The Old Hercules...!

The old Hercules..!

The bicycle was the car of the olden times. They came from two three companies. And the Relieh brand was the most sought after. But the others came from Hercules, Avon, Atlas etc.

Little children were not at all concerned with the companies they belonged to but only to the sweet thing as long as it had two wheels. Children are like that any where. Very open minded. They looked for a small bicycle, in those days, called a half bicycle. This gave them the leverage to climb on it and control it rather than from a full bicycle which stood at a full twenty four inches plus the seat.

All this came to mind today, when I was at he medical dispensary where my close friend was a bicycle neatly locked up on a side of the wall and carrying a lot of cobwebs. The old bicycle was a Hercules with its old seat bottom filled with white cloth which was surely being used by its user to clean it from time to time. Now he may have discarded it. As most of the youth these days want to use a petrol two wheeler instead of the pedalling bicycle.

Olden days, guys did it with gusto and pedalled their heart out and travelled less to the dispensary. Now people travelled more to the dispensary, travelled on many others modes of transport, but less on bicycles. Here the bi-cycle was taking rest away in a corner. The tyres were both old, the back tyre in good shape, but the front one some what deflatede and flat either due to time and air loss or by a punctured tube. The lock seemed to be in tact and the frame and mud guard was good. There was a little board on the white area of the back mud guard which took my attention. It said : “I am engaged”. May be, it may have an ambition. We do not know. In the Indian parlance when an engagement is proposed and decided, it is normally followed by marriage. But that does not work good for bicycles. This sign only meant that this bicycle is not available to any body but to the real owner or the dispensary in whose premises it is stationed.

It would have been owned or had been issued to a Class IV staff or a Clerk to commute to nearby places to save time instead of walking up. Some of them were also given an allowance in lieu of this kind of bicycling and fetching work. That allowance was called 'Cycle allowance'. Only the lower paid employees got that allowance. The better placed officials even though were allowed to use the bicycle, were not paid any cycle allowance. But it was the lower staff who loved and lived with the heart-throbs of old as a new issue of a brand bicycle thrilled any body in those days.

Now this bicycle in front of me would have done the length and breadth of Adyar where the dispensary is situated. It would have seen better times and good people as it would have remained in a family whose sole bread winner would have had this little beauty, that too, a Hercules, which is called a bi-cycle with a muscle, in this part of the country. Regardless of the long use, the cycle still stood its ground and had some sleeping life in it which can come alive any time, but for the sign on it, “I am engaged” Many a medicine would have been carried on it which would have saved the life of many a sick patient. But now the cycle itself is sick of non use and non exercise. The Doctors who advised us to walk and do exercise never looked at the bicycle.

Such things are looked after by the administrative officials and they did not think of health but of administration. Now that there are no takers for the bicycle in the new comers, it will have to wait in the corridor for some more time, beffore salvation came to it.

My medicines came by this time and it was time for me to leave the dispensary and I said good bye to the old friend, the Hercules.!

While on my return home, I was deeply troubled by the Adyar mud on the wheels.  The mud may be years old as it seemed the bicycle had been resting in its present place for quite some time as like in any Government office when things go into disuse.  If the bicycle had been in recent use the mud would belong to the time of the floods in which it would be general mud of Chennai as all the water came together to give a kind of togetherness to the people and animals.

The sufferers for the most part were the animals as they perished and without number.  Humans also faced a lot of trouble and certain death in the catastrophy of great magnitude.  But the Hercules has outlived to tell its story and was standing majestically on its stand.  The handle bars were in tact but the grips were worn out.  The bell was the old single bell type and the chain and pulleys had a lot of oil and grease on them again showing it had been lovingly used thoroughly by some youngster.

Yesteryears found the youth here applying themselves on bicycles when cars, motor cycles, mopeds and scooters were few.  The only well off guys could afford a Lambretta or Vespa scooter.  After a lot of time, the market competitors brought out a long scooter near to the Lambretta called 'Vijai Super' .  That too ran for a while.  On the motor cycle front there were three of them which we usually found on the films and movies of the time, viz. the Bullet for sure as it was a British legacy, followed by the Jawa another roaring long motor cycle and followed by the more suave 'Rajdoot' from the Yamaha company.


Now all those sounds have died down and the new market charmers aponce peared on the scene.  The Hero Honda's put the axe on the less averaging vehicles and once the Hero Hondas picked up other competitors who were making other things started making their kind of motor cycles and the market became very competitive.  This now made the usual bicycle lover go for the 'fast forward' mode of the motor cycles and our loved and dear Hercules is now assigned to a corner of the Dispensary without any treatment or use.   Let us hope that since it is in the Dispensary it will get the attention due to it and get treated, revive its old glory and be used once again to ultimate good health of its user and the on lookers alike...!