Its noon and I’m sitting in Fort Wayne airport. There’s not a soul in sight. Oh wait! There is. Nah. Those are just the security guys. Hmmm, 1, 2, 3….10, cool! I’m not alone. There are 10 people waiting for their flights; not 9, not 11, 10! That’s how small this place is. Now, imagine Warsaw. Get my point?! Oh whatever.
The good thing is I’m finally going home. I had to take a cab to here from Warsaw. It cost me $120 and took an hour and 10. What could’ve easily been a boring ride turned out to be an interesting one.
The reason, the cabbie; 6’1, about 60 years of age, with a hat, steel tow industrial boots and a moustache that seemed very eager to touch the ground.
He started off with the usual questions; where you from, what you doing in Warsaw, where you going to now. Then there was silence. Until 10 minutes later came a question about the healthcare reform bill and its effect on my company’s business. Frankly, I don’t understand the entire buzz around the bill let alone its effect! I gave him some examples from India and surprisingly he bought it!
One name I saw a lot in Warsaw was “Harley Davidson Motorcycles”! Even though Warsaw was a small town it had a lot of Harleys. I saw 15 of ‘em in my company’s parking spot! So I asked this guy how do the “village people” afford it? He then explained to me how profitable it is to be in farming or in the dairy business. The average size of the land owned (around 2000 acres) to the kind of produce (Corn and Soya bean) to their rates in the future market ($6.5 a bushel for Corn and $12 a bushel for Soya bean) to the price of a steak to organic farming; even the extra income these guys get from cell phone towers, selling their land to the government for highways and airport, etc. The whole nine yards! He said the guy whose farm he worked a few year back made a cool $10,000 per month. Maybe all this is just village mumbo-jumbo. But if it is true, I think I should quit IT and go back to my ancestral ways, Haiyya ho (try saying that with a Midwest accent, lol)!
So, back to Harleys. These guys buy them brand new, ride ‘em for a few years and sell them off. At times they own more than 1. There are 5-yr old Harleys on the market with no more than 2000 miles on ‘em. That’s a steal! Too bad I can’t ride and stay in Mumbai.
Then the discussion veered toward the other brands like Indian, the history of these motorcycles and finally a recommendation! “Go for a BMW”, he said. One of the best he has ever ridden. (BTW, we are talking about the cruiser/tour ones not the sports models).
I was feelin’ so bad for the lack of choice back home. But he said you still have the BSA ones. I didn’t catch it first but then I realized he was talking about the Royal Enfield. He had driven the 500 cc one and was very impressed.
Whether it was just small talk or real, I don’t care. It was a really interesting conversation. Hoped to have more of it but I reached the airport. I paid the guy, he gave me his number for any future visits and I bid him adieu.
BTW his name’s Thomas; he’s an ex-military man and is currently into riding dirt bikes!
