My entire family is obsessed with cars – the automobile gene is hardwired into our DNA.

Quite a few anecdotes about my father revolve around cars – his fondness for touring the countryside as the Prime Minister of Kashmir in a Mercedes-Benz Ponton and driving across the frozen Dal Lake in a Land Rover.

Then there is the amusing story about the cabinet minister who borrowed the Prime Minister's official car and surprised the driver by offering an exorbitant sum to replace the "motion" that broke on a steep incline!

Over the past fifty years my eldest brother's family has owned the Tata Motors dealership for Kashmir. Like their current partnership with Fiat, Tata Motors used to have a tie-up with Mercedes-Benz and his office naturally featured Mercedes-Benz memorabilia. One print in particular remains vivid in my memory – a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL racer hitting a vulture at high speed.

Occasionally I would receive MB goodies in the form of key-chains, swiss knives and calendars. One calendar hung in my room for years beyond its expiry date. It featured high-quality prints of Mercedes-Benz models over the years. When the calendar was finally removed, I had a hand-carved walnut frame made for one of the prints – a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.

Stimulated by the current TV advert featuring Michael Schumacher and the Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS – the modern MB/AMG interpretation of the classic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing – I put on my racing/googling overalls and after a marathon Google Image Search session, I tracked down both the images.

Here they are for your viewing pleasure – which I doubt can match my own.

The most beautiful car that our family owns is my younger son’s Alfa-Romeo but no prizes for guessing my favourite car of all time.

Over the years I have coveted many cars – the split-window Sting Ray, the Lancia Stratos, the Ferrari Testarossa, the Bugatti Veyron, and almost all models from Aston-Martin and Lamborghini – but IMHO the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing represents the pinnacle of automobile design. It is the model against which all other designs are to be measured (and found wanting!).

As attractive as the Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS may be – the original is still the King.

While googling backlinks to kashmirnetwork.com, I stumbled across an online disagreement over the existence of the Tota in Kashmir . Tota in India refers to the parakeet which is also called Shoga in Kashmir.

To put the record straight, there are three species of parakeets native to Kashmir. The most common species is the Rose-ringed parakeet that breeds in Kashmir and is a year-round resident. Rose-ringed parakeets often nest in hollows in chinar trees.

The Alexandrine and Slaty-headed parakeets are relatively less common.

Alexandrine parakeets [Hindi: Heeraman] are quite popular in Indian folk tales, and can be observed in Kashmir in the Zabarvan foothills. The Mughal gardens especially Nishat and Shalimar are good places to observe these birds even in winter. Alexandrine parakeets can be distinguished from their rose-ringed cousins by their larger size and striking red shoulder patches.

Flocks of slaty-headed parakeets can be observed in summer in the Royal Springs Golf Course.

I am quite amazed by the refusal of one of the participants to believe that the Tota exists in Kashmir – disregarding both its presence in folk tales [that he himself quotes !] and scientific proof [including my photographs] presented by his co-arguer.

The gentleman in question propounds the classic ostrich-defence: "I have never seen it myself, so it does not exist". Not surprisingly the argument escalated to the usual levels [Azadi, Hindu-Muslim,Islamists] and beyond [Nietzsche!]

All is forgiven, however, because the original post included this following gem:

athe travtohan janavar
athe travtohan janavar
pheri bagas te kari guftar
athe travtohan janavar
chavi yavun te vure shehjar
athe travtohan janavar
ye chu nagman hund tandar
athe travtohan janavar
janavar chu vanan zaar
athe travtohan janavar
mate haitav ami sund baar
athe travtohan janavar

Release the bird from your hands
Release the bird from your hands
It wants to fly around the garden
and speak out its heart
Release the bird from your hands
It wants to celebrate youth under shady trees
Release the bird from your hands
It is a chronicler of songs
Release the bird from your hands
It is singing a sad song
Release the bird from your hands
Don't bear the onus of his captivity
Release the bird from your hands

Bonus:
hariya thavak na kaan te lo lo
zaar mein totas van te lo lo

haari wanakh na totas si
kya ilaaj kari na mautas si

Here's a video of a Tota pillaging a walnut tree in my garden.