Chennai to/from Thiruvannamalai post trip experience…

Part 1
I once read someone say ‘the key problem is that we do everything for money or for a reward… the moment we take the reward element out, everything we do becomes a joy in itself – no matter what you do’. I experienced this to be true while cycling to Thiruvannamalai…  I have used the bicycle to go to school… I see several people cycling to work… so; cycling in itself is not some great creative activity. But when you do it for fun and out of choice, it takes on a different quality all together! U are pushing your body and sucking every drop of energy available… but U are doing this for fun… it is a wonderful feeling indeed…  I will do the usual ritual of sharing the entire experience with you…
I started off documenting the trip from start to finish… but dumped it seeing that it is of not much entertainment value. So, this time, will change course and will just highlight some significant events, thoughts and experiences…
What a pleasure it is to get away from the maddening rush of the city and step into (or rather ‘pedal into…’) the vastness of bright green paddy fields and vacant roads! I could not stop clicking with my mobile phone camera… but then found it futile and just stared at the beauty around me. I tried to absorb the beauty of the places by breathing in deeply and wondering how I can comprehend and store this within me for revisiting and tasting whenever I needed… only to be reminded by Ragavendra “don’t worry.. We will ask HCL to build one office here….” asking me to move on…
Wherever we stopped for a short break, we were immediately mobbed by people who kept firing questions at us… many a time, people in bikes or cars would ride along with us and fire these questions… for them, seeing 2 people riding on village roads with helmets, sun glasses, gloves etc. seemed like an ‘exhibition or circus’ and we were instant superstars! Following are some of the questions fired at us…

* Where are you coming from? Chennai?? Unbelievable…
* Why are you doing this? What is your motive?
* What is the message U are trying to convey?
* Pls do not tell that you are doing this for fun… tell us the truth!
* Are you policemen? Are you government staff doing some survey?
* Are you sportsmen? Are you this? Are U that?
* ‘Enna sir ore comedy panreenga.. Why are U doing this comedy?
* Oh… U have gears in your cycle… so, it will go even without pedaling! Those are petrol tanks right? – pointing to water bottles…
* ‘These cycles look expensive… how much do they cost? Rs. 3000??’  When we tell them it costs Rs. 12500 without the accessories, they look at us as if we have been cheated big time by some seller!

There were also occasional comments teasing us… At one place by midnight 1AM, we were asked by policemen to ‘introduce’ ourselves… watch for speeding lorries and… To take care! We were almost treated like guests in some places and were welcomed into conversations… and every time we had to leave, it felt like an unfinished dialogue and I wish we had more time to stay in each village. Not a single person crossed us without giving a second look… and those quick-witted enough did not miss the opportunity to fire some questions and pick up a conversation. While living in the city, we feel safe, secure and comfortable only inside our homes… but out here, we felt ‘at home’ almost anywhere… even when we were dead tired and wanted a nap, we only looked for a place to lay down.. Nothing else mattered as the entire earth felt like home!!!    – And the part 1 ends here. Have a break!

