Two Hyderabadis, Ajay (26) and his friend Inder Sen (26), are are all geared up to head towards north-east India, on an ambitious journey. They aim to capture the tribal music that is the signature of every state in the north-east. Their agenda also includes, apart from exploring north-eastern states of the country, a drive to bring adventure travel in India under notice.
"We want to prove that adventure travel is possible in India," Ajay and Inder say. In a bold attempt, the duo aim to spend just Rs. 150 a day on their adventure trek - a feat made interesting by its sheer implausibility.
With Make My Trip sponsoring their flashpacking, and On the Rocks sponsoring their backpacking equipment, the duo seem to have made things easy for themselves. They're also being supported by the Greater Hyderabad Adventure Club (GHAC), TripNaksha.com, and OkTataByeBye.com.
Starting Wednesday, the pair will first head to Kolkata, and then reach Siliguri, where they officially begin their trip. According to Ajay, they intend "to fill the itinerary in as they go along". They will first reach Guwahati in Assam, then touch Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, and finally hop back to Assam in the end. They're also hoping that a couple of friends might join them midway - and, in fact, they're game for anyone joining them at any point on the trek.
Ajay is an avid runner, and a supporter of some of Hyderabad's special interest groups that make use of fitness-based demonstrations - the Right To Walk Foundation & Hyderabad Runners being a few of them. Eyeing every capital city of the 7 north-eastern states, he intends to conduct a 10k run in each of these in a bid to bring these organizations and their objectives into light.
Having recorded the visuals of the aesthetic north-eastern landscape, and ethnic music as well, Ajay has plans of compiling his work and selling it under a Creative Commons License.
All details of the trek are available on the blog
hitchhikingindia.com, Ajay's website for adventure enthusiasts. The duo is present on the social networking site Twitter as well - in their avatars @ajaymreddy & @indersen - where they will keep the updates flowing via the hashtag #150aday.