Cycling and Empowerment!

Audax Kiara Bay Pink Ride 9.0 (2026)
Audax Randonneur Malaysia 100km.

As I turned at a traffic light, I was waved down by a group of fellow cyclists. From their accent, I could tell they were from East Malaysia.

"Is this the 100-km route?" one of them asked as I stopped.

"Yes, this is," I replied. "No worries. I've downloaded the GPS on my Garmin. 

Follow me."

They seemed relieved.

"Thank you. The organisers have not put up any markers to follow!"

We carried on with our journey. As I kept pedalling, my mind went into overdrive. I told myself, "These people do not know the essence of the Audax races..."

Cycling came into the mainstream in continental Europe in the late 19th century. Before the bicycle became widespread, people had to either walk or travel by horse, either in carriages or on horseback. As riding cycles became easier, more people, including women, took up cycling. Women found it easier to move around, eliminating the need for a man to prepare the horses for the ride. Women discovered newfound freedom to socialise among themselves, work, exchange knowledge, and discuss politics. The machines proved invaluable during the suffragette movement that secured women the right to vote. Women on bicycles famously went from house to house to spread political messages and distribute pamphlets.

Soon, men started cycling after realising it was an easy way to impress their sweetheart. Ladies' fashion also evolved, aligning with modern trends and abandoning restrictive styles. Corsets with petticoats were replaced by knee-length knickers and divided skirts. This is similar to how Indian girls today opt for salwar-kameez as their everyday outfit instead of sarees, as their grandmothers did, for better comfort and versatility.

Bicycles have been described as the one thing that contributed more to the emancipation of women than anything else in the world. Society did not take women's cycling lightly. The medical fraternity described cycling as potentially damaging to female reproductive organs. Cycling was viewed as unfeminine and a moral corruptor. The female cyclist was considered a troublemaker. Women were not allowed to participate in cycling races because it was believed they lacked the endurance, strength, and resilience to finish. In 1931, women were allowed in the time-limited category for the first time at the Paris-Brest-Paris Audax Randonneuring. 

From the outset, randonneuring was never about competing or reaching the podium. It was about endurance and teamwork. In earlier days, teams were given the route. Riders were expected to use a map or their navigational skills to reach point B intact as a team. Therefore, the organisers intentionally left out directions for this very reason. Now, with GPS, one can simply download the route to their bike navigation device and ride solo.

Women and cycling in the late 20th century shifted from empowerment to urbanisation and activism, driven by safer infrastructure and ecological awareness. Women's cycling also became an Olympic sport in 1984. Women have proven their endurance capabilities. Any exclusion clauses are cultural, not physiological.

https://britishonlinearchives.com/posts/category/articles/
509/from-the-archive-cycling-to-equality

For almost a decade, the Audax franchise in Malaysia has been organising long-distance cycling events for amateur cyclists. This time, one of the newest members of our weekend warriors' group wanted to get his hands dirty in one such an event, especially after hearing that the rest of us had completed a 200 km event two years earlier.

As with their previous events, ladies could attend for free, whereas male participants had to pay. In other words, the men were sponsoring the ladies. It must be a paradoxical business strategy to encourage greater male participation, since more men would be attracted by the free entry for female cyclists.

The race began promptly at 5am, cloaked in darkness. Cycling along the narrow roads from Kepong, we made our way to the Ulu Yam area, renowned for its notorious climb, which was the steepest part of the 100km ride. By the time we reached the top, we were already a fifth of the way up, and it was still dark. As we coasted down into Ulu Yam town, famous for its popular kopi tiams, it was too early to stop for a cuppa. Passing through Batang Kali, a town long in the news for the indiscriminate gunning down of Malayan citizens by the British Armed Forces in 1948, daylight was gradually breaking, and gliding through the misty country roads was an experience money cannot buy.  

Pedalling along the monotonously straight roads towards Bukit Beruntung made me realise the excellent network of highways that Malaysia has, or rather, the ones the British initiated before Merdeka, and we have the wisdom to upgrade every now and then. It also dawned upon me that Selangor is actually a large state. We were to do a 100km route, and that only covered half the state!

After Bukit Beruntung and Rawang, it was down past the old North-South Highway, which I had not used for ages. I was surprised by how wide it was and how it had been expanded. The road passed the park named after the High Commissioner of Malaya, who legalised the placement of ordinary citizens in concentration camps (in today's terms) and 'winning their hearts and minds' in the name of psychological warfare against the Communists in 1948, Gerald Templer.

