Two and two

Improved weather has woken a few more riders from their slumber. We had a larger group to begin with. Some dropped off along the way, but some of the slower ones persisted and by the time we reached home, most of us had completed more than 100 km. But it was a leisurely ride, as we waited from time to time for many to catch up. Cycling is a simple form of exercise, hardly as vigourous as running. I wasn't feeling too strong when I woke after a fitful night's sleep, but the distance was covered with ease. The distances are only numbers.

Among our cities, it seems to me that Calcutta has the largest number of people who are capable of taking pleasure in little things, in the act of doing. In "faster" cities, the means for finding happiness are often too contrived and based solely on outcome. In Delhi, the precedence given to results over the journey is so pronounced, it is almost ugly. Without mincing words, I quite fail to empathize with this attitude. The organizer of the cycling rides, a veteran army man, keeps these anything but simple and spontaneous. Everything is managed like it's an organization, a movement and the popularity of cycling, indicated by the number of riders who turn up, of grave importance - a feather in his cap! So rides are chalked out thoroughly, over routes discovered aeons ago and any digression from them is frowned upon! It is the primitive principle of if-you-want-to-belong-you-must-follow. The point of being a team is to be there when someone should need you and freedom during a ride does not compromise that.

The pleasure of travel lies in its spontaneity, in the unknown...imagine waking up one morning and setting out for a ride not knowing where you'll end up. It makes you alert, keeps you rivetted to each moment. Which is what inspires me to taken random lanes and alleyways, while turning away from the known and the popular. The beauty of great journeys lie in their mystery, in the new. In Hyderabad, we had a smaller group of riders, all of whom were ardent travellers and always ready to try out a new route. We discovered a lot in the process and the rides were not merely about churning out nondescript numbers in the end, but about everything in between.

Education teaches us to embrace diversity, show tolerance, which is possible when we identify underlying connections existing between us all. When the persistence to look deeply is absent, it breeds intolerance and resistence for all that we do not understand. Racism, ageism, sexism are only a few of the offshoots from this shortcoming. Forcing conformity is a part of the culture in Delhi, as in most parts of the country. I wish a day doesn't come when I learn to accept this quietly.