Delhi is fast degenerating into an urban ogre, with a multitude of factors contributing to its steady decline from being a somnolent enclave of open spaces, green lawns and wide roads. Even the Yamuna has been reduced to a black trickle, a sewer.
So on this Gandhi Jayanti, it came as a huge relief to know that in the prevailing anarchy, there continue to be organisations and individuals who go all out to preserve two of the city's most treasured features - its golden heritage and green environment.
The event was the first ever Delhi Bicycle Heritage Tour organised by Fire fox Bikes in association with Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (T.R.I.P.P.) - IIT and Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-ce), a Netherlands-based organisation.
Aptly, the bicycle extravaganza was flagged off from the heart of Lutyens dream, from the Boat Club, flanked by the North and South Blocks, adjoining the grand Rajpath and overlooked by the majestic Rashtrapati Bhawan. The stage cannot get bigger than this in terms of heritage, history and nostalgia - all rolled into one - made all the more intoxicating by the gentleDelhi autumn which has just rolled in.
The tour with over hundred bicycle enthusiasts representing 16 countries was flagged off by Haroon Yusuf, Minister of Transport and Power, Delhi Government.
Yusuf said, "We cannot forget the immense contribution being made by the poorer sections of society, who travel to work every day on a bicycle, in terms of conserving the environment.
It becomes our duty to initiate steps for their benefit."
He promised the government is exploring the possibility of implementing plans which can promote the use of bicycles as a preferred mode of transport by introducing new ideas like dedicated corridors wherever feasible and declaring a particular day of the week as Bicycle Day.
During the tour, participants got a brief glimpse of the vast historical ocean that Delhi is, as they pedalled past sites like Purana Quila, Humayun's Tomb and Safdarjung Tomb before terminating the journey at Teen Murti. The event was actively supported by members of the diplomatic core, especially from the embassies of Switzerland and Holland.
As Geetam Tiwari of T.R.I.P.P. remarked, "For Delhi to become a world class city, it should have a safe bicycle infrastructure, which offers the double benefit of a healthy lifestyle coupled with a pollution free environment."
Shiv Inder Singh of Fire Fox Bikes compared the wheel of the bicycle to that of Gandhiji's spinning wheel, and raised a demand for freedom from mechanised oppression. However, despite the brouhaha, and enthusiasm of the participants towards the onerous task of preserving the environment and our heritage, (which has come not a second too soon), planks on which the future of the beautiful old lady called Delhi rests rather precariously, it will require the involvement of a larger number of people to evolve into a mass movement.
