Kerala Sightseeing - Alleppey Boat ride

I was determined to take pictures of God's Own Country before the disastrous scam filled 2008 ended. It was fueled more because I had shot lots of pictures from rest of the world and had very few from Kerala. This was decidedly unjust to a Kerala loving mallu like me. So there I went, taking precious time off my stay with my parents in a sweet little village near Edappal, Malappuram District, Kerala.

I took the morning Guruvayoor Ekm Push Pull train at 6:50 AM towards Ernakulam. The train was filled with office goers who were on season ticket. The one way fare of 17 rupees for a distance of 100km was a definite attraction for people to get on the train to ernakulam.

After reaching ekm at 9:30 and a trip to the bank, I set out on a bus to Kottayam.

At Kottayam bus stand, took an auto to Boat Jetty.

This was my ride

The boat was scheduled for departure at 3:30 PM.

The ticket fare was 11 Rupees for the full Kottayam Alleppey stretch. The journey takes you through the middle of the highly scenic kuttanad, the rice bowl of kerala, for a full 3 hours. I decided it was the best deal for my money. Besides, you get to go through the same transportation the locals use to get from one place to another.

As the boat left promptly at 3:30 PM, it was clear the journey was going to be fun. There were some 6-10 tourists from europe on the boat, all headed to alleppey. The tourists and me had cameras ready, all set to click at the drop of a hat! :)

The initial part of the journey goes through the inland canals, roughly 70m wide... you can clearly see the life on both sides. It passes through rice fields, houses, churches and other paraphrenalia of rural kerala. The villagers actively help the boat pass by the canal by lifting the "bridge" across the canal. Once the boat passes, the bridge is put back into place so that people can cross from one side to another. See it here:

Sometimes you feel almost like a peeping tom, passing by village huts and houses from a distance of max 20-30 m with nothing else in the neighbourhood.... a few dogs, women washing clothes in the river etc are routine sights....

It is this sheer touch with life that makes this boat ride so extra ordinary. Nothing tourist like in this ride - its so natural, in touch with the reality of day to day existence of the local people...

This is a bunch of INTUC workers in a boat. If you notice carefully you will see that the boat is motorised and it contains some stones too!


The best part of the ride is shots like this:

As you enter the main backwaters, the shore gets more distant but still very clearly within view... this is about midway along the ride.... See this church on the banks - almost picture perfect.

Once you enter the main backwaters, you get to see a flurry of "tourist boats", all of them coming from Alleppey. Remember, National Geographic had once rated Alleppey as one of the top 10 (yea, ten!! its not a typo) destinations in the world. Alleppey is commonly known as venice of the east due to the very extensive network of canals and water transport - exactly the same ones that we have been travelling on till now.

Look into the distance and you see a hell lot of "house boats". Now you have an idea of the number of tourists here....

A typical houseboat looks like this:

Notice the air cooler and the generator set on the boat. It is horribly hot on these house boats in summer, especially if you are out at noon time. Some have full fledged airconditioning, restrooms and all. Very comfortable...!!

Boats and more boats!!

Here is one of those bigger "house boats" crossing us.... these cost money, serious money!

 By now, one will find how appropriately Kerala Tourism board coined that catch-phrase "gods own country" for this wonderful land. 

The sheer joy and beauty of this ride is to be had to be believed. The best part is how low cost it is - 11 rs for a 3 hour ride through heaven, in a boat! wow.

You also get to see fishermen at work....

Caution: (fisher) MEN AT WORK

The final destination of the boat is very close to the KSRTC bus stand in Alleppey. Its just a few minutes walk. I took one of those "superfasts" bound for Calicut and reached my home town! :)

Strongly urge you to take these kind of trips if you are keen on exploring the rustic beauty of Malluland.
WELCOME TO KERALA - God's Own Country!!

Losing my weight

Its definitely one of the losses everyone is happy about. Not even just happy, I must say blissful. In an overly visually dominated world, one's looks, figure, size of shirt, pant, waist size of skirts seem to matter more than anything else.

The media and movies play to this big time. Even seen a fat man or woman in a movie? I come from a state of very sensible movie goers - God's own country, Kerala. In fact, it is the ONLY state in this country which accepts heroines purely on the basis of their acting skills and not on the waist size or other sizes. So I thought mallus grew up with a very healthy self image, especially when their body is concerned. After all it is a land where martial arts originated, or at least widely popular. A very physically active bunch of people.

