Fancy travelling alone, but apprehensive of what lurks on the highways? Let the thought rest, and just go for it. Like Anahita Sriprasad did. After a two-month-four-day experience of cycling all alone from Leh to Kanyakumari, the 21-year-old is more than convinced that the country is safe for women. Along the 4,528 km, Anahita was probably taken unawares in just two instances — both near Hubli in Karnataka. “I was stopped by a truck driver who demanded money and refused to let me go if I didn’t pay him. And the next day, someone tried to grope me. Both times, I rang up the highway patrol and they came to my rescue within minutes. Inspectors also gave me their personal numbers to call them in case I faced any problems during the rest of my journey,” she recalls.
Besides that, the journey was smooth. “I had packed two cans of pepper spray (also a tool kit, two bags of clothes, including riding gear and cycling shorts, energy bars and water), but fortunately, I did not have to use them,” she smiles. Anahita would start riding early in the morning, and pack up by 7 p.m., stopping only to fix a puncture, munch on a bar or catch her breath when the humidity got too high. She would stay at a relative’s or friend’s place, or check into a hotel for the night. “Hotel on a highway?” I ask, pushing away eerie images of the Bates Motel (from Psycho ) and Overlook Hotel ( The Shining ). Anahita smiles and confirms that all she remembers are soft beds, faint lights and deep sleep.
The plan for the road trip took shape while Anahita was learning to ski. After graduating in Visual Communication Design from Manipal University, last November, she went on a solo backpacking trip across Western India and parts of Ladakh, and took up a skiing course in Kashmir.
Here, she met Faisal Latif. “He had cycled from Kanyakumari to Kashmir at the age of 18, and that inspired me; I wanted to try it myself,” she recalls. Six months later, on a sunny afternoon, when Anahita was browsing through the debates and discussions about women’s’ safety on the news, the idea struck her. ‘Why don’t I prove it with pedals and saddles?’ she asked herself.
Anahita joined a cycling group called We Are Chennai Cycling Group (WCCG), and went for over 30-km trails with them every morning. When not with the group, she would pedal her way to Kovalam and back alone. This continued for three whole months, before she kicked off her trip on the hilly terrains of Leh on October 5, followed by Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Ambala, Karnal, Panipat, Delhi, Agra, Bharatpur, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai, Pune, Chitradurga, Bangalore, Kovilpatti and Kanyakumari. “I met so many people. Once, at a dhaba called Goa Paradise near Pune, a group of truck drivers surrounded my Montra cycle, even as I was just finishing my breakfast. They looked at me with surprise when I wore my helmet. Quite hesitantly, one of them asked me how difficult it was to get a highway permit. I found that funny; they were surprised when I told them I had to pay nothing,” she recounts.
Other times, strangers would simply join her for breakfast, engage in conversation and follow her tour on Instagram and Facebook. A few would extend lunch invitations, while others would simply join her on their cycles for a stretch. Now, back home in Besant Nagar, even as she looks back at the past month, neatly recorded in pictures and short videos, she can’t wait to set out again, she says.
