Hamara Bajaj

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“Appa! Appa! Akka illa!” squeaked my brother sitting behind my father who was riding this Bajaj Super and it was two cross roads later that Appa figured out that I had fallen off somewhere. My left knee and elbow carry scars in remembrance of that terrible accident. And this was because like most kids who have a normal childhood do we the little duo had the habit of flying our imaginary aeroplanes sitting in the opposite direction holding the Stepney tyre when Appa would take us out, just that I happened to be a bad pilot that one time and crash landed with a thud. Everyone in the house still laughs about this, not because of my fall but Appa’s very timely realization.

This two-wheeler is a family pride sort of thing and to this day lies in one corner in my grandma’s place.My uncle uses it on rare occasions. I noticed it this summer and memories from a separate compartment of my mind came flashing back, those thousand rides round and round through the town, fights to stand in front, kick start tries, tilts when the petrol was almost over and my brother’s amusing decorative stickers, it has survived them all. Some of them in the front are still shining. What splendid days they were, going out anywhere was fun, time moved at its own pace and speed was the last need. Plenty of the Indian households especially the ones who remember their 90s will hum along if I start singing the jingle’ Hamara kal hamara aaj, buland Bharath ki buland tasveer, HAMARA BAJAJ ’. Here it is for some reminiscence:

Riding on the roads has improved drastically with the new age bikes and cars. If you see the commercials on air most of them are about a desperate hulk on the bike with a couple of females getting wooed, a vehicle is meant only for that really? Duh! Today we find ourselves more annoyed, less entertained, more disturbed and less informed before we even realize and ignore these advertisements. Who shows or looks at the simple joys of life? Special little things and those special little moments. Very soon even nostalgia shall be a thing of the past. While writing this, just out of curiosity I asked Appa if by any chance he remembers the number of what used to be one of his prized possession, “KA-02, S-2478” he replied without a second thought.I smiled.

 "Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love 

the things you are the things you never want to lose"

-The Wonder Years-