Bhopal lads drive into Limca Book of Records

BHOPAL: Two adventure enthusiasts from Bhopal never knew their passion would drive them into record book. Siddhartha Sharma and Abhishek Saraswat, who were part of the four-member team that covered a distance of 3,977 km from Leh to Kanyakumari in the fastest recorded time of 72 hours and 47 minutes, make it to Limca Book of Records.
Their expedition was recently included in the 25th edition of the record book.The previous record for the category of 'fastest north-south expedition on a four-wheeler' was registered in the name of three individuals from Chandigarh who took 79 hrs and 15 minutes. The team comprises Siddhartha Sharma, Abhishek Saraswat, Yogesh Gaur, and Manmeet Singh.
"Driving four-wheelers has been my passion. We did not know that the expedition would set a new record," Siddhartha told TOI over the telephone from Mumbai where he works for a private telecom company.
Talking about their journey, he said, "We were able to cover such a huge distance in the fastest recorded time because of our team work. Besides, the support from Border Road Organisation was a big help during the expedition."
They started their journey from Leh and drove across almost 12 states including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
The boys dedicated their expedition to the 'destitute' children of India. The team interacted with agencies that work for the upliftment of children and visited orphanages before and after undertaking the ambitious safari.
Abhishek said they would not stop at this. "We are adventurous guys. The objective was not to set a record, but to take part in adventure sports," he said.
Bad MP roads play spoilsport
Bad condition of roads in MP forced the team to slow down. "We covered almost 600 km from Gwalior to Seoni. I was surprised to see that MP roads were worse than roads in Laddakh. We would have clocked better time if roads were smoother," he said.