To dear Rohit, on having your first bike...

If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on…..Lance Armstrong

Dear Rohit, agreed the great unfortunate champion said this in context of bicycle yet is applicable to every two wheeler you ride! Today you got first bike of your own & sure you must have been exited, happy & what not! Watching you looking at your black CBR 250, remembered few frames of a small kid…. First one was of a 13 year boy in a town named Khamgaon who accompanied his father to the show room when the family was buying a Luna! It was a popular & may only two wheeler they could afford & the Dad had not then learnt to drive double seat so the boy ran along with him till their home from the show room with dad driving the Luna! I still remember that running, though Abbu i.e. your grandfather may not be even remembering the incidence now! Years after that the boy used to wash that Luna & when daddy wasn’t around used to seat on it when its parked on stand! And then when the boy went to engineering at age of 16 then he went to Pune for engineering & as he wasn’t of 18 which was the license age then, he use to move around with a ladies bicycle waiting some day he will get his two wheeler. And he got that Luna delivered in Pune when he become 18 year old & was in 3^rd year engineering. I still remember going Pune station to take its delivery on a rainy morning it had arrived by Maharashtra Express & as it has come empty tank I took it cycling to the nearest petrol pump & what joy it was to feel the petrol in my own Luna!

Then that was the age of first generation of bikes of Yamahas, TVS Suzuki’s, Hero Honda & Kawasaki Bajaj; MIT i.e. our college was full of new bikes & each day I use to dream someday I will have one such. Many a times myself & Milind Hedaoo kaka use to stand in front of showrooms & look at the display bikes but never once I asked my parents for one as I knew it was beyond their capacity to buy one! My partner had a Kinetic Honda, that also I never asked for the ride as even by mistake I met with accident then I wouldn’t be able to repair it, was what I knew. And best part was I never felt sad of bad about not having bike though I do had fascination for bikes like any teen ager would have! Pune then also was having poor public transport & I used to wait at bus stops for hours as many a times petrol was second priority when it comes to movies & eating outside with friends & money coming from home was always restricted!

I got my first & last bike in form of a Priya scooter when I got the job & then also neither myself was having enough money to buy it nor my parents could send that much money. Its Kedar's mom i.e. Sahshi mawshi who gave me loan to buy my scooter & I finally got something which I could show off! I got married with that scooter at our home & your aai’s & mine first outings has been witnessed by that scooter only! And then I got a car & then due to work load a driver & that was end of my biking dreams & days!  

All these scenes come to my mind when I was looking at the bikes displayed in that show room toady, before you arrived to take the delivery. I knew you wanted the black one so with the help of good friends like Sagar, I could arrange it & again it’s the friendship & the relations only, which you maintain comes in play at such times, is what I realized. At this juncture of life I don’t say I have learnt everything but I have seen many things, good & bad & keep sharing with you & Rohan that may be today you won’t realize its importance but some day you will sure.

Remember the bike today you got is a responsibility too as it makes you in the league of few lucky teens who have got what they wished for in their age only! You may say, what big deal as many of the teens have got lot better bike than what you have got , may be even  a Harley Davidson also! But then millions of teens don’t have have even a simple bicycle also, is equally a fact!  So when you will be enjoying the ride on the bike of yours, always keep in mind that you have a responsibility on your shoulder for so many others who are not as lucky as you are.

Another thing as a father who is entering in mid forties, the speed is good but dangerous thing too, so drive with care & care for others life too. The traffic situation in the city is getting worst by each passing day & we do care for you is all I can say!

And as Lance Armstrong said, never be afraid of riding any challenge or to carry any responsibility, as that’s the only way to face or take the one! Lastly thanks for giving me the opportunity to see the joy of having a pride possession getting fulfilled, as somewhere it was me looking to that bike from your eyes! Enjoy & take care…

Baba