On the way to college, I stopped in the street to take a call from a place where I had been interviewed the day before. I was chatting away, “Yay, got the job,” about the start day. I had to delay until later next week to get a couple of things done when an angry guy in Lycra walks up to me and shoves me. Not hard, but it was quite a shock, so I stepped back.
I am trying not to sound crazy on the phone to my new boss and shaking my head at Lycra guy. He’s smaller than me, yellow and black Lycra, helmet that makes his head look like an alien from Aliens, smooth, elongated. I am trying to wave at this guy, but he’s shouting at me. Just behind me is a streetlight with a bike leaning against it.
He pushes me out of the way and I’m still on the phone trying to end the call without sounding mental. For a moment, I figured that I had accidentally leaned against his goddamn bike, but no, I am at least a foot away. Lycra guy is shouting now. This actually saves me. I tell my new boss that there is too much noise and I will call him later. He hears the rumpus and agrees, so I hang up.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Lycra guy now shouts. “What the—? Why are you pushing me?” “You tried to steal my bike.” I am struggling to explain that I was on the phone and why would I take a call if I was in the middle of a theft? Where’s the lock? This is now what he is fixated on because apparently it cost a couple of hundred bucks.
Lycra guy is now calling the police. I would have walked away, but I didn’t want to get into trouble for trying to evade. It does not help that I am Black and he is white. So, I am still trying to explain and we wait. He’s standing close like I will run. I keep asking him where my tools are, where I thrown this lock that he think I’ve broken. I tell him I was talking to my new boss, nothing.
A couple of minutes later he unshoulders his rucksack and goes into it for something and finds his stupid lock. He pulls it out. We look at the bike without a lock. We look at the lock, then back to the bike. He just gets on to the bike, tells me to move out of the way and rides off. Not a word of anything.
I am twenty and I live with very protective and restrictive parents. I am at a point where I genuinely feel suffocated and I want to start experiencing the world independently. Recently I told my mother that I am participating in High Rocks Mumbai. My plan is basically to travel from Nashik to Mumbai, stay for around twenty-four hours, participate in the event, rest at a hotel, and come back.