I Learnt Cycling

That time I was thirteen. I still do not know how to ride a bicycle. That was a period when bicycle was a luxury. Only rich kids used to own cycles. I used to watch with jealousy when rich kids come in small cycles. Some kid would take the cycle of his parent and try to ride in the streets of my village. Since pedaling the cycle sitting on the seat is not possible they used to put one leg through the triangular bars and ride “half pedal”. We called it “monkey pedal”.

Let me tell you how I learnt to cycle. There was one tall guy in my school. We were studying eighth standard that year. His name was Annamalai. Annamalai was tall and tough guy. He used to bully others. All the class mates were afraid of him. They never disobeyed Annamalai. Who would ready to break their hand or get a knock on the head disobeying Annamalai? Certainly not me.

It was during one Diwali vacation, I suppose. We were playing in the streets in front of my house. We were playing cards. The game is not what elders play. In this game we use empty cigarette packets. The packets would be placed in a square drawn on the cemented street. Everyone should place their packets in the square. The packets would be valued differently depending on the rarity of seeing them. "Passing show" was not valued much. "Scissors" carried more value.

The players would throw a flat stone or broken pieces of cement slabs from the square. Who ever places his stone farthest will get the first chance. Then the farthest person would slide his stone first and try to take away the packets out of the square. What ever packets come out of the square is for him, then next farthest and so on. Annamalai came there with his cycle. He wanted to play with cycle chain instead of stone. Who will oppose? The cycle chain took all the packets encircling them like a snake. Within no time we all lost our possessions to the intruder Annamalai. He came he saw and he conquered.

We were waiting for Annamalai to take leave of us. But Annamalai did not have the slightest intension of leaving us to enjoy our game. So we stopped playing and started discussing about the cycle he brought. Then he started boasting about his cycling skills and started showing his skills, maneuvering some stunts like cycling with one hand free, sitting on the handle bar when the cycle is on the move etc. Then he was asking everyone,” Can any one do any stunt?” We were keeping quiet. We never even got a chance to drive a cycle, forget about stunts. He shook me and asked me if I could do. I said in meek voice that I did not know to drive. He laughed loudly and gave an expression as though I was an amoeba. Then he pulled my collar and asked me to drive the cycle. He threatened with severe consequences if I refuse.

I started preparing the answer for the questions my mother would ask in case of an accident. I was thinking of ways to hide the bruises I was going to get. I took the cycle and put one leg inside the triangular bar and pushed the pedal, simultaneously moving up. I could feel the difference. I felt the movement very smooth. To my surprise the cycle did fall or hit Palayamkottai patti. I felt elated that I could drive the bike without any prior experience. “Oh my God, as soon as I get the job after completing my graduation I should buy a bike”. Then there I saw the wall of Thonder Nainar temple falling down. Not only was the wall, even the other houses around falling down. Thud! I realized I was on the road with the bike over my one leg. I wondered how I fell down. The only embarrassment was the laughter I heard when I fell down. But I was sure that day that I could ride any bike with much confidence.