I have not been much of a religious person, however, over last four years I seem to have become a bit religious, to be more precise, ritualistic about one thing. Ganapathy (my junior from IISc, also refered as Gana) and I have agreed to follow a rule that we would do a cycle ride (or do a trek in case cycling is not possible) on the three national holidays (in India) for the rest of our lives. I'm glad we have been able to keep up with this ritual for past four years, especially in doing the Independence day rides. In this post, I'd like to share some experiences of the Independence day rides that we have done so far.
In the year 2013, Gana and I did Bangalore to Mangalore via Kukke Subramanya (400kms, three days), which shall be remembered for the great hospitality from my aunts Seethalakshmi and Uma on Varamalakshmi festival in my native, Hassan. The third day of the ride shall also be remembered for completing 100kms in just four hours from Kukke to Mangalore as we spent time leisurely at the Kukke Subramanya temple, which also happens to be Gana's family deity. The ride culminated with us having an ice cream at the famous Ice cream parlour called Pabba's (in Mangalore).
In the year 2014, Gana, Tejas, Kaustubh, Sanath and I did the ride from Mangalore to Goa on the NH66, which is a coastal highway till Panjim. That ride also involved temple visits, such as Udupi Sri Krishna temple and Murdeshwara. We also had amazing temple food, which was served to all the pilgrims. The high point of the trip was the stay at Maravanthe beach near Kundhapura - the exquisite view of the beach from our room and photo shoot before leaving the beach will be remembered for a long time. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much that I wanted to spend time with my wife at the same beach and hence I took her to the same place the very next week!
In the year 2015, Gana and I wanted to continue our romance with the coast. We planned to do Goa to Mumbai on the coastal route, which mostly comprised of state highways. We covered little more than 500kms in four days after which we had to abandon the ride as my cycle got damaged near HariHareshwar (as I fell into a pit, thankfully without hurting much). This cycle ride was the toughest and by far the most scenic route of all my rides till date. While the Konkan route kept us guessing the ups and downs ahead, we thoroughly enjoyed the Maharashtrian cuisine such as misalpav, bhaji, vada pav, pav bhaji, pohe and sheera at various local food joints on the coast. One more thing we'll remember is the ferry rides at Jai ghad, Dabhol, Anjerle, Kleshi and Harihareshwar, which was quite amusing.
This year (2016) we were dreaming to do a ride from Manali to Leh, but unfortunately we couldn't execute it for various reasons, however, since we are bound by the rule to do a cycle ride, Gana came up with an alternate plan, that was to do a two day ride from Shimoga to Mangalore via Agumbe (220 kms), which lies in the rain belt of western ghats. Tejas and Gokul also joined the ride this time. This ride was quite amusing in terms of the food we had at Dhodamane in Agumbe and the wonderful descent from Agumbe to Karkala via Someshwara Temple while it rained heavily. We also visited a place very near to Shimoga called Mathur where people converse in Sanskrit. The view of Thunga river was amazing from various points of our journey, especially at Hariharapura, where we stayed for a night.
While all these rides have stress tested our body and mind at different levels, it has also been an interesting learning in terms of getting a glimpse into the lives of our people in different regions. It has only made us realise how fortunate we are in terms of city comforts and also how unfortunate we are in terms of living a complicated life filled with anomalous greed. The adversities such as cycle tyre puncture and various other malfunctionings of the cycle have made us better engineers than what we were and also realise that how vulnerable we are in spite of all the preparations that we can put in. Well, there is many things to write, perhaps about each and every ride that we have done, but for now I'll conclude it by thanking our close friend from IISc, Dr. Arulalan ( Assistant Professor at NITK Surathkal), who has been a super awesome host at Mangalore for more than four rides (if we include the republic day rides too). We have done many rides for the pure love for ice cream at Pabba's located near Mangalore bus stand and hoping Arul would treat us there! ;)
In the year 2013, Gana and I did Bangalore to Mangalore via Kukke Subramanya (400kms, three days), which shall be remembered for the great hospitality from my aunts Seethalakshmi and Uma on Varamalakshmi festival in my native, Hassan. The third day of the ride shall also be remembered for completing 100kms in just four hours from Kukke to Mangalore as we spent time leisurely at the Kukke Subramanya temple, which also happens to be Gana's family deity. The ride culminated with us having an ice cream at the famous Ice cream parlour called Pabba's (in Mangalore).
In the year 2014, Gana, Tejas, Kaustubh, Sanath and I did the ride from Mangalore to Goa on the NH66, which is a coastal highway till Panjim. That ride also involved temple visits, such as Udupi Sri Krishna temple and Murdeshwara. We also had amazing temple food, which was served to all the pilgrims. The high point of the trip was the stay at Maravanthe beach near Kundhapura - the exquisite view of the beach from our room and photo shoot before leaving the beach will be remembered for a long time. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much that I wanted to spend time with my wife at the same beach and hence I took her to the same place the very next week!
In the year 2015, Gana and I wanted to continue our romance with the coast. We planned to do Goa to Mumbai on the coastal route, which mostly comprised of state highways. We covered little more than 500kms in four days after which we had to abandon the ride as my cycle got damaged near HariHareshwar (as I fell into a pit, thankfully without hurting much). This cycle ride was the toughest and by far the most scenic route of all my rides till date. While the Konkan route kept us guessing the ups and downs ahead, we thoroughly enjoyed the Maharashtrian cuisine such as misalpav, bhaji, vada pav, pav bhaji, pohe and sheera at various local food joints on the coast. One more thing we'll remember is the ferry rides at Jai ghad, Dabhol, Anjerle, Kleshi and Harihareshwar, which was quite amusing.
This year (2016) we were dreaming to do a ride from Manali to Leh, but unfortunately we couldn't execute it for various reasons, however, since we are bound by the rule to do a cycle ride, Gana came up with an alternate plan, that was to do a two day ride from Shimoga to Mangalore via Agumbe (220 kms), which lies in the rain belt of western ghats. Tejas and Gokul also joined the ride this time. This ride was quite amusing in terms of the food we had at Dhodamane in Agumbe and the wonderful descent from Agumbe to Karkala via Someshwara Temple while it rained heavily. We also visited a place very near to Shimoga called Mathur where people converse in Sanskrit. The view of Thunga river was amazing from various points of our journey, especially at Hariharapura, where we stayed for a night.
While all these rides have stress tested our body and mind at different levels, it has also been an interesting learning in terms of getting a glimpse into the lives of our people in different regions. It has only made us realise how fortunate we are in terms of city comforts and also how unfortunate we are in terms of living a complicated life filled with anomalous greed. The adversities such as cycle tyre puncture and various other malfunctionings of the cycle have made us better engineers than what we were and also realise that how vulnerable we are in spite of all the preparations that we can put in. Well, there is many things to write, perhaps about each and every ride that we have done, but for now I'll conclude it by thanking our close friend from IISc, Dr. Arulalan ( Assistant Professor at NITK Surathkal), who has been a super awesome host at Mangalore for more than four rides (if we include the republic day rides too). We have done many rides for the pure love for ice cream at Pabba's located near Mangalore bus stand and hoping Arul would treat us there! ;)