Alas, I was so mistaken. TV and media has had their degrading effect on god's own people as well.

In a byegone era, the big and fat people dominated. Big time! It was considered great to be physically big and huge. With plenty of fat. These days it is the other way round. It is the skinny ones who walk with an air of pomp, feeling sorry for the fat ones. The skinny ones proudly say how their weight has never exceeded 70kgs and how they are always taking care of their health.

Obsession with weight loss has become an epic phenomenon. Billions of dollars getting spend, but the average weight just goes on increasing. Isnt there something seriously wrong? In a country like India, where no one wants to move their ass, many heroes "control" their weight by just reducing the quantity of food. Oh, wish it was that simple.

As a person who weighs 108 kgs, I get my fair share of criticism. Criticism? Of course, From the worthies who are under 70 or under 80 kgs in weight. They feel it is their birthright to tell us fatties to cut down on food first. Without even so much as checking the basics. The underlying assumption always being you eat 24 hours a day and thats why you gain weight. Ah! The same folks who criticise me so fervently never do any exercise, while I put in 2 hours on my bike *everyday*. Of course, they have an answer for that too. Because of all your cycling, you eat too much. What a simple world, is it not? What the dudes dont realise is after 1-2 weeks of dedicated pedalling (or any exercise for that matter), your body gets used to the rhythm and you wont feel a bit more hungrier than before. But then how will they know? The only exercise they know is sweating watching some horror movie on TV, on a nice comfortable couch, munching potato chips.

I am told that the biggest problem in fighting obesity is people do not see obesity as a disease. Thats the biggest issue. It is not a cosmetic issue at all, considering the attendant miseries and myriad diseases it can possibly bring. We never make fun of someone with cancer or heart disease, though lifestyle probably have contributed to these. Then how on earth do we think it is alright to wisecrack about the obese guy, struggling to walk around or take a few steps? Do you think they are munching food all the time? May be you should check the facts. I personally know folks who are very heavy but eat almost equal or less than some of the 70 kg worthies.

I have a question to all the skinnies. If you have never been 90-110 kgs, how can you to give your weight loss wisdom to obese folks? Man, for heavens sake you have not lost any weight, because you have not gained any!! You really dont qualify to say how to reduce weight.

I have always found it is the skinny folks, for whom 70kgs is like an elephant's weight, who have the strongest opinions on weight loss and what food to take to reduce weight!

My dad used to poke fun on my weight, directly implying it was all the food that I ate. When he had a heart attack and a subsequent byepass surgery and I stayed with him in the hospital, I found something interesting. Out of the 20-30 patients in the cardiac ward, only one person was 90 kgs in weight. Rest of them were all under 75!! That time onwards, I am not sure if it is weight that alone causes heart problems. Dad never makes fun of my weight anymore, considering all the exercise, walking, tea without sugar, no meat and such disciplines did not prevent *his* heart attack, inspite of his weight of only 70 kgs.

Man, I eat only twice a day (no breakfast). But then the skinnies say, you should never skip breakfast. You should eat this, that, drink this, water, blah blah blah. So whatever a obese guy does is a problem. Some say you should just have 2-3 solid meals a day. Other say no, you should have ten small sized meals. Now probably you get an idea of the fat dudes' issues - he gets unasked for advise from all direction, none of which are consistent with the other. And each of those advises given out with an air of superiority from an under 70 kg nobody. No wonder, astrology seems much more credible than dietician's advice.

I am 108 kgs and have a BMI of 34. And I will live longer and healthier than 95 percentile of the Indian folks who are reading this. Thats for sure. Overweight or obese, I am healthier than you, any day, any time.

Lets face the fact folks - if it is that easy to lose weight, by just saying no to a few cookies or soft drinks, everyone in the world lose weight. Because no one chooses to be obese. Period.

Learning from the Japanese

It was one of those rare days when I got a sensible forwarded email… About how the Japanese folks took the disaster in their fold and came out like Champs. Here are some points.

I highly recommend folks to watch movies like “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise to understand the Japanese way of life.
My comments are in Italics.


1. THE CALM Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
I have always respected the Japanese for their work ethic, composure and the general “zen” way in which they handle life. Stoicism - if I put it in English. To me, the Japanese folks have learnt more from the Gita than what the Indians did. When I saw the folks on TV, running amidst the shattered ruins of their own houses, the thought from Krishna’s advise to Arjuna “be like the lotus in water – in the water, but not touched by it” rang true.

