Let me start
with an exposure of my lesser known side as opposed to a Technology enabler and
KT planner. Like any actor who would have otherwise become a doctor or a
collector or a philanthropist, I also had an aspiration as a kid. I wanted to
become a truck driver. Yes, you read it right not a doctor/collector/lawyer or
all three at the same time. I wanted to keep travelling the length and breadth
of the country and wanted someone to pay for my trips. Which other profession
would offer that other than a lorry driver? I also feel an above average
connection with automobiles than most of the commuters. I firmly believe that
it’s just not a way to go from point A to point B. I feel like I communicate with my vehicle
every time I step on the gas pedal.
Before you
try to figure out a good name for this mania, let me get on to the subject of
this article. As we all would appreciate that “a contended human being” is a
myth since the wants keep increasing when one gets fulfilled, my love for
automobile matured (rather reversed!!!) towards 2 wheelers. I used to be a
contended man with my Cheetah (Mahindra XUV) and few thousand KM on the
highways. It all started when I read an article that one can burn more calories
just by riding a bike than a car (about 400 calories per hour!!! WoW!!!) Which
seemed to be better any day than walking endlessly on a treadmill. And there
were added advantages like visiting more places, wind in the hair, sweet smell
of highway breeze and of course a reason to escape from monotony (!!!)
Like every
other Americanized Indian software professional I started my search with the
Harleys. I began making my visits to the Harley showroom in Chennai. The very
sight of the bike brought chills to my spine, like they say in all the tamil
movies… “Butterflies fluttering in the stomach”; every time I started a Harley,
it was A.R Rahman’s music to my ears. Eventually I took a liking to a model
named Super Low just because of the beat and the seating posture. Ok I lied… it
was the only affordable air-cooled model with a decent seating posture. The
moment when I was about to make a final pitch to my wife disaster struck.
Harley discontinued that model and were going to launch an upgrade.
Months
passed and one fine day Modi Ji came in my dream with a stick in hand and
reminded me “Be Indian, Buy Indian”. Suddenly there was an enlightenment, how
did I ever miss the only second longest running company in India after the
Indian railways, The Royal Enfield. I went for a test ride and it had the best
of both worlds, optimum pick-up, a classic beat and great looks. After a short
ordeal with Indian customer service and some escalations (Thanks to TWE) I finally
got my brown horse. 
A biker was
born!!! With an Indian legacy and a Royal tag… I did the first thing neo
Indians would do. Yes, you guessed it right, forced my wife to take a few pics
and posted in Facebook. A milestone reached; with whopping 50+ likes… an
achievement at least for me (I wonder how much people would pay to get 200+
likes). I am slowly crawling along with my new born baby bike into biker
hood. Well it’s another 500 KMs of
crawling and 2000 KMs of slow walking before it can run on the highways and fly
high in the mountains!!
Catch you
all soon with more Facebook achievements and milestones…
