Why are people hating on helmets?

So, this is becoming too frequent and its annoying. Everyone seems to have some prejudices against helmets and will discriminate people with helmets in different situations- be it the movies, the airports or hotels. In India more than anywhere else.

I am a avid biker and have custom painted helmets. When I go somewhere, I like to carry them with me in a nice sack to protect it from scratches and prevent them from being stolen- already happened once so not taking a chance ever again! The first time that I had the problem was for movies- they wont let me take them in! That was the time when even backpacks would not be allowed while women could carry their purses inside. Biased? Hell yeah! This was sort of rectified when some movie halls in India started providing lockers to lock up helmets and bags. Good job there.

Recently, I was travelling by air but carrying my helmet because I was going to be riding at my destination. I went through three airports and the airport where I was harassed because of my helmet was Nagpur!! Not Delhi, not Goa, but frigging small town Nagpur. A annoying SE Anshu Grade at the x-ray machine was the only one who was convinced that the helmet was a threat and "could be used as a weapon"!! How? By whacking someone on the head? While there were iron crutches, tripod stands and even airplane doors at disposal to do so? Seriously? Maybe in that small town there isn't much action so she decided to make my life hell and there was a huge scene. None of her colleagues agreed with her but seemed helpless in countering her- juniors perhaps. She almost insinuated that I was like a terrorist when she started to give the example of Kasab! I come from a respected family of senior government officials and if anything, we would probably unearth more problems if we checked her antecedents. I can bet on it. I made sure CISF jawans assisted me in getting proper padding and packing for the helmets done before I boarded the plane. So much grief over one person's wrong assessment of the situation!

So you would say that perhaps this cop was a less educated person who was trying to abuse her powers. However, hotels are no better. Many star hotels wont let you carry a helmet inside their buildings due to "safety" reasons! Safety my ass. Usually I make it a point to call up the hotels and ask their policies on helmets- people at the Ashok and Intercontinental (now Lalit) seemed better when it came to this. Today, I went to the dying Claridges Hotel in Delhi to meet some clients. Everyone, from the guards to the Manager said that policy would not allow them to let me take my helmet in!! They also used the lame excuse of "helmet can be used as weapon"!! Really? I saw more dangerous looking metal crutches (that could easily conceal a gun if it wanted!) go in! I think its just snobbery and general classist attitude of Indian society. And if it happens in the US, even more shameful. I think the hotel people think if people carried their helmets inside, it would degrade their inside environment because they believe that rich people dont ride motorbikes. Such ignorants pricks! Only on the intervention of a senior foreign dignitary did they yield and held my helmet with the Bell Desk taking full responsibility for the helmet. Colonial boot licking? But of course.

This is what I always say- the possibilities to do better are limitless but people are looking in the wrong places. They create a fuss over helmets while they should be directing their attention to actual things that could be security risks or debase the atmosphere of their respective surroundings. It is because of this that people normally have a lapse of judgement which leads to fatal consequences. And then they are stuck scratching their heads of what they did wrong and overcompensate with things that have nothing to do with what happened.

People will stay uneducated, ignorant, arrogant and just disconnected from reality. There needs to be a movement against such discrimination and stupid policies. Lets vote against the idiocracy of today!  India has seen too many mistakes by people in charge of "security" and by hating on helmets, they are fooling noone. After going through all these instances of helmet discrimination, I feel more unsafe knowing that truly stupid, foolish and illogical people are in charge of the safety of people's lives.

The people never make sense

This is probably a rant.

Today something outrageously funny (yet disturbing) happened. As me and some colleagues were in a mall on a research/store photography visit, a young (college?) girl approached one of us to sell some tickets to some random rock/bhakti show. We showed no interest though she waited around us. Later on, on her complaint, her male friend decided to confront one of us accusing him of taking her pictures! Obviously he had not and considering that (no apologies for being blunt and direct as she was asking for it) she was hardly good looking and that she actually thought that she was worthy of being shot discreetly was creepy, hilarious and showed just how vain some people are- especially when they have no reason to be!

