Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Trip

Hey,

You asked me if I ride now.

I used to ride a bicycle from 82 to 95.
And, when you are sleepy, that's where the story ends. When you are partly sleepy, you probably write a few more sentences about the time you went to see a dead Royal Bengal tiger hung from a tree by the villagers who killed her.

Poor girl just escaped from a circus. And looked for a jungle to escape to.

We were either three or five of us on our bikes. Hearing about the tiger in the morning, we went riding to a village some ten kilometers away. Could have been twenty, I won't know. We could ride on and on then and never heard of Tour de France. We could ride without water for hours. Racing each other. We were never tired. It was unheard of. And then played football in the afternoon.

I had a tape recorder that had an output of 2 watts. Sanyo. We would come back and listen to In Square Circle in that. The cassette was recorded from an LP. Stevie Wonder! What a guy, we would think...and then his famous chromatic harmonica. We also had Nat King Cole to listen to. English songs were almost frowned upon unless some really respectable, elderly uncle came and recommended them. Nobody recommended Stevie Wonder I remember. Those fat uncles hadn't heard him. Just Nat Cole and Frank Sinatra. So we got to hear some of their music. Couldn't figure most of what they sang, but we did sing along.

Dad had a Hero harmonica stashed away somewhere. It was a C. I started on that later. Much later, after I left school. Michael Jackson's Thriller was available too. Just one copy that changed hands. A cassette tape.

And Europe. The Final Countdown. Cyndi Lauper. All on the Sanyo.

You asked me if I ride now. I used to. Trip, that is.
Keep writing. And do sign in to chat too. You ride now, I know. I will join you like I joined my gang of little urchins every day. Just let my knees heal...

Me

7 comments:

Monami Roy said...

which reminds me. i'm going on a trip to. not trippin, just a trip. on someone else's bike, and hope she's a good rider
:)
\m/

A Arora said...

ur blog entries r getting more n more nostlagic each day. its as if u keep getting pulled back into old dreams..u know that feeling?

Oreen said...

you bet i do...

i guess age is catching up...someone asked me out for a bicycle ride...
and my knees don't work any more

Anuradha said...

hey...
those good old carefree days of music, friends, cycle, good food..
no worries about earning for the same :( ..

since y mentioned music-yep cassettes and those vinyl records !!no instant downloads, no phones with players ,no ipods!! those were the days of meltrack cassettes waiting to get hold of music for awhile since it would be released in india almost after a year.

i am sure y will get to the cycle soon :)

Anuradha said...

hey those good old carefree days away from the current sad state of working on the desk trying to beat the boredom to earn the buck to afford the cycle and the ipod( yeah no cassettes) :)

Lazyani said...

And you forgot those afternoons where biking was experience in itself, whether to school, whether barebodied, whether following girls going for tuition, whether trying the blindfold act and riding into a nullah!!!

Oreen said...

i remember the blindfold act, i think . . . i found myself in many a drain . . . once because i was staring at someone . . .