There is no happiness for he who does not travel, Rohita! Thus we have heard. Living in the society of man, the best man becomes a sinner … Therefore, wander! The feet of the wanderer are like the flowers, his soul is growing and reaping the fruit; and all his sins are destroyed by his fatigues in wandering. Therefore, wander! The fortune of him who is sitting, sits; it rises when he rises; it sleeps when he sleeps; it moves when he moves. Therefore, wander!
–The Rigveda (4000-1500 BC)
With Mom and Dad
Chandra + pal means Moon + ruler. Dad had thought highly of President John F. Kennedy’s vision of landing a man on the moon and thought my name will go along with man’s next great dream of exploration.
Getting ready to take off with MAJ Smawley at Pam’s Horse Farm (Picture credit-Jana)
A press clip before we started our “Walk Across the US Eastern Seaboard. Originally, I was going to run and Mani was going to bicycle. After we ran the Boston Marathon, Mani changed his mind about the bicycle–we worked up a compromise to walk the journey. That was the best thing that happened to us in terms of slowing down to enjoy America.
As we were getting ready for our run across America, the Bhopal disaster struck and our journey also became a fund raiser for the victims. Besides visiting the Union Carbide HQs in Danbury, Connecticut during our journey, we also visited the twin of the Bhopal plant in Institute, West Virginia and a write-up in the local newspaper below:
A write-up about my earlier adventure of running across India. I thought I lost all the press clips from that journey. Lucky for me, my Mom some how hung on to this one.
A shot of a few years ago–getting ready to be a trike pilot with Instructor Tom. Tom had circumnavigated around Australia in a trike and I had a good download with him on the lessons learned from that adventure. (Picture credit: May)
A few more pictures of me with the trike before putting it away for the day (Picture credits–MAJ Smawley):