2. THE DIGNITY Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
When you learn to respect yourself, you respect others too. Its natural. Just compare it with what happens in other parts of the world, notably the civilized world and the New Orleans incident 3 years ago…. Just compare and you will know what these folks are made of.

3. THE ABILITY The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
This is an area where they have been masters. And will be in the future too. Its what is called hoping for the best, but being prepared for the worst.

4. THE GRACE People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
I believe it is again the zen like quality. And concern for the other person. It is too degrading to call these as “etiquettes” in my opinion. It is not a mannerism, but a genuine love, concern for the other person and the deeply understood need to stand together in times of disaster.

5. THE ORDER No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
Have you thought about this: such simple civilized behavior surprises us? It shows me how far I am from civilization. But we get used to the fact, for everyone around us is also similar. The fact that in a country like ours where we take the moral high ground all the time, these simple things awe us is a clear indication of our moral depravity. Time and again I have seen this incorrigible superiority complex, that we are better than the rest. One of our national songs itself is “sare jahan se acha”. I am sure I can waste my life searching for proof of the same.

6. THE SACRIFICE Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
Boss, we will only talk about Vedas and advaita and karma. No action. Just words, wallowing in intellectual garbage. When a testing time like this comes, you can imagine. We will sit at home and chant hanuman chalisa at 4 AM, but we will not move our bottoms. That’s been our heritage, at least in the recent past. These 50 people will remind us what it is to be human, what humanity and all the assorted scriptures mean.

7. THE TENDERNESS Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
In our country, everything would have cost 100 times. Absolutely no doubt. But we will slit others throats by chanting “hare rama” “hare Krishna” etc etc. We bring god even into business, while looting hapless people.

8. THE TRAINING The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
In our country no one would have had a clue. Its kind of ok, since we are not used to or trained to handle such things. But definitely not something to be proud of.

9. THE MEDIA They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
Ha!! All the mass media channels would have had a field day. Repeating the same scenes of suffering day in and day out, and folks like Burkha Dutt coming and puking all over us, on air.

10. THE CONSCIENCE When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly
We would have even stolen the scriptures from the stores! And felt proud of it. And went home and prayed.

Skepticism

The dictionary defines skeptic as a person who habitually doubts, questions or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.
Since "skepticism" or "skeptic" is a tough words to type, I will represent it by S.
I find that modern education makes everyone a S by default. Because of our insistence on proof for every iota of thing that we want to believe or do. It is good to be S about something new - but for a while. The skepticism should be a quality that lets you explore more of what you are "skeptical about". However, what I find is most people get stuck there. And this quality, which should actually bring about change and value in your life, becomes the very thing that prevents you from growing.
If one is skeptical about everything in life at 20 it is alright. At 30 too, it is ok. At 40 and 50 if you are still there, to me it just means you have wasted 10, 20 years of your life doing nothing. Because standing where you are, there is a limit on what you can see... one has to keep moving to see more, like seeing things from a train on the move. If you insist on remaining in the railway station only, the chances are you will just get used to that dirty place and its cacophony. Worse, you will misunderstand this for life and get used to it and later on in old age, even be proud of it!
When I am S about something, say work or new idea or a new person, I am saying that I dont believe if this person/ idea/ work is really any good. However, in most cases, my predisposition is to believe anything negative about it, but not the positive. To believe the negative I need no proof. But if it is something positive, I demand all the proof - and some more. I believe this is a very very stupid attitude. A skeptical person should be hesitant about making a positive or negative conclusion about anything. He cannot afford to be selective.
Our negativity comes from an instinctive watching out for the negatives, as it is a survival mechanism. But the modern day media takes it too far. You have newscasters belching out negative, horribly depressing news on you all the time, 24x7. And we guys go and gulp up their puke as if it is nothing less than "amrit" or the heavenly nectar. If someone watches TV four hours a day, my hope on that person is very less - this person will only believe negative stuff about anything. Dont take my word, just check - what is the kind of enlightening things you see on tv on a day to day basis.
And since you have "looked" at the idea/ person/ work, you will have an air of an expert - without knowing anything. The highly skeptical person talks like an expert - you will have to see through him to know his words are empty. He will be a real "armchair expert"; sitting in his chair, not moving an inch, and delivering judgements on the world. Again, these judgements usually are how bad this or that is. It is seldom that a so called skeptical person "approves" anything.
The fun thing is the above description fits most of us, in some area of life or the other, to say the least. Skeptic is not that rare person whom you meet once in a lifetime. It is the person who is reflected in the mirror when you stand in front of it.
My way to handle it is the "moving corridor" policy. I keep moving ahead on the area I am S about. I explore more, and as I move forward, new avenues open to me. I realise, OMG, this is so different from what I used to think. Or this person is far better than what he looks initially. But to reach this place, I need to move, explore and be willing to learn.

