Vishnudas Chapke, 33, a Parbhani native and a former Mumbai scribe, has covered 12,000 km through north-east India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China by road and rail in four months. The journey was crowd-funded after he exhausted his savings, including some of his provident fund. The dabbawalas delivered handouts with Vishnu’s appeal for donations to 2,000 customers in south Mumbai along with their tiffins recently.
“Vishnu had met us for a newspaper article a long time back. Then, earlier this month, he touched base with me from China on WhatsApp as he had no money for international calls. His trip sounds crazy and gutsy. We wanted to help in whatever way we could,” said Subhash Talekar of the Mumbai Jevan Dabe Vahtuk Mandal. The group ferries nearly 1 lakh tiffins within the city daily. Vishnu, who does odd jobs in exchange for food or accommodation abroad, says he needs every penny to complete his trip which could stretch for up to 22 months. He has slept over at railway stations and temples, had a tough time finding vegetarian food and fell ill a few times.
“Five years ago, I had interviewed Commander Dilip Donde, the first Indian to circumnavigate the world by sea. I wanted to follow in his footsteps but use surface transport. Donde said I would need around Rs 1.5 crore, which I could not dream of raising. I dropped the idea till I read Donde’s book on his journey and wondered if I could work out something,” Vishnu said.
“I had gone hiking to J&K and Nathu La. I knew I could sustain arduous journeys on foot. For travelling from Mumbai to West Bengal, Assam and further to Manipur, I banked on acquaintances posted as civil servants there,” he added.
Befriending a Tamilian settled in Manipur, whose grandfather had migrated to Myanmar, Vishnu crossed over there, further by train to Bangkok, a few Thai cities later to Vientiane in Laos, then by train to Hanoi and eventually to Beijing. He is presently in Shanghai, hoping to get a visa for Australia. “There was a time when my Vietnam visa was set to expire and I could have been in serious trouble with the authorities. Cambodia and Japan refused visas. A Chinese journalist helped me get a visa for China,” he said.
Commander Donde had no idea Vishnu was taking off until his Facebook page was flooded with his pictures. “I’m surprised he has managed to go so far already,” Donde told TOI.
Vishnu’s journey would not have been complete without the kindness showed by strangers, some of whom footed his food bills and others helped him with the local language, road maps and directions. In Vietnam, Vishnu taught kids English in exchange for food and shelter at a house. “At the picturesque Danang in Vietnam, a young woman, who had offered me shelter, insisted on taking me for a tour of the city on her two-wheeler. I was reluctant as she was pregnant. But she would not take no for an answer. Throughout the ride, I kept praying for her safety,” Vishnu said.
The next leg of his trip is daunting. Vishnu will either have to go by sea or air to Australia and plans to cycle from one coast to another. He can be reached for donations @vishnuchapke on twitter or www.facebook.com/vishnudas.chapke on Facebook
Nitasha Natu is a Senior Assistant Editor with the Times of India... Read More
Nitasha Natu is a Senior Assistant Editor with the Times of India and writes on gender, human rights, road safety and law enforcement. She has received the Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2021. She tweets @nnatuTOIRead Less