By around 10am, five hours after starting, we reached the starting point, where we were treated to ice cream and a cold Milo drink. The finisher's medal made it all worthwhile. 

 

P.S. Audax Randonneuring is a popular, non-competitive, long-distance cycling sport in which participants ride fixed routes (usually 200km or more) within specific time limits.

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Fighting the system?

Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016)

Director: Alankrita Shrivastava

This is one of those movies which could not be screened at a film festival in India because the censors could not clear it for public screening. I was later accused of being too 'female-centric' and pornographic in its audio and visual narration. After a few cuts, it was passed for viewing.

The fact of the matter is that they cannot be too kosher when the theme of the story is about female sexuality and its suppression thereof. To be frank, this 2016 film is mild compared to what people in 2023 can access on their streamed platforms in their dialogue and boldness in showing skin.

On the subject matter, one cannot help but compare it to 2023'sAmazon Prime's 'Four More Shots'. Both may appear to be talking about women's empowerment or feminism. At deep scrutiny, one will realise that the emphasis is different, poles apart. It also shows how the women's movement had evolved from one demanding their deserved rights to equal opportunities to one which wanted to dominate the other.

'Lipstick Under The Burkha' shows how ladies of a time screamed discrimination and yearned not to be pushed down from doing their own thing. It tells the story of four ladies who want to escape social oppression. A teenage girl from a conservative Muslim family dreams of a carefree life where she dresses up like her pop idol, Miley Cyrus - dressed sexily, with makeup and accessories that go with it. Forced to don a hijab and spend time in the family business of tailoring, she wants to participate in a band, wear sexy clothes and join the popular clique of students. To sustain her secret lifestyle, she goes shoplifting.

Next, a hijab-clad housewife is living a fearful life with a hostile husband who wants sex on demand and refuses contraception. The husband hardly brings home money but rejects the idea of his wife going to work. The wife, on the sly, works as a door-to-door salesgirl and a very good one at that. She even wins the best employee award. One day, she spots her husband in the romantic company of a young lady.

The small-time beauty parlour artist wants to be able to see the world. She desires to escape the rat hole she lives in. She lost her father at a young age, and her mother worked hard to sustain life. Her mother wants to get married as marriage assures her a respectable place in society. She knows because she went through hell trying to earn some money. The mother tries to matchmaker a groom. The groom wants to make her a full-time housewife, but the girl has a sizzling affair with a photographer who is only interested in her body. They plan to elope.

The final character is a 55-year-old spinster who is a respectable figure in her colony. She plays a matriarchal figure in handling day-to-day issues. Her secret indulgence is reading trashy romance novels. While babysitting some children at a pool, she is tricked into jumping into the pool. The children's swimming instructor offers her swimming lessons because she cannot swim. She develops a crush and starts stalking the instructor, engaging in phone sex. The instructor has soft spots for another girl and assumes the caller is the girl he fancies.

All the clandestine activities finally come out into the open - the shoplifting, the part-time job, the plan to elope and the double life of the 55-year-old spinster. The ending is not pleasant, highlighting the double standards of society. It is predominantly patriarchal and cultural as well as religious teaching just gives an authoritative seal of approval for it to continue. 

On the other hand, 'Four More Shots Please!' (FMSP) gives the vibe that its message could be anti-establishment, anti-patriarchal or downright anarchical. The four ladies again, seen in FMSP, range from a divorcee, one in the marriage market for a suitable match, a free-spirited bisexual, to a lawyer who all share a common bond. They enjoy meeting up in a drinking joint, overindulging and pouring out their hearts' discontent about life with no restraint. It is said to be India's answer to the U.S.' Sex in the City' (SITC). LUMB and SITC try to educate their viewers about an entity called female sexuality or the lack of its awareness in India (in the case of LUMB). In my view, FMSP portrays all males as shallow and evil. They paint a picture of Indian ladies swimming in a cesspool of male toxicity. To be able to stay afloat, they need to fight the patriarchal society, the system and fellow members who are immersed in the system.

Hindu temple in Lahore

Even under slavery or apartheid, people were not in unison supporting the status quo. Pockets of dissent were heard from people who were victims as well as those who benefitted or were not involved in it. One should assume that if the other party is not one of them, they must be against them. Jews would not have escaped Germany. Pakistani Hindus are still able to fulfil their Vedic requirements despite the presence of an intensely hostile environment against idolatry there! It is the system, not the people. But then, people make the system and can be herded to change their thinking, which could change the status quo.

