A usual romantic day, with my motorcycle

These days, against the advise of all my friends and well wishers, I dumped all modes of public and private transport and decide to use my motorcycle to commute to office. It is a 35 KM ride each way and in spite of being stressful and slightly risky, I enjoy every bit of it.


The trip starts 7:10 Am in the morning when I come down from my 7th floor apartment to find the watchman wiping the bike dry after a wash. Man how can he time himself so well every morning? I have tried creeping up to him on the sly, walking across the terrace and coming down the elevators of the adjacent wing and all. No matter what, 'he will be there attending to my bike when I reach it'.- Amazing, this old man!


It is bitterly cold some mornings, so after putting on the helmet, jacket and gloves, I start her (the bike) and ride out. This, by far is the second best experience I have all day, every day. The first being watching my daughter wriggle out of a tight spot I usually put her in. It's complete bliss. Open roads, cool mornings and the sun rising in my rear-view mirrors. This is the time when I and my Glady speak to each other. We reach agreements on how much revving she likes, what rpm suits her best in which gears and how much can she be pushed. All days are not same, some days she likes to be really revved up and other days she seems to be in  a more placid mood.


Reaching office in inside of an hour is when this part of our dating ends. Office is as usual. One thing worth mentioning is, my boss has the uncanny ability to bring in the projects in those very areas where I wish I had more time to prepare. Another amazing person, honestly. Well somehow the day passes. Different days pass at various speeds. And it is time to have a duet with my Glady once more.


This evening ride back home is, unlike the morning one, an exercise in skill. Not as much as the skill of riding, but more like the art of negotiating. Every other vehicle on the road has a driver/ rider who is stressed out from the day's work and in a hurry to reach somewhere - mostly home. People, the way we are, are most irritable when in a hurry. So there are these pesky little 100 and 120 and 150 CC two wheelers with all the agility in this world and absolutely no sense of discipline. They weave in and out of traffic, brake suddenly and scare the balls off other four-wheeler drivers every now and then. All drivers wish the 2 wheelers would just vanish, and some actually do try to make that wish come true!! In such a situation I am already branded as "another pest on the road". So when I try to negotiate a fair deal with them that is something like - 'I respect your right of way and you do mine', people just cannot believe it. Too Good To be True perhaps, they think? Any ways I try and use the lane system, in the manner they are supposed to be used - 'Stay in your lane as fas as possible, and change lanes only when it is proper, with ample signal'. Most drivers don't understand this, they honk and curse at the bike in front of their car until, with time and luck they realize that the bike is doing what they hope and want it to do.... ride straight! Then the driver realizes something is amiss. There is a small gap on the left, between the car ahead and the BEST Bus next to it. "Why does this bike not try to fill the gap?" he wonders. Thats what bikes do and should do (??). Why is this bike not confirming to the rules (of bad riding). SO he honks his car batteries dead. In the mean time 2-3 more bikes come out of nowhere from his right and left and block his already crawling speed progress. A ha! Light at the end of tunnel perhaps? He realizes what he was insisting me to do was not all that good. It was just that his mind was attuned to the fact that bikes do not (and hence should not) go straight.


This is the turning point. Next few Kilometers he follows my bike like a good boy, keeping his distance and staying calm. Usually I thank him./ her with a wave. I thank everyone who gives me the right of way and also those who shows signs of accommodating and accepting me as a justified user of the road.Come on they might be going the basics, but it is still a rare gesture right?


My Glady is perfectly fine with the fact that I have not spoken to her or even thought about her all this while. She knows I have been concentrating on protecting her and me from damages and avoidable touch-ins with other vehicle. She knows I am possessive about her and would not tolerate any other to even come close to touching distance. She smiles and dishes out her best behavior - accelerating and braking in total sync with my needs and plans. 


After this somewhat exhausting ride through the main city, we reach Navi Mumbai and once again sing along the rest of the last few kilometers. Happy to be together, happy to be through yet another day filled with challenges, disappointments and elations.


One day I will catch the old man not tending to my bike... one day he has to mis-time himself :).


Cheers!

Lessons from my Daughter

Last night when my wife and I were discussing some event, the term "Bhrahamin" (a cast in India) was spoken. My daughter, who is about to turn 6 asked what it meant. I did not know how to explain the term without injecting the cast difference into her innocent mind. As I was struggling to find the right words, images flashed in my mind, images of 5-6 children standing, staring at each other, their games forgotten, then laughter silenced and wondering what cast the other child is. It was one of the least comfortable visions I have ever had.


My daughter eats, studies, plays, laughs, cries, does every thing that makes us wish we were children again. She does not know what a cast is. She does not know that her friends can be differentiated by color, rich-poor gap, language or anything. She only knows that as friends they play and stick together. When they fight they promise never to talk to each other again and that promise is kept  only until they meet the next time.


Why, I thought, do I wish I were a child? Why, I though, am I wishing when I CAN? Why can I not shed the prejudices and other adulterants that my mind is polluted with? Especially since I "know" they are undesirable emotions, why do I still hold them so close? Is it the "sheep mentality"? Or is it I am afraid to be a non-conformist? Or is it that I have been nurturing these stupid ideas so long that I am plain terrified to let them go?


I  can let these baggage go.and I will. I will clean my house, and throw away all unwanted stuff. Stuff that gives shelter to bugs and fungus, and I shall do the same with my self too.