Chasing a 40-year-old dream and a constant urge to find his friends, who he met briefly and struck a conversation with, Amarjeet Singh Chawla has travelled 36,800 km in 131 days on road from Delhi to London.
The 60-year-old businessman, who retired from professional life three years ago, reached Amritsar in his travel expedition and got candid about his life’s most challenging and satisfying adventure.
“As a youth growing up in Delhi, I always dreamt of travelling the world. I met a man from Denmark, 40 years ago, who was on a travel spree and we struck a conversation about his adventure. Much later in life, after I got retired and felt something missing in life, I decided to undertake a journey via road from Delhi to London,” he said while interacting with media in city.
Beginning his dream expedition on July 7, 2018, and travelling through 30 countries, including Central Asia, China, parts of east Europe and Russia, Chawla managed to finish his journey back to home on February 23 this year. His Fortuner has turned into a canvas, bearing messages from over 400 people he met during his journey.
“I have also earned a name for myself, the Turban Traveller,” he shared, proudly so. “I met Arnold Schwarzenegger and several other celebrities during my journey. It was also journey of self discovery for me as I met my friends from 40 years ago in Denmark and well, many unknown people who helped me through and reaffirmed my faith in mankind.”
Of course, it was not a smooth ride. “Being a vegetarian, I had to face a tough time while travelling through China and Central Asia. I met with three road accidents as well, though nothing bad happened.
In Central Asia, fuel too was also an issue as black marketeering is rampant. In Tibet, I could not do video interviews for my documentary on road trip. But, despite several health issues and all, I am glad that could experience the world and its citizens intimately through my road trip.”
He is now ready to take up another challenge, to drive across seven continents, covering approx 200,000 km in next 18 months. “I am preparing to start my journey in May this year from Delhi. I do not want my journey to be meaningless and so I want to tell the youth that if a 60-year-old man can manage to live his dream, they too can achieve anything under the sun,” he said.
