what's the most memorable/embarrassing/traumatic experience that you have experienced in your childhood? what makes you cringe/grin even today when you think about this experience?
one such experience, and a funny one at that, that i remember is the time when i decided to single-handedly dismantle my bicycle.
we used to drive our bicycles to school. these were nothing like the fancy bicycles that you see today. they were just plain, functional cycles; but for us they were our hot-rods! and then occasionally (not as often as our folks might have liked us to), we used to get down to some serious cleaning up of our bikes. this meant a couple of hours of washing and polishing and oiling over a weekend.
during one such cleaning session during the summer vacation, i decided to do a more thorough job than usual. i had recently acquired a second-hand set of tools including spanners, screw-drivers, etc. i decided to dismantle my bicycle. i followed a very simple guideline - i unscrewed every possible screw or bolt that i possibly could. i was amazed at the number of parts that go into making a simple bicycle.
after a couple of hours of satisfying labor i had an impressive pile of parts including ball-bearings, screws, nuts (not including the writer), pedals, wheels, spokes, chains, handle, seats, etc. i then meticulously cleaned each and every part which took up a good part of the day.
finally when it came to putting the cycle back i didn't know where to start!
that's when a wave of panic slowly starting engulfing me. try as i might, i couldn't, for the life of me, figure where all these hundreds of parts were supposed to fit. after a couple of hours of trying various permutations and combinations (i trace my dislike of probability theory to this event in my life) i finally accepted defeat.
i then put all the parts into a few large grocery bags, borrowed a friend's bike (of course i couldn't tell him why i needed his cycle) and pedalled away furiously to my favorite cycle-mechanic shop. i handed over the bags and with a rather sheepish face asked him to build me a bicycle. he thought i was pulling a fast one on him, but that impression changed very quickly when he incredulously perused the contents of the bags. he was very amused when i narrated what had happened.
but i was not at all amused when i realised that i had to shell out an amount which was significantly more than what i would have had to pay my mechanic for a 'special' cleaning of the bicycle. but i took comfort in the fact that i was among the only one among my friends who had touched the very heart of a bicycle!
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do you have a similar childhood/teenage experience that you would like to share?
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My most memorable incident:
I was in standard V. Our house team for the Annual Sports Day had been officially announced and I was selected in all categories (100 mts, 200 mts, 50 mts, 400 mts, 4 x 100 mts relay, long jump, 20 km cycle race) to represent my house in the junior / inter levels.
I was extremely happy for being selected in all of these... My motivation - getting 1 full packet of 'Glucon D' all to myself after every event!
That evening, after coming back from school, my so-called-friends and I were playing characters from Hindi Movies replete with Amitabh's action masala. As suggeted, I was playing none other than Amitabh himself! As per the requirement of the scene I was supposed to jump from the top of a two storeyed cable-house (a dumpyard, on whose roof they had put up the first ever Dish Antenna in town... It looked more like a bhoot bangla than anything else)... New garage construction was going on near the cable house at that point of time and quite a few exposed iron beams were jutting out from the partially constructed garages, very close to the cable house. So like I said, I was to jump on these 'villains' (my friends playing the characters) from the roof... While I was a little worried, they assured me that I will fall on them on the sand and will be cushioned from any hurt... At a given time, I jumped... WHile going down (mid-air) I saw terrified faces of the 'villains' who fleed from the spot...straight towards their homes!!!
First thing that struck me was the iron beam, on my head... It deflected me from my initial course of fall and instead of falling on the sand, I landed on my feet (twisted and out of balance), on the near by bricks! OUch!!! That definitely hurt. But I just got up, brushed my self and walked home wondering what happened to the 'villains'!
The very night, after dad came and saw what I had done to myself, he prohibited me from participating in the next day's sports event... My heart broke... but with a badly swollen left foot, a bruised right foot and a bumpy forehead, I had too little a chance out there!
My bro kept applying 'Thrombophob' and 'Medicreme', interspersed with hot water fomentation for both feet...
The next afternoon, without letting my mom and my dad know, my bro and I left on his bicycle to the sports ground. We lied to our parents saying that I will only cheer up my other team members.
We reached the ground and everybody was told about the mishap. I could also notice the 'villains' averting my gaze while they got up to reach of the start line for the 100 mts race (Juniors), as their names were called. Finally, when I heard my name being called, I just couldn't stop myself. I walked to the starting line, the only one wearing the school tennis shoes for the race (I couldn't have even walked without them)... I knew that I had nothing to lose and I just wanted to run!
SHOT!!! Everybody ran... I was running too... I ran, I ran I ran... as fast as I could and then suddenly I saw myself all alone hitting the finish line! As I turned back I saw the second winner touch the finish line and then the third one... It struck me then that it really gets lonely at the top!!! I had won! But for me it was just the beginning! SOmehwere in the guests/audience tent, I could see my father stand up and clap with others, still trying to confirm if the winner was his daughter who had been barred from participating in the sports day owing to the injuries...
That year, I ended up lifting the junior's and the inter's title by winning every event I had participated in (except for the long jump where I stood second).
I was scared accepting an award from my father (who was the chief guest that year) and I hardly looked up while receiving the awards...
My bro was ecstatic! When we came back, my father had already broken the news to my mom who was very proud and worried at the same time... But it all ended with my father giving me the biggest bear hug of my life! And yes, i didn't back to talking to the 'villains' of my Amitabh movie until they came home and apologised to me in front of my bro and mom for their 'negative roles'...
Now that's what I call the BLAST FROM THE PAST!
Cheers!
Rima
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