I don’t really know whom or what to compare my expression with, was it similar to having done something new, or was it similar to having bought something new, or may be it was just the pleasure having achieved what you had set out for. This was only my second bike, had left biking when I turned 11-12, that’s when I had set my eyes on a ‘motorized bike’. Anyways I was as happy as kid who gets his first bike and the purchase wasn't as easy as walking in store and choosing from a array of bikes. I would have done it, but buying a new bike in Frankfurt can burn a deep hole in your pocket, I had seen a couple of online stores but the cheapest bike was for 250 euros, which in my very Indian mind meant, nearly 15000 rupees, another option was e-bay but even that seemed unreasonable.
Anyway, to cut the story short, I heard of this flee market where I could find pre-owned bikes, so I set out to buy a new-old bike. But not to my surprise, the bike wala’s didn’t speak any English, if I had come here earlier, when I was still new in Frankurt, I would have been shocked. I asked the price of a bike and he answered, Zwanzig, I said "nein Deutsch" , the only German words that I parroted and he said "No English". But, a pleasant surprise, a lady replied back and said 20 euros (fuck that’s cheap, I said to myself). As I was doing the math, calculating the prices in Indian rupees and was still in shock to hear fluent English , the girl had cracked a deal and purchased a bike for 40 euros, for which the bike wala was initially asking 75 euros. Pretty cool, I know. Suddenly, my charming self took control of me and I tried to strike a conversation with this girl and convinced her to help me buy a bike.
We walked through the street, quite a busy market, reminded me of India, like Janpath, people selling crap and some people just looking, some buying stuff they don’t need and some like me looking for a discount. On our way, she explained me a couple of tricks to buy a bike, “rim of the wheel should not be rusted…breaks should work properly….blah blah blah (a hot chick had just crossed me)…ask for at least a 40% discount over the asking price….(how could I miss a sentence with discount in it)…blah blah blah (another hot chick)…” , “Hmm…I get it, sounds interesting” I said to her so she thinks that I am still listening, a trick I had picked up earlier to avoid listening the ranting of a girl and to keep her happy at the same time. She thought she had done her job by explaining me a couple of things, but she didn’t know that I was hardly listening... so this time, I chose intelligence to convince her, instead of charm, so I said “I understand this, but we still have this language barrier, nein Deutch, remember”… she smiled, as they say, ‘hassi to fassi’.
After a quick 101, we arrived at this new stall, mot much of stall, just 10 odd bikes parked in front of a stool and tool kit and the bike wala haggling with the customers. We saw a couple of bikes, also rode a few to be certain of their breaks and gears etc., and zeroed on a 50 Euro bike for which he had earlier asked 75, though my Indian mind was dissatisfied for having got only a 33% discount instead of 40%, but then the feeling of buying my bike was too overwhelming, more over, it wasn’t as much as 100 Euros. “So…sorry I didn’t get your name…” I said to her, “Elle”, she replied… “So Elle, thanks a lot, can not thank you enough… can I buy you a coffee or a beer or something…” “ Coffee would be fine”, Elle replied, you see we Indians aren't as cheap as we are made out to be… and just to be clear, the offer for coffee was purely out of gratitude with no conceit.
On the way to the café, we got new locks for the bike… I got one for 9 Euros, which as per Elle, was sub-standard… the good ones, come for 30 Euros… Hmm, a lock of 30 Euros for a 50 euro bike.. doesn't sound wise. We then went over for the coffee, had a nice chat about Germans, Frankfurters, Indians and how she is researching a cure for Lukemia in her lab.. but then it was time for good bye, we didn’t exchange any numbers, she wasn’t on Facebook, so that was pretty much the last time I saw her… Elle, the bike wali ;-)
Rest of the day, was easier than it had been, riding a bike wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be … this all happened somewhere around noon… Now, cut to 8pm… I locked my bike in front of this Indian restaurant I had recently discovered and prepared for a big Indian buffet, I tied to eat enough for tomorrow’s breakfast too. As I walked out of the restaurant, I noticed that my bike was missing, I called out the restaurant owner, who had become sort of a friend, he smirked a bit and said… “its gone man, you won’t get it back..didn’t you lock your bike…” “I did”, just then an old man, sitting outside the restaurant started talking about the guy who took and the way he took it, sadly all in German, but I understood that I had not locked it properly and he took the bike pretty easily. I stood their, as if lightening had struck me, my new old bike had been stolen with in 5 hours of me having purchased it… I wanted to look up in the sky and shout “WHY” like they do it in the movies… but just then a well built guy, very German, came running towards us, he had also seen the bike being picked, but judging by the confidence of the thieve and how easy it was, he had not paid much attention.
I don’t know weather he was touched by my sad face or was moved by the fact that a foreigner had just been deceived in his neighborhood, he asked me to come with him…. All of it in German of course but I made it out from his gestures… I had lost all hope of chasing the thieve, who might be a professional and might as well attack me if I asked him to return my bike… but this well built German, lets call him muscle man, who resembled a gang member, seemed pretty motivated to catch the thieve. So we paced one block and then he took his car, I was a bit nervous sitting in his car, for what I knew was that he was much stronger than me, was not wearing something that a normal person would wear, who knows, he might mug me too, but then I had no option but to take a leap of faith. We raced a couple of blocks, into the red light district of Frankfurt, where he thought the bike and thieve would be.
Through the entire journey he was talking in German, I could barely make out some words like drugs, bikes, Hauptbahnhof (German for main station) and some actions resembling the middle finger. To be honest, despite of being upset, I was also smiling a bit, in a saddist way, saying to myself, ‘loosing your bike the same day you bought it.. what an interesting story will it make’. It felt like I was in a movie, with a CSI like setting, a big scam underway, flee marketers selling second hand bikes, druggists steeling them again, selling again for drugs to the flee marketers. Just as all of this playing in mind as I was scanning the streets for the trace of my bike, the muscle man’s car came to a screeching halt… he pointed in a direction and said “your bike ?”.. I said yes, that’s mine… he left his car where it was and chased that bike.. the cars started queuing up behind us, honking… I took the wheel and parked the car more appropriately and as I did that… the muscle man had made the thieve taster dirt, he was on the ground, my bike was somewhat as I had left it. He kept swearing at the thieve, who smelled as if he was heavily drunk even when I was 2 meters away from him … I picked up the bike, thanked muscle man as much as I could, even offered him a beer but he refused. We shook hands, he took off in his car and I on my bike… later I came to know that his muscle man, was actually an ex-security guard and now a body guard… I never asked him his name but then, its better when a stranger helps you.
