The Hindu : New Delhi News : Thirteen years on the road

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Sunday, Mar 30, 2008
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Thirteen years on the road

T.V. Sivanandan

His aim was to spread national integration and communal amity

Anwar Ali Khan

GULBARGA: This journalist is on a different mission. With his battered Bajaj Cub scooter, Anwar Ali Khan is on his last leg of an India tour to spread the message of national integration and communal amity.

He began his odyssey from his ancestral town of Parbhani in Maharashtra in March 1995, and will complete 13 years on the road on August 15 this year in New Delhi. President Pratibha Patil has agreed to release Mr. Khan’s travelogue “India Through My Eyes” in English and “Aankhon Dekha Bharath” in Hindi on the day.

Mr. Khan and his faithful scooter have travelled more than 2.28 lakh kilometres so far, criss-crossing more than 1.76 lakh villages in all the States and Union Territories. Mr. Khanhad left on his all-India tour on his scooter with just Rs. 186 in his pocket and six litres of petrol in his trusted Bajaj. “I have not missed a single meal during my 13-year-long tour of different parts of the country. The people have been kind to me and treated me as their family member, wherever I visited,” he said. Mr. Khan carries three bags containing his clothes and other essentials on the scooter. “There are no differences or animosity between the Hindus and the Muslims anywhere in the country. It is only the political parties which divide these communities on communal lines for meeting their political ends,” he said.

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