A Ranchi youth is going to cycle 6000 km covering six countries in 60 days to raise awareness about some of the burning issues of the society.
24-year-old Akram Ansari, an engineer who runs an event management company, plans to start his cycling challenge from Ranchi, Jharkhand followed by Jamshedpur, Kharagpur, Kolkata, Bangladesh, Assam, Manipur, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
The aim is to create awareness about the education of underprivileged children, women's safety and employment for transgender people.
During his journey, he will be delivering talks at NIT Jamshedpur, XLRI Jamshedpur, IIT Kharagpur, NIFT Kolkata, NIT Silcher, ALUB University Bangladesh and NUS Singapore.
“I will be speaking on the current situation of illiteracy, how women's safety is a big concern, and how trans-genders are being harassed and not getting equal opportunity to live a life of dignity,” the alumnus of NIT-Rourkela said.
Founder and Chairman of an NGO called ‘Bless 'n' Bliss’, Ansari hopes to collaborate with the students and faculties of the institutions to work on these issues.
This is not the first time that Ansari is going to undertake a cycling challenge for a social cause. His first cyclothon was in August 2016 where he covered 100 Km from Bhubaneswar to Jaipur road in Odisha. In his second expedition, he covered a distance of 400 km from Jaipur road to Ranchi in 2017.
“This time I thought to do it on a larger scale so that I can bring more people under one platform to collaborate and to help and support me to work on these burning issues of the society,” he added.
Born in Giridih, Jharkhand, Ansari is also a passionate mountaineer and marathon runner, which he says has helped him physically and mentally prepare for his upcoming adventure.
“As a fitness freak, I enjoy cycling the most among my other passions (marathon running and mountaineering) because it keeps me ‘ultra’ physically fit and mentally strong,” he said.
Ansari will start his solo-journey on August 20 without relying on any sponsors.
“I am financing this trip on my own and few of my friends are supporting me,” he said.
Considering the sorry state of affairs of cycling in India, where most prefer cars or bikes over cycles, Ansari encourages more and more people to take up cycling not just as a sport but also for fitness.
In fact, after completing the upcoming trip, he hopes to plan for Cyclothon 4.0 on a bigger scale than Cyclothon 3.0.