Is the training right? Is that all you need?.... Preface 2

As I had started my last blog.. this was a perfectly unplanned-planned trip/tour/training and whatever that was needed for this dream tour....
Mid June, I hire a rented road bike for a day and realise my training needs to shift to a bike of this kind!! Its just 4 weeks to go for my Pyrenees Ride...
An unplanned spend for the new scott addict carbon bike extended the already stretched budget of this once in a lifetime trip... 'Passions don't come cheap' is what a friend told... which made perfect sense...
My training took a huge 4 minute jump in my first attempt with this new road bike.... and boosted the confidence many fold...
The roller coaster rides take huge ups and downs towards the very end.... So it was with me....
Had a super fall off my hybrid bike and got a Hanuman face :) for a couple of days...
A tooth extract leading to viral fever to a fall in bathroom (unconscious) getting hurt just above the right eye.... all these just 2 weeks before the journey... Which meant my training got hit....!!
I could manage just two NandiBetta rides with my new road bike and just one 100+ towards Magadi, which I did to seek blessings from Sri Nirmalji whom I admire since childhood... He was all admiration for me to be doing it at an age, where most prefer to look up to Vaanaprastha and stop self from venturing into such activities which are physically demanding...

While training to be physically ready for the tour, THE reason for the tour, to raise money for the charity of our choice was on. Our CSR team did help immensely to zero in on the charity, Cochlea-Pune. Cochlea identifies children needing support with hearing and speaking at an early age. Plan for a permanent cochlear implant while helping them to be ready for normal school curriculum by providing education. The target was to raise £750. Since it was the very first time for me to be raising funds, I was almost clueless on how to plan the communication. However, did manage to raise close to double the target amount with again no planned approach!. In this exercise found some super donors. All those messages along with those donations and the amount acted as the fuel for my tour.

Travel was another topic, that was happening in parallel. My plan to sandwich tour between two short trips across Europe with family. While seeing to it that they could get a glimpse of my tour was rightly shot down by a good friend. Sandhya did even send out a separate thank you note to him :). New plan was to start our trip of Europe after my tour. We needed two separate VISAs for the places we had planned to visit. Paris to visit DisneyLand and Eiffel and to show my girls beautiful (in every aspect) Norway needed Schengen VISA. To spend some time with a very good friend and his family in London needed UK VISA. Sounds simple right?, hell broke lose just two weeks before the travel... :) How could this go wrong is what you may think....
Preface 2 flowing in to Preface 3 (hopefully the last Preface) would have an answer....
Ciao!!

A Dream whose pieces kept falling in place.... Preface....

I would be dishonest if I say it was all planned well.... It just went happening and it was like a jigsaw puzzle which shows a picture only after the last piece falls in its rightful place.... The only thing was that this last piece fell in place on the very last day of this once in a lifetime journey of several dreams of three of us..... Sihi, Sandhya and Me-Pammi....
A series of blogs which I had envisioned are seeing the light of the day today... almost a couple of months or more after the dream journey ended.... Sometimes, a kick in the butt is much needed even for the must do things that gets reprioritised and postponed.... 'How is your blog coming along?' did that trick yesterday....

Cycling did become a passion this year, participating in the Guinness World Record attempt in the beginning of the year....
Umpteen requests through emails to the organisers of Tour De Credit-Suisse (TdCS) helped me to get enrolled into the US version of the same in 2018. With unfortunate demise of my favourite Mhaavu (Eldest Paternal Aunt), this had to be shelved. With the announcement of TdCS-2019-Europe, my enthusiasm soared to new heights. The track was across Pyrenees, a mountain range I hadn't heard of and explored post the announcement. Starting from Atlantic and ending in Mediterranean spanning three countries, Spain, France and the country I came to know of on the tour Andorra..

Sitting happy and gay post enrolment, one of my good friends, who is my Guru and provider of the bicycles I ride had to give a real hard kick for me to start thinking on training. Being a guy who had pedalled about 20000 kms, I immediately looked down upon the training. As we did plan on that call, I started to my maiden ride uphill Nandi Betta (Hills), the nearest to Bengaluru a couple of days later.

