As I was wading through the Monday evening traffic on my way home, I happened to notice a simple yet beautiful moment at a traffic signal. To my right, was a kid sitting on the back seat of a motorbike, holding his new bicycle.

In that brief moment, as we all waited for the signal to change from red to green, I could see the glint in his eye, the anticipation, the eagerness to reach home as soon as possible and ride his new bicycle. That one look brought about a flood of memories of the good old times.

For many of us, the first bicycle will always have a special place in our heart.

The first bicycle is in many ways, one of the first (if not the very first) instruments of empowerment which our parents bestow upon us as children. It is the first set of wings to fly and explore uncharted territories. It is the first big materialistic addition which we subsume and it becomes a part of our identity. Be it the regular commute to school or the weekend rides to the distant cricket ground or the regular mundane errands such as purchasing a loaf of bread from the neighborhood grocery store. It has always been by our side in times of need and greed.

I was 11 when I got my first bicycle (a bit late by today’s standards I suppose). Until then, the 2 km stretch from my home to my school was my entire world. Intra-colony gullies were the only geographical entities I was aware of. My bike rides taught me about the lanes, areas, colonies and gave me a sense of direction, distance and time. These were pretty awesome things to know then. Taking the bike out for an evening ride was always a blissful detour from the mundane everythings.

This one mass of metal and plastic has so many memories interwoven in its frame that it becomes an indelible part of your own self. It becomes equally difficult to part ways with it when you out-grow it (or when it gets too old and damaged). But you manage to get over it and life goes on. Until one day when you watch the same glint in a kid’s eye while he is carrying his new bicycle on the back of his father’s motorbike.

Life comes a full circle.