Cycling During Lockdown Poem by Akham Nilabirdhwaja Singh

Long ago, during my childhood, Hon'ble M.L.A.s rode bicycles to attend the state assembly

Officers of the govt departments and staff rode bicycles to attend their offices


Groups of policeman rode
Bicycles to arrest roadside gamblers.
If caught, they were taken to police station on bicycles.

As for the students their parents did not allow them to wear long pants or use bicycles untill they clear H.S.L.C. exam.
So most of them went to school on foot for miles.

At the college principal, lecturers, staff and students arrived riding bicycles.
There were long bicycle sheds in the campus.

But today a few people use bicycles
and on the roads and in the market places bicycle users are looked down upon
as poor and starving people.

But I dont shed my old habit of riding a bicycle
often covering miles in the countryside.

During the coronavirus lockdown I repeatedly came out
of the confinement at home initially with timidity
pedaling my bicycle while wearing a protective mask.
Although the police stopped four wheelers, auto rickshaws
and power driven bikes, detaininh the drivers
or making them turn back non of them stopped me.
A harmless and negligible offense!
So during lockdown often I pedaled my bicycle to the foot of lonesome
Nongmaijing hill
enjoying the scenary and gentle breeze while
watching the egrets flying in the sky and landing on the barren rice fields,
taking snapshots of the countryside with my smartphone.

I returned home everytime regaled
without any fear of getting infected with the coronavirus,
despite the police stopping me on the way.