On Cycling-1

“Are you sure?”

“When was the last time you rode a bicycle?”

“Do you have the requisite cycle gear for this 300km-over-3days trip?”

“At this age?”

Well, well.

Friends and well-wishers bombard me with these queries. Not to discourage but concerned about my safety. I am truly touched.

But, the die has been cast, the day the young Algor Supply Chain Virendar Choudhary tempted me with a road trip this year.

Come January 30, 2023. I will be riding a bicycle from Chennai to Hosur — 300km away. With friends, of course. Algor Supply Chain Owner Virendar Chaudhry, Bosch Mukesh Mehra & Syed Kausar Hussain are likely to join in this maiden cycle trip.

This will be the first of the eight 300km-3day three-pillar advocacy tour, covering 100km daily. The team will halt at toll plazas, highway dhabas, factory gates, distribution centres, transport nagars, fuel pump outlets en route to meet, greet & chat up with the target group.

What for? To promote road safety, hygiene & nutrition and tech-friendliness among long-haul truck drivers.

Road trips are like halwa to me. The mode of transport matters little to me. Be it a bus, car, truck, or bicycle. I love movement.

The 1000-odd days between 2020 and 2022 royally poured water on any road trips of substance, courtesy of Covid. So the itch is natural to get out.

Childhood cycle memories flooded in singara Chennai, erstwhile Madras. The learning process in the Lloyds Road Government colony with rough roads on six paise per hour rental cycle. The bruises. The blood. The sympathetic looks of bypassers. Plaited girls glancing surreptitiously at us (boys), trying to demonstrate our skills to ride hands-free! Mummy applied tincture iodine on the bruised and bloody knees.

Or the early morning Sunday cycle trips from Mylapore to Thirverkadu Karumari Amman temple and back (40km up & down) regularly with colony friends. The hired bicycle from the Janakiraman cycle shop the previous night for ten paise/hour rental always stood handy. That was in the early 1970s. Bhakti-adventure cocktail.

What a rollicking time we had those days.

What about the cycle gear question? We will examine that in another dispatch.

Till then, tring… tring…