The Accident

I am hurt! Sounds strange, doesn't it? As my two year old nephew says, even Superman sometimes tumbles down from the sky. I am no Superman and neither do I proclaim to be one and yet, I got hurt today.

It is Saturday today and time for me to spend some quality time with my babe (picture above). She is a moody beast but no so difficult to handle if you know how to keep her satisfied. A lot of pampering, a little bit of stern glances once in a while added with tons of understanding and pleasure giving keeps the girl happy. After having spent endless hours travelling through rocky mountains and winding roads with her, I have come to regard her not as a machine but as an extension of myself. It is a symbiotic existence - I keep her happy and she ensures that I am safe.

I had not been able to devote enough time to her lately and so decided to spend the entire morning on Saturday taking care of her. I opened her up and checked her out and realised that she needed some expert care. So I closed her up, put her stuff back in order, gave her a nice going through once again and off I went to the Service Centre.

The problem with Royal Enfield is that they make fantastic bikes but when it comes to Servicing, they somehow lack the expertise or the drive to ensure customer satisfaction. And so, I ended up taking my Babe to the Service Centre in the outskirts of the city. And on the way there, I met with an accident.

Yes, I am hurt a little badly but I will recover soon. The bleeding and pain are nothing compared to what I felt when the actual accident happened.

It was a plain straight road, chock a block with traffic and vehicles moving at a snails pace. Suddenly, one lane opened up and everybody started gunning for that patch. I never drive rashly or fast but since it was an up slope, I revved up my throttle a bit and was overtaking a car when in the distance I saw a guy riding his bike while looking behind. Because of the chaos and the heat and the incessant honking of vehicles around me, I couldn't make out what the guys intentions were. Suddenly, he came bang in front of me, there was traffic to my right and a concrete wall to my left and this gentlemen on the bike was still looking behind and moving from the lane to my right to the left without giving any signal. And lo and behold, he came and crashed right into me, his handlebar hit my right knee, his engine slashed through my crash guard and I experienced a searing pain in my leg. He lost balance and came to a grinding halt. I was thrown off balance but years of training came back in an instant and I regained control over my machine. Applying brakes would be dangerous, slowing down would have been suicidal and so, I just came to the left lane, looked back and found the guy was allright and then moved on.

I was pissed as hell and mighty displeased because not only had I taken a massive hit but my bike had also been damaged. Luckily, I had almost reached the Service Centre and that's when I realised the nifty escape I had because of my bike.

The Royal Enfield Bullet is a huge and powerful beast and the only one of its kind in the entire world. Had it not been for the Bullet and its sheer size and the crash guard in front, I probably wouldn't have been sitting here writing on my blog. Proverbial escape probably but I would attribute it fully to my bike.

I had taken my bike to the Service Centre for some minor tweaking but now I will have to shell out a few thousand bucks. Never mind, I have always been in love with machines and found them much more reliable than human beings.

I will go back to collect my bike today evening. I am already missing her and hope she would be back in shape.

As for people who don't follow traffic rules and flout all norms on the road, I just have one thing to say - one day you shall not be so lucky.