The Motorcycle Diaries ..

Disclaimer: This post has no relation to Che Guevara and does not in any way endorse or criticise his ideologies. :)

Day 1 - Vroom..

As if the apprehension of getting onto a bike for the first time on the driver's seat wasn't bad enough, the painstaking effort to actually ask my uncle to coach me at the age of 25 just added to the embarrassment. But then there are a million things which others haven't done and I have, so guess it all eventually levels off (shut up if you think am just pacifying my ego!). Anyhow, there I was, in my biking gear - puma shoes, tracks, and a black t-shirt with the 7 sins and a skull, waiting pensively. We rode down to the common practice area where I vividly recollect poppy giving me my first cycling lessons - those were much simpler times I guess :) Strict instructions - DO NOT accelerate too much, DO NOT handle the clutch, DO NOT press the break, DO NOT act all gung-ho - you are not Genghis Khan !! Fidgety hands, sweaty palms tentatively rested on the handle, as the bike was kick-started and shifted to first gear. I would not deny the fact that those first few seconds were scary and I drew what can only be described as a drunk's walk, yet the feeling of handling the beast I felt scared of all my life was liberating. Even cruising at 20 kmph it felt as if the breeze was flowing through me, as if I had wings. It may all sound cliche but I won't deny my feelings just for want of better, more regular words!

Balance was the key I had to focus on the first day. It surely was no poise of a ballerina, but hell that first day of biking on my own felt like I had accomplished a world of good. Left turn, right turn, circling, slowing down, all seemed so simple. All was good, till the gaming freak in me kicked in and the accelerator got a clockwise vroom to it - 20 my ass, 30-40 kmph here I come ! ;) In a perfect world I would've been applauded for my antics, but alas, this world is all but perfect and what ensued for the next 2 minutes was a powerful lecture against speeding. My rights to independently handle the bike revoked :( But heck, to be able to enjoy the first day of riding a bike, cruising, felt amazing. I could very easily come up with a hundred synonyms to describe the feeling, but eventually it'll just tell you how awesome it felt to have finally started that engine and vroomed off into the wind!! ;)

Day 2 - Press .. shift .. leave .. *boing*

If day one was liberation, the next day was punishment. Clutches - what got me off the two-wheeler - the nemesis I wanted to avoid were back to haunt me yet again. I still do not get the reason to having a clutch for gears and having to leave it slowly - please spare me the mechanics of it if you know - I'd like to stay ignorant ;) Anyways, the first gear change after a kickstart required a slow release of the clutch. As if that weren't hard enough - leave it too soon and you'll stop with a jerk, leave it too slow and you won't budge and the bike would go off !! "Once you master the co-ordination between the clutch and the accelerator there would be nothing else to learn" - easy for you to say unc, you've been friggin' riding the bike for like a million years ! First try at the sweet release of the clutch - I didn't do that bad actually, except for a little jerk, was pretty smooth shifting. Well I believe that little jerk also should not have been there - must've been my unc's wrong accelerator handling or something ;) A couple of more tries, jerks, and popat's later, I was literally flexing my wrists. You might not understand but seriously, all the mental pressure was being taken out on the poor wrists.

Ten rounds later, we did a full round-up of all I had learnt in the two sessions, just in time for my unc to leave for office and me to feel proud of my achievement. Everything went along fine, all the clutches, breaks, gears, speed and what not, but damn that one stupid little thing just almost always has to fuck up - and there I was - still holding onto the clutch after changing gears as if it were my darling angel going off on a bloody cruise ! Argh ! End result - tomorrow ain't going to be an upgrade session but a REVIEW - again ! Goof-ups are a norm of life - am just glad they're not the only thing in life. Whatever may have happened over these two days, I realised one thing for sure - my grandkids are going to have an amazing time listening to grandpa's motorcycle diaries for a long time to come ! ;)

PS - This post would sound way better if I could read it out to you with all the voice modulation and actions - but as I said, this world is everything but perfect ! ;)