Sunday Tales — First time Learning’s — 19

It had been a frosty chilly week in Bangalore with almost intermittent rain, but unlike other parts of south India it was mild rain throughout with Sun god playing a peek a boo. Even Sunday was no exception with even day time temperature struggling to cross 20 degrees as mercury stood adamant!

As I sat pondering on the topic for the day, thoughts flooded to my mind as I remembered the innocent few first time experiences, and the deep impression it had made on our minds. Especially in our adolescence these experiences shape us to make us a better individual. Many times these experiences are worth remembering. So the first instance I remember was learning to ride the bicycle.

As an 11 year old, I had my first dalliance with the bicycle. It was my father’s friend who helped me on to that very ungainly big bicycle as he held on to the seat pushing the cycle along. Slowly he taught me the technique of “Korangu Pedal” or monkey pedal on the cycle, This is a technique where you hold the handle bar in your left hand and then use the right hand across the seat on the rhombical bar, then with right leg across the bar pedalling the cycle, the left leg always ready to arrest to any fall from the cycle.

This was most hilarious fun as all similar age friends tried to master this skill as we took turns in falling on the muddy roads sometimes even to the road side ditches with a sudden appearance of a motor car or a dog chasing us .But we were a undeterred lot, no injuries or fear slowed us down .Slowly we developed balance with almost full pedaling in the “Korangu Pedal” method and then slowly getting courage to put our legs over the bar as we finally reach the hard seat of the cycle and half pedalled gloriously. In those days this was a great accomplishment.

Truth to be told these ungainly tall bicycles were a precious commodity & generally parents were very reluctant to share them to their children for learning. Luckily we had those cycle repair shops in almost every street corner with second hand or repaired cycles on hire for hourly charges, I remember the first time hiring a cycle -it was sixty paisa per hour. We had the most fun with these hired cycles. Very soon we started getting smaller cycles suiting to our height and then came the BSA-SLR cycles the macho cycles of our generation.

An interesting aspect in this cycle learning adventure was the gender equality. It was an experience for all the boys & girls in the locality. Honestly present generation children have no struggles in learning cycles with the balancing wheels killing this adventure, probably it would be pretty hard to find a boy or a girl half pedaling anywhere– may be in some remote village!!

The next one was an experience defining the quote “Curiosity killed the cat”. I remember those days my father’s elder brother used to visit us every fortnight. He was a chain smoker always with a Wills filter cigarette in hand, I remember the brand distinctly as many a time we used to run errand buying those cigarettes for him. My father was a non-smoker but we always used to have an ashtray in the house for his elder brother. The style in which he smoked the cigarette and the way he used to tap the ash made a very great impression on our young minds. It looked very heroic and stylish.

So one day my brother and I took a half burned cigar from the ash tray and with a match box in hand climbed the terrace of the house to test this very macho activity. As I was the elder one I volunteered to try it first. Then with great trepidation lighted the cigarette and without any thought blindly inhaled the full smoke inside my lungs, and the next half hour was an absolute hell as I coughed and even vomited as my brother also joined in this thought less activity. Well that was the first and the last time I smoked a cigar as this experience ensured an absolute aversion to it-good riddance you would concur.

Another interesting and most memorable experience for the wrong reasons was my first air travel. This happened almost in my late thirties so unlike the present day generation who all seemed to have started flying straight from their mother’s womb! In my case my employer at that time took the entire staff for a sales conference to Srilanka. As this was an international travel we had taken an Air Srilanka flight from Chennai and on board they were serving beer and hot drinks with tasty snacks to boot.

I remember sitting with a female colleague from factory who enquired whether it was my first time in an aircraft. With utter false modesty, I created a façade of a regular traveler. Very soon everyone had a beer can or a drink in hand, enjoying themselves as even my female colleague had a beer joining the group. I sat the entire 50 minutes journey petrified not having courage to eat or drink worried about the effect of my first time air travel maintaining a false bravado.

One of the ironies in my life is not learning swimming. After my first few years in Coimbatore, I had practically lived in the river banks of Cauvery and Periyar but somehow never learned swimming. Interestingly while on a marriage trip to one my colleagues wedding, I almost got drowned in a pond saved only by a bystander. This incident created a huge mental block which I realised later.

While in Mumbai I tried learning swimming along with my children. Very soon both become proficient swimmers as my struggles and fear of water continued hampering me, as even after almost three months of trying, learnt to stay afloat. I understood from this episode that mental block is the hardest thing to conquer. I still have not lost hope, will keep trying.

To be frank, I had most fun re-collecting all these vivid memories; I am pretty sure all these incidents resonate with all of you taking you back to your childhood days.

Let me end today with a quote on learning

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays always young”