Bajaj will phase out its last scooter, Chetak, next month. I for one feel very nostalgic about this scooter. This was the first vehicle that my father owned (not counting the bicycle) and was very proud of. I still remember back then, when my Chetak was brought home we all very so happy. I used to feel very proud when the Bajaj Chetak advertisements of ‘Humara Bajaj’ ran on television.
My father learnt riding it with a neighbor's help on the 100 feet road in Bangalore and how when he first went to office on it, we all were thrilled to wave bye from our first floor balcony. That was the time when all the members in the family were thinner than and smaller than now, so we all fit on it well, with my younger brother ahead of my father as I sat between my father and my mother. When I think of it now, I just can’t imagine how we managed. We were always so thrilled to travel on our Chetak!
Out of the excitement of buying a Chetak, I had developed a special skill of sorts. I could, from a distance, just hear a two-wheeler and tell exactly which vehicle it was. I agree there were very few two-wheelers back then, but I as a 9 year-old took great pride in my skill.
During those days I tried and successfully rode a Kinetic Honda, a gearless scooter, but never dared to ride my own Chetak. Not until I was 13 year-old (that was in 1998), when my friend Balaji told me that he could take the responsibility of teaching me to ride it (his elder brother had taught my father to ride the scooter). I knew all the theoretical knowledge one needed to know to ride the bike except for actually riding it. So when I started to ride it the very first time, I thought it would be too easy. But it was far from easy, and anything but a smooth ride.
It all started with my friend Balaji explaining all the procedures (which I've said before I already knew and thought of him as a sucker ;)) in the presence of my father. He told me all the small things -- how to release the clutch and accelerate and stuff -- and then I started the scooter. My first few attempts to get the vehicle in motion failed and I once even managed to do an involuntary and scary wheely (damn clutch!). I finally got the scooter in motion and after going a little ahead, there came the big issue of changing gears, which I could hear Balaji screaming at me to change, but I decided to scream back at him, “Balaji, I will ride only on first gear for now”. I was so scared thinking I would have to start the bike again in case I screwed up that I stuck to the first gear all through. I rode the entire circle of about 300 meters on the first gear.
After that, there was just no looking back. I would take my scooter with a very springy seat to any place around my neighbourhood. I rode this vehicle till 2006, by then my younger brother also had learnt to ride it and we also had a car and a Royal Enfield Bullet as alternative modes of transport for the family. I don’t remember the price we sold it for second hand. I think it was about 7 – 10 thousands rupees or so. Since I had a new Bullet to my self I didn’t feel much of a pain to part with it but now when I think of it I remember the good times we had on it. There was this one time during school, when I took a triple seat on it and I can guarantee you neither me nor the other two will ever forget the pain and the joy of that ride.
I started riding really early in my life and take pride in saying that not once was I ever caught by the Traffic Police (like a true Indian can never pass a chance to boast about how we break the law and get away). All said and done, I am sure the next generation is definitely going to miss a trust worthy vehicle which uncannily needed a 45 degrees tilt before kick starting it.
Humara Bajaj!!
