Sanjeevini Cycling - Day 1

Mission – Cycling from Shirley to Lincoln (102 miles - 164 kms)

Days – 19-Sep-2009 & 20-Sep-2009

Hosts in Lincoln for Sanjeevini Trust – Dr.Ian and Dr.Rama

www.sanjeevinitrust.com

Cycling Team Members
Rahul Raghuraman – Enthusiastic and Energetic 22yr old
Dr.Shreeram Deshpande (Ram) – Orthopaedic surgeon, Mission Director
Dr.Seshagiri (Sesh or Giri) – Urologist, Trustee of Sanjeevini Trust.
Dr.Smita Deshpande – Surgeon, Trained & Casual Cyclist
Varun Deshpande – 13 year old, Young blood. What a spirit!!!!
Vinod Parthasarathy – Cycling for the first time in 15 years.

It was a casual chat with Giri on 12th of September at my home about the cycling event and the members who will be cycling to Lincoln. Suddenly I have a thought why should not I join the team. Had an immediate consultation with my motivator (who else? It is Veebha.) And go-ahead was a reply even without giving time for a second thought. I have a bike, but have not practiced; we thought we have another 5 days to practice. With full cheers I have informed Giri that I will be joining the team for the Lincoln cycling event.

Out of the five days we had before the event, I just cycled for 12 miles in two days. To be frank, I was a bit tensed on the day before. But still I was confident that I can do this task.

The day has come, 19th September 2009, a pleasant morning. The plan was myself and Giri join the rest of the team in Ram’s house at 8.00am. Veebha gave us a good breakfast with a nice coffee.

We started from home at 7.45 am in Giri’s Renault Espace by squeezing our bikes in the back of the car. Veebha and Ramya came down to say goodbye to us. On the way we pumped up air for our bikes in the near by petrol station. We were on time at Ram’s house. Smita’s mom (Latha Kartha) one of the support person for the cycling team welcomed us. Badri’s (the second support person for the team) car entered the compound in another 5 minutes time. Food for the day has been loaded in the support vehicle. (Unfortunately we did not take the photograph of the food box; you know it was soooo big).

Three cyclists Ram, Smita and Varun are from the same family. All the three walked out in a couple of minutes time with all their cycling gears in place. And finally Rahul the sixth cyclist arrived on his bike.

Now all set for the mission. With a quick photographic session the team started pedalling their bikes exactly at 8.55am. I still had the confidence that I am going to do it with the rest of the team members successfully. The team passed thru the Solihull town centre. 15 minutes passed, I just felt for a second that whether I have committed a mistake by volunteering to cycle till Lincoln, and immediately I said to myself “NO- I CAN DO IT”.

This is the first time I am using a geared cycle in my life, and I was struggling to understand initially what is going on with those gears (of course as a mechanical engineer I know how gears work and the purpose of gears). Still remember Ram keep on telling me to put my gears up to apply less effort to move forward. Technically he was right, but my legs did not understand what Ram told me.

There came a break at 9.15, in around 20 minutes of our start. Smita’s back tyre was flat. Ram quickly gave a call to the support team for a cycle pump. That was a bonus break for me to season myself. We started peddling again at 9.30 and cycled for around 10 miles and we stopped in a village pub at 10:15 for a quick break. To be frank I was OK. I gained more confidence as time passed. Again a quick photo session before starting from that point.

The map which we carried did not help and Ram has to take out his mobile to navigate us from thereon. Aunty and Badri were ahead of us in the support vehicle and were waiting in a calm place for us to feed us. At 11.45 we met but decided not to have lunch now and to cycle for another 1 hour before we stop again for lunch. We utilised the brake to have strawberries and some snacks, quickly we shot some snaps. I think this was the distance Ram and Smita would have expected Varun to cycle. But I did not see any tiredness in Varun’s face. We refilled our water bottles and started pedalling again.

As time passed by, I can feel that my legs slowly reduced its speed to cope up with others. I reduced my gears, this time Rahul pushed me to increase my gears and put up the speed. Wherever you find some berries, fruits, vegetables on the way, there was one person from our team to pluck those and share it with others. Yes it was Smita. Around 1.30 Aunty and Badri were waiting for us in a very calm place alongside the road to boost our energy (what else… it is our lunch time). We were ready to eat anything that’s offered to us. But to our surprise we had Bread and chenna masala for vegetarians and Bread with chicken masala for non-vegetarians, finally to finish with we had some great strawberries. Seriously I wanted to sleep after having my lunch. But our mission director has already started looking at the directions for the rest of the day in his blackberry. Gave a quick update to Veebha about the morning session and about our lunch. More than me she was worried whether I will be able to do this task, because she very well knows how fit I am.

