Mumbai to Delhi: Cycling for a Cause

  •   Wed, Oct 13 2010
  •   By Jimmy Noronha

Oct 14, 2010

You must have seen trainers with a mike, guiding corporate executives in conference halls in your city or even in cooler climes in the mountains or wet ones on beaches. But have you seen trainers on a bike, cycling more than a thousand miles, giving lessons on positivity?

Meet Sanjay Noronha and Hemant Kumar, corporate trainers now and friends from college days more than a decade back. They had been separated by the dictates of their career over two continents - Sanjay is now settled in Cape Town, South Africa while Hemant is in Mumbai, India - but have now decided to get away from the air-conditioned halls and out of their suits to taste the sweat and dust of Indian roads, villages and towns.

Why are they doing it? Says Sanjay, "We always wanted to do something like this. We wanted to merge our training ability and our desire to serve the community with our urge to do something that’s really challenging. We zeroed down upon this as a means of letting the message of positivity reach a few of those corners that we generally ignore in corporate boardrooms."

Hemant adds, "There are three intertwined messages: mental positivity, physical positivity and promotion of cycling. We see positivity as a panacea for the ills that we as individuals and as a nation suffer from."

They have picked up the bicycle as their medium of transport because they feel the bicycle is a lean, clean and green mode of transport that benefits one's health, the economy and the environment. They want to rid the bicycle the tag of the poor man’s vehicle that makes most Indians graduate to a motor cycle or a car the moment they can afford one. Indeed in a country like India, the bicycle may be our answer to pollution, oil conservation, obesity and heart disease put together.

Says Sanjay, "Being corporate executives, we wanted to dispel the notion that regular 9 to 5 kind of job holders could not do something like this. We really wanted to walk our talk and give our message of positivity through our actions, rather than words that we do normally in our training rooms."

They will be commencing their epic journey on November 17 from Mumbai and are scheduled to arrive at Delhi on December 6. Do they plan any similar journeys after this one? "Yes," says Sanjay, "we plan to go international." But he is tightlipped about where. "That we will announce on the day we complete this one," he smiles.

Are they getting support from the community? "Sure," says Hemant, "our website itself has been developed for free, in support of our objective. People on our route have been offering accommodation too in resorts, guest houses etc. We see a lot of enthusiasm in people’s responses to our blogs published on our site. Our feelings are being thoroughly reciprocated by the community."

Indeed. Just check their site, ‘http://www.cyclingforpositivity.com’ and you may want to be one of the respondents.

 

Jimmy Noronha - Archives:

By Jimmy Noronha
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Comment on this article

  • Molly Munro, Dubai

    Thu, Oct 14 2010

    Congrats ! what a noble work. In many corners of the world people are ignorant about how to make their life truly happy and fulfilling that simple theory of POSITIVE LIVING. Thanks be to God that these compassionate souls : Sanjay & Hemant are finally arrived to reach to them personally by their simple/humble mode of transport . Let us give our full support & help to these duo to fulfill their mission “cycling for a cause”. My prayer is may God give them strength to reach every corner of the world and change as many lives as possible.

  • John DSouza, Belman, Dubai

    Thu, Oct 14 2010

    Excellent, your concerns and efforts about good health, economy and the environment are highly appreciable. As we know it is difficult/not possible to all people to ride bicycles who have the same concern and feelings.
    I have an idea to prepare fully manual cycle which is good for three, five, seven or even more people to travel. I think it will help many people to make use of it and will help to achieve your strong aim. In fact the energy (manual energy) to be used will be much lower than which is required to ride a bicycle because of its concept. Its carrying weight itself is its energy to push or pull. Instead of pulling the cycle from a stand still position to take start to run style like an athlete. These will be very useful and practical in big campuses, compounds, grounds, hospitals and remote areas. If you are interested, we can take help of a cycle manufacturer to produce models. For more information please contact me at implementidea50@yahoo,in
    Problems and solutions
    High price and exhausting fuel – let us use free and natural gravity power. Think about sliding board and imbalanced weighing scale. Health hazardous air pollution and disturbing sound pollution – let us have huge relief from these killing evils. More than 600,000 villages – let us provide each one with basic transport facilities. Huge unemployment – let us create numerous job opportunities. Let us have a clean, silent and peaceful environment. God bless us all.

  • Sanjay, Cape Town

    Thu, Oct 14 2010

    Dear Vin, This sounds like a good idea. Will keep in touch.
    Our contact details can be found on our website i.e. cyclingforpositivity.com

  • Vin, Singapore

    Thu, Oct 14 2010

    excellant guys.. i am a cycling enthusiast do bit of road biking .. if u r intrested a road trip between singapore -> malaysia(penang) -> thailand (bankok) let me know.. its a exciting trip which i want to make but looking for partners.


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