Cycling-Bangalore-Chennai-Pondicherry-12-17 Jan 2013

Dear friends,

Most of you are aware, hitherto, I had always gone on solo bicycle ride from Bangalore to interior parts of Maharashtra to Nasik, Mumbai, interior parts of Tamil Nadu to Kanyakumari for long distance cycling. For the first time I had a chance to lead a group of 12 member from Bangalore to Chennai and Pondicherry. The journey was meticulously planned and all the logistic arrangements including foods & beverages were made with the involvement of a professional event organizer. There was a support vehicle following us to provide technical / emergency help besides stocking our luggage. We started off from Bangalore on the morning of 12th Jan 2013 and via Mulbagal, Chittoor and Kanchipuram reached Chennai on 15th Jan 2013 and via Mahabalipuram reached Pondicherry on 17th Jan 2013 covering a distance of around 500+ kms in 6 days. 

The purpose of cycling was to spread the message of Peace thru' service enunciated by Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka. During this week long journey, the group met thousands of ordinary people, students, business people, housewives and other sections of community en route, through impromptu roadside meetings and structured discussions with students at various schools and shared with them the need to pitch in a way one can to help improve community living. This event was flagged off by Rotary District Governor  (RI Dist 3190) Rtn Badri Prasad on 12^th Jan 2013 from outside ITPL complex in Whitefield.   

It is pertinent to note that most of the members were freshers for long distance cycling. Despite initial hick up they managed to stay on and successfully completed the journey safely. It was an exciting, memorable & challenging journey. It was heartening to note that one member who had complained about leg pain on first 3 days was seen ahead of many others during later part of the journey. What was really satisfying for me was his comment on reaching Pondicherry " Bhat sir! What happened to my leg pain? How is that it got vanished?" To this I replied " You have killed that pain. Pain was really not in your legs but was in your mind and you attacked the root cause"

We made return journey by bus leaving Pondicherry on 18^th Jan evening & reaching Bangalore on 19^th Jan 2013 morning.

This ride gave me an opportunity to experience & differentiate between solo ride & group ride. In solo ride you are on your own; you can stop whenever and wherever you want as neither you have to wait for any body nor some one has to wait for you. At the same time in solo ride, you are alone to handle any issue that may crop up during the journey. In group ride, there are other members to help you out besides support vehicle following the group to provide all necessary support. 

List of participants-Cycling-Bangalore-Chennai-Pondicherry- 12 Jan - 18 Jan 2013
S.No.	Name	From	Age
1	RG Bhat	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	60
2	Srinivas Kumar C	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	33
3	Ramu Nimmalapudi	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	39
4	Ajay Bansal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	37
5	Prasanna	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	32
6	Sandeep Mittal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	50
7	Mrs Bindu Mittal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central
8	Devansh Mittal	Rotary B'lore Whitefield Central	16
9	Rtn.BR Sridhar	Rotary B'lore South	41
10	Rtn.M R Loknath	Rotary B'lore South	51
11	Rtn.Chandrashekar HM	Rotary B'lore North West	40
12	Roshan Naveen	Roadtractor Club of B'lore South	25
13	Arvind Shekar	Non Rotarian	21