After a long day at your office chair, you start wondering about what you’ve been missing. It has been days since I’ve felt the wind blasting on my hair. My body itches to feel the fluid graceful sway of its movement. In one moment you were rooted to the spot, in the next you have accelerated into a crazy ball of nerves. Yes, it has been days since I’ve ridden my bike.
It must be the ultimate disgrace for a machine of such beauty in movement to waste away in the idyllic shades of our porch. It must have forgotten its glory, patiently watching the hopelessly immobile sprouts in our garden grow to even more deeply rooted plants. Dust silently gathers over its chrome sheen and occasional showers dot ugly pock marks over its elegant frame. Like a fallen Greek hero, he rests inclined inwardly in deep sadness. Perhaps, mourning the loss of the purely sublime beast that suddenly overcomes it. A beast that roars in anticipation of a wild pursuit. Like a born predator it cuts and ploughs the air with effortless ease. Abruptly it would halt perhaps sensing danger. But, the beast never leaves the machine. It just sleeps, lurking in the dark depths of its own psyche. After all, like Mr Hyde who brought out the hidden instincts of the very docile Dr. Jerkyl, the beast was perhaps more primeval of the machine’s dual personalities.
It takes some patient effort to restore the chrome and leather that had faded with time. After all you are just armed with a dry cloth already striped in grease, a sponge and a bucket of soapy water. You have to work with one small area at a time and all the time you could hear another part of you wondering how much longer is this going to take anyways. Finally, I decided it was about time I felt the magic. Keys inserted, I pushed the ignition button, till I could hear the beast growl. It had awoken! With a vengeance its voice resonated from some faraway point. I tried raising its engine a bit, astonishingly it never gave in. Not a sputter, not a whine. It must have been the slumber, I thought. Must have rejuvenated the damn thing!
Moments later, I was gliding through the Thrissur Shornur road. Elegantly marked into four lanes, riding through this newly widened strip of road is a sensory experience. But like all bike zealots would say, it sucks if you do that on a car ;-)