Cycling: My Summary

I believe that you have read at least a few of my previous cycling articles written here. Otherwise this article may not make sense.

I believe nothing in life is possible without being a fanatic. Call me a cycling fanatic if you will. Sometimes you wonder, are there not better methods to be fit and save the planet? Of course there may be, but this is a method that I know and enjoy to the hilt and that’s why I write about it.

Just because I write this article, I am not the best cyclist in town. In fact, I don’t even qualify to be called a good cyclist! I am not into competition or macho stuff. That’s way beyond my interest. I slog and sloth it out to office at an average speed of 17-20kmph. There are a lot of guys who are intensely passionate about cycling, much more than I am. I salute them for their spirit and consider it an honour to know them, though I cannot list out all their names here.

My writing about cycling is not to exclude or ridicule other means of transportation. That will be stupid on my part. But know one thing: a cycle is one of the most efficient means of transportation known to man today. Why do I say that. If you have a packet of 1 byte with a 10 byte header, would you call it efficient data transmission? Yet that is what we IT guys do when we drive a car alone to office. A person weighing 70 kgs riding a car weighing 1400 kgs to take him to work. Where is the efficiency? Its like 20 bytes of header to take 1 byte of data! Whereas if he is cycling the weight of a good cycle is about 15-18 kgs. See the optimization.

I always believe that something that is simple to do (like cycling) is also simple not to do and that is a trap where most of us fall. I respect your right to cycle, I respect your right not to cycle. If you look for reasons to cycle you will find them. If you look for reasons not to cycle, there are plenty too. The choice is completely yours!

To me, the reasons *for* outweighed heavily the ones *against*. The feeling of the nice morning bangalore wind and sunshine on the skin and the slight sweat far outweighed the so called risks and other perceived notions. When I am on the bike two things come to a standstill - world and time. In a way I found my own private "get away" for the time I am on the bike. My own heaven. All the worries and tensions and such tend to amazingly melt away when I am on the bike. This one reason alone is enough for me to continue cycling for my life time.

Cycling is not an answer to all of humanity’s problems. It is not so glamorous as we think. It is not a magic solution for weight loss. You will not suddenly look like those ancient greek sculptures of men just because you started pedaling a few kilometers a day.

Good inclines will make you huff and puff, like a steam locomotive in full traction, inspite of having all those gears. You may look plain stupid to others.

There is sweat, rain, heat, irritated car and bike riders, cow dung on the road and that occasional idiot spitting on you accidentally from bmtc buses. Dogs run behind you, barking menacingly in dark alleys. All that happens. Or as we saw in Forrest Gump, “shit happens”. So what?

Can you beat me?

My question to you is simple: can you beat my 50000 km cycling?

I am sure that most of you are going to yell an emphatic NO. And on the face of it, sounds very correct. Even some of the accomplished cyclists will have to think about it for a while.

I am overweight and arrogant. Not exactly the fittest guy you expect to see on the bike. Most of you reading this might be weighing under 80 kgs. Which means u have about a 23 kg weight advantage over me. Some of you are even 10 yrs younger to me. I am 34. Even with all that advantage in your favour, can you beat my fifty thousand kilometers?

The logic is simple folks. The real question is how much time will it take to do 50k. As a lifetime goal its very reachable, no doubt. But do you want to spend a lifetime to do something I did in 10.5 years? This 10.5 yrs is including a total of 16 months of onsite travel.

To do 50000 km in a car in a year is a pain, forget cycling. If you do 25000km in a car a year, you are considered driving too much! :) A jumbo jet flying at 900 km per hour will take 55 hours of flying to reach 50k mark.

