I had the whole world in my hands...

There’s something incredible about being small, frail and feeling like you can conquer the world! It’s a brilliant feeling...it fills you up with joy to the brim of your soul till you can hardly breathe and all of that joy comes forcefully out in a loud exhilarated laugh!

I had this feeling the first time I rode the bike without the side wheels on. I remember being quite a scraggly kid with thin long legs and I hardly had any hand to eye co-ordination. I could fall flat on my face simply while walking without there being even a pebble on the road. And then my parents got me this sweet little bike with side wheels. I was a queen on the tiny machine. The secret behind the confidence was that I would never fall and boy I was so afraid of falling that for a very long time I didn’t let them take the side wheels off.

My dad was my hero, always has been and always will be. He somehow managed to convince me that since I’d learnt to ride a bike, side wheels or no side wheels I wouldn’t fall. And so finally after six months I let him take them off. I sat on the bike nervous and excited, shaky and confident. He held the back of my seat and I peddled slowly in a wobbly manner. He held on encouraging me to go faster, to be confident and just go with the flow. I did and oh boy it was great for a few minutes till I realised he’d let go! I turned around, gasped in shock and almost immediately toppled over, scrapped my knee and started crying. I accused him of betraying my trust, ran home, complained to mom and refused to ride the bike with him ever again!

All my friends had bikes at that point and some even rode without the side wheels. I got teased a lot for making up excuses for not riding with them and since it was the most ‘in’ thing to do at that age, I ended up not having friends to spend time with as all of them were busy trying to become cycle gangsters!

So one day in pure frustration I got on my bike and started riding with my friends. I rode looking carefree but inside I was shit scared that I would lose balance and fall down and everybody would laugh...but that didn’t happen. I rode and there were four-five of us racing the winds. I was so high...I was so overjoyed...I was the queen of the world and I could fly on my little bike. I had never felt so free and exhilarated in my life! 

Though I ended up cycling due to peer pressure, I’ll always give this one to my dad who patiently tried to help me overcome my fears. I had the whole world in my hands that day.