■ I had a Street Hawk

Second year in college, life could not have been better.

Had recently figured out the mantra to survive the college life - if you can't be sincere the whole semester, make sure you have friends who are. I was working very hard, was hardly having proper sleep. Night-out had become a regular routine. I was all determined! determined to complete my backlog of Hollywood blockbusters that had piled up all these years as my dad won't let me watch when I was a day-scholar.

That year, on my birthday, when I asked my father for a bike, it was not quite the same scenario as would have been in case of Anil Ambani's son asking him for one. A bike? he murmured like 18 times as if I was asking for a 2 seater Ferrari 430 convertible.

'You know, he continued, I would walk 10 miles to school everyday!' Any guy in my place with an ounce of conscience left would have been ashamed to the extent that he would have dug a 20 feet deep hole in the ground and bury himself out of sheer embarrassment. I guess during my architectural design The Almighty forgot to install the responsible chip, so I stood there barefaced! 'off-campus-courses' and 'me-being-their-only-child' were the excuses that survived among the bevy of illogical-insensible-wacky reasons that I put forward to support myself.

'off campus courses' haan? well,what did you expect otherwise? you think, if i had said the actual reason being that 'movie theaters were far' and 'traveling by share-auto was unkool', he would have been sympathetic and would have additionally hiked my monthly allowance to accommodate 2 more movie shows per week??

A reluctant 'ok', the-Green-Signal from dad and i leaped more than Michael Jordon could! but the the joy was as ephemeral as Kishan Kumar's acting career, when I was handed over a second-hand Hero Puch(Kishan Kumar - brother of Gulshan Kumar, starred against Nagma in 'Papa the Great') . I felt more miserable than the actor who was initially signed by MGM to cast as James Bond in 'Quantum of Solace' but finally ended up in a desi B-Grade horror movie, 'Pyasi Chudail'^*, as one of the victim being beheaded by the Chudail(witch), role lasting for not more than 1 minute 36 seconds.



Hero Puch, hmm, a second-hand 2 stroke, 64 cc Hero-puch, was no where comparable to the 4 Stroke, 150C.C DTSI Bajaj-Pulsars that my freinds used to roam on. 'jale-pe-namak' (iodised-TATA-salt on a sore, would be the closest word-to-word english translation) was when some one wud intentionally comment - 'nice LUNA'. Calling a puch, a luna is as dreadful as comparing Aftab with Tushaar Kapoor(well, Aftab has got the looks atleast!).


Truth be told, the puch not only became an essential part of my daily life but also gained popularity among the entire hostelites! It would take people to the mall,to the station to drop friends(luggage included), to hotels to feast, to grab DVDs from our usual Video shop. It was constantly tested of its maximum carrying capacity as I, along with M and G, the Four of us would frequently hop on it for late night shows(my maths is perfectly fine!). My puch was fortunate to go on dates too! Never did it demand but gave service to its best!  

(peter parker aka spiderman rides a puch too :))

*pyasi chudail: the movie exists!