Manjunath Nagaraj

BENGALURU: Software engineer Manjunath Nagaraj has been cycling for different causes. For his latest expedition, Ride for Life, he rode the length and breadth of the country creating awareness on organ donation. He covered the 4,086km Kanyakumari-Kashmir stretch in 40 days, and 3,039km Ahmedabad-Guwahati route in 20 days.

Taking a sabbatical, he covered Tamil Nadu , Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan , Haryana and Punjab in the first leg. Riding between 100-150km daily, he met hundreds of people and enlightened them about the cause. He requested them to give a missed call to 9555606606 so that they get a link on how to pledge organs.

One of the biggest challenges was the incessant rain he faced along the coastal route from Kerala to Mumbai; a ‘red alert’ was sounded in many areas fearing floods. While heading to Ahmedabad, he suffered two punctures, but he rode through the night and reached his destination by 3am.

The eventss were coordinated by the state chapters of National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, a central government agency. Students and members of NGOs and local cycling groups joined him for short distances.

Manjunath’s moment of reckoning came when he headed to the final destination — Srinagar — on August 23. As the situation was volatile in the valley following the abrogation of Article 370 earlier that month, CRPF personnel urged him to end his journey at Jammu itself. “Without knowing whether I will be able to proceed, I stayed at Banihal for two days. Thanks to police and the CRPF team, I got the required permission to cycle to Srinagar as planned,” Manjunath said.

Though the Ahmedabad-Guwahati leg wasn’t planned earlier, Notto asked Manjunath to go ahead as it would get a good traction in northeast India. Accordingly, he covered six states — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam — and conducted seven programmes in Guwahati itself. During the ride, Manjunath held hourlong events at institutions, hospitals and NGOs. The campaign ended with Union health minister Harsh Vardhan giving him a Notto citation for his efforts, in New Delhi.

