KK Expedition - Day 2 - Sun, Rain and some Pain.

Read Prologue, Planning 1, Planning 2, Day 1 for prequels

It was a fairly cool day. Drizzle outside, people stirring and tossing around trying to wake up to face the day’s challenge.

Thenappan was already ready by 6:30 AM as he had to go back to Bangalore. He bid his goodbyes to everyone, and was on his way into the drizzle and the cold breeze.

Start of a new day - Raring to go

VK, Shasti, Me, Ram, Sanath

Our first concern that morning was the Scorpio. The concerns were burnt when the mighty Scorpio came in blistering at 8:30 AM. It was Go for us, and we lined up to take the day on. The bags were readied to be loaded into the beast later, and we had best wishes from other residents in the serviced apartment. With love from strangers accounted for, all we now needed was breakfast :)

Roll to Namakkal

After a hearty filling within the city, we decided to roll on to Namakkal for the next big break. The morning was serene, with no winds whatsoever. Ram was steaming on with renewed energy and after his show the previous evening, we were happy playing catch up.

Sanath decided to carry on at his own pace, and Shasti and I rolled on with VK and Ram just behind us. The first 25 km were done in just under an hour. It was around 10:30 AM, and the sun wasn’t still fully awake. I had a status check with the car boys, who were just starting after their breakfast. We had a juice break 11 km from Namakkal, just after which the Scorpio caught up with us. 

Fresh fruits awaited us, and Kannan was loving enough to even peel oranges for us. With tears of happiness in my eyes, which probably had something to do with the orange juice that was sprayed, I stuffed the fruits in. It was difficult as usual to stop Ram and drag him on to continue, but after some energy spent on this alone, we were off towards Karur.

Fruitman Kannan

Banana, Orange - Colours represented on Ram's T Shirt as well!

Testing Times

The roads from here on were ‘rolling’, with the climbs longer than the drops. The sun was on its duty earnestly, and was beginning to slow us down. We kept trudging on – it was around 12.30 PM, Shasti had raged on while I was pacing VK and Ram. VK had developed discomforts and he couldn’t point it but was slowing down. His otherwise handsome face was clearly showing the discomfort, and Ram was beginning to tire. I decided to stay ahead of them a little so they can try catching up with me. In a few minutes, I had lost them.

I moved on a couple of kilometres to find Shasti resting in a shelter that made up a bus stand. Anything that could offer a bit of shade and rest was a glorious sight, and I joined Shasti in stretching the limbs. It was the day after Ramzan and a group of Muslim boys were enjoying the holiday. They stopped to satisfy their curiosity about two seemingly lost souls, they were quickly on their way though after wishing us well. Amidst these interruptions I slowly realized it was more than 20 minutes now and I couldn’t see the two guys who were just about a couple of kilometres behind me.

Rupture Ram and Vigorous VK

We found out Ram had the first puncture of the day, and his second in the journey yet. While he was on to it along with the support crew, VK had another type of pressure building up threatening to burst into a puncture. He finally realized he had indigestion that was causing him problems and the urge had built up to an unbearable degree. Shasti and I were blissfully unaware of these developments and once I called in to get the updates, I decided to go back to check on them.

Puncture #2, Day #2, Sunil and Kannan helping out Ram

Whose hand the dirtiest?

I caught Ram just a kilometre behind, and on the way forward again we found VK and the Scorpions at a petrol bunk. VK had a look of relief and was ready to roll again – we figured not all the noises one heard at the bunk then was of flowing petrol alone. At this point, we had already had a break of about an hour in all.

Crawling till Karur

We were about 30 km from Karur, and about 110 km from Dindigul which was our planned stop for the day. There was growing anxiety about reaching the destination for the day, but we chose to ignore these for the time being.

First concern was lunch. We were told of a place about 5 km from where we were, and we rolled on. The Scorpions located the restaurant for us, which was more of a modest dhaba. We weren’t very keen on variety and ordered some meals and curd rice. It was about 3 PM and we decided to rest here for a while.

VK was fully drained, and needed some catch up time. We gorged on some Kulfis after the lunch, and lazed around till 4:00 PM. Sunil had a false alarm about the Scorpio’s clutch again, however it helped that the ‘restaudhaba’ was strategically located just next to a Mahindra service centre! Sheer luck or divine coincidence!

Karur was around 25 km from here. The sun was on its retreat, and the clouds were looming in. VK was completely dehydrated and we decided to give him a 10 km break. He was bonking with low sugar levels as well, and needed some sugar shots. Kannan offered to take on the handlebar till Karur and quickly took the opportunity to flaunt his lycra.

River Full! Water Water everywhere!

Trudging along....

Kannan ‘Nayakkar’ Sundaram

We stopped 10km from Karur for a small break and were met at the bus shelter by highway patrol. They were curious about the bikes and asked us the routine questions. Kannan was on form today and silenced them in one sentence. For the uninitiated, the sentence sounds very familiar to one of the most famous lines in Tamil Cinema.

Watch from 4:45 to 5:00 for Kannan's Inspiration

Kannan’s now world famous sentence came out most naturally - “Naalu peru kasthapatta dhaan, ezhai kozhandaingalukku sappadu kedaikkum na, andha naalu peru naangala irukkom” (if four people need to slog it for poor children to be fed, then let us be the four people) – It is worthy to note that the policeman didn’t have any further questions to ask.

