Screams in the night

The Wife and I were returning from a dinner at a friend's place in town (Mumbai). We were in a cab (I'd planned on having some beer) and on the Marine Drive we spotted the usual side. A bunch of two-strokers, all with rider and pillion, parked by the road side, very obviously waiting for 'action.'

A few minutes later, our cab was passed by a thrumming silver Hayabusa worn ably by a rider in a full-face imported helmet. We were awash in the comfortable hum issuing for his pipes for a while, before he spotted a gap on top lane and smoothly pulled away from us. He wasn't riding hard, or like he was out for a scratch. It was a, 'Honey, I'll just go all the way down the Marine Drive and come back in a jiffy... it's a nice night to be out...' sort of ride he was out on.

Then, from behind I heard the sounds of an expansion chambered RX100 coming up on us. As we tuned in to a sound that threatened to tear the silence of the Mumbai night to shreds, the jagged wails split into three. Two passed our cab from the cab, one from the right. It was them, all right. Shirts aflap, feet stuck defiantly outwards off the pegs, sort of Charlie Chaplin style and a very palpable catch Busa or die evident in their body language. The speed at which they passed our cab shook up the cabbie somewhat, I think.

They rapidly dwindled into small winking tail lamps, darting left and right between cars, screaming to a seemingly fiery concussion with the Hayabusa.

Meanwhile, the Hayabusa rider smoothly tucked in right next to the median, close to a car and just waited for the chaps to have their climax and get on with it. The three strokers screamed right past the Busa and continued to hurl their sounds into the night as they kept going.

The humid blanket of the night returned to sit comfortably along the Queen's Necklace. Then, the Hayabusa rider pulled out from behind the car, passed it smoothly, and the last I saw him, he was accelerating firmly, but smoothly up to his cruise speed on the now empty road ahead.

I turned and remarked to The Wife, 'he's riding really well.'
She said, 'But he's wearing Bermudas!'