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This is an archive article published on April 8, 2000

Where there is a wheel, there is a way

MUMBAI, APRIL 7: A Govinthasamy’s job is to put things together. The 29-year-old welder woke up one morning, decided hi...

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MUMBAI, APRIL 7: A Govinthasamy’s job is to put things together. The 29-year-old welder woke up one morning, decided his life was “meaningless” and put together his aim of earning money and fame into one exercise.

He picked up his BSA Street Cat cycle and despite opposition from parents and two siblings, decided to cycle around the country in a bid to put his name in the Limca Book of Records. That achieved, he would attempt to get into the Guinness Book of Records and collect Rs 4.5 lakh for his efforts.

The only hitch — he doesn’t know what the Limca record is, has no idea how to go about getting the Guinness mark and “has been told” that anyone who does a record gets the money.

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But after travelling from Thirumangalam, 20 kilometres from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, to Mumbai while on his way to Delhi, the unshaven bespectacled adventurer has lost none of his enthusiasm. Dressed in National colours, a white shirt, green dhoti and saffron cloth round his neck, he said his trip for “communal harmony” had given his life a new meaning.

After travelling around southern cities, he is now Calcutta-bound and then to Delhi where he would head to the Limca office and find out the details of the existing record. From Delhi, he would go trotting again in a bid to put his name in the book.

He started on January 26 with Rs 5000 in his pocket and an assurance from Lions Club of Thirumangalam that their other centres would help him on the way. Help he did get, the contributions varying in amount, from not only Lions club but from the police as well.

Strapped for funds, Govinthasamy decided to spend his nights at police stations. “I would just tell them what I was trying to achieve and they would be profuse in their cooperation. They would feed me, let me take a bath, wash clothes and then see me off,” he said.

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It was not smooth cycling either. He cycled through thundershowers in Chennai, “rain or shine I have to get there”. At Chittoor, he ran a temperature of 102 degrees but cycled 30km nonetheless. At Singlepet in Tamil Nadu, a truck crashed past his cycle, sending him cart-wheeling and giving him a cracked shin. Four days later, he was back on his mount.

Currently doing his diploma in mechanical engineering from Madurai, he was not bothered about missing on his classes and not earning anything for five-six months. Nor can he give it a rest.

In Mumbai for two days, Govinthasamy wants to “look around”. He speaks only Tamil, has a “working knowledge” of English and picked up Hindi on the way.

“Language was never a problem for me. We Indians understand each other perfectly,” he grinned.

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