Transcendental Biking.

I have been riding either a scooter or a bike ever since I graduated. But in those days, biking was for banal commuting and I always aspired to own a car instead. Understandably so, as the roads were bad and riding a bike was never a pleasure. Bikes too then were of substandard- never of world class. Visiting bike mechanic for repairs used to be a weekly affair. The manufactures of these sub-standard bikes made these frequent visits to mechanic appear normal. Never did we know then what a world-standard bike looks like, leave alone its performance. Only bike of the world standard then available was one scooter by name Chetak, by Bajaj company. Trying to own this scooter used to be a daunting task. Preference for allotting this scooter was given to foreign currency holders. Foreign currency was available then to only those employed abroad. In fact, many of us had not seen a real $ bill till late eighties leave alone owning one. For us-the foreign currency deprived souls, it was few years of waiting period for allotment of this Chetak .
India was a “closed” country then. We were deprived of anything foreign and forced to buy and use only Indian. This government policy was supposed to forestall purported neo-colonism. Our country’s economic policies were similar but diluted versions of that of Burma and North Korea today. Sometimes, I describe these “difficult times “ of our history to my children and about hardship of living in such times. But then, when I do that, I would be fully aware of the fact they would dismiss it as another “heroic” story by the old man.
After India “opened” its markets in mid 80’s, things began to change. Japanese bikes “invaded” India. We were presented with world class bikes. Only then the realization of quality difference dawned on us. Indian bikes were no match for them. Most, if not all the local bike manufactures closed shops or began to trade these foreign bikes. “Be Indian Buy Indian” became a slogan of the past. But road condition was slow to transform to better. Only few roads in the city were given face-lifts. Country roads remained bad. National highways were still of low quality. All these road conditions improved gradually but certainly and likewise motorcycling experience also improved.
What according to me, we missed out in our youth on bike was the riding pleasure by itself. It was mainly due to, as I mentioned earlier, bad roads and low quality bikes. And that now, we have fairly good roads and good motorcycles, it is not illusion to say that I am reliving my missed-out-in-the youth motorcycling pleasure, especially in the country side. It is apt to quote here David Karlotski, who writes about joy of motorcycling, “A motorcycle is not just a two-wheeled car; the difference between driving a car and climbing onto a motorcycle is the difference between watching TV and actually living your life. We spend all our time sealed in boxes and cars are just the rolling boxes that shuffle us languidly from home-box to work-box to store-box and back, the whole time entombed in stale air, temperature regulated, sound insulated, and smelling of carpets”. I share that sentiment and I am so lucky as my wife also shares it. She is my pillion rider most of the time. For me closest way you can get to nature is by hiking, cycling and biking in that order. Riding on country road, without a helmet with just an eye-ware just-enough to protect your eyes, with wind blowing against your face and body, with no motor vehicles anywhere in sight, well, that’s transcendental meditation for me. Sometimes you even want to take out your eye protection not to miss out on any pleasure in that breeze of pure air on your face. When that happens, tears start rolling. That’s no weeping, they are true tears of joy!!.
I am lucky that I haven’t experienced any of the cruel downsides of riding so far, touch wood. I have had minor falls, few mechanical problems and few flats to name few. But that’s living life isn’t it?

I am not a hard core aficionado of biking. I am just an amateur biker. I know I have only few years for biking left and I want to use them. My Kawasaki Eliminator served me fairly well. Except for its low power, it performed well. Shubha and myself have spent a good amount of time riding on it- I meant non-commuting rides. Now I am looking forward to riding more powerful-Enfield Classic from the house of Bullet, which I have booked 2 months back. I have been assured of delivery some time during the end of January. I am not having any high hopes as far as its performance concerned. I had ridden a Bullet earlier and was not very impressed with it. I found engine to be bit ancient and its performance paled in front of Hondas and Yamahas. But the new Classic 500 seems to be different. It is with a newly designed engine and being of 500cc, must have good power. Cost wise, it is affordable too and when I test rode- it was impressive.
So, I am all eager with lot of expectations to go far and far on my bike with my wife behind on Classic 500. I hope my enthusiasm remains and my bread-winning profession permits.
BTW, I should end this with a clip from an “America’s funniest Home videos”episode. The anchor, whose sense of humor I admire, picks few graying members from the audience and asks one of them to answer truthfully if the are experiencing any sort of midlife crisis. One of them says he doesn’t believe in MLC- sincerely probably. Then, this anchor points a finger at you and says” if you really want to know if any man is in any sort of mid life crisis,…… just look between his legs!” .He pauses to the silence of the audience and then says” there will be a motorcycle there”. The audience laughs and I laugh too at his humor. But, wasn’t the allegorical joke cruel??
Sad thing is, we the graying crowd, have to put up with many jokes like this one relating us to this MYTH.