Life comes full circle with a royal ride on the bicycle

The sky-rocketing fuel prices and Covid-19 pandemic have spurred people to increasingly turn to bicycles as the new means of commute. The role of the humble bicycle has come full circle as riding it is no longer passé.

I’m reminded of a first of its kind Biker’s Heaven, which was recently opened at Ciclo Café in Chennai where one can not only sit and sip the cup of coffee but also watch the bicycle get a scrub bath. At Ciclo Café, you can either shop for a new bicycle ride or hire a cycle and take in the sights of the town.

Cycling is possibly the greatest and most pleasurable form of transport ever invented. It’s like walking only with one-tenth of the effort. Ride through a city and you can understand its geography in a way that no motorist, contained by one-way signs and traffic jams, will ever be able to. You can whiz from one side to the other in seconds. You can overtake the fanciest sports cars that are going nowhere fast. You can park pretty much anywhere. It truly is one of the greatest feelings of freedom once can have in a metropolitan environment.

A flashback to many decades ago, to my father who went from Amritsar all the way to Delhi to buy a new Raleigh bicycle which was then Made in England, and bought it for over ₹300. It was considered a small fortune in those days. He used it fondly on special visits, kept it in mint condition, even without removing the original paper wrappings around its frame, for years, till his death in 1977. Even I was not allowed to use his bicycle to Khalsa College.

Instead, I was given a rickety old one with two different mud guards. The cycle was given to breakdowns, resulting in my walking down half the way. But now I realise and appreciate my father’s fascination and dedication to his dependable Raleigh bicycle.

After Partition and India’s Independence, the Raleigh bicycle was made in India under the brand name of Sen-Raleigh, which was even exported to countries such as the erstwhile USSR. In 1967, when the ship on which I was serving docked at the Black Sea port of Odessa, I saw crew members bringing Sen-Raleigh cycles on board. For them, this was a good bargain as at that time the US dollar was sold at a premium that fetched much more than the Russian rouble as compared to the official exchange rate. This was, of course quite illegal, but sailors somehow find ways to indulge in such bargains.

Once when my ship was at a Swedish port, I went to a library in Stockholm to refer to some books for my thesis. I was informed by the librarian that many a time the King of Sweden comes visiting and would be at the library that very day. After browsing through titles of books of my interest, I enquired from the librarian about the king’s visit and was told that he’s already on the premises. I was expecting the king with his entourage, comprising his security, but to my surprise I learned that he had come on a bicycle, that too without any guard. Now that’s literally a royal ride on a bicycle.

Environmental benefits of cycling are immense. It reduces air and noise pollution; reduces the need for new parking lots and saves valuable green space. Riding bicycles not only benefits the individual, but also the world at large. I may be an old man now but, on a cycle, I’m as young as any teenager.

RIDE THROUGH A CITY AND YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ITS GEOGRAPHY IN A WAY THAT NO MOTORIST, CONTAINED BY ONEWAY SIGNS AND TRAFFIC JAMS, WILL EVER BE ABLE TO