Mumbai: It’s a weekly ritual. Suvarna Adsule, an inspector with the crime branch of Mumbai Police, cycles from her Thane home to her south Mumbai office every Saturday. “It’s a 37km ride one way,” says the 54-year-old who, on other days of the week, cycles 25-30km around Thane. “If I don’t cycle on a certain day, I feel something missing from my routine,” she says.
Cyclists all over Mumbai and elsewhere in the metro region are all set to push the pedal with Union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s clarion call for cycling. The ‘Fit India Cycling Tuesdays’ initiative will be launched this week.
Another Thane resident, Sambhaji Giri (47), cycles daily from his residence to his workplace at Andheri (east) – 38km to and fro.
“It’s my bit to save the planet for the future generations,” says Giri whose son Viraj is also an enthusiastic cyclist.
Giri, who works shifts, takes the bicycle even when he wraps up work at 11 pm. Whether local trains stop in their tracks or rickshaw drivers go on strike, “it makes no difference”, he points out.
Cycling on weekends may have caught up especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, but a bunch of cyclists from the metro have been dedicatedly cycling to work. Weekend cycling alone won’t help, says Mahesh Dabholkar, motivational cycling vlogger who puts out posts exclusively in Marathi. “Sadly, the general attitude of most people towards cycling is ‘why cycle when you have a bike/car’. This needs to change,” says Dabholkar who uses his bicycle to commute from Airoli to his Thane office daily — a distance of 24km.
Nearly 200 people took part in a bicycle rally for awareness of organ donation recently which was organised by NGO Mohan Foundation, and hosted by Bycs, an umbrella organisation of bicycle mayors. Shalini Rathore of Wheels & Barrels, a cycling community, urged participants to use the bicycle beyond weekends.
Thane bicycle mayor Chirag Shah says: “It’s a dream that someday we take to cycling like the Dutch do, but for now we need to do whatever is possible.”
Cycling has immense health benefits, says Mumbai’s bicycle mayor Dr Viswanathan Iyer. “It’s the best form of aerobic exercise,” the neurosurgeon says, pointing out its multi-faceted benefits – it keeps you fit, saves the environment, and you don’t have the stress of parking in this congested city.
The woman police officer seconds the doctor’s view. “I suffered from ankle pain, but cycling and yoga made me fitter, better,” says Adsule.
Currently on a cycling expedition in Kerala, she has conquered the gruelling uphill terrain in Ratnagiri on a bicycle besides Khandala Bhor ghat and Kumbharli Ghat. “The joy of getting somewhere on a cycle is far greater that what you get in a motorised vehicle,” she says.
But motorists need to give cyclists the respect they deserve, insists Dabholkar who motivates wannabe cyclists to use the bicycle to commute to work.
“It’s not easy with potholed roads and reckless motorists,” Dabholkar says, pointing out that many a cyclist has got injured or even killed by a rash driver. Cyclists, he says, have an equal right to road space and safety.
