On the top of the world on a ‘borrowed’ bicycle

Looking back at my personal, and professional journey so far, I can spot a few moments that can never be forgotten, like everyone else.

But the one “I am on the top of the world” moment that lives on forever in me is the one I experienced when I learnt how to ride a bicycle – on a cycle I “borrowed” from a visitor at home, busy in deep discussions with parents inside our one bed-roomed flat in a government colony of RK Puram in New Delhi. The uncle, of course, did not know that his cycle and I were engaged in a mission mode.

He had to spend a lot of time waiting for his cycle and me to return.

All the scolding later and the corporal punishment that followed were nothing compared to the elation, joy, and excitement of having learnt to ride a cycle. Oh, that feeling of cutting through onrushing fresh air is something that I cannot express in words, it is something to be experienced.

The flying boy

Yes, I fell many times and failed many times (there were other uncles, too, visiting home), but my determination propelled me to try again, and again. It was my Eureka moment when I rode a cycle for 100 metres with perfect balance. And soon I was flying!!!

Filled with a heady feeling that stayed on for a long time, I cycled in front of all the houses of friends, and “enemies”, in our colony showing off.

At that time, very few people owned two-wheelers and cars were almost a rarity in the colony populated by lower-rung government servants we lived in. The few cars that one saw parked belonged to the government, brought by those working as drivers for the ‘Bada Saabs’ in the government offices.

The cycle was the most used mode of transport for commuting for many residents. But not my father.

Cautious to the fault

Cautious to the fault, he feared accidents and never bought us cycles. He never owned or rode a cycle, a two-wheeler or drove any vehicle.

Which is why, one had to temporarily “steal” the contraption from visitors.

After my cycle-riding success moment, I have had many successes and failures. And like everyone else, I too overcame the challenges, which at the time seemed insurmountable — like getting passing grades in the Hindi language or scoring enough marks in school to land a seat in a good college for graduation and felt good about them.

Life carried on, I cracked the entrance exam of a prestigious media organisation – Press Trust of India, the country’s premier English language news agency, and then rode through a roller coaster of a journey.

Memory that fails to fade away

But today, even at 64, the memory of a 3-foot-something me riding a cycle, with the left hand holding the handlebar and the other gripping the seat, and pedaling the cycle forward cross-legged, fills me with the same elation I felt then, over 50 years ago.

Sadly, no pictures of that moment are with me, as cameras too were a rare commodity in those days.

But how I wish there was a snap capturing my top-of-the-world moment!

So, this here is the only ‘recording’ I have, in my own words and you would have to take my word (s) for it.