Bicycle = Brother
I don't have a real brother and we don't celebrate Raksha Bandhan at home. I might have been a slightly different person if I had had a brother for a sibling (I have a younger sister; hi Yaghavi if you're reading:). A little less wary as an adult, a little less bullied as a kid.
But this is not me feeling upset about something/someone I don't have.
I do have someone whom I sometimes introduce as my "Anna" or elder brother:
My bicycle.
Makes sense as my bicycle is older than me. My dad had got it in Chennai, and I was non-existent.
Makes sense in one more way as it has always been with me, wherever I have stayed in till now. And the most miraculous part is that I have never fallen off of this cycle. Not even once. It has taken care of me like a brother would do.
However, for a very long time, it was "Appa's cycle".
Because my first cycle was a yellow tricycle in Ammachi-Thatha's house.
Then my parents got me a brand new hot-pink kids cycle with side-wheels when we were in Jabalpur. It was called Hero Blaze. I was in UKG. The cycle had a basket and a back-rest too! I got the side-wheels removed when we shifted to the major accommodation in Bareilly. I was in grade II and it was a major adaptation for me - I spent a while day barely pedaling two full cycles before falling off, just a metre from where I started.
In Secunderabad, I got fomo as all my friends had bigger cycles and I was still using the small pink cycle. So I started trying out Appa's cycle with a bhaiya's help. Balancing was not as much as a problem as the horizontal bar was for a fourth-grader with a tiny built. I started pestering my parents for a new cycle and they said that we'll get one when we have shifted to the next place.
So within a month of arriving in Panagarh, I got my new "big bicycle". I was in class V. It was a Tata cycle named "Sonpari", a name that some of my mischievous friends decided to call me by. Sonpari is still there at home. But somehow, it we never quite hit the right chord. The basket came out loose, there was a noise when I pedaled, but it did have a wide pillion with a hook and a skirt-guard too.
I rode Sonpari only because Appa's cycle was still Appa's cycle and he often cycled to office in the evenings.
Eventually, in Mumbai, Appa bought a new geared cycle for himself from Decathlon and "Appa's cycle" got demoted to "old cycle".
Not for long because both the cycle and I were an upgrade for each other I suppose!
When we finally came home to Coimbatore, I insisted that Appa leave his old cycle with me and take his new one to Kunnarampatti. And my long-time dream of cycling to school finally came true, much to Yaghavi's chagrin! Poor girl never signed up for it but finally got a new cycle instead of a hand-me-down in the bargain.
So in eleventh grade and the sparse schooldays of twelfth grade, I cycled to Stanes.
Then, when I got admission in the vast campus of TNAU, I had to keep a bicycle in the university even though I was a day scholar. Amma and Appa suggested that I get a new bicycle but I saw no fault with using the one I had. It was exclusively mine anyways!
Once in class, each one of us had to speak about any random thing and I ended up speaking about my cycle. To my own surprise, and to get my point across, I referred to my cycle as "Anna", elder brother in Tamil. From then, it stuck on. Swetha and Jayashree always called my cycle Anna!
So Anna did his BTech in Energy and Environmental Engineering with me. And we actually had loads of fun. Once, Swetha rode my cycle with me on the pillion and Manisha on the horizontal bar!
I gave pillion rides to whoever needed it and many a times it was Shruthi. The pillion was never comfortable and we encountered "turbulences" very often!
Very superstitious of me but I wouldn't get off my cycle till the time we had to enter to exam hall, because it lowkey got me good luck and good marks hehe.
When my admission in IIT Bombay got confirmed, it was obvious that I needed a bicycle for my MTech too. I realised that much when I had come for the interview. Again, Amma and Appa tried persuading me into buying a new bicycle in Mumbai. But I insisted vehemently that I will take only this cycle, my Anna.
So on 20 July 2025, Amma and I packed my cycle the best we could.
We decided to take a train journey the only reason being that otherwise Anna would travel alone in the parcel-van of the train.
One mishap occurred. The right handlebar-horn broke. I tried getting it repaired. But I eventually realised that this was ergonomically much better for me to carry my big umbrella (my little brother I suppose:) on the handlebar. So the handlebars have only one horn now.
I was in for another shock when I came to IITB. The terrain was unforgiving for cyclists. There was at least one slope in every route I had to take from the hostel to either LHC or the department. So for quite a few months in H-15, Anna lay abandoned while I walked.
Eventually I mustered up enough strength and correct posture and my commute is mostly by cycle now. I feel rather proud when I ascend the steep slope of the main road from H-17 to LHC hehe. I once rode up that hill with Manan on the pillion and also down - both he and I were so happy that day!
I have my cycle key in my pocket as I type. My cycle is one of my most cherished belongings.
Not only did my cycle accompany me wherever I have been, but it has become part of me, my personality, sometimes I wonder if I have cycled more than I have ever walked.
Of course, Anna never let me down - literally. I have never fallen off this particular cycle even once, not even when the chain came off, not even when my shoelace got stuck in it. Never.
So I do have a brother.
