I am old

Times have changed. At one time, my father used to tell his colleagues about how well I had performed in the exams. Nowadays I get to know how well my colleagues children have performed in theirs.
I met my senior colleague today when I was out grocery shopping(yes...times have changed). I met his wife and child. The child was not in a mood to say hello. My boss said to him, " Beta, Aunty ko hi bolo". I looked around to see as to who he was referring to and then it dawned on to me that I was the aunty.
I felt my whole life flashing before my eyes. Just yesterday, I was in school and today I am an aunty. Life, is indeed, too short.
P.S. I find it difficult to come up with titles for each and every post. I have never been good at it.

Bicycle Diaries

Lets start at the very beginning. I never liked riding a cycle because of an incident which involved a fence, front brakes of the bike and the bicycle on top of me. My mom coaxed me, cajoled me, threatened to throw me out of the house, all to make me learn to ride it but to no avail. Then one day, my big bro came along and told me that it is compulsory to ride a cycle in IIT. Naive and gullible that I was, I fell for it, as IIT was where I wanted to be. Soon I got a brand new bicycle and had got the hang of it. The wind blowing through my hair, I felt reckless and independent.
Anyhoo,I know I have not yet written anything suggested by the blog title, but I am coming to it. So back to my story. My bicycle learnings were not much useful in IIT as I preferred walking to cycling. But as Steve Jobs says, nothing you learn ever goes to waste. So is the same with the bicycle.
My bicycle expertise is now proving to be very useful. My job involves field inspections and I have to travel a lot in 1100 acres of land. Motor vehicles are not allowed, because there should not be any kind of spark in a petrochemical plant. So a bicycle is the only mode of transportation. Fair enough.
Alas, there is always a glitch. The cycles which are available are Hero Men's cycles, complete with a bar and everything. And for a short person it appears to be even bigger. Trying to mount the cycle requires a lot of ingenuity. This is how I do it-
1. Take the cycle to a secluded spot.
2. Tilt the cycle to 60 degrees to the vertical.
3. Now swing the leg across the bar.
4. Make sure noone sees you doing this.
5. Start riding the cycle and pray that nothing comes in front of your cycle suddenly.
6. While dismounting, follow the steps 1 to 3 again.
I have dropped the cycle a few times, but no damage done. I am making use of atleast some of my learnings.
And now I can proudly say, " Give me any bicycle and I will show you how to ride it" :)