Back in the past during 80's when Jackie Shroff had much flaunted his Yamaha Rajdoot RD 350, a two stroke and 6 speed manual transmission, milling 30.5bhp at 6750RPM with low torque of 27 bhp, the ignition to the adrenaline rush among the youngsters and some mid 50 grandpas had already been kicked in India. And though even after three decades when the architectural, geography, bilateral friends, rocket science, preferences, non preferences changed, the enthusiasm towards the motor biking or I must say the love towards the wheels didn't have much impact. However, it just evolved. India just evolved.
Gone are those days, when uncle ji used to happily booked a 100cc motorcycle for his daily commute to office and home and proudly used to say, "1 litre main 100 km deti hai" (100KMPL is the fuel efficiency). But things have changed now. Even a tech nerd today working in country's fine IT company prefer to chose a ride for himself that he may flauntly say, "blah blah bhp, blah blah tourque, blah blah top speed and blah blah 0 to 100kmph". So clearly it is an era of performance and just no bull shit further.
I started learning the art and discipline of biking from Pulsar 150cc. Oh! I remember that day, when dad bought me that classic P150 for me. So my commuting from home to college was now easier ... actually SPLENDID. Got some biker buddies because of it and a girlfriend too (though she left because of my extensive motorcycle addiction). So what I am trying to say is that now I know that biking is not all about pleasure, it is also a reason and a emotion with which you can get attached to various people in your life time. (You need some stories later to tell your grand children haan).
Gradually, when market and technology evolved, more advanced and meaner machines entered. later during 2009, I got my hands on P220 (gifted by dad again). This was faster as compared to P150, so here I learned to respect the speed. And then came the mighty and the naughty NS. Dad gifted P200NS to my younger brother on his birthday this time. He rode it for I guess a year and that too only 8000 Kms and then he had to shift to Dubai in 2014 for his professional needs. Which obviously meant that NS is mine now. Later then I joined Naked Wolves Delhi chapter, from where I learned; Brotherhood. NS is still with us and bro is now riding these days after his return from Dubai .... :-)
NS was the bike which I initially thought of ugly looking, no value for money and phobia to Indian manufacturer brand, which was later proved wrong after my successful 3 years transition with it. By now I was a hardcore rider and my social walls usually gets flooded with biking, biking and biking.
On December 2016, Dominar was launched, which I had a glance on YT once. Again just like NS, this one too didn't startled me in the beginning. Till January 2017, I didn't much cared about it. On 23 January 2017, I went to SVC to service the NS. The service manager told me to wait for at least 3 hours. I chose to visit their merchandise pit to have a chit chat with manager to know more about the new NS (The new NS was launched too that time). And suddenly when I entered the showroom bay, the midnight Blue Bulky Devil Dominar was glaring me, standing on the paddock right at the corner. Went straight to it, grabbed the handle with both hands and Maaannn! (Imagine the feeling you were riding NS for 3 years and suddenly you are sitting on Dominar).
Just because of its looks, it took me 5 minutes to make my mind for it. I didn't much cared about performance and reliability aspects, as NS always vouched for Bajaj. Came back home with the Dominar marketing leaflet and made the online payment of Rs. 9000/- at 10:45PM on 23 January.
Now, like all the waiting period, mine was too impatient, but unlike others, I was doing things in reverse. After the booking of Dominar, I was doing all the researches, watching Vlogs, reading blogs and collecting all materials, which normally people do before with an intent to make decisions. Nevertheless, here I can say now, 'I didn't do any mistake :-)'.
And finally the day arrived. February 5, 2017 was the day that started for me with an SMS from Bajaj, stating that your bike has arrived to the dealer and second, the call directly from the dealer. So if you ask my wife the volume of happiness and the size of that giant smile on me that day, she would definitely give you the comprehensive elaboration. So here I was at the dealer's, from fulfilling all the necessary formalities to crouching on MY Dominar for the first time. Believe me! That feeling when you buy something from your own hard earned money and that something for which you've waited for long cannot be elaborated with words. It just needs to be felt.
So after the Pooja and tilak ceremony and some photo shoots, my Dominar is now officially a part of my family now.
So 5 February was the day when me and my family members celebrated the arrival of Dominar, and now it shall be the date which thousands of Dominar Owner will celebrate from now on. I was quite very much emphasized with the Naked Wolves model, which is why I wanted to have something similar for Dominar Owners too. With just 2 members initially (Me and Jai Bhatia), exactly at 10PM on 5 February, I created the exclusive group for Dominar owners in Facebook. We kept the name of the group as D.O.G (Dominar Owners Group), but then it got changed to DOC (Dominar Owners Club) lately.
Initially our group rides usually did not turned up well. Our first official ride was done with only 3 members (including me) from India Gate to GFR (Gurgaon Faridabad road). We kept on riding for our official rides and started vouching for DOC across the bikers fraternity. Joined club rides with other groups and then, the fruits of hardwork started showing up. Dominar owners from Delhi started sending request to join the club in Facebook.
By now after a month, we were a group of 65 Dominar Owners in Delhi, with a dedicated Whatsapp group and Facebook group for members chit chat. Then one day I received a request from one of the Dominar Owners from other state, saying that he wanted to open and handle DOC in his chapter. That moment I started visualizing the vision that I had seen for this group.
From 5 Feb 2017 we have made a strong fraternity, exclusive for Dominar Owners, with trademarked brand name, a dedicated website, Exclusive 23 Chapters across India and a Fan base page in Facebook and Instagram. Our fraternity is growing and spreading like fire. Recently one of our fan said, "My first preference to buy Dominar is to join DOC". With such love and appreciation towards our fraternity, the entire success credits goes to each and every member of DOC.
It's just not me, nor it's just for the Admins of chapters, the DOC is for every Dominar Owners out there.
Because we are DOC. We are Brothers!
Thanks
Ashish Rana
