“If I can complete this journey, anybody can do it,” said 33-year-old deaf and mute biker Archana Timmaraju, with the help of an interpreter, during her stopover at Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh on way back to her hometown Bengaluru from Ladakh. She started the 8,000 km-long journey from Bengaluru to Ladakh and back with her colleague Daniel Sundaram on April 29 and likely to complete it by May 29.
The biker received a warm welcome from 20 hearing-impaired Chandigarh residents, with whom she shared her experience. “The idea for this ride came with a vision of a whole new world for the deaf and those who find it hard to hear, to bring inclusion of such people in the society,” said Timmaraju, an arts and metal sculpture teacher at Mallya Aditi International School, Bengaluru.
Timmaraju, who has a BFA and MFA degrees, sees this journey as an effort to explore the self and share her experience with the society.
“Teaching arts and metal sculpture at school gives me the freedom to express my thoughts. Same goes for travelling. A friend gave me his old RX 100 in 2006 and I would ride it in the neighbourhood. Later, I started riding near Bengaluru. When I am on the bike, I see roads as part of my dream to travel and share whatever thoughts I have with people,” shared Timmaraju.
Timmaraju got her first experience of riding when a friend gave her his Yamaha RX 100 bike to her in 2006. Timaraju started riding with other bikers in Bengaluru and started her company Silent Expedition to create more opportunities for the hearing-impaired to explore the world.
Timmaraju was also all praise for Chandigarh. “Chandigarh roads seem good for bike riding and that is the only comfort we had during the last 15 days.”
She added after they started from Timkur, Bengaluru, they had been hosted by various riding clubs and members of hearing-impaired communities in cities like Davangere, Belgaum, Thane, Vapi, Vadodara and Udaipur. “It was an overwhelming experience for me,” Timmaraju told Chandigarh Newsline.
Co-founder of Silent Expedition Sundaram believes that Timmaraju’s journey will inspire the hearing-impaired community to explore India and help the society understand the challenges faced by such people. “When we started, the first day we dropped our bags after 50 km. The residents of the village, where we dropped our bags, called us and returned the bags. Later, Archana addressed specially-abled kids at Navsari in Gujarat. Some students even requested her to teach them riding. At some places, we have been hosted for free. Driving in cold temperatures in Ladakh was the challenge, but Archana faced it,” shared Sundaram, a geography teacher.
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