India, March 22 -- The present is never without the past and often a recent happening suddenly takes one back to memories and experiences of long ago. So it is with me this Saturday as I think of recent experiences and suddenly find myself peeping into reminders of the past-both collective and personal.

Well, the wise ones say that memories are the timeless treasure of the heart so as one writes of here and now suddenly one finds the heart digging out memories that had withered in the passage of time. Interestingly, the leitmotif of this journey of looking before and after is the bicycle, first created as a draisienne or running machine, invented by German Baron Karl von Drais far back into time in 1817. Suddenly one finds oneself hummin...