We fulfilled our dream, say women bikers after completing 17,000 km journey

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], Apr. 09 (ANI): Women bikers, who successfully completed the 'Road to Mekong', a 16,992-km long road trip covering six Southeast Asian countries starting from Hyderabad, are proud to have fulfilled their dream.

"It was a wonderful experience. It was everything that we hoped for and more," an ecstatic Piya Bahadur, one of the bikers, told ANI.

Bahadur also encouraged women to ride a bike more often, and not feel hesitant.

She asserted that it is imperative for women to follow their passion and believe in themselves.

"Women can ride a bike. Riding a bike is important and more importantly, I would like to suggest them to follow their dreams or at least make an attempt to follow their dreams," she said.

Renu Bahadhur, Piya's mother further said that all parents need to encourage their daughters without any gender bias.

"I am very happy and proud of my daughter that she has completed 17000 km in seven weeks. We have been encouraging her since childhood and we didn't think that she is a girl and shouldn't ride a bike. Coming to this bike ride, it was the inspiration of her father who rode from India to Paris on the bike in the year 1979. At that time he was not having government's support but now I am very glad that my daughter got the government's support. I suggest all parents to encourage their daughters without any gender bias," she told ANI.

Meanwhile, Jaya Bharathi, another biker thanked the state and central government for supporting them.

"Wherever we went, people welcomed us and we were supported well by the state government. We four had planned to start the trip on our own and then the government came to support us. The central government also supported us," Bharathi told ANI.

Reiterating Bahadur's stance on women empowerment, Bharathi said that people have a misconception that women cannot ride bikes and the notion needs to be changed.

"We wanted to show everyone that a woman can also do anything and there is safety and security for the women in our county. People have a misconception that women cannot ride a bike but that thought should be removed and the word itself should be removed from the dictionary as we should do something and show to the ones who think we are not fit for anything. I request everyone to follow their dreams and not to afraid of anything," she added.

These four women embarked on their journey on February 11, 2018, with an objective to promote Telangana tourism, covering Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.

The women were supported by the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) and Government of India in this initiative.

TSTDC Managing Director D. Manohar, while talking to ANI, congratulated the riders on their success and said during their journey the riders met people from various sections of society and explained them about Telangana tourism and Incredible India.

"The rider's team was also accompanied by four member's production crew to document the entire expedition, Telangana tourism provided a mini couch with two drivers and ample Telangana tourism publicity material and 2 more members as supported," Manohar said. (ANI)