“…It was the third consecutive day when I had to face him …dawn was about to break, and this time I’ll break too, hat-trick of insult!...Am I that bad? I decided not to face him, and other moment I thought… Am I coward too?? No I’m not!! He was coming towards me faster and faster and I was gearing up, entire surrounding was seemingly in slow motion and I could clearly feel some scary background music that’s usually played in climax fight scene of Indian movies, and when he was few meters opposite to me I felt a pin-drop silence…he bypassed me …I felt the famous (notorious) cut in back wheel of my bicycle, and the miracle happened!!! Yes I was still riding my bike and he fell down this time!!”
I was very happy that day, my new bicycle had arrived. I must have been 8 or 9 that time. My father promised me that he will start my training from the next day. Those days, “early morning” used to be 4:00 am. Even in summers, you could feel the winter in those couple of hours. As planned, by 4:30 am we both were out; I sat behind on my new bicycle and my father drove me to the ground - a big college ground where most of the athletes and IPS officers from my town had done their initial 100 laps. I enjoyed the chirping of the birds and the cool breeze hitting my sleepy face. So, it was day one of my training! I was learning how to paddle 360 degree without looking down, my father held the bicycle and my job was to give it momentum. It was my first encounter with that nasty fellow, somehow I felt those negative waves. He was performing stunts on his bike and I was yet to balance mine… He tried a few tricks and then bypassed me hitting the rear wheel of my bike and the very next moment, I was on ground with my leg stuck somewhere in my bike! My father helped me to get up as he had already left my bike without telling me; and I did ride a few meters without noticing that!! Gruesome first day and the same happened on other day too though this time I was a bit alert so didn’t hurt myself that bad. and then the miracle happened on third day!! I had learnt bicycle!
There are a few MUSTs for a human life, learning bicycle is one of them and once learnt, you never forget it again. The way my father taught this to me left a lasting impact on my life. The way he overpowered my psyche with the trick of releasing his hand without telling me, injected confidence in me, and whenever I master or at least learn to do a new thing, I feel my father is waving at me as I paddle ahead. I would like to call this trick of bicycle: Bi-psyche-a-trick.
Progressing in life is all about LUR (Learn-Unlearn-Relearn), and we encounter many such nasty bicyclists in every walk of life; uninvited but harmful, jubilant but jealous, talented but tricky, and sometimes venomous! Once you master in their field, they’ll not scare you…so being determined, focused and shameless works here. As we grow up we face bi-psyche-a-trick few often, as then it becomes cut- throat competition. You hold your bike and you release, as there is no one who’ll stand behind to wave and watch you paddle ahead.
Like we all graduate from same college but do different things in life, some go for Government jobs, some opt Private one, some start their venture and some do nothing but dream, similarly there're different kind of human behaviors after learning balancing skills, some people become Mentor, they want to share their two scents with others to bring them to same level, and there're few who're Secretive, secretive people try and hide their skills to remain important in society, they act stupid to escape from knowledge sharing, it makes them over-protective, third category is Parasites, Parasites always want support, they'll stick to you like a leech and suck all knowledge from you, amongst parasites too there're two sub categories (1) Those who remain grateful to you and owe the credit to their mentor (2) Those who grasp last drop of blood from you and kick you aside.
I won't favor any particular category as all are correct in their perspective, though I would prefer to have flavor of all three unless it make a deadly cocktail.
I’ve learned to ride on two wheels,
And now feel, these aren’t big deals,
I’ve been pedaling since I learned it,
And that’s the way I’ve earned it,
No ideas to steal, no credits to conceal,
Rotate wheel, I’ve desires to reveal.
Rupak
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