The motorcycle diaries

Hari, more affectionately called 'Pomsy', my classmate and close confidant since the age of 10 recently bought a Bullet Thunderbird. It came out pretty expensive at almost a lakh Indian rupees. Anyways, since his whole family loved anything made by Royal Enfield, his decision was never questioned.

Scene 1

Hari walks from his apartment wearing dark glasses, leather jacket macho looking. Sits on his bike, looks around, enjoys the attention from the occasional lass... starts the bike.... roars the engine to life....accelerates...........for 2 seconds... stops the bike and gets down. Reason? he lives right next to his office.

Scene 2

Hari walks from his office to his bike wearing the same ensemble and sits on his bike with all 'Jada'. He takes out the stand looks around. This time he doesnt even bother to start the bike. He paddles his way back using his 2 feet for power. Reason? he lives on a one way street. So to come the wrong way one block he has to go for half a mile and then take a U turn. So instead the easier way is to just paddle back. When questioned he said "Oh my leg muscles are also developing....who wud have imagined such a use??"

I was too dumbstruck to say anything. He claims he bought this bike just to eat out. My dad said it would have been cheaper to start a "thattukada" or in other words a roadside eatery for the same 1 lakh, employ someone and maybe even generate an income.

This reminds me of another 'Hari' incident that happened years back. When we were in 10th grade, his dad had a car that he had inherited from his great grandfather. His dad had a great attachment to this black ambassador car and could not even bear the thought of selling it. Infact his dad spent most of his spare time repairing the car. A local mechanic in Jagathy who started off modestly with a 6" X 12" workshop managed to build a 2 floor fully functional state of the art workshop from money which I suspect was majorly sourced from this cars daily repairs.

One day his dad was driving when he noticed a 'dhum' sound coming from somewhere. He tried hard to locate the origin but was unsuccessful. Quite accustomed to his car gimmicks, his dad took the car directly to the mechanic. The mechanic was visibly happy to see him. That hydraulic lift that had been eluding him now suddenly looked financially viable with this repair job. The mechanic expertly set into action. He took a test drive and agreed that there was indeed a 'dhum' sound coming. This happened everytime he took a curve or braked suddenly. Thinking it had something to do with the axle he took out all the tires and examined the axle. To his dismay everything looked alright. He worked on it for almost 4 hours. At the end of 4 hours he did all that he knew on the car and took it for a final test drive. He returned grim faced and with a heavy heart had to explain to Hari's dad that he could not locate the problem and that considering the fact that it is quite loud, it would be in his best interest not to drive the car anymore. The cars age finally had caught up with it. It was so old that not even lottery sellers would buy the car.

Uncle's heart sank. The fear of losing something close instills in people emotions that would seem irrational to others. His dad cried inside.50 years flashed suddenly in one second..almost all of his memories had been associated in one way or another with this car.(infact not just his, everyone in the family from his great - grandfather could have had memories associated with this car). Finally reality struck him in the face. He asked the mechanic to put whatever was left in the trunk of the car so that he could leave. The mechanic upset himself over the loss of his golden duck piled all the car's stuff into a cart and opened the trunk and stared inside. The mechanic suddenly shouted out. Hari's dad came running. He could not believe his eyes. Inside the trunk there lay a lone coconut. It was this coconut which had been banging on the sides of the trunk producing a sound, whenever the car moved abruptly. The 'dhum' culprit had been discovered. Hari sheepishly admitted this to me . Ever since that day I have been telling this story to anyone who has even remotely heard about Hari.