Zen and the art of cycling through City

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 against imaginary attacks by passers on the road.

Cunning. Shrewd. (As if,) measuring up everyone around them to check what can they siphon off.

Leering. Lecherous. Lapping up the shapes of bodies around them lasciviously.

Lost. Resigned. Seemingly given up on the monstrosity of world around them.

Hopeful. Eager. Looking forward to reach their destinations. 

(Very very few, ) Sated. Content. Happy.

(Even fewer,) Starry eyed. Neither riding nor walking but as if floating on the wings of their dreams. Mostly those in love!

Now, the cycle rider, gets to observe all these at a pace tad faster than a pedestrian (so that none of these stick around for alarmingly longer than they should be). 

Also, can linger around to absorb more than the automobile rider (so that the variety and richness of these is not meshed into a faceless blurr).

This zone, this experience, immersive yet from a distance, engaging yet broadening the perspective, enriching yet taking away some of the petty undulations of mind.

This, my friend, is, Zen and the art of cycling through City !

Sincerely Mine!

Anand Kulkarni

Comments

Tinglish said…
Profound and deep
Sunday, January 02, 2022
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