I saved up really hard till I had enough money to buy a bike. I bought a bike with gears because I lived in a hilly district.
I used to sneak out in the night and ride up the hill to visit my friends, Katrina and Jayne and get up to mischief.
My parents had built me a little house in the back yard, it was my own room. We didn't get on very well. I wrote about my expeditions in my diary. I remember the last sentence was "Haha I didn't get found out".
The next sentence was "Un-haha. My mother read my diary."
I wasn't allowed to ride my bike after that, or see my friends. My bike was left to rust in the shed.
Sometime latter I was sterilizing my contact lenses by boiling them on the stove. But I fell asleep and they melted.
My parents made me pay for new ones by scrubbing all the rust off the spokes of my bike with steel wool till it gleamed like new and I sold it.
Not long after that they bought my younger sister a bike. She didn't have a job.
If I didn't get on with my parents very well before, we got on really badly after that.
I never got on with my mother till shortly before she died. And I never rode a bike again.
Some friends got me on one once and I crashed into a pole and an old lady. Lately some friends have been promising to teach me, but their bikes always seem to have a flat tyre.
I really have a negative Samskara where bikes are concerned. A complete mental block.
On this spiritual journey to India, we went to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai for the powerful full moon festival.
Swami Pujan and Betty had asked if anyone wanted to hire a bicycle to get around on. No one else did and I told them I couldn't ride a bike. But when we arrived at the bicycle hire shop I changed my mind. I jumped out of the bus with the intention of hiring one. Unfortunately none were available so I started walking to our accommodation, about 10 minutes further on.
On the way I came across a shack hiring bikes. So I got one and off I went! No worries mate, I said, "I can do anything!"
The next day I rode that bike all the way to town to the Sri Ramana Ashram. I went in the chaotic Indian traffic! It was so hard for my legs and back. I was so hot and puffed and sweaty. It took me a while to get to there. They even went back to look for me to make sure I was ok. I was ok, I was just trying really hard and trying really hard not to get killed. And I had to have a couple of rests crossing at the intersection then trying to merge back with the traffic. It took me a while to get over the effort.
I was so proud of myself. I thought I had overcome the psychological block I had against bicycles.
Apparently not. The universe had a lot more work for me to do. The bike got stolen.
I'd been assured that no one would steal a bicycle in Tiruvannamalai and it was locked. But a set of circumstances led it to being in the same place at the top of a dirt road for too long.
I had to leave it overnight as it was too dark to ride it back to Sunshine - our accommodation. But it was still there after breakfast. We had breakfast a short distance from Sunshine at a very nice open air cafe Da Mantra Vegan Cafe. It was new and clean, with a very nice owner.
We went to a Kirtan sing-a-long, which wasn't my cup-of-tea. A room of spiritual people were singing Indian chants to awaken the universal consciousness within. It was definitely working for some of them. They were like lunatics.
After the chanting finished, I walked back to get my bike but it was gone! I spent the next 2 hours, in the heat searching for it. I was pretty pissed off. Especially when I got back to Sunshine to have a shower and they had taken my soap.
It took a while to get the poor bicycle-hire family to understand what had happened because they didn't know much English. I had to go and download Tamil language on google translate because I couldn't get them to understand the word stolen or taken. All our conversions were mostly done with body language and a few clear words. We were all upset. They wanted me to give them enough money for a new bike. I offered to give them enough for a second-hand bike.
That night I was meditating with my group and an energetic feeling descended on me, like a shower of stars falling over my head and body. It came with a message..."buy them a new bike. But go with them so in return I would have an experience."
On the way to dinner I went and told them so they wouldn't need to worry. I arranged to come the next day at 11am and go on the back of the lady's motor scooter to the bike shop in town. We rang up their friend who spoke good English so there was no miscommunication. He said it would be easier if I just gave them the money but I insisted we were going to do it my way.
The next day, after breakfast, as I set off on my adventure, I called back to the girl's that with this transaction I was going to change the economy of India.
I got on the motor scooter with the bicycle hire lady and her little scowling son. We got as far as the cattle market that had sprung up as part of the festival, about 800m up the road, when we ran out petrol. Then there was no phone reception so she had to walk back to get some petrol. I stayed in the heat and chaos with her scowling son, surrounded by a crowd of cows and strange Indian devotees with shaved and painted heads. She arrived back with some petrol. Her husband came on another motor scooter with their little daughter and we set off again.
