OFF THE OLD BLOCKS

A young member of the old guard. Meet Christopher Rodricks

- Kartik Ware

They say youth is wasted on the young. And in almost all cases, this saying is all too true. However, whether it’s sooner in life or later, all time spent with machines keeps you younger than you should be. That explains why Christopher Rodricks, who says he’s 29 years old, looks younger than that number might imply. It’s also probably because he seems to never stop smiling, grinning, laughing or displaying similar derivatives of expressing happiness.

We’re at Rodricks Restorations in Bangalore, and right at the moment Ruman and I walk in, we’re obliged to stop in our tracks. I’m not at liberty to name all that occupies the parking spaces in this place, but I can safely say that a big chunk of the history of automobile evolution is on finely-restored display in this 3500-square-foot workshop. We’d need calendars from 1933 to 1972 to match their birthdates.

Rodricks is a sprightly chap whose hands are constantly looking for the right spanner. The place he works in is a decently-sized workshop, though the sheer size of some of the cars makes you think it could be bigger. We walk around for a bit, trying to come up with questions at the last moment (as usual). The smell of old metal, leather, and wood sinks into our brains, our vision diffused by the soft glint of chrome in shade. The smell of fuel hanging in the air, probably the only constant in the automobile’s evolution, assures me that this guy is more or less one of us. Then the questions come easily.