The team had a brisk start after 40 minutes of lunch break. The team had some quick drinks break every one hour or so and rest of the afternoon went on peacefully. Every one of us other than Rahul carried water bottle with us. But Rahul carried his back bag all along the route (should weigh at least 5kgs). It has couple of water bottles, biscuits, some fruits etc., as time passed by my cycling speed reduced; Now Giri has an excuse to pedal slowly. Ram, Smita, Rahul and Varun had gone ahead a mile and were waiting on a left. Oh Yeah! There was a sign board which pointed to say “East Leak” 1 ½ miles, the destination for the first day. We did not miss to take a photograph on this left turn. After half a mile there was a huge downhill, was happily cycling, suddenly something came in my mind, oh no I have to climb the hill back again tomorrow morning, but that thinking subsided quickly because we have reached the destination for the day.

We had a quick photo session to complete the day’s cycling. Aunty did not forget to send the photos taken on the evening to send it to Veebha and Ramya from her iphone. It is time for Badri and Aunty to head back home. We unloaded our luggages’ from Badri’s car and said goodbye to them for the day.

Sheeba’s Bed and Breakfast.
A man in his late 60s, Mr.Barry was the owner of the B&B. He welcomed us and we had a quick introduction with him and right from the beginning he was keen in enquiring about the cycling trip and about Sanjeevini. Our initial plan was the team will split and stay in two B&Bs, but Barry decided to accommodate us in the same B&B with some additional beds in place.

Almost everyone needed a shower before the dinner. We decided to go out for dinner, Smita has already enquired about the nearest available restaurants. There was a church just opposite to the B&B. The clock stuck 7.00 when we started walking. We zeroed in an Indian restaurant and fortunately there were places to sit as soon as we entered. Varun entered the restaurant after confirming whether burger and pizzas are available there. Rahul joined us in the restaurant after finishing in pint of beer in the Lions Head pub.

We had some nice chat about the days cycling before the food arrived. In 20 minutes time the food were on the table. Giri, Smita and Rahul shared the vegetable supreme pizza, Varun was with his burger, Ram with his roti and chicken curry and myself with roti and tadka dal (one of my favourite).

Barry was cooking his dinner when we came back to Sheeba’s, Ram was taking some suggestions from him about the route we have to take the next morning. During the course of conversation Barry has offered some huge discount on our tariff and has offered GPB20 towards Sanjeevini as his contribution.

Back on the room, I was watching x-factor, Rahul was reading some book, and Giri was working on the PowerPoint presentation for the next day. Had a quick chat about the day with Veebha on phone and enquired about the first day of Navaratri. I do not know at what time I slept (definitely before 10pm). I heard church clock chiming every hour right from early morning 3’o clock.

contd.....

Sanjeevini - Cycling Day 2

At 6.30am we woke up and had a quick shower. I was fresh enough for the days cycling. I think I had a good sleep overnight. Everyone was present in the breakfast table at 8.00am. We had a good chat in the table while having the hot breakfast with coffee made by Mr.Barry. In the mean time the support team is back with the car. Badri did not forget to ask us whether we need to check the tyre pressure of our bikes. We loaded the bags back in the car and took a couple of snaps with Mr.Barry before we said good bye to him.

The team did not forget to do some stretch exercises (not much) before starting. At 9.00am we started pedalling for the day. Fortunately we started in the opposite direction of the way we came (I was happy that we have avoided the uphill to start with) on the previous day. First hour passed happily without much strain. I have recharged myself physically and mentally overnight for today’s cycling. Time passed by, we took a right turn to enter a village, and we saw an uphill there, I thought I am going to walk in that stretch, finally decided to follow Rahul as he leads us in any uphill. Got thru that and was amazed to see another uphill which is steeper than the previous one. I decided to put my gears down to the lowest and move up slowly. As usual Rahul was there on the top even before I started pedalling. Suddenly we saw Rahul running down just to encourage us pedal fast. Next to reach the top were Ram and Giri, followed by Smita. Varun managed to reach the top with his full efforts. Finally there comes Vinod to the top (you would have watched Mr.Bean pedalling very fast and moving very slowly in the movies. Exactly the same thing happened there with me cycling to the top. Ram did see Mr.Bean in me at that point of time). This was the steepest uphill till now. We stopped there for a couple of minutes to take rest. There were around 50 cyclists passed us at that time in the hill without much effort, at that point I thought why we have to do regular workouts to keep myself fit. Smita took some photographs of the team and we started to move on. Things were pretty cool after that.