50K is not easy - anyway you look at it. Remember this, if you are one of those stud cyclists pedalling Bangalore-Mysore and back every week, you will be doing approx 300km in a weekend. If you do that week on week for 52 weeks, you will hit only 15600km per year. That means you will take 3 years and 3 months almost to hit 50K.

I have shared in my previous blog the tip: daily cycling. The best way is cycle to work! This works especially well if you stay far away from office. Any big goal has to be broken down into something manageable. And we have to work on it relentlessly, day on day, month on month. But dont begin with something like 20km per day. If you are new to cycling, start cycling 2 km per day for a week. Then graduate to 4 per day for a week. And so on, based on your comfort. Over a period of 2 months, I believe that 40 km per day is easily achievable if you stay 20 km away from work.

Make cycling a habit - if you want to go to the nearby grocery shop or post office or whatever, just take the bike. Slowly this will become a habit and you will start cycling everywhere! And without even thinking consciously about it. And thats how the magic begins to happen. Slowly but surely. And the effects start compounding.

I highly recommend everyone to read the book "The COMPOUND Effect" by Darren Hardy. This man very clearly talks about what it takes to do what seems "impossible". The secret is daily routine, and doing it in manageable chunks. This is not a health book, but a book for organising yourself, in the category of "self-help". Dont snigger, one can never be too good to read this book. I found it out myself!

For example, he talks about how a 2 hr workout 5 days a week is not sustainable in the long run, at least for 99.9% of us. Because it is fundamentally a very tough thing - the momentum and enthusiasm slowly wanes away. 5 day work out slowly will turn into 3 and 2 day work outs and will eventually stop.

And then we tend to drop it completely. The best would be a 1 hour work out 3-4 times a week, max.

Please follow a similar approach when u start cycling. When we begin doing something, we tend to be over-enthusiastic and do it overly. When u begin something, keep a lifetime goal of continuing it - thats the sure shot way of success. Very very few of us can sustain a lifetime practice of 2 hour workout a day, 5 days a week. Cycling is far more simpler than that.

The key is consistence. It is far more effective to do something at a lesser rate (20 km per day), but maintaining it 365 days a year, rather than do superhuman stunts (like 250 km per day) once or twice or thrice a month.

20km per day is not big deal guys - you will do it in one hour. Will it happen automatically? No. Lets say u stay just 5km from office and u ride up and down to work. Thats 10 km. Once your are back home in the evening, if you are willing to switch off the idiot box and do some pedalling, you will enjoy it all the more! 10 km ride takes 30 mins. This is very very moderate rate, almost without any exertion at all.


I highly recommend you guys to read this book - this will help you not only beating my 50K, but in your life too. I have not read such a good book in a very long time. PERIOD. And I read a lot of books, mind you.

You can download a pdf of this book for just 12 USD. Check the net.
And after that, the tough part - put the stuff into practice and beat me to 1 lakh km!!

Hey, believe it or not, if I have inspired at least one person to really DO this, and beat me with any target (distance or time), I consider the purpose of this blog done.

Good luck to all cyclists.

Cycling: early memories

I used to be a child who was really afraid, especially of falling. And in as much as a cycle attracted me, the fear of falling prevented me from getting on the bike, inspite of having helpful uncles and cousins who would urge me on. Finally in 1984 summer, I gathered enough mettle with my maternal uncle (mom’s elder brother) to try a small cycle with two wheels. Not the kids variety, a proper cycle, mind you.

Day after day, my uncle tried in vain to get me going on the cycle. I would cry, shout, get scared the moment he indicated he would “leave” me. He got tired of running behind me, pushing and holding the bike. After the entire summer of 1984, sometime in May, I remember my uncle telling my mom that her son will never learn cycling. And my mom, sweetheart that she is, listened with almost tears in her eyes, to the possibility that her first son would never cycle. It used to be more of her dream and anyone else’s to see me on the bike. I felt bad that I disappointed her so much.

When I got back to 5th std, one of my classmates, a pretty girl by name Rani Peter used to come to school in a cycle. My god – in those days, it was a revelation. She was having army background and had come from delhi in 3rd standard. Now this dame cycling got me seriously jealous. Seriously. Those were the macho days – if a girl could do it, the guy has to, no questions about it.

