The Hindu : Cities / Vijayawada : Novel way to spread the message on polio

The Hindu : Cities / Vijayawada : Novel way to spread the message on polio

Day 13: Trivandrum to Kochi(224km)

We woke up at around 7am and got ready by 8am to leave for Kovalam beach. It was about 15kms from our bungalow. The drive till beach was very nice. We reached Kovalam at around 8:25am. The sea was very clean and the beach was also beautiful. We clicked some pictures there. Then, we  came back to our  room and got ready to leave for Kochi. We left at around 10:30am for Kochi. We drove for around 100kms and I felt sleepy, so we took a halt at some shop nearby and had cold drink and chips. It was a humid and hot weather that time. We also met a man who had served Indian army and was at the Chandigarh Cantt for around 3 years. He felt good talking to us. Then, we took his leave and left for Kochi.

After riding for another 50kms, I again felt sleepy. It was because of the oily food, we had in the breakfast. We stopped at a beach nearby and I slept for around half an hour on the rocks near the beach. It was a  very hard bed. Though, it was hard, but I got a very sound sleep. While I was sleeping, Deepak was busy clicking some pictures. After I woke up, we both left for Kochi. Reaching Kochi, we were received by Rtn. Jacob at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium. We had our room  booked at the stadium. Jacob sir got us checked into the room and he left after a while. Then, we both had our lunch in the room and slept. It was then, when we received a call from Rtn Benny that he wanted to meet us. He was with his family. We had tea together in the restaurant of the stadium. After the tea, we came to our room.

After that, we got ready and went out for some leisure. We went to the marine drive and had a ferry ride. It showed us the harbor, the dockyard etc. After the ride, we went to Khyber, a north Indian restaurant. We had north Indian food after so long and liked it. Then, we came back to the room and slept.

Day 12: Madurai to Trivandrum (320km).

We woke up at around 6:30 in the morning and got ready. I started writing blog and then I received a call from Akram, who was coming to direct us the route till the National Highway from our guest house. He told me, he was coming at 7:45am. Then, I asked Deepak to get up and get ready very soon. Akram came at around 7:50am and we both were ready. When we were about to leave, I realized, my helmet was not there in the room. We searched everywhere around, asked the receptionist also, but no where it was to be found. Then, Akram told me he saw the helmet hanging onto the rear view mirror of my bike, last evening. He went to see the bike, if it had my helmet. In the meanwhile, I checked out from the room. Akram came with my helmet with him. Phew! It was so relaxing. We proceeded towards the parking to leave for Trivandrum. We reached some petrol pump, and got our tanks refilled. We bade Akram farewell there and promised him to see him at Rotasia.

We rode for around 100kms and reached some dhaba for our morning breakfast. Onion Uttapam, Vadai, Chai was what we ordered in the breakfast. Uttapam was good. Having breakfast, we left for Kannyakumari. It was my dream to travel all the way to Kannyakumari on my motorcycle, that too with covering the coastal region of India. It was my dream coming true. We saw empty roads and around 2 people per every 5kms. It seemed as if we were in the Central America. When we were nearing to Kannyakumari, we saw many windmills installed in the fields and other areas. They were hundreds of Windmills. I never saw windmills in India before. The roads were awesome with very green vegetation all around. The temperature was bit humid too. We reached Kannyakumari at around 12:30pm and Rtn Peter and his fellow Rotarians were waiting for us there. They received us with shell garlands. There were present the media also. They interviewed me and then we left for watching the Triveni, the confluence of the three oceans-The Bay of Bengal, The Indian Ocean and The Arabian Sea. It was a dream come true situation for both of us and we both just screamed out of joy. The Rotarians accompanying us, were just seeing what we were doing. But, seriously it was a very proud feeling that we had done it. We traveled from Chandigarh to the foot city of India, Kannyakumari. The roads ended, but our zeal and passion never did. We had our lunch at some hotel nearby and then we left for Trivandrum.

