Girl-biker re-discovers India*
--- James K. J.
“You gain what you dream…
If a quizzer asks a tricky question, who ‘discovered (means, who wrote the book, the discovery of…) India?’ there is the century old right answer; that’s Jawaharlal Nehru, freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister of Independent India. But in the same quiz if the next question is ‘Who rode her bike to re-discover India through the 28 states and 8 union territories, recently?’ there is only one answer, that’s Radhika Rao (26) from Chennai, who came to assess Kochi Biennale in February, this year as a part of her commitment towards the multi-facet culture and art forms of this incredible India. Seven years before she took a round-up of India on wheels, that prolonged seven months through the challenging and unfamiliar terrains and regions of East-coast, Malabar-coast, Deccan plateau, Le Ledakh, Darjeeling, Farakha Barrage and ‘the seven sisters of the north-east’ all alone!
Radhika was sharing to the present writer her hair-raising experiences about her exploration of India as an answer to a disturbing question, ‘…can a teen girl bike the country all alone?’ But her answer was not through the word of mouth, but it was with a stunning action of crisscrossing through the district roads, state highways, national highways and express highways from Kerala to Kashmir and from Gujarat to Guwahati.
What was the problem that turned Radhika’s life into a heroine’s lone exploration? Indian women at large and certain number of European tourists have occasionally commented to the media, “India is an unfavourable or unfriendly country to the women-folk for travelling, especially through the un-fashioned and ‘darker’ regions. Against this who will dare to travel alone, if that journey itself was undertaken un-necessarily to biking through the roads of the Indian states? When laurels and testimonies came one-by-one upon her as the first girl IIT-ian who re-discovered India on a bike or the first south-Indian girl who reticulated India on a two-wheeler, Radhika smiled with a content that came from her inner consciousness. With a smile of simplicity and nobility Radhika described her challenges and gains of the adventurism through the roads to fight a cliché ‘women are weaker, empowerment is afar’.
Start with an empty purse
Radhika had heard a hundred times the adage her teachers were quoting ‘If there is a will, there is a way’ in her school days, that too she could prove in learning science lessons, solving arithmetic problems or performing difficult skills on the stage and playground. But at 19, she transformed the above saying into a philosophy to her life as ‘If there a decision, strong action will follow spontaneously’. But how can the parents approve her dream of biking 30,000 kms all alone, along the roads of all the states and union territories of India to prove rest of the world that their teenaged-daughter was crazy to ride on her own decision: ‘Yes, I can: only I can!’
When researched out the routes with the help of the Google-map and other sources, Radhika estimated the itinerary prolonging into six months, even if any natural calamities or contingencies occur. Own route-map was drawn to cover at least 300 kms a day, from 6 am to 6 pm, for which some experienced men-riders in and around Chennai came with Plan A and Plan B. But when the budget had been worked out, the expenditure side of it really shocked Radhika who was only a first semester science student at that time. The minimum amount required was: rupees 6 lakhs to manage main items, like: possessing a new powerful bike, fuel charge, hotel rentals and subsistence meals. Looking into the purse, a sigh came out of her bosom! But Radhika didn’t give up her hope on the strength of the words, she remembered Paulo Coelho: “If you are doing the rightful things, the entire world will be with you.”
‘How can I find 6 lakhs by myself within six months?’ The question was really eating her, out of restlessness and tension Radhika approached for assistance from any kind-hearted persons. Radhika’s father offered 50,000 as the family’s maximum contribution to her public-fund raising attempt. During the sleepless late-nights Radhika would self-answer to the first hurdle of financial constraint, ‘Anyhow, I must go forward. Someway or other I must raise fund, shall I ask someone who may advise or guide me better…’, Though he couldn’t assist the girl with some cash, a well-known rider from Chennai told the most motivational words to Radhika, “Radhika you have decided to embark biking next month, 50000 now with you is enough to begin; honest and innocent women-folk in Indian villages and towns will support you. Money will come on your way as manna…’ This piece of advice of that great rider was like a stream of hope throughout her challenging days. Now, Radhika closes her narration of that part of the challenge: “Several associations, unknown people, riders and well-wishers donated generously for my noble cause, giving me an end-surprise; the transaction account showed about rupees one lakh as balance on my G-pay! Then you please calculate the total amount that the people of India poured upon me within six months! …”
Be a mechanic
When the ‘war room’, including a road-map of the main routes and alternate routes for any contingencies, had been getting ready, one more hurdle appeared in the form of a doubt leveled by an experienced, but an inspiring biker, who asked: “Radhika, your idea for expedition is good, suppose your bike strikes work or any wheel becomes flat, what will you do on the way?” Her neighbour who posed the question waited for her answer with a curiosity in his eyes. For the first time during the preparation for the ‘aggressive expedition’, some blurred pictures of: the hair-pins of Waynad-Sulthanbattery road, mountain paths of Sona Marg-Pahalgam region, the hill highways through Darjeeling and kilometers of barren and vacant land on Agra-Delhi express highway, flashed on the screen of her tender mind, which gave her a new jerk or an undesired obstacle.
