Cycle Balance

Pic courtesy: DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP/Getty Images

It was October 1967 and Dasara time. A Tamil song from Sivaji Ganesan movie was playing aloud on the horn loudspeaker. Over a hundred people were gathered around the make shift arena built on the vacant land of Panchavati Colony behind Modern Talkies Shimoga. They were cheering aloud as a slim dark man in his Twenties, wearing black half pants and colourful floral design shirt, was pedaling the bicycle round and round, nonstop. A banner written in rustic Kannada and Tamil read "Cycle Balance non stop 7 days. Shanmugham challenge".

Yes. Such scenes were not unusual those days in the Sixties in old Mysore province. They were supposed to keep pedaling the bicylce for 7 days without touching the feet or other parts of the body to the ground. I have also seen a movie in which, jobless hero has pressure on him to get his mother or sister cured for a deadly disease and he resorts to nonstop cycle balance to earn money.

That Shanmugham seemed to do it regularly for a livelihood. They had all the necessary equipments like the gramophone and the public address system with something written in Tamil. I think they travelled by buses and went from town to town, him performing the feat.

I was fascinated, as I was on a holiday, staying in my sister's home nearby, I was still 10 years old and I had nothing better to do! My brothers, a few relatives and myself stood and watched Shanmugham pedal the bicycle while he did some feats like they do in circus like wheelie and staying still without touching his feet to the ground. He also entertained the crowd by miming his lips to the song playing on the gramophone.

Couple of days went by and late one evening, I saw Shanmugham leaning over the fencing and having bath with cold water, while staying on the bike. I appreciated that, but also wondered how on earth will he attend to nature's call while balacing on the cycle!

Then on the fourth day, Four of us boys went to watch a movie. At around 10:00 in the night, we were returning home. As we reached the arena where the cycle balance was going on, we neither saw any light, nor we heard any sound on the gramophone. Shanmugham was visible sitting on the bicycle in the dark smoking a beedi, but with his left foot touching the ground! We laughed aloud and suddenly music started to play, lights were switched on, and Shanmugham threw the beedi butt and started pedalling the bike aggressively!

As we tried to move away, a woman grinned at us with an apologetic look on her face that seemed to say 'Please don't think he has broken the challenge. He was out of his mind or probably he was sleepy. Otherwise he will do this nonstop!' We just laughed heartily and went home.

Shanmugham completed his "7 day nonstop Cycle Balance challenge" exactly on the Seventh day amidst a loud cheer, some folks garlanding him and applying turmeric powder and ash on his forehead and offering him tender coconut to drink. He looked like real hero of Tamil film with dark glasses on and milky white teeth sparkling in the sun!

He gave a long speech in Tamil, thanking all the people and said he never gets tired when he takes up challenges like the one he just completed. The crowd cheered and threw coins into the bowl a small girl went around with. However, he ignored us boys smiling and watching him with keen eyes!