“cycalge helmetaa? Idu enappa hosa ishtylu?”
A new cycle has been bought and I have started cycling to the school again. Since it is going to be a regular commute for me, my dear wife insists that I should wear a helmet (a cycle helmet which we brought back from the US 4 years back). And so I did. These are the reactions to a helmet wearing cyclist :
Road side adult idlers – (In these parts of the world a large proportion of the population belongs to this category). Curious and sometimes amused.
Young children – Total entertainment. They point to the other young children and giggle out loud.
Young male adults – Seemed pretty impressed with all the gadgetry and were checking out the cycle
Young female adults – Totally unimpressed with the cycle, the helmet and the cyclist. Now I know the real reason why Madhavi insists on a helmet.
Automobile drivers – This is the good part. The previous month I cycled without a helmet and so can tell the difference. They take a helmet wearing cyclist more seriously. This can’t be a working class cyclist who can’t afford anything better. This has to be a US returned software engineer with wonky ideas. So better treat him carefully. Just for this I would recommend helmets for all bangalore cyclists.
Call center drivers – I actually got a cat call from a call center driver. “How arrre ya?” in a very american accent!
Three camels – not only they utterly ignored me but even seemed to put on a disdainful look
Children in school – Loud laughing, “cycalge yaake helmetu?” was said out loud and “Raamu saaru solpa loosu” not so loud.
Teachers in school – Same as above except they kept their thoughts to themselves and had a good laugh after I left.
5 comments:
hahaha HILARIOUS! love it!
A real question to ask:
A person who visited Bangalore from the US was very curious as to why a child sitting on a mother's lap in a scooter was not wearing a helmet while the rider was !
Hilarious!!!
> “Raamu saaru solpa loosu”
Children sometimes have very intuitive ways of arriving at essential truths, no?
How about riding by our side of the world? I could use some entertainment and I promise to laugh behind your back.
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