Sunday 19 October 2014

Sunday Sunrise Rides

(Discover on Wheels started its Sunday Sunrise rides in March, 2014. Since then, the Kolkata-based cycling group has been organising such rides without any break for the benefit of citizens and fitness enthusiasts. Supratim Pal rides with Discover on Wheels since the club's birth. He shares his Sunday Sunrise ride experience)

My friends have asked me many a time why i wake up at 4 on a Sunday morning, take my bike down through the stairs from my fourth-floor flat, open the semi-rusted collapsible gate, put on the front and rear lights, check the GPS and hop on to the saddle. I could jolly well cuddled in the cosy comfort of blanket.

Let me chart some five issues that i've found while trying to look for replies within.

1. Hardly heat: Even during the scorching summer of April-May, we never faced problems to ride till 7.30 in the morning without being exhausted.



2. Traffic relief: At 5 in the morning, there's hardly any traffic on the road, except the trucks, which are hardly nuisance for cyclists. If it's Sunday, even people with early-morning or late-night shifts take weekly off also!


3. Pollution, what? The best part of Sunday Sunrise rides is riding amid less pollution. In a city full of dust and smoke, the early-morning rides are the best that can happen to the people.

4. Mind & body: I can go on and on... maybe riding lazy just to free my mind from the week-long stress at the workplace. The best way to let your thoughts run free is ride along the stretches of New Town or NH-2 beyond Dankuni.


5. Chasing passion: Again, the best time to chase your passion — if it has anything to do with nature — is Sunday early morning. I enjoyed such calm while i chased my passion of bird-watching for years. With the friendly bike, i can have a talk with nature, again.

(Pictures courtesy: Shahbaz, Subhajyoti and Harsh)

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