Why do I love to ride?
I have been asked this question many times. (By various people of course) And my answer has never been the same. When I went to Chitradurga, in December last year, a few of my friends thought that I was crazy. Their suspicions were confirmed when I decided to ride to Mumbai alone. (I’ll let you know more about when I write next.) But then the question remained…. I’m trying to fish out a few of my thoughts on that – from a storm of thought that clouds up my head when someone asks me this question.
“Don’t you get bored? Riding alone is so boring”
No my friends, if you don’t want to be found painted all over the highway, or if you love your motorbike and don’t want it to be found under some drunk truck driver’s axle, you won’t get bored. Plus, it’s kind of challenging. For me, the thrill of it all comes from the fact that there is beast that might get out of control if you tend to lose focus. And that the power to control has been given to you, or you have chosen the power to control to be yours – whichever way you see it.
It’s very unsafe on the highway….
Tell me – whether the city streets are safe? You might get hit by an irate state transport bus – someone who you cannot hold accountable. You might be hit by some son of a gun whom you cannot touch. You might be robbed at night or if you are really unlucky, in broad daylight.
The relationship between a rider and his/her motorbike is intensely person. The motorbike gets tunes to the way its owner would ride. In fact I have at many times felt that motorbikes feel it when their master wants them to really perform and when the master is just trying to push it. My motorbike has never failed me even a single time when I really needed to get to some place fast or just wanted to get a thrill. You cannot get that kind of a response from anything you own.
Add to it the fact that there is nothing stopping you from moving ahead, or from stopping over when u see a beautiful location and just want to savor it for a few more minutes. The fact that it makes you feel supremely independent knowing that you and only you have the right to decide whether to move ahead or stop, whether to go straight or take a turn onto a dusty unmapped road, whether to leave at 5am or to start off at 1pm. You don’t have to be stranded in the traffic in a bus, or keep standing at the bus stop for an hour, or get stranded at the train station for the whole night. When you own a motorbike, you are free, and you are proclaiming your love for being that way. That is one of the most important things that make me want to ride. Yes, you might be bogged down by a few punctures, oil leaks or breakdowns. But then it’s something that is a part of our normal life.
Why not drive a car then? It’s safe and it gives you the freedom. Because, it’s not real. It’s a shell which has climate control, is designed for safety and not for enjoying the raw pleasure of being out on the road. In a car, u can roll up the windows, play music, turn on the A/c, and you won’t feel a thing. But on a motorbike, you hear the wind, the sound of the motor beneath you, a little pain in your shoulders (after a long hard ride), dust and grime cling to your face, you see the road pass beneath your feet and hear the trucks with their screaming past you – and you realize that it’s all real. Once you’re on the road, you forget, the terrible boss in office, the demanding girlfriend, the boring 9 – 5 jobs, the desk, the city, the people who laugh at you, and the people who fake smiles, people who think you are crazy. You are intoxicated, by the sheer pleasure that the road and the motorbike are capable of giving you – the pleasure of knowing that nothing matters out here except you, your motorbike and the ever welcoming ever hostile road.
Then you feel like GOD!
