Adventures of the Blue Avenger

The Art of Neutral

The Blue Avenger is doing pretty well. I have mastered the art of finding neutral and now, am rarely caught fiddling with the gear shift at traffic lights or parking lot sentry gates.

This previously was a somewhat embarrassing experience because the parking lot security guards seem to frown upon frivolous people wasting their time while searching for their parking token. In my case, the search cant even begin until I find neutral or switch off the engine. Now the process is pretty slick, while I glide in front of the gate, stop, hand over the token with a satisfied smug and glide away in a lazy low rev mode.

The situation at traffic lights is also better. You look cool on the Avy until you stop at a traffic light. And since you know quite a few eyes are sizing you up (and they are! Honestly!), it feels stupid to play around with the gear lever while trying to remain as aloof as possible. Or maybe I'm just paranoid. Yes, the art must be mastered.

Kids just wanna have fun
Met a bunch of kids being driven in a Skoda. They seemed pretty impressed with the Blue Avenger. They were shouting and pointing as I rode beside them today. Apparently the driver didn't like the commotion too much and accelerated off. But not before one of the kids in the front seat leaned out of the window and waved bye-bye to me. Heh. Right out of a Bajaj ad. Kids ain't too bad I guess.

Met another kind of kid too. This one must have been in his twenties and was riding a Hero Honda Splendor with a pillion. I dunno if he was just messed up, or feeling inadequate as the two of them checked out the Blue Avenger (rush hour traffic, we were moving along at about 20 kmph, bumper to bumper). Suddenly he starts attempting wheelies! Yup! In bumper to bumper, with one car ahead and one behind, he would gun his engine and raise up the front wheel and brake and slam it down again. The pillion wasn't too thrilled from what I could hear. The Blue Avenger did not pay him any heed. It had more important matters to attend to.

Things I don't wanna see on the road
1. Truckers: They ruin the joy of riding. Couldn't care less about the black smoke belching out of their exhausts. And they pretty much assume that they own the road. Met one idiotic trucker with these huge black pipes jutting out the back. He didn't even put a red warning flag or cloth. I had no idea how far they were jutting out until I came dangerously close.

2. Black coloured vehicles: They are hard to see at night. Especially if there are no street lights. In fact, I dont understand why people go for the black look. It doesn't look great. It absorbs all the heat during summers. Shows dust and scratches very easily.
Taxis and cabs should be yellow. Not black. It just does not make sense.

3. Auto-rickshaws: They run in the middle lane at 40kmph. Regardless of whether its the Ring Road, the Highway, the Toll Road, the Express way, a flyover... They WILL be in the middle lane, and WILL try to overtake each other at the most inopportune moment.

4. Avengers: Yeah. Its no typo. I would prefer to have the only avenger on road. Else it just takes away the exclusivity factor. Saw three (!!!) Avengers today in Noida. Mental Note: Must avoid going to Noida.