WHEN THE RICH HIT THE STREETS

Traffic-free roads in Mumbai after the pandemic this year opened up new opportunities for the avid cyclist in Gaurav Singh. The owner of a fledgling business in interior designing — his company specialises in lift and lobby designing — Singh used to take the tried and tested offroad track in Aarey forest near his house in upscale Oberoi Woods in Goregaon for weekly cycling jaunts. With vehicles off the roads, especially in mornings, the entire city became a playground for cyclists. But the pandemic opened another door.

“We wanted to try something new, so lack of traffic emboldened us to start riding towards Bandra and Colaba and beyond in South Mumbai (a distance of 30 kilometres),” he says. “Of course, I needed a new bike for that, as the one I had was