Music Teacher’s Suvega/ಸಂಗೀತ ಮೇಷ್ಟ್ರ ಸುವೇಗಾ

Music Teacher’s Suvega

In India of the 1970s-80s, Mopeds were very popular apart from bicycles. Besides the popular Kinetic Luna, TVS, other mopeds are Enfield Mofa, Sportif, Hero Majestic, Vespa Ciao and Suvega. They were designed to run at a very low cost and were more or less bicycle models except for the 40-50 cc petrol engine – the same bicycle seat to sit on, luggage stand/metallic seat at the back, – some Mopeds had no horn, instead a cycle bell, no shock absorbers, with spokes for the wheels. They fortunately used to have a head light, albeit dim. No tail lamp, only a red reflector. Again, the engine also had no cover, the petrol nozzle, spark plug etc. were all exposed. They had pedals quite similar to a bicycle – you had to put on the center-stand to start the engine and pedal hard five-six rounds while holding and letting go of a left-hand lever. If you ran out of petrol, you could still pedal and move forward. – This was the general system. During that period, these innovative contributions by N.K. Firodia, the inventor of Luna, and others are truly commendable for manufacturing and providing employment in the Indian vehicle sector. The Suvega was built in Tirupati with the help of Motobecane technology from France. They had absolutely no shock absorbers. A sprung-seat suspension for the rear and a simple greased-spring suspension for front-forks.

Our music master used to travel from about a mile in his Suvega Moped to teach music to our dear friend Raju’s house. He was just above 40 years of age, fair, frail body, slightly buck teeth, sandalwood vermilion, dhoti and Shirt and music books in wire bag. He was a good Carnatic musician. Both Raju and his elder sister received music lessons from him. We, who were usually playing cricket or something else on the road, kept one eye on Raju’s house when he visited them. 15-20 minutes after his music lesson started, after ensuring no one was there we used to start start playing our mischief on the poor Moped! Deflating Suvega tires is a very easy task for us. Once the master comes out after rendering his lessons, we coolly used to provide expert comments that the tyre must be punctured. We would be happier and more satisfied, if out of respect to the music teacher, Raju himself pushed the moped to the puncture shop without letting the Music teacher push it. On another day, we just disconnected the spark plug wire. If the master put the center stand and pedaled as hard as possible to start it, we would watch it while hiding from him and make fun of his situation. Finally, the teacher would check the petrol, get upset that the petrol is not empty, remove the center stand pedal away the moped like a cycle. Manual pedaling of the Moped was not easy and we used to giggle endlessly seeing him madly work on the pedals. Some other day, we just loosened the spark plug or totally steal the spark plug or remove the chain off the sprocket – ultimately somehow ensuring that the Moped cannot be started. Yet another day we would remove the plastic pipe connecting the petrol pump and the engine. As soon as the petrol regulator is opened it was fun to see the petrol pouring out on the road. All these are our childhood pranks which would have made even Lord Krishna really proud! Even though poor Raju knew all this, he would be helpless to say anything to us in the fear of losing our friendship in the process. This is how the master suffered from our pranks for about 1-2 months. By that time, the clever Master also understood these pranks. He became adept at finding out what we did, and skilled enough to fix the issues on his own. But to his credit, he mostly tolerated everything with a smile and very few times with a frown, and never complained to any of our parents. Raju also begged us to stop these pranks. At last, the Master had earned our respect, for real! We stopped these pranks. While the master visited Raju’s place, we helped him by parking the Moped on its stand when he arrived, starting it by pedaling while he was departing, etc. By performing all these acts of repentance, we got ourselves freed from our sins!

-Ochava