The term biking takes me back to the times when I was probably
about seven or eight years old. I was so eager to lay my hands on a
bike but had to wait until I was eleven. That was when my dad
bought himself a bajaj pulsar 180 classic 2002 model. Two things
amazed me right away. The aggressive and tough look of the bike in
comparison to any other bike in
the market
in those days, and my dad's interest into riding even though he was
in his forties. Hehehehe.. Anyways this is how it all started. I
had come home for the summer vacations. I was dying to ride that
thing every single day, but my day never seemed to come. Whenever
I’d ask mom and dad about letting me ride, they would pop the
driving license topic and keep me shut. So I needed another option
to have a ride. I almost lost hope until one day I was left alone
at home as my parents had gone to my uncle’s place. I saw the keys
left out, the bike shining and attracting me with its beauty. It
was so hard to resist. Hahahaha.. So I took the keys, unlocked the
bike and pushed it all the way from my home to a private road of
the colony I live in. Well, that was the most nerve-wrecking and
tense moment. Although I had the basic idea about how to start and
ride a bike, but I had never practically tried it before. I kept
telling to myself, “Its very simple, don’t worry. Just start the
engine, pull in the clutch, shift to 1st gear,
throttle a little bit and simultaneously drop the clutch smoothly”.
So I really started the engine after a mind battle of about 10
minutes. Pulled the clutch, shifted to 1st gear,
easy on the gas, but when I released the clutch, the engine
stalled. And this process kept on repeating the whole time I tried
to learn how to ride. The first day didn’t go as expected. Riding
didn’t seem to be that easy either. A week later my parents were
out to visit a doctor, and I utilized the opportunity very well.
Hehe. I let my brother watch his favorite cartoon show and made a
deal that if he wouldn’t tell dad what I was about to do, I would
not tell mom that he didn’t study the whole time they were out.
Hahahaha (evil genius). On my second attempt I was able to move the
bike slowly and steadily after much focus on the clutch release.
That was it for that day. By then my summer vacations were coming
to an end. So I had to move back to shillong where I was studying.
Those few moments spent on my dad’s bike was unforgettable. Every
night I would recall those first few trials, and it increased the
hunger to ride. The wait was over when winter vacations started. In
shillong we used to get a long break of 3 months during the
winters. So I was full set and prepared to learn how to ride in
those 3 months. By the end of the winter break, I basically knew
how to ride and operate a bike. Anyways this was how I put my first
steps into biking. A few years later, I passed my
10th boards and was heading back home. All this
time I was thinking how I would make biking a part of my life, as
it meant a lot to me. Once I reached home, I kept riding on and on
everyday. I spent much of my time on the bike. But I wasn’t
satisfied, something was still missing. I had noticed that the
pulsar I rode was 6 years old by then, and most importantly I
wasn’t officially the registered owner of the bike. So I started
getting a feeling of having my own personal bike. That’s when I
approached dad to get me my first bike. Dad didn’t seemed to care
at all from the outside, but jus before my
18th birthday, he surprised me with a Karizma. I
went nuts. A very similar feeling to what you see in a dairy milk
shots ad. Hahahaha! From then on I took biking as a priority in my
daily schedule. I couldn’t pass a single day without riding. Be it
a long trip or a short ride anywhere, I just enjoyed every moment
on two wheels. The wind blowing through my knees and the sound of
the engine whistling along as I rev it up was one of the best
feelings during those days. But over time things started changing.
“I’m an adrenaline junkie, and just riding the bike didn’t serve
the daily dose of rush in my blood.” So I wanted to step it up,
indulge in something more addictive. The only thing I could think
of was Stuntriding. It was one of the fastest developing
motorsports in the country since the beginning of MTV Pulsar
Stuntmania. But I simply couldn’t start it as soon as I thought of
it. I was not mentally prepared and ready. Neither was my bike
suitable and ready for stunts. And most of all I was concerned
about how my parents would react seeing me do all that. So a year
passed on like that. By then I started noticing that an amateur
group of riders from shillong were starting to get pro in the stunt
field. Owangdi and Bryan were among the first to start the group,
and by the time I came to know them, they were killin’ it in
northeast. Seriously, they were the only few stuntriders in entire
northeast and getting really good. Very soon after that, Gautam and
Lawrence from guwahati started working their way up the stunt
ladder. All this time I kept waiting and watching other stunters.
But the wait was soon to get over. I passed my
12th exams and was pursuing my degree, when I
finally realized nothing’s gonna happen if I keep waiting. So
bought myself a pulsar 220 (probably the best stunt suitable bike
in india) and got it ready to start learning the tricks. The start
was terrible. I had no basic ideas or techniques on how to wheelie
or stoppie. And the worst part was I didn’t have anybody to show me
or guide me or just accompany me during practice, as I lived in a
small town in upper assam, sivsagar, miles away from any place that
had stuntriders. I started the journey alone two years ago from
now. During the first six months my parents were unaware of what I
was doing. But when I started taking higher risks to learn, I
started crashing and falling. In stuntriding, I’ve come to know
that crashing is learning. The more I fell, the more I learned.
Everytime I crashed my bike and injured myself, mom would put up a
hundred questions. So in order to get rid of her daily lectures and
telling me to ride slow (as she thought I meet with accidents
riding recklessly), I told her the truth. I told her what I was
doing, why I was doing, and how I plan to accomplish it. At first
both mom and dad negotiated. But when I explained them the proper
concept about stuntriding, they didn’t stop me from learning
something that I had a craze for. I had a condition though. Dad was
against speed, and Mom was against injuries. So as long as I stayed
away from these two things, they didn’t held me back from
practicing. The first year went really slow. By the second year, I
learned the most important phase of freestyle stuntriding, ‘the
Braking’ (only stunters know the value and importance of this
term). And after that, there was no more looking
back.
People often differentiate biking and
stunting. But that’s not entirely true. Freestyle riding is a part
of modern biking itself. Although in general terms, both have
different meanings, but ultimately both refer to a rider chasing
his passions. Biking has a much wider concept today. Yet some
narrow-minded people are always against it, don’t really know why.
Although biking in northeast India started much later than the rest
of the nation, but still we are not any less passionate than them.
A majority of the population between 17-30 are bike enthusiasts and
get their daily dose of satisfaction through
riding.
Today biking is considered as a lifestyle by most of us all over
northeast. All thanks to Mayur Mahanta (Founder of assam bikers)
who brought a huge change in the biking community of assam and
adjoining areas. He is one of the first in assam to have worked day
and night to promote biking in the best possible way and touch as
many people possible with biking. The credit goes to many other
bikers too from both assam and Meghalaya who have taken biking to
the next level, be it in touring, stuntriding, or riding on
dirt-terrains. Biking in northeast is accepted and respected a lot
more compared to what it was a couple of years ago. Most of the
riders follow safety guidelines when they are involved in any
activity with the bike. Well the true meaning of biking is now
understood by a larger population of people, and I hope it keeps on
spreading. As for freestyle stunting, it’s a sport. But I guess the
older generation of people doesn’t seem to quite understand the
actual meaning of bike stunts. Without seeing or knowing or even
trying to know what exactly is frestyle stunting, they put forward
their assumption, Stunt = Crime. A stupid thought! And because the
word ‘STUNTS’ is taken negatively by most people, when they ask me
what the heck am I doing (on seeing me playing with the bike), I
simply reply- “I’m just trying to ride the bike at the level its
capable of”
VIVA LA
BIKERS
RIDE SAFE | RIDE
UNITED
