When he set out to discover India on his motorcycle just months after his retirement as the Principal of Sacred Heart College, Thevara, the 57-year-old Fr. Prasanth Palaykkappilli had planned to return in two months. When he returned to Kochi on Friday, he had been on the road for exactly four months, with the vastness of the country forcing a change of plan.
Among the many takeaways from his journey, interactions with farmers, visits to farms and learning about organic and sustainable farming methods are set to stay with him for long. “Farmers remain the backbone of our country but they are left to fend for themselves. I interacted with many students on the way. Not many wanted to take up farming. That should change,” Fr. Palaykkappilli said.
Another high point was witnessing the massive protests of farmers at Singur demanding the rollback of farm laws. He spent a few hours with them and also got to address them.
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He traversed the country following the second wave of the pandemic. “Except in Kerala and Sikkim, there wasn’t much concern. The enforcement of COVID-19 protocol was not very strict either,” Fr. Palaykkappilli recollected.
Lucky escape
He was also fortunate to escape the massive floods in Uttarakhand by a whisker as it happened the day after he left the place. However, inclement weather threw cold water on his plans to visit Ladakh as the road was closed.
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The love and compassion shown by absolute strangers was overwhelming. “An apple farm owner insisted on taking me to his farm at Shopian in Kashmir,” he said.
While he remains game for another such trip, he is not sure whether it will happen. “Such trips give you a splendid opportunity to interact with people and with a little preparation one could effectively use it for a cause,” said Fr. Palaykkappilli who hit the road despite having recovered from COVID-19 not long before the journey.