Both my hipjoints crumbled in December 1980 and since then, there are a few things that I miss not being able to do with my replaced and revised hip joints restricting my activities.
During my younger days among the many other things that I did was to be a keen motorcyclist. I have written about it in this blog post. In fact, just before and immediately after my marriage, the vehicle I used to first court my then fiancee and later wife, on two wheelers. The first, a Vespa scooter and the second a Jawa motorcycle.
Like all doting fathers encouraging their children to do things that they themselves cannot or could not do, I encouraged my son Ranjan to take up to motorcycling. From the time that he was old enough to get a driving license, he has had a series of two wheelers starting from a moped, graduating to a scooter and then on to motorcycles of various horsepowers till finally he has settled on a powerful roadster of the Royal Enfield brand.
When I was older but not very much wiser, my uncle who was a keen golfer took me under his wing and taught me how to play golf and got me a membership in a prestigious golf club too. I played regularly between 1967 and 1980. I was fairly good at it too and played to an officially posted handicap of 14. My hip joints gave way in 1980 and I had to stop playing.
Ranjan surprised me with an announcement a couple of weeks ago that he is taking up golf seriously. I was and continue to be delighted. Here he is practicing the chip shot.
From that clip I can see a good golfer emerging and I am delighted.
Here again I will see my dreams come true through Ranjan. I hope.
This is bittersweet, isn’t it? Living vicariously through our kids. As long as they don’t feel pressured to live our fantasy lives, but rather – through happy accident, discover and live out the fantasy for themselves – it’s fun. I feel for the kids who are pushed into living the lives their parents couldn’t, but I suspect that’s not the case for Ranjan. I’m happy for you both.
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The two-wheeler development was to provide convenient transportation, just like kids in the USA get cars. He just grew into big bike riding as he met other bikers at common places of interest. His taking to golfing came as a total surprise to me as I had not persuaded him to though both of us are members of a club with a beautiful gold course attached to it.
A palmist told me many years ago that I would buy a motorbike, but I never did. I did have a cycle for a few years when I was a local journalist. There’s someone in the neighbourhood who owns a motorbike and the racket it makes is horrendous!
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The bike that Ranjan has is not noisy nor are those used by responsible bikers. The noisy ones, they exist here too, are used by delinquents wanting to draw attention to themselves.
I never had the inkling about riding a two-wheeled riding machine such as a moped, Vespa, or Harley-Davidson although my younger brother in his younger days was an avid motorcyclist.
How does that saying go: “To each his own!” Although I must admit I did tackle driving a twenty-foot motor home which we had driven from here to CT and if memory serves me correct, we drove it cross country as well.
Loved it although at my age, wouldn’t want to do it now.
Ah, memories of the good times.
Thanks for sharing.
Tackling the motor home for such a long drive merits a medal too!
aha the memories of times gone by
Yes, triggers keep happening all the time!