A Human after all

Love for bikes (7)

When I'm in the city, I barely visit my house anyway. I even sleep in my office, sometimes. The house that I built thinking my parents and brothers will shift here with me. But since my younger brother, Ammar's friends and college were there, he refused to come, and Ammi, baba had to stay there with him. My elder brother is 2.5 years older than me, he's turning 25 in like 5 months. He's the only married one among us, he got married last year. Bhabi is a wonderful woman. She settled in the family pretty quickly.

I try to visit them on Eid, or other holidays. This time, I promised myself I will surprise them on bhabi's birthday, which is coming in about a month. I've been preparing a few gifts and looking at some restaurants where we can celebrate it on a small scale. Birthdays aren't really a thing for us. But living away, these are the only days we can meet, so it just becomes a way to gather.

I've always loved cats. One of my friend's relative was giving one away so I adopted it, when i was still living with my parents. She is a beautiful black cat, having a tan undercoat which compliments her yellow and green eyes. They had named her Pixie, because of the golden highlights that she has, which apparently look like pixie dust to them. I call her a lot of names, but Pixie is the official one.

She is the most beautiful and loving fur ball I've ever seen. She made really good friends with me. I used to shower it, brushed its teeth, fed it, we made alot of fun memories together.

She's hella clumsy and never fails to make me laugh. We stayed together for about 3 years if not more.

I still goof around and play with her, whenever I visit my parents. Now she only gets bathed once in a month or two, and she's pretty happy about it. She hated water and still does.

I brought her with me when I shifted to my new house here in Karachi, but I had to go out of city a number of times because of work. Which made her pretty sick. So I decided it would be better if she stays at Ammi Baba's, they have a few complaints about her. She keeps making monstrous sounds and meows all the time, especially a few hours after I leave, keeps sitting at the main gate and runs out of it, every chance she gets. But other than that, she's a well behaved, independent feline. I smiled thinking of her. And quickly dialled Ammi's number. I only do video calls with Ammi.

"Assalamualaikum Ammi kesi hain aap?" (Assalamualaikum mum, how are you) I said as soon as she picked up.

"Allah ka shuker beta, mein bilkul theek hun, tum batao kya ker rhay thay?" (Praise be/Thanks to Allah son, I'm completely fine, what about you? What were you doing?)" She asked with the sweetest smile, I could see Pixie sitting on the dining table behind her.

"Nothing Ammi, I was at work, just had lunch, Have you eaten?"

"Jee beta, mein kha chuki hun, aur kaam kesa ja rha hai?" (Yes son, I've eaten, and how's your work going?) We had a little mother-son chit chat for about an hour when I realised the time, it was past asr. Ammar came to visit Ammi too, since it was friday. So she had to go as well. We exchanged Salams and off we went.

"Azlan" I said walking into the office building after having my lunch.
"Han?(yeah?)" He asked looking towards me.

"Kahan thay? (Where were you?)"

"Went home to change" he said, "and also to save myself from your anger. You know, we should just forgive our brothers in faith, we don't have to be angry, it doesn't hurt anyone else, anyway. Just you, and me" he said rubbing his back dramatically.

I made a face, "Schedule dikha dena mujhe jab tumhara drama khatam hojaye (show me the schedule when you're done with your drama)" I said and went to my room patting his back. And laughed, ofcourse, when he couldn't see me.

After knowing the schedule for today, I felt relieved, it wasn't very busy.

I got to know that one of my old friends, Sarim, was in the city. He called for a little cup of coffee and to catch up on the latest events and stuff. He came here in search for some good employees for his company back in Dubai. I'm going to see him in about two hours.

I and Azlan have to attend a wedding in the evening, so I have to be quick.

While driving towards the newly opened cafe that Sarim chose. I heard the silencer of the Kawasaki ZX14R limited edition, 2015 model. Although my windows were sound proof, its voice came through them. Not that I'm complaining.

There are only about 300 of these bikes in the world. And seeing one here in Pakistan is a nice feeling overall.

Sports bikes aren't super good to be bought just for fun, like I agree with it. It's smart if someone buys them as an asset, as an investment. But some people, for example, me, have a thing.

Sports bikes are probably the only useless bought things of mine, and probably the only unnecessary thing that I bought for myself.

I won't lie, I've had an obsession with motorbikes for the longest time. I inherited it from Baba. I've kept almost every single sports bike that has ever existed.

The oldest one of them was the Honda CB750 (1969). Its last model is from 2007. It was good enough to be kept in a museum, but not one to ride around the city.
But to be fair, Ammi never liked bikes, she believes that cars are way more practical and safe. She does not like an inch of the road experience that sports bikes provide.

So, I keep my bikes just for the late night rides with my little biker group, I know none of those guys personally, but they usually rally around the city in their sports bikes. I join them on some saturday nights.

I currently own a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, it isn't the best one out there, but I personally love the experience. Except that its engine heats up pretty quickly.

Well, thinking of those bikes and the rides, I reached the cafe, and saw Sarim sitting in one of the tables. He hasn't changed one bit since I last saw him.