India has a fixation with 4 wheels. Rather than a fixation, it borders on obsession. India moves on bikes, and cars. However, bikes are the primary medium of commute for a large number of people. They ride their bikes, they care for them, the bikes take care of them but still a number of them are still obsessed by the idea of possessing a car.
India being a developing country, has different ideas about bikes and cars. According to popular ideology, while bikes are supposed to be the first vehicle one gets, cars are largely believed to be the next logical step. You are supposed to get a bike first and later on you MUST buy a car and let the bike and your biking days go.
But why should it be like this? Back when the HH CBZ was launched @60,000 Rs., people deemed it to be too expensive. The popular opinion was that you should get yourself a used small car for that kind of money. People who still went ahead and bought a CBZ were considered heretic and were admired, though mostly for their eccentricity.
Times have changed but not the thinking. Ten years hence, bikes are still considered the bottom and first step towards achieving four-wheeled nirvana. With the arrival of the World’s cheapest car and the Yamaha R15, the same sad story continues. For a hundred thousand rupees, you should get yourself a new Nano instead of “wasting” money on a bike with the latest tech. After all, you get a roof, air conditioning and the orgasmic 4 wheels.
I’ve nothing against the Nano. I believe it’s a honest effort which will help many. This is really a boon for a family which couldn’t afford a car earlier. But if you are single and free, why would you want to buy a Nano?
What you come in/on is part of your identity. Many times, the first thing a person notices about you is what you come to meet him in/on. They say, the first impression is the last impression. So what do you want yourself a to be remembered as? The guy who just pulled up in the World’s cheapest car or the guy who just got here on the coolest little thing available?
Perhaps you might argue that it’s a very skewed view from a biker’s viewpoint. Perhaps it is. But many college-going youngsters share the same view i.e. “I would rather get a car for some hundred thousand rupees than get something with two wheels.” And therein lies the problem.
What kind of a biker are you? The one who forgets his biking days at the first chance he gets of possessing four wheels? The kind who forgoes his freedom for domesticity? Or the kind who lets go of something personal and gets a group affair? Am I criticizing other bikers who think like this? Maybe I am.
Biking was never supposed to be a group affair. Biking was always supposed to be personal. And cars, they tried but never were totally successful getting the personal part right. Perhaps that is the crux of the issue. Indians expect their vehicles to be group affairs which keep doing their job and nothing more and the bikes are expected to be like that too. But since bikes, by their inherent nature, just can’t agree to be part of group affair, they are mostly shunned. And that is why Bikers are labeled heretic.
Thinking about duties/responsibilities isn’t wrong and that is what you should be doing mostly. But what about you, personally? Once in a while, one should do something is that is totally his own, totally personal.
If you’ve never had something totally personal, how about letting go of your 4-wheeled obsession and going for a test ride of those two wheels that you were eyeing at the local showroom?
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