First Days on the Bicycle

I had been riding the motor bike a few days ago and thought how easy was to ride a bike, and there are few people who don’t even know ride a bicycle. I laughed on my own for a few seconds. I am always a quick learner. I had learnt to ride a bicycle as well as a motorbike very fast. But still I remembered the first day when I tried cycling.

I was in Class 3. And my bicycle was not a small one. It was 18” cycle and obviously without supporting wheels. We then used to live in Chandrapura. There was a big football ground in Chandrapura which was the best place to learn riding. So one day my father took me with the cycle to the ground.

I mounted the cycle and came down as soon as I had mounted it as if somebody had forbade me to move. Once I had kept my foot on the pedals, I was not moving it and thus was falling with the whole cycle. My father was trying to hold my cycle from the back and often tried to push the bicycle but became tired very soon and quit.

Next day I had come again, but this time my father caught a young boy in ground to teach me cycling. The boy was nice. He put me on the cycle and told me to keep pedaling and he pushed me. Finally I was going ahead with nobody there pushing at my back. Yippee!!

But still then I didn’t know to turn or stop. I told you I was always a quick learner. The next day I had myself sat on the cycle and started pedaling. My father was sitting at the base of the stadium in the ground. I was so happy that I was actually RIDING A CYCLE that I forgot that I didn’t know to turn or stop the cycle. I played the hero and removed one of my hands off the handle and happily waved at my father and the next moment… BANG! I crashed into a tree just in front of the walls. I wasn’t much hurt though.  My father came running and scolded me. I guiltily looked at him but smiling with joy underneath. I don’t know what the joy was about. A good result had I got for waving my father.

Finally I had learnt turning the handle and to stop. And I knew cycling. And I was once riding on the local streets. But then I didn’t know to ring the bell which was not in the side but at the centre of the handle. I was coming on the streets and there were two women on the roads completely blocking the way. Imagine my position. I couldn’t ring the bell. I started shouting “Move Out, Move Out”. But they too busy in gossips couldn’t hear me. And I had knocked on of them. None of us was much hurt. But the women started shouting. My father soon came and settled the matters.

These were the small incidents that happened with me which learning to cycle. And now I can Cycle so well and also know to ride the bike well. These small incidents must have happened with everybody, but some are too shy to tell. One should always remember them while teaching others cycling. For now I will keep remembering these things and laugh on my own.