03 — The route
I had not cycled for the last 15 years but that did not stop me from dreaming; from following the footsteps of my idol Kamran. I had made up my mind to make a long cycling trip.
But where to go? Kamran had cycled from Germany to Pakistan (As I write this, he is in the middle of his journey from South America to Alaska)! Where did I want to go? Though completely awestruck by Kamran, I ensured that the decision was guided, and not influenced, by Kamran. I did not want to emulate him blindly.
The route was going to be through 20 odd places spanning 1000 kiometers in Tamil Nadu; the state in which I was born, and have lived for half of my life.
The decision on the route was easy to make, because it was the result of my aspirations, imagination and ignorance. Not long ago before this decision, I had been reading much about the great Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. His views, humility and hard work inspired me a great deal. Only after his death, did I realize his greatness. What a shame! I made up my mind to visit his hometown, Rameswaram, someday. I had already started imagining Rameswaram to resemble the pictures that I had seen in the book “A boy and a dream — Three childhood stories from the life of Abdul Kalam”. It is a book for children aged between 3–8 but I love reading these books meant for children. Life looks a lot more simple and beautiful, when I read these books.
Another thing that reiterated my interest in cycling through Tamil Nadu was Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan. Whenever I read this book, I have always been teleported to the tenth century, and have many a times had a leisurely siesta in the banks of Kaveri and sometimes in the fertile plains around. It was always a world that I had wanted to escape into; for many other reasons difficult to verbalize.
Finally, it was my ignorance about Tamil Nadu that nailed my decision. I knew close to nothing about my own state. Many a times, we go around searching for beauty, character, wealth and what not, without realizing that there is much of everything within us or our immediate surroundings.
When I look back, I can’t believe that my route was predominantly inspired from images that I had either come across in books or had drawn on my own, in my mind. And soon enough, these images became reality; and if not for a fairly open-mind (something that I worked a lot on before the trip), I would have been really surprised.
At these times, when I summon that mischievous imagination of mine and ask “But this wasn’t what you showed!”; I can always see it giving me a sly smile and vanish, only to be reborn again, time and again. I have started living in one other world now, instead of discarding it as imagination. It does give me a lot of solace and hope.
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