123. Riding my bicycle

Riding my bicycle

Thousand Full Moon: Shyamala Sadashiv Abhyankar 81+

I was in college that time. I lived in Pune. A few of my friends and I would go to ‘Parvati’ (a word that means a small mountain) at dawn for our daily hike, spend some time there and would return home by 8:00 AM. One day Saroj who was about my age and lived a few houses down the road asked me where we all went every morning. Upon hearing about our morning hike routine she asked me whether she also could join us. I am glad she asked because then on we became great friends and are in touch till today!

I used to play throw ball. I was the captain of my team. I was good at ‘placing’ the ball i.e. tossing it in a spot where opposite team players were not present. The other team would find it hard to return the ball back to us and we would score points. I won many certificates and trophies. Although they were special to me I ended up selling them to a scrap metal collector.

In those days it was very common for women to ride bikes in Pune. I would ride my bike everywhere. One day I was riding on ‘Lakadi pul’ the famous wooden bridge of Pune and I was riding hands free! One of my grandfather’s friends saw me and came home that evening to tell on me saying that my grandfather should reprimand me for such reckless behavior.

From Pune I came to Agashi on my first job as a school teacher and I brought my bike with me. Agashi was a small village. It was not common for women to work outside of home let alone ride bikes. People would point to me and talk about me as I became a local sensation for riding my bike to work.