 The road from Kannyakumari to Trivandrum was full of pits and ditches. But, the view on the roadsides was just an eye catcher. There were coconut trees all around and the vegetation was greener than the green  plants. It was just a great ride. We reached Trivandrum at around 5:15pm. Rtn Peter and his co Rotarians were waiting for us at the inspection bungalow of BSNL at Vellayambalam. When we reached the bungalow, we were received with the flower garlands and I had an interaction session with the Rotarians. I told them about our experience so far and how I created awareness among the people. Then, we were directed to our room and we got freshened up. The caretaker of the bungalow cooked us tea. After the tea, we went out to meet my senior, Alok sir. When, I went to his hostel, I met 2 of my other seniors also. It was a real fun time. We met after so long and that too at such a far place like this. We went out for dinner at Imperial. After the dinner, I took their leave. Then, Deepak and I went to my other senior, Abhishek sir  who was residing some 1-2miles away. I went to his hostel and he was astonished to see me. We sat in his room for sometime and then came of out of his room to go back to our place. While we were going down on the stairs, we found Anurag Pandey sir coming upstairs. He saw me coming down and was stunned for a moment. Literally speaking, he was dumbfounded when he saw me there out of nowhere. More shock was yet to come, when I told him, I was on my bike. He was like, Gaurav you have gone mad or something. Then, we went o his room, to see my other seniors sitting. They were shocked too. We had some talks for a while, and then we both left their hostel. We came back to our room and slept.

Day 11: Pondicherry to Madurai.

We woke up early to see the sun rise, as we were residing near the Bay of Bengal. The beach was so dirty that we couldn't even manage to stay their for long. So, I found a new place to stand. Their we stood clicking pictures from different angles. We were joined by some Crabs also. They were very small. Then, came some small girls, who were from Kerala. They started calling me uncle. It was so funny and somewhat sad at the same time, as I thought, do i really look an uncle now? So, after some time, we went back to the hostel and got fresh to leave for Madurai. Later, Rtn. Shanmugan called me up and said he was coming to see us off. Then, he came and took us to the warden of the hostel, as he was also a rotarian. We had some good discussions. I also complained about the bad condition of the beach nearby. He said, the fishermen didn't want us to clean the beach. Anyways, we asked him to take some steps and help clean the beaches. We left for Madurai after sometime. 

We kept riding on the National Highway towards Madurai. As, we didn’t have breakfast, we halted at a restaurant called A2B restaurant. We had idli, vadai etc and moved on. We reached Tiruchirapalli(Tiruchy/Trichy) after riding for 200kms. There we went to the famous Srirangam temple. It was too hot in the city. We had to carry our 40kg bags to the inside of the temple. I felt like throwing the luggage away and run away from the place.  Anyways, we put our luggage in cloak room and went to have a look in the temple. It was an art of the architect, and a magnificent sculpture. I was looking at the architecture with awry. The temple is a huge area which has 4 doors, and it is like a maze, you may be lost in the temple. We went to a shrine inside the temple, where the pundit asked us to give him 50rs or 100rs to seek blessings. It was such a shameful gesture of him, that they have made this thing a business for them. Also, they refused a foreigner to enter the shrine, as only hindus are allowed. I felt like confronting the pundit, but it was of no use. I simply went to the foreigners and apologized on behalf of the pundits and told them that I and Deepak were really feeling bad for what the pundit did. He said it was ok. Then, we went out of the temple and had some juice and then left for Madurai.

We rode for around 150kms and took a halt at some secluded Dhaba. The owner of the dhaba was a very nice man. I kept talking to him till he prepared tea for us. Then, while having tea, he told me, he worked in Dubai for around 20-25 years. Now, he had to return to India as there was some land dispute with a man from his village. We gave him caps for his sons. Then after having tea, we moved on.

 

After riding for around 130kms, we reached Madurai. We had to stop for a while on the NH, as Abdul Kalaam Azad ji was going to the airport and the traffic was stopped. Then, we met Rtn Srirenganathan and Rtr Akram with fellow rotaractors and Rotarians at some institute for social work. There I discussed about, how I create awareness about polio among the people and what was my experience throughout the trip so far. After that terse meeting, we left for our YMCA guest house. We took bath and then went to Meenakshi temple, which was at a walking distance from the guest house. I met a person in Black lungi and talked to him. At first, I thought him to be  a pundit or something but he told me, he worked in Bosch. I was astonished having learnt that. Also, I saw an elephant putting its trunk on  everybody’s head to bless them. After coming out of the temple, we went to have dinner with Akram and Srirenganathan sir.  They ordered Sukka, Barota, egg dosa etc, the local delicacies and they were really delicious. After the dinner, we went back to the guest house and slept.

