Twenty-year-old Aakash Mishra believes that being a traveller on the highways is the best learning experience; and what makes it even better is on a bicycle. His NGO, The Golden Bird Foundation, was founded with the aim of imparting knowledge and education to children from disadvantaged families.
He commenced his journey from Indore, through Andhra Pradesh and is currently in Chennai to speak at the International Youth NGOs Summit (IYONS). After Chennai, he plans to hitchhike his way back to Indore, covering a distance of 4,300 km and a total of 15 cities en-route. IYONS has requested him to collect soil from each of the five states he has pedalled through, so far, to plant a tree named after him.
Having covered over 20,000 km through cycling and hitchhiking, during the past two years, his objective is to encourage education among the disadvantaged while maintaining their traditional occupations. “I want to help people to get their children educated, but that doesn’t mean every villager should become an engineer. Then who will be the farmer? The best education available for a farmer while he handles his own work is ideal.”
While sharing anecdotes from his trips, one of the key qualities Aakash noticed with people he encountered, was their generosity and big-heartedness. “In cities, people are constantly suspicious of their surroundings. I would never be able to go up to a person and just talk to them without getting weird looks and them thinking the worst of me. But that is not the case with villagers; they are always ready to share their stories.”
Ultimately, the young social activist and the traveller in him are working towards making it to Pakistan on two wheels. Despite many discouraging words and suggestions to travel to other safer countries, he believes that taking risks and going beyond the ordinary are the only ways to overcome fear. He hopes to meet Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at the upcoming IYONS, and, in turn, create a nexus with Malala Yousafzai to invite him to Pakistan on a NGO visa. With this goal in mind, he awaits in anticipation, the endless possibilities his passion for cycling has in store.
