A birthday wish, a YouTuber and a 13-year-old’s cycle ride from Punjab to Delhi

On the morning of October 4, the 13-year-old left for school as usual, but instead cycled towards Delhi, throwing his maternal grandfather, with whom he lived, his parents and the police of two states – Punjab and Delhi – into a tizzy.

CCTV images from that day had captured the boy, in his uniform, cycling his way towards Delhi via Rajpura, Shambhu barrier, and then taking a bus from Ambala to Delhi, with his cycle loaded in the storage of the bus – a 250-km long journey that captures a child’s innocent obsession in a world where social media influencers have celebrity status, where the lines between the real and the virtual are almost indistinguishable.

After reaching Delhi, he again cycled till Malhan’s apartment—- all this without having any GPS, smartphone or any gadget.

At his home in Patiala’s Harinder Nagar, Viresh’s maternal grandfather Harbans Lal Sharma, a retired bank officer, can’t stop blaming himself for what happened. “I still can’t believe he went away like that. I would have never forgiven myself if something had happened to him,” says the grandfather, tears welling up as he speaks about the incident.

Talking about their July visit to Delhi to meet YouTuber Malhan, Sharma says, “When he first asked me if I could take him to Delhi to meet ‘someone’, I refused. I made one excuse after another. Told him Delhi was too hot… then told him he would have to first finish his summer vacation homework… He finished his homework in 25 days and was back to pestering me.”

Only a few months ago in April, Viresh had shifted from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, where his parents lived, to Patiala to live with his maternal grandparents. For Viresh, who is still to make friends in his new neighbourhood, his 73-year-old “nana” is his “mentor, friend, guide, tutor… everything”.

Viresh’s mother Madhu says he is being counselled after the incident and that the family has been told not to press him on the details of his journey.

So finally, on July 2, grandfather and grandson hired a taxi for Rs 7,000 and set off to Delhi – to meet Malhan.

Once they reached Delhi, Viresh borrowed his grandfather’s phone, watched one of Malhan’s videos on YouTube and told the taxi driver: “We need to go to Chitrakoot Apartments in Pitampura.” As they reached the building, Sharma says Viresh’s eyes lit up as he recognised it from many of the videos he had seen.

That day, Viresh managed to meet Malhan for a few seconds. “They finally called us inside, and Malhan told Viresh to study well and watch his new video. Viresh then took a selfie with him. And we left,” says Sharma.

On their way back to Patiala, the grandfather tried to counsel Viresh. “I asked him to think about the trip… what really was the point of our coming all the way here? He said it was just his wish to meet the YouTuber. I closed the chapter there,” said the grandpa.

But Viresh was to soon start a new chapter. The minute-long meeting and the selfie with Malhan weren’t good enough and Viresh decided he would soon return.

“I didn’t notice anything very different about Viresh after we got back. He didn’t have a phone of his own, so he would borrow mine, saying he has to note the homework his teachers would send on WhatsApp. But he had started taking a little longer to note down his homework. The school work which earlier took 15-20 minutes was now taking an hour,” says Sharma.

“I know nothing about smartphones or apps such as YouTube. I use it only to make calls and use WhatsApp. Viresh would ask for permission to use my phone even before calling his parents. He never asked for a new phone for himself. I had no reason to doubt him,” he added.

Finally, on October 4, four days after Viresh’s mother Madhu Bhushan, a homemaker, and father Amol Bhushan, a businessman, landed in Patiala from Raipur to meet him on September 30, Viresh left for Delhi, with about Rs 500 in his pocket.

When the boy didn’t return from school at his usual hour, the family began a frantic search and filed a complaint with the police, who scanned CCTVs and Sharma’s phone. It’s then that the story of his journey to Delhi emerged.

Sharma’s phone revealed that Viresh had shot off multiple messages and mails, not just to Malhan but also to the YouTuber’s mother, with a wish that he wanted to spend some more time with the YouTuber.

“It was Malhan’s mother’s birthday on October 3, a day before Viresh left for Delhi. He wished her a happy birthday and also complained that her son did not give him enough time when they met him in July. There was no response to any of his messages but the boy innocently kept at it. Finally, when nothing worked, he left for Delhi on his own on October 4,” says Inspector Pritpal Singh, in-charge of Cyber Crime Cell, Patiala Police, who accompanied Sharma to Delhi.

Meanwhile in Delhi, Viresh had reached Malhan’s home but was disappointed to know that the YouTuber was away in Dubai. The boy spent the next three nights out in the open – in an unlocked car, in the parking area and in a park – hoping to meet Malhan once he returned. Viresh later told police that he ate from local dhabas and even watched a Ramleela nearby.

But when Sharma and the police team reached Malhan’s apartment on October 7, Viresh was nowhere to be seen. It was then that Sharma spotted his cycle – “I knew he wouldn’t leave his cycle behind, so the policemen and I waited right there, beside his cycle. Finally, when Viresh came back, I just hugged him and cried.”

“I never used any apps or YouTube so I assumed that he was using my phone for accessing his homework on WhatsApp. Had he told me that he wanted to visit Delhi again, I would have taken him. He never asked for anything from me except for Rs 50-100 to eat out,” says Sharma, who told uniformed cops to stay away while waiting outside Malhan’s apartment, so that Viresh is not scared and runs away again.

“Maybe he thought that making Malhan’s mother happy will give him easy access to the YouTuber. He was just too innocent and wanted his own fan-boy moment,” says Sharma. After reaching Malhan’s apartment, Sharma realized his grandson was not the only one. “We met another girl who had come to give an appreciation letter to him,” said Sharma, bewildered.
Inspector Pritpal Singh says the police team was all prepared to go to Goa if they hadn’t found Viresh in Delhi. “The YouTuber assigns tasks to his followers based on imaginary situations. For instance, in one of the videos that Viresh discussed with his grandfather, Malhan had said, ‘Maharani ka haar chori ho gaya hai, chalo dhundne Goa chalein (The Queen’s necklace has been stolen. Let’s go to Goa to trace it)…’ The boy might have reached Goa assuming Malhan was actually there. These videos negatively impact young children who are too young to differentiate between virtual and real,” said the officer.

YouTuber Malhan did not respond to messages and mails seeking his comment.

Viresh’s mother Madhu says it all started during Covid when children started accessing phones and laptops for online studies. “He was in Raipur in 2020 when Covid had started and he used our common laptop for online classes. It was then that he started following this YouTuber but he never asked for a personal phone or laptop,” she says. “Just a day before he left for Delhi, I had asked his school principal why homework was still being sent on WhatsApp when physical classes have resumed,” she adds.

She says he is being counselled after the incident and that the family has been told not to press him on the details of his journey. “We aren’t letting anyone talk to Viresh yet. He has gone through a lot and we don’t want him to be further upset. He keeps saying sorry,” she says.

On Monday, as he walks into the living room and sees his grandfather with the day’s newspaper, Viresh says, “Meri news padh rahe ho (Are you reading about me in the paper)? Sorry, nanaji, maine aisa nahi socha tha… (Sorry grandpa, I didn’t think this would happen).”