Citizen Initiative: Recycle a Cycle

One of those initiatives which are really making a difference in the lives of people.

From an article on Bangalore Mirror:

After plastic, paper and clothes, it is the turn of the humble cycle to be recycled in a bid to empower poor and needy children.

Two Bangaloreans have been collecting unused and/or old cycles from across the city and repairing them before donating them to needy children.

The duo — Pradeep V V, a co-founder of Mapunity.in, and Mayank Rungta, a software professional with Juniper Network India Pvt Ltd, set up the Ride A Cycle Foundation after reading of a similar initiative elsewhere. Pradeep says, “Last year, I came across a story about a doctor couple in Mumbai who would go around the city collecting old cycles and repairing them before distributing them among the needy. Their project is called the Bicycle Project.

More info about Pradeep and Mayank’s initiative can be found at Cycle Recycle blog. In December, they provided the first set of recycled cycles to students of two NGOs.

Critical Mass: February 27, 2010

Critical mass poster for February

(What is Critical Mass?)

Official Announcement for the February event on 27th.

It’s time again to celebrate the joy of cycling. This month we are taking some history lessons with cycling.

Let’s ride towards one of the less famous towers of Kempegowda in Gavipuram Guttahalli. The tower is on a small hillock overlooking the Kembambudhi lake. If on time, we can view a beautiful sunset and move on the the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Cave temple.

Both the tower and the temple were built by Kempe Gowda referred to as the founding father of Bangalore.

We will be ending the ride at the VV Puram – Food Street and indulge in some carb loading.

Really want to attend this. Have to get the final route map though, to make sure we don’t kill ourselves riding all over Bangalore in the middle of the afternoon. Google maps seems to suggest this car route. Distance from Cubbon park seems to be about 6-7 km.