Bicycle Expedition: My return

I have returned yesterday after cycling 220kms. My father developed an acute discomfort and we decided it was unwise to continue anymore as his discomfort would then aggravate. We cycled first to Madurantakam 75 Kms away from my house on the first day, then to vizhupuram 84 Kms away from Madurantakam and then to Vadalur 66 Kms away from Vizhupuram. From Vadalur we returned by bus.
All in all, it was a good experience testing our stamina, confidence and perseverance. It also shattered our ego- slept under tree on roadside; took food along with the laborers (idly costs Rs. 2 /-); but for once we did not buy any packaged water bottle and hence we have to ask someone in the houses on our route.

On our route we visited ‘Eri kaatha Ramar kovil’ in Madurantakam, ‘Panakattu Eshwarar’ in Vizhupuram and ‘Vallalar’s Sutha Sanmaarga sangam ‘in Vadalur. We also learnt about existence of very important (very ancient) temples in panruti (which were not listed in internet) but missed to visit those places.

Few things that I noted are (though many of them have noticed it before):

* Everybody have mobile phone- saw some unheard mobile models-Recollected Dr. Ashok Junjunwala’s speech in our company's function Unicode 2009
* Nothing moves without touch of political party. Everybody is associated with some or other political party.
* Lots of usage of English words in normal conversation.

* When we travel by car/bus/bike we miss to note how our city / towns were rotten by pollution-which is very apparent when we commute by some slow moving vehicles such as cycle. In many a places I couldn’t breathe because of the foul odor, especially

- From Madambakkam to Tambaram

- From Tambaram to Guduvanchery

- Singaperumal kovil

- 5 Kms to Thindivanam

That is all the places nearing the city/towns were polluted heavily.

May be our government is doing their best, I don’t know. But what I feel is, unless these are kept clean we are creating a very bad world for our generations to live. May be some trust/ NGO should take such activities and employ some labor to clean such areas. It cannot be done by an individual. It should be done by some group of individual / Government. Lot of awareness campaign is required in this area.

* In the route, every two kilometers, there is a SOS telephone call booth- I was not aware of that earlier. Such SOS phones are on both sides of the road. While appreciating the idea, the one who implemented it could have given little more thought to the idea and make it still more useful. Instead of having SOS phones on both the sides of the road opposite to each other it could have been kept at interval of one km on alternating side of the road. By this, with the same number of instruments, easier access to phone could have been made. After all, one who wants to make a call can always cross the road to use the phone booth.
* Few of the villagers, without any inhibitions, asked us why we were travelling in cycle. Few could appreciate the task and few criticized it. When our objective was clear to us, such criticism did not affect us (I was wondering why I was not hitherto reflecting it in work environment)


Thanks for your support and wishes.