Mano had recently shifted to Detroit to live with his son Anand, a software engineer from Chennai, India
Having recently lost his wife, he felt it would be a good idea to spend the rest of his life with his son. And Anand was only too glad to have him – in fact, he had been pestering his dad continuously but Mano was content to stay back in India. But with his wife of 30 years gone, and many of his relatives having moved out of Chennai, he changed his mind.
He considered himself “socially active”, and one tangible result of this motivation was his participation in any town-specific efforts. Back in Chennai, he was part of his town’s environmental club and regularly sent letters to the Mayor on a variety of things – so many were his letters that he was nicknamed Mayor Letter Mano.
His “socially active” impulses were on full show at Detroit too. Right from the second month, he started participating in the town hall meetings. As most things happening around him were new, he decided that he would just be an observer for sometime and then decide on what he could contribute.
It was the third town hall meeting he was attending. A bicycle fever seemed to have gripped the city and town recently, and the signs were only too visible at the third meeting that Mano attended. At this meeting, many people wanted to have separate bike lanes. During each of these meetings only one person, an elderly Asian, opposed it. He never said anything though.
After the lanes were put up, the townspeople used it only for a few days and then switched back to cars.
But the elderly Asian who had protested regularly rode his bicycle on the bike lanes.
The mayor was impressed. He stopped the old man one day and asked him the reason for his opposition for bike lanes, while he seemed to really like it.
“Ah,” said the old man,”where I come from, bikes meant motorcycles, not bicycles”