Cyclists crowdfund, cushion load of elderly worker

BENGALURU: The photograph of an elderly cyclist carrying a heavy load for a living spurred a group of cyclists into action: they decided to gift him a cycle-rickshaw — all this happened within 96 hours of the photograph appearing on a closed socialmedia group that saw hundreds of messages going back and forth from across the country.
On the morning of October 17, Lalit Trivedi, a Udaipur civil engineer who’s part of the 40,000-strong Facebook group of cyclists, posted the photograph of the worker riding past a bus.

The member, in his post, said he wanted to help the elderly man and sought help to locate him. In the photo, the man is seen pedaling away on his cycle with two sacks on the carrier and one equally big load on his head.

A bus with Tamil words suggested the man could be in Tamil Nadu. Another group member, LR Sugumar, said his friend in Erode district had seen him recently.

Sugumar, who works for a software major in Bengaluru, had shared the photograph on other social-media groups some months ago and had learnt from a friend, Ganesh Murthy, that the man worked in Erode’s Gobichettipalayam. On October 20, Sugumar travelled to Erode. With his friend Ganesh, the two started making enquiries about the man in the photograph. Just then, the latter passed them by — much to their joy.

Sugumar informed the group that he found the bicycle man in Gobichettipalayam, and shared the video of a conversation with him. Velusamy, 68, has been transporting puja items since 1968. He claimed he wasn’t getting support from his two sons, and the cycle-rickshaw that’s offered to him by the cyclists’ group would cushion his burden. Velusamy lives with wife, who rears their flock of goats. After hearing the story, members of the bicycle group agreed to buy Velusamy a manual three-wheel rickshaw — or a modified tricycle with enough space for cargo right behind the saddle — that Lalit had suggested in the post. After seeing positive discussions through Sunday, group administrators Malvika Jain and Neeraj Saini, who work out of Gurugram, created a crowdfunding gateway on Monday that raised in two hours about Rs 25,000 — enough to buy a rickshaw. But the group members’ undimmed enthusiasm took the donation well past Rs 42,000.

Gokul Raj, another member and senior engineer from Chennai, offered to get the best rickshaw deal from Coimbatore. The rickshaw will be delivered to Velusamy in November.