Did I do all that cycling!! was the first thing that came across my mind before even the first kilo meter uphill. The betta starts like a steady easy climb for four kilo meters. I had to stop about twice to get my breath. The next four kilo meters are hairpin climbs that quickly climb up about 300 meters. That section was a killer, I had to take about 3 long breaks. At one point in time, I had almost given up. However, as they say it ain't done until its done. I just kept on, with slow and steady 'I'll not give up' so easy' attitude with Lans Armstrong's 'Just till the next bend', was playing in the background all through. Reaching the top, did sow a lot of big seeds of self doubt in my mind on my ability to climb hills. It also opened my eyes wide open on the importance of training. These thoughts were weaving a plan in my mind on the downhill, this plan was very much driven by that friend. It was simple, do this uphill at least 35 times!!. A couple of back to back on consecutive days!!! That's all..
It was March 23rd Shaheed Diwas (Martyrs' day) Training Ride 1/35... Dedicating to the three brave hearts Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru

Second attempt on, I had started counting the breaks... Checking on my timing started I reckon after my 5th attempt....The confidence had started growing with these rides...
Both my girls used to kick me out of bed, when they used to hear the alarm at 3:30 AM.. strangely, I used to take about an hour or a little more to get ready for my drive to Nandi Betta Base with my bike resting on the back seats of my car... At about 6 AM I used to start my ride... and did manage towards the end to reach back home in time to drop my daughter to school... That is 5 AM to 6 AM drive... 6 to 7 ride up followed by down hill.... 7 to 8 drive back home...

Looks like time for PTO.. PrefaceTwoOvertonextblog... :)

Ciao!!

Pyrenees and Cochlea - Need your Help :)

Many or all of you would have been wondering where the hell is this GUY :) {Your wishes to my 'change in number' day have been seen, responses are on their way....... Below is what I am up to... Which is evidently keeping me away from EffBee.... Could I imagine myself not having two of the senses that help me communicate.. Probably not..

Cochlea - Pune For Hearing and Speech, Is an organisation that blesses our children with speech and hearing difficulties with hearing aid, speech and hearing therapy and quintessential targeted education. Our help, would help Cochlea to reach out to more such needy children. Your unending and unconditional support to my effort to stay and promote green has motivated me to dream of this ride of Pyrenees, Spain-France this July. This is a 750KM ride over five days. Cochlea has been chosen as the charity that I would raise funds for for this tour of mine. Your wishes and blessings would give my legs more strength and my lungs enough oxygen to complete this DREAM RIDE.... So would your contributions to Cochlea here.... Copied from my FB Post

Plan - Fail - ReStrategise - Achieve (#RespectCyclists)

The Auto Driver at Hubballi Railway station informed us that there were a dozen cyclists who had got down there earlier from Nizamuddin Train that comes to Hubballi from Delhi... 

That "Enthusiasm and awareness about THE BIG event that was happening in town" was seen through out the day with literally every 'Hubblliga' I met .......

Every road I traveled on my Brother's two-wheeler, I saw young and old in the jersey meant for Cyclotsava on a bicycle, neither of which I had yet...

At the venue, I was literally surprised to see a sea of cyclists and cycling enthusiasts a (little less than the sea)... the ground was so well prepared and organized, I was just amazed.... at the time and effort these Hubballi Bicycle Club members had put in.... Hat's Off!!

That was just the beginning of the day of AMAZEMENTs... 

At one of the several counters that were set-up, my ticket's QR code was scanned from my phone.. (A First experience for me...) before handing me my kit.. that contained a beautiful tri coloured t-shirt, a wrist band saying #RespectCyclists, A bib for the cycle.. a sticker for the helmet and a card with a chip....

My rented bicycle was waiting right across the road in a college campus... These cycles were procured from a vendor in Hyderabad!!

While heading there, met a Lorry Driver with his lorry, which had carried 23 cyclists and their cycles from Davanagere!! (150 kilometers from Hubbali)... This was just one of extra efforts cyclists had made to be a part of this Cyclotsava...

Met a few, who had cycled from 
Bagalakote - 120+ kilometers
Kolhapur - 200+ kilometers
Bengaluru - 450 kilometers (didn't get a chance to meet, came to know through Strava)

A 7 year old, who was doing a Kolhapur to Pune 230 kilometers cycle ride the next day..

Few who appeared 70+ by their appearance.. however, younger than many of us in their spirits...

One IIT-Dharwad student doing his PhD...

Several Engineering students....

