Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Cyclist

Every woman wants to grab a little bit of attention, be it at any point of her age. But what if it becomes one of the embarrassing situations of your life and leaves you with a sense of intimidation and guilt.
One evening I was going back to my hostel from my aunt's place .Today was just like any other day; I got down from the auto, paid the auto driver and started walking towards the hostel which was hardly half a kilometer away from the stand. Suddenly, it seemed as if someone was following me on a bicycle but then thought might be just a factory worker so I started walking, but again after few minutes I realized that actually he is following me. It is dark by now and no one was there on this narrow sultry street apart from some children playing football in the nearby ground in the dark. My heart started beating faster so as the rate of his paddle. He was next to me on his bicycle and started making a circular motion around me as if he was doing some stunts and singing some Hindi song. I did not even presume to see him and kicked very hard on the wheel of his bicycle with my right leg. He fell down nearby a drain. Then I started running to reach the nearest lamp post to get some light and ask for help, at that point the light was oxygen for me. I reached there; people were passing by and saw some familiar faces too. I was relaxed and took a deep breath.
I look back to see whether that guy is still behind me or not. What I see was something catastrophic and made me feel so indictable. A boy not more than 13-14 years old was coming with his bicycle with wounded elbows. Though the next few days were a bit frightening, thankfully I never saw him again.