Another one asked us though – about the costs of the bikes. We usually undervalue the bikes so the conservative onlookers don’t conclude we are overly crazy. However Shasti was in his elements, and only the truth would flow out of his mouth – so he said “Sir, that is 28,000, this is 35,000 and that is 25,000”. The policeman almost asked us why we would ride all the way to Kanyakumari to collect money, when we could have as well pooled what we spent on the bikes for charity and taken the days off to sleep at home. However, he turned out to be a dumbstruck gentleman, and all he could manage was a wide-eyed expression of incredulity. We left them to digest some facts, and carried on towards Karur.

Skies beating down

It had by now started to drizzle, and we upped the ante to cover the next 10 km in 25 minutes. We reached the diversion to Karur town, and stopped for refreshments. Ram joined us soon, and while we were chit-chatting, we noticed the Scorpions rush past. We called them to turn back and join us.

By now the drizzle was heavier, and we decided to play it safe by putting all our frills into the car and it was just us and the bikes now. We started at around 5:30 PM and we’d just covered a couple of kilometres when it started beating down from the skies.

Heavy cross winds played along and in a matter of minutes the most conducive settings had deteriorated to the most challenging. I was pretty pumped up though and all of us were actually relishing the challenge.

The Scorpions were parked a little ahead and they provided the flip side of the coin. They tried putting some sense in us about the dangers of riding on the highway just after dusk, with visibility that let us see till the outer limits of our paunches. We decided to take a break till the rains abated, and found shelter in a workshop.

Skies opened up

In search of shelter...Notice Kannan in his lycra??

While we were waiting for the rains, our plans needed to be revised as it was amply clear that we weren’t going to make it to Dindigul on time. Though riding in the dark was an option as we were equipped material-wise, it wasn’t still the sanest thing to do. We decided to ride till Aravakurichi, the next big village 30 km from Karur and about 45 km from Dindigul. Our Man Friday in TamilNadu, Shasti came to our rescue in quickly planning our stay in this remote village. We cancelled our bookings in Dindigul, blocked a modest place in Aravakurichi, and we also ordered our food already. We weren’t going to reach the place before 9 PM and since there were no McDonald’s or Subways here, we had to order well before 9 PM for our food to be arranged for. We didn’t care where it came from, as long as there was something nice and hot to eat when we reached.

The rains showed no signs of abating soon, and after a good one hour it mellowed down to a drizzle again. Ram had left us for a ride alone and had already covered around 6 km before we started. We reached the diversion to Aravakurichi on the highway, at around 8:30 PM. We still had 7 km to go to reach the village, and we had to traverse through what looked like a mini forest. At this hour and the drenched state we were in, we had no adrenaline left to explore our way into the unlit interior roads and decided to take a mini-van ride offered by Shasti’s friend.

We loaded the bikes, and had an eerie ride to reach the village. We were given three rooms in a lodge that had around six, and we were the only patrons for the night. Our food had already arrived with big bottles of Fanta and Coke.

Geyser – means what?!

The people around were extremely accommodating and appreciative of the fact that we were embarking on this journey. We got the warmest of welcomes, however the same couldn’t be said about the water that we were to bathe in.

Having spent almost 4 hours in torrential rain, which at its most tender was a continuous drizzle enough to fill a bucket in an hour, we had imagined Jacuzzis with foaming steamy water, with aromatic candles lit all around as the most fitting end to the day. What we had to settle for – was cold tap water.

This is when the simplest differences in lifestyles give us the most profound perspectives in our lives. Kannan asked one of the lodge-keepers if they had a geyser. And the reply he got was something I will remember for a long time – “Geyser – appadina?” (Geyser – means what?) This was August 2013, just a month before Apple would release its most dramatic product in plastic casing that can be afforded by even the modest BMW owner, and here was a man who didn’t know what a geyser was and still was pretty satisfied with his life. Ignorance is bliss they say.

It just hit us pretty hard. Without another word, we just went about freshening up.

I took the initiative of cleaning the bikes while the other folks cleaned themselves – Kannan and I went down, washed the bikes quickly, and sprayed the bikes with degreaser and left it to work its magic through the night.

After a good stretching session with Srini, I joined the folks for a really hearty dinner. A couple of drinks later, I was ready to hit the sack at 11.30 PM.

The longest day yet was just around the corner. We had to start very early to cover our deficit in the plan, and reach Dindigul as fast as we could. Sleep wasn’t something I had to wait for, and before my head hit the pillow, I was deep in sleep-world.

KK Expedition - Day 1

Read previous posts for the build up to the ride

Aug 09th - In the darkest hours of the night, when the world around me was deep asleep, the long relaxing weekend already begun for them, some of us were up and about. For in these darkest hours, shone the brightest spark in us...

We all had different reasons to embark on this journey. And none of them was to prove anything to anyone else but to ourselves. That life still holds some excitement for us, and we can indeed skip the monotony if we chose to. And do something no one, least of all us expected ourselves to do. And hence to prove we were still alive, we were still kicking and we will rock our worlds anyday!

At 3:00 AM I woke up before the alarm did, and put it back to sleep. Dressed up, accepted wife's good wishes, said a silent bye to the kiddo and got to the bus stand by 3:45 AM; Sanath was a little late. Thenappan called me from his loo (yep), to tell me he was going to be a little late too - because of what is anybody's guess! Thenappan was going to ride till Krishnagiri and back, as of 3:45 AM.

