Cycling through generations
As I gaze through my French window, I see children racing and cycling around the apartment complex. Their high-pitched excitement fills the air as they converse at top speed. Only the child lagging behind grumbles, but the rest are too thrilled to notice. Cycling is the first passionate challenge that every child loves to conquer. It begins with mastering balance, followed by speed, and often ends with the thrill of taking their hands off the handlebars on a bend. All the elements of excitement are there!
I can attest that this fascination with cycling has remained unchanged over the past sixty years. As a child, I remember watching a cycling tournament in the playground near our home, where a man cycled for seven days (with breaks, of course) to win prize money. A conical speaker on the central pole blared film songs, adding to the excitement. He was an exceptional rider, but his rounds were more about endurance than joy.
When I learned to ride a bicycle as a young boy, it was on a 16-inch wonder, a rare find among the usual 22-inch ones. Our neighbourhood Bhai’s cycle hiring shop had one such gem. Bhai, as he was fondly called, recorded the hiring details in a tattered diary. That cycle was meant for learning and practice, while the bigger one at home was off-limits. My father, elder brother, or other seniors would help me climb onto the seat and hold the bike steady until I gained my balance. I repeated this process with my own children years later.
The small bicycle, with no frills, had to wait patiently for years until it became stylish, gender-friendly, and feature-rich, with height adjustments, gears, and thick tires. It even got a gizmo - two side sticks with small wheels that touched the ground when the cycle leaned, helping learners ride solo and preventing falls. Once speed beckoned, these sticks were ungratefully detached. Cycling sessions stretched for hours, filling summer holidays with joy. However, this passion vanished the moment a child was asked to run an errand, like fetching something from the nearby provision shop - an excuse that still prevails today, despite the rise of online shopping.
The excitement and love for cycling that children experience has remained consistent across different generations -- a cycle of enthusiasm that continues to spin through various generation cycles – pun intended!