Today the first of August signals the mark of my remarkable journey to make a difference to someone else's life. I started the morning by taking my old mountain bike (bicycle) to the bicycle shop close to home in the car with an intention to get additional wheels mounted to the big rear wheel. I had a vision of turning this 9 year old bicycle of mine into the ultimate "mentally challenged person's bicycle" (MCPB) so that it would provide some safety and stability for my patient Mr.Ong when he rides the bicycle.
Before that something about my bicycle, (yes its sentimental) i had it at the age of 15 or 16, at the cost of only RM200 ( it was a bargain bicycle or something). Dad was too poor to buy me those big rally ones even though i had asked for them numerous times - you see being the youngest in the family means getting used bicycles from your siblings.. and having two elder sisters in the family didn't help in my quest to own a more "manly looking" bicycle during my childhood. So i regard this mountain bike as one of my prized possessions, one of the first few luxury items i have owned in life :)
So back to story, sadly my over ambitious idea was shot down by James the guy who owns the bicycle shop. The rusty and almost not-road-worthy 26" mountain bike was just too big to be fitted with these additional wheels. Instead of taking things negatively and challenging his comments, rather i was impressed with his attitude when I spoke to him about my pledge of teaching my patient how to ride this bicycle. He immediately brought me inside his shop and gave me a lesson or two on ways to teach Mr.Ong how to ride a bicycle and assured me to only pay him for a new tyre, a new chain and he will help me with the rest including the modification of the bicycle to suit Mr.Ong by limiting the gear shifts, and removing all dangerous or protruding elements from the main body frame.
Amazing. This guy actually worked on the bicycle for 3 hours to get it modified and told me to go away many times. LOL. The dedication. Makes you wonder there are genuinely nice people out there who also want to contribute in some ways to the society but fail to find the opportunity to do so? :)
After 3 hours, i collected the modified bicycle. It looked brand new, new chains, new frame, new tyres and all customized to be used by a mentally challenged person. I was briefed about the new feature called the "gear limiter" and the removal of sharp and pointed edges which made the bicycle look like a chair from IKEA now! :) And so I drove it to the Home for the Mentally Challenged in Ampang. The rest i can say was history as my first attempt to teach Mr.Ong (fondly called as Ong Boy now) was successful on my very first attempt!
Wait for Part Two: Seeing "Ong Boy" Smile and Part Three: The bicycle trip :)
HJH