N.B. Why is the lipstick generally red? It is postulated that sexual arousal increases blood perfusion to the lips. In fair-skinned females, lips assume a redder hue. Hence, the application of red lipstick entices the observer to see what is in store!

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Make or break!

Gauri

There it was, another family celebration and another tête-à-tête with my favourite uncle. Whilst the rest were immersed in their revelry, we were pretty engaged in our own private discourse - with him looking for someone to impart his 85-year old life experiences, and I, just listening and sometimes trying to tease more out of him. This time around, we discussed the role of the significant other in the family, among many things. This post is what transpired out of that.

They say that behind every man's success, there is a woman. Many are quick to quip that behind their every fall, there is another, the other woman. Women have the uncanny ability to create as well as to destroy.

With the biological assets that they are endowed with, they can create, nurture and sustain life with their tenacity and ever-embracing progestogenic demeanour, like a mother hen, able to hide her chicklings under my wings away from the prancing eagle. And they will protect their little ones with the last scratch of their claw from hissing predator snake.

Mahishasura Mardini.

They can choose what they want. They can be Gauri, the epitome of peace and happiness comparable to the bosom of a mother, the all-embracing embodiment of calmness and purity, depicted by the all-white attire and an equally composed vehicle, the saintly cow. As Gauri, she plays the role of peacemaker, a rock of hope and anchor to hold an institution steady to traverse the uncertainties of life.

When the situation warrants, she needs to assume the role of Mahishasura Mardini, the slayer of the buffalo demon, Mahishasura, who, with the boon of indestructibility, terrorised the Universe. She took this fiercest form of Durga, with the Trident of Siva, to bring equilibrium to the system.

It may appear that the illustrative embodiment of shakti, female power, can act unilaterally with no control without the need for its counterpart, the male energy, Shiva. Not really. Harmony is achieved with the inclusion of both powers. Notice that Shiva's representation appears in both Gauri and Durga form of the female divinity - Trident, to protect and attack. Unbridled power, it seems, is also counterproductive.

Kaali

Remember the instance of Kaali, intoxicated with the taste of blood and energy of invincibility, she was on a rampage. Only Shiva could pacify her. His prostration in her path subdued her. In embarrassment, she let her tongue out, more of an admission of mistake rather than an intimidating posture. This tongue-letting image is often depicted as that of fearsome Kaali. In reality, it is not.

It takes two to tango. Both parties have to nimble and agile to produce an eye-soothing display of this Spanish light-spirited variety of flamenco.

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What's your reason?

Limitless (2017)
(Netflix, Documentary)


My parents never ran. I do not remember them running over or running away from anything. They practically expected others to run around doing things for them. In fact, nobody in their generation ran. It seemed running, and activities that required exertion is for the young. Older adults simply do not do those things which broke too much sweat. Things surely have changed over the years.

Members of the fairer sex also never had it so good. From a time not too long ago, 1967 actually, runners like Bobbi Gibb and Katherine Switzer had to run disguised, now, in most international marathons, the male to female ratio of participants of the full marathon is almost one to one.

Why do people run?

This made-in-India documentary looks at the lives of eight ladies and why they took up running. Despite the constant staring, cat-calling and security concerns, these lady runners seem to be empowered. Every extra half-hour that they manage to run without stopping, they get a renewed zest in life. The running events that they complete equip them with a higher level of confidence. 

Some run to numb the pains of their personal lives. It may be a broken marriage or even exodus from homeland like the runner from Kashmir who calls herself a Delhi-ite these days after being chased out from her ancestral home in Srinagar by religious zealots.

When the worldly duties are done, your offspring do not want you meddling with their affairs, but you are still teeming with energy, what do you do? Like Fauja Singh or Forrest Gump, you run, of course. Once you are locked into the routine, nothing can stop you - rain, shine, snow or fracture!

Runners make friends quickly, are more grounded and are a kind lot, looking out for each other and showing a high level of camaraderie. You hardly find a grumpy runner, do you? 

There is no good enough reason not to run. Run before you are prescribed running to save your life. If you do not have a quality sleep, run; feeling down, run; hit a wall at work, run; you got bad genes that make you susceptible to lifestyle diseases, run. 

If you cannot run, walk. Then alternate the walk with a run, and before you know it, you would be running for your life. What further motivation do you need? When you run, you are fighting the same inner demons that bog you down, dragging you with all the failures of life. Unchain the shackles.