Ram had already reached the HAL police station - I am sure they were now pretty used to seeing this figure so early outside their premises at such wee hours so frequently, they were probably already following Ram everywhere to check him out.

All of us except VK gathered at the Marathalli bridge. VK was a little ahead and waiting for us at Kundanhalli gate. Sunil and Srini had come to see us off. Ashish Jha had also woken up in the wee hours to wave us off.

The Kick off

It was 4:20 AM now, we were all getting ready to kick off. Just then a Qualis stopped next to us. And the driver was pretty excited to see us - a few moments of staring later I realized it was the same guy we met in our training ride the previous weekend at Shoolagiri.

So he asked us "Where to this time?" and I said "Kanyakumari". And he said "No really, where to this time?". And when I said "God Promise man, Kanyakumari" (the best way to impress upon Indians that you are being truthful) he was pretty incredulous still. He and his customers all wished us well and waited for us to kick off.

After the customary clicks, we were off at around 4:45 AM. VK joined us along the way, and we were now off as a bunch. The plan was to meet the support crew at Adyar Anand Bhavan at Shoolagiri, at 7:30 AM.

At the start line, L to R: Shasti, Thenappan, Yours Truly, Sanath, Ram

We rode at a comfortable pace to warm up, reaching Attibele at 6:20 AM covering 32km in 1.5 hours. This was our first break, taking in bananas, a hot cup of tea, some homemade chikkis that VK got. After a bit of stretches, we were off towards A2B. Ram had already started ranting about his craving for Pongal and vada at A2B. We all had a theory about Gastric Levitation, but thats for another time when we need to be more technical.

We had a status check with the support guys, who hadnt even got off the bed at this time. We had our doubts already about seeing them at A2B at 7.30 AM. This was the start of a long festive weekend, and it showed! The tollbooth at Attibele had such a long queue in every booth, it went right over the Attibele flyover! We wound our way past all the stuck cars and eased through the tollbooth, much to everyone else's chagrin :)

Food Food everywhere, but not a bit to eat

The weather was something to savor! The perfect temperature, with a little bit of cross breeze. We attacked all the small climbs and took all the flyovers from here. After Hosur, it was all downhill, and we were clocking a good pace. Reaching A2B at 7:50 AM we had the most depressing sight, pushing Ram to tears nearly.

The queue at the counter extended beyond the entry door, winding up even outside of the hotel. We had to search for space to park our bikes among all the cars!!! It was the same at the McDonald's and other restaurants at the previous petrol bunk. There was no way we would waste our time in the queue to oblige Ram. So we quickly found a tea vendor nearby, had some snacks and tea and off we were again. Krishnagiri was just 30km from there, and given its all downhill, it would take us around 45 mins to an hour.

We rolled on, reached Krishnagiri by 9:15 AM. The support crew were wiping out plates of pongal and vadas at A2B at this time, having had the luxury of spending some time in the queue. Ram was wild, so we got him to a restaurant in Krishnagiri near the Anjaneya temple - we were filling ourselves up when the Scorpio arrived.

After Breakfast, Ready to roll

Ram getting some help from Srini

Stretchhhhh

A little bit of goofing around later, we were on our way by 10:00 AM. We had covered 94 km in around 4.5 hours, which was pretty fast by our standards. This was the crucial moment for Thens, who thought over it for a looong time, which was around half a second, and made up his mind that he was going to continue riding till Salem with us and not return from Krishnagiri. He was enjoying the ride and our company so much that he decided it was worth taking his wife's wrath on.

The sun was peeking out from behind the gloomy clouds, making up its mind. It decided to be benign for sometime. We planned  to stop every 45 mins from now on, have a small break, recover ourselves a bit and continue. Sanath however started falling behind keeping his lower gear combination and spinning like crazy. To each his own, so we kept treading along at a good pace.

While Shasti and I borrowed dupattas, Ram was the most ingenious of the lot. He used his old lungi as head gear. Many jokes did the rounds about his creativity, but as this is a public forum I am bound not to reveal.

Anyway, this wasnt a brevet or a race, so we did take some time out to enjoy the scenery, to play around a little bit, generally just have a good time.

For a little streching...

Itching to get on the bike...but, not for now we said..

I had burning hot lemon tea in the middle of the day, thanks to Mr Kannan

We hit Dharmapuri (the Hogenekkal cross roads) exactly at 1 PM. Exactly and precisely and accurately. The temperature was rising, and we planned to get some lunch down our systems now. The support crew *chilled out* for a while before joining us for lunch.

After a longish break that involved stuffing quite some curd rice in us and some stretching, we hit the road at 2:00 PM. The sun clearly decided not to be friendly anymore. The 10 km from here to get out of the town to join the highway was consistently brutal, with a mild upward incline all the way. But having replenished, this wasnt really backbreaking, and the much anticipated Thoppur drop was yet to come.

We reached to Thoppur toll, to find the car guys parked after the toll. Apparently Ram had a flat around 6km before the toll, just next to a puncture shop. Sheer luck, or shady coincidence. After drawing flak from the puncture guy for removing the wheel himself (doesnt go well with professionals who dont like the know-it-all attitude that riders display), Ram got it fixed and was trudging ahead.

