#தீராத_விளையாட்டுப்_பிள்ளை  

The equestrian

             It was the holidays after my first year in college. My brothers and I are in various places. We join together at the Chennai Central and set off for Hazaribagh.

               

              Who knows where this place is. Appa has said “ come to Hazaribagh for the holidays”.  We pore over maps and find out it is in Bihar near Ranchi. ( now in Jharkhand) Today every cricket fan in India is familiar with Ranchi .

Well Dhoni was yet to be born then. 

                 Changing trains at Kolkata ‘s Sealdah we reach Hazaribagh Road station and reach the BSF headquarters on some lorry or truck. 

                   Extremely charming layout and surroundings. Clean green . Well laid out roads inside the HQ.  We meet the Colonel.  O Connor . An Anglo Indian probably of Irish descent. His daughter .... I have forgotten her name , is learning riding and would be happy if I accompany her everyday. She must have been just a year or two older than me  but already engaged to be married. 

                  So yours truly had a very happy holiday getting riding lessons from the BSF instructors.  Acting like an adult as I was now having conversations with an about to be married girl. 

                  My brothers had already done a lot of riding when they were in Tura the year before and I was just starting college at Trichy . So no this was not reverse discrimination.😁

                   I learnt words like amble , trot, canter  and gallop . Yes for a few minutes we would gallop and feel like the heroines of yore. 😅

                

                      Then one day I got backache coming back from the riding class. An hour later the instructor brought a white powdery thing and gave it to Amma to rub on my back. She did that and the backache was gone.

                       The mysterious magical  powder was dried horse lather / sweat. No don’t go searching for a horse instead of an Ortho doctor if you have a backache. 😅It is supposed to cure backaches caused due to riding only.

                         No I have never gone riding after that. A once in a life time affair.