At a time when modern bicycles equipped with gears and other facilities are becoming popular, for many reasons including users’ love for non-motorised transport, one can see very few bicycle repairers, who once upon a time dotted every lane and by lane of a locality.
Even before the emergence of “Rent a Bike” concept in cities, these cycle repair shops doubled up as places renting out bicycles on hourly basis.
Those were the days when a bicycle was still a luxury and these shops quenched the desire of youngsters to ride bicycles for a rupee per hour.
Sixty-year-old Chittaranjandas Bangera, who has been running Radhakrishna Cycle Store at Bolara started by his father about eight decades ago in Mangaluru, says the cycle shop is bound to close down after his demise. Because he has no heir apparent to take over the shop nor anyone is interested in learning the art of bicycle repair, he regrets.
Even before the gear bicycles made an advent in India, Mr. Bangera had been assembling imported gear bicycles, starting with the one brought by the owners of Albuquerque Tile Factory, Hoige Bazar about three decades ago.
A diploma holder in automobile engineering from Karnataka Polytechnic, Mangaluru, he had to enter the family business in a freak incident.
When most of his classmates got selected to Kudremukh Iron Ore Ltd., his interview card got lost at home when Mr. Bangera was with his elder brother in Gujarat.
As his father, B. Sanjeeva Bangera, who was a social worker too and associate of Congress leader B. Janardhana Poojary, passed away suddenly after a heart attack, the Junior Bangera had to take up the mantle of the shop, sometime in 1980.
Once in the shop, he did not try for other jobs and the income was enough to maintain the family then.
“Some people, who did not know about my educational qualification used to treat me like an ordinary cycle repairer, which used to hurt me. I’ve adjusted to the situation now,” Mr. Bangera added.
