Cycling During Lockdown Poem by Akham Nilabirdhwaja Singh

Long ago during my childhood Hon'ble M.L.A.s attended state assembly riding bicycles.

Officers of the govt departmens and staffs attended their offices
riding bicycles.

Policemen in groups went riding bicycles to arrest roadside gamblers.
If caught they were taken to police station on bicycles.

At school our Headmaster, teachers and staff came on bicycles,
some on foot.
As for the students most parents did not allow them to wear long pants nor use bicycles till they clear H.S.L.C. exam.
So they went to schools on foot most of them for miles.

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

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

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

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

I returned home everytime regaled
without any fear of getting infection with coronavirus
nor police stopping me on the way.