Diarios de Bicycleta..

Stuck in an office in front of my laptop for hours together suffocation was a given. I had a getaway planned. Stealing Su’s bike for the day seemed now to be a brilliant master plan. Something V said earlier in the day made me want to bike along the Mississippi. So I took (not to be confused with the clan of hobbits) the cycle and headed out on the biking trail. It’s been ages since I biked to be precise not since high school. As I went down a slope I remembered the child in me feeling thrilled as the air caressed my face and gave me such pleasure that has been missing from my mundane life. I remembered the promise I had made to myself looking at adults all around years ago that I would never grow up. Never be responsible ever! But the last two years have seen those promises forgotten and put me in situations which have forced me to grow up and not remember any of those promises of what I wanted from life. I did not even realize that I had grown up till that air talked sense into me.

Going back a long way I remember now how I learnt to cycle. My dad did not have the time to teach me and since we lived in apartment complexes in the heart of cities throughout my childhood getting a cycle had the same chances as Morarji Desai getting up in the morning and forgetting to drink his pee. So during my summer vacations when we migrated south to visit my grandparents I convinced my grandpa to rent me a bike and get one of his “fans” to teach me to bike. Four days of efforts bore fruit and I was able to bike the year I went into my fourth grade. It wasn’t till my dad got a job in Coimbatore that I got my first bike- a Hercules MTB. Coimbatore wasn’t a very metropolitan hugely populated city and for the first time we were in an independent house. I took great care of it and formed my own biking gang that terrorized the streets of Coimatore- the 7th grade punks. The year I went into my 8th grade did not start that well. My bike got stolen when I was “holidaying” in Puddukottai with my grandparents. I had to walk to school to my horror (it took me 5 whole minutes instead of 2…a kid can take only that much!). I started pestering my dad to get me another cycle. The rage was the Hercules ( don’t remember the name but it had shock absorbers in the front and on the back) that was priced at 2000 buckaroos. I started,subtly, brainwashing my dad into buying that for me. My dad had just been laid of then and I used to find my mom crying a lot everyday when I got back home in the “Swamyroom..( I seriously thought my dad was terminally ill or something.. Moms!!). And for the first time in my life that I can remember I found dad traveling by bus. Things were looking bleak. But all that was on my mind was the cycle. Somehow I did not get the gravity of the situation and was secure that mom and dad will take care of things (other than my moms unexplained crying they never let me feel something was amiss.. Parents!!). Anyways after two months of pestering I got to go to the street of cycle shops (this place is famous in Coimbatore.. my memory of names ….)
And I compromised on the Hercules Rockshox ( with the shock absorbers only in the front !!) and I cycled back on it 5 miles to save on the costs of the autorickshaw. She was my partner in crime for the next five years.

We moved to Chennai later that year with my dad back in business after 6 months and here I found a new partner in crime both for me and my cycle. Ant and I started a friendship that has I do not have words for. Looking back at the start of this friendship I remember a quirky thing- we played cricket in my backyard and I was in a lunghi..:D. Through the summer months ( all ppl from Chennai- I refer to the months of may june and july!.. Others who might be confused Chennai has four seasons like any other place- summer summer summer and summer) we would cycle everywhere. We also made big plans to cycle 20 miles to Mahabalipuram on a “foggy” ”smoggy” bhogi morning but had to cancel because of others ditching in the last moment..(my first experience at being ditched after a lot of planning..;) ). When I went into the 11th grade I got busy with my IIT preps and fergot about my cycle. One day when I got home I saw that the cycle was missing. I ran up to my mom saying its happened again my cycle has been stolen again! My mom goes – don’t be silly who would steal the piece of junk .. we sold it of to the “raddiwala” months ago. I hadn’t even noticed. I hadn’t bade my goodbyes. I hadn’t kissed her on the handlebar and bid farewell to my closest aid. I was so angry with my parents that they hadn’t consulted me on this .. since then I havn’t really cycled bearing the odd circumstance here and there.

All those things came back to me today as I went round on Su’s bike ( hell probably say theres something “smelly” bout this…;)].. reading famous fives a long time ago I decided that I would cycle the country side and eat ice-cream at the local village store and true to my dream I finished up with a “legendary” chocolate shake at Ben and jerry’s.. siggggggh.. life is so complicated now that I did not want to ( I stopped in between and lay on the grass by the Mississippi) get up at all .. all I wanted to do was to stare up above the sky so high and look at the passing clouds in solitude..