"What a stupid question!" That is what the general reaction I get whenever I question any of my mumbaikar friends/batchmates if they own any bike. "Who would be idiotic enough to ride a bike in, leave alone own one!"
But why indeed I ask. And what better way than by checking it out myself. :-)
And thanks to an old friend (who is either smart enough or stupid enough to keep his pune-registered bike in Mumbai) I assign myself a beautiful 2004 150cc black model, a beauty covered in a thick layer of dust, with a broken side-indicator and a battery that's completely charged out.
First stop - The mechanic. After a few hours of tinkering around, finally the bike's all washed up and in running mode. A few kicks, and it purrs (ahem... make that roars... after all, we are talkin about a pulsar, the men's bike! ;-)) to life.
I really can't figure out what's the fuss all about. My bike travel for the weekend was something of this sort
Thursday night I pick up the bike from my friend's house in Worli --> Andheri (E)
Friday : Powai --> Bandra --> Chowpatty --> CST --> Eastern Express Highway --> Thane, Ghorbandar Road --> Andheri (E)
Saturday : Andheri (E) --> Haji Ali --> Mumbai Central --> Eastern Express --> Powai --> Andheri (E)
Sunday : Andheri (E) --> NITIE --> Kandivili --> Santa Cruz --> Worli
And seriously, leaving apart the daily jam at Santa Cruz junction on the Western Express Highway, traffic is no big thing at Mumbai. Although, for a 4 wheeler it's hell :-)
And I got this bike for the entire month ahead!
Yay!
3 comments:
Hi ,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be very good.. u write well.. Why don't you popularize it more.. ur posts on ur blog ‘Intellectual Gibberish’ took my particular attention as some of them are interesting topics of mine too;
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)
Cheers,
i wud be interested to know if ur views changed by now :)
anyways ... i too prefer riding a bike to driving a car inside the city. but, only when i have to drive :) if u really want to ride, take it out of the city ... isnt that more fun?
nopes! bikin in mumbai is awesome. of course, with a helmet please - its mumbai after all! :D
The traffic jams don't trouble you that much, plus the roads are really good in all the suburbs. Anyday beats the buses/autos/locals.
but yea, anytime, anyplace out of the city is always better.
btw i'm active on the wordpress site.
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