Don`t go for walk on a cycle!

`Commuters may soon be able to hire bicycles from more metro stations to get to the neighbor hoods with Chennai Metro Rail Ltd ( CMRL)` says a news item. While the effort of CMRL is aimed at providing eco friendly and economical transport facility , a similar facility of hiring the bicycles by the hour available at the ` Car Free Sundays` at the Besse ( Besant Nagar Beach front) and a few other places in the city is meant as a health & fun activity.

 

We all learnt cycling as a fun activity when we were kids. Remember the three wheeled mini cycle or the two wheeler with a protective,   stretchable third wheel we received as Birthday gifts when we were two or three years old. Even before we reached the age of ten we learnt to drive a proper bicycle with one of the parents or a friend providing the training. The immense joy we  felt when the trainer quietly pulled his hand from the back seat to allow us to pedal without support is a feeling one can never forget in one`s life.

Cycling was an important leisure time activity  I used to indulge  in my school days. The neighbor hood cycle repair cum hire shop would lend cycles at 4 Annas ( 25 paise) per hour.

With some difficulty I used  to get money from my mother as my father refused to part with money for any activity which he considered as wasteful expenditure. I would roam about the streets of Matunga in Bombay where my family was staying then. Sundays and holidays were fun because of the racing competitions that we used to have among friends, some of whom  owned their cycles and others like me with hired vehicles. A bad accident on one such occasion resulted in my father having to pay Rs.50/- for repair of the damaged  cycle. My mother had to face the music for encouraging me,  resulting in the drying up of the source of funding. From then on I had to depend  on my friends` generosity  to use their cycles for a few minutes as a special favour.

Fortunately when my children were growing up I could afford to present each of them with a cycle which they used for going to their neighbor hood school. Cycling, however, is no more a fun activity for children because of traffic congestion and lack of open spaces for children to cycle  around.  Neither is it safe for senior citizens to indulge in because of chaotic traffic on the streets. As a friend, in his sixties, discovered recently.  He used to come on his bicycle  for a walk to Besse and was the envy of many members of our group who were all either septuageneraians or Octogenerians. Suddenly we found him missing for more than a week. We discovered that he had injured himself badly because of a freak accident near his home involving his bicycle and another vehicle. The accident grounded him for more than a month. He has wisely decided not to show off his prowess on the bicycle anymore. Latest news is that he has sold off his bicycle as commanded by his dear, caring wife who wanted him to go for a walk , `walking` and not on a bicycle (!)

This article has been published by Adyar Times in their issue dated April 08-14, 2018 under my column `Rajan`s Random Reflections`

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