Cycle – A life of Fortune
Baskar Seshadri
My Fascination for the bicycle was of high rage and since my teens till i shifted to two wheeler the liking of the same was too high- Bicycle to me was an Economical, easy maintainable and even a small boy of sixties like me who was in school could always use it at the drop of a hat.
Though we had one at our home (Remember it was Rallis) the demand was too big for it as my father used to take it to Office.
Of course we in life always had a choice or alternative in some form or the other. Its Hire Cycle. For semi educated like me it was HOUR Cycle and When i chanced upon this advertisement i drove back my memory to the lost decades. It was just fifty paisa or less than that for driving it for half an hour.
Small boy like me who cannot have enough money could not afford to spend a lot and i always roam around the cycle shop to ensure that we don’t exceed the time. It was in such a cycle i used to go movies (all night show) to various theaters of old madras.
I Still remember a long journey to Thiruporur in late seventies too. My father was a strict disciplinarian and he used to insist that i carry a kerosene lamp always till the invasion of the dynamo cycle.
Today when i had a chance to drive a bicycle i could not drive at all for fifty meters. It was an asset to all the family of those days. It was this cycle which changed the fortune of life to many and i was one among them –Whether its BSA, Rallis or Hercules i love them always.
For locals in Chennai around Mylapore it was Sambandam cycle a famous shop will always come to mind and for the whole of Madras it used to be BM Davey if i am right which had its showroom in Broadway.
The advertisement featured here dated back to 1957 in a Tamil Magazine.
