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UK to India: A long road home
Published on Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 22:58, Updated on Sat, Jul 14, 2007 at 22:13 in 
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New Delhi: Three months, 18 countries and 20,000 kms later an Indian doctor couple from UK has much to celebrate and talk about. After all, it was A Long Road Home. Dr J Aryabhat Gopaldas, a 32-year-old physician and Dr Ashlesha Bagadia, a 29-year-old psychiatrist, drove down from UK to India, raising funds for UNICEF and capturing all the sights and sounds along the way. Thirty-five of their best photographs are on display in Delhi at The Academy of Fine Art and Literature for the next few days. The couple shares some of their best moments with IBNlive.com:
Neha Bhatt: What was the very first thing you did once you reached home in Delhi?
Dr Ashlesha Bagadia: We ate Indian food! We reached Delhi and my brother’s friend came to pick us up and took us home. We ordered some good food and ate. Also, we called all our loved ones to let them know we were home safe and sound.
Neha Bhatt: And you must have had a good nights’ sleep that night after the long, long journey home?
Dr Ashlesha Bagadia: Oh yes, we slept well.
Neha Bhatt: To start from the very beginning, was planning this whole trip very taxing?
Dr J Aryabhat Gopaldas: Not really. What took most time was getting visas for all the countries and because we were still working alongside, we had to take a lot of time off to apply for the visas. Plus the time it took to process the visas was not in our hands so that was the problem. Other than that, we booked some hostels and low-budget hotels for our stay on the way.
Neha Bhatt: How did you fund the trip?
Dr Ashlesha Bagadia: We put in all our savings. We had been planning this trip for the past two years so we knew where our savings were going to go. In fact, Europeans go back-packing all the time. But then Indians usually think of saving what they earn. But we keep it got travelling.
Neha Bhatt: But you were offered monetary help when word got around about what you had planned?
Dr J Aryabhat Gopaldas: Yes, we had done some fund-raising in UK earlier and when people got to know we were embarking on this trip they wanted to help out financially. We directed them to UNICEF as we had registered with them to raise donations for projects in India. So all the donations and the ones through our website www.alongroadhome.com and blog, went to UNICEF directly.
Neha Bhatt: There is a certain sense of disconnect when one looks at the pictures you have taken and wonder, what really happened during the trip? The photographs are surely picture perfect but I’m sure the trip had its share of glitches? Apart from driving from one destination to the other, what kept you busy?
Dr Ashlesha Bagadia: We were like any other tourist. We would check into our motel/ camp site and talk to other travelers. Or we would head out to the countryside and spend the day sightseeing. We made so many great friends, met such nice people.
Neha Bhatt: You camped a lot?
Dr J Aryabhat Gopaldas: Yes, in Europe there are so many campsites in remote places. So we would just call them a few days in advance, go and set up our camp there. We still have to discover if India has that many campsites. Once we travel around here I guess we will know.
Neha Bhatt: Any incidents you recall?
Dr Ashlesha Bagadia: Our car was broken into in Sweden. We had parked in a hostel and the next day we found we had lost a lot of our stuff including camera lenses, our iPods and the guitar.
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What a cool thing to do!!! I certainly hope one day I could do the same......kudos 2 u guys!!!!
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