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Around the world in 20 years!
What is the link between spirituality and smoking? "Shunning tobacco is important for attaining spirituality," say two youths from Keonjhar district in Orissa, who have set out on a world tour on their bicycles. Any idea as to how long they would take to complete their tour? Hold your breath, it is 20 years!
The youth, Sudhir Kumar and Manoj Kumar, have embarked on their mission to spread the message of universal peace, love and unity and impressing upon youth on the need to give up vices like smoking, drugs and alcohol.
The set out on their tour from Keonjhar on January 22 this year and have already covered a number of villages, towns in cities in their home state and in Chattisgarh before reaching the City of Destiny, a few days ago.
The duo, who, had graduated from their hometown, were influenced by the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris organisation, where they did a one-week course after their Intermediate. They were deeply attracted towards the meditation and yoga programmes and dedicated themselves to the organisation. While Manoj became an active member in the Keonjhar centre, Sudhir proceeded to the headquarters at Mt. Abu in Rajasthan in 1997. Once while they were in Rajasthan, they met Suresh Kumar Sony and Ashish Mishra, both from Uttar Pradesh, who were on a world tour on their bicycles.
Sudhir and Manoj decided to undertake a world tour on their bicycles to foster peace, love and unity in the world by impressing on youth, the need to shun vices and adopt good habits.
"We first meet the officials of the district concerned whenever we visit a new place. In places where there are Brahma Kumari centres, we stay there for the night and our food and accommodation needs are met by them. In the absence of such centres, we stay at accommodation provided by the government. Incidentally, the organisation has centres in 120 countries across the world. In the rural areas, we stay at any convenient location and cook our own food," they say. They ride 60 to 70 kilometres a day, carrying their kits with them on their bicycles.
Their day starts around 6.30 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. When they put up in a city or town, they go to the local schools and colleges impress the youth on the ill-effects of pursuing vices like smoking and alcoholism and the importance of following the right path for success. "We even take an oath from the youth to discard at least one bad habit, which they have and take up at least one good virtue from a list of 12 which include honesty, truthfulness and peace," they say.
"After retiring for the day, we do our routine work like cooking for the night and maintaining a record of our travel." They conducted awareness and yoga classes at Sri Sai Padma Vidyalayam at Gudlavanipalem, at the Central Prison and at Shanti Ashram. They could not visit other schools as most of them were closed for the summer vacation.
The youth who do not have any family ties, plan to conclude their tour in Mexico. Though they are not after records, when they complete their tour, not only they but also their cycles will become celebrities. In the meantime, let's wish them `happy cycling'.
B. Madhu Gopal
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