It’s all about passion for a classic bird, say the biker girls in the city. They take Bhavya Thimmaiah for a spin on their bikes and share with her stories of their obsession
The distinctive thump of a long-stroke, single-cylinder engine reverberates, amid the cacophony of Bangalore traffic. It’s a 1970, Classic 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet weighing 180 kgs plus and measuring 2120 mm (millimeter) length, 780mm width and 1080 mm in height. It’s a beauty. As she thunders down the road on a Sunday afternoon, people awaken not to her beauty, but to the damsel straddling it- Bhavya Srinivasan, 5.4” tall and weighing 65kgs. A speeding car making its way through the traffic slows down a wee bit; the passenger window rolls down and a gentleman gives Bhavya a ‘thumbs up’. “Great job, ma’m. Keep going,” he says. That’s the kind of attention Bhavya gets every time she goes for a ride on her Bullet.
Left to right: Shilpa Thoudam, Bhavya Srinivasan, Bindu Reddy, Vinutha P G and Swathi Reddy (pillion)
Bhavya, an entrepreneur, has been riding a Classic for the last nine years. What began as a curiosity “about bikes during college days” has now turned into passion. She’s now joined hands with HopOnGurls!, the only group in the city to teach women how to ride a Bullet.
HopOnGurls! is the brainchild of 25-year-old Bindu Reddy, a solutions engineer. “I can never forget my first experience on the Bullet; it started off as a bet that became a craving. I took my friend’s Thunderbird and rode away with my friend running behind to catch his birdie,” she says, giggling at the memory. “A memorable day that made me go crazy about this machine.”
Bindu’s friends taught her to ride a Bullet. “I always wondered why isn’t there an instructor to teach girls to ride a Bullet.” Why not start a riding club for girls? She asked herself. As a birthday gift, she asked her college friends – Lionel, Mrudul and Raghunandan – to help start HopOnGurls! in 2011. Bindu’s first students were a mother-daughter duo – Kusum, 56, and Roshini, 25. “The mother was more enthusiastic than the daughter,” recalls Reddy. The mother took about 4 weeks to master the bike. Bindu had another student, Jayanthi Kalyanaraman, a 34-year-old business analyst, who would come from Chennai every weekend to learn to ride the Bullet. “I wanted to learn to ride for a long time but was unable to find a willing teacher in Chennai despite being ready to learn from a male one,” says Jayanthi. She completed the course in 3 weekends. For Jayanthi, it all began with her father challenging her to ride the Bullet in “front of him and then, only then, he said that he’d allow me to buy one,” says Jayanthi, smiling at the memory. Today, there are 60 women Bullet riders in the city and more than 80 associated with HopOnGurls!
Come every Sunday, you will see a bunch of girls learning how to ride a Bullet in a peaceful lane in Koramangala. Spread over 8 sessions, the classes are conducted every Sunday for an hour or so. Apart from teaching to ride, technical sessions are also conducted which include servicing of the bike and knowing your bike better. “We are the only ones to provide bikes to the learners unlike other places where they ask you to bring your vehicle. We also give an opportunity to those girls who have learnt from us to come back and teach others,” says Bindu.
A woman Bullet rider in the city roads always makes heads turn. There have been instances where people have placed bets to know if it is a girl riding a Bullet, encouraged them, challenged them and tested them if they are capable of handling this mean machine.
Bhavya recalls her trip to Chickmagalur in December 2011 where the villagers clad in dhoti and turban stood in a row watching the women ride past them. “There were men calling each other and pointing towards us,” recalls Bhavya. Interestingly, nobody teases a girl riding a Bullet but they are put to test or challenged. There are some who provoke them to race with them, but “there is a lot of respect shown to the women riders”. When Shilpa went to get her driver’s licence, the RTO officer was impressed when he came to know that she rides a Bullet. “There are times when I’m not charged a parking fee; the attendants take my helmet and say, ‘Ma’m, I will take care of the bike and the helmet’,” says Bhavya. But, not all have the same outlook towards woman riders. “Once a cop asked, ‘Is it necessary that you ride such a vehicle? Can’t you get a smaller size vehicle for yourself?’ When we offered them a ride, they quietly slipped away.” At times, the men on the road also get protective about the women riders. “There have been instances when they’d wave to bus drivers asking them not to overtake us. We have the confidence. Wonder why they get so worried?,” asks Shilpa.
Riding bikes boosts the confidence level. “Mine has shot through the roof since I started riding,” says Shilpa. “I have realised I can handle such a mean machine.” But there are some who are still struggling to convince their parents about letting them ride a bike or even buy one. The girls say they are not feminists. To them, riding a bullet is not about being macho. They enjoy wearing a sari and attending a function as much as they do wearing jeans and riding a Bullet. It’s all about passion for a majestic bird.
source: http://www.BangaloreMirror.com / Home> Sunday Read> Special> Story / by Bhavya Thimmaiah / Sunday, March 04th, 2012