Growing up on his single mother’s middle class income, Ravinder Singh remembers walking long distances was an intrinsic part of his childhood. “There was not a lot of money in the house and she wanted to save for rainy days. I love to walk now, and a big part of it has to do with my childhood. This walk and journey of mine was also, in a way, a tribute to all the times she has walked miles in order to save money.”
A lawyer by profession, Ravinder always had the travel bug in him and it led him to travel the entire country in over a year. But what makes his journey so unique? He travelled without a penny in his pocket. “One thing that I have learnt on this journey is that you need to trust people. I had faith in what was coming and I went with it. I cannot describe how good people are and how genuine and helpful they can be. I found such people all over the country and they helped me survive,” says Ravinder.
While the initial journey began with him traveling with known faces and a lot of friends helped, he was shaken out of his comfort zone while replicating the Dandi March. “I wanted to do the Dandi March and I started from Sabarmati. On the first day, I reached this village 21 km from Sabarmati and I had blisters on my feet because I had never walked so much! I sat under a tree. I was tired and my shoe was sort of broken, which I was trying to mend. Suddenly a hand touched my shoulder and I was a bit startled. The man invited me to his house. When he got to know what I was trying to do, he gave me a piece of information which helped me throughout my journey. It was like God’s intervention that gave me the strength to continue. He told me, ‘In villages, if you have no place to go, go to the sarpanch’s house. The sarpanch will definitely help you out.’ His family gave me food, shelter and medicine as well,” he remembers.
The 29-year-old is pursuing something that not a lot of people his age would be comfortable doing. “Of course, my mother was apprehensive of this plan. But she also knew that I wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t pursue it. She eventually understood my point of view and supported me,” he says. At the same time he says that convincing his mother might not have been so easy if he was a girl. “Of course, in this violent world, mothers worry a lot,” he adds.
The most important life lessons he learnt on this journey, he says, were belief and not fretting about situations one cannot control. “Both these things go hand in hand. And I would not have been able to make such amazing memories if I was fretting about where I will sleep next or where I will get my next morsel from. Things fall in place with trust,” he says.
Ravinder’s journey started in Punjab and he wants to end it in Punjab. He also wishes to drive a bus from Delhi to Europe and keep it open for anyone who wishes to join. He will next walk from Nepal to Bhutan, collecting a wealth of memories and life lessons.
