Modern-day ‘Shravan Kumar’ takes mom on 66,000-km pilgrimage on old Bajaj Chetak

A modern day 'Shravan Kumar', Dakshinmurthy Krishna Kumar is on a travel expedition since January 16, 2018 to fulfil the bucket list of his 73-year old mother on his 2001 model Bajaj Chetak scooter. This 44-year-old former corporate manager from Mysore who is the only child of his parents, has travelled with his mother around 66,000 kilometres in the last five years and have been to almost all the major religious cities across the country along with countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Manyamar etc.

He had taken his 73-year-old mother Choodaratnamma on a pilgrimage and visited temples on a two- wheeler. "I have been into this 'Matru Seva Sankalpa Yatra' since January 16, 2018 because of a simple reason that my mother had been confined to four walls and a roof for her entire life, thus I wanted to show her the world", said Kumar while talking to TOI on reaching Prayagraj.

He would now be moving to Varanasi and after staying there at any ashram, temple or Math, mother-son duo would move to Bihar, visit some religious places and would go to visit Pashupatinath temple of Kathmandu. On being asked as to why has he chosen this old scooter in the era of fast moving trains and air conditioned coaches, the humble Kumar said, "The scooter was given to me by my father (who served as a government employee in the forest department) when I completed my diploma back in 2001 and after his demise in the year 2015, I feel like my father's presence along the journey".

When on move, the duo covers around 100-150 km per day and do not follow any set timeline for reaching or leaving the religious city which they visit during their pilgrimage. "Usually we travel for around 150 km on any travelling day and during the yatra, we have not confined ourselves with any set itinerary as I am doing this for my mother, so I move as per her wish", said Kumar who stayed at Ramakrishna Mission here at Prayagraj.

Their routine life too is very modest as the duo stay only in ashram or math and do not take a single penny from anyone and take simple vegetarian food just twice a day. They do not consume tea, coffee or any snacks in between. "For the entire day, we take just lunch (around 11:00am) and dinner at around 8:00pm and in between we do not eat or drink anything and this keeps both of us healthy and fit", said Kumar, who hails from Bogadi, Mysore, Karnataka. The road trips to holy cities and shrines have not always been comfortable.

"I still remember that both of us were stuck at Bhutan border for 52 days during the first lockdown because of Covid in 2020 and travelled for 427 km on a single day before covering a distance of 2,673 km in one week to reach Mysore", recalls the dedicated unmarried son who supports this relentless pilgrimage from his savings.