Thinking that deeply, sleep was unfriendly to Radhika; when tried to close the eyes for a while after mid-night, the Archimedes inside her jolted out with the utterance ‘Eureka…’ an answer for the problem that was disturbing her for some days. Next morning Radhika dialed to that well-wisher to reveal her own solution in a thrilled tone “Anna (brother), for your query of last evening, now I have an answer… I like to join a practical course in a two-wheeler workshop… can you suggest me a good place?” Two days after, Radhika started her apprenticeship under an inspiring and busy master-mechanic. When the spanner slipped out of her hold or black-oil and brown-lubricant spilled out to her long and beautiful thin fingers, the onlookers would have commented “…what makes her determined and committed to biking at her teenage? Why can’t she enjoy hours of endless curiosity on the small screen or on the touch screen of the mobile than be a mechanic-rider under the hot sun of the peninsular India and the scorching cold weather of Himachal and north India?” Thanks to the challenge, Radhika became confident to undertake certain basic repair-activities, like: oil changing, re-lining of cables, inflating tubeless wheels and how to shooting out starting-trouble of the bike.
Showing off muscle-power!
Yet another provocation came from Radhika’s mother herself: “My dear child, though your journey is in day-time only, if a small gang of hooligans or ruffians block your way and tries to manhandle you, what will you do?” One day her mother cautioned her child. Radhika, who had heard similar apprehensions of the elders, thought: ‘Yes, certain regions of India are unsafe even for lone men-riders; especially at the interior villages of the north-eastern region, but the protesters or robbers may free me as I am a ‘poor soul’ who have always a noble cause of rediscovering the modern India!’ But, when another well-wisher described on the requirement of acquiring any suitable marshal-art by joining practical sessions somewhere in Chennai, Radhika was convinced spontaneously. Next one month was committed for Karate classes, which made her body and mind compatible to face any small or big threats, more than that she gained the knowledge of: where to use Karate or where not to use it as a way for self-defense. At the bottom of her heart, Radhika was always a dove of peace and fraternity, especially when she was commencing the much awaited exploration as a mission for rediscovering India, she needn’t show off her muscle-power at any point during the biking.
It was the rarest thing in her life, her father and mother together flagged off her biking on January 1, 2020 at Thiruvanthapuram, in a trivial function; thereafter she was alone on her way, until her last lap of biking that ended on next July 17th , same year at Chennai. When asked about the reason for selecting these two places, Radhika uttered in firm voice: My family’s origin is at Mangalapuram, later the parents shifted to Thiruvanthapuram. At present Chennai is our hometown, where father is a priest attached to temples.
Fighting Dengue
The most unforgettable thing during the national biking happened on April 12, 2020, i.e. on the 120th day at Kota in Rajasthan, when heading towards Thar Desert region. The severe fever that Radhika caught was the beginning of Dengue, about which she had heard that the fever was contagious only in unclean civic life; there hospitalization for one week under intensive care was the only way out. When telephoned to mother, she send father to be a bystander at the hospital bed-side. What to do next was the only question from the parents. “You shall not turn back, if you hold on the plough…” Though ignorant of the Holy Scripture as a source of inspirational quotes, Radhika replied mother who was with much concern, “Be calm ma, I am hospitalized here, they have offered me best treatment …” But on the other end Radhika heard the ‘motherly’ cry, for which her mother was telling two suggestions. “Radhika, you cease your biking and comeback by any means or I am coming to the hospital to take you back …” In a lovable, but babbling tone Radhika rejected both suggestions to continue in the hospital under medical care for one week and another two weeks quarantining herself in a hotel room, end of which she kick-started her bike to galloping to Rajasthan-Punjab border.
Disproving all the earlier comments on the low status of Indian women in their social and familial life, Radhika shared much about the reception and hospitality she got from the women-folk in different parts of the country. Once, out of respect, recognition and love one class of higher secondary girls from an Ernakulum school were ready to accompany Radhaka “ Cheechi (elder sister), shall we join with you at least up to the next state?” for which Radhika answered, “…dear sisters, you get license and experience for an all India biking, then only you may think about the adventure.”
Never forgettable
When asked to describe any unforgettable event, Radhika became enthusiastic and talkative, “If anxious to know, I shall explain two events that jerked me too much on the way: One day I was hit by a speedily moving ambulance coming from back and I was thrown into the air, making minor injuries on my leg and hands.” The bike had been seriously deformed in the accident on the route to the north-eastern states, in day time, where a small gang of villagers thronged, with whom Radhika could communicate any regional language, as she was skillful in speaking Hindi, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada or Telungu, according to the need. Some good ‘samaritans’ from the village took; her to the hospital and the two-wheeler to the work-shop, thus the rider and the bike got essential ‘repair’ to get rejuvenated within two days.
