It was evening hours when Apu dressed up and set out for the club located not too far to join the lecture session arranged by the Technical Forum section of the club. Apu had only a cursory knowledge of the subject of the session which had been intimated to the members; naturally he reached the venue with eagerness. The club had, since long, been providing in its disciplined and aristocratic setting an excellent ambience for leisure, entertainment, games and sports, discussions etc for the officers and their family members. The chief objective of the Technical Forum section had, all along, been to arrange sessions with resource persons on different topics so as to ignite a spirit of inquisitiveness and inculcate quest for learning among the members, their spouses and the children. Though named the Technical Forum, subject matters of majority of the sessions arranged by the Forum were, therefore, away from technical and covered spectra of topics from different disciplines.
As the auditorium got almost fully occupied with an audience of gents, ladies and teenage boys and girls, the session started right on time. The resource persons were a youthful couple from Guwahati. They started with an explanation of the topic randonneuring. The speakers had to dwell deep in their explanation as majority in the audience, like Apu, had only faint idea about randonneuring from occasional glances into the topic.
Since the time of its invention the bicycle has proved to be the simplest machine on wheels with immense utility for mankind. After growing up a bit out of infancy the first thing one learns to ride is almost invariably a bicycle. Learning to paddle up a bicycle remains one of the most exciting and unforgettable experiences in life. In the youthful student days bicycle uses to be the companion to school and then to college, to tuition, to the playground and in wandering around with friends. The bicycle does not leave one’s company in the responsible adult life and remains the reliable partner while on way to workplace, to market and in fending so many household necessities. The bicycle has got mostly replaced these days by motorbikes and four wheelers in the well-to-do households. But it still has important day-to-day role in the lives of those not so well off. Frequently we find persons touring the length and breadth of the country on bicycle with missions and some even muster enough courage to tour the world on bicycle.
Distance cycling is an eagerly contested event in annual sports week of schools and colleges. Slow cycling is also a skillful sporting event; the contestant who manages to move slowest and maintains balance without once leaving a foot from the paddle and without once back paddling and reaches the finishing line the last, comes out as the winner. Students take part in these events with the ordinary bicycles available with them. Long distance cycling on road and cycling on velodrome are Olympic sports and are events in Asian games, African games and the India’s National games as well. Both of these sports require tailored bicycles and high level of skill training and dedicated practice. Ronaldo Singh of Manipur is an Indian cyclist of international repute. Besides, there are professional sports of adventure cycling. Anyone with an eye and ear for the sport knows the Tour de France cycle race famous for the route passing through varied landscapes frequently interspersed with tremendously tough stretches. Such cycling sport requires bicycles made for the purpose and demands from the contestants special skill sets, tremendous courage, physical toughness and indomitable mental strength.
Instead of such tough competitions demanding rigorous training and regular practice can people not participate in any entertaining sport with this simple machine that does not call for competitions? Definitely there should be a sport like that and randonneuring has been devised exactly for that purpose. Randonneuring as the modern day non-competitive long distance cycling has become a popular sport worldwide. Even though non-competitive in nature, randonneuring is bound by rules and is managed professionally at regional, national and international level. One may go out randonneuring singularly and in group as well and records of the distances cycled and the environmental conditions are recorded as per rules. A participant may cycle varied distances like 50 km, 100 km, 150 km or more at one go and achieve different levels of randonneuring.
Though randonneuring is possible with the simple bicycles people normally use, a cycle with specific features is always better for the purpose. While purchasing a cycle for randonneuring one most important aspect is to ensure that its height matches with the inner length of leg of the prospective randonneur. It is always better to buy the cycle from a sports goods outlet for availing handy advice. A geared cycle gives better control of the ride on undulated tracks; the frame should be tough, the brake strong and the tyres wide. Moreover the cycle should have basic attachments for carrying a water bottle and minimum items of personnel use. Cycles for randonneuring come in varied price ranges and it is not always necessary to go for the highest model, rather the purchase should be as per budget. A randonneur must always use helmet, gloves and appropriate shoe and attire for the sport which should be procured alongwith the cycle. Referring to the internet before the purchase helps in making the right decision.
The husband and the wife took turns in the explanation and satiated the queries of the enthusiasts. They moved on to share their personnel experiences of randonneuring and kept the audience absorbed by delving into the interesting tit-bits. They convinced the audience that from a ten year old child to a healthy and spirited elderly person, anybody can be a randonneur without an upper age bar and that randonneuring, besides being a sport, is an excellent mean to meet innumerable people, explore the unknowns, see places, experience life, spread the mental horizon and what not!
By the end of the session good number of young and middle aged officers got enthused and fervently discussed about purchasing cycles to start randonneuring forthwith. Apu gave a thought wheather randonneuring could be taken up for recreation. It had been a long time since college days that he had almost not rode a cycle. Of course on doctor’s advice, while still in his mid-thirties he used the domestic helper youth’s bicycle for short durations in evenings for about a month to free up his knee that got stiffened after the right leg was on plaster for few months due to a fractured bone. Quite a period after that when his son shifted to a bigger bicycle he also rode it occasionally; several years have also passed since then. Finally Apu decided not to start the sport at that place as his retirement was due in four months. He made up that it would be better to start randonneuring after acclimatisation on finally settling at Guwahati and it would also depend on getting likeminded companions as solo efforts might not be as interesting.
