Tilak Amitava Chowdhury

The year 2020 was cruel to most of us, but it taught us many positive lessons. It made us appreciate and be grateful for all that we have, and realise what we really need in life to be happy. It was a lesson needed for the world to reboot and rethink of its priorities. It reminded us that we have been making the mistake of using people and loving things when it needs to be the other way round. It made us realise the importance of the people in our lives - even if they are the people who do mundane jobs in our households and whom we tend to take for granted. It also made us realise that our wealth can't protect us from the virus or a calamity, but our fellow humans can; the great work done by the medical fraternity, the workers who helped us stay alive during the lockdown, was truly commendable. No words can really describe how grateful the rest of us are for these courageous selfless servants of humanity. I hope we have learnt the lessons and learnt them well as a race, as life ten

It was in 1981, a company called Maruti was started by the Government of India that had the dream of making cars affordable for the Indian middle class! The rest is History... Exactly four decades after the success of Maruti, we are at the crossroads for another revolution. Cycling! Times have changed. The traffic is only getting worse everyday and the pollution is a perennial problem in the cities. The long hours at desk jobs and the junk food culture is making health a big issue. On the other hand, public transportation has greatly improved. Most metro cities in India have a robust metro infrastructure that can help people commute with ease. The only problem: last mile connectivity. It is therefore now is the best time for the government to support and promote cycling. Not as a sport, but as a way of life. It can help the country immensely in the long run and help in having a healthy population. We have some very successful European models to emulate. If the countries with higher per