Overkill

I just realized that wordpress is an overkill for my simplistic need to have a ‘blog’ for my own self. Mostly it’s for me. But even if I want to add the ‘share’ and ‘comment’ facility, wordpress is still overkill. It’s a grand tool for other purposes. Not for maintaining a simplistic blog. So, at […]

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To Shadow, With love

The main reason for writing this is to try and describe however difficult it be this brotherhood between the Rider and his ride. This is for everyone who on a daily basis get on 2 wheels and pray somewhere in their hearts and heads that they be safe at the end of the trip. That somehow, everything goes smooth! Here we go. Brevity isn’t my cup of tea. But I owe it to shadow to make myself understood in a few paragraphs. There was a guy one time who forgot to check the oil leak in his car. And while waiting at a traffic signal he spilled some oil at the junction. He continued on his journey not realizing that and later in the day got his car serviced and all was well. About half an hour later a delivery bike (delivering a shitty McDonlads burger) was crossing just that same junction. He was riding at a reasonable speed of 65 kmph. His bike was properly serviced, his tires in excellent riding condition. The scorching sun didn’t allow him to see the reflection of the oil spil and he went right over it on a traffic junction. As soon as he rode right over it his front wheel skid and his steering completely cut to the right. In his instant reaction of saving his life he kicked real hard on the hard concrete floor 6 inches below him, quickly changing his gears to 2nd and revved the engine hard. The bike swerved back into balance and he continued on. He parked just 5 minutes after that incident, went up, delivered the burger, got a shitty response from the owner of the delivery and continued on his way. Before he mounted on his bike again, he gave him a deep discerning look. Looked at the front wheel to make sure it’s dried up, gave his front fork a hug and said, “Thanks man!”. He’s the only one who knows that he’d have been dead that lazy burgery afternoon. Everyday, bikers around the world, who ride for work, for commute or for long travels have the same thought almost after every trip-end. “Phew, that was close!” Now, once you’ve had several of these near-death situations, you develop a bond with your bike that you’d probably not develop with anyone or anything else again. And every rider knows something important… he can be the most experienced, most amazing rider, but all it takes is a weird set of circumstances to get you killed. A sudden jam in the clutch wire, a burst of your tube, an oil slick, a drunk driver, a lose wooden log flying from the front of a truck or just a bad decision! And so the life of a biker is.

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