Two more Pramod's (First ever in my 42 years :)) who shared bib numbers next to mine... one was 708, mine 709 and the other 710... too big a coincidence huh....

More surprises were waiting for me on the stage....

Amit Samarth - one of the few in the world to have completed 
Trans Siberian Extreme distance 9,100 kilometers and elevation 770,000 meters (10 mount everersts!!)...

A man whose left hand is hit by polio who did the treacherous terrains of Himalayas... with a cycle with altered back brakes to suit him...

A couple from Maharashtra, who have cycled all across together and had penned a beautiful Marathi poem unto that... 

Many more such Ultra achievers... who made me feel... my rides and kilometers are just a drop in this ocean of cycling....

FIRST ATTEMPT
We were scheduled to start at 2 and it appeared like, we 1550 cyclists had lined up in our groups of 100 in the order of the bib numbers much before the start time... which would have given us a 10-15 minutes head start...
Volunteers for each group making sure, each one of us are following each rule to the DOT, I had to run back to the venue to put my sling bag with my hand phone in the cloak room... ;) That was a nice way to warm-up....
They had also ensured that we were well hydrated (water) and nourished (bananas)..

At 2:02, with tonnes of butterflies in our tummies... we started..... It was an amazing track rather road with not much of elevation... 
Throughout the 4 kilometer ride.. there were volunteers shouting 'slow down'... 'cover up'... to ensure we keep 2-3 bicycle distance between our bikes...

FAIL
It took almost an hour post finishing the ride to hear that we did not make it.... Some cyclists overtook breaking the line causing the fault... along with a few who couldn't cover up the distance....

RE-STRATEGISE
We were asked to pull out if any of us felt he/she can't bicycle the reverse ride with the head wind... no one pulled out..
A list of offenders retrieved from the Guinness guys based on their BIBs and cards on bicycles were pulled out...
Bicycles of a certain size... pulled out..
All kids... pushed back..
All no-gear bicycles (mine too).... pushed back..
Bicycles with speedometers... Moved up the line...
Cycling groups.. moved up the line...

Our wrist bands collected... and returned...to be dropped back in the collection box to double check the count of cyclists...

Instructions to keep shouting "cover-up", "slow-down/half-peddle" informing rider in the back of the situation in the front....given to all...

All this took almost 2-2.5 hours post completion of the ride... 
SUN was happily showering his light and heat and all of us :)

SECOND ATTEMPT
Even though the organisers made every attempt to keep our spirits high.... we were highly skeptical still...
The rider just in-front of me found it difficult... happily pulled out...
Amid shouts of "cover-up", "slow-down/half-peddle" ... we managed to bridge the gap...
One of the aged cyclist 3 bicycles in-front of me.. felt the same... repeated requests to pull-out, seemed to fall on deaf ears... 
Some impatient cyclists did overtake... even after getting reminders from us...
Our skepticism had two solid reasons now....

ACHIEVE
With bated breath we waited in the dust and setting sun.... there came the announcement.. though not official... we cheered the loudest...

The tougher part now was to line-up in the queue to collect our handphones back from the cloak room...then one more queue to collect certificates and goody bags....

While the organisers were asking us to occupy the seats to hear the official announcement..  it was our turn to turn deaf .. :( It was 7 PM and my train back to Bengaluru was in three hours.. My priority was not to miss my train.. 

While waiting in the slow moving queue the official announcement too came 1235 was the new longest single line of bicycles... and we had made it to the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS.... 

"BHARAT MATA KI JAI"... resounded the venue.. on the REPUBLIC DAY OF BHARAT...

A well spent, well achieved, well learnt day....!!

#RespectCyclists

Ciao!!

A Raleigh Bicycle, Two Brothers and Thirteen Pots....

It was 1989, I was thirteen and brother was eleven. Appa (Father) had started constructing our new house. 

First big road block was WATER!!.

A 200 feet drill fetched innumerable pieces of black rock but no WATER!!

Somehow, we managed to get our home ready by renting WATER (Not mentioning about the fortune the guy made by counting us wrong number of tank loads)

As soon as we shifted, the first task on hand was WATER!!

Brother and Me used our mathematical brains (one of Appa's friends' mentioned that, We hadn't realised that till then ;)) to get water.

We used to tie ropes to plastic pots (Bindige in Kannada), hung them across the old but strong Raleigh cycle (All this while, I was thinking Rally was the spelling ;)) we had recently procured for this purpose.

