Driving

My tryst with driving around town began perhaps when I was five. Of course back then I rode not drove but nonetheless I think I would trace my wanderlust ways back to those days in my childhood. I can remember just one toy from my childhood and it was the tricycle that I had gotten for one of my birthdays. Back in those days, we lived in a part of town where water was a luxury that was afforded only if you woke up in the dead of night and collected it from one of the water tankers that arrived with water. I remember that often I rode alongside my parents as they filled up one can after the other to ensure water for atleast the next two or three days. It was the most enjoyable part of my childhood. actually, one of the enjoyable moments of my childhood. for some reason I was always looking to ride as fast as I could to try and beat my parents to whatever the destination. I cannot remember if I ever succeeded but to me, the journey has somehow always been more important than the destination. Don’t ask!
A few years later, my best friend (that means you saurabh) bought a new bicycle and I was pretty mad to find out that his transport was faster than mine. Nonetheless, I had to wait to get my claim to fame. In the meantime, I learned how to ride a bicycle with much difficulty. I admit it. I was not a natural to riding a bicycle and learned my lessons the hard way. Anyone who has known me long will vouch for it knowing the number of times they have seen me bandaged on my knee or my elbow. Even when I bought my bicycle (it was a BSA-SLR and I was really fond of it!) it was a couple of feet taller than me, I mean literally! I rode that thing with my legs passing through the triangular frame. And of course, I rode at breakneck speeds. It was around this time that I often took my bicycle and would be off for hours on the countryside in the vast expanse of farms that were located a short distance away.
Soon, I had grown over the machine and was looking for a faster mode of transport. I was too darned young to get a license so I had to settle for a geared bicycle. If I was driving fast earlier, I was breaking the legal speed barrier on my two spoked wheels! Yes I did have some great falls on this bike. Some of the scars I carry have ensured that I never forget those days. It was on this (my TOP-GEAR) that I really explored a lot of my part of town. I could always find a reason to get away on a long ride to nowhere for no particular reason.
Then I progressed to motorized travel and got myself a motorcycle. Unfortunately I wasn’t old enough to drive a geared vehicle and I had to settle for the LUNA! It was roughly 19 years old when I first laid my hand son it, I was 16 at the time! It was an antique in the truest sense of the word. My god did I raise eyebrows wherever I went. Soon enough, I was driving it faster than most people dared to drive their motorcycles! I would like to point out here that despite the fact that I drove my Luna for over two years like a LUNA-tic (pun intended) I did not have a single accident! Pretty surprising considering my track record with all the other things I have managed to drive. Soon enough I got on my bad ass bike and was driving all over town and becoming a pain in the ass for more than just one or two people. In my four years of engineering, I have clocked over 70,000 kilometers and four recorded accidents. That despite the fact that I lived in the college hostel barely a 100m from my class-room… the tales I have to tell of all my adventures, unfortunately, they are better chronicled in word-of-mouth so I suppose you would never see ‘em land here anytime soon!!!