After we moved to our new home in 1985, we had one of our neighbours who said he will give it a shot - to try and teach me pedaling. My mom explained to him how her brother had tried his best to get me going and how hopeless it was. This gentleman, by name Sunil did not budge. We rented a bike and went off to a nearby ground. In 30 minutes, I was cycling away as if I have been doing nothing else in my life but cycling!! With a joy that knew no limit, I cycled and came in front of my house and showed off to my mom. My friend Sunil thought that he had some “magic touch” that I learned it so fast. Afterwards, I saw him running behind a lot of kids on their bicycles – “teaching” them! ☺

Obviously all those hours with my uncle had gotten me to the very edge – just a little more push and I would have started cycling!! Morale: don’t give up. When the night is the darkest, the morning is near.

Recently, I told my uncle that I have more miles on my cycle than what his entire family had in their lifetimes. He was mighty proud! For a boy who was predicted to never learn cycling, this was indeed big. Very big. No wonder I relate big time to the movie Forrest Gump. For those of you who have not yet seen this classic, it is the story of a child by name Forrest, with weak legs, who goes on to become a high profile long distance runner, running coast to coast in the United States – for the sheer joy of it!

From 9th std onwards (circa 1989), I got permission to go to school on cycle. It was liberation! I can still close my eyes and picture those “first” days when I used to get out of that small road into bigger avenues. Before that it used to be trial runs on my dad’s bike, back and forth a 300m stretch of road in front of my house.

School days turned into those heady college days... and I score well enough in kerala state engineering entrance exam to gain a computer science seat in REC Rourkela, one of the hallowed places for engineering in this country. The college had a very huge campus - 640 acres - second only to IIT Kharagpur in area. I continued with pedaling while I was there. The huge campus kind of mandated it. The hostel itself was about a km away from the main buildings! It is a pity these days to see colleges in 20 acres - what a shame.

I used to participate in what was called "cross country" cycling while I was in REC. The most challenging part of the race was it started at 4:30 AM in the morning. I enjoyed every bit of it, though I never came in the first three. Almost 6 years of pedalling there - I have no clue how much distance would have been done, since I did not have a meter...

After those days came the days in Bangalore about which I have elaborated in the previous two posts.

Cycling in Bangalore: Your answers questioned!

Here is some of the most common things I hear about cycling.
Have you noticed, the ones who never cycled are the ones with strongest opinions on the dangers of cycling!!

• Its not safe!!
This is definitely my favourite “excuse”. It is the excuse most polite folks give you. They don’t want to piss you off by saying it is déclassé or cheap or too much effort. Safety is the buzzword. These are the same folks who will buy a car without ABS or airbag, but safety is somehow big on their list. Who are they deluding, except themselves? I have only one thing to tell them – GROW UP.

Let me put it like this. I have had only two accidents in 50000 km and not one of them spilled a drop of blood. 10.5 years and not a single accident!! How many motor cyclists can claim the same? One accident was when a SUV hit me from behind at 5kmph. Very slow impact, just touched my bike. Enough to spoil the rim, but I did not even fall down or anything. Second was when a scooter crossed right in front of me the wrong way and I hit it slightly. This time my right hand hurt a little, a light sprain.

Yes, when you look “down” from a bus, the cyclist looks so vulnerable. But I feel that in this city a cyclist is very safe. The people of Banglaore are real gentlemen. I feel that most people respect a cyclist. These days it is definitely there, as people are more "health-wise". When I started off in 2000, I used to be treated like a stray dog. Your existence on the road did not matter. And traffic never causes any problems – as long as you don’t cause any problems to traffic.

• Pollution
I love this one too. And to some extent it is valid. Believe it or not, whether you are biking or in a car or in a bus pollution affects you. And pollution does not prevent most people from doing anything they have to – like going to work and back. Then how come it only prevents cycling? To me it looks like many folks are hiding behind the veil of pollution! If it is such a concern, there are very good quality masks available www.respro.com that can completely seal off the nostrils/ mouth from dust/ smoke. I have used them too and found them very effective.

The funniest part is some of my friends who smoke upto 10 cigarettes per day, are concerned about pollution if they cycle. My god. I love cattle and street dogs more – at least they don’t talk such rubbish.

• Cheap activity?
Oh!! where were you born? In the windsor castle? If not, dont act like you did! :)
This more of an attitude issue. These days it is not a problem, since there are plenty of youngsters on bike, with helmets and flash lights and everything. It almost looks like a mini circus!
Cycling is slowly evolving to be a fashion statement! In this city alone you can buy bikes worth one lakh and more.

