A ride against all odds

A communal fight which forced people to hide in their homes to be saved from being slaughtered — shook Firoze in his childhood. The turbulent background from which he came from made him realise the importance of communal harmony and that motivated Firoze Poothiri, an engineer and lecturer from Kerala, to quit his job and set on a three-month long self-sponsored bike trip from Kerala to Nepal crossing 14 states and international borders to spread the message of communal harmony.

Firoze also made it a point to visit religious places in every state he crossed. “Whenever I come across  religious places, I make it a point to visit them. I have been to temples, dargahs and churches. I talk to the authorities over there about my mission to spread communal harmony through a bike ride and they have appreciated my effort,” says Firoze.

Every day he drives 300 km as he doesn’t want to strain himself. “Earlier, my plan was to drive to Russia crossing China, but I didn’t get the required permits. I have always had a passion for riding bikes and I am doing it since six years. Two years ago, I went on a trip from Kerala to Gujarat,” he recalls as he pit stopped in Hyderabad on Saturday. Firoze started from Kerala, headed to Kashmir, crossing several states and then reached Nepal, while his return journey was via Hyderabad to Kanyakumari.

The journey had many challenges. “I was stuck at the Nepal-China border for six days due to a landslide and also at Srinagar due to a curfew. From my hotel, I could see people pelting stones at each other and shouting slogans,” he adds.

“What I found very disturbing is that, you can carry the Indian flag on your bike while you are travelling in Nepal but when I did that in Jammu and Kashmir, locals there stopped me from moving around with the flag. That incident reinstated my mission to spread harmony. In my own country, I can’t move around with the flag; there is so much hatred,” he says.

While touring Nepal, he had the opportunity to stay with a wonderful family. “They were so warm; they treated me like their own. It proves that human ties are beyond religion. I also did bungee jumping in Nepal-China border, which is the third highest natural bungee jumping facility in the world and successfully rode to Khardung La,” he recalls.