I am Critical Mass

I was already a mass when I was born but today I became a part of critical mass of my country who has got some responsibility to shoulder (Thoda Gyada ho gaya). Today (28th March 2009) will be considered as my first baby step to add force to already rolling ball of "SAVE EARTH" of moving to alternative mode of transport which is pollution free and keeps your waistline slim. Well I am talking about bicycle as an alternate option which I have been religiously adhering to for past 3 months by commuting to my work which is close to 5 KM (3.1 miles) from my house. Thanks to Bala who motivated me to take this up.

So what is special about today?

Ahha... Today was Critical Mass day in Bangalore. By Critical Mass Day I mean, it is a day which is celebrated every last Saturday of the month where a group of amateur or veteran cyclist, cycle in city and create awareness about bicycle riding as feasible option. It was my maiden tour as I have been missing the earlier ones because of silly reasons which I don't want to remember and make fool of myself.

This time, we met in Cubbon Park where the total count reached 74 cyclist including few women and a cute looking baby girl on her kid-cycle with supported back wheel and a young boy of close to 8 yrs old on a regular bike. It was a great mix of personalities. I was lucky enough to locate my two office colleagues Mathew (the Veteran) and Manu (the Sports maniac) among the mass. Also I started exchanging hands with other people and there was not an iota of discomfort.



Ek baat kehna toh mein bhool hee gaya (I forgot one detail to mention)

We also had Sharada from Arghyam who did a great job by helping us know the quality of water we consume at home by arranging a set of sceinticfic kits and also gave all of us a Biological H2S Strip test kit as gratis. He took great effort and all the people who got water samples ( I got it too from my landlady) has their water tested. Great Service to nation Sharada. God Bless you !!

How can I forget Prashant Mohanty. The man who all time was cracking PJ's and howling at his best voice not to forget he is among the founders so the rest abt him we can discuss in private :).

We began our journey close to 4:30 pm. towards North Bangalore (I felt so good. It was towards my house). Some placards and posters and media attention made it a paparazzi stuff. We headed towards Sainki Tank and then further ahead towards Malleswaram. In the midst we has few stops where we waited for few who strayed from the flock. The quizzed and smiling faces of onlookers was good enough proof that we are making an impression in their mind and a question "What am I waiting for?" to ponder over.

We had our first bike salute (you hold your bike upright) near a temple. The pujaris too came out to bless the good cause and the by-passers thumped Up.

It was coming to an end. We reached a quite location to catch up with air and water. There was an introduction session and I hardly remember 10 names. I am sorry about it but my memory capacity is already full. I have been long planning to get a PHD (Portable Hard Disk). Then what followed was some serious discussion (culprit : Prashant) where he discussed about sharing responsibilities of coming critical mass and more personnel commitment from all of us by means of taking care of blog and coming with self made posters. We all agreed unanimously like primary school kids :)

Finally people started leaving in groups in the direction of their homes. With Sriram, Prashant, Igy and others we planned to eat Idli and have Tea. I was dying to eat something as I didnt had anything since morning. Somehow I missed :P. (The one with "V" is me)

On my return journey my front break wire got torn and I was driving more cautiously back home only to dash on my bed and find myself again starving at 9:45 p.m. Well I did celebrated Earth Day.. No lights between 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m (except my punkah was fanning , :P).

On a pleasent note : I feel blessed to meet you all and making good friends and also kudos to organizers.

Note : To know more about Critical Mass Bangalore click here

Happy Riding,
Amit