Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 17: A 23-year-old man from India, Aftab Faridi, is vying for the world record of cycling the longest distance across a single country, currently held by an Australian who covered 18,000 km in eight months.
Faridi reached Dimapur on Saturday riding his dream of covering 30,000 km on a bicycle across India. He started the journey on Aug. 26 from India Gate in New Delhi and plans on completing it by June 19, 2019.
Faridi told Eastern Mirror that he has already covered 8000 km inside 77 days; with Nagaland as the 13 state covered in his trip. According to him, the trip to break the world record is for the soldiers, not just of India but all over the world.
“Soldiers are hardly given respect, even though they protect the whole country,” said Faridi. “Nobody runs a race or rides a bike in the name of soldiers.”
As long as the younger generation continue to challenge themselves, he said, anyone could break (any) records. “I (have) had three near-death experiences so far in the last 77 days but that did not stop my will to continue.”
According to Faridi, his travel was ‘without any financial assistance or plan’. “I have been surviving with whatever people I come across give me, sometimes I knock on their doors also if I really need to,” he shared.
The highlights of his trip so far, he said, were the occasions when he was ‘felicitated’ with ‘tribal scarves’ in Assam and in Nagaland. “It made me so proud that Assam and Nagaland felicitated me with a symbol of their state,” he beamed.
Nagaland’s minister of Public Health and Engineering department (PHED) Jacob Zhimomi met Faridi in Dimapur on Saturday after learning about his trip. Zhimomi told Eastern Mirror that such commitment and motivation is necessary for the youth of the country. “Naga youths have nothing less, we need to be polished and hope that the youths get encouraged,” Zhimomi said.
He expressed astonishment at ‘how one can pedal through all the states without money or knowing where they were going to eat and sleep’, calling Faridi’s mission a “new discipline and art form.”
Faridi plans to cycle to Kohima on Nov. 18; then to Manipur and other northeastern states before heading to south India.