Yet another unforgettable thing happened on the route to Amarnath, the pilgrim centre in Kashmir Himalayas, where abrupt downpour and landslide made biking unsafe. At the barricade the CRPF men interrogated into the purpose of her biking and the people associated with her so far. In another incident, while an interrogation was going on by another set of army men in Pahalgham and Sona Marg sector, Radhika saw a preventive action of men, turning against terrorists on a roadside, where guns were triggered by them to produce ‘…tup … tup … tup’ sound, near down the hill. ‘How risky and adventurous the responsibility of our jawans if posted in such regions!’. Radhika became thoughtful during her narration, to this writer.
The achievements
Now Radhika has mouthful of descriptions on what she sensed, identified or rediscovered from the self–motivated, self-designed and self-controlled ‘conquering’ of her mother-land all alone. If someone asks, Radhika, what you gained from your diligence and endurance, she would answer, with my thin body and a stronger mind what I identified are a thousand things useful for everybody’s life, irrespective of the gender; male or female. Now Radhika seems interested of suggesting nation-wide projects for initiatives, like: driving, truck-driving, mountaineering, sailing and swimming across water ways. The governments and the youth associations shall collaborate with her for adventurous ventures to strengthening like-minded women. Radhika is unable to resisting her next desire for any epoch-making project than the earlier one, a round-trip on a bike through the five continents of the world. Yes, a world trip has been budded in the adventurous mind of Radhika, who answered “… it has not been fully incubated, for I am focused on my plan to expand the activities of my own start-up in Chennai and to complete an on-going project committed to IIT Chennai.” As these are the responses of a ‘rough’ and ‘tough’ unmarried girl, Radhika won’t slip away from her desire for a world-trip.
Julia and Ryan!
Radhika reminds us two activists who moved on the same path of adventurism to saturate their individualistic philosophy that they strong held at the early years of their own developmental stages. The first one is Julia Butterfly Hill; a girl from California in 2001, at her age of 24 smashed all the records of tree-sitting, a method to protesting the felling of trees, in her case it was a Red Wood tree of 1000 year-old. The authorities threatened the girl through severe means, like: pouring high-beam halogen lights during night or shaking the tall tree on which she was sitting, through heavy artificial storm created by helicopters. Only on the 350th day of her strike, she climbed down the tree to see the victory when the authorities announced through loud-speakers to her, “Julia, come back: Julia, you are right, while the authorities are wrong.”
Radhika reminds us yet another figure; Ryan Hreljac, a Canadian charitable fundraiser and activist who donated his first well as a source of pure drinking water for the children of Angola school, Uganda, in the year 2000. At that time Ryan was a primary school student. Radhika and Ryan, though have never seen face-to-face, both of them are birds of the same feathers; wearing the feathers of strong determination and endurance while rowing towards the shore, where the sea was rough and the wind was tough. Like Radhika, Ryan had to face a number of challenges to give up the noble objectives that had been set about in life at the early age, without any compulsion of anybody from their environment. If Ryan vowed to himself when he was 9, that he would donate a well for the poor school children in Africa, using $2,000, for which he had raised the fund by doing domestic responsibilities like, cleaning windowpanes and accepting contributions from the public to keep his words to someone, Radhika toiled and moiled to materialise a pledge she took herself, saying “… at any obstacle, in the form of unfamiliar route, unfriendly people or a meagre fund, I won’t go back at any reason.” Recognising the importance of endurance of people necessary for victory, Bob Dylan, an American lyricist sings, ‘ …how many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?’ Yes Radhika is a dove who sails vigorously before she rests in the sand on the shore. Until then she will fly; fighting famine or fatigue.
Parents great!
If not stronger and diligent, Radhika couldn’t be able to complete her all-India biking taking somewhat seven months, alone. Years before as a high school girl along with her younger sister, Radhika had planned an all India trip through ordinary service buses; present one was the saturation of that ‘childish’ desire. “At any reason, my parents were always taking supportive and promotive decisions for my happiness and success; sometimes they were seemed not modern in their outlook towards the policies that they were observing on the roles and responsibilities vested upon them. But they are great ...”
Now, the well-wishers may ask certain questions to Radhika, not to be answered immediately, but later through another surprise:
· Radhika, like your parents, how many parents of this time will permit their daughters for an all India biking? Why?
· Radhika, how should the girls or women remove the barriers, if they think of meaningful adventurism?
· Radhika, can you compare your apprehensions before the trip and the comfortableness after the trip?
(*Data shared by Radhika Rao in two interviews: kjjames111@gmail.com)
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