Crashed and Burnt

This one here is one of my friend's experience.. Read on.. Its hilarious.. well, he never believe my words.. but it is!!

People often decide upon weird things when they are super bored. All of a sudden they tend to turn into an "up-and-comer" sitting on the potty, while they are waiting for that one big spurt which is gonna make them go ecstatic. It goes without saying that this sudden urge to revamp their icky monotony lasts only till the faucet cleans up their arse, and in no time they are again lumbering back into misery. Well, am no exception and have had this feeling innumerable times off late. And i decided to wake up the prodigal writer inside of me from his slumber. This time around i convinced him to write a blurb on something which according to me, is the best thing by far that has ever happened to me.

I guess i was 13 (13 is not supposed to be so auspicious, but still..) when i had my first tryst with her. As always had a rough start, but it was surely the beginning of a  strange and a blissful liaison. Bajaj Caliber, the old one which came way before the more recent "HodiBabaaas", she was brand new just out of her comfy place in the showroom.

It was really a bold move by my cousin who owned her to throw the keys at me to try my hands on her even though he knew i had this reputation of being reckless on wheels. That was the first time i was riding a mo-bike all alone without somebody on the pillion constantly patting me over my shoulder to indicate that i was way over the speed limit a 13 year old could handle. As soon as i got the keys i dint even pause to think whether i could ride it all alone. I just hopped on to the seat and fired her up. She was subtle, my cousin smiled at me and said "smooth no??", i just nodded without giving heed to what he said as i was busy figuring out the gear shift pattern.

I stopped being "Einstein" when i saw a sticker on her tank which clearly indicated the gears shifts with a picture. For someone who rode bicycles most of the time and a kinetic occasionally in his dads absence, it is a big problem to accept that the lever attached to the left of the handle is called the "clutch" and not the "brake". Yet i dint want to let go of this opportunity by chickening out. Initially it all seemed perfect, pull the clutch and just tap your left foot on another lever which goes "click..". The first gear was annoyingly easy and i cursed people who just made a fuss of it always saying its the most toughest part. I smiled at my cousin with a tinge of pride and rolled my wrists over the accelerator. And that.. was love at first ROAR. I could feel some kinda rush within and revved the accelerator more and more as the engined growled ardently and deafened me to my cousin's words. I looked around me to ensure i caught the attention of every single mortal around me especially that nurse from the nursing home opposite to my house who used to pinch my cheeks saying i looked like a cute little baby. I wanted to shun away the image my naive face portrayed by taming that squealing two-wheeler. I started to get these vibes that people were mistaking me for a mere poser, so i got into serious business and started concentrating on the "brake" which i held with my left hand. Damn me!! what was i doing with the brake pressed?? I laughed at myself and let go of it at once. Before i realised i wasn't on a kinetic holding its brake but it was instead the "clutch" she was up on her rear tyres. The handle swayed in all possible directions as i tried to keep my hands on it. For a moment i hated my dad for owning trucks as all i could see was our truck parked right in the way that me and my cousins 40 grants worth baby were heading.

I always have had this complaint that god never listens to me and even if he does guess he never takes me seriously, so i wasn't too very keen on praying myself but just hoped my cousin prays for me atleast for the sake of his new bike. But soon enough my hopes were dashed when i saw him standing agape, completely lost. I could see he had turned pale by imagining the picture of his bike lying all dented and damaged. The feeling that i was all alone on a insanely galloping machine made me go haywire, yet the fact that i still had both my hands on the handle was a bit reassuring, though i wasn't sure what to do. I have no idea what struck me, maybe god listened to someone. I exercised all my limbs, my left hand held the "Brakes" no "Clutch", my right hand held on to the other lever which was in its reach, god knows what it was, the left leg pressed the gear lever and my right leg jabbed at another lever right beneath it. I was just hoping there would be atleast one break lever amongst all the levers i meddled. And to my disbelief we had stopped inches away from the trucks head lamp. Slowly lowered my legs to reach for the ground, damn!! my legs weren't long enough. Somehow managed to get off from the bike, by this time my cousin had recovered from his nightmare and he came running to park his bike to safety. I was sweating profusely and was definitely lost for words for sometime. My cousins situation was even worse, he started circling around the bike looking up and down as if he was searching for his lost balls. Once he was done, he came upto me and smiled saying, "Sadya, gaadi ge enu aagilla". I dont know why, though he never asked how i was feeling, the fact that the bike was safe comforted me. You care for something/somebody more than yourself, Thats love isnt it?

Later that night my mom called me up to see an ad on the Tv, it was the same bike's ad. A guy goes in search of his lost love to find out that she is happily married to some other guy and also has a kid(sounds cliche.. he he). My mom told she liked the song of that ad and she started humming it,the lyrics went something like this
"Ye Chalne waale raaste mein rukna na haarke... blah.. blah.." I could not help smiling and grumbled to myself "Agar aaj mein chalne waale raaste me nahi rukta, toh mera thopda aur aapke pati ka truck ka headlight dono jaate ". I slept off that night wondering who was that someone to whom god finally listened, guess it was that nurse who watched through her window as i did this little stunt of mine.