Konstantinos Tsioulos from Greece spends his time travelling
from one country to another. He flew in from Muscat, Oman with his orient
cycle, which he fondly calls Jolly, dismantled in a box. Arriving at
Thiruvananthapuram on February 11, 2015, he took off on his cycle, pedalling
along the Indian coastline to finally reach Goa. Konstantinos has been to India
before, visiting Varanasi and Kolkata, but this is his first trip to Goa. “I
heard about Goa from my friends; they said that this place is meant for people
who love smoking and drinking. Hence I was not interested in coming here, but
recently, I thought of cycling here and seeing the place for myself; whether
what I heard about it is true. Sadly, it seems like there are more bars on the
road with people preoccupied with either drinks or mobile phones,” says
Konstantinos, whose Varanasi trip took place 17 years ago. For this trip, he has
been cycling through Kanyamkumari and the beaches of Goa and will move
northwards towards Maharashtra and then Varanasi again.
When asked why he is cycling around the country, he says
that he is in search of the answer to an important question. “Why am I born?
There must be an answer to this and until we find our answer, we will always be
driven.”
Konstantinos was born in Greece and at the age of 16, he
wanted to leave the shores of Greece to explore the world. “My mother kept me
back and told me to complete my high school. As soon as I did that, I left for
the US where I studied aerospace engineering and was part of a few projects
there. I had a dream of going into space but then I realised that there is so
much to find out about life on Earth; and to go into space, you have to be
trained like a machine. That’s when I returned to Greece and started
travelling,” explains Konstantinos, who has his sister back home in Greece.
From Greece, Konstantinos travelled by cycle to Turkey,
Georgia, Armenia and Iran, from where he took a boat to Dubai and then cycled
to Oman. Speaking about safety while travelling through these countries,
Konstantinos says, “The news that we see on TV is their perception which
changes the viewer’s perception. These places are safe; after all, things can
happen anywhere in the world. I found the western world picture of Iran
completely wrong.”
He further adds, “India is a contradiction. While in the
West, spirituality was brought in from India, here the country is unspiritual
and poor in mind and soul. The young people are imitating the West and it is a
pity.”
As Konstantinos soaks in the sights and sounds of Goa, he
feels that the best way to travel is by cycle. However, he too has faced his
share of risks. “I was thrown off the bike by a bus driver in the South of
India after eight months of cycling safely. I believe that there are lords and
demons – if you worship the demon you become one and if you worship the Lords,
they will keep you safe.”
Konstantinos is enjoying his cycling experience in India and
will continue to do so until he feels the need to get back to the US for his
aerospace project. “I am not sure of my journey but I hope to make it to
Varanasi safe without any driver knocking me down,” quips the Greek
adventurist, with a smile.
