These Vizag boys rode 4,500 km in memory of their friend who lost his life in a road accident

If it were not for the actual emotional pain involved, this would seem like a tale straight out of a Bollywood flick. Vizagites,

Rajkiran Buddiga

and

Jayaraj Gedela

, part of

travel vlogging

group ‘

Drunken Pandavas

’, successfully travelled more than 4500 km on their bikes from Visakhapatnam to Kanyakumari, in a span of seven days, in memory of their friend Revanth Dasari, who had passed away a year ago.

Revanth was on his way from Vizag to Guntur to meet Rajkiran. He was pillion-riding on a bike and wasn’t wearing a helmet when the bike met with an accident. While Revanth succumbed to his injuries on the spot, his friend who was riding the bike has been in a coma for the last one year. The tragedy also created a chasm between friends Rajkiran and Jayaraj. “Revanth was going to Guntur to meet Rajkiran when the accident happened. So I always blamed him for our friend’s death,” says Jayaraj.

Understandably, Jayaraj refused when Rajkiran approached him with a road trip idea to Tirupati. But he relented when Rajkiran revealed that it was Revanth’s idea all along to travel to Tirupati. “It seemed like the right thing to do, in Revanth’s memory,” he adds.

But the friends wanted the trip to mean more than an outing to Tirupati. They wanted their trip to inspire others to travel and at the same time spread awareness on road safety, so that others do not face a loss similar to theirs. In fact, that is the motto now of the ‘Drunken Pandavas’ comprising Rajkiran (Sahadeva), Jayaraj (Arjuna), Prasanth Mandava (Bheema), Sai Prakash (Yudhisthir) and Tagore (Nakula). “Travel does not mean spending chunks of money and staying at plush hotels or travelling by air. We spent Rs 18,000 combined and explored all of Tamil Nadu on our bikes while at it. This is the biggest ride Drunken Pandavas has done so far,” says Jayaraj.

What was supposed to be just a sojourn to Tirupati extended to Chennai, Kanipakam, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Tiruchirapalli, Rameshwaram, Madurai, Nagercoil, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari and Dhanushkodi. Along the way, they experienced acts of kindness which reinforced their faith in humanity. “At Kanyakumari, an innkeeper offered us a room free of cost as we had no money to spend on anything but petrol and food. In Nellore we stayed at a medical hostel. I have an eye disorder, so we preferred not to travel during the nights. We put up a post on Facebook asking for help and a medical student saw the post and offered us a place to stay. The next morning, another man saw the post and met us!” says Jayaraj.

So, did the trip help bring the two friends together once again? “We’re both closer to each other now than when we began,” says Rajkiran with a huge grin. “I was really hesitant to go on this trip but he was persistent. Even till Tirupati, I was just going along for the sake of Revanth. But from there, it changed for me. Maybe Revanth brought us closer because he wanted us to do more through Drunken Pandavas,” adds Jayaraj.

Talking about the choice of their rather curious title ‘Pandavas’, Jayaraj says, “Many are offended by the name, to be honest. But there are five of us in our group and ‘drunken’ stands for our thirst for wanderlust.” Now the Pandavas are looking to expand as well. They are looking at recruiting volunteers and travellers from all over the country and not just the city. “We want the message of

safe riding

to reach out far and wide. Everyone should wear safety gear while riding, and at least a helmet if they can’t afford the whole gear,” says Rajkiran. Next on the agenda of the group is completing the ‘golden quadrilateral superhighway expedition’. “The expedition covers 5849 km and will have us travelling from Delhi to Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and back to Delhi. We’re not tired, we have a lot more energy to spend and a lot more to do,” signs off Jayaraj.