“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long supressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”
That is an excerpt from “Tryst with Destiny”, a speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India’s Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947. Motoroids’ tryst with destiny started on a 15th of August too, the year was 2009. At the stroke of that midnight, we awakened to life and freedom and started on our unending quest to quench our thirst, the thirst to breathe in a naturally aspirated manner.
68 years is a long time, half a decade can’t be measured on a clock either. To celebrate these free revving times that have gone by and in anticipation of even better days which will follow, we decided to embark on a little journey. Two Quadruped species from Germany and a Bi-pedal extra-terrestrial from Japan joined us.
The plan was to leave the City of Bombay (It was still called Bombay back then) at the crack of dawn with our German henchmen and liaise with the Martian on two feet in Pune. Little did we know, we weren’t the only ones with a plan like that. Leaving the city behind was a task, as we encountered a sea of like-minded people headed in the same direction. Our German friends ensured we were cocooned in luxury, pampered in opulence and soaked in patriotism, as they carried a crisp audio system, which kept our morale high throughout the campaign. They took the lead as we fought our way through the herd.