A JAWA STATE OF MIND

We take to the saddles to spend some quality time with two gorgeous — and very different — Jawas

- Janak Sorap

There are two things I realised while writing this story. The first was that motorcycles are excellent teachers, and old ones are especially good at teaching you about history. Every time you dig deep into the past of a machine’s origin, you’ll discover a trove of information that stays longer in your mind than anything you learned at school. The second thing was that old motorcycles teach you about patience. In today’s world, humans beings are evolving to a state where we almost want to get ahead of time itself. Life has become so fast-paced that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to live in the slow lane.

In the case of siblings such as these bikes, their DNA might be similar, but it can never be identical. This is why the two motorcycles here belong to the same gene pool, but have undergone a restructuring that has led to both having completely different character traits.

Back in the day, when Jawas were sold in India, the brand was known for its reliability, engineering, ease of maintenance, economy and ruggedness. The Royal Enfield Bullet was the only other motorcycle of any note on the streets back then. The Jawas offered something that the Bullet lacked — the fun factor. The Jawa was the performance bike of India in its day, and was the preferred choice of many young bikers. That said, the first one here is a Jawa 250 Typ 353, which sold briskly, with its ‘ding’ engine note soon to be heard across the nation. The second one is a Jawa 350 Typ 360, rare and limited in number since it was an import from Jawa’s home in Czechoslovakia.