boobs on bikes...

its a dazed and sleepy but not so bad morning...

and then i embark onthe fascinating experience that is so significant to my every day routine...

The Bike Ride...

as a chennai girl aka 'tamizh pesum modern ponnu' (for those who know the language)...
i have been on the bike(and riding it)since i was the tender age of thirteen!

In my glorious tamizh homeland almost all middle and upper middle class young women are gifted bikes by their parents in late high school or early college years...
we still had drivers/boyfriends like girrrrrls in other cities but he would sometimes ride our bikes...:)

ok the word 'ride' so many times leaves one with a strange whirlpoolie feeling na?

What i am getting at is the story of a chennai girl on a bike on the delhi roads...it is a profoundly significant anthropological exercise in the study of 'gender' 'norms','heteronormativity','blah' and blah'. :)
baiscally its exciting and sometimes tiring...

almost everyone turns around and looks at you... and i mean it seriously when i say 'boobs on the bike' coz with a helmet...the boobs become the most obvious signifier of your 'gender' (those single quotes i meant seriously :) )...

i am not even on a huge bike...i cant wait for the day when i get my thunderbird and drive it around delhi...

so everyone to kakajis to kameenas (often the boundaries are blurred) aunties to divas (the blurred boundary thing happening here too!) give you that look...

am not sure what that look means? is it even concious? are they surprised? is it just the fact that 'boobs on bikes' is a rare occurence in this city?

i wonder...

on a daily basis, frankly, i definitely feel like this is part of my 'larger feminist project' and adds to the
self-righteous and over confident self...

and its fun... to wonder what that person is thinking and this one and that one and...
fun also to make it clear that i dont really care what they think...
the days when no one seems to be staring (mostly becuase i am in my own universe and dont notice) are relieving and boring...

and the best part is when you see another pair of 'boobs on the bike'...the immediate sense of solidarity...

aah...'let the boobs on bikes of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but petrol!'