As a young girl, Shyni Rajkumar would watch her uncle, a policeman, ride around on his Bullet, and all she could think of was the day she would grow up and ride one too. Her middle-class family background, however, made her place her bike-riding dream on the backburner all through her college years. Since childhood, Rajkumar was interested in athletics and played cricket for the Kerala cricket team in the junior category. After graduating from All Saints College, Thiruvananthapuram, she went off to Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, to work as a physical education teacher at a school. That’s where she rode a friend’s bike for the first time, and it changed her life.
Soon, however, Rajkumar left her job and returned home to Kerala. “I started working in Kerala, but I couldn’t ride as much as I wanted. People would pass negative comments about me as there weren’t many woman bikers in the state. So, after a few weeks, I quit my job and started riding full-time,” she says. Regardless of the blatant ridiculing and sexist comments, Rajkumar bought the Bullet, joined a few biking clubs, but found that there were no women riders in those clubs. Some of the women she knew started asking her to teach them to ride. That’s when Rajkumar decided to start an all-women biking club called Dauntless Royal Explorers in 2016, which today has around 40 members.
Rajkumar’s love for bikes doesn’t end there. She rides for the causes she feels strongly about. In July 2017, she made a 12,000-km bike trip from Kanyakumari to Leh to raise awareness about women empowerment and violence against women. What triggered this journey was the 2011 murder and rape of a 23-year-old girl named Soumya while she was travelling in a passenger train from Ernakulam. In April 2017, the Supreme Court had dropped the murder charge against Soumya’s assailant, causing disappointment among the public. Says the 35-year-old, “One of the major reasons why women find it difficult to resist their attackers is because many are not strong enough physically. I rode to Leh because I wanted to spread the message that women need to be encouraged to become stronger mentally and physically, and shouldn’t be confined to their homes in this day and age.” She got a positive response from the people she met on her journey. “On the way, I also rode to the Gateway of India in Mumbai and stood there with placards bearing slogans about women empowerment,” she says.
Riding her bike gives her a sense of power and pride, says Rajkumar. “The Bullet is a big motorcycle, so you need physical and mental strength to ride it. It feels good that I can ride such a heavy bike so well.” It’s the same sense of empowerment and strength she wants other girls to feel too. “Girls and boys are still treated differently in our country. Boys play cricket, climb trees and walls, cycle around, but in certain parts of India, girls are made to do household chores. How will they become physically strong if they aren’t allowed to play and run around like boys?” she asks.
Article Source: Femina