Ansh Chowdhari, Pratush Koul
Just The way Mumbai has been associated with intangibles like The Marine drive and the best buses, Kolkata is inexplicably intertwined with Howrah bridge and the yellow taxies similarly Jammu and its cultural flux has been linked with the Matadors plying on the roads since decades. Manufactured by Bajaj/Force motors, the Tempo Matador F307 metal boxes moving to and fro carrying people and luggage have in a way created a wonderful symphony with the local milieu, in a sense that their normal movement on the roads is a straw in the wind for the normalcy in the region. When I asked ten of my colleagues to tell me the first word they think when I say the word Matador, their replies were interesting. Most of them said ‘cheap’ and ‘Punjabi songs’ and a silent minority said ‘jams’. These answers necessitated me to find an answer to this nostalgia that we’ve attached to matadors in Jammu. Everytime one mentions this word, the people around have a unique story to narrate, which, many a times, traverses through many decades.
Apart from being a medium of transport, these vehicles have nourished a potent image of hassle-free, easy and cheap travel medium. They are also the via mediums of commerce. Young and old, men and women, people of all hues take essential items like Milk, rugs, etc via these vehicles only. 407,307 have now entered into the colloquial vocabulary that is reminiscent of a not-so-distant past indicating a travel medium that encompassed route names like Bantalab-Bus Stand; Janipur-Parade; Factory No 4, etc which have been etched into our memories forever. These names not just signify a route but a nostalgic era where the means were short and desires hot.
Similarly, for me too. Matadors, apart from being an easy and simple mode of transport, represent the spirit of Jammu. Despite the hardship of Kandi, the lack of water, the people here, just like Matadors, have learnt to traverse with ease the supposedly insurmountable material problems of life. Matadors personify every such individual who works hard, grinds himself to the hardest for reaching his destination. In the process, he also adheres to a stiff competition and, has to time and again appear for an appraisal.
The 1990 was a decade of flux. India was opening up its economy and Jammu and Kashmir too didn’t remain untouched by that phenomenon.The individual proclivity towards owning a personal vehicle increased as the economy received a short in the arm. From the rich and prosperous City centre, Matadors became the primary source of public transport where they catered to the population living at the fringes of the urban areas. Metaphorically speaking, these matadors also represented a kind of compromise between an individually owned private vehicles and the large voluminous city buses which were the norm earlier. People felt comfortable in maintaining that social capital which was essential in keeping the city intact as one community feature despite multiple changes on many levels.
The memories associated with its travel has surpassed many generations. Many rekindled memories remind us about those pecularities that characterized these vehicles- stockpiling the luggage of all passengers inside and above the roofwhile young children struggling to find a seat in those U shaped 307 buses. Those small pattice like green coloured Matadors that used to ply on some of the busiest routes of the city were something that evoked scores of antics, particularly for the tall individuals. Hunching to almost half their heights, they used to travel while dabbling through those narrow spaces. It used to an interesting an spectacle to watch.
Another intriguing individual who partook in managing the passengers was the conductor, who with a small bag hung around his arm, played out a ton of gestures that encompasses the topography of the entire travel route. The conductor was a master of symphony; he used to shout and mimic various tones depicting different meanings ranging from arrival of the matador, stop and go, even verbal pleasantries or inciting other fellow speedy matador drivers. This act of the conductor somewhat resembled the exciting events of the Spanish bullfighting where the matador incited the bull to defeat it.
Despite being filled to the brim, Matador is kind and generous. They always stop for the awaiting passengers. Matadors represent an uncanny warmth of this city, a feeling of togetherness. Despite being privately owned, they appear as common community resource which the citizenry is accustomed to utilizing as per their convenience and need.
Matadors have also entered our vocabularies and our pop culture as well. Some of the local social media influencers have created commendable sketches on various SM applications by exaggerating the peculiarities of people travelling in these vehicles. They’ve also added to the comic flavour of our times when people imitate conductors saying “Maraaj, Karaya kadho””Aunty piche hoi aao”,”badi jagah hai” etc. This reflects the continuity that is exhibited in the dissemination of this local parlance as a means of cultural transmission.
Nowadays with more number of private vehicles plying on Jammu roads, one doesn’t get a chance to relive these ‘communal-travelling’ moments. With the F307 long gone, we can only find mini buses taken over their course. But the name Matador has stayed over the years. Some enthusiasts and people interested in retro vehicles have tried to immortalise this ‘Indian VW Beetle’. Indian Diecast and miniature marketplace has found a new love for the scale models of the matadors. People rebuild a miniature version of it, In a way to preserve their childhood commutes and relive the memories associated with its travel.
Unlike its more abrasive counterparts in other metros, the Matadors here are a symbol of both the struggle and romance of Jammu’s middle class. These vehicles became a conveyor of the cheek-by-jowl living structure the city imposed, its rising loneliness, and the interplay of various other mediums that were affecting the city’s landscape in myriad forms.
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