I never lost the sense of wonder and curiosity and the spirit of adventure that children have, even though I lost my childhood long ago. Helen Keller’s statement “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”, truly defines me. My hunger to learn and experience new things has led me to a lot of adventures and made my life fun, exciting and I must say worthy of envy 😉
Every year I try something new – from music (tried learning the keyboard and drums), dance (have taken western ballroom dance classes and learnt kathak for a few months), theatre (have performed in a couple of plays), painting (have done a couple of oils), to sports (tried my hand at tennis and squash and sucked big time, suck even more at swimming and horse riding), astronomy (did a course of amateur astronomy), travel ( have travelled to about 30 countries) high altitude trekking (trekked the Himalayas in India and Nepal a few times) and adventure sports (white water rafting, rock climbing, rappelling, snorkelling, kayaking, spelunking, canyoning, para gliding), I’ve done it all, and some more. The adrenaline rush you get with adventure sports beats any weed or cocaine!
But you can’t call it “real” adventure unless it’s tinged with danger. And though the adventure sports I indulged in were outside my comfort zone, they were safe in that we always had safety precautions like harness or life jackets or guides coming along / being around to “save” me if needed. This year though, I took up something that I find very dangerous and risky – motorbike riding. Though millions ride bikes, I personally find it very daunting.
I am very bad with motor skills, it takes me a lot longer to form muscle memory than everyone else. And balance is something that just does not come naturally to me. Even though I had a bicycle when I was a kid, I never really learnt to ride it since I could not get the balance. I was actually afraid to ride a bicycle. That’s why I took it up as a challenge to myself to learn to ride a geared motorcycle.
I first bought a bicycle and learnt to balance. Then my friend Deepak taught me to ride a non-geared two-wheeler. Just around then, I saw an ad from Enfield Riders who were running a motorcycle coaching camp for women in Bangalore. That was like opportunity not knocking but banging loudly at my door and I am not the one to miss an opportunity. So I took up lessons from them. And then one day I went out with my brother and came back home with a second hand 150cc Yamaha FZ-S!
As luck would have it, I had a ligament injury on my ankle and the bike remained unused for about 8 to 9 months. But once again Deepak helped me a couple of times and I was able to ride without anyone sitting behind me. But I did not have the courage to go on my own without someone accompanying me. So again nothing happened for a few months. One day I happened to read a quote that said to get rid of fear, you must keep doing what you are afraid of and then you will overcome it. So I started taking my bike out alone, but very close to my home. Slowly I went 5 km away and then 8 to 10 km. but only during early mornings when there are hardly any vehicles on the road, but nevertheless I had started riding on my own! It all happened thanks to Deepak. If not for him, I would still just be dreaming about riding. So a big thank you goes out to him.
I had heard Bangalore has a lot of biking groups so I googled for bike riding groups and joined a women’s biking group called Bikerni. A couple of bikernis – Nisha and Preethi – live close to home and I went for short rides with them just a couple of times. Nisha nudged me to go on a long drive to a place 28km from home. We went through the city and took the highway – NICE road – on the return. It was so much fun to ride on the NICE road. Well maintained roads with no traffic at all and I cruised between 50 and 60 km speed. But we lost our way once we entered the city and I fell down a couple of times when the bike was almost stationary. It’s easy to ride when you are going fast, it’s the slow speed where balance does not come easily. And being short, my feet only tip toe so it becomes even more difficult.
The next weekend Nisha and I went and bought gears – Riding jacket, knee guards, gloves. There was a post on the Bikerni whatsapp group about a ride the following weekend Sunday 5th August. Several biking groups across the city were coming together to ride against molestation. The idea was to spread awareness by riding for the cause. And this was a nationwide event. The total distance to be covered from home and back was about 120/130 km. Only couple of weekends ago I had not even gone outside my locality. And this was on the highway to Kolar. I was not confident at all, but Nisha convinced me. 10 bikernis had signed up for it. I left home at 4.30 in the morning, met up Nisha and Shalini not too far from home and then we rode to Vidhana Soudha which was the meeting point for the rest of the group. And there I met everyone else. What a kickass bunch of girls they were!
Anee and Zephyr were young kids in their twenties, calling each other “bro”! They had got a speaker along, and were grooving to music in the middle of the road at 5.30 in the morning! Anee and Zeph put black kohl stripes on everyone’s cheeks to create an impact! Some of the women were in their twenties, thirties and some in forties, many had kids. Some had been riding for more than a decade and some had started just a few years ago. Sonali has gone for several solo rides for 5 to 10 days at a stretch. Madhu rides a Duke at 150km speed. Shalini rides Chennai to Bangalore solo one or twice a month regularly! She was here that weekend so came along for the ride. They were all from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different professions. Just the love of biking brought them all together. We took pictures and then rode to Freedom Park, the starting point of the ride where all other groups had already assembled.
There must have been about 100 to 150 bikers and there were so many kinds of bikes in the group – Triumph, Avenger, Yamaha R15, KTM, Duke, but the most popular was Royal Enfield. Leads of all biking groups spoke about the cause. A few NGOs also were there. The organizing biking groups were Paramount Riders, Indian Royal Cruisers and My Biker Family. The media and police were there and lots of pictures were taken. I learnt a lot about riding in a group. There is always a lead who leads the ride and a sweep who rides last, ensuring no one is left behind. And then there are one or two marshalls who keep going up and down to guide the group, stall traffic when needed, ensure everyone is OK and provide help if anyone needs. Sonali was our lead, Anee and Madhu were our Marshalls.
The ride was very well organized. The marshalls ensured we were riding in twos when the road was wide and in a single line when the road was narrow or there was a lot of traffic. And they kept guiding the traffic to stay away from us. Both Madhu and Anee & Zeph kept checking on me since I was a newbie. They kept encouraging me and giving me tips. If not for them, I would never have made it! There was always someone behind me and they would come up and steer the traffic around me, wait for me if I slowed down, help push my bike on a slope… It was like a brotherhood, or sisterhood or should I say Bikerhood! You just feel so much safer and confident when riding in a group. Somebody is always covering you. And it’s great to be a part of the girl’s gang!
After KR puram bridge, we went on the highway and bikers started going at speeds beyond 100! I obviously didn’t go that fast. In fact till the previous week, I had not crossed the speed of 50! So I cruised between 60 and 70. Did 75 sometimes. But I wanted to test myself so hit 85 just for a few seconds! It was so thrilling! But I was shit scared and totally focussed on the road. In fact, I have never had so much focus and concentration ever! We finally reached our destination, mingled with all the bikers and had breakfast.
Nisha and I wanted to head back so we left right after. This was a little more scary since in the morning we had a whole gang to be around us, but now both of us were riding back alone. But there was no traffic at all so it was fine and I maintained a speed of 60 to 70. After a few kilometres, it became very windy. I could feel the pressure of the helmet getting pushed against my forehead and the glass was even rubbing my nose. I thought the bike would fly away! It was so exciting and my adrenaline was pumping furiously. I was the queen of the roads. I came back home safely without any incident. And it felt so great! I felt as though I have conquered the world. Riding a bike was such a scary and risky thing for me that overcoming my fear and having done this ride of 120km on a highway without an incident was truly an achievement for me! Felt the same way like Alexander must have felt after conquering the world!
I still am not very confident and have a long way to go. My dream is to ride to Ladakh. Will get there some day. Till then its Hasta la vista baby!
poorvismusings 