Winding back 24 years, I remember well my first bicycle and the excitement which I felt when I got rid of the support wheels (attached to the real wheel) and graduated to two-wheel balanced riding like the grown-ups - and all the 'showed-off' pride which came from my having been the first among those my age-group in the building society to have done so. Growing up further, I got gifted a more 'grown-up' bike by my parents as a result of good academic performance at primary school and I would cycle out into the road and explore around the area which I lived in, occasionally race with three other fellows or restrict to a patch to practice the "cool" moves which often involved riding hands-free (cellphones weren't around at Bombay back then), the wheelies etc. It was at this point in time that I found my best friend in my bicycle when I was still only starting to learn to play cricket and hated the fact that older kids didn't let me bowl. So while they sat talking about bollywood stars and films (yuck) when it got a bit dark and they weren't up for 'hide-and-seek', superhero-supervillain scenario dramatizations or 'chor-police' I discovered the feeling of freedom associated with cycling all by myself. It took me into a mode of self-reflective meditation and introspection.
Thoughts, feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams had to be cycled everyday with the negative sides poured out into the road as kinetic energy transferred into the cycle's frame through the pedals from my feet and then into the road while positivity would be inhaled with breaths of the draft which I felt up against the surface of my face when I cut into it throughout the ride. If I didn't feel the draft strong enough, I would pedal harder till I did feel the continued minimum 'comfort-pressure' pressed up on my face. That feeling was even workable to temporarily cheat the uncomfortable humidity at Bombay back then when pollution was nothing to speak of in comparison with the present when it tends to kill all good spirit of cycling.
And then I grew up to a full-sized bicycle years later when the aforementioned "friend" was stolen. Me and the new bike had a good friendship going after then with me having attained quite good control of Captain Planet's favourite vehicle and 'she' had started complying with more and more of what I asked of her while I loved her well by regular maintainance in return. (I wasn't quite the active grease-monkey back then, thanks to parental pressures due to the evils of high-school examination rat-race culture having reached an annoying peak at the point in time - so I just took her to the mechanic, who anyway did a better job than I would've done given his ample supply of choice spare-parts and tools.) Then I turned 18, moved states for degree college and stopped cycling - and physical exercise!
Present day, Bristol: Bike city.
I inherited a bicycle owned by the previous tenant the very day I moved into this accomodation two months ago. While I did express a half-hearted gratitude to the owner of the bicycle - my procrastination got the better of me and degenerated into indifference till the first day of work: when I realized that although my residence was "quite close" to work - a feasible bus route was lacking from this location alone while daily bus commuting in this country can well make one feel a hole in the pocket given a penny-wise (I've been pound-foolish) conscience like my own. So work is 1.2 miles away, involves uphill walks and can take upto 30 mins (24 on googlemaps!) and irritations; depending on the general early morning mood on a day. So I woke early on Day 2 and with a spontaneous gush of God-given drive grabbed the nearest rag and started wiping the dust off this silver avenger which still stands at the entrance to the back-yard and is supported against my window. I found a little pump - a kind I'd never used before - fixed it and got pumping. And WoW. What design! It was all inflated in a minute, despite having felt dead flat when I was still struggling with fixing the pump to the mouth of the air-valve. It then struck me that the bike must have internally thicker tyres with pneumatic tubes of very low diameter. After a mild struggle with fitting the bike though the split door on the way out, a fully suited-up me popped on the reflective jacket, the helmet which came along and my sunglasses. And I hopped on whilst realizing that I must be looking quite comedic to the passer-by......but the hell with it. Also, it didn't matter when I came to notice the gears along with realisation of the fact that I had never ridden a geared bike before. However, I was excited at having decided for myself that I was going to enjoy my return to the bicycle today and Nothing was going to take that away from me!
So I called upon The Force and pedalled on with that wonderful feeling returning again. Only way better this time...!!! But I will write about this lovely city and its bicycle-friendly culture soon enough in another post as I must now go to bed in order to recharge for another lovely bicycle filled week.........
Thoughts, feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams had to be cycled everyday with the negative sides poured out into the road as kinetic energy transferred into the cycle's frame through the pedals from my feet and then into the road while positivity would be inhaled with breaths of the draft which I felt up against the surface of my face when I cut into it throughout the ride. If I didn't feel the draft strong enough, I would pedal harder till I did feel the continued minimum 'comfort-pressure' pressed up on my face. That feeling was even workable to temporarily cheat the uncomfortable humidity at Bombay back then when pollution was nothing to speak of in comparison with the present when it tends to kill all good spirit of cycling.
And then I grew up to a full-sized bicycle years later when the aforementioned "friend" was stolen. Me and the new bike had a good friendship going after then with me having attained quite good control of Captain Planet's favourite vehicle and 'she' had started complying with more and more of what I asked of her while I loved her well by regular maintainance in return. (I wasn't quite the active grease-monkey back then, thanks to parental pressures due to the evils of high-school examination rat-race culture having reached an annoying peak at the point in time - so I just took her to the mechanic, who anyway did a better job than I would've done given his ample supply of choice spare-parts and tools.) Then I turned 18, moved states for degree college and stopped cycling - and physical exercise!
Present day, Bristol: Bike city.
I inherited a bicycle owned by the previous tenant the very day I moved into this accomodation two months ago. While I did express a half-hearted gratitude to the owner of the bicycle - my procrastination got the better of me and degenerated into indifference till the first day of work: when I realized that although my residence was "quite close" to work - a feasible bus route was lacking from this location alone while daily bus commuting in this country can well make one feel a hole in the pocket given a penny-wise (I've been pound-foolish) conscience like my own. So work is 1.2 miles away, involves uphill walks and can take upto 30 mins (24 on googlemaps!) and irritations; depending on the general early morning mood on a day. So I woke early on Day 2 and with a spontaneous gush of God-given drive grabbed the nearest rag and started wiping the dust off this silver avenger which still stands at the entrance to the back-yard and is supported against my window. I found a little pump - a kind I'd never used before - fixed it and got pumping. And WoW. What design! It was all inflated in a minute, despite having felt dead flat when I was still struggling with fixing the pump to the mouth of the air-valve. It then struck me that the bike must have internally thicker tyres with pneumatic tubes of very low diameter. After a mild struggle with fitting the bike though the split door on the way out, a fully suited-up me popped on the reflective jacket, the helmet which came along and my sunglasses. And I hopped on whilst realizing that I must be looking quite comedic to the passer-by......but the hell with it. Also, it didn't matter when I came to notice the gears along with realisation of the fact that I had never ridden a geared bike before. However, I was excited at having decided for myself that I was going to enjoy my return to the bicycle today and Nothing was going to take that away from me!
So I called upon The Force and pedalled on with that wonderful feeling returning again. Only way better this time...!!! But I will write about this lovely city and its bicycle-friendly culture soon enough in another post as I must now go to bed in order to recharge for another lovely bicycle filled week.........
