A Winner All The Way

A Winner All The Way

- Nayeem Quadri

As he climbs down the stairs from his first-floor apartment, there’s a spring in his step. But that’s not unusual for an athlete. Dressed in comfortable denim trousers, black T-shirt and a stylish hat perched on his head, Yogendra Vaidya could well be in his late 50s. Only, he’s not. Vaidya, affectionately known as ‘Nanubhai’, is all of 76 years old.

On reaching the ground floor, he points to a simple bicycle. “This is my cycle,” he says, as if introducing an old friend. There’s nothing special or funky about it. The slender pink-andsilver bicycle is like any other but, for Nanubhai, it’s been a companion of many a journey across Ahmedabad and beyond. His love for cycling is so infectious that many elders who reside in the western Ahmedabad Chinai Baug housing society where Nanubhai lives have also taken up cycling in right earnest. “You cannot go without food and sleep,” he says. “In my case, add cycling and swimming to that list.”

Nanubhai has many cycling exploits to his credit. He belongs to a cycling group that does cross-country trips together. In 2013, they cycled 1,980 km from Ahmedabad to the Wagah border, a 28-day rally for world peace. In 2013, he joined a Kanyakumari-to-Islamabad cycle march for peace organised by university students from Delhi. And four years later, in 2017, Nanubhai and another Ahmedabad resident cycled from India Gate to the Wagah border with a message of peace between India and Pakistan.