A 10-year-old dream comes true

KOCHI: It all began 10 years ago. It probably would have been a sunny day in Alangad near Aluva. Eight Plus Two students of Infant Jesus School were sitting outside their classroom. The topic of discussion was something about their future plans. From the trajectory of the conversation, that’s not the first time the friends have broached the subject. While all of them had different career plans, they were united by a particular dream: Travel. Sometime later, the group went on a trip and this only aggravated their desire for more. And just like that, the eight friends reach a consensus, “Ten years from now, we promise to travel together.” Staying true to the word, the friends started their cross-country journey from Kochi the other day.

On this dream journey, the friends will also spread awareness against the use of plastics. “Our aim is to know the soul of India. At the same time, we wanted to give back to society. Plastic menace is one of the most difficult issues we face today,” says Reno George, one of the friends. 
The group was at their final planning phase when they heard about the fire breakout at the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant in February. 

“After the fire was brought under control the authorities found the presence of respirable suspended particulate matter, which will cause cardiac and respiratory diseases, in the 20km radius of the plant. The reason why such huge quantities of waste were accumulated in Brahmapuram was because of the high increase in our usage of plastic. Hence, campaigning against the use of plastic is the need of the hour,” says Reno. During the travel, the group will not be using any single-use plastics. 
Apart from Reno, George Kuruvila, Prince Martin, Josewin Jojo, Febin Thomas, Rahul M, Manu A, Raphael Akhil Joseph and Renju Jose are part of the team. 

“Three of the team were not granted leave from their places of employment, so they had to quit. The journey is funded by our earnings during the past two years,” says Reno. The journey was flagged off by Aluva West CI from Infant Jesus School in Alangad on May 4. The friends will first travel to Bengaluru. In the first phase of the journey, the group will cover Ajanta-Ellora, Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Amritsar. For the length of the entire journey, the group will be travelling on a Tata Nexon and Mahindra XUV500.