We continued ahead, and reached the Thoppur drop. One of the sweetest descents - long winding roads, mostly kept away from the headwinds by the hills, we were careful not to overdo and kept the speeds just below 50 kmph. This place is famous for its monkeys, and this day 8 more joined them for the fun. After this descent, we took a smallish break downing some juice and chikkis.

We were now 35 km from Salem. Our destination for the day. VK had some newfound energy and sprinted for a while along with Shasti. Thens and I took it easy rolling on nicely. About 25km before Salem, we decided to wait for the guys to catchup, so we can enter Salem together. We found a small temple on the other side of the road, and settled for a small nap. Which ofcourse didnt happen as we were chatting away all the time. It was around 4:20 PM and the sun was settling down.

We waited till 5 PM, called up Kannan and decided to move on as they were still around 8km away trying to match pace with Ram, which was proving to be quite a task! :P The break didnt do VK any good as his muscles started to seize. We moved along at an easy pace till around 10km from Salem city. I hit the accelerator then, as I was tiring a bit. I didnt want to lose focus so made called upon whatever "reserve energy" that might have been in me reaching the '5 road' junction at 5:30 PM. Once VK, Shasti, Thens and I regrouped, we made our way through the traffic towards the Collector's Bungalow, near which was the service apartment we booked for the day.

Rocket Ram

VK at this point had a bit of a scare with cramps and exhaustion, but he pulled through. We found the apartment, and when we were just entering the gate, Ram called me asking for directions. He was at the Salem toll, around 14km behind. I asked him to come till 5 roads and then give me a call.

We went to the second floor, surveyed the room, decided on the order of loo-usage, and began the wait for the Scorpio inside which was all our stuff. Ram called again to tell me he was at the 5 roads junction! Hardly 25 minutes and he had covered around 8 km!!! I was dumbstruck literally, and slowly managed to tell him we were only another 6km away. I had hardly put the phone down, and I get another call from Ram now telling me he was at the turn towards Yercaud. It must have been 30 seconds for all I know, and I was now in shock. He was only 2km away from us now. At this point, we theorized that Ram must be in the Scorpio and trying to fool us. To cross check, I called Kannan up, and they were now nearing the toll booth following Sanath!

I didnt quite believe any of them, and I had just put the phone down again and Ram was entering the apartment, sweating and panting like a greyhound. I decided I must be delirious and hallucinating now after the 210 km ride. We all were quite literally short of words because braving the traffic, exhaustion and every other thing thrown his way, Ram had literally rocketed the last 25km in an hour, best part of which was inside the city in the dark.

Ram was capable of some miracles and we were just given chapter 1 of this lesson.

Mighty Scorpio comes down

We settled on a wait for Sanath and the Scorpio guys who were pulling him along, while gulping down a few coffees each. Around 30 minutes later, we were told the guys are less than a kilometer away. I went down to greet them, and was waiting for the car to turn into our lane. It did, but it was so painfully slow that I thought they were pedaling inside it for fun. It was a few moments later that I realized it was being pushed!!!

Apparently the guys were driving so slow for so long, they'd blown a pipe inside and the clutch oil was leaking and hence was jammed. We all gathered and gave them a hand in pushing the car till the apartment. If I have to recollect every emotion on Sunil's face so far during our acquaintance and point out the troughs and peaks, this moment was the saddest I've seen him. He'd bought this car from someone just a month back, and was so in love with it - his face was just like a thin layer of packing foil covering a volcano - such a futile attempt to contain his grief.

We started reacting well after a few moments of dwelling on our misfortune. The guys found a 24x7 workshop, had the mechanic come over. This guy told us they had to take it back to the garage and the car would be back at 3 PM the next day latest. There was no time to mull over the repercussions on our schedule at this moment. It was going to cost a bomb as well. Kannan, Srini and Sunil went with the mech to the workshop to drop the car and check out the place and in the meanwhile we were freshening up.

Morality Vs Practicality

We had all assembled in the hall after freshening up and ordering dinner. Sanath pulled Thens along for some late night shopping, for God knows what.

And then the inevitable discussion opened - What do we do now?!

I am wired in a way that when I have planned out something very passionately, it has to work that way and I wouldnt take alterations so easily. My family has a love-hate opinion about this aspect of mine, and I was deeply aware of this side of me. So in my mind, we were still leaving at 4 AM next morning as planned, and the support guys would stay back and get the car when its done with.

VK took a strong objection to this, and wasnt going to leave the guys behind - it wasnt right morally.

Ram felt this way too, and Shasti was open - he would take it anyway it turned out because he wasnt being so rigid about it. Such flexibility was missing in me, and this discussion went on for a while, where we covered the entire range of possibilities and our responses to them.

I did see reason in VK and Ram's point, but a part of me wouldnt accept it. I wouldnt delve into the details of my reasoning and long story short - I gave in finally to starting late. I had a long face for a few minutes while I mulled over this turn of events - this was the right thing to do anyday, and I had to bring myself around and reset my mind to the new plan. The guys were understanding of my conflict and allowed it me those moments of introspection. This is precisely the reason I was going on this trip with these guys - we had bonded pretty well and these moments of unrest quickly melted.

