I rode my dear old bike to office today.In fact every morning for the past couple of weeks my bike has been parked in my garage and every morning it gives me great joy to find it there.Why should this seemingly regular situation give me so much happiness? Because when it comes to my bike..nothing is obvious and regular.

It's been almost 9 years since I bought my bike and in all those years,the number of days it has actually spent parked in my garage can be counted to about one third of an annual calendar.You see, traffic rules change and amazingly they change only on the days I take my bike out.They change erratically and almost vengefully tagerting my bike.When I bought my bike, little did I know I would have so much adventure with it.In fact I am now thinking of attaching a GPS to some curvy corner of my bike.That would definitely make my life easier.Let me tell you how it all started.

One fine day I went to watch a movie with a friend of mine.We decided that I park my bike at some mid point and then ride hers.So I parked it where all the other bikes were parked in a neat row and left. When I returned from the movie, there was no row, no neat parking and certainly no bikes.But what was there was a newly painted, proud, glowing no parking sign.Apparently at twelve that afternoon rules changed and a huge convenient parking slot had been murdered.And with that went my bike.As this was my first experience being seperated from my bike, I didn't know where to go looking for it.I walked into the nearest police station and that's an experience that deserves another blog entry.I walked up to a sub inspector who was busy filing papers.Without looking up he told me that I had walked into the wrong station,that this place was for criminals, murderers and other such interesting characters.As if by cue, a constable walked in with a man handcuffed who was holding a knife and throwing thrifty glances at me...caught apparently..err..red handed.I was out of there in a flash, almost a blur.

So I spent the day running from one station to another, being mislead by the usual bangalorean "straight hoogi madam" directions, figuring out which one had my poor bike.Finally, I spotted the right station paid the fine and rode her back home.That day set the pattern in my life.The next time my bike disappeared from outside my library.I had barely even stepped into the library when I turned around to find the road sans my bike.This other time I had parked it in front of my friend's house like I had been doing for almost 5 years but then...we know the ending...it was gone.Apparently those few feet of tarmac had been made into a main road, I assume because only my bike among a sea of bikes was removed.It doesn't matter where I park my bike, they prey on it take it away with a focussed sadistic plan.

It pains me to see my poor bike clapped in chains, looking very forlorn and hunted everytime I go to rescue her.In fact I feel she has lost her pretty blue sheen due to this repeated abduction.These days she looks quite bereaved, faded and ill at ease on the roads...a little jittery if I may say so.And so considering all that she has gone through, it gives me great joy to find her parked in my garage for the past couple of weeks.I see a definite improvement in her and what with the servicing that I gave her recently, I think she will soon rally around and be as good as new.