(picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

Name: Madan Nandy

Who is he? The city’s most busy engine tuner, till the multi-point fuel injection happened. He operates from a shanty measuring 100 sq ft at 41 Harish Mukherjee Road.

Why is he special? Sprucing up a carburettor part and making sure that the engine receives the optimum amount of fuel to give maximum fuel efficiency is Nandy’s speciality. And he is still in demand with about eight to 10 cars parked in the roadside by his shanty waiting for his attention.

Taking out the carburettor part by part, Nandy cleans it meticulously and readjusts the nozzles of the spark plugs with thin wires so that only a very fine stream of fuel passes through. It is this careful adjustment of fuel intake into the combustion chamber that determines the amount of petrol a car would guzzle. And Nandy is no doubt one of the city’s best engine tuners. His clients swear by him and those with pre-multi-point fuel injection engines return to him to ensure maximum mileage.

Early days: “My uncle Purnachandra Nandy started this workshop at Bhowanipore. Then I joined the trade around 1972,” says the 58-year-old.

Most residents of Bhowanipore, from the telephone booth operator to the tyre spare dealer, now know his workshop.

At present: Nandy and his ilk are fast disappearing because of dearth of work. “Where is the work these days,” he asks. “In the nineties, I did 20-30 cars a day. I specialise in tuning and do nothing else. There used to be a queue of cars right outside my shop every morning.”

But even in these times, when auto companies offer free service and state-of-the-art service centres, Madan is still able to draw a fair share of clients. And that is only because he is a master techie.