Holy Enfield!

image courtesy of Prateek Sadhukhan

And you thought Harley guys worshiped their motorcycles?  They've got nothing on some people in a village in India.

I received an e-mail the other day from Prateek Sadhukhan, AKA "Drifter" over in India.  He's one of the twelve regular readers here and I always pay attention when I hear from one of you.   Prateek wanders around his part of India on his redoubtable Royal Enfield seeing the remarkable sites of his country.   Prateek writes:

"I thought I will send you a photo of a temple in India where the deity is actually a Royal Enfield Motorcycle. This February I was on a 2000km ride through the deserts of India mainly in a state called Rajasthan. I came across this roadside temple.  And since I ride a Royal Enfield I had to take a look.

The story goes like this:

A person called "Om Bana" was riding his bike one night and hit a tree on the highway and died. The police confiscated the bike.  Legend has it that the next day the bike was found near the tree. The police of-course thought that it was some prank and so came and took the bike again and drained the petrol and kept it in their yard. The bike was again found near the tree next day. And soon people started worshiping the bike and soon it happened that most travelers on this road pay homage here before continuing.

Well this gives a whole new meaning to the term 'worshiping ones motorcycle'."

I was tempted at first to laugh at the absurdity of those poor villagers in far off India, what rubes!  Worshiping a motorcycle?  They could have at least chosen an MV Agusta or Moto Guzzi V8.  But then I remembered that in America we have the Shrine of the Miracle Tortilla  so we've got no room to talk in this country.