Next day, the Sunday morning, after breakfast Apu picked up the bags and went to the market for his weekly routine of purchasing vegetables. The frontage of the otherwise disciplined market of the Company takes a bit of haphazard look on Sundays as many vendors vie for places with their saleable. In front of the alley of regular vegetable shops good no of vendors from the nearby villages sat congested with various items like herbs, lemon, banana, banana flower, pineapple, eggs and items from their gardens. Approaching the vendors Apu looked around and noticed three officers of the company standing in front of the first shop of the opposite alley -- a cycle store; two of them middle aged and the other a youth. Apu understood that they were from among the group of enthusiasts from the session of last evening – choosing cycles. While passing by the store into the alley on number of times and once being in the shop for repair of his daughter’s cycle Apu had seen in the store cycles for various ages from infants to adults; the store also maintains a stock of cycles ranging from the normal ones for general use to sporty models.
At that very moment Apu heard someone calling him,-“Come Khura (uncle), take a few oranges, these are from Barekuri.” Apu turned around and found the two youths, the cousin brothers, standing there with baskets of oranges on their bicycles. Every Sunday they would be there with items eagerly looked for by the townsfolk and make an easy sell and earn few bucks. In December and January they sell good quality oranges which they choose and pick from different orchards. They know the trick of the trade and are extremely amicable in their dealings with the customers. On every Sunday Apu, therefore, invariably purchases one or the other item from them and exchanges few words and enquires their wellbeing. Apu, thus had a cursory acquaintance with them. Apu bought one dozen of orange and left the packet with them to pick up later while returning from the vegetable market. Saying hello to number of friends and acquaintances in the rush of the market and picking up vegetables, fish and meat and errands took Apu more than an hour. While picking up the packet of orange on his way back Apu observed that more than half of their stock of oranges had already been sold. Apu lowered the heavy bags to relieve his hands for few minutes and opened himself to the youths-“Oh! You have a good sale today, more than half is already gone. The rest will also get sold in quick time.”
—“These ones are chosen and picked, people are liking.”
–“Where from you did say you brought these?”
--“Past few days we are picking the fruits from Barekuri. We go towards Namchai as well if we can get better ones there.”
—“You stay somewhere near Rupai Siding, don’t you.” Apu recollected from an earlier conversation.
--“About five kilometers from Rupai towards Kakopather – our home is there.”
--“From your village to Rupai, then Dumduma and then Barekuri and finally to this place –it’s quite a distance.”-Said Apu thoughtfully.
--“Yes, it is.”
--“It is around fifty kilometer I believe ; to and fro won’t be less than eighty kilometer.”
–“Ah yes! May be, may be something like that.”
—“The day you go towards Namchai it is much more than that!”
—“Khura, for a reasonable income we have to do that much.”
As they got busy with customers Apu observed their bicycles – ‘old cycles, quite old – surely the sons are using cycles from their fathers’ youthful days; both discoloured, one has a rusted hole on the mudguard – both witness to many stories over long years, tired but still carrying loads.’
Apu again started,-“The vegetables that you bring on other days, are they from your own garden ?
--“Few are from our own garden but that is never enough. We also move around a bit to gather vegetables form others’ gardens.”
–“A lot of cycling you do everyday !”
As the elder brother was busy, the younger one responded, “Oh Khura, we come to this market only on Sundays. On different days we go selling in different Hats (weekly markets). The day we sell at Tinsukia we paddle little less. Sometimes we paddle up much more than we do on coming here."
--“Don’t you feel tired ? Occasionally don’t monotony irritate you?”
--“Oh dear Khura how would we earn if we feel tired or let in that kind of feeling?”
This time the elder one smilingly opined about his brother,-“Our brother sings well and can tell stories of many hues. The moment we leave the market today he would be up with a new story. His songs and stories keep tiredness and any dull feeling at bay.”
As Apu picked up the bags to leave the brothers also started pushing their cycles out of the crowded area.
Apu asked,-“some oranges are still with you, are you leaving?”
--“The much that could be sold here is sold, too many vendors here. We now go towards Saikia market, the remaining would get sold there.
Pushing his cycle the elder youth turned his head,-“Okay Khura bye, next Sunday again buy only from us.”
Apu stood there looking at the two youths – around twenty five and twenty two – moving forward pushing their cycles – Oh these two are very good randonneurs. And that fellow looking older than his age who arrived from his village with four big clusters of jahaji kol (banana)-- two hanged on the handle and two on the carrier- and now getting ready to leave after selling off his bananas to a whole-seller; and that fifteen year looking adolescent boy who arrived at the market with three baskets full of vegetables on a bicycle pushing up from village with his mother and now sitting there cramped among the vendors and would cycle back home after the sell with his mother on the carrier – they cycle kilometers and kilometers everyday just for the sake of living life. Their long distance cycling never gets any seal of approval from anywhere, their long distance cycling is never a pleasant sport, their long distance cycling is hardly with any trace of recreation. Even then each one of them is a randonneur -- untiring randonneur in the tough journey of life.