This is not my scooter…it is a representative image of the Black Honda Activa I had…
Post marriage, the first upgrade in life was to switch from the old bruised and battered Kinetic Honda to Honda Activa.
We bought this from Didar Motors (at Mount Road) on EMI. If I recollect correctly, with EMI it came to around 48k or somewhere around that amount. My spouse paid for it with her salary. There was a deliberation about whether to buy a new one or a second-hand one. She was always for a new one even if the cost was on the higher side. She would never compromise on both quality and appearance. I am sure you are laughing aloud, reading this last line…how (the heck) did she choose you…I wonder too…like you…lucky enough…I guess…
Newly married (still in the first year of marriage) and hugging you lovingly in your new scooter, the scooter automatically tunes itself to go faster than it’s intended to…as in the image…you literally and figuratively fly (Because it has wings) in the scooter with the love of your life clutching onto you passionately.
Main roads, by lanes, highways…it does not matter…we used to go all around the city and its suburbs without a whimper. Such was the energy and vitality of the newfound love. The feeling is truly electric…you must feel it to experience it only then will you be able to understand it.
To give context, we drove from Alwarthirunagar to Akkarai for a New Year’s party organized by the Cognizant Finance Team. We used the guest house of our CEO Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan (Everyone adores him even now, such a fine and humble gentleman) for this get-together. Who will share their property for a company event these days is anybody’s guess. The distance was twenty-five kilometers one way, and the year was 2004. I am writing this in 2024 and even now the roads are not world class. You can imagine how it would have been 20 years ago. At night, when we returned, there were hardly any streetlights, and it was pitch dark.
In another instance, I drove from Alwarthirunagar to a Theme Park outside of Poonamallee on the Bengaluru highway. My Dad was a very protective person and he used to worry about us, and my mom was quite cool on the contrary.
While life was quite hectic in the office (I used to work for anywhere from 10-12 hours a day and at least for ½ day on Saturday) weekends were something we used to look forward to going out and having fun with whatever limited means at our disposal.
I guess sometime in 2004 she got a job with Tata Telecom which was situated on Sterling Road. Initially, she used to go by bus or by share-autos and she found the experience harrowing because of indecent men. My office incidentally had moved from Whites Road (Opposite to Satyam Theatre car park-Circular building) to our premises which came up in Thoraipakkam. Despite our liking, we had to move to that office. Though office buses were plying all over the city, they had specific timings from start to end. If you miss the time, you miss the bus. Initially, for a few days, I think I tried going by bus but the return was always an issue. I could never leave the office on time. All we knew was when we would get into the office, getting out was invariably after 9 PM or so. In this situation, I took pity on my spouse and decided I would drop her off in the morning at her office. The only catch is that whatever time I came home, whether it was 10 or 11 PM, I had to be ready by 8.30 AM as she had to reach the office by 9 AM. So, it was a circular route for me from Alwarthirunagar to Sterling Road and then from there via Gemini flyover to Thoraipakkam (approximately thirty kilometers one way). In the evening, she would catch share-autos or wait for non-crowded buses to reach home without an issue. This continued for a year after which because of a fiasco in her office (not because of her), I asked her to quit.
She found another job with TNT, which she enjoyed until she had to move to Kuwait with me. By this time, her dad had given him his submerged Honda Activa in the 2005 Mumbai floods. In the 2005 Chennai floods the scooter submerged, again, partially. More on this in another post. At least now she had felt independent enough to go around on her own not depending on me, my dad, or public transport. Thus, one became two – I meant the Activas…one black and one silver color. I drove this until I had to move to Kuwait and sold it to my colleague in Cognizant.
This one carried us all over the city…in 2 ½ years…rugged and sturdy yet smooth as silk…just loved it.
Circle of life – returns to its origins. Once we returned in 2014, we needed to buy a scooter for her to go around independently. And we bought the current version of Honda Activa (Black color) again.
Beautiful Life 