Rise and Bike – Enhances work life stability

Maninder Kalkat

Many moons ago, although I’m convinced it was yesterday, I would stare with yearning at mopeds and cars speeding past me as I lumbered to school on my bicycle in India. I earnestly wished to dump the bike and acquire one of these motorized marvels. It took a long time for the dream to come to fruition. However, a few decades later, there was a reversal of desires and cycling became a hobby and passion. Annoyingly for many and motivational for some, I have become a cycling evangelist.

The enthusiasm was rekindled during summers spent cycling with my son on his school’s cycle tours. The spark it ignited has seen me transform into a full-fledged organiser for annual biking expeditions for friends. In fact, this revelation of hidden organisation skills qualified me for the job of meeting secretary of SCTS.

One of these regular tours comprises friends from my alma mater who dispersed after graduation and became incommunicado in an age without social media. Cycling trips reunited these long-lost friends and soon, a group of more than thirty would meet annually for weeklong summer excursions. The team includes friends, spouses, and children – two generations, and come from America, Canada, and India. A destination is selected, the bikers assemble with panniers in hand and cover 400 miles over the course of a week. Good food, good wine, and great humour: all owed to the pesky bike I was so keen to ditch as a teenager.

These trips have given us the opportunity to visit and admire remote areas seldom approachable or observed while driving on the roads. These include the western coast of the US, covering Oregon and California, the length of the Danube, Holland, Denmark, the Low countries, Puglia in Italy and Norway to name a few. The pod of whales returning from the South near Coos Bay in Oregon, Kröller Muller museum in Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands, Matera and Albarello -world heritage sites in Puglia, a dancing waterfall woman at Kjosfossen Waterfall in Norway, the Vineyards near Passau are a few sights which remain entrenched in the memory.

The COVID pandemic did scupper the best laid plans over the past two years, but the local forays have continued unabated. These included Lands-end to John-o-Groats in ten days and a few coast to coast rides. The introduction of emission charges in Birmingham made me realize that cycling to work can be fun, carbon and wallet neutral and no qualms about the traffic and parking jams. Ours is a high intensity speciality, comprising competitive and motivated individuals, working perpetually in unergonomic and stressful conditions and under constant scrutiny. The current pandemic has further intensified the strain and has tested the resilience to the hilt. It is therefore imperative that we as individuals, and more importantly as teams, work proactively to nurture our mental and physical health. A sound mind and able body are a minimum prerequisite to look after our patients, families and society at large. It is reassuring to note while conferring with friends in the speciality that the majority of us are already in pursuit of accomplishing a life work balance, sparing time from busy schedules to tend to ourselves. People are indulging in sports, running, cycling, sailing, hiking, meditating, excelling in various arts, organising virtual meetings (Sri’s fortnightly Inaya Thinnai) and many others. Many years ago, our president, Simon Kendall motivated me while extolling about his cycling excursions and I hope my small write up might recruit a few more to my cycling group. n