HYDERABAD: In an age of quick-fix fitness trends and flashy gyms, 75-year-old former Army officer, Major General Naozar Patel (retd.), is quietly leading a wellness movement of his own, on two wheels, on stage and in the hearts of those who ride and learn with him. <\/p>\n
Every Sunday before sunrise, while the city still sleeps, he leads his troop on a different kind of patrol. Their mission: to discover hidden lakes and historic caves, and, above all, find a deeper sense of community.<\/p>\n
Commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1972, Naozar Patel retired in 2009 after a distinguished career that took him from the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka to counter-insurgency operations in Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, and high-altitude service in Ladakh and Sikkim. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he comes from a proud \u2018Fauji\u2019 family \u2014 his father, uncles, son and daughter-in-law all serving in the armed forces.<\/p>\n
What began as a five-member cycling group during the pandemic has grown into a 58-member community and a 102-member dramatics club. The cycling group rides every Sunday without fail \u2014 through city bylanes, rural roads, forest trails, lakesides, historic caves, meditation centres and even remote schools. <\/p>\n
Along the way, they have visited Gandicheruvu lake for lake awareness, one of Asia\u2019s largest water filtration plants at Kodandapur to learn about water safety, century-old caves to appreciate heritage and Kanha Shanti Vanam to explore meditation. In village pockets, children greet them with curiosity and delight.<\/p>\n
Across 138 rides, the group has had zero accidents \u2014 a record Naozar Patel credits to strict discipline. Helmets are non-negotiable, speed is secondary, and every ride begins with a safety briefing, even if only two people turn up. \u201cFitness improves every day. But a moment\u2019s carelessness can take everything away,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HYDERABAD: In an age of quick-fix fitness trends and flashy gyms, 75-year-old former Army officer, Major General Naozar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97,170313],"class_list":{"0":"post-338295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-major-general-naozar-patel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}