The first mishap

Wiser from my first ride to office, I now knew that cycling all alone on a highway is a sure fire way to discourage yourself from doing it again. Pedaling slowly while everyone else zips by at seemingly supersonic speed was enough to dampen my spirits.
So for my second ride, I made a few changes...

• Route was changed to skip the highway and go through LBS road.
• Wore a t-shirt minus the jacket.
• Pur on some good music to not let my thoughts wander too much.

I felt much more comfortable this time around, I climbed up the flyover easily and was zipping around west's market area when ta-daa. My seat just fell off.

It didn't make sense at first--how could that happen! I checked and found that the end of the seat rod had bent as I had attached it too much to the end of the rod. I should have kept some more of the rod inside the frame.
Not the end of the world, I figured I could still use my allen key to loosen the hold and put it back in. Just one problem, I couldn't find the key--it had probably fallen off when I got on my cycle in the morning.

It was 7 in the morning so I was thinking of turning back home to get my bike. It was the easier choice but I just dont think right at times. It would be a retreat back to safety on facing the enemy--I could'nt bruise my ego. I carried on, holding the seat in one hand and found a puncture shop opening within 100 meters. Unbelievable luck!

But the guy didn't have an allen key for the size of my seat. There was another guy who was getting his bike's puncture repaired at the shop. He was very helpful and managed to wrestle the seat back in. It went back in - but only till the part that had bent, so basically it was just about staying in and a good jerk would make it fall again.

I carried on thinking my incredible luck would get me to another cycle shop in the next 100 meters. Those 100 meters stretched on to well over 18 kms - and my seat fell off (I think) 8 times during the ride. I couldn't sit on the seat as it would just bend the rod further and I had to pedal standing up most of the time. I stopped at a few places to get it fixed but was shooed away. One bike repair shop at Powai, just in front of IIT, had the allen keys but the guy simply told me he wouldn't do it. He must have had a bad experience with cycles as a kid.

Well, I reached office after 2 hours and Rameshbhau told me off a cycle shop just outside the office road. I went there and the guy had the audacity to ask for 10 rupees to loosen and tighten one screw. The allen key that he uses cost me 6 rupees--I didn't bother pointing that out to him but simply made a mental note never to visit/recommend that shop again. It's worth 10 rupees never to meet such people again!