Along with the surge in demand for pandemic survival essentials since last year, there surfaced a shortage of bicycles, our simple-pleasure giving machines. The shortage was supposedly due to a surge in demand clubbed with a component supply issue for the manufacturers. However, making the best out of otherwise depressing days, we carried on with our rides on old bicycles covering lively roads on the outskirts of Bangalore, sometimes taking us towards enrapturing treks in nearby hills.
My tryst with bicycles began out of sheer necessity when I was promoted to high school: To commute to a nearby town from our village. It also served the purpose of transporting essentials for our domestic needs and taking farm produce like bananas to the town. Periodic long trips to Mangalore city, or temple towns like Dharmastala or Kukke Subramanya with my brother and few sportive village friends occasionally extended to distant places like Sringeri or Kudremukh. These daredevil tours involved strenuously pushing bicycles for more than 15-20 km to cross ghats and overnight halts at strange places. Back then, a day’s rental for a rugged bicycle cost Rs 5.
After a short stint with a motorbike in Bangalore, I was back on the bicycle when I moved abroad to work. While in the US, I noticed that bicycle riding was only for pleasure, in Europe, it was extensively used for regular commute. During my time in the UK in the late nineties, I bought a used cycle for 15 pounds from a friendly Englishman’s shop and rode it daily to the train station to commute to London.
Our two boys were on bicycles even before they could speak. When we moved to Bangalore, they commuted to their school on bicycles, pedalling through the dreaded roads. Bicycles with countless gears were bought as times and technologies changed and trips to places afar and uphill became effortless.
While my elder son, who lives in the US, now rides a bicycle to his university research lab, our second son, who is at the National Defence Academy in Pune, has now adjusted to what children call a postman uncle’s old-style bicycle provided to him while being trained for the Air Force. My wife learnt to cycle in a day or two after she turned 50. Our collective family mileage seems to be reaching an impressive hundred-thousand-kilometer milestone.
H G Wells said, “every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race”. Considering the mental and physical health benefits of riding bicycles, along with the money saved and the wonders experienced, I see no reason to dispute.