Being a dyed-in-the-wool biker, all of you sometime, somewhere come across stories or movies or even incidents in your everyday life, where you can correlate them with your biking life. I’m no different and it happens to me a lot of times too. However, I somehow found the new bollywood flick, ‘Rock On’ to be one great story that a lot of bikers can correlate to.
The movie starts off with a rock band comprising of four members who have the spark and the zest of the early twenty-year olds. The four are passionate about ‘music’ and spend the better part of their time and money composing new tracks that portray their fervor. After a while they stumble upon a contest where their band, ‘Magik’ outperforms the competition to win a one-year contract with a music house and the chance to make their own music video. When this dream is about to be realized, the lead singer suddenly shoots up to fame and overshadows the rest of the groupies. As fate would have it, things start getting sour with ego clashes and self esteem coming into play. The band breaks apart and all the dreams of stardom are shattered. A decade later the members coincidently meet up again and decide to put to rest, all the unfortunate happenings that plagued them. The band comes back together and they plan to enter the same kinda competition that their band won a decade back. As liberty of cinema would portray, the band wins the competition again and their dream is realized – thus making for a happy end.
Now you may be thinking, that I will try and establish some kinda relation between rock music and biking. But no, I aint planning anything on those lines. The movie however has a much larger message for us bikers as well – if we decide to correlate that is. Just like the band members of Magik spent their early youth nurturing their passion, most of us bikers spend all our dough for the love of two wheels. From taking your girlfriend for a movie, to commuting everyday and from going for those weekend rides to being a part of some biker club – a bike becomes a part of our everyday life. Biking becomes such a big passion that we cant think of anything else. But a time finally comes when the college life ends and we are thrown into the world where making money becomes superlative. And just like the members of Magik, we too get on with materialistic needs and the passion is locked into the store room. For some it’s the job, for some its the differences between fellow bikers, for some it’s the lack of money and for some it’s the want of it. Whatever the reason, it’s the biker in you that suffers. You know down within, that you are making a compromise – living a life on terms dictated by your surroundings; forgetting the very basis of biking – freedom.
What the movie tells you though is that no matter what you choose to be your career or your way of life, there is always a way to keep your passion alive. As its rightly said, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. I agree, that earning your bread and butter and much more is an imperative need, but it is not so difficult to get into your gear and onto to the saddle of your bike. Spending time with your better half on the weekend is definitely necessary to keep the spark of our relation alive, but the relation will be complete only when you as a person will feel complete about yourself. It is important to meet up with friends and relatives whenever you find a holiday from your busy schedule. But biking is a passion which can be exploited whenever you find time – no matter what the clock shows, no matter what the weather man says. For all those fellow bikers who have drifted away from this passion, it’s my sincere request that you watch the movie; and I’m sure it will ignite the same ‘want’ to get back to your passion as what happened to the four band members in the movie. The passion that you nurtured throughout your youth still waits for you to come back. The bike that always stood by as your better half and your best friend will be elated to have you back on the saddle and controlling the leash. All that is expected of you, is to take control of your life, dictate your terms, forget about your work when you leave office and ride!
