“If driving is an art, then the driver is an artist, the roads are his paper and the tyres his pencil,”— says Mithun Aravind. His words are met with a chorus of claps and hoots by his buddies Krishnakumar, Nithin George and Arun Paul with Arun chiming in, “Most of us prefer going to foreign locales but once in our lifetime, we should travel across India so that we can share our experiences with our future generations.”
If you are wondering what has brought on this discussion about driving, tyres and travelling across India, the answer is that the quartet from Kochi will be embarking on a 41 city, 41 day and a 12,000-km journey across India, also including Bhutan in their travel plans.
They will be starting off from Kochi on Sunday and will be back by March 27, driving through some challenging terrains that will test the men and their vehicle.
Titled ‘The Great Indian Footprint,’ their travel will be documented real time on the website too. What makes this journey different is that all the four are CEOs of companies who are taking out a sizeable chunk of time from their busy schedules to discover first-hand the joys of long-distance travelling.
Nithin George, CEO of QPlay Technologies, is the youngest and he was a part of the delegation of the Startup Village to Silicon Valley. Nithin says, “The best thing that entrepreneurship gave me was the opportunity to travel to seven countries in two years. Travelling, to me, is not about the places but about the people who changed my way of thinking, my perspective of life and the way I look at business. I used to keep on whining about the lack of such experiences in Kerala and that’s when I met the other three and we started going on small trips together. Slowly, we hit on the idea of doing something big and how this trip idea took birth.”
Nithin touches on the challenges. “Our family, friends and business team expect our presence and so I am doing the technology managing part wherein our people can track our expedition real time. I am also working on a wearable application where our family can track our heartbeat using a wearable device.”
To the chorus of good-natured ribbing about his girlfriends getting to know that he is alive and kicking, Krishnakumar, CEO of Green Pepper Consulting, adds, “The best part was that all of us in unison decided to keep aside our work and go travelling. Knowing the stay and food constraints, we thought of linking companies to get brand mileage so that it would be mutually beneficial.
“Most of our partners like EVM were very open to the idea of sponsorship and gave us the 110 PS full-option Nissan Terrano for the drive. We have also tied up with Young Indians to promote the ‘Horn Not Ok Please’ campaign. We have readymade food packets with us but will be trying out the local fare too. The whole idea took concrete shape in just 15 days.”
The most seasoned member of the trip will be Mithun, who is the CEO of A Team Adventures. His second name could perhaps be adventure because he has been travelling a lot.
“We hope to come up with some wonderful stories to narrate! The challenge lies in driving through some inhospitable terrain in Jammu like Sonmarg, Kargil, Leh, Dras, Manali, Shimla and Khardung La Pass. We are travelling in a steel home and we aim to make that as enjoyable as possible. We like to call ourselves the ‘Band of Brothers’ because that is how it is going to be- one family!”
The vehicle will be equipped with life-saving equipment like oxygen cylinders, ropes and medical kits. Mithun is a qualified first aid expert and he adds, “I have been giving my buddies a crash course in first aid. In case of emergencies, the YI chapters and Army centres have been informed and supportive of our trip.”
Arun, CEO of Mac Mills Consulting, is excited about spending some time with the Army men in Pahalgam and will also be dedicating a song composed by a Kochi band to them.
“We will be appreciating the efforts of the Indian Army in safeguarding us. We did not just want to go on a journey but wanted to carry a socially, responsible message too , hence, the ‘Horn not OK’ campaign. We have been practising not honking and we have changed our diet and sleep patterns. We have been taught about mental and physical endurance and are doing exercises too.” So it’s happy driving to the quartet.
