Youngsters cycle for a healthier tomorrow

Eco-friendly

In our busy lifestyles, we forget the most crucial of things, essential to our well being, and that is exercise. Erratic schedules, irregular eating habits are all responsible for our unhealthy lifestyle. And to motivate today’s urban classes to shift towards a healthier lifestyle through biking, more than 2,000 children from across Delhi and NCR along with a cycling group involving top national cyclists led by the Cycling Federation of India, participated in ‘Life Cycle’ - Cycle for Life, a social initiative.

The initiative by Hero Cycles and Indian Cancer Society was flagged off by none other than cricketer Gautam Gambhir and renowned environmentalist Sunita Narain at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Commenting on the initiative, Pankaj Munjal, one of the organisers, said, “Cycling is not just about exercising, it is a way of life. It is a way of staying in shape and can be easily adopted into everyone’s daily lives. We believe that a fit and healthy India is the basic foundation stone towards building a strong India and this initiative is an effort in that direction.”

While the event was open to all, special fun activities were also planned for the children, besides bicycling. These included live music, street plays, flash mob, kite flying, free-style dancing lessons, nail and tattoo painting as well as an on-the-spot painting competition.

The objective of the event was to highlight the issues surrounding a wide spectrum of lifestyle and other deadly diseases like cancer and prepare the children to become the future spokespersons in fighting them. Staying fit, doing right exercises like cycling, swimming and yoga and following a healthy diet, not just lower the incidence of cancer but may prevent it altogether.

Renuka Prasad, joint secretary of Indian Cancer Society, said, “We are committed towards our goal and that is to make people aware about cancer and also help those suffering from this life-taking disease. It is in pursuit of these goals that we are engaging with the young minds to put this message forward. And through this event and initiative, we wanted to promote biking for a healthy and lengthy life.”