Pulling Out All The Stops

Bhubaneswar: Challenging the basics of life where 60 is a number for retirement and rest, and when most of the people are taking rounds of the hospital, sexagenarian Sharat Sharma from New Delhi took his bike out to tour all the 29 states of India, four Union Territories and neighbouring Bhutan.

He arrived in Bhubaneswar late on Monday evening and shared a post on his Facebook page.

He believes life has three innings. “The first one is our years of no responsibilities when we have to study. The second is when we have our personal and social duties. We work, we make a family, we live. The last one, however, is when most of the people refrain from doing anything, but this is the phase when you should live your life!” he said.

After having worked for years, he did not want to walk the usual path of staying at home doing nothing. “I took 10 years to plan the map, the places I would go to and when I hit 60, I left out on this amazing adventure,” he added.

For him, fitness is important so that life can be lived. This is one of the things he wants to promote through this trip. “The other message, especially for youngsters, is road safety. According to a data collected by the government, in 2016-17 a total of 1,50,785 people died in accidents of which, 52,500 were bikers,” he said.

Among the bikers who died, 18.3 percent drove without a helmet and 46.3 percent were between 18 and 35 years. “I want this generation to follow traffic rules and enjoy biking as a part of life’s journey,” he added.

The young heart started off on March 18 and has covered 15 states so far – Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Bhutan Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Bengal and Jharkhand. “From here, I will drive to Chattisgarh on June 28,” he said.

However, what might interest the young mass is the fact that he does not use online maps to trace the roads. “I speak to the locals who tell me far better routes than maps ever will! However, I have a map sketched for all my future destinations,” Sharma further said.

Positivity is the key to living one’s life, he said. “You need to prepare yourself physically and emotionally, for which an optimistic approach towards life is a must. I am looking forward to what is in store for me next and want to live by example,” he added.