TAKING SIDES

Generations apart, but are these two sides of the same coin?

- Ruman Devmane

Everything with wheels aspires to be a motorcycle. No, there’s no point debating this because, at the very core of it, this is the ultimate truth. I’m no automotive Nietzsche, but the evidential history of anything with two or more wheels suggests this to be the only conclusion of it. How so? Well, a motorcycle, sort of like men in their thirties, is a prime example of insight, involvement, stability, liberation and, to varying degrees, functionality. It’s neither too young to be trustworthy nor too old to be rigid. Men in their thirties are also least likely to get involved in skateboarding incidents, for instance, just as they are to invade countries. And it’s this balance that everything with wheels eternally aspires to achieve.

This is why bicycles have sprouted gears and supercars have been shedding weight like Latvian supermodels. It is, therefore, obvious that the two automotive entries closest to motorcycles want to be exactly like them, too. Both aren’t scooters but both certainly want to be motorcycles. Or, rather, enticing alternatives to them. In a country that figures as the largest two-wheeler market in the world, it’s easy to see why as well. The fact is, we are not an extravagantly affluent country and our primary need is always going to be humble, mass-produced transportation. This explains why over a lakh units of the TVS XL and the Honda Navi (combined) are sold in India, month after month. You don’t need a German philosopher to decipher what this means, right?