Cycling in the times of Covid-19: From freedom to fitness to distancing
Hindustan TimesSoon after Partition, a group of Hindi writers — Bhisham Sahni, Nirmal Verma, Krishna Baldev Vaid, Manohar Shyam Joshi and others — set up the Cultural Forum in Delhi. Earlier this month, Atlas’s last cycle factory shut down, ending a nostalgic journey dating back to 1951, when the company first started manufacturing bicycles. The book’s hero, the brilliant young research scholar Chander, is often found pedalling down Allahabad’s tranquil, tree-lined roads to go to university, to meet his friends or to run important errands. A familiar trope in Hindi films was the gaggle of stylish young women on their bicycles — Nutan and her ‘haseenon ki toli’ in Anari ; Asha Parekh and friends in Mere Sanam ; Saira Banu with her gang of girls in Padosan. But our heroine’s father proudly declares of his daughter, “Yeh toh cycle chalaane mein ustad hai!” Today, the bicycle has probably had its middle-class moment.
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