Sitting among the scores of publishers at the 25 Vijayawada Book Festival (VBF) is a retired Deputy Commercial Tax Officer from Hyderabad, who proudly flaunts his achievement of travelling through the famous Silk Route across three countries.
His 55-day journey took him through some of the world’s most ancient sites on the planet in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. He could not obviously hide his once-in-a-lifetime experience in those two Central Asian republics, which were once part of the Soviet Union, and in Beijing and other Chinese cities.
Privileged experienceThe result of his desire to let people know about this ancient route is the travelogue written by him in Telugu ‘Silk routelo Sahasa Yatra’ (Adventure tour in the Silk Route) which is up for grabs at the VBF.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Lokeswar said that he was privileged to travel through the Silk Route which connected the ancient business and cultural centres in Asia.
He travelled the entire distance of nearly 2,000 km by road starting from Tashkent and covering Bukhara, Samarkand and other celebrated cities en route. His next stopovers were the bustling cities in Kyrgyzstan and Beijing at the end.
Mr. Lokeswar got to see the cultures of those countries from close quarters and study the relations India has been nurturing with them, particularly the erstwhile Soviet Socialist Republics, for a long time.
Inveterate traveller“I have a keen interest in history and geography which stoked my passion to travel to far-off places. A few years ago I covered many parts of Chhattisgarh on a scooter and wrote my first travelogue on it. My book on the Silk Route is my second travelogue,” Mr. Lokeswar pointed out with the happiness of achieving a rare feat writ large on his face.
He has dedicated his book to Rahul Sankrutyayan, one of India’s most widely travelled scholars.
