Nana Korobi Ya Oki

The art of getting up after falling

- Smt. Sujatha Rao

We were all "Heroes"

Way back in the early sixties, we had mostly adult-size bicycles available for rent in the little town we lived in. Irrespective of their size or age, all people, mostly men, learned to ride on such bicycles. Many a time, children could not sit on the seat and ride, as their feet would not reach the pedals since the bicycles were all of one size with no concept of fitting it with extra wheels for balancing. As they learned to ride by thrusting their legs into the mid-space beneath the crossbar, it posed a double challenge of learning to balance the bicycle without any place to rest their behinds.

So it was inevitable that people ended up with bruised knees and elbows as they fell multiple times before they learned to ride. Notwithstanding the scrapes, scratches and bruises, when they rode for the very first time with the kiss of gentle-blowing air on their faces, tires rolling on the road, legs on automatic pedalling and mind free to wander, everyone felt like a "Hero" as the most popular brand name of the bicycles in those times proudly proclaimed.

Fall Seven Times, Stand up Eight