nitanshun@gmail.com: i am wondering when will i travel to work on bike
woke up halfheartedly, could see the grey sky from my bedroom window. the sound of rain drops falling on the window AC was like music to my ears. no reason to leave the bed and go to work. had no options but to fight my wish and get out of bed, finally got up at around eight for a cup of strong tea. still trying to find reasons to go to work.
stupid me what better a day could be than this to bike to work. this was a soul stirring sensation, and soon i was dressed up in my shorts and t-shirt. my bag packed with a change and a towel.
soon i am on the road, in the drizzle, inside the traffic and on top gear of excitement. in next 5 mins i have enough mud on myself to look unfit to enter a corporate park. next 30minutes was bliss. the rain had seized leaving behind chaos. a city full of people scared of 2 inches of water. traffic jams in the city because of their hydrophobia. good for me half the road was for myself to wade through the water where others won't enter. could feel the syrupy mud being sprayed on my back (as my bike does not have mud-guards). didn't want to reach office so soon. for a change, wish it was a bit further, wish the ride was a bit longer...
Just a while back I met Chunni Lal Sharma. He was on his way back from work. What work? He is a carpenter, his job is to make make sense out of wood. Not that wood is a non sense but Chunni Lal's skill is to make usefull stuff with wood.
Why I met him was because he is a fellow biker. He was pedalling back from work on his Hero Goldline or was is Atlas Goldline. A native of Chapra, Bihar migrated six years back to Gurgaon. Looking for odd jobs everyday. Has a smile when he meets another biker sweating back from work.
Goodbye Chunni Lal. Fir milenge.
one question which had been asked to me often on my way to work.
how do you manage to pedal to work on a hot summer day?
the question has two parts to it
firstly. it's so hot and sunny, don't you feel sick while pedalling?
secondly. inbetween the lines it says don't you stink after that?
well, most of it is manageable. it's about how you plan your daily voyage.
while riding to work i wear one of the tshirts made with dryfit fabric by nike, other sports brands have there own version for the same. these are perforated fabrics, which let air pass through them eventually acting like a desert cooler, where i think our own sweat acts like a coolant. where shorts or detachable cargoes, i even wear jeans. more importantly one should make sure that she/he carries along a change for the upper part of the body.
we generally find it hot even in the morning on a summer day as our car acts like a green house and traps inside all the heat, on top of that the wind screen will be blocking the wind (thats it's job so let it do it well). now when we ride our bike we can feel the breeze and the sun is not so high and hot in the morning either. wind will be passing through the pores of the fabric and keep our body cool. make sure you wear your sunglasses, they look good and act really good.
carry a small towel even a 6"x6" will do, it can be easily tucked inside the laptop bag (as in my case). now this little towel does the wonder.
once in office rush to the loo > carry you spare t-shirt or shirt > take off the sweaty one > wet the towel > dab your torso with the wet towel > leaves you fresh and odour free > spray some deo if you have or just let it be > don't forget to wear the fresh clothes > make sure you wash the towel once again and may pack it inside a polythene bag.
try it out, it's really easy to ride to work without feeling guilty about making life miserable for people who sit next to you.
had been a long while since i had been on a long ride, had been postponing things for a while for all sorts of odd reasons. today around noon i realised i had not much to do for the next few hours.
till a few year back i used to get impatient every friday afternoon thinking about plans for the evening, always had a handfull of options - movies, beer, an expensive dinner, a road side dinner, long drives and very long drives.
well things have changed a bit. and certain things haven't changed much. yesterday was again one of those friday afternoons and i was already impatient. it was the last friday of the month and i had to be there. had to reach central delhi by 6 o'clock. vijay chowk to be precise.
where is vijay chowk?
the big chowk outside rashtrapati bhawan.
to do what?
to attend the critical mass
what?
the critical mass.
come again?
the critical mass.
what's critical mass?
on the last friday of every month, around six in the evening. a group of bikers come together and pedal through the busy, traffic laden city streets.
but why?
well to let the people know that there are bikers who do exist. and they are a part of the street as much as anybody else. still you can check out wikipedia, wiki knows it more than i do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass
so?
ya, i made it reached almost on time. to find out people doing a warm up session. some new faces mixed with the old ones. few faces who where just names till yesterday.
a nice round of polite conversations.
learnt from the seniors how to take help of patience and believe in the mission to make it happen.
and finally we started. all of us trying to make two parallel rows to ride along. nicely and slowly took two rounds of india gate circle. it was amazing to wade through the forever flowing traffic. the honking. the screeching. and what not.
i almost had a fight with a car driver who jumped the red light more or less hitting me. well nothing such happened, i never got hurt neither did i fight with him. but that's the point people don't bother to see things around them while they drive specially smaller vehicles.
after two good rounds of india gate we took on to kasturba gandhi marg. not much of traffic till we reach CP outer circle. did a full parikrama of the outer circle before entering the inner one. the road as expected was heavy on traffic, but i'm sure there would be loads of driver who must be feeling jealous to see us easily making way through the traffic as they stood waiting for the others to move. barring the pollution levels being very high riding in CP was fun. after completing the inner circle we took on to baba kharak singh marg. our initial plan was to go back all the way back to vijay chowk with the rest of the group which we could not do as my friends had to give back the bikes to patel chowk metro station from where they where hired.
now we are standing and waving good bye to those who are on there way back to vijay chowk to finish the 12th delhi critical mass.
it's time for us to pat our own back and celebrate success and look forward to next months last friday for the 13th delhi critical mass. once again we all will be at vijay chowk at 6 o'clock on 25th september.
did a driving trip to kerala, managed to take my cannondale along. most of the time it snugged in the back of my car, but once in allepy (alapuzzha) i spent around 4-5 days only on my bike. a small town. the National Highway - 47 piercing right through the town which runs all the way to kanyakumari. the town maybe small but mostly busy with people on the main streets, not only streets one can find canals and water bodies taking a lot of traffic in and out of the town. though the traffic is by no means maddening just that there are people around giving the place a fine character. it was and excellent place to ride the bike. a couple of times i rode to the nearby villages through paddy fields, coconut trees, lakes and ponds. not just coconut trees the place houses few beautiful churches and pretty old buildings. well my kanandale (cannondale) had a great time in those excursions.
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