Today, I finally crossed something off my 2011 new year’s resolution list. (Or was it 2008 ?) After moving to Bangalore that year for health reasons and the wonderful weather, I decided to take up cycling. Cycle to office, or , at least take up cycling on the weekends. But I was not prepared for the oh-so-bad traffic and late working hours. My office was 14 kms away from where I stayed, and for someone who last cycled 10 years ago, that distance was un-coverable.
But my patience paid off. I moved to another company seeing that their office was closer to my home, 8 kms. A little more reachable. I went out and bought a second-hand all terrain 21 gear bike last year. But again, I was on a support project. And the odd working hours meant I postponed cycling again. But after participating in Bangalore Cycle Day last month, I decided to take one more shot at it. Today, I cycled the 8kms to office, and managed to cycle the distance back even though it was raining all the way back.
The easy part ? The morning ride to office. The weather was cool and dry for some weeks now, no raining at all, seemed like a good time to take the risk. I started around 9 am, as I only need to be in office by 10. The roads at this time are just building up traffic; and the weather is still cool. Perfect ! After cycling for 20 mins, I got exhausted, the old engine isn’t what it used to be. I walked about 10 mins, to get my breath back. I had my backpack with me, my laptop and lunch packed, had to carry that weight all the way.Then the last 15 mins of cycling was easier, as I got more confident of my riding and the began to understand how the traffic around me worked. When I reached office, I was sweating all over, and out of breath again. 45 mins for 8km, not bad ! I took my asthma medicine , and stood under the AC for 5 mins for the sweat to dry up ;-) . (Next time, I am packing a change of clothes). There was no bike parking area in my office parking lot, so I locked the bike to the generator pipes ! Man, it pained, all through the day, I could feel by body aching, as it was not used to such stress for many years. But only the easy part was done. Since I had biked to office, I had to bike back too. And this served as a push to stay on the ordeal.
The ride home was much more problematic. I had some late calls to attend, some last minute work. And then, out of the blue, it started raining. I decided to wait till the rain stopped, but then there was not halt even after 8pm, I decided to start anyway. Riding a bike in the rain is a really different experience. Having been born and brought up in rain soaked Kerala, I was never scared of it. In fact, I love rain. I can walk and bike in the rain all day, but it seems very few people share my enthusiasm for the beautiful phenomenon. People are in a hurry to get to dry ground, they are willing to break every traffic rule to get there. I had a special problems with the two wheelers on the road, as they were also exposed to rain like me, but found my little bike taking up too much space on the road. They were coming at me, horns blaring, lights blinking , literallay yelling at me to get our of their way. I couldn’t see where I was heading most of the time, it was already dark, and the rain on my glasses meant I could not see through them. Anway, after 40 mins of biking I reached a place where I could get into a bus stop to get away from the rain. It would tak me another 20 mins to reach my home, where I just walked in and fell on my bed exhausted.
This was truly a new experience, I had not expected it to rain on the way back (screw you, google ). What made the journey tough was my nearly 8kg backpack, with my laptop and other stuff. And the problem was compounded by the rain and zero visibility on the road. But it is certainly do-able. Just to need to ensure I leave a little earlier, when there is still daylight. And to pack light, maybe I can leave my laptop at office ? Anyway, I have overcome a big hurdle today. Looking forward to the next ride !
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