Chennai boy bikes to break stereotypes

After his graduation from UWC Mahindra College (Pune), Kesava Kirupa Dinakaran took a gap year and decided to travel the world promoting the importance of sustainability and peace. One of the main inspirations for this teenager was the school in which he studied. UWC College brings together students from 70 different countries and helps them explore sustainability philosophy. “Along with regular subjects, we study about the importance of a peaceful and more sustainable future. And obviously, with the global exposure I got there, I decided to travel the world to make a difference. While growing up in Dubai until I was eight, I realised there was a cultural stereotype (basically negative) that was attached to central Asia and the Middle East. This affected me and it was running in my mind for a long time. These stereotypes led to misunderstanding between the cultures which in turn created lack of peace. I somehow wanted to break this stereotype,” says the 18-year-old.

One of his friends, Jerry Huang from UWC College (Bosnia), wanted to cycle from Europe to China and discussed this idea with Kesava. “I was more than happy to be a part of this project. Two more friends Magdalena Girasole (from UWC Mostar (Bosnia) and Raghdan Al- Hennawi from my college joined us. We cycled from Turkey to China along the Silk Road this summer — we covered 4,000 km across nine countries (Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China) in 80 days,” he says.

The team wanted to promote environmental sustainability and cross-cultural understanding. “We biked 100 km a day on an average mostly, and took the train from Tehran to Tashkent to reduce the unpredictable dangers of desert biking. We spoke to locals on the theme of ‘Dream’ — what dreams do the people on the Silk Road have and why do they have that dream? Later, we shared their stories through blog updates for people around the world to know about their lives. We wanted to promote understanding across different languages and cultures and connect people across the borders,” shares Kesava.

He clearly remembers the hospitality he received on the Silk Road. In most of the places, people welcomed the youngsters with open arms. “We spoke to 3,500 people and showed what sustainability means by refilling our water bottles when we visited people’s houses instead of throwing them out. We also talked to them about how to minimise the generation of waste and around 3 million read our stories on social media. Because of this huge impact, I’ve started an organisation that uses cycling as a method to help break cultural stereotypes. This is the first chapter of the initiative.

We plan to continue this and do a similar type of project in different countries where we can create a good impact.” Before he starts college next year, Kesava has already chalked out his future plans. He is planning to cycle from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir talking about ethnic and caste-related politics and publicise rice conservation. “Because of the experience I had, I have got a good understanding of how to approach this kind of nuances that can actually make an impact. But before that, in January, we are planning to go to Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan and understand the impact of Silk Biking Project,” says Kesava, who wants to become a serial entrepreneur building non-profits.