Thank you Hema for arranging the young generation to join me on a mycycle tour.
Hema has already joined both a Srirangapatnam and Mysore Tour. I obviously hadn’t messed up as she returned with more of the family.
Fab!
Great to meet and spend time together … Harsh, Mitali and
Joshua.
A lovely mix of US and India
Like anyone our business must continue to learn and change.
Maybe it’s time for a new cycle tour. 🤭
Part one with Julia and Tom
My tour of England led me to Sheffield, my home city.
Warm showers
I was visiting Julia and Tom intrepid cyclists who’d visited us last year, in Mysore, on their journey across Asia, through Europe and back home to England.
Warm showers is a network we’re part of where hosts offer an overnight stay to distance cyclists.
They now live in Sheffield the city of my birth and their new home is just round the corner from the first place I escaped to at age 18
That was fifty years ago. I lived with my first serious girlfriend Tricia who kindly supported me for the final few months of school
A great revisit. The house no longer exists but there was plenty of reminiscence.
Part two
In the nicest possible way.
Cycling and yoga guests from Germany, students from Kaliyuvamane, more cyclists from warm showers, and celebrating my birthday.
Manjula appeared behind my cycle as well as in our hearts on what would have been her 50th birthday.
We celebrated with 100 children at Kaliyuvamane
Today I brought her home.
We cycled through the countryside, along the national highway, through the suburbs and on my cycle route around Chamundi Hill.
Stopping to chat as people wondered what it was all about.
It’s about our love and her kindness
… and now we’re back home at Manjula’s Garden
It’s same but different….
…as it will continue to provide services to help people visiting Mysore, have a great time, through Mysore Bed and Breakfast and MyCycle Tours.
We’ll also commemorate Manjula through her gifts and now with the added extra of working with young people, to help them grow, develop and thrive..
….
Most recently we celebrated Manjula’s birth anniversary with an eventful day for visually impaired young women. Here’s our press release
We’ve helped with a young man’s education and plan to do more of that next year by supporting a young girl
We’ve also:
Manjula’s Mysore was our domain on the internet but we’ve now gone one step further and named the new company after the woman who made it all possible.
Manjula’s Mysore will continue to do good, reflecting Manjula’s kindness, through partnerships of NGOs, business and with our team of community volunteers.
A Tandem is a cycle made for two people.
It’s an old joke and a serious question this week in Mysore.
Remember the first time you rode a bicycyle? As a child you have no fear but when you’re older it can be scary.
The uncertainty …. Your nervousness, worry, hesitancy … once on the cycle your sweating, hands are clammy, the whole thing wobbling, feet slipping from the pedals,
Now imagine your first time, if you were blind…..
You’ve never seen a cycle, what does it look like? How do you get on and pedal?
We wondered if it was possible for a visually impaired person to cycle with our tandem.
On the ‘Manjula’s Gift fun day’ organised by Manjula’s Mysore and its partners, three young volunteers: Tusharr, Megha and Sarvesh from MYCycle Tours were there to guide. They provided clear instructions: explained how to get on, feel the saddle, hold the handlebars, step over the frame, find the pedals and sit comfortably. A sighted person on the front steered, set the pace and kept the balance. Another volunteer cycled along and explained what was happening.
“After 1-2-3 we’ll be off, 1-2-3 we’re turning a corner, 1-2-3 there’s a hump coming up. Now let’s freewheel down the hill.”
Now think back to your first time, when you’re cycling along, remember the breeze in your hair and a smile on your face. Was it like flying along?
We could tell from their oohs, aahs and boundless enthusiasm that for the young women who are visually impaired, it was a transformational experience.
We now know that someone who is visually impaired, with our caring support and their trust, can ride tandems.
It was part of a day of activities to entertain forty visually impaired young women who live at Divya Jyothi Trust in Mysore and celebrate our founder Manjula on her birth anniversary, organised by Manjula’s Mysore and their community partners.
The women had great fun, we also learned a lot: realising what strength, courage and confidence these young women need to face life’s challenges.
Further background information about the day and its partners visit: http://www.meandmycycle.com
Obviously, I am so grateful because MAnjula and I found each other,.
But as highlighted in one of Oliver Jeffers wonderful books a little girl, in my case two help bring light and joy.
It’s my granddaughter Poppy who lives in London and my ‘adopted’ granddaughter Kaveri who lives in Mysore.
and how fab, that they are both into cycling.
Drivers keep to the lane and stop for pedestrians at zebra crossings and side roads.
Considerate Canadians helping out.
That’s nice.
Postscript
While I was out and preparing this posting someone came round (or maybe overnight) and stole Trixie, my new friend. So not all Canadians are good apples.
I’m visiting one of the Sari Sisters, a group of women cyclists from Vancouver Island.
They came to India stayed with us and cycled from Mysore to Cochin.
This is my third visit. Lise and Michael kindly ‘put me up’
I’ve had a wonderful few days exploring Victoria, the capital of BC and cycling along the Galloping Goose Trail.
Victoria and the island (as long as England!) is a great place
Cyclists are catered for with cycle routes, great maps, considerate drivers and safe secure places to leave your cycle
With random deer, not cows.
Trixie was with me all the way.
Me and MYCycle 