He is called the hakeem — a doctor in Urdu — of the Royal Enfield Bullet. His diagnostic ability is like the practitioners of Unani medicine who can identify an ailment just by checking a patient’s pulse.

The Bullet’s famed thump is its pulse, and he only has to listen to tell what’s wrong.

Sayeed bin Abdul Rabb has been restoring Enfield Bullets since his pre-teens. His proficiency in dealing with the motorcycle’s cast iron engines is well known not only in Hyderabad but also in Marathwada.

“I was 10 years old when I started working for marhoom [deceased] Enfield mechanic Mahbub Patel. I think I’m 75 years old now. In my 65 years as a Bullet specialist, I must have repaired thousands of Bullets and restored hundreds,” he says.

A Yafai tribesman, Mr. Rabb’s grandfather, Sayeed bin Abdul Rabb, after whom he is named, arrived in the city from Hadramaut in the modern day Yemen. Unlike his countrymen, Rabb Sr. did not join the Afwaj-e-Beqidah, the Nizam’s irregular army. Instead, he dabbled in small trades.

Room for workshop

Mr. Rabb’s workshop is a room in Troop Bazaar in the city centre. Hanging on walls is an array of spares: handlebars, silencers, wheelrims and a toghra (wall hanging) with a verse from the Quran. In a corner is a rudimentary lathe machine, used to fabricate out-of-stock spare parts for other British Classics such as Norton and Triumph.

In a conversation peppered with delightful Dakhni idioms, he says: “I’ve been repairing motorcycles for 65 years, miyan. Hau? I only need to listen to the firing [for thump] or the sound of the engine. If the tapit [tappets] make a certain sound or the bigin [corruption of the world flywheel] sounds strange, I know there is some gadbad,” Mr. Rabb says.

His customers also come from Nanded, Parli Vaijnath, Osmanabad and Latur in Maharashtra.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Syed Mohammed / Hyderabad – May 26th, 2018