My Brothers, A TVS 50, and I

I have decided to end my Accident Series with this last one...This is not much of an accident but more of two people being jobless...

I was little girl, may be about eight or nine years and we lived in B.H.E.L Township in Trichy. This place is beautiful okay...It is this beautiful, well planned, and well maintained township in the middle of nowhere. When most kids in India were watching Tennis on TV, we were playing it every day. When most kids did not know what the hell snooker or billiards were, we were getting coached to play it in the evenings. We had coaches for everything, be it Table Tennis, Swimming, Athletics, Cricket, etc...Really it was godsend for me and my brothers because we had great exposure and learnt almost all the games/sports possible. It also made us very sporty and not the TV-watching-playing-video games kinda kids...

Both my brothers were ranked 1st and 2nd in Trichy District and ranked Statewise too...So they practiced Tennis early every morning and every evening. Our courts had ball boys and linesmen in the evening but the net and new lines were drawn on the court only around 3.00pm...So my dad bought us our own net and balls. Every morning my brothers will go to the court at 5.30am and play till 7.30am before heading for school...During weekend I accompanied them to be their ball-girl and also to get some exercise...My prize for good behavior was playing with my brothers at the end of their practice session...

My brothers and I along with the net rode our TVS 50 to the court every morning. I would sit in the front literally on the net...Every morning as we entered the court, my second brother Balaji would get off the bike and open the gates for us and also pick up the net. My older brother Shaw and I would ride on the bike between the various poles that are used to anchor the nets...My brother to give me the racing feeling would do his turns not only by turning the handlebar but by also bending down so that our knees touched the ground...

I was always excited to do this...Everytime we went we would do two eights around four poles of two courts and generally ride around making a lot of noise...It would be just the three of us in the courts...

One such fateful morning my brothers and I stopped at the gate. Balaji got down and started to open the gate, while opening it he looked at the two of us who seemed very excited to go for our race and said, "One of these days you guys are going to fall..."

And fall we did...It was our last lap around the last pole, we were coming from doing an eight and just when both my brother and I (who was sitting behind him) bent down to almost make our legs touch the ground the bike (TVS 50) gave away and we skid...My brother being tall stood up incurring less damage but the lilliput that I was...Sat there with the bike's exhaust resting on my leg...I incurred a small burn...

Shaw got scared and got me out of the mess in split seconds. He was scared that I might cry, complain to my mother, or do something of the sort...But I was silent...Did not cry and neither did I tell anyone about it...The good girl that I was...Both my brothers were proud of me and I still remember Shaw telling me, "I cannot believe that you did not cry..."

Even today both my brothers and I recollect this among many other fond memories we have...and with that I put down my accident series to rest...At least for a while...