by, is a new motor car”. Yet he has had his share of very interesting incidents in a car. “I have had many breakdowns, one or two brushes with the police, and have made long journeys in cars. The number of miles I have driven in an Ambassador, often being driven, I really do not know. One of the best journeys I did was two or three years ago for the BBC — I drove from Kolkata to Delhi in an Ambassador. That was a fun journey and I did enjoy that
drive,” he reminisces.
“But it is the beauty of India that you do not have to drive yourself, which is definitely preferable. I think one of the most boring occupations is driving down something like a motorway, on and on and on. I have never ever been to a motor race. I’m a horse-racing man,” he confesses.
“I do not regard the motor car as an expression of my personality. It is merely a convenience. But if you do keep a car for a long time, you do develop a kind of affection for it. I am quite fond of my Contessa,” he confides.
I am in a mood to further trigger his dispassionate side. I seek his views about ultra-expensive cars like the Maybach and Bentley. “They are a total waste of money,” he replies. This is almost unbelievable!
I am truly convinced by now how Sir Mark Tully feels about the cars we write about. I ask him about his knighthood, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan which he has been bestowed upon. “I was knighted in 1992. I have also been given the Padma Bhushan. But for my money I do not know why I have been given either of them,” he says politely. I nod my head, disagreeing totally. He truly deserves both honours. Irrespective of whether he likes the motor car or not!