Lengths of these ropes were measured to perfection so that our trips fetch maximum amount of water.

Lazy were we to fetch it again :)

Post that, we used to drag ourselves uphill first and then downhill to the hand pump to fetch.

The journey would easily have been more than a kilometre

The most difficult part was manoeuvring the bicycle on the way back on the downhill with these pots filled with water to the brink...

EVERY DROP COUNTS!!

Then came the savings part, 

Morning pees were in the open yard in front of our home.

Showers were crisp with water in 3/4th or less of a bucket.

We had even started to have baths alternate days or even longer too... 

Re-use when possible.. as in

Use water used to wash clothes and utensils (We used to wash them with our own hands:) ) to water the plants.

HIS BLESSINGS!!

As soon as it thunders and heavens opens its gates, forget about the time of the day or night get all pots, fill them with water pouring from the ceiling and dump it in the underground water tank...

That used to save us from the trips for many days to come..

However, drinking water had to come from the hand pump... 

For which we always used to fight, on whose turn it was

All these incidents flashed in front of my eyes as soon as I saw above forward in WhatsApp sometime back...

It is soooo soooo very difficult for anyone to make any other understand that 

EVERY DROP COUNTS....

Then I thought, a BLOG would be a step forward...

Does anyone want to walk along or not, 

I WALK THIS PATH!!

Ciao! 

React (Harsh FB Post) --> Respond (This Blog)

I was sooo furious and if I had an instant connection between my mind and FB, it would have resulted in my harshest post till date.... Thankfully human mind RULES!!

30 minutes pedalling and churning over thoughts pounding on mind resulted in this blog, a fiction....

The story goes something like this...

A young boy in his mid twenties suddenly finds himself in a completely unfamiliar territory with a gate in front of him... He opens and enters to find a person whom he has never seen before... Upon enquiring he comes to know that he is 'Chitragupta' and this young boy is in the other world...

'How did I come here, my father was taking me to a hospital and asking me to be brave and nothing would happen to me, then how come I am here? I should have been in that hospital' the boy was furious....

'You did reach the hospital my son, doctors did try their best and informed with a very sad face to your father that 'Sir, you should have been here 30 minutes before''

'Hospital was not very far from where I stay, the ambulance had also arrived in time, then how come?'

'If you remember my son, it was morning peak hour traffic in your city and all motorists were rushing to their work, some luggage carriers were in a hurry to get their goods delivered, and likewise the road was filled with such people who thought they reaching their destination was more important than giving way to the ambulance you were in. I can't blame them either, they weren't aware how critical you were'

'NOOOOOOOOOO... , that's basic civic sense which my father always taught me and I used to follow and used to ask fellow motorists to follow suit. THEY ARE THE REASON I AM HERE. I need their data, could I get it?'

With a little effort, 'Chitragupta' handed over each and every detail including the video clipping of that day's ambulance journey. 'What are you going to do with it?'

'Ditto' the boy said

As we know the dead have abundant powers and that too with  'Chitragupta' and 'Yama' on the young boy's side, following happened in super quick time.

In his city, all crematorium's were working 24 X 7 and still the pile of tasks at hand were not receding at all, The city had such free roads with hardly any traffic that the ones who were commuting were feeling bored with the extra time they had at hand.

At the same time in the other world.... This boy had become an instant hero and the 'Ditto' people were repenting for their mistake and were pledging to never repeat their mistakes in their next lives...

--THE BEGINNING --

You were just a dream in 2009

"Why do you want a child of your own. See now you are able to hold every child that comes across as yours and give love like your own. Once you have your own, you won't be able to do that". This was our Gynaecologist about 10 years ago.

"Aanu, why do you show your love and affection to all children you meet. I feel left out". This was Sihi few months ago.

I compared the time that I spend with her to the time I get to spend with someone else. The love, affection and reflection of the same she could find in the things we do & get for her on a side. To the minuscule things we get to do to others. She seemed convinced.

Yeah! She is starting a brand new year, year 9 today and wonder when and hows of her growth from the tiny handful that she was in year 2009.

Took time off to go through the blogs of that period...
Jul-2009-feeling-and-confusion...
Aug-2009-confusion....contd
Nov-2009-homecoming-of-sihi
July-2010-its-that-time-again