Childhood

Cycles unlike most times at school were a happy part of every childhood. Cycling to school, slow-cycling races (yes its an oxymoron but we had those too), picnics during summer holidays, or just cruising around the neighbourhood was what we did.

I remember inflating balloons and tying it to the strut of the rear wheel of my cycle so that it rubbed against the spokes. As the wheel rotated the spokes would rub against the balloon and make a god awful sound much like a cruiser without a silencer.

Then we would raise hell through our neighbourhoods until we got shouted out or our balloons burst.

I took this photograph in the evening, there were children around playing but none of them on bikes. Maybe because our apartment complex offered no place for them or maybe their parents refused to permit them to cycle in the by-lanes where vehicles zip by taking advantage of its emptiness.

Owning a cycle for a child has become an empty rite-of-passage.