BENGALURU: Shailendra Singh has embarked on a journey like none other. The sports and entertainment guru, who was in Bengaluru recently, has started an apolitical rally from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
With the aim of uniting 1.4 billion Indians, the rally started on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birthday and will continue for the next couple of weeks.
Mumbai-based Singh aims to cover 7,170 km and 19 cities in 18 days, hoping to uncover thousands of untold stories in the process.
“In the last two-three years, while I was travelling across the country, I realised that everything – caste, food, religion, maps, fashion and language – divides us. But love unites us. Every human being is same from inside and different from the outside. That thought process stayed with me,” said Singh.
During his journey, he aims to meet people from all walks of life who have been celebrated and those victories that have never reached the world. For example, in Bengaluru, he met Dr Sunilkumar Hebbi, whose mission is right to health yatra. Through a mobile clinic, he and his team have done 700 free multi-facility health check-up camps and has treated 40,000 patients through the mobile van through the volunteered organisation.
While the journey seems vast, Singh will focus on some of the important sites related to the life and legacy of Gandhi. He also finds direction in the varied offerings of the country.
After beginning the journey on October 2 at Gandhi Memorial, where his ashes are held, Singh has covered Coimbatore, Kochi and Bengaluru. He will be heading towards Hampi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the point where Gandhi started the Dandi March.
“With 600 billion people below the age of 25 in India, we have the youngest population. The idea was to help people realise that we are one large family of 1.3 billion people. People today don’t want to shake hands, they want to send likes on social media,” he added while propagating the idea of unity.
Singh has also created and produced his anthem, which he calls, Ek Bharat Mera Bharat or One India My India. The song, which has been shot in 21 cities across nine days, features the voices of Mithoon, Sukhwinder Singh, Jubin Nautiyal and Godswill.
“The rally was to project our thoughts, experiences and the anthem that we created, which is not sponsored but created by us,” he said.