We stopped at 3 ATM's till we found one I could get 5000 rupees (about $100AUS) to pay for the bike.
The roads were totally packed with people and motor bikes. We accidentally bumped into 2 police women on their motor scooter! Ooops. I said sorry but I don't think they understood English. We drove past the ancient temple - It was fascinating.
There were crackers being let off in the street and road blocks but we got to the bike shop.
They took me out the back and showed me a bike. It was pink but it was too expensive and it was too big. I got them the same one as the one I had hired for 4000 rupees ($80AUS).
Then they wanted me to buy their little girl a tricycle. Poor people always get greedy and want more. I don't like being taken advantage of. I bought the children a cheap plastic toy each, but I didn't give them the toys right away. They hadn't attempted a smile the whole time.
I went back with the wife. I asked her to drop me off in the town. I was still feeling pissed off. I decided I deserved something for myself for a change. I went and picked up the saree I had ordered. It took a while for her to fit the blouse. (It didn't end up fitting very well, I kept it tight with safety pins). But the Saree was beautiful. A lady appeared from somewhere and dressed me in it.
Then I went for a relaxing lunch at the Dreaming Tree where they have reclining lounges on the floor. I had cold coconut juice and creamy pumpkin spaghetti The whole restaurant stopped and turned to watch me come in.
After lunch I went back to the shop where the young man had given me the Ganesh statue and bought myself an expensive blue topaz bracelet. It was very beautiful. I went back with the wife. I asked her to drop me off in the town. I was still feeling pissed off. I decided I deserved something so after a refreshing lunch I bought an expensive blue topaz bracelet from a friend in a shop I met the day before. He had given me a ganesh statue as a gift for no reason. Pujan thought he must have wanted to marry me. But it was just a lovely gesture on his behalf.
I was also fitted and dressed in the beautiful Saree I had bought.
The next night they were lighting the fire on the top of the mountain. A million Indians walked like an ocean around the sacred mountain. We were having a feast on a rooftop restaurant with a view to watch the lighting of the fire and the fireworks that went off everywhere all around the city.
I tried to put on my Saree but I didn't do very well. The bicycle lady grabbed me and took me into her hovel. She, her mother-in-law and sister-in-law all helped dress me properly. It takes a while. I was a late for dinner & they were getting a bit worried. I explained I had left Sunshine wearing the Sarah version of a Saree and had been helped along the way to appear as I was.
The same thing happened in the morning. I still hadn't given the children the toys because the sister had 3 small children so there were 5.
We went to hear a Sufi singer. I loved the meaning of her songs she told before she sang, about emptiness. I stayed as long as I could but I had to leave. I felt I had to have my own experience before we left.
I walked to the market in town and bought 3 more plastic toys. I had lunch and a nap back at Sunshine. Then I took the toys to the children. Also some lovely handmade soap for the ladies.
The tiniest boy got rings to arrange in order on a stick. The eldest boy plastic coloured bricks. One of the girl's got snapping fish you have to catch with a magnet. The middle boy got a squirrel that ran along the ground with sparks and when the oldest girl got a doll that lit up as she rolled along the ground they all cheered with happiness and ran off to play with their new toys. I never saw such joy. It was like Christmas.
Then I had an idea.
Bettie had told me that this lady used to be her cleaning lady. She had been studying computers when her family had decided to take her out of college and marry her off. But the husband was lazy and didn't bathe or take care of himself.
I had brought a notebook-computer with me, thinking it would be useful. But it wasn't. It was slow and heavy and took up too much space in my luggage. I asked her if she would like to have it.
We went to Sunshine with the kids and I gave it to her. She blessed me and actually kissed my feet. Back at her place her old mother-in-law gave me a Bindi and painted dots that are blessings on my forehead.
Then they asked me if I would join the family on a journey around the mountain. Traversing the mountain clears away your sins and cleans your karma. We went all together on 3 motor bikes.
I have never forgotten the way she told me it would be very jolly. It was magical. And they brought me a gift of 2 bangles. They mean more to me than the expensive one.
The next morning I was leaving. I saw the little boy playing with his blocks. He smiled and waved. He wasn't scowling any more. The husband waved. He was washed and sitting out the front of his shop in clean shirt.
The wife and brother-in-law invited me in for tea and breakfast. But I only had time to say good bye.
I wanted to change this woman's life. So I did. I feel sort of like a good angel who appeared in their life and showered them with gifts. They must have deserved it or the universe wouldn't have set it up for their bike to be stolen.