Day 10: Chennai to Pondicherry

Today, I woke up at around 6:30am and got freshened up.  Then, I started writing one more pending log. It was then, when I received a call from Rtn Babu ji, who asked me to get ready, as we were to go out for breakfast. I asked Deepak to get up and get ready. We were ready till he came. He sat with us for a while and told us that we were to attend some function in Chennai, which was organized by Rotary Club Chennai. I and Deepak, were bit disappointed then, as we had plans to reach Pondicherry early today and enjoy there. As it is a very beautiful city. But, anyways, Rtn Babu ji took us to a nearby hotel called hotel Accord. It had a buffet which included Bacon, sausages, Breads, fruits, juices, and many other delectable dishes which I simply couldn’t resist and hogged. After the Breakfast, we went to our room and packed our bags to depart. Rtn Babu ji had sent his man to direct us to the school, where this function was organized. We reached the school where the function was organized and started clicking pictures, as there were a lot of things and people to click pictures of. We both sat on a chair and started chatting, then came Rtn Babu ji and introduced us to the other Rotarians present there. After some time, the mayor of Chennai also came to he function and we got introduced to him also. Later, the function got started and the speeches were delivered in Tamil, which we both could not understand. They also  felicitated us by calling upon the stage and introduced us to all of  the people present there. When we came down, there was a girl of around 8 years of age, with chandan ka tikka on her forehead looking at us eagerly. We both smiled to her and she also did the same. We gave her and some of her friends the polio caps. After the function was over, we left for Puducherry.

While we were on the way to Puducherry, a traffic police personnel, interrogated me and  Deepak, as where are we from, what do we do etc. Also, he was not letting us go. Then, the person who had come to direct us to  the East Coast Road(ECR), came to us and told the Police man about us and helped let us go. We took the ECR to go to Puducherry. Believe me, it was smoother than the smoothest roads and one side with Bay of Bengal and the other side was covered by forests. You have to be there to experience the pleasure. We clicked some photos enroute to Puducherry. Enjoying the ride on the ECR, we reached Puducherry at around 3:45pm. There we sat in front of the church waiting for the man of the DG of the Dist. 2980. The man took us to a restaurant and we had lunch. Then we went to the office of DG. There we met, Rtn Shanmugan and other Rotarians. There were all busy with their preparations for the Dist. Conference. After some time, we  both went to the beach, the way of which was directed by Rtn Shanmugan ji. 

At the beach, we saw Gandhi memorial etc. There we met a young boy of around 14 years of age, selling toys at the beach. I happened to talk to him, and to surprise, he could speak hindi. He told me that people here hate hindi speaking people. It was a shocking thing, which he told me. Anyways, I received a call from Rtr Siva, who was to take care of us that evening. He came to us and we left the  beach. Then,  we went to some repair shop, as our bikes needed service. We got the bikes serviced and went to have dinner at some Bilal restaurant(owner is a Rotarian.). The name of the owner of bilal restaurant is Rtn Mohd. Nadeem. He was very happy to know that we had travelled all the way from Chandigarh to Puducherry. I had some normal discussions with him and then we left for our hostel, where we had to stay. It was some youth hostel. Siva had come to show us the way till the hostel. He left after some time and I lied on the bed, as I was very tired. I slept in no time.

Day 9: Vijayawada to Chennai.

We woke up at 7 in the morning and got ready for the day’s ride. Then at around 7:45am, we went to have our breakfast at the restaurant, which was complimentary with the stay. We had a very healthy breakfast, which included fruits, idli, vadai sambhar etc. Then,  after that, we checked us out of the room and then proceeded towards our bikes. with no more wasting of time, we left for Chennai. After running for around 15 kms, we stopped at a filling station, to refill bike’s tanks.  Believe me, the roads up to 50kms after Vijayawada were so horrible, that once we thought of stopping there and taking a truck to transport our bikes till Chennai. But somehow we managed to cover that bad stretch and then kept moving. After around 130 kms, we took a halt for some rest. There, we both slept for around half an hour on the roadside with the sunlight falling straight on the face. It was a very sound sleep, which refreshed both of us. We had tea at a nearby Dhaba, and then proceeded further. 

