Women's Day: These Bullet Queens ride the beast in style

VADODARA: Two years ago, when she decided to buy a motorcycle, her family members objected and asked her to buy a gear-less two-wheeler like other girls use. But that didn’t deter Ritu Kaur from chasing her dream of riding a bullet. “Finally I bought a bullet from my earning. It was the happiest moment in my life,” Kaur said.
But she isn’t the only woman to ride a bullet in the city. A group of six women called ‘Bullet Queens’ who have shed the conventional image to scorch the city roads with the mean machine. “Who says that only big boys can ride a bullet? Even women can handle the burly bike and our group has shown that. We just don’t ride our bullets but own the streets in style,” Kaur, a swimming coach in Navrachana International, told TOI.

“I was in class VIII when I first rode a motorbike and have been driving only bikes since then,” she said. After Ritu bought a bullet, she posted several photos of her rides on the social media.

“Another Barodian Richa Patel, who drives a bullet, reached out to me after seeing the photos. It was then that I learnt that some other girls from the city too drive bullets,” Ritu said. That was how the Bullet Queens group took shape.

Twenty-four-year-old Richa Patel, who is youngest in the group, said that she got passion of riding bullet from her father. “My family supported my decision to go for a bullet, but I many tried to discourage me too. They used to say that women shouldn’t ride such heavy machines, but I used to laugh them off,” Patel, who also participates in professional motorbike rallies, said.

The Bullet Queens group has now become quite popular in the town and is invited for many events including Independence Day and Republic Day rallies. “We have been breaking the conventional image of bullet riders and now the acceptance of women driving heavy machines is on its way up. Driving this royal machine is something that we all share as a passion. I am sure we will get more members in our group in the coming days,” said Seema Shah, 45, who also runs a car service station in Nizampura.