Kerala group goes on a 'Bullets against bullets' ride from Kalady to Kashmir

OVER 1,200 years ago, a young monk from Kerala travelled from Kalady to Kashmir, propagating the oneness of existence, or what he termed Advaita.

- APARNA NAIR

That ancient route traversed by Adi Shankaracharya was retraced recently by a team of 52 bikers who rode from Kalady to the Line of Control (LoC) as a homage to the lives lost in the Pahalgam attack and a message against terrorism.

The bikers, who joined forces from across Kerala, rode under the motto 'Bullets against Bullets'. For the bullets that terrorists showered on tourists in Pahalgam, here were the bikers' own Royal Enfield Bullets. The two-week ride was flagged off on June 1 by Kochi City Police Commissioner Putta Vimaladitya, who also heads the state's anti-terrorism squad.

"The idea came up after my friend R Ramanand, director of the Abhinava Gupta Institute of Advanced Studies, Vagamon, posted on Facebook about how the Pahalgam attack would soon be forgotten after the initial hubbub," says Mani Karthik, a startup consultant, who spearheaded the team.