After around 130 kms of drive, we stopped at a city called Nellore, where Rtn Bharat Reddy sir and his co Rotarians were waiting for us. We were received at some Murli Krishna Restaurant, where we had our lunch. It was great talking to the people gathered there and I got lot of new things to be known. One of the Rotarians told me, Andhra has very green vegetation, that too was visible while driving on the road. The other thing he told me was the temperature doesn’t dip below 20 degrees and may go upto 48 degrees. Many other discussions were made. Then, we had our lunch. I was served their traditional fish curry, which was really very delicious. And Deepak, being a vegetarian, ordered dal for his meal with rice. After having our lunch, as we started to move out of the restaurant, one of the Rotarians introduced us to the Chief Editor of some local newspaper. It was a nice moment. Then, bidding every Rotarian farewell, we headed towards the NH where one of the Rotarians leaded us to.  We kept riding on the NH.

At around 5:45pm, we were in Chennai. We were supposed to reach some T nagar,  which to our holy goodness, was too inside the city and we were literally lost, as we didn’t know where to go. People, also didn’t come to be of any help. So, I got an idea, I used the google maps on my cellphone and got the route. We reached the Peninsula hotel at around 6:15pm, where we had our room booked in the name of Rtn Babu Peram ji who is also the president of the Rotary Club. We got into the room and got ourselves freshened up. We went out at around 8pm to have dinner. We used the google maps in my cellphone to reach to a nearby Pizza Hut, for our dinner. Telling you frankly, it was the worst Pizza Hut, I have ever been to. Pizzas were served cold like ice, and the breads were hard to chew. It was a bad experience. But, we enjoyed the city’s ride anyways. After the dinner, we came back to our room and I updated the previous blogs, as we had an internet connectivity in Chennai. And, after updating two blogs, I slept.

Day 8: Vizag to Vijayawada.

We woke up at around 7 in the morning. And, then after getting ready, we received a call from the reception that someone has come to see me. It was President Rtn Raghu ji's cousin. He had come to  show us the way to Raghu Ji's place, where we had our morning breakfast. But before that, Rtn Vardha Reddy ji had come to have coffee with us and told us about the major cities of visit down south. So, he made us a road map on the tissue paper. After the coffee, we bade  him farewell and then, media people took our pictures while leaving. We then, followed Rtn Raghu's cousin to his place. We had another Press meet there. Electronic media and the print media was present to interview us. After the media interviewed us, we had our breakfast with Rtn Raghu ji. The breakfast was the typical South Indian food which included, Vadai, Idli, Dosai etc.There was present his son, who was around 9-10 years old. He was very eager to know about me and where was I from. Then, after having breakfast we left the place, as we were getting late.

 

After that, we left for Rajahmundry, where Rtn Bhaskar Ram and his fellow rotarians were waiting for us for the lunch. We took a halt on the way as we were bit sleepy. Then, after sometime, we both took a good nap and refreshed ourselves. After that, we both moved on and enjoyed the good weather and agricultural scenery around. It was a nice time riding our bikes through those green fields. We reached Rajahmundry, where the members of Rotary club Rajahmundry Rivercity, received us and then we had a press meet there too. The reporters interviewed us. After the press conference, we took our lunch. It was very delicious.  Then, the members of rotary club Rajahmundry Rivercity, felicitated us and honoured us with financial support for the remaining trip. We refused to take the money, but they forced us by saying they wanted to give us. Anyways, then after sometime, we left  for the day's destination, Vijayawada.

 

We started off for Vijayawada. Then, riding for around 60kms, we saw a brick kiln, where many people were working. I could not resist myself and stopped there for a photo shoot. After that, we left for the destination. We again took a halt at around 80kms before Vijayawada. Where we clicked a lot of pics and Deepak engaged himself in his favourite passtime, i.e. taking a nap. Then, after a  while,  we proceeded 

towards Vijayawada and then at around 5:15 pm, we reached our hotel, called Ilapuram hotel. There, Rtn Ashok Sethi, the president of the club, was waiting for us. He had made all the arrangements for our stay. After we got fresh, we went to the conference hall for our press conference. Many electronic and print media people had gathered there to interview us. They questioned me many things, as how do I interact with people, as I can't understand there language. I said, I can't interact with the local people, but the rotarians and rotaractors can spread my words with the local people.

After the Conference, me and Deepak, went out of the hotel to see the city and have dinner. So, we came across a shop selling hot chips and a child was the worker again. We had those chips and then went to other parts and had fresh fruits, grape juice and dry fruit shake. It was a nice time. We came back to the hotel and went to sleep.