The Blue Bicycle and the Cycle of Want.

Years ago, when I joined a new school in a new city, the parents got me a bicycle. It was a Blue Atlas, a hand me down from a family friend. It was old, but otherwise in perfect working order.Only that it was made for someone half my height. At 5 feet 7, I towered over most kids in my class ( most kids in my school rather).I am sure it must have been an amusing sight, my towering frame perched on that small cycle, paddling away to glory. We accompanied each other to the new school, settled into a routine till the new was not so new anymore. And then, the teasing started. One boy started calling my blue bicycle 'Priya's Ranger '. Ranger was the latest range of Hero cycles... with broad tyres and straight handle and trendy rugged looks. Children can be far more cruel than adults, and the teasing got worse. I started leaving for school earlier and parking my cycle at the back gate of the school. Then I stopped taking the cycle to the school and took a city bus. And finally one day I asked folks to get me a new cycle. Meanwhile, the pressures of exam and other activities meant that I could not waste a couple of hours everyday in the bus, and then again , reluctantly and resentfully, we went to school together. I tired to increase the height by elevating the seat and the handles, and it ended up looking funnier and uncomfortable.
The bicycle became the center of my existence. The first thing I checked in the newspaper was the classified with the offers for the new cycles, their price and the schemes. The first thing I noticed about anyone was their cycle.I hated the blue bicycle like I have never hated anyone or anything in the world. what I remember most about those days is the sense of helplessness at not being able to do anything to get rid it.
Then one day I read somewhere, "Judge someone not by what they have, but what they are". and after that, I tried to find solace in this. But inwardly vowed that when I grew up, there will not be any blue bicycle in my life.
And so it happened. I got what I wished, almost always.And almost always, more than the things that money brought, the empowering feeling that I could buy them was more enjoyable. It was a heady feeling to decide what you want and get it right away.
Till some days ago, when a colleague showed his spanking new gizmo, and I was sold. The apple of temptation beckoned again, and I was more than eager to yield to it. The blue bicycle syndrome was rearing its head again. Somehow this time, I looked at myself and realized that all the buying in the world cannot make up for the blue bicycle. The urgency to distinguish between needs and wants hit me.  
The blue bicycle has finally been returned to where it belonged, in the past. And I am happy with oranges, apples will come when they will.