• Sounds good, but can I do it?
Absolutely! I am the proof. If I can cycle with 105 kgs weight, 36km (18x2) in a day to office and back, what is preventing you. Remember, the lighter you are, the easier it is! ☺

And especially if you have a bike like this:

• I don’t have your stamina.
This is again hiding behind biology and physiology. How do you know you don’t have stamina? You develop stamina for a specific activity when you do it again and again.
Your body is more wonderful than you think. It adapts to all kinds of effort. Believe me, in two weeks of daily consistent effort, you will be cycling around in gay abandon.

• Cycling to work would take a lot of time, right?
Yes, indeed. But traveling by bus or car also takes time. Almost the same or even more. So the question is not about cycling, but how far you stay from work! Most of the time I am at par with buses or even better than them during peak hours.
So if you dont intend to commute, better dont buy a bike! If you bought a treadmill, like most people do, when the first nasha is over, you can at least use it as a cloth stand. With a cycle, even that is not convenient. Stay away!

• Should I do it?
Depends entirely on you. Boss, this is India - You have the right to be as unhealthy as you choose to be.

• I like it, but don’t want to commute to work.
Sorry to say, but if that is indeed the case, the probability of you continuing cycling above 3 months is very very less. In other words, the cycle that you bought will be a useless thing in 3 months! Not a great idea, I would say. The best way is to include it as a commute to work, so that you don’t have to set aside “time for cycling” from your busy schedule or the precious weekends.

• Gears make it easy. Whats the challenge?
And the above statement can be only made by a guy who has never cycled.
Gears make it fun, not easy!
Get on a geared bike, try a good incline. Now try it without a geared bike. You will know the difference. Gear only changes the rate at which work is done. The total work done still remains the same. Elementary, dr. Watson! Gears will definitely help you ride up the inclines which would otherwise make you get down and push the bike up.

• I have been thinking about it
Dude, don’t think. Just do! You don’t think about cycling, you do it. Or you don’t. Don’t let words like “thinking” make you think that you are accomplishing something. You cannot learn swimming by “thinking” about it. Don’t hide behind words. Come forward, be a man! Have you heard this – male by birth, man by choice?
How long are you thinking about it? Some of my folks have been thinking for 11 years! And still no signs of action. Don’t get into this “analysis paralysis” mode. The more you analyse, the more paralysed you get. What we need is action, not just thoughts and theories.
If a thought does not lead you into action, identify it to be a “pseudo-feeling”. A real feeling always induces action.

• What is the cost of cycling?
This is actually a misplaced question. The real question is what is the cost of not cycling? Examples are not very inspiring - Heart problems, high BP, diabetes maybe.
Of course, you can start pedaling with a basic light weight bike like the Hero Hawk or BSA Mac series, both of which are still in production. Get one with 5 or 8 or 16 gears. Not less than 5 gears please. For about 7K rupees, you are pretty much ready with a basic bike, helmet, lights and all.

• These trucks! Do they let you cycle?
Sorry to break any civilized illusions, but I face more stupid behavior from bikes and cars than from trucks. Truckers are gentle folks, they are pros. They know how to behave on the roads. Many times these heavy trucks have come behind me on narrow roads, and applied brakes just so that they don’t have to honk and scare me off. I am yet to see that kind of civilized behavior from cars and two wheelers! Sorry.

• What happens if the tyre punctures?
Oh, come on! Stop kidding. What happens if your motorbike or car tyre punctures? You howl, shout and abandon the vehicle completely and go by bus? No. You just fix it and get on with life. Ditto with cycling too. Fix the puncture, get on with cycling!!

• Too many flyover and bridges
That’s why you need gears. Gears definitely make it a little better for you. When you are in a vehicle and you reach a flyover, do you get off and pray that somehow with god’s blessings the vehicle goes over? You just press the pedal a little more. Same thing here – pedal harder! ☺

• What if it rains?
If you start off cycling, the question is not if it rains, but when? Sooner or later you have to face rains. Buy a raincoat! Simple. Don’t do stunts like cycling with umbrella in one hand and all that. In my childhood I used to see folks in kerala doing it. Those are meant only for the mallus – rest of you, wear a raincoat.

