A Royal Ride - 1

Today I've decided to write a post on something very close to me. No no, its not my girl, but its something even more closer than that. My very own Bullet, Royal Enfield Bullet. Hear the thump now..yeah thats right.
My association with this regal ride, king of the road goes a long way back. When I was a kid, my dad used to drive one of these. We could know he was nearing home, simply by hearing the thump of his "Bullt" as we Punjabis call it. Sadly, I was too small and couldn't even kick start it, forget riding it. Then dad had to sell it due to medical reasons and he opted for a scooter.Wonder how he could drive one after riding a Bullet.
Anyways the years passed by. Daddy dear was not in favor of me riding a bike, saying its very risky and said I could drive the car once I got my license. So it was. I used to drive an Omni around our place and didn't mind it too. I still love to drive it..yeah right..an Omni. Then one day, we felt the need to get a two wheeler since it wasn't always easy to drive around in a car and find parking space for it.
So we looked around for some bikes and we got ourselves a Yamaha Enticer. It was a nice bike, but there was a problem in clearing its papers, hence we returned it back, and started looking for another bike.

This time, things turned out a bit different. Dad wanted to get a bullet and he used to often ask me to look around for one. Initially, I was apprehensive that its a heavy bike and the "kickstart routine" would leave me crippled. Even his friends advised us "Bahut bhaari bike hai, tu sambhaal nahi payega". But what the heck, I go to a gym, I could ride one said Dad. The final realization dawned when I was watching a TV show and there was this girl who was riding a Machismo. She weighed 45 kgs and the Machismo weighed 180 kgs. And no, I am not going to reveal my weight here. Anyways, we kept looking around for one, and did find a couple. But those were not good to ride enough, so we didn't get them.
Then one day, one of my dad's friend told him about a mechanic who could have a bullet. We went to him. It turned out that he had one, a 1996 Bullet 350 Standard. He got it from his place and showed it to us. It didn't have a great paint job, but that was not important. The ride was.
The moment I saw it, I told my dad, let me get it off the stand and kick start it. If I can do that, I will be able to ride it.
And so it was. The first time in my entire existence on this planet I sat on this beautiful machine (yea, sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie) and started it, boy it felt so very good. The thump under the seat, the height, the feel. Words aren't enough to describe it. Anyways Dad took a drive and it was perfect. We had got ourselves a deal and so I was also one of the fraternity, the chosen ones who had a Bullet.