Daughter’s Day Ride by Duliajan Cycling Club

Here’s a ride organised by our friends in Duliajan, Assam on the occasion of International Daughter’s Day.

What better way to celebrate, than going for a bicycle ride! We still see a fraction of girls on bikes, in comparison to guys. Which makes it even more heart-warming to see this initiative.

We hope that rides like these will get more of our daughters into cycling. As few things in this world are quite as liberating as pedalling your bicycle.

We take inspiration from Duliajan Cycling Club to promote cycling among our daughters and get more of them into this sport. Because Cycling belongs to Everyone!

Here’s a report from the day by Jumi…

“A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present and the hope and promise of the future” – Anonymous

On the 4^th Sunday in the month of September globally we celebrate International Daughter’s Day. So did our Duliajan Cycling Club as we took the opportunity to celebrate the day.

We thought – why not celebrate in our way, with a short ride with our beloved daughters. Therefore, the club executive Mr. Anuj K Borah took the initiative and planned the ride and route. This ride was our way to show parents love and affection we have for our girl.

The daughters of our country, in previous generations, suffered from an evil gender discrimination. In some areas of India, it is still prevalent where the girl child does not get access to education and other facilities, which are arbitrarily enjoyed by the boy child in the family.

States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan still has a low educational index of the girl child which ultimately affects the development of society. So, this day is a step to celebrate Daughter’s Day to raise awareness against gender discrimination.

This day was created to raise awareness about the imbalance, where daughters in some parts of India are considered a burden, and inferior to sons. This day aims at encouraging parents to show their daughters that they are proud of them and that they are loved. We are indeed blessed and fortunate that we did not have to face any type of discrimination by society.

So, on the 26^th of September at 6 AM me and my daughter made our way towards Duliajan Club to celebrate with the members along with their daughters. As we both reached a warm happy vibe was radiated by the presence of all members along with their small and adult kids.

The scene was decorated with the club flags and all our club members were preparing for the event. Kaustav and Pragyan had taken the initiative of arranging the chairs and tables. It was a pleasure to see our Iron Man Mr. Abhijeet Konwar with his family. Minutes passed by and a good amount of riders had accumulated. The environment was agog with happiness and laughter, soon we started capturing pictures.

Our club secretary Mr. Hemanta Senapati addressed the riders and forwarded the mic to our club president Mr. Jubaraaj Choudhary and continued with the anchoring. Mrs. Gitanjali Purohit presented a beautiful speech on the occasion and so did I, creating a beautiful experience.

I was honoured and privileged to deliver the speech in Assamese. And I hereby take the chance to thank DCC that they chose me for the speech and I took the chance to show my love to my and all the beloved daughters. Soon the event got flagged off with Mr. Anuj K Borah leading the way. The 10 km ride within the Oil campus felt just like a kilometre with the presence of our daughters and my crew mates. The two little ones Vivan Senapati and Shubhabhari Konwar with their adorable tiny bike was the apple of my eye throughout the event.

We soon reached the finish point where we were offered with some energy in the form of apples, peaches, bananas, and eggs. After some triumph of joy and happiness we had a small photo shoot. It was indeed a great event, albeit the absence of few members.

Every home should honour their princess since she verily brightens up the home and gifts us with tremendous joy and happiness. My daughter is undeniably the most precious gift in our life. I thank my recklessly naughty girl for giving a glance of bird’s eye view on this article.

Text: Jumi Mahanta
Photos: Duliajan Cycling Club