|| Swanta Sukhaya ||

 Greetings! “All that he had believed was dissipated. Truths, which he had no wish for, inexorably besieged him. He must henceforth be another man. He suffered the strange pangs of a conscience suddenly operated on for the cataract. He felt that he was emptied, useless, broken off from his past life, destitute, dissolved.” From  Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Book IV, Chapter 1: Javert’s Suicide. Jean Valjean and Javert stand poles apart as we dive into this eponimous magnum opus of Victor Hugo. But through ups, downs, turns and misdirections in this literary journey - they seem to reverse their fate while following their own callings relentlessly. Jean, a simpleton and convict of draconian law and running away from it, using his bullok-like strength and rustic sense.  Javert, a firm believer in the letter of law, and enforcing it with napolean-like zeal, using his ruthless intellect and firm actions.    As we go through travails of Jean, the likelihood of Book IV being about Jean's

Greetings! Balance through chaos. Keeping foot on pedal while maneuvering through all kinds of traffic. Gritting it through the occasional ups. While enjoying (I don't know how they managed to achieve lesser slopes than ups but...) even more occasional slopes. All this is what you would expect from a cycling zen blog.  And, believe me, all of this is what any cyclist weaving through a city experiences. But this blog is not about it.  It is about the people that the cyclist passes by, those who overtake, and being overtaken by, come across and sometimes skirt around. People on the road, from myriads of hues and moods. Glum. Brooding. Tense. Melancholic. Lost in their thoughts (or in their phones).  Tired. Irritated. Frustrated. Angry (and some taking it out on accelerator or horn or both). Searching. Thirsty. (Looking as if,) Trying to find someone or something that will make them complete.  Hard. Suspicious. Having been betrayed again and again trying to put up their defences again