20th September 2022, Dehradun: SPIC MACAY’s Founder and Padmashri Awardee Professor Kiran Seth has reached Dehradun while on his All-India Solo Cycle Yatra, which commenced from Kashmir on 15th August 2022. Addressing the media at a press conference today, Dr. Kiran Seth informed that he has already covered Kashmir, Jammu, Pathankot, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, and Saharanpur, before arriving in Dehradun on his bicycle.
As a part of the Solo cycle yatra, the 73-year-old will be covering over 200 districts and cities from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. He will also reach out to the children in the rural and urban settings of the country while on his pan-India cycle excursion.
Further talking to the media, Dr. Kiran informed that on the 19th of September, he started on his bicycle from Sunderpur in Uttar Pradesh and entered Dehradun through the RTO check post. On entering, he was welcomed by the many cycling enthusiasts of the city, who then accompanied him on this leg. He was greeted in the city by the students of Graphic Era, Hilton School, Universal Academy, Doon International School, Carman School, and other educational institutions on his route. Dr. Kiran had lively interactions with the students and their teachers, as well as had detailed discussions with SPIC MACAY volunteers and coordinators on the best ways to take the movement forward.
Adding further, he said, “For this All India Cycle Yatra, I’ve bought a simple cycle worth 7k which is without any special features like gears or disk brakes. I’ve spent 500 rupees for necessary gear and I am only carrying 3 pairs of clothes. By this, I want to spread the message of simple living high thinking by Mahatma Gandhi.”
During his stay in the city, Dr. Kiran Seth is scheduled to address a gathering of students and educators at Doon School, Mussoorie International School, and the staff and probationary officers at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He will also have discussions with school and college principals and vice chancellors of universities.
During the press conference, Dr. Seth also informed about the four objectives of his All-India Solo Cycle Yatra, which are to celebrate India’s composite heritage and culture, to promote cycling for good health and a clean environment, to spread Mahatma Gandhi’s message of simple living and high thinking, and to induct more volunteers into the SPIC MACAY movement.
Dr. Seth’s journey to Rishikesh will be flagged off on the 2nd of September by the Governor of Uttarakhand, Lt Gen Gurmit Singh. From Rishikesh, he will cycle to Haridwar, Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, and Delhi. He aims to conclude this yatra at Kanyakumari by 31st December 2022.
On 2nd October 2022, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Dr. Kiran Seth aims to reach the national capital, New Delhi, after having cycled from Kashmir, covering Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, which is more than 1000 km.
Sharing with the media his planning for the pan-India cycle expedition, 73-years-old Dr. Seth said, “I could only plan on undertaking this expedition because of yoga that I’ve been doing since his childhood. Yoga has given me the ability to embark upon such excursions at this age, and I consider cycling as meditation and not just an activity or exercise.”
He wants to convey the same message to our youngsters about how our Indian culture and heritage made him the man that he is today and he also wants them to learn about our glorious composite heritage.
Addressing the question of why cycling is concerned, he said, “Nowadays, cycling is more like a trend amongst the youth rather than an exercise so I am using this trend to attract the youth and make them aware of SPIC MACAY and the purpose of our initiative which is to have every child experience the inspiration and mysticism embodied in Indian and World heritage and also make them aware of the benefits of the cycling both physical and environmental.”
Born in 1949, Kiran Seth is an Indian academician and former Professor Emeritus in the department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is most known for founding SPIC MACAY in 1977, a non-profit organization that promotes Indian classical music, Indian classical dance, and other aspects of Indian culture, amongst youth all over the world through its 500 chapters and conventions, baithaks, lectures, and musical fests. In 2009, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contribution to the Arts.
SPIC MACAY is a voluntary, apolitical, youth movement that conducts more than 5000 programs a year across 100 cities in India and abroad. It organizes programs including classical music & dance concerts, workshops of different art forms like classical music, dance, crafts, yoga, and folk arts, film screenings, talks, heritage walks, and theater shows in educational institutions only.
