Better late than never

From the Malaymail Online, 27 October, 2016

1. A long time ago when I was 12 or 13 years, my friend carried me on the carrier of his bicycle. The ride went nicely at first but then my friend decided to pull a trick on me by shaking the handle violently that the vehicle seemed to go out of control. I was so scared that I threw myself off the vehicle. I was quite sure I would fall off safely but I ended up with cuts and bruises instead. My friend was so regretful and didn’t expect I’d react the way I did. Thinking out loud then, he believed that I would never ever ride a bicycle again. 

2. Believe it or not, I learn to ride the bicycle when I was turning 18. Nightly I would struggle to balance myself on the two-wheeled vehicle while paddling it in the dark in an open area behind our house. It was not an easy skill to learn especially when you’ve missed the boat for more than a decade. But I persevered, thinking that I should be able to ride a bicycle before thinking of buying a motorcycle. So I thought learning the skill was very useful. 

3. As a matter of fact, I had felt so left out during much of my teenage years, missing all the fun that my peers had going around on their bikes. I still recall the bicycle trip to Perlis organized after the Lower Certificate Examination was over and just before the school holidays. Most of my classmates participated and it was then that someone let the cat out of the bag and made me eat dirt. 

4. Several weeks after a very intensive effort, I was able to ride the bike with ease without thinking of falling off.  When I was quite confident that I could manoeuvre it on the road, I approached a friend and asked him if he could accompany me on a bicycle trip to Kangar. He was ready, willing and able, so we started off early in the morning to avoid much traffic on the road. 

5. Kangar which is about 63 kilometres away from my home town is the state capital of Perlis, a small state to the north of Kedah. I can’t recall much about the trip except that my friend was encouraging me when I was unsure of myself on the road. After the important trip, I became bicycle-crazy for some time and rarely took the bus to town again …