Part 2
While going on a long bicycle ride, you need to be able to ignore the motorbikes, cars and busses speeding by… U are not in competition with them! We need to be looking at the people walking by and amuse ourselves thinking how a pair of wheels can help cover so much distance with so little effort! When there are bumps on the road and you have to slow-down, it is rather tough to take… when U see a steep climb ahead of U, the mind tempts you to get down and walk.. And when you encounter a speed-breaker when speeding in a slope, it is really a sucker-punch… U are forced to apply the brakes and loose all the momentum you have built by pedaling hard on the slope… in the end, it is all part of the package and contributes to the enriching experience…
We were carrying 2 spare tubes each, pumps to fill air, kits to change tubes, fix punctures etc… But we did not encounter a single puncture during the entire trip. In the past, we have not carried these in short rides and ended up having to walk our cycles back home due to punctures… that is how cruel luck can be… the good part is – adding some luggage to the cycle does not make too much of a difference. The amount of accessories and pouches U can fit to a bicycle are almost unlimited… we had no pockets in our cycling shorts… but could enjoy snacks, drink, operate mobile phones, use solar chargers etc. – without having to stop. There are convenient pouches to enable all these as U ride… a blinking red hazard light at the rear and reflectors all around ensuring that vehicles passing by stay clear of us and give us enough space… an air horn attached creates the noise of an auto rickshaw horn and we are allowed space to overtake. In all, we discovered that cycling is a great way to travel and explore… next only to walking!
While the scenery around lights ups your experience during the day, the darkness of the night is an experience too! There were times when I could not see anything except the reflectors and hazard lights from Ragavendra bike ahead of me… it was absolute and pitch darkness. Our headlights indicated that we are on road… and frequent checking of Google maps on the mobile shows where on earth we were! At times, we ‘discovered’ that we were in ‘reserved forest’ area with no human inhabitation for 10-15 KMs. Imagine a puncture here.. That would have been quite an experience!! Another thing about night riding is the street dog menace…  they barked at us and even chased us as we crossed small villages. But the moment U slow down, they lose interest and give up – a simple formula that works every single time.
During the initial leg of our journey, we came across a midnight street-play running in full stream at 2 AM – in a village near Sriperumbudhur (place where Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by LTTE!).  It looked like Mahabharata was being played out… But Krishna and Draupathi were conversing in local Chennai Tamil… it was extremely funny… but enjoyable all the same. I liked it so much that I had to be literally dragged out of the place… street-play seems so much superior to movies and television shows! Hardly 2-3 musicians and a handful of over-made-up artists get the audience engaged and make this live show a very ‘involving’ experience…
As we rode along discussing the street-show, we somehow lost way to Sriperumbudhur and stopped at a place to find alternate route to Kanchipuram. It was a T-junction and Ragavendra was looking up the map in his mobile… while I and Ramesh were trying to select some snacks from our bags to recharge us. Remember – Ramesh was with us for the first 60 KMs after which he gave up and took his bike in a bus to Thiruvannamalai. Anyway… here we are at about 3 PM taking a forced break with no human or vehicle in sight… and all of a sudden, a middle-aged woman seemingly comes out of nowhere with a  bag in hand, walking towards us! If any of us were alone, we would have got the fright of our lives… but since we were 3, we just stared back not knowing what else to do. She walked straight past us and stood in the T-Junction – looking like she was waiting for some vehicle. This was a dangerous situation for us if ghosts and devils truly existed… there was no time to debate – we quickly packed and moved on with our bikes..
Thighs and butts are the key to cycle ride… we managed to ride regularly for past 1 month to prepare ourselves and somehow managed… but(t) then, the ‘bottom’ line is – U cannot rest your backside on a tiny seat for one whole day at any rate.. The pain and discomfort gets to you even though U are wearing specially designed cycling shorts with padding! But it is a small price to pay for this wonderful experience of cycling in rural India…
One good aspect is that tea-shops are present well past midnight and from the small hours of the morning. So, when some kind of refreshment is needed, we only have to find a tea-shop, park and sip a warm cup of freshly made tea… we enjoyed the feeling of warm tea making its way through our throats in that cold/misty nights. We also had energy-bars and kadalai-muttai (ground-nut candy) to regularly boost energies… straight from the cross-bar pouch to our tummies… again without having to stop the bikes!
One notable fact from the trip – I think it will be impossible to spot an Indian without a mobile phone these days… and difficult to find one who does not spend over half his awake time using it! Everybody seems to be lost in conversations on their mobile phones – from people on bikes to those grazing cows… and even people working in the paddy fields seem to have one ear stuck to their phones. We saw one particular incident where a girl of about 10 years fell of a bicycle while riding it and trying to talk on her hone simultaneously. As soon as she fell, 2 others came to help her get up… she gladly took the help… but kept her ears glued to the phone and continued talking while all this was happening!!
Also, we enjoyed the feeling of being ‘superstars’ wherever we went… with people crowding around us and firing questions. Even when we reached Thiruvannamalai, the hotel staff surrounded us watching us unpack our luggage… and we ended up getting special attention throughout our stay! This could be little uncomfortable if it happened regularly… but since nobody gives is a dam back in the city, I was able to enjoy this! Besides all the enjoyment and sense pleasures, 3 key takeaways form this cycle trip were…

1. Rural India still maintains its culture of welcoming strangers and being very hospitable… if the British were to find a way to enter again, it will not be a surprise if they are able to establish camp in our country again!
2. There is so much time and energy in store amongst Indian villages… people have so much time in hand and if guided d supported properly, could do quite a lot…
3. What is the big deal of keeping busy and earning all that money anyway?? What do people here lack? We can say they have never tasted pizzas or seen LED televisions… But does that make the quality of their lives any lesser?? – I really do not know!

Even we captured some snaps in our trip… Check it out in our galleries… :)
Thanks for riding along… by reading this far and giving your feedback…

1 comment :

  1. Very good post mixed with comedies in many places. The best one is the following one "Those are petrol tanks right? – pointing to water bottles".....

    When I type the word "Energy" in notepad, it automatically changed to "Palani"... hehehehe...

    ReplyDelete

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