The guys returned leaving the car at the garage and Ram conveyed the new plan. We all settled down for a few drinks and slowly the knot in my head was beginning to unravel. I was now perfectly alright with the new plan - when the best call of the evening came for Srini. The mechanic called to inform that the car will be available by 9 AM latest and he is pulling all stops to get it ready. Literally overjoyed with this development, we ate, drank and made merry. I was back in command of my head, we regrouped and decided we will start at 8 AM.

Relaxed after sorting things out

I had a big lesson for life, and I was seeing how the agenda is not everything. People are. We called them support staff for ourselves and when the turn came for us to show some support, I couldnt back myself. In many ways, how this situation was handled was a big step for me - and reinforces that when you do the right thing, circumstances turn around to be right for you!!

I went to sleep with a light head - the sort of deep sleep at the end of which you dont remember where you are and why you are there!

Day 1 - done.

Kanyakumari Expedition - The Planning Phase - Part 2

You might want to read about the Prologue and Planning Phase 1 if you havent already.

So with the route, stay and travel logistics sorted, we now had to concentrate on the bikes and packing.

At this point, in our team, I was the one with the maximum biking distance on my legs, and also the maximum in a day (the failed 300km brevet gave me 274). It was a good feeling, and I took on the responsibility of the bikes prep.

BOTS – The ultimate place for total support

Visit them here.

I had gone to BOTS for getting my bike serviced and also to get Shasti his new bike. My chain needed replacement and I had worn out the cassette too. But the 8 speed Shimano was not in stock, and I had to wait. However, Shasti found his new love, and paid an advance for it too then and there.

I was already working with BOTS for bike workshops at my workplace. Ajith Jagadish was working on some ideas for me and we were already hitting it off a little. So when I casually mentioned the Kanyakumari trip, he was super helpful in getting us some facetime with Naveen (a reputed pro), and a session on long distance riding and bike maintenance. Again, I could only marvel at the fact that when one wants something really badly, the universe conspires to help achieve it. All the right people were rallying around us and I was feeling quite positive.

There was the regular bootcamp at BOTS on 03-Aug held by Prem, and we stole some time after that for the session with Naveen. Everyone thought this was an ambitious attempt – I was only getting more psyched about it. Ram, Sunil, myself, Thenappan, VK, Shasti, Sanath made it to this session.

Naveen’s tips around on-the-ride body maintenance, was critical for our success. Everyone followed this religiously: small things like stopping every hour, filling ourselves up with 500ml water atleast, replenishing atleast 200 Calories, Salts through Gatorade and Electral etc. The result was a dream ride.

After the session, we got our Lubes, spare tubes, puncture kits etc. We had already got our Seatpost Racks, bungee cords, rainproof backpacks (15 litre), eyewear, floorpump, dryfits etc from Decathlon the previous week.

A big thanks goes to Shyamala, possibly the only woman mech in Bangalore - for going out of the way to get my bike ready in time. And doing such a wonderful job at it. Enough said when I point out that my bike was the only one among this group worked on by Shyamala, and was the only one without a single hitch (not even a rattle or a noise) in the entire ride, including the ride back home from the bus stop on return!

As BOTS were out of stock on tyre liners, we got Zefal ones from RR Cycles Marathalli. All except Ram. His busy schedule meant he couldn’t make it for getting tyre liners installed for which he paid dearly on the ride.

So anyway, we got our Gyaan session on body and bike maintenance on long rides, we got all the accessories sorted out, the bikes serviced and prepped. And we were pretty much itching to go.

Unlocking Smiles

This is one thing we are damn proud of.

As you might have read in the previous posts, we associated ourselves with a cause, supporting the organization Dream A Dream.

We got smiley stickers printed, 45 a sheet. The first attempt was a 10 minute slot in the weekly leadership team meeting. We managed to rake in INR 22k in 5 minutes!!! That sort of the set the ball moving and the expectations really high.

Smileys - pay, peel and stick

We put up stalls near our cafeteria, taking turns to man them, explain to the gatherers about the entire initiative, and convince them to part with their money for a good cause. It was all really an experience to cherish.

What I did realize in abundance is that it is damn hard to make people part with Rs 200 for a charity cause – and yet you will watch them go over to the cafeteria and spend on overpriced burgers, fries and carbonated drinks, throwing away at least Rs 150 on one lunch. So one readily pays to abuse his/her (myself included) body with junk, but to pay to remove abuse from someone else's life, it becomes quite difficult. It was a pretty demoralizing sight, but with Kannan around, there was no time to be demoralized :) We kept at it, I got rid of all the uneasiness in approaching people for money – at the end of the day, we were going to help small kids live a better life and have a better future.

There were some pleasant surprises in store too. We had Ashish Jha (who was also the photographer at the start point on Day 1 – he woke up at 4:00 AM to just send us off), who sold a full sheet of 45 stickers in a matter of a couple of hours. And then some more. He is not in the right job – he would make the perfect salesman.

Many others helped us in their own way in gathering funds and in three days, we had over a lakh rupees. The clincher being when our CEO met us casually, wished us well and when he asked us “How can I help you?”, Ram was quick to sell a full sheet to him! Rs 9000 in less than a minute J

So, we did pretty well in collecting funds. And naturally this ride became the marquee fund raising event of the year so far! My only complaint was that the link that was supposed to be open to outsiders as well (as in employees in other countries, other friends etc), never worked. I am sure we lost the opportunity to gather at least another two hundred thousand rupees. Such a shame!

