An original inspirational story, written by our student Tanvi Dash.

Tanvi is 12 years old young writer from Hyderabad. Dancing is her passion. We are proud to have her as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Applied Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Tanvi for this exemplary true self-expression.

The Girl Who Loved Cycling

During the 1960s, in Malana, there lived a sporty young girl, Melody. She was a passionate and hard-working girl. She was always patient and knew what she wanted but what made her stand out from others was her immense love for cycling and great thirst for adventure. Whatever the weather may be, she was always ready for a ride. She had an old and well-maintained cycle and her room was filled with cycling outfits and other cycling accessories.

Malana was a countryside village thus Melody had spacious, wide, empty roads for cycling. She lived in a small cottage with her parents and other relatives. Her parents were poor farmers in the paddy fields surrounding the cottage. The cottage always had the faint, airy, energizing fragrance of paddy. Their life depended completely on the rice produced by the paddy fields. After working day and night, they could hardly live from hand to mouth. They couldn’t afford new cycling accessories for their daughter.

The village of Malana promoted the sport of cycling a lot and organized cycling competitions. Each year, the person who won a maximum number of competitions was awarded the ‘Cycling Champion of the Year award. It has always been Melody’s dream to win the award. But what made it challenging were the backward beliefs of the society. During her time, cycling was known as a sport for boys. Girls were expected to stay at home and help with the housework. Nobody approved Melody of cycling or participating in the competitions.

Despite the resistance from everyone, Melody did not give up cycling. She found peace in cycling. Cycling was already a part of her soul. When melody talked about cycling, she was laughed at by boys. They told her girls cannot cycle but she was hopeful and determined about cycling. She participated in and won every competition which was organized that year. Everyone was astonished by Melody’s ambitions. She was soon announced as the Cycling Champion of the Year! She felt so triumphant that her eyes filled up with tears of joy and happiness.

Melody kept cycling despite the beliefs and inequalities. She broke the stereotypes. By this act of hers, many other young girls were inspired and encouraged to cycle. Since this year, there has been a rapid increase in the number of girls participating in cycling competitions. However, Melody didn’t stop here, she continued cycling. She won prizes not only in Malana but in other countries too. Her dream soon came true, she became a well-known cyclist.

Leave your valuable comments for encouraging our students to innovate, explore and express more.