The best routes are the ones you haven’t ridden yet, says Gautam Kulkarni

Learning to ride a cycle is something every child wants. Imagine using this childhood passion to ride through cities and villages in India to satisfy your love for travel and photography.  This is exactly what Gautam Kulkarni did when he decided to cycle his way through Gujrat and Rajasthan and photograph his favourite subject: human beings.

Gautam is an Indian national who was raised in Dubai and educated in the UK.  He runs a multimillion-dollar company in Dubai which he started at the age of 23 years.   He continues to wear his multiple hats of entrepreneur, adventurer, family man and philanthropist with ease and live life on his own terms.

We asked Gautam what made him cycle through India and what the most memorable experience was on this trip:

“Cycling is like meditation for me.  It also allows me to travel at a pace where I can slow down, stop, meet people, engage with them and photograph them with ease. 

One of my favorite memories is when I was cycling through Gujarat and Rajasthan.  Whilst the entire journey was filled with adventure and I met many wonderful people along the way, I distinctly remember this one time when I stopped to take a break from cycling and saw a young girl playing with her friend on the side of the road.  She had such a beautiful smile that it made me want to take a photograph of her to capture it.    Her father, I suspect, got worried as he saw me stop my cycle near her and started walking towards me. 

However, as soon as he came closer, his look of suspicion changed to a friendly smile and we started chatting and asking what I was doing cycling with my bags on the cycle.  He told me he had been the village face and palm reader but had to take his family and leave as there was no money to be made in that profession in the village.  They were now travelling on foot to another village, with all their belongings with them, staying by the roadside in makeshift a tent.   He read my palm in exchange for taking a few photographs of him and his daughter and another one of his entire family (and of course printing them for him on my portable printer). 

Tracing the grooves of my hand, he sought to paint a picture of my past and then told me where I might be headed in the future.  It is hard to explain, but although, we both lead such different lives, I felt such a deep connection to him, like we had always known each other.  We chatted a bit more before I cycled off.  Travel and photography have given me an incredible opportunity to meet people I would never have met otherwise.  Their amazing stories, resilience and warmth have given me a much broader view of the world we live in.  I am truly grateful to everyone I met along the way for sharing a part of their story with me and becoming a part of mine.  Stories of people I met including this palm reader and his daughter are in my book pictureforapicture.”

Gautam’s book pictureforapicture is a collage of amazing photographs like the one mentioned above along with short stories giving a glimpse of his interactions with them.  It is unique in that Gautam always prints a picture of the people he photographs and gives them the print.

Picureforapicture is available on Amazon and Kindle and is published by Notion Press.   Gautam’s Instagram handle is @hobograph and his social media is managed by Groundwork

Disclaimer: No Deccan Chronicle journalist was involved in creating this content. The group also takes no responsibility for this content.