At the border town of Ganganagar, I mentioned last month that I dealt with a gentleman who presented me with uplifting news on my Pakistani 3-speed, fitted with Campagnolo Bullet handlebar grips. This fellow also had more information to share, although it was a bit more perplexing in nature... This same merchant told me of a elderly gentleman who had passed through Ganganagar the week previous, politely asking if a man by the name of Global Freddie had preceded him. When he was told that no one in the town had ever heard of the name, he seemed pleased, and he left to the East. The merchant also noticed that this traveler was riding a red Italian bike, and had just-shaved legs.
And so Global Freddie’s trip from Ganganagar to India’s capitol city of New Delhi was quite preoccupied. Who was this stranger who sought him out? Who would even know of his whereabouts... And a week ahead of his own schedule at that! Because of its work in progress nature, this column is usually written just days ahead of publication deadline, for the Eagle Cycling Newsletter... This stranger could not possibly be a pre-informed Eagle reader... Very puzzling, who could know... Rosi receives a weekly progress report from Global Freddie, and his friends Heidi & Elli seem to be pretty thick into this corporate espionage thing, but they get mail after he writes it, not before, right?
I should mention that the narrative shift to third person is due to the fact that Mr. Freddie is too preoccupied in deep thought at the moment to write, and in the name of putting to paper this month’s column, I felt it necessary to step in, as it were, as ghost writer. Allow me to introduce myself, I am “Black Mamba”. I am a very common bicycle of this region, though my name is derived from one of the fastest and most deadly snakes in the world - please do not be alarmed, for I am quite predictable, and utterly harmless. Why Global Freddie has only experienced one snake-bite puncture, and when he reached for my frame pump, I thrilled him to no end with my Campagnolo headed, Silica Impero! (Dazed, but working on it -Global Freddie.)