Walking for a dream
His story is gritty and heroic. His cause will move you. However, what will surprise you the most is not that he covered a distance of over 4,415 km, and crossed more than 10 states but that he did it on foot. He walked through rain and sun, jungles, mountains, deserts and plains, fought acute fatigue, slept under stars, befriended odd fellow travellers to raise funds and create awareness on issues that are crippling the country.
When Max Chandra, a UK national of part-Indian origin, decided on this mission, he wanted to take a path less travelled. “So I decided to do a march all over the country. I set up charity foundation, One Step at a Time, just by Walking for a Cause! I wish to make people compassionate, spread the message of harmony and charity. I have already started around 10 projects, mostly for upliftment of children, and working on more. I hope to raise money to organise a vaccination programme for children in schools across India,” says Max, who first came to India in 2005 to discover his roots here.
On landing here he saw slums, people begging on the street and children who had never even seen a school. As soon as Max went back to UK, he resigned from his CEO post and decided to come to India to start his social work here.
“In November 2011, I started my first tour from Chennai to Kolkata and then Goa. And then I travelled from Goa, Mumbai, Indore, Chhattisgarh, Raipur and Rajasthan before finally stopping in Delhi. It was a memorable journey since I met different kinds of people and had some unforgettable experiences,” says Max.
Max travelled about 40 km per day. However, the biggest challenge, says Max, was to stay motivated. “There were occasions when I lacked the courage to take another step. But people in India are so kind that they would come up to me and motivate me to keep going,” says Max.
As Max travelled across the country, he kept taking pictures of people he met. He now wants to hold an exhibition of his works in Delhi. His next tour will soon start from Delhi to Kolkata and end in Seven Sister States. Max wants to cover 20,000 km and 28 states in all.
Post new comment