May the spirit of Veenu Paliwal the biker live on

Passion to ride wasn't something I was born with, just like Veenu Paliwal, who got interested in bikes after learning to ride from her college friends. I had to buy a second-hand Yamaha for 8,000 rupees just because it was a necessity, whilst my friends owned Royal Enfields. I could never even ride those properly for the longest time. It was only after I moved to Delhi and got my first job that the itch to ride set in.

Being a rider is not about the bike you own, it's about celebrating being on the road, on your machine, drifting away crossing unknown lands and finding a new you with every ride. A friend introduced me to a rider's group in Delhi - Delhi Biker's Breakfast Run - and ever since I attended the first group ride, I got the real feel of being a rider.  This morning when my Twitter and Facebook feed exploded with the news of Veenu Paliwal's road accident, it got me thinking about the one thing she always laid stress on - safety!

I have never had a one-on-one with her, but could ride along once. I had read much about her though. Learning about her death, that too by succumbing to the injuries from an accident is scarier for me, just as scary as Sidharth Sharma's death was a week ago in Delhi, for I only recently survived a terrible accident myself while riding the Bullet.

In true biker spirit, Veenu shared in her last Facebook post: 

From learning to ride from her college friends to calling it quits with a man who disagreed to her riding to being known as the Lady of Harley, 2016, Paliwal has always been an inspiration. She represented everything that a true biker is - passionate, strong, daring and conscious! She shined as a rider shattering all the patriarchal norms of our society.  

Delhi Biker's Breakfast Run (DBBR) has a 3-R rule - Ride - Respect - Relax - and that I believe is the mantra for all riders including Veenu. Hitting the road on your machine is not about the earth-shattering noise or coming first in some race - but to relax. Every rider understands that the road is as much others' as theirs and hence, one ought to respect others on the road as well as the traffic rules! The 3-Rs of riding always emphasised by Joshua, the man behind DBBR, is also all about safety.

It seems Veenu dreamt of joining politics just so she could raise awareness about road safety and how to ride safely.  

"In a car, there's a sense of security and you tend to take more risks as a result. On the bike, you have no buffer, so all your senses are alert. Biking makes you look at things, even road safety, from a different perspective" she once said as reported by the Hindustan Times.  Paliwal's dream of documenting an all-India tour on her Harley sadly dies with her, but the passion she had towards riding, towards spreading awareness about road safety, will live on.  You will be dearly missed, fellow rider!