Nevertheless, the response we saw was quite heartwarming, and provided us the much needed raise to the level of our accountability – we just had to complete the ride as promised. A lot was at stake, primarily our reputation and credibility because we collected funds before the ride!

Around August 8th, everything came to a halt, that few hours before we take the ride by the handlebar! I switched my office phone off. Ashish Jha was covering for me in my absence and I will not forget what he told me that evening "switch off your phone and forget everything. I will take care". I was leaving him in the middle of a storm at office he knew nothing about, and it takes some balls to say that and not hold a grudge on me.

Everything was set, the bags and the floorpump were already in Sunil's Scorpio, the bike was prepped, the mind was psyched up, blessings were taken from parents and inlaws, the alarms were set. And then I found out that I missed one thing - I wanted a lengthy piece of cotton cloth which I wanted to use as head and neck cover. In those moments of panic, my wife made the single most important contribution to my wardrobe - she gave me an old cotton dupatta which my dad helped cut and stitch into two pieces. For something seemingly so ordinary, my emphasis on its importance might sound bizarre - those pieces of cloth never left me the entire trip. Anyway, that sorted out the last open item.

I was now just a few hours of troubled sleep away from the biggest event of my cyclist life yet.

-- Coming next - Day 1 will be lived again right here :)

Kanyakumari Expedition - The Planning Phase - Part 1

For a roadtrip, the plan ofcourse starts with the route.

Shasti and I wanted to keep the trip as raw as possible. Stick to the highway and use every chance to explore some inroads and villages. Sleep where you can, stay where you can. Eat what you get and live with what you have.

But with the corporate angle coming in, and taking on the responsibility of a charity cause as well, the nomadic approach wouldnt stick it. We had to ensure that we did everything we could to succeed, leave no stones unturned. We were collecting money on the back of this ride, and we couldnt put that trust at jeopardy. And this would be our mantra for the entire planning effort, to not just get up and go, but treat this like a project.

The Route

The thumb rule for the route was to stick to the highways. No digression. Multiple reasons for this: a. We had to finish the ride within the set time, so no time to get lost and explore. b. Amenities and accessibility is better on the highways, help is at hand relatively easily. c. Roads were better d. Predictability was more.

Map: Bangalore to Kanyakumari on NH7

Overall distance - about 650 km +/- 20km

Start:                     Aug 9th, 4AM, Marathalli

First Stay point:      Aug 9th, 200km, Salem (backup - 150km, Dharmapuri)

Second Stay point:  Aug 10th, 170 km, Dindigul (backup 140km, Thannithotti)

Third Stay Point:     Aug 11th, 140 km, Kovilpatti 

Fourth Stay point:   Aug 12th, 140 km, Kanyakumari (backup 60 km - Tirunelveli)

If we ride on the fifth day (Aug 13th) morning, then around 80km on 5th day we will end up with.

The plan anyway was to be at Kanyakumari for the sunrise on 13-Aug.

A few of us were worried about the elevation, however, we dropped from around 960 meters above sea level at Bangalore to sea level at Kanyakumari. So one would assume you just got on the bike just outside of Bangalore and the bike will simply roll down to KK :)

It isnt that simple isnt it. So I pulled out an elevation map. It was promising, but sadly this is the natural elevation, it doesnt count the man-made elevations such as flyovers, bridges etc. It was to prove a little tricky on the trip.

So the route was set. 

The riders and the rides

Shasti had sold his Rockrider 5.0 about 2 weeks before the ride and he had come with me to BOTS to check out some bikes. He fell in love with the Bergamont Helix 2.3, and made an advance payment on the spot. 

However, he had to wait a week for the bike to arrive, which was finally on Jul 31, about a week and a half before the ride.

For the first day ofcourse, my Sira buddy Thenappan was coming too. His initial plan was to come till Krishnagiri and then return on the bike, but all that was to change :) Our company was to prove irresistible :) 

So the final set:

Anand Devanathan (yours truly) - Bergamont Vitox 7.2

Shastisulochan Subburaman - Bergamont Helix 2.3

Venkatesh Kulkarni - Riverside 1

Ramachandran Subramanian - Schwinn Sporterra

Sanath Kumar S D - Trek 4300

Thenappan Meyyappan (for Day 1) - Schwinn Searcher

The Support Crew

About a week before the ride, Partha had a personal exigency due to which he wasnt going to join the trip. It was rather unfortunate as Partha was pretty enthusiastic about the trip. We now needed a car and company for Srini. So we turned to the ever dependable Sunil Kulkarni. We begged, pleaded and kept at it till he relented. He initially wanted to ride but an impending knee surgery meant he was forbidden to ride. So he was going to be in his Scorpio. 

Two is company, three is crowd they say. However, when you are driving at crazily slow speeds, taking care of everything else on the trip while the riders are on the road, a third pair of hands was going to make a stellar difference. And it had to be someone who had the wits and wherewithal to handle the two mavericks. Who better than the man, Kannan Sundaram. He was heading the community initiative anyway and the trip was close to him in more ways than one. So it wasnt really a great task in getting him to be on the road with us.

