It's all about the bike !

I pass by my school every day. A lot has changed since the time I left. Changed for the better I guess. But this one change really saddens me. It's the barricade of cycles, which is missing from the picture.

I remember the days when I rode to school on a bicycle. Not many of my friends used this mode of transportation for school, but it was a joy ride in the morning. Some 20-30 cycles were aligned outside our school compound. Now there are none!

I still cherish the long bicycle races with colony friends, travelling from Cinemax to Aarey Colony and then New Zealand Hostel. All this for a small treat, the loser would pay for all the Vada Pavs. After that, riding down the slopes of New Zealand hostel at very high speeds with the wind rushing into our faces. As I write this I really want to go there now. Sometimes we would race to Aksa beach through a narrow road, fast moving vehicles, putting ourselves into trouble, getting outta trouble. The narrow bruises, the minor accidents, the high speed skids, still so fresh.

The picture today is sad, really sad. The only people I see riding the bicycle are doodhwala, pav-wala, anda-wala and restaurant delivery guys or small children till the age of 10. It is a pity that cycle drivers are seen as people who cannot afford a bike or a car. Cycle racing enthusiasts are also very rare. The sport is dying in India, rather cycling is dying in India. Also cycling is something just for guys here I guess. It’s been more than 2 years since I’ve seen a girl ride a cycle, which was my sister btw. Why don’t you apply ‘Why Should Boys have all the fun?’ funda to this case too! This also reminds me, where are all the Hero cycles, Hercules top gear, Lady Bird advertisements that were running on TV channels few years back?

Few days back, I happened to visit the local cycle shop. The guy at the counter recognized me and asked where all my friends are. He says his business has gone down drastically and the only selling bikes are small kiddy bicycles. That’s when I think, it’s people like me who have left cycling are the reason for which this guy is losing grip in his business. I still recollect the sad the day I sold my bicycle. I left cycling in 11^th standard because no-one of my age was driving the cycle anymore. I cared too much about what people would think and that my friends would laugh at me. I regret my decision now; regret the reasons why I took the decision.

The society’s outlook towards cycling is not encouraging, but I feel I shouldn’t have cared. Riding to Tembu dam 8 kms near my hometown on a bike was one of the most entertaining aspect of our college group's trip last year. So was the ride on the streets of Berlin dedicated exclusively for cycles. I am certainly going to buy a cycle once I get my job and drive it, not caring about anyone saying anything. I’ll also try to complete 100 km a day ride near Karjat in the next vacation, hopefully with friends.

B’coz it is all about about the bike....

Feeling Guilty

Few months ago, I came across a funny article in Air France’s In-flight magazine. Although my knowledge about French is minuscule, somehow I managed to decode most part of it, partly with the help of friends with better French. I don’t remember whole of it, but here’s the English version of whatever little I recollect. Take it with a pinch of salt. These are not my views, but I agree to most of them.

God, I really feel guilty. For a lot of things I’ve done in life.

I’ve been a Businessman all this time, somewhat different than the regular ones. Long time ago, I started a business, with no capital. With a very small workspace and no work experience at all, started something which would help me earn thousands in minutes. A business which has no fixed retirement age, no educational qualification restrictions, no selling of door to door goods, no publicity via phone calls.

A bit about my clientele. They are from all walks of life, all professions. The rich and also the poor, people from the metros as well as from the village. Something more interesting, even if I change my base, my business will be unaffected in terms of numbers. Recession has sunken me, oh no, but in fact, in a small way it has helped me. I believe that I’ve lived a life which is every budding successful entrepreneur’s dream. You’re probably wondering, am I doing something illegal, something anti-social. No I’m not. I was an astrologer.

Failing in the 11^th grade for the second time, my life was a mess, until I saw a small paper ad about this business. They have coaching classes for everything back there in India, and there was a coaching class for this too. One course of a year’s duration did me more good than 15 years of school education. One thing was also certain, I had no death until people stop caring about how their future would be.

I was trained for every situation. Each individual horoscope has a good part and a bad part attached to it. Adapting to every client, I had to come up with different stuff. Not that I had to tell false interpretations, but I had to come up with partial truth. Explaining which stars and planets are in the wrong position ( People come to me only when something’s wrong or the want something in life, not when everything’s good) that you’ve landed up in a mess. Next thing, point to a time in future where all of the stars get in the favorable positions. Give the client a ray of hope. Lastly, tell them that this science is not 100% foolproof, but in most cases it turns to be quite right. Don’t worry; people still will keep coming to you, and if not previous clients, new ones. As people kept worrying about their future, I was side by side securing my future through their money!

