BY LT COL J P MISHRA, NCC, GORAKHPUR
The day , 5th of Jun 2019 was as it is, not an ordinary day at all , it had its hand full with “ WORLD ENVIORNMENT DAY, CONSTITUTIONAL DAY of DENMARK (DENMARK’S INDEPENDENCE DAY, FATHERS DAY (DENMARK), HARI RAYA PUASA (SINGAPORE & MALAYSIA), EID AL FITR celeberatd all across India, and many more events were happening far and near. In our State , Uttar Pradesh Chief Minster Shri Yogi Adityanath had his birthday celeberated, as he turns 47 today.This was also the day that INDIA took on SOUTH AFRICA in the ICC WORLD CUP 2019, at The Rose Bowl in Southampton, a port city on England’s South Coast, and won the match too.
Now, GORAKHPUR, a name which I am sure maximum number of persons must not have heard or spoken in their life time, will be in for a surprise. The place is beautiful, the AIR is cleaner than most other places in India, Greenery is too on a positive side, and the people are the same as everywhere else in India, but the place has so much to offer that you run out of time, to name a few place, like GORAKHNATH TEMPLE, TARAMANDAL, GEETA PRESS, GOLGHAR, RATTI BAZAR, MOHADDIPURA, KUNRAGHAT, RAMGARH TAAL, HANUMAN TEMPLE,the KUSHMI RESERVE FOREST, The NCC GROUP HEADQUARTER, The GRD, THE AIR FORCE BASE, etc, to name a few. The place also has proximity to Nepal and a lots of other tourist attraction places nearby.
I was living my routine life when out of the blue, a good friend of mine, Mr Abhishek kumar Singh – Director of Sales and Marketing- Radisson blu Hotel Group , Gorakhpur, sent me an whatsapp message stating that a “ CYCLOTHON ” is planned on the 5th of Jun 2019 and I was invited to participate in it. Interestingly, at that very moment, Brig J S Rajpurohit, Ph.D, Group Commander, NCC GROUP HEADQUARTER , Gorakhpur too had sent out a similar message, which he had received from his friends, and he decided that we need to utilize this opportunity to educate our NCC Cadets on the importance of health, fitness and clean air , as it was the occasion of ” WORLD ENVIORNMENT DAY”. I got a call from Col Umang Trehan, Dy Group Commander, NCC GROUP HEADQUARTER , Gorakhpur too, and we decided that we will go together for it.
Col Umang and I cycled our way to the venue from Chatrasangh Chauraha. The weather was perfect and the sun had not started showering its blessing yet. We reached the venue in no time and were plesantly happy to see so many cyclist rearing to go. We were greeted by Mr Akash Roy Saigal, GM -Radisson blu, Gorakhpur. He is an avid cyclist and makes it a point to show up at his office early in the morning , cycling his way through. We all were escorted to the dias by Mr Abhishek Kumar Singh , which was prepared for the opening ceremony of the event and there we also met Col K P Shreshtha, AO of NCC unit of gorakhpur, Mr R J Prateek, Radio City, 91.9 FM, Miss Raagini , reporter of R V News Gorakhpur, Mr Rajesh Kumar Vikal, Anchor , and a host of other dignitaries. I was very happy to meet the young and energetic , bubbling with josh NCC cadets. To name a few cadets, Cadet Vishal Sharma (he has been selected to represent INDIA , in the YOUTH EXCHANGE PROGRAMME, and will be going to a foreign country soon), Cadet BalKrishan Tripathi, Cadet Aadarsh Tripathi, Cadet Harshit singh, Cadet Khushaboo Yadav, Cadet Rahul Nishad, Cadet Pramod Yadav, Cadet Prince Prajapati, Cadet Sujeet Kumar, Cadet Angad Yadav, Cadet Anand Verma, Cadet Pawan Yadav, Cadet Priyanka Kumari and many more. These cadets , its important to put it in words, that some of them had arrivived to participate in the event from places as far away as twenty five kilometers and beyond, which is really a commendable and inspirational thing to know and emulate.
The Hotel Radisson Blu is an upper-upscale international hotel in the city, it has come up only in the month of January 2019, it blends five-star amenities with easy access . It is conveniently close to both Mahayogi Gorakhnath Airport (GOP) and the city’s main railway junction. Thanks to this hotel’s brilliant location beside Ramgarh Lake and close to Gorakhnath Temple and the shops in Gol Ghar, you can experience the best of Gorakhpur. The NCC cadets were so happy to be inside the five star hotel complex that they were clicking away to glory and telling all their friends who could not make it to the event that they had missed an opportunity of life time. To top it all , all the participants were given a free T-Shirt, refreshments and water bottles too. A few Cycles for the event were sponsored by HINDUSTAN CYCLE, Rati Bazar, Gorakhpur, for those who could not or did not get their cycles for any reason.
The event was Inaugurated by the CMO GORAKHPUR, Dr Shrikant Tripathi , Col Umang Trehan and Mr AKASH by waving the flags and the cyclist were off to a resounding start. The entire route was being covered by the reporters of Radio City, with live commentary on 91.9 FM and a host of other media person from various newspapers too. The gorakhpur city was alive to a new trend, which they had never witnessed before. The road were awashed with the cyclist of all hues. The buses, cars, motorcyclist , tempos and walkers all stopped at once to cheer the cyclist of the city to help them get going. It was a noise less, honking free, smoke and pollution free stretch for good one hour plus and the persons from all walks of life were shaken out of their life style that if distances are short, or if a petrol/disel vehicle can be avoided at any cost , it must be done now.
The cyclist were satisfied on completion of the cyclothon , its over all arrangements, the safety issues which were in place , refreshments and above all the human touch the entire event had which was quite visible. The country needs to organise many more such events on a regular basis and we all must try to cut our pollution footprint contribution in all ways possible. The situation is very grave and needs a surgical stike at once. The youths needs to be more proactive on all envoirnmental issues, namely WATER POLLUTION, DEFORESTATION, AIR POLLUTION, NOISE POLLUTION, WASTE MANAGEMENT, so on and so forth. A small initiative by Mr AKASH SAIGAL, GM Radisson Blu is a major step for Gorakhpur and for the up comming generation to follow.
