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Thursday, April 19, 2012

You drive, I'll ride

This is about Mr R. He is related to me through a complex chain: he is my sister-in law's brother in law. However, this post is not about explaining relations. 

The otherday I received a mail urging to explain what biking means to me or recount the experience of a passionate biker. I am a die-hard biker (oops, bike-rider) myself, but I would like to grab this opportunity to share an interaction with Mr R, one of the most passionate bikers I have met.

We were invited to Modi Nagar, a suburb of Delhi in the month of August. The weather at this time of the year is particularly unpredictable: the sun scorches you,  it rains for few minutes drenching you, causing traffic jams and stops all of a sudden. Although the distance to be covered was about 60 km, we were sceptical about our choice of mode. Finally we hired a car.
On the way, we crossed a Honda City carrying two lovely children, and driven by their mother. It was Mr R's wife. And there he was, little ahead, on his monstrous bike. It was a Thunderbird (by Royal Enfield). A majestic machine, it is every biker's dream. Given his passion for biking, it was almost obvious that Mr R would be riding his Thunderbird, and let his family enjoy the car ride.

"Isn't it too strenuous to ride a bike for such a long distance?", I asked.
"No way! I can drive endlessly, as long as the fuel permits", replied Mr R.
-"This heat?"
- "No issues"
-"If it rains?"
- "Its exciting to ride in the rain"
-"Isn't a car more comfortable?"
- "Riding this baby (his bike) is anyday more lucrative!"
- "But... ", I am not to be convinced easily.
-"See, I love biking", [my husband nods in agreement in the background as Mr R continues,] "Rarely do we get the oportunity to go for long bike rides in cities. So when the opportunity has come, I let my wife drive with the children, while I rode"
I was about to ask something further, but he told me that he had gone into the Himalayan ranges from Delhi on his bike with his biker-friends, and the sheer joy of riding a good bike eggs him on.   

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This is an entry for a contest organized by Castrol on Indiblogger.

14 comments:

My Unfinished Life said...

to a passionate biker....its hard to explain otherwise..and he/she also cannot explain otherwise to non-passionate bikers...my brother is one and im one(only thing im prohibited by the husband to ride after marriage!!, but some day soon...)

R. Ramesh said...

wow..interesting..people with name R seem to be quite enterprising..hehe

Anupama K. Mazumder said...

@Star,
You know how to ride a bike? Wow!

@Ramesh,
You bet!!

Red said...

Passionate bike rider huh, I can't speak to that.

Interesting

Ghumakkar Punit said...

Riders are like that only...Crazy! And, if they ride a Bull....you just cant scale the insanity :)

ra said...

Congratulations!

You've been Tagged.

Please follow the link below to know about the tag more:
http://rahul-aggarwal.blogspot.in/2012/04/ta-ta-tagged.html

Anonymous said...

Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam feedback? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can recommend? I get so much lately it's driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.

Anupama K. Mazumder said...

@Chick,
Thanks!

@Punit,
You bet!

@Rahul,
Thanks for tagging me.

@Anonymous,
I am not much of a tech savvy person. I have enabled comment moderation, and delete all spam from time to time.

C Suresh said...

Lovely post! Another Himalayan Rider, huh?

Trotter said...

Hi Anupama! Today is a holiday in Portugal, but it’s the worst winter day we had since last October... As grey as if we were living in Northern Europe... So, the only right thing to do is surfing the Net... ;)

Not a fan... ;)

Blogtrotter Two is now in St. Kitts and Nevis... Enjoy and have a great week!!!

Anupama K. Mazumder said...

@Suresh,
Yeah.. and a crazy, obsessed one at that!

@Trotter,
Please drop in whenever you can.

ashok said...

I agree with R..only thing- I prefer a Car!

P.N. Subramanian said...

Very interesting.

Anupama K. Mazumder said...

@ashok,
Yep, some car drivers are crazy for their vehicles... whatever be the weather, distance, or any thing, they would give up anything for an opportunity to drive!

@Mr Subramanian,
Thanks. Indeed such passion is interesting!