Teenage Anecdote 1 - Runaway Cycling Expedition

I would like to share two interesting incidents which occurred in my teens. The first one relates to a cycling expedition and the other to a "jam fruit" plucking incident from Ruparel College botanical garden. The "jam fruit" incident will be in the next post.

Cycling Expedition
It was January of 1979, Sunday - nice and cold, and my circle of friends (Two Girish's, Vivek, Arvind and Yeshwant) was extremely fit. We used to exercise at Talwalkars and I used to train for the half mile and mile event for University and State. In those days I used to run 15 rounds of Shivaji Park in one and a half hours. Five of us decided to take our bicycles and go to Vashi Creek bridge and return. Of these four bikes were relatively new, and one was an old bike but in good condition. We used to service our bicyles ourselves and decided to carry a puncture repair kit just in case. Of the five, Yeshwant was not into physical fitness like we were, but neither was he a pushover (he had the old bike). We left at 5.30 in the morning from our residence at Mahim and reached Thane creek bridge in half an hours time. In those days the traffic was pretty light, not bumper to bumper which one sees today! Roads were pretty decent and we made good speed. Once we reached Thane creek bridge we decided to return, but one of our friends, Vivek, said that we should go to Vashi and return (there was no New Bombay in those days). As it was only 6am, we agreed and off we went cycling away.

The scenery was beautiful, there was no construction activity and it was more of open land with trees and shrubs all the way to Vashi, we reached Vashi in another 40 odd minutes. We, felt it was still too early to return, and Vivek suggested that we should head for Panvel (this is a good 50 km from our house). Being in our teens, and thinking only for the moment we all agreed, and started riding towards Panvel. The less fit amongst us, even though game, by now had started complaining, and Vivek the guy who goaded us on to Panvel, kept telling us that Panvel would come just after the next upturn on the road. I do not know how many upturns in the road came and went, but as a means of motivating us it helped, and then we thought that having come so far there was no point in turning back! We reached Panvel by 7.40 am, had breakfast and tea and embarked on our way back. By now, some of us had started mouthing the fear of parental consequences on return, as nobody at home knew where we were and we were sure that a search would be launched if we did not return by 10am, as our residential society had a history of fatal and non fatal accidents every year since we moved in to stay in 1970.

The sun had come up now, and though not cold it was slowly becoming warm. We must have been riding for about half an hour when the Yeshwant's old bike developed a flat. We congratulated ourselves for carrying the puncture repair kit. We all got down from our bikes and like too many cooks spoiling the broth, that's exactly what we proceeded to do! I removed the tyre, Yeshwant and Vivek went to look for water and container to locate the puncture. Luckily they found an abandoned hut close by to a creek, and returned with a "ghamela" full of water. By the time they returned, I had removed the tyre, the other Girish took the air pump and pumped air into the tube, then we placed the tube in the water and located the puncture. Eureka, we said, and took out the rubber solution tube, spare rubber and stuck it onto the punture area, sealed it with the heat press. Guess what - puncture repaired in 15 minutes flat and it was just past 8am! only. We put the tube back into the tyre and fit the wheel back onto the bicycle. The last thing to do was now to fill air and be on our way again! When we went to fill the air, we had another Eureka moment!! - we did not know where the valve tube was! - without which the bike is as good as punctured. We started blaming each other - and like I said earlier too many cooks spoil the broth!! we were now well and truly grounded, as we could not abandon our friend and proceed. Our hunt for the small piece of tube on that vast expanse of land continued in sheer futility or for lack of anything better to do. We started trying to thumb down the intermittent truck which passed by but nobody was willing to stop and give us five a lift! As time passed we started becoming more and more desperate, realsing that, if and when we reached home, we would all be in BIG TROUBLE. It was now past 10 am and well and truly hot, and Arvind had gone onto the middle of the road trying to talk to two foreign female hippies who were headed for the Rajneesh Ashram in Pune. That is probably the best thing he had done since we left our residence! because he felt something under his foot and when he bent down to pick it up it turned out to be the valve tube!! You can imagine how happy we were, we all did a major gig in the middle of the road, and the two firangis thought we had gone nuts as we were all dancing right in the middle of the road!! We fixed the valve tube, filled air in the tube and set off on our return journey - one relieved bunch of teens!

We were now cycling furiously trying to make up for lost time, but with the heat, and one slightly less fit person, we had not yet come to the end of our little adventure! As we approached the hill near Vashi, Yeshwant had begun panting, we did not realise the seriousness as we were quite ahead of him, thinking he will catch up. I was the closest to him, as I thought that someone needs to keep an eye on him. I was half way up the hill and when I looked back, I did not see a bicycle in motion - I stopped and saw that our friend had thrown his bicycle on the side and was lying down flat on the road! I whistled and shouted to the rest of the group saying that one wicket was down. We went back and gave him water and asked him to get on the bike - he refused - kept saying that you guys go, I can't ride any more. This was just too much for us - as we were already late and if we went without one of our friends we would probably have been history! We gave him water, massaged his legs and said come on lets go you can make it etc. But we could see he was in bad shape and would not be able to make it. That's when we decided that he should just sit on the bicycle and we would pull him in turn all the way home. Ultimately that's what we did, three of us (Arvind, Girish and myself) pulled him from that point onwards all the way back home. The fourth guy, Vivek - the guy who made us come to Panvel - knew that there would be trouble at home, so he cunningly went ahead and quietly slipped home.

In the meanwhile, there was panic back home, the parents had launched a search party. Only the other Girish had informed his family that we may go all the way to Panvel -and my mom on finding that out informed everybody else. In those days a telephone in the house was a big thing, so communication was through our man servant who had to go up and down telling everybody that we may have gone to Panvel. Yeshwants father was on his scooter looking for us on the road. When we spotted each other it had just passed 1 pm - his father went ahead and informed everybody that we had returned. The scene on our return was something to be seen - There are 52 flats, and almost all the balconies were full waiting to see the bunch of teens who had gone on the escapade. We got bouquets(for our daring) as well as brickbats (from angry parents for our foolhardiness). I was wearing real tight shorts - and one of the enduring memories was a comment from a girl - "aiyya ardhi chaddi!" (meaning half pant). Yeshwant, whom we pulled all the way back lives above me on the second floor - and I was witness to one very emotional scene on the way up. His mother had come down - and on seeing him - just started crying! On seeing his mother cry, he said "Aiee tu radtes" (Mom - you crying) and he too promptly started crying.
For me - my elder brother freaked out on me and so did Mom. In fact after that event I was not allowed to touch my bicycle for a month!

There were some lessons we learnt on that trip - a) Never give up hope; b) Working as a team lessens the burden; c) any difficulty can be overcome with determination and d) do not trust anybody blindly (this was because of Vivek, who goaded us onto Panvel - but did not have the decency to give a helping hand to Yeshwant and was too scared to face parental wrath that he went ahead and slimily slunk home).