‘Meet the Magnificent Men and their Mean Machines’ read the press invite for the 14{+t}{+h}International Jawa Day on Sunday. City’s bike aficionados, who sent the invite clearly did not anticipate a Yezdi-borne woman to ride in.
Forty-one-year-old B. Balasree, a police officer with Andhra Pradesh, is one of her kind. She owns a Yezdi 250 Classic that few women ride and she does it with poise.
“I have been riding since my university days and I have owned my bike for 16 years after I bought it from my brother.
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It was bought from my first earnings and is my first acquisition,” she said. “I have not met another woman Yezdi rider though many I know ride other popular bikes.”
Being one of her kind gets her unwarranted attention on the road which the woman handles with a mask.
“My bike and I have always found acceptance. Any woman can drive any bike but popular notions about women and bikes deter many from trying,” Ms. Balasree said. “It was surprising to see Balashree ride in. Other cities are known to have women Yezdi and Jawa riders but we have not seen one in Hyderabad,” said Mohammed Adil Riaz, one of the event’s organisers. Jawa and Yezdi riders, who have united under the banner of Jawa and Yezdi Club of Hyderabad, join those like themselves across the world on the second Sunday every July to observe the day now called the International Jawa Day.
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Over 70 persons, pride writ on their faces, gathered at Deccan Club with their machines, spruced up for display. A Yezdi 350 Twin Engine and Monarch besides a Jawa from 1960s were among rare bikes on display.