Day 22: Feb 22nd: Mumbai Mega Event
Text: Sandeep Goswami
The day dawned bright and humid. The Pune event had taught us a few lessons about the event flow and we had thought of some alternatives and solutions. It was time to implement them during today’s event and streamline the flow. The initial elimination interview round was dispensed with as it had turned out to be a bottle-neck. The participants had to wait for long hours for their turn to be interviewed by the judges. And we would not have a heart to turn them away after they’d waited so long for us. Anyways, it was important to include each and every participant biker who came in and filled the form into the first few elimination rounds, giving them a chance to progress if they had the skills.
We arrived at the venue by about 0945hrs. Quite a few bikers were already there at the registration desks. The scene built up in the next half hour into that of a bustling competition ground. The Mumbai xBhpians arrived in an impressive group and it was good to meet them all. The user-ID’s acquired human faces and the interaction on the forum made them all so very familiar.
We had invited Akshai, the creator of the Vardenci bikes, the famed Skeletor in particular, and he arrived with a plethora of designer bikes for display. Great work, both aesthetically and technically. And a great crowd puller. It was good meeting the man in person and talking tech-shop with him. He sure knows his job.
The event started with the bikers being timed during the fig of 8 and slow biking. The questionnaire round followed, which completed the elimination round 1. The usual impression that slow riding is not ‘that’ difficult had dissipated by now. What seemed simple before had become a challenge. The ‘spirit of competition’ was showing face but the ‘spirit of camaraderie’ was dominant, so very heartening. The riders were cheering each other, comparing timings and discussing ways to ‘conquer’ slow riding.
The slalom followed with the top performers of the 1st elimination rounds participating in it. The skill levels displayed by some of the riders were impressive. But more impressive was the seriousness with which each one of them was attempting the slalom. Kudos to the ‘passion’ of today’s riders.
The slalom produced the top 20 who would come on stage and speak out their passion story. Again the sheer confidence and the ability to connect with the audience was commendable in most. Even the ones not so sure of themselves and afraid of speaking in public did manage to put up acceptable stage presence. The top 8 performers were selected from the stage-presence round and would be pitted against each other in the ‘slow-slalom’.
Baljeet Singh of Pune’s Road-shakers had been the crowd’s favourite in Pune and so was it for him in Mumbai. The bold yet humble ‘sardaar ji’ won many a heart on his Enfield bullet but all his efforts were not enough to overcome the challenge put up by Malcom in the slow-slalom round. And yet, despite the competitiveness, the easy camaraderie of the day prevailed and winning/loosing made no visible difference to the way bikers related to each other. Malcom emerged the winner in a nail-biting finish, and took away the gleaming ‘Mumbai-winner’ trophy. A well-deserved and well-earned win.
It was wind-up time for us in Mumbai now as we were to leave for Daman. So we are back in the hotel, tired, satisfied with the day’s proceedings and ready for the next city event in Ahmedabad. But that will wait a while. We ride to Daman/Silvassa tomorrow morning. Packing time and sleeping time for now. See you on the NH8 tomorrow. Bye for now.
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