KOCHI: What could be the dream of a 12-year-old girl? Unlike most children of her age, Maria’s dream is to ‘experience the incredible India.’
To make their daughter’s dream come true, Maria’s parents have decided to embark on a pan-India tour on May 5. The journey is planned for 55 days, covering a distance of 12,000 km. Maria is daughter of Bipin Cyriac, a management consultant, and Reetha. Maria’s younger brother, six- year-old Cyril, is also joining the other family members in the trip.
The family hopes to travel 230 km per day in their new Mahindra XUV, up to Jammu & Kashmir, and to return to Kochi via Kolkata, Chennai and Kanyakumari on June 25. “We bought the vehicle on loan, only for this purpose,” said Bipin.
“It has been a year since we started preparations for the journey. As a prelude to the big trip, last year we travelled in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, covering 3,000 km in 16 days. The trip gave us the confidence to attempt the pan-India tour. We had been settled in Qatar for more than ten years, and there we used to go on vacation tours every year. We were not able to go on a long trip across India during our visits to Kerala. This caused Maria develop a wish to see India,” said Bipin.
“At a time when girl children are often treated indifferently, I want to highlight our efforts to realise the dream of a girl child belonging to an ordinary family like ours,” said Bipin, adding that they were networking with friends and relatives across the country to identify girls of Maria’s age who have extraordinary stories to share.
“During the journey, Maria will make efforts to capture real-life stories of extraordinary girls. She will also interact with kids of her age on making small efforts that create an impact. . She plans to publish an online book on the extraordinary girl children whom she will be meeting during the journey,” he said.