Cycles in circles

"Chandi ki cycle, sone ki seat; aao chalen darling, chalen double seat" - so sang Govinda to Juhi Chawla in that great film that glorified the importance of the sister-in-law, Bhabhi.Those were the happy times for films in Bombay. It wouldn't have been so had the Maverick of the East - Manoj Kumar - not tread on treacherous routes to pave the way for the great bicycle called Bollywood.Manojji took acting to a wholly new level of expertise in his earlier films, and when he made a film called Clerk with Rekhaji in the lead (both were aged less than 60, so they played college students), he took acting to a "holely" new level.
To decode that pleasing pun, watch Clerk on a DVD. But coming back to ManojUncle's bravura performances in his effort to pave that way for cycles from Mumbai go towards enchanted land, nothing is as commendable as his endurance-infused ride in Shor.If Philius Fogg took 80 days to circle the world and complete a cycle, ManojDada circled on a cycle for 7 days to conquer the world. In fact, had internet and the rest of communication apparatus was in place in 1972, ManojPaaji could well have broken Lance Armstrong's record in the Tour de France even before it was made!
It is indeed a pity that we laud Armstrong for making history on a cycle when our very own ManojKaka had done even better long earlier in the annals of time. Should we not give him his rightful due by calling him the maker of pre-history, then?To call or not to call might be the question for you, but I ask only two.
Q1. How the hell on earth did ManojAnna stay riding on the cycle for that long a time?
Q2. How does this co-incidence thing operate?
Ans1: He was ably assisted, like Armstrong was, by a few well-wishers. I can only remember Premnath. If ManojBabu was Lance Armstrong, PremMamu was his equally brilliant mate, Dance Armstrong. DanceChacha did all the jigs one can possibly do while singing a Bollywood song for the seventh day on the trot and while also keeping pace with the rider. So frenetic was his terpsichore that either his trousers were invaded by ants or he was electrocuted with a controlled and persistently-short circuit. HE was the reason for ManojBaboi's race of life.
Ans2: A Bollywood actress, once in a state of sublime fluidity, remarked, "If the choice is between congentital diseases, co-optex and co-incidence, I'll, without a blink of an eye, take the latter." Even though unnecessary, she had raised a valid point - that of the importance of the entity called co-incidence. How else can you accomodate the following sequence of events in the field of normal time? On Saturday, I go and watch the Cyclist, a film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf about a guy who circles and cycles for seven days to save his wife. The next day, DD shows Shor, and the One-Day match between India and West Indies excuses me only so much that I watch the cycling part in it. An even more weird happening on the same day is that I catch a glimpse of Pawan Malhotra in a programme on Sun TV (of all places) in a commercial film awards ceremony. Firstly, Malhotra was the guy who circles around a nukkad's circle for a few days for some reason in that legendary tele-series of the 80s, Nukkad. And on that day of the South Indian awards, he came on stage not because he is a South Indian or even because he had won an award. He came on stage to receive someone else's award. If this does not make you a believer in co-incidence, perhaps you need to see this article on some other blog too. In one stroke of genius, Mohsen, Manoj and Malhotra were united. Maula's maya makes multiple magic.