In this documentary, a lady, hit by childhood paralysis, poverty and hard knocks of life runs for the money. The lure of the prize money brings her places. Her misery is no longer an excuse not to train.

Done with finesse, this 1-hour documentary is told seamless infusing many elements that are quintessentially Indian, the decorations, outdoors, and a peek into their places where they hangout. Humanity component is not forgotten as well. Exercise and running also help physically challenged individuals.

Katherine Switzer Bib 261 was the first registered female runner

to complete the Boston Marathon at 4:21 in 1967. A year earlier

Roberta 'Bobbi' Gibb, ran without a number.

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Choices and Confusions

Fleabag (Comedy, Miniseries, 2016 -2019)
Created, Directed and Starred: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Fleabag is a dark comedy about a 30-something single lady who is trying to make it her life mission to fall in love and settle down. But it is not easy. In the background are the memories of her business partner who committed suicide (or is it an accident?), her high achieving neurotic sister, her alcoholic brother-in-law, her widowed father who is sort of arm-twisted to remarry with a conniving and eccentric painter and the plethora of suitors who are equally clueless about their purpose in life.

Society has evolved over the generations to educate the fairer sex to give an equal place in the sun. Sometimes we wonder if this empowerment makes things more difficult for them to decide what is best for them. Entitlement, not wanting to be shortchanged in their choices of life partners, brings them to the brink of insanity. The options are too many, and nothing satisfies them any more. So why bother with the formalities when the sweet nectar of the fruit can be savoured without purchasing?

People are so lost on the purpose of life that they meander aimlessly oblivious of their intentions, just looking around for the unattainable using pleasure as their yardstick to success. That is why generations before us thought that it would be prudent to invest in the cookbook of life, which would make it easy for the unthinking Man to manoeuvre the boat of life. 

Long ago, chastity was given a sacred status. It was protected with the women's life until a responsible suitor is found. It, however, also subjugated women to submission to laws of society.

A better understanding of human biology and equality to both sexes turned the table. Sex is no longer looked upon as a mysterious divine gift but a mere social contact, much like a handshake or a bear hug. Women, now in better financial conditions, able to stand independently, sometimes in better bargaining positions, hold the chips and call the shots. They are in a position to pick and choose their partners and decide when they wish to be a gravid container for continuity of their progeny. Can this be the right way to do things? 

Making decisions listening to the heart and using happiness as a gauge had never been found to be the right way.

Masam Masam Manis (1965)

The main character regularly breaks the fourth wall (the imaginary wall that separates the actors and the audience) to explain her decision to the audience and in a way to get approval to her mischiefs. It reminded me of 'Garry Shandling Show' and P Ramlee in 'Masam-Masam Manis'. Interestingly, in this show, the Catholic priest who is the protagonist's love interest realises her interactions through the fourth wall. It is as though the pastor has the ability to look into another dimension- much like how the miracles and acts of divinity happen in another plane.

(thanks SK for introduction and input)

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The Return of the Amazons

Last Tango in Halifax (2012-present, S1E1-S4E2)

After fifty years of bra burning and empowerment of women, this is what you get. After enduring the second-class treatment and the cold shoulder treatment from the general public to show their prowess all these while, they have developed into strong willed individuals who are well prepared to handle the hurdles that come their way. This is exactly what you see in this movie.

All the female characters dominate the show all the way. They decide, they control, they insist, they do, and they get away with anything they deem fit. It is indeed a matriarchal world. They rule the world, run the household and its daily chores, manage the farm, balance the accounts and go out to work. They choose whom they want to live with, stay married to and choice of gender of their man. Maternity is at their disposal. They are master of the fertility and feminity. No man is going to tell them what to do.

Men, on the other hand, are depicted as weak, indecisive, wimps, imbeciles, drunks and mere followers. They quickly toe the line as their perception of life is simple, to just go with the flow. There is no need to get uptight about something that may not happen. Nothing a good chill beer and a good night's sleep cannot cure. Somehow, everything looks clearer the next morning.

Women, by nature, maybe remnants of the traits of their cavewomen ancestors who safeguarded the caves and children from ravaging beasts when the men were out hunting, still retain their proactive and forward thinking strategies. Hence, they plan many steps in advance to avert catastrophes. This invokes ire the male species. They accuse women of creating a mountain out of a molehill, putting the cart before the wheel and looking for problems when there is none.

These enigmas are not just mere first-world problems as we can these changes develop in the newly emerging economies. With affluence and availability of educational opportunities, the fairer sex has made significant strides even surpassing the masculine gender who still live under the delusion that they are the chosen one to lead the human race. They hide under the cloak of tradition and religion to keep the already dimming ember burning!