Going back to the first line, about me feeling guilty, let me straighten it out a bit. I feel guilty for plentiful reasons. For breaking the hearts of several couples who couldn’t marry because their horoscopes didn’t match. For changing people’s names and making them believe this would bring them fortune. I feel bad for the people who had to reject perfectly wonderful apartments just because the entrance was facing a particular direction. I feel terrible making people buy expensive rings that would brighten their future. For making people perform ridiculously expensive rituals at home to supposedly bring peace and prosperity.

I feel more terrible for doing something without actually knowing the basics. Doing something which I had no idea where it came from and how it developed. Later when I studied more deeply, I got to know this was more of a statistical science rather than pure science. Its foundation lies from the study of people over the years with reference to position of stars and planets. It’s based upon the observation that people born on similar planet positions share similar fortune. It’s a collection of observations of scholars for over a long period of time written in form of scripts. To add more, different set of Astronomy scholars have different ways of inferring from the horoscope. It’s by no way foolproof.

I am still amused as to how there can be the same set of fortune for a beggar born on the same date and time when a successful businessman was born. My belief also says that you have more command over your life than some planets and stars which are a million miles away. One more thing, even if I tell you everything correctly about your future, how’s it going to benefit you? If something it is going to happen, it’ll happen anyways, knowing about it wouldn’t help you change it!

Lots of questions I still ponder in my mind while sitting on this comfortable fully reclining chair in my Bungalow on the Paris - Nice road. I happily retired a couple of years ago, but the business back in India is still strong thanks to my disciples in India. I see the cyclists running from my window for the second most prestigious Bike race in France. Life’s good, but somewhere in the corner of my heart, I feel something wrong.

I’m guilty.

Surpriseee...

A couple of days ago, few of my college friends came to my house for a surprise visit. I was quite overjoyed seeing them and felt very nice. Overjoyed because it has been really a while someone came by without a reason, or without wanting something from me. It wasn’t my birthday too! That’s when I realized how good it feels when you call someone or visit someone without actually wanting something from them. I’m thankful to have such great friends.

This friendship day, I had no real plans. It was kinda getting boring going through dull GRE wordlists. To my surprise Anand came to my home around the evening after a day full of Linux course in college. It’s so nice to meet a friend than to send stupid forwarded messages to everyone. It’s the element of surprise that doubled the fun.

We had a crazy Idea. Anand said ‘Let’s go around and surprise more people.’ We had no plan as to who all we’ll surprise and how many places to cover, but hoped to cover maximum people. We hit the road on the bike at 6.30 pm towards Malad. With the crystal maze that Malad roads form, we had difficulty in finding our friend’s place. Finally at one point, I gave up hunting for the building and called him. He said, “Turn around, I’m right behind you”. Wish we could’ve looked around before calling. Still it was something that he didn’t expect to have happened. He offered a Cadbury as friendship day sharing which we shared till our last friend’s house. We had to cover many places so decided that nowhere we will have any food. We’ll come for that some other day.

Next halt, kandivali friend. Here we couldn’t resist eating delicious pakodas and Basundi. This time too, he caught us when we were entering his building. No surprise again, but he was really happy seeing us come. Here on, we got the map to our next friend’s house. The Mr. Gre was busy studying with last pack of flash cards and was literally shocked seeing us come. Finally, we had surprised someone completely. After a cup of tea and Lonavala chikki, we left his house. It was getting darker and we decided this would be our last destination.

On the way back, we thought we’d change plan a bit. Visit one more friend and surprise him. We had lots of options to think upon and would’ve liked to go visit many more people, but time just didn’t permit us to do that. Just then our friend from Powai called in to say he had prepared cookies and cake to bring to college the next day. That’s when we decided, ‘let’s go surprise him’. Kandivli to Powai was hell of a journey. All possible things that can happen on a bike happened. We were almost hit by a rick, almost caught by a cop, lost our way at Saki Naka and went all the way till Ghatkopar. After more than an hour of roaming around, finally reached the republic of Powai.

Now there was some more element of fun. We didn’t have his address or any details of where he lived. Just recollected random facts about what he’d told us about his apartment during college time. With some help from the locals and a lot of common sense, we finally reached a building which we figured out he might be staying at. The watchman asked us the room number where he stayed and here too, luckily we dialed the right number and reached his place. A day full of surprises as it was! Happy that we could surprise one more friend and shared the last bite of Cadbury.

It was such a nice day. Would’ve liked to visit many more friends. Hopefully, that’ll happen sometime soon. I’ll remember this friendship day for long. Something different than the regular...