Jammu Tawi, Nov 8: Today Women Club namely ‘Mere Pehachan’ Chairman Sandhya Gupta to felicitate Shilpa Balakrishnan from Kandivali, Mumbai, a motorcyclist who loves to travel around the world promoting India’s tourism.
Following is her account: I started riding in 2004 and merged it with my love for travel and search for adventure. Having travelled around the country in bits and parts, I decided to see my country in one single tour.
I built on my endurance and successfully completed the Iron Butt Association’s Saddle Sore Challenge in which I rode 1680 kms in 24 hours.
In 2016, I did a Pan India ride. It was a solo ride across the length and breadth of India covering 27000 kms in 135 days.
In 2017, I visited Bhutan and yearned to go to other international destinations too.
Year 2018 gave me the opportunity to ride to 5 ASEAN countries alongwith 3 other woman riders. We visited Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. This was possible with the support of Telangana Tourism, Ministry of Tourism and Bajaj Motorcycles. We covered 17000 kms in 56 days. We also got the opportunity to meet our Hon. P. M. Shri Narendra Modi during this journey when we reached Delhi.
In October 2018, I created a record of being the first female to do a solo ride to all 4 corners of India in 29 days covering 15219 kms. This is recorded in India Book of Records and World Records of India.
In 2019, I started training women to ride motorcycle and till date have trained over 35 of them and counting. The purpose of starting this was to enable women to fulfill their dream of riding and do something in their own way and capacity. The goal is to see as many women as possible riding motorcycles and not just the stereotype scooties out on the road.
My aim is also to not just teach them how to ride but to also teach them the correct way of riding following traffic rules, safety norms, etc.
Besides this, I have an adventure travel business and working on building it to be successful and prosperous.
*About the current ride* :
Himalayan conquest 2021
I am traversing through as many motorable passes of the Himalayan Range starting from West (Jammu) to East (Arunachal Pradesh)
Through this ride I aim to create awareness and promote:
#Tourism – within the country
#supportlocalbusiness – Amongst others, the tourism & hotel industry has been hit the hardest
#SwachhBharat – sensitize people about cleanliness at tourist spots
#Roadsafety – road safety is paramount, be it within city or long rides
