India is a country in which people like doing things differently. This was evident when the Bajaj family brought out the Chetak, Priya and the 500 series of scooters. People from the older generation will remember these. These scooters were special. For those not aware of the specialty of these scooters, the starting mechanism of these scooters went something like this…

• Stand on the right hand side of the scooter
• Place your right hand on the steering column
• Place your left hand on the rear spare wheel
• Make sure that you have the scooter on the center stand
• Tilt the scooter to a 63-degree angle towards you. Mind you, not a degree more – not a degree less..
• Hold the scooter in that angle for 10 seconds.
• Place the scooter back on the normal position.
• Kick the ‘kick start’.
• If lucky, the scooter will start. If the scooter starts, increase the revs to 15000 rpm and see if black colored smoke is emitted from the exhaust. This indicates that the scooter is in proper working condition.
• If the scooter did not start in the previous step, repeat all the above steps.
• If black colored smoke is not emitted, take a hand full of charcoal and put it into the fuel inlet. This will make sure that black colored something will come out of the exhaust….

It was the pride of every Indian to own one of these machines. It was said that Hindustan Motors (Ambassador cars) felt jealous about the popularity that Bajaj’s starting mechanism had achieved, that they wanted to try the same thing with their Ambassador and Contessa cars. But this was not implemented, as they could not come to a consensus as to which side the cars needed to be tilted. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and even the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India couldn’t find a solution. So, Hindustan Motors had to make do without that “feature”.

As I was saying, it was the pride of every Indian to own one of these machines. We were no different. We had two at home. My dad used one Bajaj scooter and my grand-pa used the other one. I was 14 when I wanted to learn to ride the scooter. But, I had to give up soon as I couldn’t tilt those scooters. A stint at the gym to build my biceps and triceps too didn’t help. The scooters wouldn’t buldge. I decided I wasn’t going down without a fight. I went to Erode to learn the tricks of the trade to ride a two-wheeler. I took out a Hero Honda and blazed through the streets of Erode. I returned to Chennai a more determined person. I was ready to take on the mean fighting machine, my Bajaj…

Btw, I am not sure how many of you know this. This news made headlines some ten years back. NASA was attempting a Jupiter mission and they had their rocket ready at Cape Canaveral. All was going smooth and the countdown started.. 1 .. 2…3… oops, sorry this is a countdown right… :D 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Blast off!!! Nothing happened. The brightest brains of the USA, people from MIT, Stanford, CMU didn’t know what to do. They called for International help. They went to scientists in England, Australia and Canada.. Nobody knew what the problem was.. Finally, they came to India and contacted Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. Kalamji was initially very angry that they came to him as the last resort and not earlier. But, being a kind person he agreed to look into the problem. He was taken to the launch pad. Kalamji surveyed the rocket just once and he said “I know the solution”. The Americans were flabbergasted. “What do we do”, they asked. Kalamji calmly replied “Tilt the rocket 63-degrees and then bring it back to normal”. The Americans did as they were asked to. Then they restarted the rocket and it blasted off fine! Not knowing how it worked, they asked Kalam for the secret. He said, “I ride a Bajaj back home!”…

Wokay, now back to my Bajaj. I was ready to take on the mean fighting machine. I placed my hands on the scooter. The scooter snorted – evidently not liking the fact that I was going to tame her. With all my strength I pulled hard.. The scooter slowly but surely started to tilt… 10-degrees… 40-degrees… 60-degrees… 63-degrees.. Yipee!!!!! I did it!!! I placed the scooter back on the stand and kicked it. It started!!! Cool!!! Before leaving, my grand-pa gave me one piece of advice.. “Dai.. vandi la break velai pannaadhu.. Paathu po!!”… Adhai oru kaadhula vaangi innoru kaadhula vittein.. I pressed the clutch; Turned the gear knob; the first gear fell… I slowly released the clutch.. the machine started to move… 20kmph, 40kmph, 60kmph… Wohooo.. I was flying .. I had tamed the beast.. The next thing I knew was that I was in a ditch – Brake failure elaam onnum illai.. Naan brake pudika maranthutein… The mean fighting machine was sitting next to me in the same ditch laughing at me… It had got the better of me.. That darn machine!!!!

PS: Btw, we sold those two scooters and now we have a Kinetic Honda at home… :p