02 — A companion
I have been an instinctive person predominantly, except maybe for the last few months. I had decided to buy a bicycle, and hence I couldn’t control my temptation to buy one at the earliest. I did not bother to do any decent research about bicycles, (except the fact I had to buy a Hybrid cycle, so that I needn’t worry about the terrain that it is built for), or to heed to the suggestions of the more sensible people around me.
So far, I have been lucky that my instinct hasn’t let me down all that much.
And so, I rushed to the bicycle shop, chose the cheapest hybrid cycle that I could find in the outlet, made a call to my father that I was going to buy a bicycle, and bought it then and there. I was thoroughly excited about this new material possession, and named it FORT.
When a new material possession enters the household, the not-so-new ones look at it with so much jealously because it tends to be the subject of all the attention and love from the owner. However, there is an elite group that is indifferent to all these newcomers.
A thing or two about this elite group. I feel certain material possessions come to life, and decide to forge a relationship with the owner. They begin to communicate with the owner, when they are convinced that the owner has managed to instill enough trust. For example, it could be the old watch that beams at you even after twenty years of faithful service. Or the tattered wallet that people around you make fun of (but you don’t let go of him for many reasons). A favorite chair that creaks when you sit on it, as a sign of welcome. An old backpack, a book that you have re-read hundreds of times, the half-broken pair of spectacles; or the ink pen that finally decides to offer you smoother journeys on paper, after getting accustomed to your touch and feel. Slowly, there begins to happen a communication that is understood only by two entities: the ‘object’ and its owner. It is as if both entities know what the other prefers. And they like to stay in each other’s company. When changed hands, the same ink pen displays a slight reluctance to accept its new acquaintance and fails to live up to the hype that the owner associated with it.
I too, forged a similar relationship with FORT. After months of being in my possession, I felt he started to understand my intentions. I was not someone who cycled regularly but I took him on a few long trips around the city. To be honest, in the anxiety of taking up this cycling trip from Kanyakmuari to Chennai, I did not cycle as much as I would have liked, either to gain his confidence or to gain any sort of self-confidence to pursue this long cycling trip.
But thankfully, and rather generously, after only eight months of sparingly riding the bicycle, FORT transformed into a companion, from being a mere material possession. He was my possession all along but now it seemed I was one of his. Because after phases of inactivity, when I take him for a ride, he would signal his displeasure by making me pedal harder, even in an easier gear. After a couple of minutes, everything would be back to normal. But I think he realized my urgency and anxiety. I sometimes feel he was the one who reached out to me despite having spent little time with me. He is now well and truly in my elite group.
And for my cycling trip to be less cumbersome, I needed as many companions as I could accommodate, and I could not feel more grateful for FORT’s timely gesture.
