Ladakh, here I come ...

After a gap of six years I am again cycling to work. I borrowed a bicycle from a friend of mine to try and see how it works out. The school is six kilometres from my house and I have been going by car all these days. There is no convenient bus, I have to change a bus from Banashankari bus stand. But the last 3 days I have been using the cycle to get there and back. It takes 30 minutes by bicycle and around 25 minutes by car. I take the inner roads and avoid traffic and so it works pretty well. In Bangalore I definitely need a cycle with gears. This one has the standard 18 setting Shimano gears and hence works well. Still, with all that ups and downs it is good exercise. 12 kilometres a day is not bad and I think if I do that till April I would be all set for the Ladakh trip :)

I used to bike to work when I was working for Oracle at Redwood Shores and lived in Belmont. It was just 2 miles but our apartment was on a hill so my commute back home was bloody hard work. I used to give up on the last bit where the gradient was almost 45%. Here it is not that bad but still needs some serious pedalling. The pollution is pretty bad, I get a good coating of dust and suspended particular matter on my throat and all over. I have to get a mask.
I also plan to use ear plugs, I find the honking so bad and so loud!

The kids were very amused to see me on a cycle. They wondered (aloud) that I was coming in a car few days back and now in a cycle. Why they asked and I let them ponder.... (there is this old MGR song in Tamil which loosely translated to "Why? The question Why? Without that there is no life". So let them ask why...