There are many aspects which highlight the concept of India’s unity in diversity, travel being one of the most potent of those facets. The Great Indian Expedition, a pan-India journey in a car undertaken by a Kerala duo Manoj Ravindran and Joe Johar also promises to introduce to the world India’s history, art, architecture, food, sports, traditions and culture from its little known inner parts.
7,700 subscribers
Just one month into their journey which began from Telangana State, the effort of Mr. Ravindran, a former employee of an oil company in the Gulf and Mr. Johar, a professional photographer/videographer has begun to be noticed. The YouTube has monetised their one-month-old channel, Great Indian Expedition, as the number of subscribers has reached 7,700 within this short span at the rate of 180 subscribers per day.
“My experiment with rediscovering history of my home town Kochi had me rediscovering the ancient post of Muziris which was after I quit my job,” Mr. Manoj recalled of the birth of the idea for the journey. “The experiment resulted in my first book, Rediscovering Muziris , which is also the first Augmented Reality book in the country,” he added.
The YouTube channel was apparently selected by the traveller as a medium as it has the potential for providing good exposure for his work. Though he has no sponsors at this juncture, he is not averse to the idea.The traveller duo was in Kala Ashram, Adilabad, for making a video programme on the unique place when they disclosed their plans to go about their task in almost all important districts in every State.
“No time-frame is set for our travels through the five sectors which we have divided the country into, the first one taking us through Telangana, AP, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, the places forming the horizontal middle of the country,” Mr. Ravindran pointed out.
“My main thrust is on forts as I have taken an intense interest in the structures after seeing those in Europe. In comparison, the forts of Europe are much better preserved than those I have seen so far,” he observed while remembering visits to Golconda, Bhongir, Elgandal, Ramagiri, Khilla Ramalayam, Nizamabad and Domakonda forts in Telangana.
As for the language problem, the duo has faced it a bit in some interior parts of Telangana.
“Kathakali, the dance form of Kerala has stood us in good stead so far as we use the signs from it to explain whatever we want the locals to understand,” Mr. Ravindran observed with a grin on his face.
