A model father

While his daughters, Barkha and Bahar Dutt, break new ground with their journalistic exploits, SP Dutt has gone about quietly building an enviable empire of Meccano sets

"When I was 13, and a student at Delhi-s Modern School, I spotted a huge pre-war No. 10 Meccano set, the biggest of its time in our Physics department; I requested the HOD if I could assemble it. I made an electric train from it, and on our Founders Day function, it was on display for our guest of honour, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru," recalls 81-year-old Satya Prakash Dutt.

Recently, his younger daughter, Bahar, an environmental journalist, had tweeted photos of her father at work with the Meccano sets in his South Delhi home. A flood of appreciative tweets followed. "Meccano parts are stuffed under his bed. There are even railway tracks that run along the ceiling! My mother, a cleanliness freak, must be rolling in her grave at the sight," Bahar laughs about her father-s love for the model construction system that was created by Frank Hornby in 1898 in Liverpool, one that became a favourite pastime in families through the 20th century. "I have admired my father for his patience, his ability to parent two extremely tenacious daughters, but weeks into the lockdown, I was struck by his ability to remain happy at home, doing what he loves doing." Dutt worked on three-four models, including a radio-controlled fire engine in the lockdown, "since there was nowhere to go and nobody to meet, I had all the time in the world," he says, nonchalantly.

A black locomotive model of the WP, Indian Railways’ workhorse of the steam era. The red flanged wheels are balanced such that front and rear wheels can run on rail tracks, and draw current from it

Born in Sialkot, Pakistan, he was about five when he was given his brother-s Meccano set that his mother guided him to make a car from. "My parents would travel overseas, and bring these from England and Germany. A year or so later, I was presented with a No.3 [a new but much smaller set] and later in 1947, a bigger No. 6 set," recalls Dutt. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, Meccano sets were considered the ultimate toy as one could create models from instruction manuals or the imagination. They were easily available across India, including in Sialkot. "Half of my classmates had one. The cheapest set was a pocket Meccano set that cost 12 annas [equivalent to 75 paise]," he shares.

After 1958-57, Meccano set-making took a backseat. Dutt joined Air India he retired as head of Tourism and Public Relations but during trips to London, he would visit the Hamleys store that had a complete floor devoted to Meccano sets. "The biggest No. 10 sets used to cost about £250 at the time. I never thought of buying one despite it being so cheap!" he reminisces.

He modified the Mississippi Riverboat to float on water

Self-taught in electronics, he would make, modify and fix appliances and devices. Dutt, who holds an MS from New York University in Applied Science, is also a Senior Member of AIAA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Years, later, in 2005, it was this ticking mind that egged him to build a train for their dining table, as a gag. "I bought some equipment including a car fan, removed its motor, but it was too high-speed. That-s when I remembered I could use Meccano gears to reduce its speed. The spark had been reignited, and I started looking for Meccano sets online. Meccano-s Liverpool factory had closed by then and some French company had taken over. We, old-timers, call it Classic Meccano since all parts are made of metal. The brand name is currently owned by a Canadian company, Spin Master," he rattles off, sharing the timeline with the accuracy of an archivist. Today-s Meccano versions are a mix of plastic and metal, and models are cheaper too.

Meccano model trains, Dutt’s favourite, running on two sets of tracks that Dutt has mounted in his bedroom. Seen in the frame is a photo of his wife, late journalist Prabha Dutt

Dutt returned to his childhood passion with gusto, and soon discovered a worldwide community of Meccano lovers. He found Ahmedabad-based Ashok Banerjee, who makes Classic Meccano parts, including the equivalent of prized No. 10 sets. "He is world-renowned for his work; I bought a big set from him worth lakhs. Another member, also from Ahmedabad, is a retired space scientist from ISRO, Arup Dasgupta," he shares. Dutt is a member of two communities— New Zealand Meccano they have a collection of over 53,000 models, to which Dutt has contributed 78 videos and Australia-based Spanner. His favourite among Meccano models are trains. "Seventy per cent of my collections are around locomotives," he says of the wall-mounted tracks he built in his bedroom.

With daughters Barkha and Bahar Dutt and his Meccano empire

Back home for a pit-stop while reporting on the pandemic, older daughter, Barkha salutes his passion, "When I see my father absorbed with Meccano, I am delighted because it keeps his mind agile, and the child and engineer in him alive." Bahar adds, "We often make fun of this obsession, and that he-s reliving his childhood. It is only when you get into the details you realise this requires the mind of a genius, blessed with perseverance, to put so many tiny parts together to create this big steel object that moves." The octogenarian is not done with his passion. "I want my planes to fly, my ships to float and my locomotives to run. So far, only the planes haven-t been able to fly; we-ll have to see about that," he laughs.

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