This ongoing BBC mini-series tells of a couple of septuagenarians who are re-introduced to each after leaving their school kids puppy loves at school. After leading their lives with their own sob stories of blood and tears, they rekindle their old flame. They discover that through some errors of circumstances, their teenage love affair was nipped in the bud. Their passion gets a second life. They marry to the persons that they had loved all these while and inherit with it the trials and tribulations of each other's family. On the man's side, he has a daughter who is a farmer and a widow with a teenage son who fathered a kid. The daughter has her own problems in love and is haunted by the death of her abusive husband.

On the woman's side, she has a daughter who is going through an unhappy marriage with a writer with a drinking problem and philandering eyes. The girl, with two school going sons,  also re-discovers her life-long suppressed lesbian tendencies. Her lesbian, on the other hand, long for a baby as her biological clock keeps ticking away.

With all these masalas, there is no short of episodes with issues over issues to ponder.

Love will keep us together?

Wonder Woman (2017)

With dialogues like 'everyone has to fight his own wars', one can be forgiven to think that it is a feminist movie, highlighting the female species' struggle and the minorities. Furthermore, the male characters are most laughable and imperfect in every conceivable way. Men are needed only for procreation, not for emotional support, says one of the dialogues. Hey, were not women the objects of reproduction only in archaic societies?

Maybe the storyteller is trying to tell us in her own way (the director is a lady) how much the world has changed since the first World War. And a real paradise appears in the form of an all-Women mythical land of Amazon where women are sorceresses and men are non-existent.

Wonder Women's story starts with Princess Diana growing up in a guarded environment, forbidden to indulge with physical fighting. The society, the Land of Amazon, is reeling to build its defences after a war with the God of War himself, Ares. Ares had disappeared and is rumoured to return anytime. Diana, being the offspring of Zeus himself could not be restrained.

One day, an Allied spy infiltrates their 'force-protected' cocoon as he was ambushed by the German Navy. Thinking that it is Ares' dirty work, Diana leaves her paradise to defeat Ares. In her mind, she believes that peace can be attained by just beating the War God, that is all. Slowly she realises that life is not so straight forward.

Peace on Earth is not a simple matter. There is no one single hero and the other being the villain. It is not the question of one perpetrator and one victim. Sometimes one wonders whether mankind is inherently evil? They seem to be their own enemy. They orchestrate their own downfall. It is not the Gods that let catastrophe befall upon them, but it is their own doings.

Yes, people harm their kind and want to exert power over his neighbours, all the things forbidden by belief systems of the world. Every once in a while, despite all the nihilism that surrounds us, we do see a glimmer of hope. On the one hand, we fight, but on the contrary, we feel that Man has that one redeeming feature. We can love, they say.

The problem is 'love' that is shown is only directed towards their own kin, race, nationhood and of the same religions. Love stops short at the sight of someone who does not share our values or simply appear different. Without love extending to all of Nature's creations, animals, plants, landscape and all, peace on Earth will only remain a pipe dream.

It isn't over till it is over!

Hidden Figures (2016)

When you are born into the less sunny side of the city, there must be more than one way to enjoy the sun! There surely must be more than one way to uproot oneself to the clutches of poverty and tune of hopelessness. One can be a card-carrying, placard-carrying opposer of the system and rant all about it in social avenues. Or they can brood all they can, hoping for self-pity and immersing themselves in intoxicants to forget their miseries and be the problem instead of solving it!

Alternatively, one can be part of the system and try to improve himself by using his God-given faculties and the Man-made facilities to his advantage. It is easy to throw in the towel and wail, claiming injustices by the fate, birth, sins of forefathers but it takes tenacity and character to give a good fight against tyranny. And it need not be violent in action but can be equally brutal!

It is 1960s USA and the space race is on. The leader of the capitalistic wants to win this two-sided race, especially after Yuri Gagarin leads by becoming the first man to fly in space. Against this background and highly segregated American society, three black ladies are competing in NASA to serve their nation. These three women, Katherine G Johnson, a mathematician, Mary Johnson, an engineer and Dorothy Vaughn, a mathematician and supervisor, fought against a system biased against the coloured and the female gender to prove their worthiness through sheer hard work and working within the system.

Even though the film plot was highly predictable and did not score high on the awe or suspense factor, it is nevertheless empowering to the underprivileged or those who think that they had hit a brick wall. It isn't over till it is over!

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