It all started while Johnny and I
were waiting for bus, back to home in Tambaram bus stand. We were in 6th standard then. My first memory of seeing a Royal Enfield
bullet was then. With the deafening
thump, my first impression of it was that, it’s a heavy duty bike. Those were the days while Yezdi and Rajdoot
were also on roads. But I happen to spot
the bullet alone often and the thump grew in me. Apart from the thump the Royal Enfield logo
engraving was the next which drew my attention.
Slowly I happened to hear more and more about the vehicle. The most common words were ‘robust’,
‘reliable’, ‘tough’. It should have got
ingested in my mind about the vehicle then!
2-3 years later there was a girl
who rode the bike royally in my neighborhood!
She was Jeeva’s cousin. Its
Jeeva’s dad bike, the whopping 350kg vehicle with the gear-shifts at the right
side and the kick lever doubling as the gear lever! She rode it with ease! I started telling around that I want to ride
a bullet. But then, I never knew to
bicycle too. I was the target for amusement.
4-5 years passed. Meanwhile, I
came to know that the machine is made in Chennai. Nothing else was required for me to admire it
more. My passion grew for the bullet. To beat the amusement, I wanted to own
one. I decided. To add to the glory, I though it deserves a royal
treatment while owning and my way of doing it was to buy it with full cash and
no loan. There started the journey of
waiting along with the desire to ride one.
I started doing more research on
Royal Enfield and it was the brand I chose, while Nisha mam gave us the first
assignment on the very first day I joined college. Then I discovered that Narayanan was riding a
bullet. Thunderbird was it, with the
350cc engine. A new vehicle, he had
flicked it from his brother and brought it to college. I managed to grab the keys from him saying I
can ride it! Touched 80kmph! It was
really like kite flying. But the moment
I halted the bike, I had no strength in my muscles to park it in its centre stand. It was fun for Narayanan!
Then after few years, it was Abu, driving a
bullet. A really well maintained old one
it was. The vehicle reflected his love
towards it. All these people made an
impact with their bullets. Indirect
Inspirations!
Almost no one believed me that I
can ride a bullet and they all joked on my physical appearance that I cannot
ride a bullet and I should first learn to park it with its centre stand. With all this going around me, Bhargav owned
a bullet too. I used to bug him asking
for a ride. One fine day, a small injury
in his leg after a cricket match prompted him to hand over his bullet to
me. It was a good 25km distance for me
to ride. There were opponents to
Bhargav’s decision to hand it over to me.
He began to become indecisive. To
add to it, it was about to rain as well.
While others were opposing me, I went through and said him strongly, that
I can handle. That’s it…! After some
time I was thumping in the road. It was
a heavy rain but I never stopped. The
thump kept me going in the Grand Trunk Southern road. I drove it straight inside home literally
dashing the gates. And that was the day
all the jokes stopped.
Now…
I own a 500cc bullet from Royal
Enfield. It storms! Worth the wait all
these years! It continues to draw admiration
and respect from all. Rural, urban, A
class, B, C, D and whatever classifications may exist. It just rocks and mostly, the next generation
is also admiring it. And now, Rahul gets
inspired from me. The legend passes on.
