We have all had a wish to leave our dreary lives and go on a trip without rules and plans. To take everyday as it comes and meet new people, learn new things. Well, Kedarnath GM is about to embark on such a journey around the world, covering six continents over the next four years! What more? He will get to do the whole trip on a Royal Enfield Himalayan.
For Kedarnath, the journey is all about experiencing humanity in its purest form. Just before he kickstarts his epic journey, he finds time to talk to us.
For Kedarnath, travel is lot more than enjoying the pleasure of a bike ride. “Basically, it was never about the motorbike. It was all about meeting new people, seeing new places — especially the places that are generally not accessible,” he begins. For someone, who never rode a bike until he turned 28, Kedarnath has surely come a long way. “I know it was a late start, but it’s never too late. After all, we have seen octogenarians climbing the Everest,” he says.
Kedar looks back on his first trip ever — “I was still an amateur who did not know many aspects of travel — what to take and what not to. Packing my luggage on the bike used to take almost an hour! I went from Hampi (where I live) to Ladakh and the trip lasted for 39 days. After the trip, the questions I got from my friends were like — how many times did you get mugged? Were people rude to you? And so on.”
That’s when I realised how people are hesitant to travel inside our own country. We are skeptical of our own differences, rather than celebrating them. I wanted to do my bit in alleviating the fear of travelling to unknown spaces among people, and that is why I began travelling.”
Talking about his previous expedition, where he travelled to about 13 countries, covering 18,000 kilometers, Kedar says, “The reason why I wanted to travel abroad, was to get out of my comfort zone — where I know the local languages. So, I went on the trip, and one of the most interesting experiences I had was in Iran — I had zero knowledge of Persian. But the people were very warm towards me, and they even managed to teach me Persian poems!”
Talking about the four-year journey, which starts today, he says, “I will start with India, move on to Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, then the US, South America, Europe to Africa, Central Asia and then back to India. There is a big part of the world that is left untouched, and I want to impart the message of being together and spread love across wherever I go.”
Talking about the lessons he has learnt from travel, Kedar explains, “One must be humble, which is very important. It lets you look into yourself and see the purpose. We are not here just for survival, so we must find your purpose in life.
Then, we should be positive about the purpose in life, and strive to achieve it.”
As for what he plans to do in every country, he says, “Wherever I go, I will look for opportunities to talk to young people of each country — at schools, colleges, as they are the future, and they need all the support and encouragement to stay positive.”
