Lessons from the road

“The first time I remembered my dad teaching me to ride was on horseback,” Boman Irani, co-founder of Classic Legends, shares with ET Panache. “We lived on a farm, and he asked me to jump on a horse, and when it was in full stride, I lost my balance and fell off.” Irani is one of the driving forces behind bringing heritage Indian motorcycle brands back on the road. This Father’s Day, he reflects on the impact that his father, whom he calls “a pioneer who shaped India’s motorcycling culture”, had during his lifetime and beyond. He continues, “It was then that he told me: ‘If you don’t get back on that horse right now, you will never be able to ride again.’”

The great fight

The entrepreneur’s father, Rustom S. Irani, passed away in 1989 when Irani was 19. “‘Live and ride like a traveller, and not a tourist’” is one of his pieces of advice that has stayed with Irani, reminding him to “fully engage with the world around us with curiosity”. Although he never had the chance to go on a ride with him, he thinks his father would have enjoyed the “fairy-tale-like woods” of Šumava National Park, Czech Republic — “Jawa ran in his blood and he loved Europe” — and the route from Coorg to Ooty. He describes the atmosphere, “The route’s thrilling hairpin bends that test the nerve intertwine with its forest corridors that hush you into silence amid wildlife whispers and the misty Western Ghats. It makes for one unforgettable ride.”

Words to live by

One of his earliest memories is of their shared birthday. “Cutting the cake with him when I was all of 4-years-old is one of my earliest memories,” he writes. “It was a matter of great pride and happiness for me.” He remembers him as “resilient and caring”, qualities he credits his father with instilling in him and ones he hopes to pass on to his own children: “Be kind no matter what; Hold your head high no matter where.”


“I wish I could have told him that I loved him more often when he was around,” he admits. He says his relationship with his father could be summed up by the songs, ‘The Living Years’ by Mike + The Mechanics and ‘Remember Who You Are’ from Lion King.

Today, Father’s Day, to him, “is a day to remember everything that has made you who you are and to know that your children (and people around you) are learning from what you do and not what you say”. Decades after falling off that horse, Irani continues doing what his father told him to do: He got back on.

With inputs from Glynda Alves