Cycle – The First Act of Balancing

Cycle is probably the first vehicle that we all learn to ride in our life.  The pride of riding a cycle without falling off is something inexplicable.  Our first lessons in balancing came from the cycle.  I started riding cycle at the age of ten.  It used to be a small cycle, almost half the size of the regular one.  But I didn’t own a cycle.  Those days, it was quite common to hire cycles from a local cycle shop, which used to charge on an hourly basis.  After the school I used to rush to the shop, take cycle and ride for an hour or so.  Once, in the month of December, I took a cycle on hire and rushed to a nearby shop to buy new year greeting cards to be sent to my friends.  I was riding fast.  As I took a turn in a junction, suddenly I rode into a heap of sand, lost my balance, and fell off the cycle.  That year I celebrated the new year with bruises on my hands and legs. 

Gradually I migrated to the regular big cycles.  The popular cycle brands were BSA, Hercules and Atlas.  BSA was the most common, while Hercules was considered to be sturdier and heavier.  My father gifted me a cycle in 1988 when I completed my school and joined the college.  It was a brand new BSA Deluxe cycle.  That cycle was my companion for the next seven years, till I moved out of Kochi. 

When I joined IIM Ahmedabad in 1996, I was staying at Vijay Char Rasta, almost 3 kilometers from the campus.  I couldn’t afford a motorcycle those days.  So, I was depending on the city bus to commute to the campus.  The frequency of buses plying though IIM was very less those days.  If I remember correctly, Bus Number 46/1 was the only bus connecting Vijay Char Rasta to IIM.  All other buses passed through Panjarapole Junction, from where I had to walk more than a kilometer to the campus.  Bus Number 46/1 was irregular and always crowded, making my journey uncomfortable.  One day a friend told me that he wants to sell his old bicycle.  Without thinking twice, I bought the cycle.  That too was a BSA Deluxe! I started cycling to the campus.  I used to take the short-cut to IIM through the campus of Gujarat University and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).  It was a great experience to ride though the vast and beautiful campus of Gujarat University.  After almost a month I got typhoid.  Since I had consulted the campus doctor, I left the cycle in the parking lot of IIM and returned by a rikshaw.  I didn’t go to the campus for almost a week.  Even after that I continued to go in a rikshaw for few more days.  One day when I had completely recovered, I decided to return to my room on my cycle.  When I went to the parking lot, my cycle was not there!  I enquired with the security guard who said he had no idea.  Someone must have noticed it lying there without being touched for many days and would have stolen the same.  I felt extremely sad.  Withing a month I moved to a house at Vastrapur, which was just 5 minutes’ walk from the campus.  Hence, I didn’t feel the need for a cycle. 

When I came to Tumkur, I was always fortunate to stay very close to the campus and thus, never needed a vehicle to commute.  So, the last time I rode a cycle was in 1997 at Ahmedabad.   In a way, the one who stole my cycle did not just steal that cycle, but stole cycling itself from my life!