Recently i happened to write an article for my office magazine.
Sharing it here:
Sharing it here:
Cycle and Me:
This article would be a walk through
one's childhood days, when the most amazing toy, giving a touch of
freedom, and something to quench the need for speed (puts a grin on
face of most kids making them feel they can perform like lance
armstrong), was a cycle.
I still remember the number of
tricycle, and bicycle i had in my childhood, certainly it being so
important and has played such a crucial role in my upbringing, i bet
most of us do atleast have a faint memory of the bicycle which our
parents gave.
But then times change, priorities
change, as we grew up, grows our desire for something bigger,
something better.
College days makes our heads turn when
some super bike passes by, making us almost swear to buy it when we make ample money after getting
jobs.
But then reality sets in, the ever
increasing petrol prices makes us settle down with some Japanese
bike, and we end up boasting around the
mileage it gives.
And as time passes by, changes our
desire, which now sets it guns to buy a new car.
But while in this hoard to give
ourselves the pleasure and comfort that we think we deserve what we generally end up doing is become
completely unfit, growing in middle of the body, too tired to enjoy
rains, too tired to admire the beauty of nature.
Trekking becomes more of a outing,
where we are just willing enough to walk for a few KM.
Dare i say this, ask some middle aged
guy/girl or some one in late twenties to walk for 3 KMS, and it looks
like a marathon task for him/her.
During this time, cycle vanished from
most of ours life. When most of us have not ridden one in years, or
decades. No one ever considers it as an alternate mean of commuting.
A mere suggestion of switching to
bicycle as a commuting vehicle makes most of them believe its an
option which is well below their dignity.
Even though fuel affordability is
consistently a matter of concern to most of us, switching to it is
unacceptable.
A confirmed official statistics says,
that in India the average commuting distance is less than 5KM, yet
most of us, don't have a bicycle at homes.
Why is it so, is it because during all
this while we became so lazy, that any physical activity looks like a punishment.
Or the more accurate reason, our
culture teaches us, that cycle is for someone who falls below the
poverty line. Do give this a thought, if you wish to travel for say
1KM, what mode of transport will you choose, and why don't you have a
bicycle till now.
Another statistics say(This one is from
Bangalore, but i really don't think city matters at all, after all
even we do face traffic congestion problem), that the time required
to travel around in the city, is in the following order for the
distance less than 10KM:
Bicycle<Motor Bike<Car<Public
Transport
By this article, i honestly don't mean
to humiliate or challenge anyone's preference, its just one single
plain question.
And to add to all these woes, do we
know how much damage we do to mother earth by our shear ignorance,
ignoring the most efficient vehicle ever devised by humans.
It's never too late, specially when
it's up to contributing something towards benefiting mother nature.
Thousands of kilograms of carbon can be
avoided if a car is kept off the road for a year.(I roughly remember,
the figure is somewhere close to 1200KG.)
Mind you this is for just one car,
imagine what will be the effect if most of the vehicles go off the
road for unnecessary or short distances.
On a lighter note, there is even an
iPhone App available to measure the carbon footprint caused by an individual.
Remember, most of our fellow citizens
are busy doing their bit of damage they can cause to mother earth. By
avoiding following them, we can just contribute or possibly save
something for the coming generation.
One definitely doesn't want the next
generation to have fights for water, or some unpolluted air for
breathing.
The preference for switching to this
god vehicle is definitely our own personal choice, and i am no body
to persuade anyone from atleast giving this mode of transport a try,
after all we were dying for it in our childhood, so definitely we do
love it, its just that in the matter of time, the love got lost.
Discover the joy of exploring unknown
land, traveling long distances, meeting new people, making new friends, trying new local
cuisines.
Let me assure you one thing, cycling
taken as a hobby takes you places, and its damn addicting. But then not all addictions are
harmful.
A motivating fact that i can share here
with you all, Pune has the second highest number of cyclists in
India, only trailing Bangalore.
A friend of mine, dumped his car for
commuting to office for him it was 6KM each side, and he saves Rs.600
per week on fuel.
Cycling is by far the safest mode of
transport, remember your vehicle is light weight, and you can't
achieve very high speed which will become difficult for you to
control.
You might not believe me for this one, well search any local news, you are bound to find accident related news involving motorists, rarely cyclists.
Hoping to see more number of people on
saddle, and once again i apologize sincerely, through this article i
never meant to hurt anyone's sentiment, or challenge anyone's
preference of vehicle for traveling.
