Honda Activa

It is a change, in the real sense.

For a change, I was trying to drive sensibly, ergonomically and fuel-efficient on the road. A simple notch in the accelerator of my Honda Activa doing the wonder of being the first one to reach TIDEL park building after the Thiruvanmiyur signal turns green, with all other vehicles yet to move, has always fascinated me – the only notable exception are the Pulsars. Do not get me wrong, I don’t drive rash on the road. I usually choose to hover around 60 kmph.

Today, I do not know what kindled the spirit in me, I decided to drive ‘as per rules’. I maintained a constant 40 all along, did not ‘cut and overtake’, did not display the power of acceleration of my Scooter in any of the signals (in fact the best example for today’s acceleration that I can find is a WDM-3D making its best efforts with a full load 24-coach Pandian Express while coming out of the loop line at Kallakkudi Palinganatham station after Pothigai Express to Chennai crosses whizzing past through the mainline at midnight). The random reader may wonder why at all I am inclined to write a post on this! There are indeed a few interesting observations:

I was able to drive literally free on the road after the initial mad-rush traffic zoomed ahead of me. I could always see a bunch of vehicles trying hard to surpass each other in the bumper-to-bumper jam at a distance while I drive with a gentle breeze of fresh air blowing at my face. People don’t seem to realize that after you hit the peak of initial acceleration, you go and get stuck in the traffic ahead of you – as against a constant 40 where you do not get stuck anywhere.

I made a point to sit comfortably on the seat, backbone being straight – I could feel a significant change in how my backbone reacts to speed breakers. Those humps were negotiated without any disturbance to my posture, so there is absolutely no strain on the bone. Earlier, I used to (without realizing it) sit inclined towards the front edge of the seat and lean forward as if I am participating in a race!

I did rarely get a chance to rest my foot on the ground while trying to slow down because, there was nowhere that I had to rush and get stuck in the jam ahead. So, it was constant speed all along.

I felt extremely happy after doing this Samaritan job – but, as of now, this is not a guarantee that it will be sustained. I will definitely try to repeat and make myself comfortable with this change.