Road movies inspired Alex Kurien George, a final-year B.A. student of Kottayam, to undertake his dream journey, on cycle from Kanyakumari to Leh in Jammu & Kashmir.
“From Class VII, I have been travelling alone, mostly to attend auditions for movies,” he said.
Though his movie dreams are yet to come true, the journeys came in handy when he undertook the cross-country tour.
An ardent Dulquer Salmaan fan, the 20-year-old was bitten by the travel bug after watching the Malayalam movie Neelakaasham, Chuvanna Bhoomi, Pachakkadal . But unlike the movie, Alex’s journey was chalked out in advance and well planned.
He began his journey from Kottayam to Kanyakumari by rail and then hit the road on his bicycle. He followed NH- 7, which took him to Tirunelveli, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Ambala, Chandigarh, Kulu, Manali and Leh. “Altogether I have covered 4,109 km covering 12 States,” Alex said.
He set off on May 18 and reached Leh on June 17. “The target was 150 km a day on an average. “I cycled 14 hours a day, from 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.” With minimum baggage, which included a portable canvas tent, dress, camera, medicines, etc., he would stay overnight at petrol bunks or dhabas.
Other than natural obstacles such as windy stretches in Tirunelveli or the seething heat on the Nagpur stretch, he encountered no major difficulties during the month-long journey.
In Leh, he stayed at the local Catholic Church where a Malayali priest played host. In fact, the only unplanned stretch was the last 37 km to Khardung La Top 18,380 ft above sea level.
“It took eight hours to cover the 37 km from Leh. However, the return journey took only two-and-a-half hours.”
“Human beings are the same everywhere. We crave for love, a smile and fight to stave off hunger. Only the geography changes,” said Alex when asked what the journey had taught him.
He said his immediate plan was to put together a volume of travelogue based on his bicycle diaries.
