When 26-year-old freelance Photographer Radhika Rao, bought a brand new Bajaj Avenger 220 in January this year, little did she realise that the motorcycle would take her all over the country. “I was never a biker. I and my younger sister always wanted to travel the country, but on a bus. Somehow, our plan didn’t materialise but my thirst for travel remained unchanged. That's when I turned to my bike,” says Rao, who has traversed 26,000 kilometres, covering 29 states and six union territories in India over the last six months. Stopping over at Madurai on the last leg of her journey from Kanyakumari to Chennai, Rao says that the purpose of her ride was to do a photo-documentary on the various landscapes, culture and regions of India. “The challenge was to do it on a single journey. Since, I am a freelancer, I didn’t have to quit a job but had to leave behind my family. It took me a month to convince my mother.”
Be it biking 120 kms off-road at Karimganj in Assam or riding through the unforgiving Rohtang Pass in Himachal, Rao did it all with sheer grit. “There were so many difficult stretches in Kashmir and the North East. The landscapes were beautiful but daunting. I took some of the interior routes in the North East where you would find no people for hundreds of miles. Yet, I enjoyed the challenges and lived up to the moments,” says Rao.
Though women bikers are a nascent subculture in India, there's nothing so unsafe out on the roads, she feels. “I ditched the GPS for a good part of the journey and took directions from local people. I wanted to connect with them and I must say that in most of the places, people were helpful and considerate.” “They didn't treat me differently for being a woman on bike. But yes, many questioned the reason I rode a man's bike.”
Rao avoided night riding throughout and stuck to a strict schedule of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. “Night travel didnt make any sense for my purpose of taking pictures and also I was playing it safe. Most accidents occur at night and I didn’t want to run a chance.” However, she fell ill with dengue midway through the expedition. “I was in Jaipur then and had to get admitted in a hospital. Though my family and friends asked me to drop out of the journey, I was determined. My father flew down to be with me for a week, after which I resumed riding.”
I have clicked over 5,000 pictures on this trip and plan to exhibit them in Chennai after returning, says Rao. “There's so much in India that we are unaware of. There are breathtaking places and lovely people waiting to be discovered. At a village in Meghalaya, a couple of elderly tribal women dressed up, smiled and posed for pictures and I felt happy that I am able to make someone smile. I connected with schools and young people in the cities.”
Amidst all the diversity, one common thing that Rao felt across the country was road rage. “It's the same in many parts. I found road users to be impatient and rash. Mizoram and Sikkim were amazing in this aspect as people don't honk there. Honking is considered disrespectful in those states.”
