I have lately started cycling again.
My spiritual class, which initially used to be at a 3-minute walking distance has now shifted to a place a kilometer away.
So I got my cycle repaired to commute there every day.
Why not car? Because cars are usually comfortable for a drive of more than 2-3 kms. With 1 km, taking the car out and parking itself take a lot of time, and then the walk from the parking spot to your spiritual class.
With cycle, I get out like a buzz, flying with childlike joy, and in this little distance, perhaps reaching faster than a car.
It is such a joyful thing at the place I live at too, that when I had gotten my cycle serviced and cleaned, my landlord uncle sent me this:
Even my parents jumped with joy when I told them about this new habit of mine.
…
Cycling often reminds me of my childhood, where a lot of it was spent. For some reason, I have always found solace in cycling.
I remember when I was a teenager, I knew my parents were about to get me a cycle when I returned from school. As I returned, the blue cycle was waiting for me. The one which is a teenage cycle with a relatively longer seat and a back support (and no place for back carrier). I remember that long ride in our home vaada itself. The very act of cycling and holding those two handles given insurmountable joy and control to a perpetual loner like me.
I have had 4 cycles in my hometown (right from baby tricycle to the teenage cycle to a doodhwaala type cycle aka the one with back-stand to the usual cycle without gears).
The current one (of the pic sent by my landlord uncle) is my 5th cycle.
But it still feels coming home, each time I cycle.
I have been living in this area for long, so a part of me also knows that the people on this route also smile when they see me glide through the roads every morning, breezing like a free bird. I cannot point out exactly how, but I somehow know that.
At the end, let me share my favourite words from the song Eldest Daughter:
We lie back
A beautiful, beautiful time lapse
Ferris wheels, kisses and lilacs
And things I said were dumb
‘Cause I thought that I’d never find that beautiful, beautiful life that
Shimmers that innocent light back
Like when we were young
