You could feel the cool breeze flowing in from the ocean, cooling the heavy & tired streets of chennai in the evenings. The sun is just about to set and the faint glow of twilight bathes my helmet visor. I could feel engines roaring around me, with an effect of a 3D-surround system. The soft sputter of a 50cc next to me, to the growl of a 150cc in front me and then there is a coughing sound of our MTC behind me. The display counter on the pole changes rapidly decrementing its value every second, with its LED blaring the inevitable.
When the counter hits 3... stopped engines started purring.... 2....bikes surge forward and stop cos there ain't no space at the stop line. 1... bikes inch forward with full acceleration, only to be stopped by the front disc's cos of the cops, with their walkie talkies, looked high and mighty, ready to pounce on traffic violators.
Green...*&%&$&*% is all I hear. Either you are with the crowd... or eating dust from the asphalt. I along with all wannabe racers, push my bike to do its duty. No lane discipline, no driving ethics, only chaos!! If you are born in chennai, you can find subtle hints that reveals the order amongst this unassuming chaos. They help you clear a path and then you get to drive your bike at speeds, only curtailed by the road quality or your backbone quality.
Honks blaring... headlights glaring & side lights swearing... it is utter confusion... but still traffic moves, with total defiance towards the laws of traffic, with various clutters at different pace. Sweat down your brow, even with the cool breeze, it gives you the an itch and irritation required to reach your destination ASAP. I try to overtake a bus on the right and he does not budge. I honk... and still no respite, so I drop my gears like a pro, slow down, go behind the bus and push my accelerator and zoom, I overtake on the left only to be slowed down by further traffic ahead. Now there are two cars driving very close by, but one after the other in two different lanes with little space in between the first car's right rear bumper and the second car's left front bumper. I judge the distance between the vehicles in a blink of an eye and with a swift push of my bike along with my body I swerve between those cars and clear them like a pro.
As I gun down the bike on the asphalt many trickery like there occur and I see a big green dot in the distance change to orange and then to red. My visor starts to fill up with red swathes from all the vehicles back lights. I stop my bike in time before a growler waiting for the entire episode continue again until I reach my destination.
In short my bike drive in chennai has been dusty, sweaty, itchy & Exhilarating.
