The "thing" and Growing Up

Now one thing that's a constant on all our trips is Phani's "thing", which ahem......refers to his Blaze of course. And quite a constant it is too, always the source of some excitement on each of our trips.
Now this "thing" is quite something all right....I mean it has to be, right, when a petrol pump attendant asks u if it's imported, or when a dude walks up and looks at it from all angles before flashing a big grin and a thumbs up, or if it has Pavan jumping up and down shouting "128, 128" on Mysore Rd :)
And then it has quite some presence too. What else could possibly have half of Kerala waking up in the middle of the night (albeit because the silencer fell off), just to catch a glimpse, not even the good ol' Queen Lizzie, I suppose. What other machine could possibly be called a half-auto ( credit for originating the expression goes to Vijay Santhosh R), except maybe an auto in the absolutely marvellous movie called "Jaani Dushman".....check it out folks, for a quick lesson on how to drive ur 4 wheeler, quite literally "through" b'lore traffic.
But really, it is a fantastic machine that. Except for one thing. It kinda steals the limelight from everything else (Now, now Srikar....you had ur chance with it. Coimbatore won't forget u soon, I can assure you). It eclipsed even the "chick magnet", our growing up boy's fantastic red zen.
Speaking of growing up boy....what is it that makes a boy a man? What makes him break out of his shell, to suddenly go where he's never gone before, to pick up a bike and ride it on a highway, even though he's rarely touched one before? Such adventures don't always end up in a good way and occasionally result in "skidding" bikes and broken legs. But it's all a part of the rite of passage. So maybe someday we'll see our
beloved "growing up boy" riding on Phani's "thing"....what say?