Rocking in the Free World

Before your mind goes off on random tangents, thinking of how I am writing fairytales surrounding the life and times of a mysteriously named Russian World War I soldier, stop.

Thika, in Kannada, refers to one’s gluteal region, a.k.a Kundi as do other more detailed graphic words that I’m not going to mention simply because I am not too keen on spoon-feeding you, and thereby fostering your spirit of enquiry regarding matters that relate to what my English teacher in school used to refer to cutely as bowel language.

Thikanov refers to pain in the kundi, which is what I’ve had after a weekend of cycling all over the city. I must’ve done about sixty km on my trusty new machine, and the whole experience was just so brilliant that I know for sure that I am either going to maintain my cycling sprees or up the ante further as and when time permits.

I am certain that with a few more weeks of riding the cycle, I am going to feel zero pain, but in a weirdly fraud-masochistic way, the aching muscles are weirdly satisfying.

In addition to cycling, I also had to, on one occasion carry the bike up four flights of stairs to the house of PeeGeeKay, where I’d crashed on saturday night post dinner at Shiok with Skimpy (who now says ‘GuDgaon’ for Gurgaon and has effectively crossed the rubicon), Baada and PeeGeeKay, who’s been singing bittersweet symphony about once every five minutes, and rightfully so.

It has been my third visit to Shiok this month, and each time, I leave with happy in my belly and happy on my countenance. I usually end up eating so much that I can afford to miss out on my midnight snack thereafter and not risk dying of hunger.

In my first weekend of hardcore cycling, I learnt a few things:

• Wear a helmet if you have one. Its ok if you think you look dorky or if junta make fun of your wearing a helmet on your cycle. It is your head on the line and not theirs. Additionally, motorists give you more respect if you look like a serious cyclist.
• Avoid main roads, not because you have to, but because you can. I discovered some astounding roads in Jayanagar 1st block near the Ashoka Pillar statue when I took a random detour to get towards Bannerghatta road. Most of them ended up being cul-de-sacs, but as Skimpy later informed me, that area is considered the coldest part of Bangalore. Cycling around will sure help me discover new places and make me like the city even more than I already do. (Far cry from how I felt more than four years ago when I first landed here from Mysore.)
• Stand your ground. More often than not, cars and two wheelers behind you tend to treat you with disdain, contempt or possibly with a significant amount of disrespect. So long as you are aware that they are as worried about hitting someone as you are worried about getting hit, you’re fine and you know that they’d not collide with you intentionally. However, this rule doesn’t apply to taxis, trucks, lorries, rented transport vehicles of any kind and it is necessary to give these characters a wide berth, to propagate your genetic material further.

What was nice was that I was able to find a place where I could tether my bike to at Crossword, Indiranagar and also in a couple of other places where I had to stop. Once I discover more bike-parking friendly places closer to areas that I frequent, I would feel sanguine about taking my bike there and using it more and more.

Full respect to Rohan and Nikhil from Bums On the Saddle for having helped me get my bike!