I’ve got a bike,

you can ride… it if you like

By Chaitanya Modak

ISBN 9789351563167 | 8.25 in. x 11.67 in.  | 24 pages, | Colour Offset | INR 150/-

I finished my post-graduation from N.I.D. in Ahmedabad and returned back to my hometown of Pune. That it had changed in those five years is an understatement. It had grown, it was growing, it was booming. Farming land was being turned to Non-Agriculture as landowners were seduced by the promise of residential development. Entire villages came under the umbrella of the Pune Municipal Corporation. As a fresh communication design graduate, I also jumped in and designed a marketing campaign called the Green Umbrella which sold all the units of a residential project for a city builder.

Struck aghast by what I just did, I sought refuge in nostalgia, of quiet lanes, of walkable pavements, of afternoon siestas. Memories of cycling around in a town where distances are calculated in kilometers – which would pretty much be the amount of time needed to get to there too – drifted across my minds eye… And I went out and purchased a bicycle.

INTERMISSION

Cut to… a few years later I had shifted to the neighbouring city of Mumbai – the city of seven islands- for professional and personal growth… And in between these three – two cities and one bicycle – lies a tale 🙂

Presenting ‘I’ve got a bike, you can ride it… if you like”- Bike,  babes, baby… and a Royal Enfield Bullet – The adventures of a man on his bicycle in a modern, maximum city.

P.S. The title is an ode to the song of the same name by Pink Floyd who I would listen to while growing up. You should do that too if you want to grow up. Also listen to this one, it’s called Time

P.P.S. The first time i wrote about my love of cycling was in a poem called – Ladies Bike – which was featured on Agents of Ishq. Click here to read it.