The bike of....

Pooja Mahapatra: "The Netherlands is bike heaven". (Photo/text: Aarabi Kumar)

Name: Pooja Mahapatra (24, India, PhD aerospace engineering)
Brand: Giant Centro
Price:  € 400
Striking feature: Gives brag value: “I ride a Giant!”

Pooja recently bought her bike, and says: “The Netherlands is bike heaven. I could choose among many bikes that fit my requirements, budget constraints and aesthetic sense. And the process was quick: it took me only 15 minutes between walking into the shop and riding out on my brand new Giant.” As an initiation rite, she went on a 70km long bike ride last weekend. Happy as she is with her new bike, Pooja is now considering adding a rear-view mirror or a GPS unit to it, and she also proudly claims to be quite ‘Dutchified’ with bikes: not only has she ridden a bike for 10km in the rain with an umbrella in one hand and a heavy wind against her, but she was also able to answer phone calls with her other hand as well. She’s also been initiated in that Dutch ritual of ‘passenger on the back rack’ biking, although as the passenger, and after multiple late-night bar hops, she ended up falling off the rack on the Rotterdamsweg. Still, like the hearty natives, this didn’t stop her from getting up and doing it again.