Back seat Nostalgia

14th April 2025

This may feel like a continuation of my middle-class mentality blog, in the previous one. But trust me, this one is gonna be more fun than that.
When I was in 8th standard, I learned to ride a moped bike. But, it was too early to buy one for me. So, I used to pool scooter with my friends who had scooters as my school was too far. I would cycle halfway and then share a scooter with them. It being their scooter, I used to be placed in the backseat usually.
Here are three funny incidents from my backseat adventures!
This one happened early in the morning, at 6.45 am. We had a class at 7. I reached my friend's place, parked my cycle, and sat behind her. After carefully observing a few street dogs posing problems every morning, my friend used to avoid buzzing the horn as it would become too noisy in the quiet mornings. She used to dodge them every day on our way to our class. So on the third or fourth day, to give one particular dog a gentle nudge, I stretched my right foot out and the gentle nudge transformed into a kick. Some mistake in my estimating the distance and speed probably! That dog barked harshly and followed us till the class. My friend doesn't know what happened behind, if she reads this blog then probably she will!
Animal lovers, before you give your share of gyaan, I was bad at physics and I goofed up the distance-speed thing. The gentle nudge would not have been transformed into a kick otherwise.

The second incident also happened in the morning. An old man was walking with a supporting stick on the road, probably on his morning walk. This happens to be a classic example of miscommunication through eyes. While the old man wanted to cross the road we were riding straight. The old man as well as my friend paused together and resumed together. Eventually, it happened so that, my friend dashed over the old man, his other hand fell on the accelerator and I was trying to balance by firmly setting my foot on the road. Before the old man could fall on the other side of the road he accelerated the bike, my friend somehow managed to balance it. And the most balanced person in this whole incident, viz: I fell on the road as I did not have any base, neither was I prepared to balance myself. I had fallen on my bum and the pain survived for a good while.



The third and the last one is the most hilarious one I believe. This one is from engineering and happened in broad daylight. We had our mid-sem exams. And me and my roommate cum classmate were not prepared for it. On our way back when we were discussing that we wrote only our name and roll number and submitted the answer sheet and while others were taking supplements, our highly intellectual discussion was interrupted by a heavily pregnant swine—no idea from where she jumped on the front part of the scooter. My friend fell on the left side, the scooter on her and I was on the right side. I tried hard to pick the scooter up and support her but did not realize why I could not do it. People on the road turned up for help. My friend was visibly upset because she thought I deliberately did not help her even though I could. Her misunderstanding was cleared when we realized that my left calf was stuck on the silencer of the scooter which had burnt my salwar already and there were fairly visible burn marks on my calf too. It had been a month since she got her scooter to Pune from Nasik and her father was about to visit us the same day. There were bruises she had on her arm and feet. We hid her scooter at a rare spot of hostel parking from where her papa could not see it directly. That day it was a near escape. And from that day whenever we see pigs on the road we used to be extra careful.

My backseat stories changed after I got married. My husband is a safe rider and there haven't been any adventures as such, fortunately!

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