The Balancing Act

Sometime ago, I read an article written by Scorpio and Alakansha about first times. I have been intending to write this for a while now, and have finally gotten around to it.


I’m sure everyone had fun while learning to bicycle. Nowadays, we get cycles with extra wheels, so that children can learn on their own, without their parents needing to run behind them to hold them.


Well, I am writing about how my elder sisters, who are now about 60, learnt to cycle. This incident happened when they were about 8-9 years old. At that time, we lived in Bangalore. My parents did not believe that a girl needed to learn to cycle. They were both from small towns. Most of our neighborhood kids either already knew how to cycle or were learning to do so, and both my sisters wanted to learn. Every evening, they would plead with my mom to get them a cycle or give them some money to hire one, so they could try and learn on their own. They tried to convince my mom, saying that all the other children were cycling to school while they did not even know how to ride one. My mom finally gave in. When she told my dad, he did not want to buy a cycle as he did not have the time to run behind the girls and teach them.


We had a man-friday in our house called Nanjappa, who ran errands and did other odd jobs around the house. My mom told Nanjappa to hire a cycle every evening and teach my sisters. Both girls were very happy and excited.


So, at the allotted time, Nanjappa hired a cycle and told my sisters to hop on one-at-a time. He would then hold the cycle and tell them, “Midhi, hogu, mundhe nodu” which means pedal, go and look in front. He would say it as a rhyme like “miiiiiiiidhi, hooooooogu, mundhe nodu” and keep repeating it all the way, non-stop. Soon, all the children in the locality picked up this chant. They would run behind my sisters and Nanjappa chanting this. It became so popular that whenever anyone saw my sisters on the road (even while they were walking), they would chant this mantra.


After a week of this, my sisters were so embarrassed that they shunned Nanjappa from coming to teach them. Instead they would hire the cycle themselves and learnt to balance on their own.


When anyone in my family thinks of cycling, the first thing that comes to our mind is Nanjappa and his chant. Some of our childhood friends probably still remember it too!!!


Some things are hard to forget and are best not-forgotten.

 

Thank you Viji Ma'am for your first reply. I am happy you enjoyed reading it.