Bicycle diaries

               It is a great source of embarrassment for us, but fact remains that we hadn't acquired the skills to balance ourselves confidently on a bicycle until we were in our mid-teens. We had several attempts with it ever since a kid, but for some reason we couldn’t get the hang of, well, hanging in on it.

Chapter 1: Introduction

               

We got our first bicycle when six or seven. Memory fades us as to when exactly. It was a BSA Champ, with trainer wheels. We loved it, as it had a colourful seating with a high back rest. We can vividly recall in our mind's eye the trip to bring the new thing home. Our seven year old self was careful enough to leave the plastic wrapping on the seats intact, although it caused us to slip on the seats occasionally. And so, we took our first ride in the uneven patch of path leading onto our home of then. We never mustered enough courage to try after removing the trainer wheels, we were just happy to ride around in the safety it offered.

Chapter 2: Big boys' league

               

As our itinerant lifestyle carried us over to a new place, we had grown in years and the old BSA was below our league. We had at home our pitAshrI's bicycle – an Atlas - , which to our then little self, looked fit to be ridden only by giants (pun intended). So we had to come to terms with leapfrogging straight from the kids' league to the big-boys'. This was large quantum jump for us. We were also quite intimidated by the cross bar frame in the bicycle and the potential cause for hurt that it held. This meant that, for our height we couldn't just turn our leg over the seat and sit. In fact, the technique is that we had to pedal up with just one foot, with the other dragging for a few hits on the ground. Once the bicycle had gained sufficient momentum one had to just turn the other leg over the seat and sit. That is how it is done in our part of the world. We had the fortune of learning what sufficient momentum was the hard way, when we tried to hop over a little too fast and hit the ground with the same hurry.

Chapter 3: Big boys' league continued

               

So every weekend we used to make the long journey with our pitAshrI riding us in pillion to a huge open field surrounded by a few bamboo trees. The purpose was to impart the essential Man skill of riding a bicycle with ease. We were a very slow learner, but thanks to our pitAshrI's abundant patience progress was made and we grew in confidence, but still were too scared to ride without supervision. Things were not helped on by our own lackadaisical attitude. We were very reluctant, partially because we still entertained a fear of getting hurt.

               And then we moved to a new place. The observant reader may notice that constant movement has been the leitmotif of our life. Even with our bicycle education. Lack of practice meant we lost what little we had gained. Our cerebellum had not yet fully established the neural pathways needed for this skill, only a vague outline of the path. We practised some more, on and off, whenever we felt like it.

Chapter 4: Hardware update

               

After our shift to the RajDhAnI, we won a bicycle as a prize from chandamAmA. Luckily, it turned out to be of an appropriate size for us and so we took to riding it with ease. It was magical for us almost. With the right hardware our long forgotten neural pathways lit up once again, this time with renewed vigor and fluidity. We think it was the removal of the fear of falling that did the trick, as in this bicycle even if we lost balance for a moment we could seek support by balancing our legs on the ground. With the previous one, the bar in the middle and the height made it very difficult to do this.

The instinct for survival and self-preservation of the brain are remarkable indeed.