• How do you know you did 50K km?
How do you know your car is due for service? Either the service center calls you, or you figure out from the odometer. I have a cycle computer or cyclometer on my bike and I keep a daily log of the distance done. I write it down in my dairy, on a *daily* basis. I have been doing that since june 2000. I have not missed a single km that I pedaled here in this city.

My hero hawk has two meters - one analog and one digital!

• Don’t you sweat?
That’s how humans are made – if we work out, we sweat. What is the big deal? If you are commuting, do so in a jeans and t-shirt and change at office. Simple!
If the only sweating you do is when you watch horror movies on TV, or you sit for your appraisals at work, my heart goes out to you.

• What will others think?
Wow. Now we are getting closer to the real deal! Frankly, does it matter to you what others think? Or you just think that it matters? Your friends and relatives have problem because you found a simple solution to health problems? Or simply because you found something you like to do without polluting the planet? If so, those folks cannot be called your friends!
All these initial inhibitions will melt away when you get those glances and words of appreciation from complete strangers and friends.
What will others think if you get hospitalized with heart disease or diabetes or other maladies, 20 yrs from now. Let me give you an indication – they may say you were just busy making money, without bothering about health! Dude, others will say many things, we don’t have control over it. You have control only over what you do and what you think – that’s the fact and lets face it.
All said and done, I have just one question - are you ready to get your ass on the saddle? If so, welcome to the world of cycling. If not, forget that you ever read this article. Have fun.

50K in Bangalore!

28th Jan 2011 is a very proud day for me! It is my answer to skeptics around me who discouraged me from starting on this activity almost 11 yrs ago.

If some of you thought it is running 50km in a day, I am very sorry. Here I am referring to a very very different 50k. This is my 50000 km of cycling in bangalore! Basically commuting to work on cycle in Bangalore.

My cycling in Bangalore started after my first job in 1999. I found going by bus (no Volvos in that era, even decent pushpak buses (cream and brown stripes) were considered luxury!) very suffocating. Buses were not clean, and very crowded. It was not an inspiring thought to get into the bus in the morning -- it was indeed a bus travelers night mare. (Please note that this is the pre-volvo era). Add to that the occasional arrogant conductor who found well dressed IT guys from outside Karnataka very upsetting. Its no wonder Rajnikant left BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp) conductor job and went on to be an actor!

An year of bus travel convinced me that this is indeed not the way to go forward. I thought of buying a cycle or a bike. Finally the cost savings decided it in favour of the cycle. And I am thankful to this day that I took that decision! Though it was very simple and clear to me that cycling was fun, most of my friends and well wishers were shocked. Very shocked. They said pollution and traffic will take a toll – and it did! Not on me, but on those very folks who made those sincere but misguided statements.

Paying a one time cost of 3500 Rs to get a brand new 5 gear Hero Hawk in 2000 sounded like a real bargain. Just 3500 Rs to get rid of the bus ride and get to work taking in the (then) fresh Bangalore morning air! Wow. It was too irresistible an idea. However, not everyone thought the same way. In fact some of my relatives clearly did not like the idea of my going to their home on a cycle. It was so déclassé, according to them. Of course, they did not tell it directly, but their actions spoke louder than words.

But once I was on the bike, the world did not matter. It is one activity that I enjoyed to the max, absolutely no questions about it. If you do not enjoy the process, there is no way 50k is possible commuting through the city. Rain or shine, my bike was out. Day after day, month after month, me and my bike was out and running. Kilometers accumulated…

On weekends I used to do 100+ km per day. It was godforsakenly tiring, but heck! It was fun. Real fun. A lone man fighting against himself. The time when Hyderabad NH was two lane and no new airport, not even the talk of it, in devanahalli.

In 2004, I met a fellow cyclist and my cycling life would never remain the same. His name is Shreekumar, and he is an engineer with HP. Brilliant chap. He guided me on long distance cycling and in apr 2005 we cycled to Salem from Bangalore, a distance of 195km in a day! Had it not been for Shree, I would never have attempted a feat like that on my own. Shree had all the credentials – he had cycled Chennai Calcutta at that time, and practically all of south India upto kanyakumari. Shree also told me about electronic cyclometers which give you speed, average, distance, odometer and a variety of other functional in one small unit. He is also the one who introduced me to the global positioning systems (gps).
Lesson: best to learn from someone who has done it already and is willing to teach you how to!