Contemplating life with a world citizen

Every human being in this world contemplates life and it differs from person to person. It all begins when a person begins to ponder the very purpose of life. Indian tradition gives a whole different context to this contemplation connecting rich family values and mythological principles. I never thought of life on such a serious note, I used to embrace life as it camealong, until I happen to meet and host a world citizen for a week in my house. Thanks to couch surfing website.

Konstantino with his bicycle

 

Konstantino gave a couch surfing request to stay with me in my house. After reading his brief profile; I learnt that he was born in Kiveri, Greece and now on a bicycle tour across the planet. I was more than amazed and thrilled to host him in my house, as he started his journey in Greece bicycling his way around Middle East the past couple of months. Konstantino reached my house with his GPS enabled device and I received him with great respect. My roommate Donny was equally thrilled to meet him after hearing of his bicycle journey.

 

 Konstantino is a traveler not a tourist per se ( I pointed the fine difference out in one of my previous blogs). He started his bicycle journey from Greece, travelled across Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, UAE and reached Oman. This is just one part of his epic journey across the planet. He took a flight along with his bicycle from Oman and landed in southern part of India – Trivandrum. He reached Kanyakumari; the tip of Indian peninsula and started his journey to North part of India along the western coast. Enroute to Kolkata, Konstantino stayed in my house for six days at Raichur in North Karnataka near by Hyderabad city. I heard many of his stories about life; all that I can understand is contemplating life. He has christened himself as Akasha in India, which means the great universe. I was amazed to learn that Akasha is a space scientist, working with US space agency on special assignments. Akasha loves to interact with locals and learn their cultures.

 

Akasha - His CS profile image signifying the universe

We went on a small heritage walk in the city of Raichur ruled by erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. One evening, I took him to a fort atop of small hillock located in the middle of Raichur city. Akasha was very much keen to know about the history of the fort and its kingdom. Akasha climbed on to the rock and gazed over the horizon as the sun started to set.  The silence gripped, as the stars started gleaming in the night sky. Akasha was still looking at the sky. I assumed that he may be searching for his satellites in the sky. Throughout the stay, Akasha was very flexible in our bachelor house. Given his age, profession and experience, we held him in upmost respect. As days passed on, he became our buddy – preparing simple dishes, helping us in kitchen, brewing black coffee and having interesting conversations. I invited him to my medical school campus to deliver an informal talk. He readily accepted my invitation and inspired a bunch of students too. Though it was scorching summer in Raichur, Akasha never complained about the heat waves.
 

Konstantino with students

All these years of travelling, he volunteers in places where they could use a hand, prefers to stay in spiritual centers/ashrams and practice meditation. I took him to a blind school in Raichur but to our luck the students were away on summer vacation. Disappointed, he looked around the school and made a small donation too.  Akasha left after a brisk stay of a week in my place and yet I could still feel the void for a couple of days after his departure.


 

Akasha traveled all the way to Kolkata where he found himself attracted to Shantiniketan in West Bengal and Hindu Banaras University in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his Indian journey in another couple of months with a short touring to Nepal.

Though his name is Konstantino, he is never constant in his stay. He keeps moving around the planet to contemplate life with friends – sitting on a mountain, in front of the sea, the desert, cold night-sky as blanket, sailing in rough sea and oceans and many more. His mission was to make friends in each country of our planet, so that there will be no “borders” only “neighbors”

With every visit he makes, he grows a bit, in knowledge, experience and contacts a like and this makes him a citizen of the world and he hopes that one day he will be a citizen of the universe. According to him, the interesting people he met so far in the many wonderful places are all different flowers in the garden of life.

I love being a travel freak, Konstantino drew inspiration; I dream to dare such travel in my life at least once.  There is lot more to be discovered about us than we know so far. I’m waiting for such a defining moment in my life.

 

His further Journey from India.
Konstantino reached Bangladesh after the Indo-Nepal trip. He could not cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar border; so he was forced to take a flight to Thailand. He then went around Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. He took a boat Catana 431 from Singapore to reach Mauritius. After exploring Mauritius; he took another boat Elin to South Africa. As on today Konstantine is in somewhere in South Africa (January 2017) with his bicycle meeting new people, learning new cultures and most importantly learning life at this very young age. Konstantino has covered approximately 36,000kms in this journey of contemplating life as on Jan 2017.
I will be updating his future journey soon……