My Passion, my obsession and my greatest drive.

Well, decided to bother everyone again (ppl don’t read it anyway, so no issues).

14 yrs ago, On a Sat Eve……

Time: 6:15 pm

Place: Hindi Class

I was waiting for hindi mami to finish off a lesson in Gadya vallari (prose book) impatiently looking at the clock once every half a second. All that mami said that day was just going over my head. The class had already extended beyond the normal time because of another guy (Stupid…..), he had been late by 15 mins to class that day. The moment mami said that we will continue tomorrow, I just raced out not even waiting for everyone to finish thanking our guruji.

It was 6:25 pm and I ran like a mad fellow through the streets of Gokulam colony to reach my home, bumping into 4 ppl all of whom couldn’t even call back to me cause I didn’t stop to hear them. I made it to my home at 6:29 just in the nick of time to be there for that day’s episode of Street Hawk only to see someone else seeing something else on doordarshan channel 1. I was just irritated and changed to second channel in our Solidaire CAT 1000. The second channel was supposed to be luxury those days. Some times it was even taboo (it showed some age old English serials and too much movie related stuff).
Appa used to claim “Edavadhu ubayogama kattarana adula, eppa paaru kattu koopda kattinderukku (it sometimes played Michael Jackson’s BAD album’s video)”

I didn’t heed any of these. The very sight of the black colour bike speeding upto 200 miles an hour in just under 6-7 seconds was just enough excitement for me to even give these things any thought whatsoever. The guy sitting at the computer (in the serial) pushed a button and the doors opened letting out the guy onto the roads after which the countdown started

10….9….8….7….6….5….4….3….2….1 vvrooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm

Every hair on my body was just standing up. I literally started driving a pseudo bike in front of the TV making accelerator kind of sounds myself. Appa said “Enna bikeo ennamo, idellam nadakka kudiyadha, avan number soldranaan, ivan vegama poranan, paitiyakarathanam irukku”. I said “computer patti ungalukku enna theriyum. Ellam pannalam computer vecchu, theriyuma ?”

The punch line for the serial was “The Man..… The Machine…. The tyre.” The second one of the trio captivated me the most, in fact it was the only thing that attracted me.

I promised to myself “I will own this bike one day”.

Such was my passion for driving bikes right from my childhood. I went on to finish college and in the process learn a lot about bikes, biking and so many things about fast riding, only to have my biking fantasies increased manifold with every new fact that I accumulated in my mind.

My friend Jaikumar had told me that YAMAHA was the best bike in town by any standards, but for one parameter “Mileage”. I said “Who cares, I want speed, pickup, the thrill of riding at 100 kms/hr”. But alas YAMAHA had stopped producing RX 100 series due to some production issues and I had to console myself with my dream modified to own a RX 135 series bike, which were supposed to be much better in pickup but lesser robust than “The Real Thing”.

I went from West Mambalam in Chennai though Pondicherry and Velachery in my journey to Sholinganallur to join a software major. I started saving money from the second month and ended up buying my own machine a black YAMAHA RX-135 in March 2005. I wanted to go for a long drive to Pondicherry on my “Mayil Vahanam”. I had already been through the stretch a couple of times with a frnd of mine, both of us sharing the driving pleasure on a Hero Honda CD -100.

Then came the Big opportunity. Two of my classmates were getting married to each other and it was happening in Pondicherry. My frnd accompanied me and we started riding at about 70 kms/hr in the beginning of the journey. The autumn sun was not too punishing and I slightly accelerated to 80 kms careful not to frighten my pillion rider. I then slowly increased it over about 10kms distance to 100kms/hr.

There was no reaction from my pillion rider. Such was the smoothness of the ride. I was proud that my frnd had not even noticed the speed in which we were traveling. We went on to dodge a few other lesser mortals (motorists driving anything but a new Yamaha ;-) cause I was just invincible……). I even slowed down a little very now and then deliberately to let some of the riders get back near me and try to overtake me when I used to cut the gear and go vrooommmmm. “Avanta poi yen rouse vittutu irukke” said my frnd from behind.

We reached Pondicherry in under 150 mins in time to attend the wedding. I was so ecstatic about the longest ride that I had ever had in my life and at that time seemed inconvincible that something could be even better. How wrong was I.

The marriage was over and we started back to Chennai on the next day afternoon. Te sun was up and at its best and was just boring down on us. We reached somewhere near marakkanam when the air suddenly became a little cooler. We were passing though dense vegetation and we could not see beyond about half a kilometer ahead of us.

We drove for about 10 more mins and the whole East Coast Road opened up ahead of us. The next stretch of about 20 kms was visible from that spot with no many trees blocking our view. That particular moment will forever be etched in my memory. We saw the darkest clouds that we had ever seen in our life hovering over the horizon.

It was raining in Chennai.

For a person who had grown up in congested places and in flat complexes as though his life in crowded Chennai where the horizon is always very much near (often the next street) this moment was just unexplainable. I was spell bound by Mother Nature’s splendour. It was as though I was looking at a customized screen saver jpg file created using one’s greatest imagination and photoshop. It took sometime for me to sink in that something like this was indeed possible.

The air had become chill from cool now and streaks of lightning split up the dark clouds lighting up the sky. I had never seen such long streaks of lightning in their full swing and I was easily convinced that a stronger one could render someone lifeless if borne in its full vigor.

I was having the thrill of my life that I cursed myself for not having brought along a camera so that I could keep these things alive in photographs to gape at them later. I stopped at the side of the road to admire the scene a little and let the significance of the moment sink in properly. I then started again only to be met with big droplets of water splash on my face with such force that I felt a thousand needles prick my face within about 10 secs.

I was drenched skin deep within under a couple of minutes and I could not carry on. My frnd had to catch a train from Chennai to Mahe and we had started according to his timings. We waited in a shop on the side of the road me secretly relishing our unanticipated delay and my frnd, his mind relishing it partly and partly praying that the rain subside soon so that he could get to the station.

But it was just unrelenting and I stopped an ECR bus and sent him in it. It subsided after some time and I started my ride back at about 7:00 pm. It was so cold and I was freezing beyond control and I had to ride at 45 kms/hr only to keep myself from shivering beyond control. All the clouds were no more and it was a full moon lit that I was driving through. That topped it all. There was no soul in the whole of the road until any vicinity. The road was lit up so well that I switched off my headlights for a stretch of about 10 mins. I drove with my head lights off for such a long stretch and put them back on, only when I saw some movement at the horizon (some vehicle was coming).

I have since made more trips to pondy but my first ride will always remain special.

Maybe I am just too crazy about my drives in my vehicle. Maybe its just the fact that my frnds who have pulsars and unicorns say that my bike is just out of the league. Maybe it’s the dhoom film that I saw even recently. Maybe its my passion and obsession for this great invention by man that has made me write this. Maybe everyone reading it will not be able to relate to it so much as I do. But who cares, its my blog. J J

Do give your comments………