This three day cycling excursion is one of the most memorable trips of my life.
Soon after our PUC-I exams, during the summer of 1986, Babu Prasad and I, did some basic planning for the trip. A little village called Kallur near Mysore was our destination. Mom was against our idea while Dad was cool about it... We made sure our Hero cycles were in good condition, especially the brakes. We carried one back-pack each. Both of us had a Walkman each and a few cassettes.
We started our journey early morning since we had no idea how much time was required to cover 165 km. The first 20-30 km was mostly uphill, with the sun going up, the day was getting warm. Sweating and panting, I started wondering if I could ride all the way to Mysore. This is where our Walkman came handy, thoughts of giving up were blown away by the numbers blasting into our ears... we passed by Ramanagara and its hill ranges. Ramanagara is where the most of Sholay the blockbuster movie was shot.
Soon after our PUC-I exams, during the summer of 1986, Babu Prasad and I, did some basic planning for the trip. A little village called Kallur near Mysore was our destination. Mom was against our idea while Dad was cool about it... We made sure our Hero cycles were in good condition, especially the brakes. We carried one back-pack each. Both of us had a Walkman each and a few cassettes.
We started our journey early morning since we had no idea how much time was required to cover 165 km. The first 20-30 km was mostly uphill, with the sun going up, the day was getting warm. Sweating and panting, I started wondering if I could ride all the way to Mysore. This is where our Walkman came handy, thoughts of giving up were blown away by the numbers blasting into our ears... we passed by Ramanagara and its hill ranges. Ramanagara is where the most of Sholay the blockbuster movie was shot.
We took a short break at Channapatna. We had breakfast and continued with our journey. Riding a bicycle on the highway was a totally new experience. We had to be careful, watch for both oncoming and overtaking traffic... we would look back every minute to check for approaching HTVs... especially the notorious KSRTC buses. We made our way to Mandya by lunch time, we had covered close to 100 km, 60 more to go. Paddy and sugarcane fields flanked the highway now. We stopped by a farm and got fresh tomatoes from a farmer. The juicy tomatoes were refreshing. On with the journey... Srirangapattana and river Cauvery... the turn to Ranganathittu. We passed by historical spots and a bird sanctuary but had to skip all of them due to time constraint. By 4-30 pm we were riding through the streets of Mysore.
We were yet to cover the last leg of our journey. The road to Babu's village Kallur. The road wasn't a flat one, we had to negotiate lot of uphill stretches. At one point, we both got cramps in our legs... what a coincidence! We almost fell off our bicycles by the sudden seizure and pain. We sat on the road until the muscles relaxed. It was dusk, it would be dark soon, so we had to resume riding. As we reached Kallur, the sky it was dark, we could see a few stars twinkling... we felt as though they were smiling at us. Babu and I were ecstatic!
Babu's relatives gave us a warm welcome. We freshened up, had coffee and went around the village... looking at the houses, light spilling out of them, people relaxing on the door steps, cattle tied to their posts, carts parked by... I was seeing rural life so closely after a long time. I enjoyed the dinner, which was ragi mudde and hurlikalu saaru, offered with so much of affection and care. After dinner we went out for a short walk in the village streets.
Next morning, we freshened up, had breakfast and we said bye to my hosts. Babu was familiar with the area. Our destination was KRS. We rode through a narrow dusty paths winding through the farm lands. At one point we were less than 50 meters from the backwaters of Krishna Rajendra Sagar reservoir. The reservoir is created by Kannambadi Katte (KRS Dam) across river Cauvery. The dam is almost 2 km long. Those days public were allowed on the dam without much restrictions. In fact for local village people the road on the dam was a shortcut. We rode our bikes end to end, back... it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We went down to Brindavan gardens, found a cool spot under a rose apple tree. I think we managed to get a few rose apples. Around 3 pm or so we left KRS and rode towards Mysore. We went to Babu's friend's place where we had dinner and spent the night.
The following morning, our return journey started. Somewhere after Mandya, we passed by a cyclist on a regular cruiser, the rider was a 20+ year old. In a couple of minutes the cyclist was next to us, trying to overtake us... he was racing us! The race was fun for us though it was not fair, since our bikes were much lighter than our competitor's bike. Our friend was increasing the pace of the race... we picked up speed and left him behind. Then, slowed down to let him catch us... ride faster to stretch the gap... slow down again...let him close the gap... (guess it was mean of us to do this) I don't remember how long our race went on...the guy gave up...probably he had reached his destination. We missed his company. As we rode on and on... kilometer after kilometer... we were eager to end the countdown 80s, 70s, 60s... we counted down as long as we saw milestones.
We were yet to cover the last leg of our journey. The road to Babu's village Kallur. The road wasn't a flat one, we had to negotiate lot of uphill stretches. At one point, we both got cramps in our legs... what a coincidence! We almost fell off our bicycles by the sudden seizure and pain. We sat on the road until the muscles relaxed. It was dusk, it would be dark soon, so we had to resume riding. As we reached Kallur, the sky it was dark, we could see a few stars twinkling... we felt as though they were smiling at us. Babu and I were ecstatic!
Babu's relatives gave us a warm welcome. We freshened up, had coffee and went around the village... looking at the houses, light spilling out of them, people relaxing on the door steps, cattle tied to their posts, carts parked by... I was seeing rural life so closely after a long time. I enjoyed the dinner, which was ragi mudde and hurlikalu saaru, offered with so much of affection and care. After dinner we went out for a short walk in the village streets.
Next morning, we freshened up, had breakfast and we said bye to my hosts. Babu was familiar with the area. Our destination was KRS. We rode through a narrow dusty paths winding through the farm lands. At one point we were less than 50 meters from the backwaters of Krishna Rajendra Sagar reservoir. The reservoir is created by Kannambadi Katte (KRS Dam) across river Cauvery. The dam is almost 2 km long. Those days public were allowed on the dam without much restrictions. In fact for local village people the road on the dam was a shortcut. We rode our bikes end to end, back... it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We went down to Brindavan gardens, found a cool spot under a rose apple tree. I think we managed to get a few rose apples. Around 3 pm or so we left KRS and rode towards Mysore. We went to Babu's friend's place where we had dinner and spent the night.
The following morning, our return journey started. Somewhere after Mandya, we passed by a cyclist on a regular cruiser, the rider was a 20+ year old. In a couple of minutes the cyclist was next to us, trying to overtake us... he was racing us! The race was fun for us though it was not fair, since our bikes were much lighter than our competitor's bike. Our friend was increasing the pace of the race... we picked up speed and left him behind. Then, slowed down to let him catch us... ride faster to stretch the gap... slow down again...let him close the gap... (guess it was mean of us to do this) I don't remember how long our race went on...the guy gave up...probably he had reached his destination. We missed his company. As we rode on and on... kilometer after kilometer... we were eager to end the countdown 80s, 70s, 60s... we counted down as long as we saw milestones.
Images added on 27-12-2022
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