Puncture XXX

Today the rear tyre of my bike got punctured for the fourth time. It's not a big deal by biker standards, especially considering I've had it for about 3 years. But what a pain it is.

One major bit of advice I'd like to give you.. Always be on the lookout for puncture-wallahs/repairers. You should know their locations all around your city. Searching for the tyre-wallah can get very frustrating, especially since passers-by are as clueless as you are (if they are walking, they don't have a bike - so how will they know where repair shops are?)

A petrol pump is your best bet, especially if you don't know your whereabouts. Usually they have repairers there itself.

And once you do find him, be ready for a long wait. I had two people ahead of me and it took him one hour to get to me.

All basic info eh, but what the heck.

I did find a puncture repairer, a guy called Baby. He was (of course) a Mallu, and I had a chat with him. I didn't understand half the things he was explaining about my tyre, but there were about 8-10 holes in the tube and the cheaper option was to change the tube itself. 170 bucks. Hmm I wonder if that's why I needed to inflate my tyres every week. Lets see..

One thing which struck me was what an advantage it is knowing a language alien to your city. Or what that matter knowing about different cultures and places. For I was able to connect with a puncture-wallah of all the people; simply because I recognized his hometown by his accent. Well you might argue it was quite useless considering he didn't give me any discount as such, but would you do the same? Naah, me neither.