This is something that Niyog had in his wildest dreams. Now, it turns out it was not so wild after all.
Enrolling for the Fjällräven Polar, the dream expedition of all adventure travellers, this 26-year-old from Punalur in Kollam district was barely expecting to get through the selection process. But it just took him four days to push adventurers across the world behind and emerge as the top competitor in an online voting.
With just two days left for the voting to end, Niyog is a good 6,000 votes ahead of his nearest competitor, Mushahid Shah of Pakistan.
Fjällräven Polar is considered the adventure of a lifetime, an annual polar competition held along the ice-capped Norway-Sweden route organised by Swedish company Fjällräven since 1997. The participants, fewer than 20, will have to traverse the Arctic wilderness for a week covering around 300 km in minus 30 degrees Celsius—in sleighs pulled by a pack of 10 dogs.
The competition is meant for the toughest people, who are skilled and fit enough to handle the temperature and the Arctic life. Only two persons from each of the 10 groupings of countries are selected in an online poll. They will be scrutinised by a jury. Then comes an intense training to help them survive in the Arctic.
Penniless journey
Adventure is part of life for Niyog who was in the news recently for his 180 days of penniless journey as a hitch-hiker covering half of India, sleeping on the street and taking free food from strangers. He has gone on solo trips to several parts of the Himalayas.
Though a law graduate, Niyog is a movie aspirant and has been aiding ace Malayalam film-maker I.V. Sasi in scripting his last project Burning Wells , which would have been the director’s first film in English. Niyog had to cut short his penniless trip due to the death of Sasi last month, bringing him back to Chennai. He resumed his trip a while later.
Though excited about the expedition, Niyog says it would be a tough task. “It is difficult for people who are not experienced with sleighs—managing the dogs and balancing the sleigh, at the same time looking out for thin ice. It is deathly. Hypothermia and frostbite are other hazards,” he told The Hindu . But his Himalayan journeys have prepared him for extreme climatic conditions.
The enrolment for Fjällräven Polar started on November 16. Niyog enrolled only on December 1. His friends and followers soon took up the responsibility of the campaign online. The campaign through Facebook and WhatsApp groups besides direct ones has gone to such an extent that ordinary people now recognize Niyog on trains.
“We never thought it would get this kind of acceptance. Then we realised that if we worked a bit harder, Niyog could win the poll,” said one of his friends in Kozhikode who has been spearheading the campaign. Niyog cut short his trip around India to Kozhikode over the weekend as part of a direct campaigning.
If everything goes well, Niyog will be the first to represent India in Fjällräven Polar to be held in April.