So after a period of uncertainty and a bit of mild panic, things were settled. And the mild panic wasnt at all unjustified, as we found out during the trip. We became so heavily dependent on these three guys who literally were our caretakers, was it not for them, we'd have definitely struggled tremendously to realize the collective dream.

The car: Scorpio

The Support Crew:

Sunil Kulkarni

Srinivasan Venkatakumar

Kannan Sundaram (not a great online presence, not even on FB I say!)

Just so the readers can put faces to the names, here are a couple of pics.

L to R: Ram, Myself, Sunil, Kannan, Shasti, VK, Srini

Second from Left: Sanath, Second from Right: Thenappan

The training

About a month prior to the ride, I had a vague training plan which involved biking, and some amateur gymming and swimming thrown in. 

But when you truly want something, you attract the right people to help you achieve it. VK got us the support of Suraj Melurraman, who is in the Admin department at our office. 

I hadnt met him personally, and VK arranged for a brief session with him for the group, around third week of July. In walked a young lad, as lean and upright as a nail, with such a broad smile it covered his face.

For a moment I was taken aback, as I really didnt know about his past experience and I thought it was a joke, making us learn from someone at best my age, worse if he was younger - I mean, what sort of credibility would this boy have. 

Turned out, he is an Air Force veteran - a paramedic, having served for more than 18 years, took his retirement in 2008 and joined the corporate world. Which makes him pretty elder to me :) And he touched upon briefly on his career and his experience in adventure and endurance sports. When those words came out of his mouth about his experience, my lower jaw must have hit the floor. I was an instant fan. I was going to be clay in his hands.

He graciously accepted to train us for the next 10 working days. This was bootcamp. I loved the ring of it immediately. What made it even more appealing was his promise to break us, to kill us during these 10 days, so we survive the 4 days of ride. We all signed up for 7 AM trainings at our office gym.

The first day was not bad at all. It was a Friday and we were stretched for around 2.5 hours of gymming which included an hour of running. It was tiring, but no way breaking me. My body was holding pretty well, was impressed with myself to say the least :) So when we were done, I was cocky and told him this was bearable. And he said "Ofcourse, this is your first day, so we only did 30% of whats in store Monday onwards". I ran away as quickly as I can.

What we learnt during these two weeks was what saved us on the ride. Suraj taught us specific exercises, On the ride stretches, First Aid, Emergency responses etc. I did my first 8km run (my previous best being 5km) during this bootcamp. 

Its hard to believe for many that the ride went without a single disabling cramp, a single accident or muscle pull or anything of that sort. We stuck to his instructions to the T, and my body took all the beating and abuse with such ease, it gives me tremendous self-pride. All down to this man.

Apart from this, there was ofcourse the training rides themselves. We did a 85km, a 40km and a 130 km during the two weekends before the ride. Not much to write home about, but they did serve well in bonding and improving our group dynamics.

Logistics

Shasti was incharge of booking our stays - he had it all covered. He was surprised at his influence in TamilNadu himself :) So many people had come out to help us out with the stay, he was a happy man. And we owed a lot of people already.

Shasti also collected emergency contacts and such information from all, put them all in a nice list, gave us each a printout that we could leave with the family. This also included the details of where we were staying, the contact numbers of the hotels etc. This went a long way in putting the family at ease.

I called SRS travels in Kanyakumari for the return journey with the bikes. They helped greatly in arranging for a smooth experience, and I got ourselves tickets for 3 people and 5 bikes in the 9 PM Volvo from Nagercoil, the night of 13-Aug. The rest of the gang would return in the Scorpio starting whenever they wanted, but being on time on 14-Aug to collect their bikes from the bus stop :)

Srini was our designated photographer. He got his Rs 40k camera with lens options, one of which was Rs 1,00,000. No kidding, thats what he told us, over a hundred times to make his point. Probably the most carefully handled equipment on the trip, even ahead of our bikes, was his lens :P

What remained were our packing checklist, Bike prep, bike maintenance bootcamp. Details of which -- To be continued.

The Kanyakumari Expedition - Prologue

I have just returned after a stupendous biking trip from Bangalore to Kanyakumari. Inarguably the most daring and most adventurous that I have been in my life so far. To put it in a mildly grand manner, this was my Magnum Opus on the bike, and so in my books this calls for recording every moment that I can recall (which would ofcourse be almost all of it), and I am going to be spending good time putting them down here.

I’ll cover as much detail as possible, the ups, the downs, the chaos, the camaraderie, the squabbles, the planning, the execution, the pain, the pleasure, the blocks, the questions, the answers, the travails, the glory and above it all, the brotherhood.

Aug 9 – 13 2013, are my most interesting days on a bicycle. And it all started with a passing idea in April.

How it all started

With a cocky email from me to a bunch of buddies on the 8^th of April, 2013.

“All,

We live one life. Lets do something that we can be really proud of!

There is enough time to plan something big.

Plan is to ride to Kanyakumari, and be back by bus/train. 

Ride Distance: 640 km

No of days: 4 on bicycle, 1 in bus

Average distance per day = 150 km (just two times what we did this Saturday, with ample rest time each day)

Average ride time per day = 5 hours, if we have sufficient training, this should be a cake walk.

Best time: August – October, just after the rains and just before the chills

Aug 9^th and 15^th are off. So if we take 12, 13, 14 off – we get 7 days.

