Day-1: Ride to the office

16th August, Bengaluru.

Day - 1: velocipede ride to the office - what a day! A hell of ride, of 13.8 km each way. Sharing road with all the Bengaluru traffic in an experience in itself...silent scooters to blaring buses - the bicycle rider is an object of interest for each one! Glad to make it, and determined to repeat the feat - not just tomorrow, but on all the days henceforth.
Must say that each of the ~60 minutes spent in both the journeys were well spent - especially when the bus ride (the morning one) takes longer than that!

Bicycling - while living closer to sky (on 2nd floor)

We, the denizens of Metropolitan cities have an additional problem at hand - which is almost never-ever faced by our less urbanized fellow countrymen - where to keep or park your bicycle at home. Bicycle is the tiniest mode of transportation - just a one-dimensional, linear structure  - that is how motorists view us - which is more agile than a small-car, is more capable of off-roading than an SUV, is cheaper than a pint of petrol(again...motorists' view), save millions a month on petrol, parking, traffic-tickets - and not to mention, require slightly above zero square feet of parking space.

But if you are living in a multi-story apartments, aka "societies" sometimes, then a few problems arise - unlike your car, which could shut itself out on click of a button to be left, and you could leave the lady alone, a cycle is open to all  sorts of intrusions - from seat mutilators, tire deflaters (and thieves for those having detachable tires and / or seats). Believe me, the lazy, once-a-week bicyclists' cycles are more noticed, for getting stolen / mutilations than the regular-horses.

We learn to manage this with time - learn to carry home the black-beauty every Sunday evening - after our occasional Saturday and / or Sunday mornings' touch of dirt. We become strong enough - not just to carry it on shoulders, but to go through the bemused smiles of next door long-nose interferes who have a right to know each and every activity which could provide any inane, useless information.

We become careful - careful enough to pick it up to the place where we live - either on Sunday evening or before leaving for work on Monday morning.

Not to mention any repairs and cleanings - all have to be done in the 4x2 ft balcony space - where the space has to be shared with  the drying stands for clothes.

In short, bicycling may be good, but for those living on upper floors, it becomes better as it teaches a few valuable lessons of life...be strong and manage space and time!

PS - November 2014: I manged to live with this too when moved closer to sky - now to the 8th floor. Now I have a folding bike which I can carry up and down without much problem. Also, I do ride it to my office - OK, only to my bus and then back from bus to my home in the evening....will shortly provide my feedback about that :)

Few good stories…

Everyday life brings you a few good stories – some incidents, about the people whom you know, or you don't even know - that make you feel good. You feel good about life – that there is hope - if one is interested in it.

My commute to work includes a forty minutes (each side) journey by my office-bus – and I prefer to spend that time in reading or catching a power nap while listening to music. In other words I shut myself against any disturbance which can devoid me from my me-time. Not a chatter I am, but sometime I cannot escape, and I must say that these are the time when I do learn about people.

A conversation with a colleague on slow-down, recession, firing and why is it "hard" to train "resources" turned into a chat  about a person who used to drive their office cab in the organization my colleague worked previously. Cab or taxi driving, unfortunately, is not regarded as a very noble profession in my country. A tough job it is, all it includes driving - like crazy to skip the stiff penalties imposed on not reaching within time, and it includes a lot of nagging from the cab users on reaching 2 minutes before time in the morning, and it includes sleeping – in the car for at least five days a week, and at bad time on wheel too as most of the time the driver is exhausted! Since, in most of the cases drivers do not own the cars, guarantee of a timely/monthly/complete salary too is not there. 

So it happened, that  the driver-lad, who could be in either side of his twenties at that time, was trying to learn the language of the Gods – English, a language which, in my country, may help you to elevate your status by a couple of inches over the rest who can't speak and/or can't understand. He was sharp, but couldn't complete the education after 10^th standard, but he had a keen interest in learning and improving himself, but didn't have any means - money and time included, to do so.

So, he, the driver-lad used to request his passengers to speak only in English with him. Starting from almost zero, it took him around two years to master the language - with very noticeable improvements. No…he did NOT acquire the accent and all, but at the end of two years, he was, ugh...better than some of the passengers he used to give ride to. My colleague used to think that the driver-lad is doing it so that he could start driving for some five-star hotel, where they ferry foreign-guests routinely on long distance, week-end trips and earn (relatively) high tips; or may be, to impress the girlies. But it turned out in the end that his ambition was comparatively simple – not to sit on the driver's seat for his whole life. 

Last heard, he secured a job which involved handling customers' queries in firm catering domestic customers. May be he will – and he should, go further up too. Like my readers, I don't know him, but I am happy for him. 

And yes, if we still feel that after some years of working-life, learning could become tough - despite all the classroom trainings at company expanses, books and all the Internet sites - Wikipedia included, spare a thought about this chap for whom learning meant taking directions in English for two years with eyes constantly on road!

