Best Weekend Morning Ever!!!

Feb 25, 2012

Woke up early today and started cleaning the home. I went downstairs to throw the trash and felt, "wow....the weather is awesome..It would be nice if I take Rushi for cycling". Then I come running upstairs and wake him up. He who whines or wiggles to wake up everyday, jumps like a frog when he hears cycling. We have our breakfast and go to Usha's place for the bicycle pump. After filling air in his tyres, Praveen says, "Latha, you can go too..take Usha's Bike". I thought, okay, let me try. It's been more than a decade that I rode a bike.

            And guess what?? Its' been nothing but amazing!!! A wonderful small exploration with my boy had been just splendid. I boast all the time that Folsom is a beautiful place. Indeed, it is. There is nothing to beat it.You go in between homes, yet you are not in a city. You go in the woods, yet you are not in lost forest.There were just a few walkers here and there. Rushi kept saying, "Mom, Stop..then he reaches me and here we go again". We did that for an hour and back home.

MY HERO RANGER:

            It took me back to the days when I first learned how to cycle. I remember mine was the 2nd Hero Ranger cycle in the whole of Khammam town. I had it till I finished my graduation. My brothers used it later. One of them made some funky changes to it and later had a yellow color. Yuck!! Aww...I don't have a picture of my bike. Photos were an expensive thing back then. I love my cycle till date. It was the best. I would ride it uphill and downhill no matter how many times I want. I would take it out even to the nearest shop in our colony.

               Memories start flooding now. One morning, I went to my best friend Siddu's home to find out if there was a holiday to school that day. While returning, I was cycling down on this sloped cement road  and just lost control. I hit a little kid who was doing the most important work of the day in the gutter and then have his parents come running after me to my house. You should see my face. I bet there wasn't a drop of blood in it. I definitely must have grown pale. Hahaha... Luckily my savior; my uncle who was still home saved my ass.

                    Another memory  which will stay with me as long as I live happened right before my 10th std. pre-final exams. It was the month of Jan or Feb. Two of my best friends in class, Gitanjali and Nandita were doing a group study at Anju's place and I have this mission to inform them that the science practicals have been cancelled. You know how parents are. They do not want you to waste time on such things, that too right before exams. As adamant as any other teenager of my age, I had a white lie ready, (The lie was that I am going to the maths tuition to clear some doubts) and took my Ranger out on a expedition. And you know where I must have headed by now. So, I go on a crazy speed, deliver the news and whoosh in a semi-circle on the road in front of my friend's house. Everything happened in fraction of seconds. By the time I realized what has happened, everything looked hazy and blurry. And I could taste some salty grainy things on my lips and tongue. Radha aunty and Krishnan uncle come out and tries to help me stand up and take my cycle. Now, all I fear is not my lip cut or my dress full of bloody stains. My brain started racing as to what story I have to make up and tell my mom. All of us sit together, cool and then uncle drops me home. The story that I recite goes like this: " I am going to tuition as promised and fell from my cycle. Uncle, who was coming from morning jogging saw me on the way and dropped me home. I think my friends dropped my cycle later". I don't remember that part.

                 Hmm...that was a long story....the funniest part is, my mom believes it till date. She often used to ask me many times later, "Tell me truth, you girls had a race? Isn't it?"..Oh my god, and it was so hard to control laughter and above that make an innocent face and say,  "No amma, we did not". And you should see my face for the next few months. My lower lip was swollen as if an ant or a bee bit it...LOL....My picture on the exam hall ticket has it too..OMG, it's been so many years that I have even thought about this story. I should tell this story to my son one day and see how he reacts.
            These were just two of the beads on the necklace of memories of my cycle. I bet everyone must have had their own share of experiences. Let me know...

             Now, I decide to get a bike for my own and start making it a habit. Hope I do it. Once again, thank you god for giving me a chance to live in a beautiful place like Folsom..

                                  
                                                    LOVE YOU FOLSOM!!!!!