Jim gets up at 6, takes a shower, rushes through his bowl of cereals, dresses up, braves the traffic and reaches work at 7:55 AM, he doesn't move a muscle till around 11:45 when he gets up, stretches out his arms and begins to get out of his cube when the BOSS walks by and goes “Yeah, we need to get the TPS(Office Space) reports mailed out immediately”. Jim rushes in, emails the reports, CCs his boss and then he crawls out to get something to eat. He returns to find out that there is no word of appreciation for his quick work but a note from his boss saying- “we need this done every day”. This is his life, with no scope of a promotion and no word of appreciation. If the company were to lose him, it would take forever to get a replacement as quiet and efficient as him. Happily however, Jim never asks for more, he is happy to do an 8 – 5 job with as much fervor as the day he started work.
At the other end of the aisle where Jim sits is Lance’s cube; a man who invests as much into hair care products as his girlfriend does, he is always presumed to be working but he never actually is. He comes in at 9 and leaves at 3:30 and on the rarest of the rare days when he chooses to stretch out till 4PM, the CEO of the company walks by his cube to appreciate his hard work and invites him for a drink.
Life isn't fair at all, it is always the loud and flashy who go up the ladder while the quiet and bashful are left behind, which brings me to the used motorcycle I bought a few months ago. It is a Triumph Daytona 600, 10 years old with over 10K on the clock. It is loud, it is quick and it is sleek. Wherever I take it, people turn around and look at it, kids take pictures of the bike and pedestrians give it thumbs up.
On the other hand the car I own which I drive every day, which can carry 5 people+ 5 suitcases, which does 33mpg and which has stuff like traction control and airbags has never stirred any positive attention. No one photographs it; pedestrians shout stuff at me which of course I can’t hear and they throw their hand up in the air to gesture something, I look at them with optimism that it is thumbs up except that they display a completely different finger. In many ways the old faithful – my Hyundai Sonata is like Jim, always with a smile, never to complain and the motorcycle is Lance, clad in Armani with no practical application what so ever. So if you want to get noticed – GET A MOTORCYCLE.
As far as looks go, the Triumph will win any beauty contest, the beautifully crafted twin head lamps and the little open mouth make it look alive. It does come with a rear seat but only someone with a very tiny bottom and very long arms can sit at the back – Examples would be super models and Olympic swimmers. So if you are not an Olympic swimmer and yet have long arms and tiny bottom, you are most welcome to ride with me.
The motorcycle accelerates fast, it is supposed to do a 0 – 60 in 3.8 seconds, a figure I cannot vouch for as I have never tried it because I am not a racer but a human endowed with morbid fears of pain and suffering. When I went shopping for a motorcycle I was to decide between getting a cruiser and a dual sport bike. Never did I think that I would get a 600cc super sport as my first bike, although I would not advise beginners to get a super sport but I will agree that this motorcycle is quite easy to ride. As long as you respect it, it will return the favor. I got it because it was in my budget and I have always had a thing for British motorcycles.
This year I rode a motorcycle after a gap of 8 years, my last ride was in Delhi on my trusty Fiero. It has been a childhood dream to own a super-bike and now that I have one,I found the experience to be breathtaking.
A super bike isn't as impractical as it sounds. Yes, it cannot be taken out when it rains or snows or when you want to go grocery shopping or dropping off your kids to school or to work because it will ruin your clothes. You can’t take it out on long distance trips unless you have a spine built out of titanium and because it will almost certainly break a clutch wire and swallow one of your fingers. But the feeling of freedom, the ability to tear down the back roads, the awareness of a machine under you that is waiting like a caged cheetah to rev and break the speed limit in the blink of an eye and the sheer all out menacing screaming throaty engine that turns heads as you pass by any street in the world even though it is as flashy and impractical as Lance is something to look forward to on that special day when the weather is just right.
Ride safe fellow riders.
