Keeping up with the Him Stroller || Following this man with a mission to scale the length of India on foot
It has been a few days now that TravellingCamera has been following the spontaneous and unscripted journey of an Indian Blogger, who has made it his mission to cover the distance from Sunder Nagar in Himachal Pradesh to Kanya Kumari in Tamil Nadu, all on foot. Hitesh Kumar aka Him Stroller (https://www.instagram.com/him_stroller/) set out from his home almost on whim, searching for the meaning of life. In his vlogs, he has mentioned that some trauma in his life was the reason why he decided to embark on this journey, though he did not go into the details. So may be this journey will be the coming-of-age journey for this young man.
He has already been walking for more than 30 days and is currently in Rajasthan. He is following the highway and has managed to ignore the temptation of taking even short rides offered by friendly locals or friends. He is carrying a backpack with a few change of clothes, a water bottle, medicines, and other supplies, and also an umbrella, which useful in sunlight and in rain.
The first thing you will notice about Him Stroller's videos is that they are authentic, earthy, and not-too edited. It reminds one of those initial days when the idea backpacking had only just started to charm people. Solo travellers would undertake such journeys more for themselves than for anything else. Most of Him Stroller's videos are about him walking and talking. He talks about the people he meets, places he stays, and his philosophies of life.
Because he is following the highway, his vlogs are not about exploring a place. He is focused on his destination and every action of his aligns with that purpose. He sleeps at Dhabas, in Gurudwaras or anywhere he can find a cot and a point to charge his phone. He takes regular breaks for meals, which is a good strategy because that allows one to stay nourished and not feel too tired.
He is also constantly learning, not only about the purpose of life, but also about its practicalities. there were a few days in between when despite sleeping for 8-9 hours at night, he would still feel tired during the day. He was in constant conversation with himself about why this could be happening. And after a couple of days, he zeroed in on the fact that though he was sleeping, his mind was quite active. So he decided to meditate a bit before sleeping, but also admitted that he has tried meditation before and wasn't very successful.
As days pass, Him Stroller is becoming more and more confident and this reflects in his posts and videos. This undertaking requires courage and perseverance, else he would have given up long ago. Each day must be full of anticipation as well as anxiety, but he pushes on. I remember on Day 3, he had just crossed from Himachal into Punjab and wasn't able to find any place to spend the night. It was getting very late at night and he was walking on an unlit, yet busy highway, with a torch in his hand. It was a pretty scary scene. While he did find a place to eat eventually, he did not mention where he slept that night.
His courage must have been tested every day of this journey and I hope that whatever encouraged him to keep moving forward, will continue to guide him in future as well. I cannot wait for the day when he reaches Kanya Kumari. I do know that he would be a different person by then, much wiser, grown-up. And hopefully he would also get answers to his questions about the situations in his life. We at TravellingCamera wish Him Stroller the best in his endeavors. Keep going, bro!
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