People in the city never seem to work with logic- for anything. I have not known anyone with a Blackberry who hasnt had software/hardware problems and yet thy defend it without being able to prove the absolute necessity of having one over any other smart phone. Or Apple fans lapping up iphones or similar products just on face value that the products heralded new eras in their respective  categories- without any real research or understanding about how other companies have overtaken Apple in many respects in similar products. The competition that Apple created only gives more choice to the consumer but the loyalists are like fundamentalists who are brainwashed and have horse blinkers on to see the whole truth- like the Nazis or any religious fanatic.

Speaking of which, all the "intellectual" leftist/libral/marxist bullshitters stay quiet when naxals and marxist terrorists capture or kill innocent civilians either to avenge death of their "comrades" (they should really stop using these words that have genesis in great revolutions) or seek their release. The same pseudo-intellectuals will protst when any rightist decides to do the same. And these same fakers stay quiet when "leftist" countries like China and Russia commit similar attrocities or infringe on human rights of their own people. Perhaps these modern day sycophants should stay i these beloved  countries as unprivileged citizens and experience all those restrictions firsthand. Never have they been able to give any convincing answers (economically/socially etc) for an eclectic nation like India and their questions are driven by ideas formulated years ago having little relevance in the 21st century. Again, more brain washed people.

Stereotypes aren't hard to find and these leftists play the role well. But so do book-snobs in almost a similar vein. The belief that reading a book enriches one experience more than someone who doesnt't couldn't be misplaced any more than placing faith in a idea relevant in the first half of the 20th century. The misplaced faith extends to the repeatedly annoying habit of these snobs to keep saying that the movie based on a book was not as good as the book- preference is subjective but they are quite objective in their stance. Gaining all their knowledge about life, places and events through reading seems to give them a complex of having superior  understanding of everything they have read about. On the contrary it only makes them passive and when faced with real life issues, most falter and try to take didactic approaches inculcated from all their reading. If only life were that simple, leaders would read a book to solve their country's problems, win world peace and have absolute knowledge of every single person from any particular tribe in any particular village in any particular region of the world. In an world of subjectivity, objectivity is only detrimental to the process of understanding cultures and situations.

There are way too many such examples to list here but the point is that we are always going to be surrounded by people who make little sense to us, or even themselves. Heck, people cannot even understand how deeply involved a biker I am or the reasons behind being so! I may not be perfect myself but at least I try to make balanced decisions and opinions without getting swayed by brand loyalties or half-arsed ideologies or words written by someone sitting in an armchair. I probably dont give a damn about most things but annoying people annoy me!

Bikers v/s motorcyle riders

I outran a dude riding a more powerful bike in a short drag race. So what?

It emphasises what I have been talking abt the past couple of posts.

As soon as the lights turned green, he started accelerating like crazy. I pulled at my throttle too and while I passed him, I could take a look at him then at his bike and then him again and shook my head at him and pulled away as if he was on a small bicycle- all he became was a speck on my bike's mirrors. He pottered along at a civilized pace after I slowed down a little distance away.

I normally dont drag anymore but it does diss me off that sm ppl thnk that just 'cos they have a powerful machine with them, they need to show off and especially when they dont respect their machines. This guy had a more powerful bike but he did not know how to ride it.

He doesn't seem to have maintained the bike well. He ddidn't seem to have any idea about the the correct shift points. He did not take out time to learn about his machine nor accord it the treatment and care it deserved. He obviously had no respect for his bike. He is just another guy with a motorcycle, not a "biker".

Just before we both had got the red, two cars zoomed by like madmen, jumping the light and into oncoming traffic! This must have pumped up the motorcycle guy and I guess I thought I should just tame him a little bit. But ever so often I have to come terms with the fact that people have to realise a lot of things themselves and that no matter how much u try to fix them, help them or tell them things they need to know (even if they wont believe you), they will only learn when they screw up real bad. "Luck" is relative- many people escape a dozen cars coming their way, while some die by just jumping a light. The trick is to keep our eyes & ears open for traffic and lights. And ofcourse, have respect for our machines.