HAVE CYCLE, WILL TRAVEL
Posted on Sunday, August 16 @ 20:07:38 MST by gops
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Roorkee University had a beautiful campus spread over an area of 350 acres. While the University office, departments, library and club were located at the centre of the campus, most hostels were on the periphery, making it necessary for students to have some kind of transport for moving around. The average distance travelled by a student, if he was attending all classes and workshops, could be anything between 6 to 8 kilometres per day.
HAVE CYCLE, WILL TRAVEL
by
Jagmohan Chopra
B.E.Chemical,Batch of 1970
The article has been previously published as
Cycle of Committees in The Tribune dated September 6, 2008 and
Campus Rumpus in Navhind Times Goa dated June 7, 2009
In 1966, the year I joined Roorkee, students didn’t have cars, scooters or motorcycles. They either had cycles or they walked. The ratio of students who had cycles to those who didn’t was roughly 2:3, forcing students to “steal” cycles whenever there was need. With the large number of “duplicate” keys floating around, conventional “click” locks were not considered safe. Cycles, when parked, had to be chained, lest they got stolen. While students on ground floor could take their cycles upto their rooms and chain them to their windows, students staying on the first and second floor had to park their cycles at stands near the stair case on the ground floor. It were these cycles that got stolen most of the time. Unchained cycles were also stolen from the mess or engineering students club. If the statistics displayed outside the Dean’s office were an indication, the number of cycles stolen every year were on the rise and threatening to assume alarming proportions. The Dean finally put his foot down by forming a Stolen Cycles Study Group with Niranjan Bagchi, Final Year Metallurgy as its chairman and three other students as its members.
One day, while returning to our rooms after dinner, a notice on the notice board caught our attention. It said
“Niranjan Bagchi, Chairman, Stolen Cycles Study Group, will address the students on The Menace of Stolen Cycles & Strategies to Overcome the Same in the lawns of Govind Bhawan at mid-night tonight. All are welcome. The address will be followed by a question and answer session. Keeping in mind the unearthly hour of the meeting, tea will not be served. ”
All of us decided to go and listen to what Bagchi had to say.
Bagchi started by saying, “We have studied the problem of stolen cycles from all angles including social, economic and financial, and are pleased to share our findings with you…
“Firstly, majority of students we spoke to said in anonymity that they stole cycles on impulse to see a night show at the far away Defence Cinema or meet friends in another hostel for a late-night session of cards or drinks or both. They seldom stole cycles for profit. A small section of students however admitted they stole cycles to teach the other guy a lesson.”
“Secondly, contrary to popular belief, theft of cycles in most cases was found to be temporary, for cycles stolen from one hostel were often found in another.”
“Thirdly, the average time taken to find the stolen cycles was three to four weeks, depending on the time and energy the owner was willing to spend in moving from one hostel to another, often at unearthly hours, to find his cycle .”
“Fourthly, in some cases , cycle thieves were found to be stretching the game a bit too far by throwing the cycles in the deeper end of the swimming pool. A few cycles without seats and seats without cycles were taken out of the pool today and will be available for inspection between 4 and 5 P.M. tomorrow outside the swimming pool. Those whose cycles have been stolen in the recent past may fill a claim form and take possession of their cycles after presenting proof of ownership.”
“And lastly, the business of stolen cycles, so far limited to students, seems to be spreading its tentacles to the teaching staff as well with twelve professors reporting their cycles to be stolen from departments they had gone to for lectures.”
“Keeping all these things in mind, the Stolen Cycles Study Group has made certain recommendations which you may please note…
“One, the responsibility for safety of cycles rests entirely with the owners. Owners are advised to keep their cycles chained at all times except while driving.”
“Two, the committee recommends you not to clean your cycles frequently, for cycles that are spick and span have been found to be more prone to theft than dirty ones.”
“And three, the committee advises you to sell your cycles for whatever they are worth and start walking inside the campus, thereby improving your health, bringing the percentage of stolen cycles down and reducing our responsibility of conducting such studies in future.”
“Sir, I have a question”said a student. “Aren’t cycles with fancy colours, bags and baskets more prone to theft?”
“A good question, but contrary to common belief, our group found that cycles with fancy colours, bags and baskets were less stolen because they were few in number and could be traced from a distance”said Bagchi.
“Sir, what kind of proof are we expected to produce while taking possession of our cycles” asked another student.
“Well, we suppose a bill, receipt, key to lock, make of cycle, chassis number, style of seat or seat cover, make of tyre, make of chain cover, dents on mudguard, creaky noise or number of punctures in tube should be good enough proof, but in the absence of any concrete guidelines, our group has requested the authorities to appoint another group for making recommendations in this regard.”
“Sir, I know we are getting late, but there’s one last question. By asking the authorities to appoint another study group, don’t you think you are trying to pass the buck?”asked a junior.
“We probably are, but that’s a usual management practice” said Bagchi with a smile. “And it works” added his colleagues.
The gathering of over two hundred students thanked Bagchi for the wonderful work done by his group and rushed towards the cycle stand – to see if their cycles were still parked there!
More such stories can be found at Roorkee Memoirs
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