The actual route is to go thru A45 for 21 miles which is a busy stretch with single carriage way (it is called expressway), so we were advised to avoid that road as far as possible. Initially we have to cross thru that road for around 2 miles in the morning. We were so close to the vehicles and I remember somebody hitting Giri with a bunch of paper from the car which is a major distraction for any cyclist. We had our first stop in a petrol station to refill our water bottles. We have requested Badri and Aunty to come to the petrol station. Varun decided give some rest to his bike and to his legs and took a break from the cycling team and joined the support team. I think that was quite a long drinks break for us than expected. Utilised the time to speak to Veebha for a quick update on the teams progress.

Now the team have decided to avoid the A45 for the remaining distance and to take a different route with some additional 8 miles for the day. We took a cycling route to Newark for 14 miles. In between we stopped for lunch at round 1.45pm. Ram’s mobile as well needed some food (charge) from Badri’s car as the mobile as the key member in our team which is helping us navigating to Lincoln. We were so hungry and again it was a feast for the lunch. Chicken biriyani prepared by aunty for non-vegetarians and puliyodharai and curd rice prepared by Badri for vegetarians. We literally sat on the road (since that was a cycling route not much of a traffic) to have our lunch. Every time we meet Badri, he did not miss to encourage us and about the speed we progress.

Post lunch was very nice to cycle. Had another 28 miles to complete the mission. All the roads were very calm and we crossed couple of villages, Rahul and Ram were heading the show, followed by Smita, Giri and myself. Most of the places we cycled were green and it was pleasant as well. Climate did understand our problems and it was fine thru out the day for cycling. As time passed by whenever there is an uphill, I struggled to climb that. Other than that things were pretty good.

We have another 18 miles to complete the mission. Dr.Raghuraman and Krishna joined us on their car which was a second support vehicle. There was another photo session in Dr.Raghu’s digital SLR. Next hour was quite good, especially the roads we crossed during the hour was too good. There was one stretch of a road which was covered by trees on both the sides for about one and half miles. Now there was a slight confusion in the route we have to take. Ram browsed thru his navigator to finalize the final route for the destination which is 10 miles away now. Our hero Varun is back on track again in his bike to cover the final distance.

After a quick break we started to pedal again. We can see sign boards now saying Lincoln. Everyone was happy. Just before entering the town we had another quick break in the near by petrol station to refill our water bottles, another 5 miles to go. The team was just waiting to reach the destination, so we started quickly and were crossing the town centre. We saw a beautiful city on the top of a small mountain. Myself and Giri were talking about Drs.Ian and Rama should not have bought their house in the hill, but unfortunately their house was in the top of the hill, by now you guys would have guessed how difficult it was for me to pedal that last mile. The team was waiting in a roundabout for me and Giri. I remember we took the third exit in the roundabout and we heard loud applause on the other side of the road, yes there were people standing across the road giving us a warm welcome. HURRAY!!!! WE DID IT.

We had a good number of audience to receive us and for the charity evening. After having a quick shower we were introduced to the guests by Dr.Rama. Giri made a quick and crisp presentation about Sanjeevini and what we expect from the audience for Sanjeevini. There was a question session as well in the end of the presentation. Dinner started at 7.45pm and the team really enjoyed every moment of the evening.

Thanks Rama and Ian for the excellent evening.

It has been unanimously decided that the Hero of the entire trip was Varun. He has almost cycled 80 miles. “Good Job Varun – Keep It Up”
I would like to thank personally the entire team which encouraged me for the full two days to complete the cycling without any glitch.

Thank you Giri. But for Giri I would have never thought of doing some work for a Charity. Thank you Ashok and Radhika. But for you guys I would have never met Giri.

The team reached back Shirley at 10pm. Badri drove Ram’s family and Raghu drove us back home. I have to underline here and say without the help of Aunty and Badri the trip would have not completed so easily. “Thank you both of you”.

And it is time to drive back home from Ram’s house in Giri’s Espace. When we reached home, there was a surprise waiting for us. Veebha baked a cake in star shape to mark the completion of the cycling event with Hanuman (Sanjeevini Logo) made by Ramya in it.

And finally thank you Veebha for everything, without your support and encouragement definitely I would not have completed this UPHILL task.

Navaratri (Golu) - 2009

This year's navaratri (Golu) celebration is no way less than last year. As the picture explains the traditional Golu arragnement with park, perumal kovil theppakulam etc. has proved Veebha's devotion for the culture yet again.

I have to mention about Vedhika's involvement and enjoyment this year. She really understood what is going on in the house and started enjoying the festival. All the nine days she has been dressed in different costumes and she herself personally invited friends (enga aathula big golu omachi vachirukom..aathuku vaango) to take tamboolam.

Oh Yes... I enjoyed the sundal on all the 9 days.

Veebha and Vedhika.... Keep up the good work.