A journey she embarked on last month has seen Hyderabad girl Sana Iqbal covering 83 cities across the country, biking all by herself to promote a cause — conducting free seminars in universities and colleges on “how to be happy” and combat depression and suicide.
Done with Goa, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Patiala, Pathankot, Srinagar and Jammu — to name a few — Sana is currently, in Allahabad and will be finally riding back to Hyderabad on June 12.
When Sana, eldest of the three daughters of a lawyer-couple, told her mom about her plans, she reacted exactly as expected — with shock. “Also, I lost my father a few years ago, so she was obviously very unhappy with my decision to ride alone,” says the 27-year-old.
Instead of throwing tantrums, she decided the best way to prove herself. “We should do whatever we want to, but must also try and understand our parents’ point of view and concerns,” she says. Today, her mother is proud of what she has accomplished, she adds with a smile.
She also had to face strong opposition from the biking community. But she was determined to spread the message of happiness, something very close to her because of her own personal experiences — “I fell in love and got married at the age of 26. A year later, the marriage ended in a painful separation. I was emotionally strained and had no clue how to move forward in life.”
So she hit the highway, all prepared to end her life. “A series of strange events changed everything. I saw a kid waving happily at me, a man passing by in a car giving me thumbs up sign... and I realised how ignorant I was — I saw a ‘Sana’ in everyone I came across” she says.
But the defining moment happened when she was in Surat. “I got so much love and appreciation there. People took me to their homes and introduced me to their parents. That’s when I realised I wanted to do this for the rest of my life,” she says.
Sana has managed to touch quite a few lives. She says, “I have dealt with so many people with so many different issues. I let people know how they can help people going through depression by realising that there is a solution to every problem in the world.”
