Cycle on hire
I was taught cycling by my friend Padassery Raghu during summer vacation in 1971 at Venkitangu. We hired a cycle regularly from the village market. I mastered couple of technical "cycle" skills before I mastered pedaling steadily. The first skill was cajoling the chain back into the sockets and the second one was "aligning" the handle bar for riding on a straight line. I learnt cycling on kucha paths. I fought with sand mounds and trees by banging the cycle ag ainst them. By the time my sister and her friends learnt cycling a couple of years later, the venue shifted to the precint of village temple. On return to Madras, I taught couple of friends cycling in the vast compound of Fatima Mata Church next to Corley School. We hired cycles from shops on Velachery Road, East Tambaram opposite Madras Christian College main gate. As years progressed, we used pedal to Camp Road, Chitlappakkam, Gowrivakkam and Irumbaliyur. Tambaram was the terminus of suburb...