Being a lawyer, you have to be very careful with words you use. Hence I am using the word "motorbiking" to put in the picture the real meaning i wish to assign. I apologise for not keeping up the promise of writing about my job in mumbai and about my dream girl. The posts are in pipeline and Im gradually figuring out things, work, policies, principles, ethics, morals, politics, complaints, appraisals, critics and also bitching in the place I am working. And about my dreamgirl - Go n ask any elder relative or uncles n aunties who knew me when i was in korba and bilaspur, about the song i used to sing when i was a small kid. Yeah it was DREAMGIRL -the title song from movie Dream Girl starring dharmendra and hema malini. And coincidently dharmendra got married to his dream girl in real life in the year 1979 which is two years after that movie was released. Unfortunately my dream girl is either not aware how madly im in love with her, or she does not even notice, or she notices and ignores because she does not like me at all, or she doest not want to love me, or she does not have time to love me or she loves someone else, or any other reason that she only is aware of. Or may be my dearest lord ganesha would convey y my love and wishes to her and convince her to come and find me. Okay i know it is getting a bit what you call FILMY and i can go on writing about her. So my love, like my understanding of the place i am working, too appears to be in the pipeline and it has to be figured or dealth with somehow. I am hopelessly optimistic and insanely in love. And I have realised that I am deviating away from the topic. Here I come back:
Motorbike (hereinafter referred to as "Bike") (defining words is an aspect of legal drafting) is the best means of conveyance in a city like Mumbai fro distances upto 10-12 kms. Reasons being:
1. You avoid the mad sweating, smelling, pushing and unpredictable crowd in local trains and buses in mumbai;
2. Your parents are not paranoid coz any bomb may blast any time in any train in mumbai (though i believe that it can happen anywhere in India these days);
3. Bikes are much more fuel efficient thatn car or buses and hence save money as well;
4. Bikes cause less pollution;
5. Going by bike saves alot of time as bikes are like rats which can cruise through smallest voids left between so many cars. Even in traffic jams;
6. One who enjoys riding bikes get to do atleast one thing that he likes after being employed;
7. Bikes are easy to park and even parking charges are less;
8. Bikes do not take much space in roads as cars and buses do; etc.
There can be so many other reasons which I am now lazy to think about. I think aforesaid reasons are sufficient enough to show my intent. And yeah it is needless to say that one who is riding a bike in mumbai should be the one who is not bothered about the luxury of a having a car with air conditioner and music system and yeah a driver as well as traffic here is killing. And Id rather prefer to catch on my pending sleep rather than sitting at driver`s seat and cursing everyone. And yeah it goes without saying that he should have the traffic sense and skills of riding in voids, narrow lanes and even on the foothpath if required. Yes in Mumbai, it is required at times.
Today almost 22 months of my stay in Mumbai are over. Having been interned in Mumbai I was pretty much aware of traffic in Mumbai and since we decided to stay in Wadala which is about 10 kms away from my office (not very far from Mumbai standards), I decided to get my bike here. I still remember the day I went to pick my bike from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus station godown. I was happy to see that my bike was in one piece and good condition as well. I had tried remembering the route by the number of flyovers and advertisement hoardings (though i maintain that my direction sense is absolutely fantastic). And which coming back, the string of my hawai chappal broke while it had started raining and i rode back barefoot. Yadavji was there with me when all this happened. What memories!!! Thats the story about how my bike entered tinsel town. And thanks to Varun, who had come here for a week for helping us (the freshers in this monster town), for going to RTO office and finding out all the formalities and paying the octroi which was required for running my bike on road here. However still i have not still not paid the required road taxes and charges required for the fresh registration. This is precisely because an agent at the RTO office suggested me to purchase a new bike rather than getting my bike registered all over again. And that time i decided that id rather prefer to pay bribe of 50 bucks than paying 8k to 10 k for fresh registration (though traffic police h never caught me for this and i have never paid even one penny of bribe in Mumbai for any reason whatsoever). I am sorry but this system of fresh registration sucks. I believe that today we have technology and the process for registration and charges for registration throughout India should be common and same.
Now I think I should get over the procedural part and come back to the substance about riding the motorbike. Well I must confess that riding a bike in Mumbai is very challenging in Mumbai (specially during peak hours). All the space in roads is occupied by BEST buses and cars who keeping on blowing horns all the time. I fail to understand how blowing horns help during bumber to bumper traffic and jams in Mumbai? It only increases pressure and tension. But still most of us (Indians) have this habit of blowing horns unnecessarily. Anyways certain things about Indians cant change (coz it will take out the Indian flavour from it) so no point discussing it. Rather we should accept it. In my views it is not at all advisable to ride bike in right in the middle of the road and the chances of getting sandwiched between four wheelers are quite high. So one should trying riding in leftmost lanes as there is adequate space for bikes to pass smoothly. And please beware of pan, guthka and chewing gum spitting passengers when you are overtaking BEST buses. Try sneaking as fast as possible. And it is suggestible to always wear a jacket as it would save you clothes from picking up dirt and also save you from bruises if case your bike skids. Chance of your bike skidding are higher coz of cement and concrete roads. So you should not ride it very fast as well. Helmet is a must and you shouldn’t lose your patience just coz you are missing a deadline in office. You lose lifeline just once.
MFKP and Rishi always ask me to avoid commuting by bike as much as possible. Almost one year back, the rear tyre of my bike got punctured while i was riding the bike and I badly skidded in the middle of the road. Fortunately there was a red signal just behind the spot and all vehicles had stopped. I got some bruises, sprains and also my Espirit watch which was gifted to me by someone on my 23rd birthday.Though it wasn’t my mistake but you aren’t so fortunate always. And the BEST buses in Mumbai stop for no one. Not even for passengers. And despite of that incident, I have continued to commute by bike (though Im much more careful). Its only rainy season in Mumbai (like the period of hibernation for me) when I do not touch my bike.
Now since I can manage to buy a bike on my own, I wish to buy the new enfield classis 500 cc bullet. There are serious objections from my parents who are emphasizing on buying a hatchback car. Even from friends side, opinions are 50-50. But most of the times, I do whatever I feel like doing and chose only what I like. So please do not be surprised if you get to know that I have bought new enfield classic 150. You guys may suggest me a colour though. Its available in grey, black, red and silver. And I prefer Black.
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