When my Wrist gave a Twist!
When my wrist gave a twist !!
- by Hridanshu Chatterjee
As we all know, honing skill in riding cycles, is the foundation to ride any 2 wheeler. If you know how to ride a cycle, it was a child’s play to ride any other 2 wheeler. My experience with learning cycling was somewhat melodramatic. I started to learn a proper kids cycle in class 2 (before that, I dragged around the entire house with my little yellow trike….). so, I started to learn it in my locality. It was affixed with 2 extra small balancers (auxiliary balancing wheels). I sat on the seat with the help of any elder of my family and then slowly, I put my foot on the pedal and started to revolve it. During the course of time, I fell from it numerous times, got my hands and legs injured, almost every week, but these consequences are to be considered in order to learn it. But I had a very amusing syndrome in my childhood, that while I'm riding on the flat road, everything seemed to be fine, but as soon as any speed breaker would arrive, I can't cross it while sitting on the cycle. A notion always haunted me that, the jerk of the speed breaker would disturb my balance and I would experience a great fall, greater than imagination. So I used to hold my cycle in my hands, crossed it safely and then I again rode it while sitting on it. Everybody at my home insisted that this was not the liable method to ride vehicles, you have to cross every obstacle while controlling it. You have to gather the skills to ride in any condition over any obstacle. My grandma always insisted me rigidly, to look always forward while riding a vehicle without worrying what's appearing underneath it. But I was reluctant towards such a might. She was offended of me because of this. So one day, while I was about to approach the speed breaker, she stopped me and dared me to ride over it without getting off the cycle. I was resisting against it. As she got anguished, she held my hair and pushed me on the speed breaker. I was fear stricken as I thought I would fall definitely now. But lo! I crossed it with ease . Today me and my grandma giggle over that tragic incident , but by the virtue of that tragic push, I became fearless about riding vehicles and never looked back. Now this kid would ride over steep slopes, ditches, elevations, and all possible harsh road conditions.
Now here I go to convey how I learnt gasoline powered 2-wheelers:
Firstly I learnt to ride a two wheeler with the help of my dad's scooter. I was studying in my 7th standard and my dad was seeking to buy a scooter to ride in the City and perform daily chores. So one day on the eve of Shivaratri, we had visited a Hero showroom just to view some new arrivals. So in the yard as we were viewing some models, out of that my dad found a dual tone Hero Destiny 125. There were some other options too like pleasure and maestro but that model seemed appealing to us. So we bought that. One day while my dad was parking the car in the portico while the new scooter was on the lane in front of my house I observed that the key was attached on the scooter so out of some of my mysterious cravings, I just got up on it and tried to stand with it. As I had a perfect balance as I knew how to ride a bicycle, so there was no issue balancing it. My legs were not completely reaching the ground, but I was tip toeing . Then I fobbed the key, and started it. There were butterflies in my stomach but still I accumulated some courage and gave a twist! The scooter rolled down some half a meter and I was really overjoyed that I was able to ride a two wheeler. My dad was surprisingly glad to see it. After stopping and parking I was jumping out of joy, I shouted and proclaimed it to my mother that I am now able to ride a two wheeler. My mom was Damn frightened and didn't promote it. From that day my riding journey was started. Just think about it , how mysterious is that a small boy of 7th class like me has ridden a scooter just in the first go. It was really unbelievable for me. Nobody actually ever taught me or sat behind on the pillion seat, teaching me how to balance the 2 wheeler as it happens with most of the people who start to learn it. Then gradually I started practicing it riding some one to two metres in front of my house back and forth. The wheel appeared to just roll. I never took it on the road or even in my colony just strictly in front of my house.
Some similar thing happened when I was learning how out to ride a bike. I learnt bike on my uncle's (a.k.a my Maama's) Bajaj Avenger 150. As we all are known of the fact that 9th standard is such a class where adolescence just arrives in the life of a boy, which imparts some undeniable traits. Riding bikes is one of the most prime of them. So like every such normal teenager, I also started riding bikes in my 9th standard. It's very amusing, that majority of boys start biking in the 9th standard. Even the bollywood actor, Dino Morea also started bike riding in class 9! So, similarly as like before, I used to put an emphasis on balancing the vehicle, once you are sure enough that you can trod along with it , and your legs get firm enough to hold it’s weight, once you begin to catch the momentum, riding and controlling it becomes a breeze. It didn’t took much, just 1 month of practicing in front of my home and I was able to ride it, even at higher gears. Avenger proved to be advantageous for me , as it has a very steep styling with very low riding height, which leads to low center of gravity, which doesn’t needs much effort to maneouvre it. It also reduces the chances of skidding off the road and one can take sharp turns, wave it through the streets with full confidence. Initially, I was struggling with the clutch system because it was troublesome for me to understand the harmony of both the clutch and the accelerator. It took me 1 month of time to hone it.
I am very concerned about my auto belongings right from my childhood. I was very conservative about my wheels. In childhood , I used to take utmost care of my cycle, my best childhood friend whom I badly miss :-(….. let’s talk about that in an another blog…… anyways, I kept it clean, polished it with coconut oil, modified it heavily….means I had tried all the possible and feasible modifications on it, just affixing a helicopter blade was left to be tried! :-)….I used to clean and polish our car, bike with very pristine dedication.
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