Small Town Chronicles; Du chaakar goppo

The alarm goes off sharp at 4.30am. It rings on for another five minutes till Bhaiya shouts from the next room to shut it. Eyes tightly shut; she swings her hand towards the bed rest above her head, gropes for her cell phone and resets the alarm. It’s become a habit. Days of resetting the alarm has ensured that she no longer needs her eyes to guide her.

The alarm goes off again after twenty minutes and before Bhaabi storms in with her angry outburst Rama shuts it off. Studying till late in the night, waking up the next morning is a tough ordeal for her. This time she has her eyes open. No, she cannot rest the alarm anymore! She is already late by fifteen minutes which means she would have to skip breakfast today.

In twenty minutes she is ready and out of the house, catches the first ‘shared’ auto that plies on the road and is off to the TVS showroom in Old Rourkela.

Thus begins another tedious day in Rama’s life!

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My instructor with her Scooty

Atypical of most small towns, two wheelers rule the city. Convenient to ride around, enough mileage and easy on the pocket they are the best means of travel here.

There are autos and they are expensive. An auto solely ‘reserved’ for a passenger costs a minimum of Rs 50 while an auto in a ‘share’ mode (sharing it with other passengers) costs a minimum of Rs 5 per head. A small auto accommodates three at the back and two at the front excluding the driver while a bigger one accommodates six-seven at the back and three at the front. Well not all routes are covered by ‘share’ autos. Rickshaws are a rare sight while buses are so full that it renders impossible for people like us to board.  

Shops scattered far and wide, long stretches of desolate roads, groups of boys lurking about in dark corners, men gawking at a young mother and her child, extreme weather conditions and I decide ‘ No I just can’t walk around! I need a Scooty.’ The last time I had ridden a Scooty was some fifteen years ago when I was much younger. I would leave the house in a helmet and the moment Ma would be out of sight, I would stop, remove it, dangle it from the handle and off I would go at high speed, turning sharp corners at an impossible speed. Such was my spirit then! Well, not every day this would go as planned. Baba would often catch me in a race with my college mates, riding at a high speed without helmet. The punishment was unavoidable. No two-wheeler for a week! Instead I had to cycle to college.  What a blow to my zealously guarded prestige!

Well coming back to the present, age and years of lack of practice has robbed me off the confidence of riding a two-wheeler. And now I am no longer a young girl out to impress the world around. But a mature woman, who is also a mother and has a steadfast companion in her four-year old boy. That adventurous streak, the zeal and the fervor I was so proud of has now been replaced with fear, worry and anxiety. 

It was at this juncture when I was vacillating between the need to buy a two-wheeler and the fear of riding one that my landlord introduced me to the ‘Scooty School’. The Scooty school, an initiative by the TVS Company organizes training classes for all those who wish to learn two-wheelers.  And that’s how I met Rama, the Scooty instructor. We chatted over the phone and with some difficulty I got myself fitted into the 6am slot. Well on an average she has some six-seven students every day. 

The next day sharp at 6am, I find her outside my house on her Pep-Plus Scooty. I had in my mind a plump woman of my age. Well it was a big surprise! Young and slim, her face concealed by a snuff colored dupatta, she was a mere girl. Too young were my exact thoughts as I sat behind her and went off in search of a nice, big field for some ‘hard’ practice.

It’s a six-day course. Her classes start as early as 6am in summer. Every class is of 45 minutes. The first day is ‘know your Scooty’. It comprises of pedaling and trying to balance the weight of the vehicle. Now not everyone is familiar with the weight of such a vehicle. Many graduate from a cycle to a two-wheeler while there are some who have never cycled in their whole life and have no idea of what ‘balance’ means. For me who had driven a Moped some fifteen years ago, getting used to the weight of the Scooty was quite tedious the first day. Rama advised me before ending the class ‘Didi, raat ko soney ke time ek Paracetamol le lijiye ga. Bahut dard hoga aj’! (Sister have a pain-killer before going to bed at night as you might experience severe body ache. And she was right!!

Once the person gets a hang of the Scooty and its weight, it’s time to introduce her to other mechanics like the accelerator and speed control. 

The third day is all about riding the vehicle. Well, I had trouble in lifting my feet off the ground and keeping them on the Scooty. It was a fear of toppling over which prevented me from doing that. No soothing words from Rama helped. I kept my feet dangling so that I could drop them on the ground as and when the situation demanded. Rama finally sat behind me, held the handle from the back, controlled the accelerator and the brake all the while urging me to lift up my feet. And that’s what I concentrated on. I have no idea when or how but suddenly I had found my long-lost balance and was sitting on the Scooty with my legs firmly implanted on it. By the end of the 45-minute rigorous session Rama had ensured that I was in complete control of the vehicle.

The fourth day was another round of practice on the field involving circular motions and then sharp right turns, U-turns and left turns. The fifth and the sixth day I was on the road with Rama at the back explaining to me the traffic signals, reminding me to use the indicator, overtaking other vehicles and other important tips to be kept in mind while riding it.

The course ended and by then I and Rama were good friends.  The seventh day I had mustered enough courage to visit all the showrooms in Rourkela, opt for a test drive, purchase the favored one and ride it back home which is some 15 km’s from the showroom. 

Having lived in Kolkata for the last few years the sight of a Motor Training school in every locality or training cars in every major road is not an uncommon sight. But the concept of a two-wheeler training programme run by a reputed company is unheard of. The course is perfectly designed and reasonably priced (Rs 750/- for ^days) for a trainee to gather enough confidence. Rama adds on ‘there are many who have never cycled in their whole life. For them six days is not enough. I give them an extension of another six days.’

What really struck me the most was the young girl’s sincerity. Barely in her 20’s, she hails from a decent family where all the members have to strive hard to meet ends. Her father is an employee of the Rourkela Steel Plant and she has a brother and two sisters.  Three daughters is still a burden for a father especially in small towns like Rourkela. No matter how the world around has changed, certain taboos and customs never die away. The eldest daughter was married off early and Rama had to fight against this norm. Financial pressure, societal norms and her ambition has made her take a stance. She has always dreamt of making it big in academics, loaded with degrees and armed with a decent and respectable job. Somehow she has persuaded her father to delay her marriage by few months. Mean while she has joined TVS as an instructor and has also enrolled herself into a correspondence course in MA in Political Science. 

Her mornings in summer begin at 6am and she wraps up her morning classes by 10am before the sun gets fierce. She spends some time at the TVS showroom managing customers, talking to potential students and from 4pm onwards when the sun is on its way out she starts her evening classes which often end up at 8pm.

After dinner Rama retires into her secluded corner in her room. It’s time for her books, her chance at realizing her dreams.

 

While most girls of her age spend time roaming around with friends or watching movies, young Rama has no time for such frivolities. This young girl has a few more months to complete her education and be self-reliant. She has decided to fight back the system and realize her dreams. She is an inspiration to many young women in small towns.