Its early Tuesday morning. It had rained a little yesterday night.. The night was cold but not chilly... And morning everything seemed normal.. another perfect day.. Nothing seemed to have changed from yesterday..
Its a working day, so I had to go to work.. I thought I would get ready early, but I was late nevertheless.. My Unicorn's insurance papers were not yet done, so I had to take my Yamaha RX 135 to work instead.. (as much as I love the Yamaha.. I would have loved to ride the Unicorn today.. first long trip on the Unicorn since I bought it last Saturday)
It was around 9am and I was near KBR park.. cutting across the traffic to reach office quicker, or should I say to reduce the amount of time I was going to be delayed.. there was enough office-going traffic on the roads to negate the fact that the roads near the KBR park are some of the widest in hyderabad (if i remember correct, its a 4-lane road).. everyone is moving at a speed of not more than 30 (except ofcourse the bikers who make their own zig-zag lanes at 60 kmph). On my way to the office, I saw a Hyundai Getz.. The only thing that was not normal about it was that it had wider tyres.. it had been modified.. Other than that it seemed like just another Getz.. But soon he unleashed the power in it, and Vrooooom... WHAT ACCELERATION!! But even more, WHAT A DRIVER!! Here was a driver, who was on the left-most lane, overtaking a bus (from the left, as is the mutually understood norm in Hyderabad) and then immediately cuts across all the lanes and overtakes an auto (from the right this time).. He then overtakes the Honda City in front, and then cuts left but decides mid-way to stay in the lane coz the traffic signal was still red.. If you remember Stella Bredger's (played by Charlize Theron) entrance in the movie The Italian Job (the remake made in 2003), you shouldn't have much difficulty visualizing what I'm saying.. The way she drives her Mini Cooper cuttinjg across lanes made us (atleast me) look at the silver screen with a feeling of awe, especially coz the camera was mounted on a Helicopter and the aerial view looked terrific.. But the driving I saw today was no less amazing..
Now, here is what I believe (atleast till today)... At a traffic signal, the bikes have an advantage over the cars.. the cars, for sure, have more power by all stats but the bikes easily beat them.. only when you have a long enough roam can the cars catch up.. and when it comes to bikes, the 2-stroke bikes easily beat the 4-stroke engined bikes for the first 100-200m.. And of all the 2-stroke bikes, none are better remembered than the Yamaha RX 100 and RX135 for their sheer acceleration through the first 2 gears..
so back to my story.. I was at the signal, behind the Getz and the City.. I was pretty sure I could beat them both easily.. The signal turned green.. A few bikes in the front raced away and the cars, buses and autos were slowly accelerating onto the clear stretch of road.. The moment he got a little bit of space in front of him, the Getz driver took off... For a few metres it seemed like I could overtake him if I had a little more space, but after that I gave-up that hope.. One, I was unable to match his acceleration and deceleration, and two, he was just far too quick in manouvering and rash for me to chase him..
He accelerated to 20, cut left, accelerated to , cut left again, overtook the vehicle in front and then cut right, overtake 2 vehicles - one on either side, and cut right again.. braked hard almost down to a halt.. accelerated again, cut left 2 lanes at one go and brakes again very hard.. what a scene.. i was literally dumbstruck by his driving.. what kind of an idiot would drive so rashly, especially on the roads of Hyderabad (which is famous for having some of the most reckless drivers).. or maybe he was one of the drivers that made Hyderabadi traffic famous (or infamous)..
Just visualise the way the Getz driver was driving and now imagine what it would have been to see two such cars racing on the road.. Yes, TWO.. the City was chasing the Getz this time.. At first, I thought the City driver was trying to maintain with the Getz so that he could cut through traffic easily, but he was racing with him.. for an automobile freak like me, that was pure bliss.. but for the others driving on that road, I bet they wanted to park their vehicles to the side.. i tried to chase the 2 cars (just for the fun of it), but i could clearly see them getting away (even through all that traffic).. having followed Formula 1 for the past 4 yrs or so, I know that much depends on the driver, but much more depends on the car.. only now am I beginning to comprehend how powerful these latest generation cars are.. and if this is the case with a Honda City, what about the BMWs and the Porsches.. and then what about the Bugatti Veyron.. NO COMMENTS!!
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