Biker mulgi: Thane resident leads Shobha Yatra on a bullet for Gudi Padwa 2022

Priyanka Patil Gaikar rides on her colleague’s bullet in Thane on Friday. Pic/Sameer Markande

New year, new beginnings - that's how Gudi Padwa 2022 will go down in Thane resident Priyanka Patil Gaikar's diary. After years of longingly eyeing women in radiant nauvaris, saffron phetas and cool aviators, cruising through the bylanes of Girgaum on their bikes during Gudi Padwa, the 32-year-old, too, led a shobha yatra at her Wagle Estate office on a shiny black bullet, yesterday. The rally was organised as part of the company Infra.Market's pre-Gudi Padwa celebrations.

Like Gaikar, today, scores of women will deck up in their nine-yard paithanis and ride out to usher in the Maharashtrian New Year, after two years of muted revelries. The shobha yatras also feature a medley of larger-than-life figurines of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, lezim dancers, dhol-tasha performers, gymnasts, and men, women and children celebrating in their fineries. Along with colourful memories of gudis hanging on windows and balconies, Gaikar recalls passing by the vibrant shobha yatras while shuttling from Thane to her ajji's Sewri residence, where her aunts, uncles and cousins would gather annually. "Initially, women would walk with flags in the processions, but soon they started taking over dhol-tasha and lezim performances. Since 2003-2004, we started seeing women bikers joining in, too. It was so inspiring to see them, riding shoulder to shoulder with the men," reminisces Gaikar who belongs to the Agri community in Alibaug.

Gaikar and her colleagues flag off the Gudi Padwa rally

While she wanted to be one of them, there weren't too many options in Thane. For the past few years, the mother of two has been visiting a rally in the vicinity, where her 10-year-old gymnast daughter performs stunts. So, ahead of the festival this year, the admin executive pitched the idea of a Gudi Padwa shobha yatra to her management, and they promptly got on board. Born with an athletic gene - she's a national-level yachting champion and her father, a retired weightlifter - Gaikar is no stranger to bikes. She's been riding a scooty for years, but whenever she tried her hand at the bullet, her family members fussed over her getting hurt. "So, I secretly started practising on my cousin Pankaj Jadhav's bullet. It was a 1983 model, and after a couple of tries, I felt at ease with the motorcycle. For the rally, I rode my colleague Vikrant Kusalkar's bullet, and it felt so good," she chirps.

The enthusiast practised for a week in her office compound. "If I practise at home, they're constantly worried about me falling down, but when I'm outside, I know that whether or not I fall, I will have to do it somehow," she asserts.

Gaikar has been practising riding the bullet for a week

On Friday, donning an onion-pink nauvari, embellished with a beaded mangalsutra and a long kanthi, Gaikar led the celebratory rally with four other women colleagues - Trupti Ramesh Dalvi, Lajkanwar Baid, Darshana Shankarlal Panchal and Madhuri Ramdas Sathe on scooty. Lezim dancers, dhol-tasha performers and other bikers also followed. These women are not the first to kickstart the tradition, certainly not the last, and yet, even today, eyebrows are raised when women want to ride out wearing a nauvari. "People are like, ‘Saree and bike, really? Will you be able to manage? Tereko jamega kya [would it suit you]?' During Shivaji Maharaj's time, women would wear nauvari and go horseback-riding, so why can't we ride a bullet?"
she signs off.

Be saree, not sorry

. First-timers, you can try wearing a stitched nauvari instead of draping the nine-yard garment. The stitched variety is akin to slipping on a salwar.
. Ensure you pin up well so that you're comfortable moving around and don't have to worry about the garment slipping off. When you're riding, your attention should be on balancing and the road.
. If this is the first time you're riding a bike, do mock trials wearing the nauvari.