Height of excitement!

Sunday afternoon while Betu slept off at Nanu's house, me, hubby and my chachu went to buy a bicycle for him leaving him with Nanu. We went to the cycle market at Jhandewalan to get access to larger variety. There must be about 20 odd shops there selling variety of cycles. Can you imagine that?

After looking around in about 6-7 shops, and looking at various known and unknown brands we finalised on Hero Swirl. We saw BSA, Hero, Tobu, Avon and some local names that I don't remember now. And it was not just the brands that confused us. You had to choose between a tubeless or tire tube ones. We had to choose from the back support or the backless ones. We had to choose between different height ones. Since Betu was not with us, we were quite confused which would be the best height for him. Finally using our gut feel for the height, and a tubeless tire one from low maintenance aspect 2 things were concluded. Now was the question of which brand.

We found the BSA one quite good but since he didn't have a fresh piece of it and was trying sell us the one on the display, that was ruled out. And then we saw this Hero Swirl model and liked it too. So decision made and cycle was ordered. The guy took out the red colored one from the box and started to assemble it. Just then I got a call from Appa saying Betu had woken up and was crying. I spoke to him and in little cries he said "Mumma.." But when I told him we are getting a bicycle for him he did get consoled a bit. I called up again in about 5 mins to check if he has settled down and he had. But Appa said he doesn't want to speak to me and is snuggling with him. I took that as a good sign :D

So somehow we managed to squeeze in the cycle at the back seat of the car and started off to my Dad's place. I called Appa to bring him down (they live on the first floor and my chachaji on the ground floor) as we were nearing the house. When he saw the cycle he was getting so excited but shying away a bit and hiding behind his Nanu. First he said "Yeh to chhoti hai!" (This is a small one) and then when he tried to climb it he said "Yeh to badi hai. Main kaise baithoon is par" (This is big. How do I sit on it?) And we all laughed and told him to first decide if its small or big!

He refuses to call it a bicycle. He will say "Yeh to bike hai!" :D This is the pic of him trying to sit on the 'bike' for the first time.


Soon after he managed to pedal it properly but he kept looking down at the pedals instead of looking in the front.
Slowly and slowly his confidence built up. And he started to actually enjoy it.

A little while later he tells me "Bhagwan ji to pranam karke aate hain mandir mein" (Lets go to the temple). I was taken aback. So I and my Chachiji took him to the little Shivji temple and he went and did "pranam" while I waited near his cycle. He came out after a while and said "Hum laddoo to laye nahi" (We didn't get any sweets). I was taken by surprise yet again that he wanted us to offer sweets to Bhagwan ji. After that we came back home but kept saying he wants to go to the big mandir.

So once we were back at home he kept asking his Nanu to take him there and so off we went to the big temple where the Panditji did puja for his cycle and tied the kalava (auspicious cotton thread) to his cycle and on his hand as well. It was now that he was finally happy and satisfied. :D





His excitement kept growing and he wanted to be with his cycle all the time. Once we came back home, we kept riding it inside the house. If he could have managed, he would have actually kept it next to him on the bed when he went to sleep :D

In the morning, the regular routine of cuddling with Mumma went out for a toss and he straight away went to his cycle. When we asked him to come for brushing his teeth, he came riding on his bike. When I asked him to come for bath, he came riding on his bike! :D

And after getting ready for school, he was on his bike again!

So the highlight of the days and nights is the bike these days. I wonder how long this 'bike' fever will last!