by Nisha Nath
It’s been more than seven months since we stayed within our homes while Covid was spreading fast with all zest. All plans of visiting exotic destinations, fun activities and meeting friends just remain a dream to all the travel bugs and the travellers groups in the city. Being aware that the Covid has frozen all their movements, wanderlusts are waiting for the post Covid era to commence their journey. Even when their legs are locked by Covid they are demonstrating that happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions and it is just governed by your attitude.
Shyni Rajkumar
At 5:30 am, it is not an alarm, roosters’ cock-a-doodle-doo or birds chirping but the sudden thundering of the bullet that wakes up Shyni Rajkumar’s family in Sasthamanglam. Shyni, often known as Bullet queen, starts her day training bullet riding to female enthusiasts. “As I can’t travel at this time, I am spending my time training female riders who are interested,” says Shyni as she advises the new rider on how to use leg break. Shyni is the founder of the first womens’ Bullet club Dauntless explorer in Kerala, which has got around 250 members across the state. She has already added a lot of feathers in her bullet queen crown – woman who rode from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, rider who conquered iron butt challenge, first lady to buy a Himalayan and many more.
In September 2017, Shyni travelled from Kanyakumari to Leh and back on her Royal Enfield Himalayan Bullet, crossing a total 0f 12,000 km in 42 days, with the motto of ‘Stop Violence Against Women’. Shyni speaks about the social pressures and gender bias she had to go through in every step as a woman born and raised in Kerala. Most of the women who come to learn have lots of doubts on whether they could ride a bullet as it’s very heavy. She had to motivate them for days to be confident to ride a bullet. “I have gained immense confidence after becoming a bullet rider and so I see the same opportunity in everyone,” she says. Now the bullet club has chapters in Kochi, Thrissur and Kozhikode and she is planning to start in Kollam also. In Covid times Shyni was able to indulge in painting which is her oldest passion and she has completed around 50 mural paintings and is planning to do an exhibition post Covid. As she talks endlessly about her infectious passion on riding bullets she mentions about her night rides to quench the thirst to travel when the city sleeps.
Bina Thomas Tharakan
As Heritage Walk Trivandrum completes 7 years this month, its founder Bina Thomas remembers the visits which happen every Sunday of the month. “We mostly pass through the city’s main roads but we don’t care or didn’t get an opportunity to explore the past and Heritage Walk made it possible,” said Dr. Thomas about her HWT journey which started October 2013.
Archaeologist and writer Bina Thomas now started exploring her childhood passions of gardening and crochet.” From my childhood I used to accompany my mother who was an expert in crochet and this covid time I have knitted a lot of doilies,” Bina tells as she glances through them well presented in a small teapoy.
“Currently I am working on two travelogue books for children which helps them to know about the value of heritage and culture and waiting for the release,” she said.
Bina is the author of ‘Anaconda and my backyard stories’ released in 2014 which makes children aware of the world around them. She has been a regular columnist on most of the daily newspapers where she writes for children about heritage and the relevance of it. During the Covid times Heritage walk has organised two events – one gave the opportunity for everybody to showcase the antique pieces at houses. “Everybody will have some antique showpieces related to heritage which they have inherited from the ancestors, so this covid time was the right opportunity to show it to everyone in the group and talk about it,” she said. Second virtual event by HWT was with the Anglo Indian community which resided in Pettah. For each one of the members in HWT it’s a treasure hunt of the past about their own city.
Bina Thomas Tharakan is consultant archaeologist, Special Officer, World Heritage Listing Project, Government of Kerala and her enthusiasm to know about the city made HWT alive to each of its participants. In her mission in HWT she wanted to make people aware that heritage is not just temples or monuments but includes all the old buildings, schools, markets which we see in our locality and curiosity to know why they are there today. As the Covid is extending beyond months, Bina confirms that she doesn’t want to restart HWT visits in this situation as the members in HWT range from 10 years to elderly people and she wants to be inclusive whenever she restarts the journey.
Sajna Ali
“Edie is my favorite movie. It’s about 83 year old woman who believes that it is never too late for a trip, as she packs an old camping bag, leaving her life behind and embarks on an adventure trek to Mount Suilven in Scotland” Sajna Ali recalls about Edie movie and tells that watching movies is her favorite pastime in the covid times. “I have seen more than 100 movies in this corona time and I like to watch mostly travel and movies related to food,” said Sajna. Sajna Ali the founder of city-based, all-women travel group Appooppanthaadi, is cherishing her memories of travel through facebook and other social media.
“I felt this as a good break as I never get a chance to be at home and spend time. Now when I see the pictures on facebook, I feel like it’s walk down the memory lane. In the past 3 years that Appooppanthaadi has organised 243 trips with 2500 women. These include places like Hampi, Dhanushkodi-Rameshwaram, Valley of Flowers (Uttarakhand), Kudremukh, Tawang, Meeshapulimala, Kolukkumala, Varanasi, Chikmanglore, Agumbe, Gokarna, Mahabalipuram, Gandikota, Yellappetty, Ramakkalmedu, and Wayanad,” she said.
The single day trips include Munroe Island, Mahaganithottam, Chitharal, St Mary’s Island, Dhoni, Vattakottai, Vazhvanthol , Udayairi Fort, Nilambur, and many more. “For me Appoppanthadi, the journey was always like a dream as we have been travelling just like a milkweed to where all we wanted ” says Sajna.
Sajan Ali who was a software engineer in Trivandrum recalls how a small off road trip to Aryankavu with a bunch of women turned out to be a women travel group. Sajna is an active volunteer in raising funds for NGO organization Helping Hands and Thejus which is blood donors group.
“When it comes to travel, women have varied issues. For some it will be concern over solo travel and for others it will be destination or financial constraints. But for all these issues Appoppanthadi is a solution. We share the cost of the trip in case if someone doesn’t have money at that moment and they can pay back when they can”,” she adds. Sajna is planning to restart the travel with smaller groups starting from November. This women travel group is a huge platform for women to remove travel anxieties and fulfil their dreams of travel fearlessly, on a light budget!
As the Covid times puts us into a new normal phase of life, it reminds the famous Khalil Gibran quote – All that spirits desire spirits attain!
Nisha Nath is a techie who is an avid writer and traveller.
