THE GREEN THREAD IN US ALL

It cloaks itself as ambition, competition, innovation or even evolution... but it is a lot more than that

- By Manaal Mahatme Photographs Kaizad Adil Darukhanawala

We never admit to it. Calling it 'respect' is palatable for others, or sometimes it is passed as 'ambition', sometimes even 'competition', when it's really admiration. It is only natural, then, that we trace their footsteps, but not because we are lost, but just to see the world from where they stand. Motorcycles are no different, or rather, the people who make them are. Motorsports, sales milestones and sometimes bikes themselves are born of this very emotion.

'Ambition'
Our country is no stranger to the success story of the Royal Enfield Classic 350. A bike that has embedded itself in our culture, family photographs and into the very soundscape of our roads... and all that in just 16 years. Being the face of 'wanderlust' and 'Got Leh'd' or being associated with the armed forces is something everyone would want, and trying to achieve that isn't a bad thing at all. So, when a giant like Honda decided to build a motorcycle in that space, maybe it wasn't an act of arrogance or imitation, but ambition.

And ambition is never a bad thing, is it? It's that spark in the chest, the fire in the belly, the quiet refusal to sit still. So, when Honda conceptualised the CB350 H'Ness, it was a statement that the Japanese giant wouldn't watch from the sidelines. And how could it? The Royal Enfield Classic 350 didn't just enter the 350cc retro space; it created it. It reshaped an entire segment and, in the process, even outsold the Bullet — the motorcycle that built Royal Enfield’s name.