Concerns Of A Carbon Emitting Dad

Published in Deccan Chronicle on June 11, 2008

A few years ago I moved from Mumbai to Bangalore to be close to my children who were resident in Bangalore. To adjust to the transition, I cycled into the centre of town most week-day mornings immediately after day break to attend training in martial arts.

At that hour milkmen were about their deliveries with dispatch rider efficiency, newspaper boys rocketed through the neighbourhood like Katyusha mobile missile launchers, hurling the morning edition into vacant verandah spaces with pin-point precision.

The melliflous neighbourhood Koyals rendered wake-up calls to one and all to get on with morning ablutions, with the Gayatri Mantra crackling to life on radios to welcome a new day as I cycled by.

Inhaling the crisp morning air at 35 kmph brought every limb and sinew to life in an appreciation of perspiration and transported me the distance of four kilometres in fifteen minutes.

A couple of hours later after an intense work out, feeling like a fine-tuned Ferrari I derived advantage from the gradual decline - literally - of Hosur road to race past SUV's of very hue and cubic capacity dis-affectionately lip-locked bumper to bumper - the only circumstances under which a cyclist can take advantage of white collar (im)mobility.

From my precarious perch on two wheels under the endless avenue of trees the mottled sunlight revealed intriguing aspects of class consciousness; the realisation that there existed circumstances when the lowly cyclist marginalised between white line and footpath could experience the exhilaration of rapid social mobility.

I also wondered why we had permitted unbridled affluence to deprive ourselves of the simple pleasures of a cycle ride to school and work. If there was any city in India that was conducive to cycling it was Bangalore.

Why had we chosen to dismiss the pleasures of tree-lined avenues, cool morning air and a most pleasurable fitness regimen for traffic jams, air conditioning, carbon monoxide poisoning and crazed chauffeurs and road rage?

If the answer is 'saving time' then that was patently untrue. I was faster on two wheels fuelled with the energy of a single banana than four cylinders of a carbon emitting metallic monster deadlocked in traffic.

If the response is, we require cars the size of our inflated egos to announce our affluence and singular contributions to the burgeoning Indian economy then the Chinese have out manoeuvred us riding bicycles to work!

Four years later, I drive an SUV - much as I loathe the idea - that same distance of four kilometres, to drop my sons to school. Sadly, I raise the tinted glass windows not because it’s hot, but to shut out the sixty decibel audio levels that could drive any human to insanity and subsequent road rage.

In that short distance, I have to endure maniacal BPO cab drivers, meandering motorcyclists and hundreds of parents - also in cars - dropping children off at not less than five schools en route.

Ideally, I'd love to send my sons to school on cycles but that would be suicidal with many honourable citizens, of the opinion that jumping the red signal is their fundamental right guaranteed under Article 14.

Would it not make more sense to guarantee our children a sanitised traffic free zone to cycle to school and back? Not only would it keep them healthy but we wouldn't be complaining about rising oil prices.

What are my public transport options? Yellow coloured tempos- camouflaged as school buses - with children impaled against every window. A can of sardines would think they were travelling business class.

Autos festooned with school bags; children oozing out of every crack in the plastic create the imminent bad feeling of a laboratory experiment going wrong.

If there are more parents who wish to use their SUV's for family outings instead of school drops; if there are parents who have dared to dream of their children riding to school and back devoid of any concern for their safety and well-being; if there are others who might relish the joy of staying healthy by cycling to work, enjoying a crisp Bangalore morning and an orchestra of koyals rather than contort with every blaring horn, then let's stand up and be counted.

I would certainly like to reduce my fuel consumption, reduce carbon emissions, control my cholesterol, avoid cardiac complications and most importantly create a safer, greener cleaner Bangalore for all our children so why don't we make it happen?

Ranjan Kamath