Cycling Recycling

Dear @Balajee Sir,
Your tryst with bicycle more humorous than pedalling. Super nostalgia for every reader of this blog as i trust every one must have had better or bitter experience with it.

Though you seemed to have eventually abandoned the effort of learning yet am surprised you have gathered enough knowledge & skill about cycling & recycling & Mentioning of “tour dë France” great.

You could hv been an Armstrong.

For learning the skill to ride a bicycle many of my friends generally hire during our boyhood. It was four ānnä per hour. Very first time, when i hired and learn pedalling and riding straight it was eazy as long as you do not attempt to negotiate a turn.

You hold the handle bar stiff and keep your back erect over that seat. Turn right or left, you fall. ( the book after the fall - marylin Manroe comes to mind).

As a boy, first time in dense morning rush hour, i was caught in a narrow gap between two huge buses plying speedily in opposite direction. My entire body stiffened for a split second in fear as though am getting sandwiched. I was saved by skin of my teeth.

But then I learnt to ride scooter in a jiffy. It was within an hour in New Delhi broad roads and in Bhudha Jayanthi Park. Very next day, with L board - i was in wide Shahjahan-akbar- aurangazeep- aajmalkhan roads (with spouse for pillion). ( incidentally it was the day, when chopra children in school uniform kidnapped and killed)

cycle- bicycle in IL threads speaks volume about it. There are over fifty threads/posts speak about it. That it includes - Winner as Fine Post - in the blog of @umaakumar ’s famous “ mundhè ohguooooo”
The Balancing Act

 

Bicycle triggers about my participation in slow cycle race in schools and colleges.
It reminds my watching as one among many spectators in open grounds a man riding a bicycle non stop for more than a day and his doing acrobats on it. Cycle reminds me movie kalyana parisu in tamil which I must hv watched for over 25 times. Only After watching this movie, I began thinking & looking seriously that I must long for some one to love and love me! I bought Afghan snow to get my face look more handsome.

 

This reminds me of RK Laxman cartoon where Bullock cart hauls a studebaker. It appeared in TOI DURING 1975-76.
If EV dream fizzles out there is going to be huge demand for bullocks and carts hauled by bullocks.
National metro roads and highways and golden triangle will be reeking with dung smell and population of BULLS might exceed cows in Bharat!

 

Dear Balajee,

I am sure cycling will bring nostalgic memories to everyone. I recall the day I learned cycling when I was 10 years old (1964). Because I didn't have enough height to be seated in a cycle, I used to do what I used to call Monkey pedalling reaching one leg through the triangular bar above the pedals. That is the only way I could balance the cycle. After I grew up in height, I tried Monkey pedalling and only resulted in me falling down with a lot of scratches in my body. I used to venture to the nearby towns after I learned to be seated in a cycle and those trips are secrative without advanced knowledge of the parents. Only time, they came to know about the trips is if I got hurt by falling from the cycle. We used to drive through Jack Fruit and Cashew fields located in and around Neyveli, Vadalur and Panrutti.

Post migration to the US, I never used a bike (Cycle) but taught my son how to use it when he was 8 years old in 1996. I thought I need to run behind him holding his seat when he focused his attention to the road and handle bar. But as soon as he tried the first time (after 25 yards), he just left on his own making my job incredibly easy.

Regarding recycling, frankly, I was not even aware of recycling until I was in India and learned about it only after I migrated to the US. It is also because we have two bins one for solid waste and another one for recycling with two different colors.

 

tHA

That was quite hilarious bringing back nostalgic memories to all of us. I also tried learning cycling but I had similar experience. i fell down and had a deep cut in my leg. The scar is still there. My parents became worried and instructed me not to venture cycling any more. I also didn't attempt cycling after that.
When my daughter started learning, she fell down and suffered an ankle fracture. But she was adamant and after recovering, she learnt cycling and she went to school in cycle only.

 

Reminds me of my younger daughter. I bought a lady cycle for my daughters when they were kids. I helped them ride a cycle. The elder learned fast enough and was all around the colony cycling at the age of 10. The younger was a bit slow but learned anyway. While riding the cycle instead of clicking the bell, she would shout 'hato, hato' (getaway).