Bicycles must return to roads

29 July 2012 Kerala Commentary

Bicycles must return to roads.

P.S.Remesh Chandran.

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.

Just like manual typewriters, bicycles are going to be the answer to India’s power requirements in the future. A type writer needs no electricity to work, and so, it is workable 24 hours a day. When computers came into use we threw away these type writers which had been serving the world effectively for many decades. Due to inability to compete with computers and being unable to sell one single machine, the last type writer factory in the world which was in India owned by the Godrej Company closed in 2011. But with total black outs and brown outs very near, we are certainly going to call back these old type writers again into service. The same thing would happen to bicycles also. When motor cycles came into being and one of them now being able to be purchased at the roadside like fish from the market, people threw away the worthy bicycles and now spend what money they earn fully for purchasing petrol the price of which is skyrocketing each day. Today, each house has more then one motor cycle where it was at one time a luxury to have more than one bicycle in a house. People pedalling to their destinations did two good things: it burned out their unnecessary fats and eliminated the need to spend their earnings on petrol and make oil barons richer. Before the advent of motor cycles, no people in our country had any cholesterol problem. Every cyclist remained as healthy as the swimmer. Bicycling conditioned people’s heart, made them healthy and helped them loose unnecessary weight. Therefore this reintroduction of bicycles rental in Trivandrum is very welcome. More than three people travelling in a bicycle was not a new thing in India. In some states, whole families travelled in a bicycle. It was an effective and cheap way of transportation and police turned their faces away. This right should be restored. Whether the people know it or not, pedal power is going to be one of the most innovative energy-producing enterprises in the world. Just as we produce electricity through turning turbines, pedal power can be used to produce electricity though in a moderate scale. Suppose thousands of people go to a pedalling station for either exercise or for employment and they are engaged there to pedal mounted wheels, thousands of them turning at a time, to produce electricity for their city, village, hospital or school. It would be like an eco-friendly power generation station working in full swing. People will come regularly for exercise there, get refreshments and entertainment as repayment and eliminate the need for hospitals. This is not a dream but would actually happen in the very near future when almost all our modern day amenities which we take for granted closes down due to non- availability of electricity. It has been estimated that a pedalling human being can produce enough electricity to light a 40 watts bulb for 30 minutes with his half hour work. At least we will do this then to run the ventilators and operation rooms in our hospitals.