Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon

A month ago, I heard this interesting incident, involving a biker dude. It seems that a reckless government bus, aka the BMTC bus, was overtaking a car from the right side, on a busy two way street. This led to a jam as vehicles from the opposite side literally came to a stand still. A biker dude parked his bike right in front of the bus, removed his ISI markwalla helmet , went to the panWalla’s stall, ordered a “meeta banarasi” paan, and opened his ciggy pack. On seeing this, the driver of the bus swore out loud, because he couldn’t move the bus. The conductor got out and asked the biker dude “politely” to move his bike so that the bus could pass. The dude” politely” pointed out that the bus was on the wrong side of the lane and that as he was not breaking any rules, he was not going to move the bike. The driver was very agitated but he did not climb out of his seat, he shouted profanities at the biker dude. The conductor, a smart guy,called a couple of passengers and they were about the push the vehicle to a side, when the biker dude exhaled and calmly said “ #@$%@#$5 %#@$& #$$ bike $#^$ $$^#@# %^ “,which loosely translated would be similar to Trinity saying “Touch me and that hand will never touch anything again.. “. Believe me when I say that no one, no one dared to touch the bike. The driver was still seething as he put the bus in reverse gear. The dude smoked his ciggy , ate his paan and went on his way. The other day, I sort of tried this stunt. Well I couldn’t help it, that black Santro over took that L- board Maruthi car (obviously being driven by a girl, who is too worried about her hair than the traffic) and was in a collision course with my bike. I braked, krrrrrrrrrrrk,and stopped right in front of the car. The showdown. I looked at the driver, who peeked out of the window and I did that thing with my eyebrows, which would mean “what’s up bro? “. The dude sitting in the front passenger seat looked out of the other window and spat out , picchak .Zzzzzzzzz the back- passenger windows opened and two more dudes looked out. I still haven’t seen my 5 month old "smartie pie" nephew and would like to teach him how to play chess and so I did the RIGHT thing . No, I did not park my bike and go looking for a paanwala.I simply gave them my best smile , backed away and made a hasty retreat. Hello, you should have seen them, they were typical goondas and me, I’m a simple masala dosa and bru filter kaapi fan. ;) Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. ~Mary Anne Radmacher