Ride to Nowhere — Archived from January 2009
2008 has been a great year for travelling, and a big chunk of credit for that goes to the mobility granted by my humble two wheel ride. I had two metric centuries, one imperial century and several short local rides, putting an estimated 2000 kilometres on the odometer. But the best part of riding the bicycle has been the joy of travelling - be it commuting within the city, or day-long sojourns into distant spots around Pune - that never can be experienced travelling in a motorized vehicle. Everything, from rugged roads, to narrow city lanes, to full-fledged 2 carriageway highways are fair game for this simple mechanical steed.
But though everything is hunky dory with the bike-riding scene personally, it really would be nice to see some of this joy being shared amongst the rest of the Puneris. The city is growing day by day and the number of two-wheelers and cars is skyrocketing. And the city planners are committing the same mistakes typical of their lot the world over - making more room for cars on the roads at the cost of the soul of the city. You know trouble beckons over the horizon if you have to travel 70 kilometres from home in order to find an open spot with absolutely no human settlement in sight for at least 500 metres in either direction.
I'm glad for Lion's Point - one more leisure spot in a laid-back Puneri's book of fun-places-to-explore.