Half and Half

Biker and traveller Pankaj Trivedi is documenting the lives,cultures and hearts of the people he comes across during his journeys.

More than the destination,kilometres covered,or romancing the road,the milestones in biker Pankaj Trivedis journeys are the people,their lives,their dreams,and their stories. How his travels transitioned into a travelogue is a fascinating story itself. Trivedis been on the road for more than six years now,and covered the length and breadth of the country in this span. He took his bike to a record altitude of 5713 meters. In 2008,he broke the Limca Book of World Record by riding on a motorbike from Kanyakumari to Leh in five days,five hours and 45 minutes (with Chandigarh-based Karanbir Singh). His web page and Facebook page are colourful windows to his life shown through spectacular pictures and entertaining episodes.

An adventure junkie,a passionate biker,keen photographer,and now a filmmaker,39-year-old Trivedi decided to record three years of travel from North East to West about a year ago and came back with interesting footage from Sundarbans,Sikkim,Assam,Arunachal Pradesh,Rishikesh and Ladakh. I thought why not convert this into a documentary on India. But when I sat down with it,I realised that these were just pictures. There was no story to hold them together, says Trivedi. This set the foundation for his first documentary,A Ride Through the Heart,a soul stirring emotional and educational discovery that he accomplished despite being dyslexic. I cant read or write coherently and it was a challenge to record all this in written and film,for the first time, he says.

The voices of Baul singers,widows of Varanasi,a hornbill called Raja in Arunachal Pradesh,the lives of tribals,and the music from sand dunes Trivedis film introduces the viewers to India. But this was just the beginning. India is in desperate need of help. After coming across all these people and their stories,I felt my work was incomplete and I needed to give it a definitive shape, says Trivedi. In the spirit of storytelling,and the urge to help all those he met during his travels,Trivedis now shooting a documentary called Half Stories. The film is a journey across the Himalaya from Jammu & Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh to explore the lives,cultures and hearts of the people who inhabit these mountains,and an invitation to be part of the story themselves. The idea emerged from the first film and was inspired by the story of a widows ashram in Varanasi, saysTrivedi. The women were living in sparse quarters,in inhuman conditions. Trivedi shared the story on his Facebook page,inviting friends to help these women. The response was instant and spontaneous. Donations poured in and we bought seven fans for making the widows lives just a bit better. I want to continue to generate the same impact with Half Stories,of people who with a little help from others,can live a better life,a better dream, says Trivedi,who is shooting open-ended stories of everyday people.

For eight years,I ran an adventure travel company based out of Mumbai. I was planning someone elses dream destination, says Trivedi. But the wanderlust in him packed up the company,and he went for an adventure of his own,starting with the completely crazy trip from the UK to India in four-and-a-half months,on his bike,in 2006. My friend Damon IAnson and I motorbiked our way through France,Switzerland,Austria,Hungary,Romania,Bulgaria,Turkey,Iran,Pakistan and India, he says. Running around for visas,going through a gazillion security checks,tackling Pakistan embassy,sharing chai and conversation at tea stalls of Turkey,enjoying mehmaan-nawaazi in Iran and plowing with horses in Bulgaria Trivedi writes a whole new chapter in motorcycle diaries.As he kickstarts his Honda CBR,a lean looking Trivedi flashes a smile. Getting lost doesnt bother him. Im born with an in built GPRS, he says. When I am on the bike,its like pilgrimage,a meditative process. Im in a state of trance, he says.

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