Who is in? “

I had mixed response for this email, with only Shasti being pretty excited about it. Others were interested, but weren’t decided. VK thought we were fools to “just do it” and that we should make something out of it. He was in if it was associated with some cause that we could give back to, and if we had some support for the riders, like a support car or something.

So since April, Shasti and I had made up our minds that we were riding no matter what, and we’ll just wait to see how it turns out. We had a vague training plan, which was mostly long rides over the weekends. We did the Sira 200 km brevet in between, Shasti had to pull out due to bike issues – we knew he had to change his bike if we were to attempt KK.

While we were at it in our own way, word spread in our office. I was also asked to launch the Cycle to work initiative at office, which I thought was an honour, and when we were looking at ways to create some momentum and interest, I was asked to publish that we were doing the KK ride.

How the riders lined up, one foot at a time :)

Along came the Community team, who had a brilliant idea to back the ride with a cause. VK was getting excited and soon we had people express interest and sign up. Parthasarathy Honnappa, one of my good friends in office, volunteered to bring on a support car. Srinivasan Venkatakumar was joining the support crew as well. This was the clincher for VK and he was in. 

Other friends came on board and then dropped off due to unavoidable exigencies. Sanath Kumar (my non Tesco friend) wanted to join as well. We persuaded Ram to join, I always held Ram in high regard due to his sheer determination and mental strength and I thought it would be a most welcome addition to what would be the ultimate test of strength till date – we could benefit with him around.

I literally dragged VK to get himself a new bike, and he got himself a Riverside 1. It was a trade off for him, since he wasn’t so sure if he was going to bike so frequently to invest more in a bike. Ram was in two minds, and I had more than clearly told him he wasn’t doing the ride on his Olympus, that he got for some 50 GBP on a seconds sale. It wasn’t just cutting it, so we begged Bijoy Francis who got a shiny new Schwinn Sporterra, to lend his bike, he graciously agreed – but I could see his anxiousness picturing Ram on the shiny new bike :P Shasti got himself a Bergamont Helix 2.3, just a week before the ride. The nailbiting wait etc will follow in further chapters :)

So the riders were settled. It was going to be 4 of us from our office and Sanath.

The Charity Cause

Around 650 km was what we were attempting on a bicycle. The age group was 31-40. We were probably a few years or a few months away from hitting our mid-life crisis, depending on which side of the age group we were on. And we were just a bunch of amateurs getting too cocky.

It was indeed our magnum opus on a bicycle, and it would have been a shame not to use this for something special that we would all be really proud of, and ofcourse use that as our motivation to do the ride.

So we decided to associate ourselves with Dream A Dream – read about them here

This was entirely VK’s pet project – to support a cause, and it showed – his enthusiasm was pretty contagious. So we worked out a campaign, named it Unlock Smiles. The idea was to have smiley stickers, each of which would be worth Rs 200. So anyone can buy as many stickers as they want, and the money would directly go to DAD. What we did to cover this aspect deserves a post in itself, so more later. The short version is, we collected more than Rs One Hundred Thousand, in less than a week. This was our EPO for the tour, which incidentally, was named Tour De Smile!

So now we had a cause, a vague plan, riders, bikes. All we had to do was firm up and cover the loose ends and we were all set to go. But if only it was that simple when you put quite a bit at stake :)

--To be continued.

Sweet Revenge and a bit of training for the big bash!

A lot has been happening on the bike since my Anchetty ride.

Having taken that failure in spirit, I still couldnt get it out of my system, and I had to miss all the longer rides to keep the balance within the family.

So I signed up for the Sira 200 km brevet, which would do for a while as my revenge for the Anchetty failure.

Cutting the long story short, for want of space for other updates, I did it. It was a tough one, since my back ache (of which I have a nice long history) acted up again, and my fellow rider from my apartment Thenappan, had to keep spraying Moov at every single halt. I almost emptied the new spray I bought, numbing my back to finish the ride just under 13 hours. It was by far the slowest 200km I have done - but that didnt matter. I finished in time, and the feeling was Sweeettt.

No clicks during the ride, and I remembered after we ended the ride that I should take one for posterity :)

Thats Thenappan and me. Pain in my lower back still showing in my face :)

Training for the Kanyakumari Expedition

Oh yes! I am doing my dream ride, starting the 09th of August. A separate post will follow soon, but for now, I am training as much as I can, doing a lot of rides, attending a week's conditioning bootcamp, cycling workshops etc. Will it suffice, I will know in a few days. But Boy am I pumped up or what!!!

So we are 4 from my office, and one of my biker friends - so in total 5 who will be riding, and 3 of my buddies from office have graciously accepted to be our support system. I am also supporting a charity for kids, and this is the marquee fund raising event for this year in my company. So a lot riding on the ride, so to speak!!! :)

Did a 85 km, a 130km, and a few 40+ km rides after the Sira brevet as training rides. Did my first 8km run during the conditioning camp and a lot of such small sweet achievements. All of that in a different post soon.

I've had loads and loads of fun the past two weeks. Some photos to save some of those moments :)

L to R: VK, Atul, Ram, Shasti, Thenappan. VK, Ram, Shasti, and myself ride to Kanyakumari.

Halfway mark, around 64km done, not a sweat broken :)

Sun takes a little bit of toll, but the face is just the "get me beer" face.

So, its an eventful life. More about it sooon.