Fast forward few months - now I am in Bangalore - returning home in an almost empty bus. An empty bus means that I could get a whole seat for myself and could read, or could open my laptop as I did that day. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder - it was the conductor. I had already shown him my pass, but still I reached to my pocket. He waved his hand and asked what is the smallest element on the screen - a pixel, or a bit. Well, it is pixel...exchanged few more sentences, when he asked about where I am from. Then he chatted about the current chief minister there and how many times he has become the CM, and that there only a few (four...?) CM's who became CM 5th time. Knowledgeable fellow - was the though I had. He told me that he appeared in his departmental exams for promotion, where he could get a desk-job, and that he had a paper on computers, and one on general knowledge. My stop came, and I had to get down. But, as the luck had it, I bumped into him the next day - after the weekend - too, again, an empty bus. This time I had my dongle too, so we went on and searched for the answers on some 20 or so questions. I was amazed at his knowledge. I spend a large chunk of my time on the job in reading the on-line newspapers and articles, whereas his time is spent mostly with his passengers who, mostly - like most of my countrymen - are either shouting, or complaining or are alternatively, too busy/elite etc. even to bring the right amount of change, and hence haggling constantly; amid all this he still find the time to read - standing next to driver, reading a local, Kannada newspaper and has amassed as much knowledge, as he could.
Wish him luck - a very good one, folks!

But that is not a school…

I was shocked to hear these words. Not that these do sound hopeless, but because of the reason who the speaker was!

A little background - the spouse of a colleague of mine (let us call my colleague ABC, and spouse TheSpouse, to conceal their identities) – got job as a teacher in a state-school at elementary level. TheSpouse is a post graduate in science – I don’t remember Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or some other applied-science type majors, but that humble job won’t really provide the opportunities to showcase the skills acquired over such a difficult academic journey over all these years. I, being a water-cooler buddy of ABC, have to hear laments on all this. 

Although the school is slightly far, at a non-commutable distance on daily basis, but they’re not really willing to leave that job for some other career in non-state sectors – because this job is "secure". Not a bad approach, given the tough economic times we have had in not so recent past, most of us are likely to do the same – that at least one of family member can keep getting a regular, consistent income. But what I find troublesome is that TheSpouse never goes to the school. And after a long, paid hiatus, visits to offices and maybe, obeisances to a few politicians too, they are trying to get transfer to a school near to their home, and surprise - there too TheSpouse won’t go. Instead, they will provide a cut – some 10 to 20%  – to the other teacher, with 80-90% still left to themselves…or even a 50% won’t be that bad. That colleague will mark TheSpouse’s daily attendances’ and will inform TheSpouse to come to school if any authority cares to inspect that going concern termed as a school by the government.

I, being a “friend” of ABC, have a gall to dissuade them from doing this unethical activity…but replies range from (harmless / routine) everybody does that so why not we, to the most outrageous one I have mentioned above. ABC said “Hey, they are not schools. In earlier days they had classes under a tree, now just four walls have been erected. But does that make a school? No..ooo. (Now emphatically and loudly) don’t worry that is not even a school…”!

I couldn’t hear rest of the ramblings - I was left speechless and I dared not to discuss it further. But, if a teacher does not believe that it is a school, then who else would? I, never, in my life have, knowingly, come face to face with a person with such degraded moral ethics.  The children there are getting deprived of, probably, their only chance to get educated, to be a contributing part of the society.

And this statement - coming out from a person with fair academic achievements, a cozy job , an educated, middle-class background with a lot of exposure to multiple cultures across India, and abroad as well (through work) is appalling!

Well…the usual helpless, here I am. All I did was to unfriend ABC & TheSpouse on Facebook...and now I am trying to avoid conversations with ABC too - as much as possible…in a persistent fear that I too might catch this repulsive germ!

No wonders that a large chunk of our population is still illiterate, and that we are a doomed 3^rd world country – whatever we claim to be – Superpower in making or any other grandiose claim, with such people around - we are nothing, but super losers!

PS - A few days back I found that this gentleman - ABC - used to contribute to "Sponsor a child's education for a year" programme of the place where I work. Basically it is like you pay INR 6,000/- to sponsor one year's education expenditure for a kid somewhere...does that make it even?

Bicycling Street Smarts (with thanks from http://bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/ )

During my usual, net-bicycling, I found this a "Bicycling Street Smarts guide - http://bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/
For us - Cycling Street Smarts, left-hand drive version  - http://bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/lhd/index.htm
One of the very sane, very sensible and very much common sense'ible advise given on this site is "With very few exceptions, the safest way to ride is as part of the traffic". Not that it is very hard to follow, not that it is very exceptional piece of scientific knowledge which gets taught in the last semester of rocket-science and spacecraft engineering, but still something which a lot of cyclist ignore - be it zipping through the traffic, ignoring traffic lights, or even heading against the traffic, we do come across individual who, just to save a few seconds put their lives in danger.
To close today's blog entry,  I would like to quote another, very apt line from this site/guide -"With very few exceptions, cyclists have the same rights – and responsibilities – as motorists".

Happy cycling,
ALB

Introduction

As the name describes – I am the one – another lazy bicyclist, or AnotherLazyBicyclist - ALB. An individual who likes to mark oneself as a bicyclist, but is too lazy to do the actual bi-cycling - and opts for Google version of the activity itself. The one, who rather than kicking the proverbial butt, opts to search and gawk at bicycle facts, figures and photos on the web!

But occasionally, from time to time, ALB too decides to roll the wheels – and whenever this Halley’ish  ( as in Halley’s Comment ) activity happens – everybody in the listening  and / or watching radius around notices it!

Why did I start the blog – because though noting my musing on the WWW - wonderful  wall of the world where, everybody and anybody could read it – could, in some way, enrich the world – make it a better place to live.  And, perhaps, I too will, in turn, will learn something!

Why Another, and not ‘the’ or just 'a' Lazy Bi-cyclist / Cyclist – because I am the one – the lazy one, too lazy, and so lazy that other lesser-lazy mortals outwitted me to grab the name before I could! (Yeah, I won, thanks!). But laziness is a virtue in itself – it makes one to remain content with whatever one gets!

Happy Reading,

ALB